The right stuff?

Whilst perusing the unexciting range of beer being offered at the next 'Spoons festival one made me do a double take and then raise not one but two eyebrows. It seems Elgood's are doing a beer called Hawkwind. 

I shouldn't have been surprised though. As Hawkwind are near universally accepted as the greatest band the world has ever known the real surprise is why it's taken so long to have a beer named after them. It does leave me with a terrible dilemma though: do I have to go to the 'Spoons festival now? Normally my answer to such questions would be you shouldn't do that, but a beer called Hawkwind does tempt me. Who knows, it could be the right stuff!

The Second Annual Wandsworth Common Beer Festival

Our latest piss up research trip was to the rather confusingly titled Second Annual Wandsworth Common Beer Festival. It is indeed a year since the first one, but they had another one in October so the Second Annual Wandsworth Common Beer festival was in fact the third beer festival at Wandworth Common. Confused? You soon will be.

Whatever number it is it's one of our favourite venues so I hope they keep doing festivals twice yearly. It's in a great old building with a courtyard where the casks are and a normal bar in case my recently converted friend feels like backsliding. The courtyard wasn't so good when it started pissing down but the rain didn't last long and our beer jackets helped to keep the chill out.

Once again the website promised Sarah Hughes Original Dark Ruby Mild but on previous occasions it's been nowhere to be seen. I scouted round the casks on arrival and this time it was there in all its glory. Now something dark and 6% is not what I normally start a beer festival with but it must be years since I've drunk it and I couldn't miss it this time. Rich, dark and dangerously drinkable it went down a treat. It's a shame you don't see it more often. We'd got to the festival on Saturday afternoon and the Sarah was on still going when were leaving at about 6.30. So we all had a half of it as our last beer, which judging by the flow rate looked like it just about finished it off. Which is quite fitting as it just about finished us off too!

Other beers good enough to be remembered through the alcoholic fog include RCH's Pitchfork (4.3% ABV), a good pale citrussy beer; B&T Easter Eggstra (4.5% ABV) which hit the spot for the lovely Lisa being a beautifully brown beer with a malty and hoppy taste and I found Ballard's Wassail another 6%er to be righteous stuff. At the more modest end of the scale I had to get in a Holt's Mild as it's another tick in 300 Beers to Try Before You Die. In fact it was quite a fruitful night in terms of 300 beers... ticking. A cause for celebration at the festival but something for sober reflection the next day when you realise how much close to death you have moved. Good job the ticking is impossible to complete really.

We went for a Mexican posts-festival, which made a change, but as it combined spice and stodge it served its purpose very well, unlike the Negra modelo lager. Never mind, we'd had an excellent beer day and by that point our palates were a little jaded anyway.

The evolution of a beer writer

Having enjoyed reading Pete Brown's Three Sheets To The Wind after my mate Brian lent it to me, and Hops and Glory after I got it for christmas I decided to fork out for his first book Man Walks into a Pub. I was a bit miffed when shortly after I'd ordered it I saw that he's re-writing it.

But once the book had arrived I soon shifted it to the top of my reading pile and very entertaining it's proved to be. There are laugh out loud funny parts to it, but as a beer nerd who's read his other books some of the content is an engrossing read for other reasons. Unlike the impressively accurate Hops and Glory in Man Walks into a Pub it seems the full gamut of Zythophiles beer myths are reported as fact. The author's beer tastes also show that he was just starting down the road to full on beer nerdery: singing the praises of Stella and Caffrey's but slagging off lambics as undrinkable.

He has now reached the dizzying pinnacle of being beer writer of the year and I'm sure his opinions and beer tastes have changed from when the book was published in 2003. The problem is I'm now curious to see how he's changed the book for the second edition which will mean forking out more of my hard earned cash! A consolation is that he does have the advantage over most of us beer bloggers in that he can actually write well so I'm sure it will still be a good read.

Beer related imposters

A new beer list book called 500 Beers has been brought out. It claims to be by Zak Avery but even the briefest of glances at the cover shows this cannot be true:

Zak Avery would never drink beer out of such glasses, and surely should sue whichever scoundrels have sought to ruin his reputation in this way.

The William Cobbett, Farnham

On Saturday it was time for a long overdue trip to Farnham.   
Farnham is a bit of a beer oasis, one of those towns that seems to have more than its fair share of pubs. 

Hops from Farnham used to be highly esteemed though it's probably better known for it's maltings now, an arts centre which hosts an excellent beer festival every April. 

The William Cobbett was my main target, a pub named after a local  radical and author of Rural Rides. He was a champion of the poor, a scourge of tea and a defended of beer. The pub has a lot of character with an impressive amount of clutter, a large juke box and more importantly several different areas to sit in so we could get away from the sport on the telly. 

There were five beers on but I only had eyes for the two from Dark Star. I started on the excellent Hop Head, which certainly had the hops but at only 3.8% ABV was perhaps a little thin. So I went on to Original, a strong dark beer which had more than enough body to it, and I stayed with that for some time. Dark Star are an excellent brewery and it's always a pleasure to find their beers.  

Next time I'll be back in Farnham will probably be for the beer festival but a proper research trip round the pubs is long overdue. 

IPA challenge first bout: Fuller's Bengal Lancer Vs St Austell Proper Job

The lovely Lisa and I have started a challenge competition to find which IPA we like best. It's a knockout competition where beers will be matched with an opponent to be drunk side by side and the better beer goes through to the next round. 

The first bout is between Fuller's of London Bengal Lancer (5.3% ABV) and St Austell's of Cornwall Proper Job (5.5% ABV). The Cornishman has a slight weight advantage here but the Londoner has been recently revamped and is raring to go. 

Seconds away round one: 

Proper job comes rushing out with a big whoosh of citrussy goodness and lots of hop flavour. There's plenty of  body to back it up and Bengal Lancer has been caught sleeping. The Londoner just has no answer and seems harsh and thin in comparison. The size advantage may seem small but the Cornishman is a much bigger beer all round. Bengal Lancer has been completely overwhelmed and the ref has had to step in for a standing count. Bengal Lancer holds on to the end of the round but there was no going back.

The only hope the Chiswick Griffni had would have been to box clever and fight in the drinkability stakes. If Bengal Lancer could have got on his bicycle the thinner body could have proved an advantage, as I'm not sure how many pints of Proper Job we could have downed. It wasn't an option though as we're only doing a bottle of each at a time so they only get one round. There's no room for fancy tactics, just two beers slugging it out toe to toe until one emerges victorious. 

A win for Proper Job by 10-8

The Keep, Guildford

On Saturday we checked out a Good Beer Guide pub not too far from home, The Keep in Guildford. It has a look a bit on the poncey wine bar side but was pleasant enough and the lovely Lisa and I managed to install ourselves on a leather sofa, a seating arrangement I throughly approve of.  

But enough about where our bottoms were parked, lets get on to what was poured down our necks. The beers were from an excellent local brewery, Surrey Hills. Well, they're currently local but looking at the website it seems they could be moving to Dorking. So it goes.  Two beers were on tap, Hammer Mild (3.8% ABV) and Shere Drop (4.2% ABV). It's not often I take much interest in mild, though there are occasional exceptions. My recently converted friend was there supping mild when we arrived so I thought I'd join in. It was, as you might expect, dark and sweet with not too much hops but really rather pleasant. When I moved on to Shere Drop I was reminded why I don't normally drink mild though. A great fresh hop flavour hit me with the first sip and that was my choice of beer sorted for the rest of the evening. 

The monkey was more fickle though switched to gin and tonic after trying each of the beers.

We has a good evening, in a nice pub and the beer was good so we'll definitely be back.