Beer - Autumn 2016

5 £3.9 ISSUE THIRTY-THREE

| AUTUMN 2016

EXPLORING WEIRD AND WONDERFUL NOVELTY PUBS

INSIDE JOHN ILLSLEY ROGER PROTZ TIM HAMPSON JEFF EVANS JANE PEYTON

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E V E RY DAY, N OT E V E RY DAY The Thames lapping, pigeons pecking, a big wheel whirling, congestion charge charging.

Just some of the things that happen every day and make this great city what it is.

We also have our own daily routine that makes our great ale what it is, and ensures it never loses the quality that’s made it London’s favourite. Every day at twelve there’s a taste

/LONDONPRIDE

@LONDON_PRIDE

D R I N K AWA R E . C O. U K

test, and everyone at the brewery is invited. Funnily enough, there’s always a big turn out.

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BEER | inside

contents Regulars 05 Welcome

Quality not novelty is key when it comes to ale and pubs

42 Food

Susan Nowak discovers three pubs that not only create great dishes, but beer, too

44 Taste test

Are chocolate and beer the perfect drinking partners? Ayo Kila finds out

49 Bottled beer

In all the clamour surrounding hops, it’s easy to forget the yeast. Des de Moor hasn’t…

51 Your shout

Taking pains over Paines

55 Roger Protz

Don’t expect lines of handpulls at Munich’s Oktoberfest, but that’s no reason not to go

59 History

All you ever wanted to know about Germany’s Reinheitsgebot brewing law

60 Home brew

Phil Lowry heads to South Africa for a gold, cold one and a collaborative brew

63 Get quizzic-ale

Do you know your periodic table and country folklore? If so, our quiz will be a cinch

66 Last orders

Dire Straits co-founder John Illsley on the perils of sitting in the wrong chair

Page 30

Features

30 Real ale heroes

Sir Geoff Palmer has “angels” to thank for his many and varied achievements

06 Variations on a theme

What do galleons, spaceships and hansom cabs have in common?

They were all featured in theme pubs

14 Hop innovation

Faced with a demand for big-flavoured hops, but not the climate, growers have to get creative

18 Rebel, rebel

JO HANLEY

It may call itself Tiny, but this Welsh brewer is making big waves in the brewing world

24 Capital losses

Take a stroll around London and witness its glorious brewing heritage

36 Peak times

‘The first beers are met with the chant of “oans, zwoa, g’suffa”, which in the local dialect means “one, two, down the hatch”.

Learn that and your German will be perfect’ Page 55

The revival in Derbyshire’s brewing fortunes has been nothing short of miraculous

39 Pub beer festivals

Readers wax lyrical about their local multi-pub beer festivals

56 Debate

Should the Great British Beer Festival only sell great British beer? Discuss

64 Superior Interiors

Pub interiors are celebrated in a new edition of CAMRA’s Britain’s Best Real Heritage Pubs AUTUMN 2016 BEER 03

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AND WHAT’S BEER FOR IF NOT FOR DRINKING? SO

FOR EVERYTHING WE BREW WILL TAKE YOU ON A THERE’LL BE STORIES TO TELL AND NEW EXPERIENCES TO SAVOUR.

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BEER ¦ from the editor

welcome

Reading Ray and Jessica s hilarious history of themes pubs in this issue made me yearn

for a Theme Pub Theme Park where we could go and revisit some of the more weird and wonderful ideas that have fallen out of the heads of overtired and overstimulated brand managers’ brains over the years.

I’m desperate to enjoy a pint in the Jungle Room and marvel at the revolving, illuminated bishop’s mitre (I can only assume to trump the pub down the road, which only had an unlit revolving bishop’s mitre). I have been lucky enough to drink on numerous occasions in the Victory in Hereford – which, with its great beer and lovely staff, would be a favourite even BE R if it didn’t boast a scale reproduction of a galleon instead of the traditional bar.

MAGAE Which is an important distinction. Regardless of the wackiness of theme, all you’ll ZINE Members hip Mag achieve is persuading drinkers to come through the door once, out of curiosity. It doesn’t azine of the Ye a matter how many quirky secret doors or faux Irish junk you stuff your pub with – if you PPA Ind r at the epend Publishe ent don’t get the basics right, we’ll have a laugh and then find somewhere else.

Awards r 2015 Listening to members across the country at CAMRA’s ongoing Revitalisation Consultation reinforces this key theme. If we want to save pubs, quality, not novelty, is going to be key.

The same goes for beer and cider. This month sees the Great British Beer Festival throw open its Jane Peyton has authored several beer books, including doors. If you’ve not been before, come along and Beer O Clock, and was Britain s first sommelier of the year (2014).

She founded the School of Booze, and hosts an find out for yourself the huge range of beers, ciders award-winning tour of historic London pubs. For more and perries now available in the UK. information, go to jane-peyton.com And yes, there will be some novelty ‘theme’ Writing under the pen names Jessica Boak and beers on offer – the brewers’ equivalent of the Ray Bailey, this duo blogs about beer and pubs revolving mitre – which play their part in drawing at boakandbailey.com. They have also authored the book Brew Britannia: The Strange Rebirth of new drinkers in.

British Beer.

But again, it’s consistent and dependable quality Craig Heap is a freelance beer writer based in Cardiff, and choice that we’re looking for as pub-goers and who has also written articles for and co-authored drinkers. Ask for it, demand it and let brewers and several titles. Keen to promote the Welsh brewing pubs know when they don’t deliver it. scene, this month Craig talks to Champion Beer of

COVER: ELEANOR SHAKESPEARE AT YCN

GUEST CONTRIBUTORS

Tom Stainer

Britain (and Wales) winners Tiny Rebel.

BEER Group editor: Tom Stainer (tom.stainer@camra.org.uk) Managing editor: Claire-Michelle Pearson (claire.pearson@camra.org.uk) Sub-editors: Kim Adams and Rica Dearman Published by: CAMRA Ltd Produced on behalf of CAMRA by: Think, Capital House, 25 Chapel Street, London NW1 5DH Tel: 020 3771 7200 Creative director: Jes Stanfield Advertising: Simon Bryson (simon.bryson@thinkpublishing.co.uk) Managing director: Polly Arnold Printed by: Wyndeham Southernprint Ltd, 17-21 Factory Road, Upton Industrial Estate, Poole, Dorset BH16 5SN. BEER is printed on Solaris Brite 1.55, which is PEFC accredited, meaning it comes from well-managed and sustainable forests.

BEER is the quarterly magazine of the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA). CAMRA campaigns for real ale, real pubs and consumer rights. It is an independent, voluntary organisation with more than 180,000 members and has been described as the most successful consumer group in Europe. BEER magazine is sent free to CAMRA members every three months, and our campaigning newspaper, What s Brewing, is posted to members, free of charge, every month. To join CAMRA, help preserve Britain s brewing and pub industry, get BEER and What s Brewing free ‒ and a host of other membership benefits ‒ visit camra.org.uk CAMRA is a company limited by guarantee, run at a national level by an elected, unpaid board of directors (the National Executive) and at regional level by its regional directors, both backed by a full-time professional staff.

CAMRA promotes good-quality real ale and pubs, as well as acting as the consumer s champion in relation to the UK and European beer and drinks industry. It aims to: 1. Protect and improve consumer rights 2. Promote quality, choice and value for money 3. Support the public house as a focus of community life 4. Campaign for greater appreciation of traditional beers, ciders and perries, and the public house as part of our national heritage and culture 5. Seek improvements in all licensed premises and throughout the brewing industry. BEER magazine will not carry editorial and advertising that counters these aims and we only accept advertisements for bottleor cask-conditioned products.

Average net circulation for the period Jan-Dec 2015: 121,878

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VARIATIONS ON A

THEME

What do galleons, spaceships and hansom cabs have in common?

They’ve all been pub themes, as Jessica Boak and Ray Bailey explain

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ILLUSTRATIONS: ELEANOR SHAKESPEARE AT YCN

THEME PUBS | feature

Theme pub: the very phrase is shorthand

for the worst excesses of the ‘big six’ brewing companies in the mid-20th century. Consider the words of Derek Cooper, presenter of the BBC’s Food Programme, who dripped scorn on theme pubs in his 1970 book, The Beverage Report, with no subtle eloquence: “It would be interesting to know what

sort of dialogue occurs between a brewer and his architect in consultation. Do they decide jointly on some flight of fancy or do they goad each other on? Or does market research reveal that the good people of Swillford are ripe for revamping the Old Bull into a lush new fun palace?”

He lists many examples of the type, such as the dungeon-and-torture-themed

Copper on Tower Bridge Road, London, with barely concealed disdain: “You only have to turn your back on a pub for a few days now and it has undergone some bizarre transformation.”

For Chris Hutt, CAMRA pioneer and later pub-chain entrepreneur, theme pubs were one of the harbingers of the Death of the English Pub (1973): “The gimmick AUTUMN 2016 BEER 07

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THEME PUBS | feature

pub is a sham. Is it the creation of men who chant the slogan that brewing is now part of the leisure industry, and who believe that they must offer their customers the excitement of the bingo hall and the bowling alley?”

If an old inn with original features and

a crackling wood fire is the epitome of sincerity, the theme pub is its nemesis.

They are rarely mentioned without reference to plastic, fakery and tackiness.

They are the illusory, dystopian matrix to the honest, decent real life of the so-called proper pub.

But is this complete dismissal really fair? Theme pubs are certainly worth a second look as a fascinating 20th-century pop-culture phenomenon that came and went (with some exceptions – we’ll get to that) within the space of a few vintage car exhibition at the Horseless decades, barely documented except for Carriage in Chingford, Essex (1965). a few tantalising mentions in books, There had long been odd, notable pubs newspapers and brewery records. with collections, such as Dirty Dicks on Many were sincere attempts to breathe Bishopsgate in the City of London with life back into a cultural institution that its semi-contrived accumulation of grotty was struggling to compete with cinema, junk, or the Fitzroy Tavern off London’s TV and radio; ever more comfortable private homes; more accessible restaurants Oxford Street, which had a display of World War I recruitment posters and hip new coffee shops; and hobbies between the wars. more productive than drinking (if we The primary difference was that can say so without being accused of Whitbread’s theme pubs had a somewhat treachery), such as gardening or DIY. earnest educational mission. Their The brewers wanted to appeal to younger collections were curated by drinkers who saw the pub as square, experts in the appropriate grotty and old-fashioned – ‘The brewers field and designed with and, fatally, as the place wanted to appeal great taste, usually by where their parents to younger drinkers the Richard Lonsdaledrank – and, at the who saw the pub as Hands agency. The same time, give them square, grotty and oldexhibits were described a new respectability. fashioned – and, fatally, in equally attractive The first theme pub as the place where their booklets that resembled is usually reckoned to be parents drank’ auction catalogues, with the Nags Head in Covent accompanying historical Garden, London, a pub then essays. If you collect beer leased to Whitbread, which books, you’ve probably come across reopened with a theatrical theme in late many copies in second-hand shops over 1951. Whitbread followed it with a string the years. of similar theme houses or gimmick pubs Those pubs occupy one end of the around London, from the rowing-themed spectrum. At the other end were those Coach and Eight in Putney (1954) to the

that, more than half a century on, raise a smile with their suggestion of kitsch, pop-art extravagance.

The brewing industry publication A Monthly Bulletin tells us that, in 1971, the Duke of Argyll in the heart of London’s Soho had become “a spaceage pub with Batman-like figures painted on the walls, windows and ceilings”.

The reality cannot possibly have lived

up to the image that evokes. The same publication mentioned many other theme pubs over the years, always with cautious optimism: the Golden Arrow in Beckenham, Kent, was decked out like a 1920s Pullman carriage; the Old Queen’s Head in Heston, west London, had a makeover inspired by King Arthur’s Camelot; and the Scarsdale in London’s West End was “given the Napoleonic treatment in such a way that even the hard-to-please Talleyrand would approve” – a gun wagon covered in French text was parked outside, and the dining section renamed ‘the First Officer’s Wine Tent’. In the same period, Martin Green and Tony White’s London pub guide mentioned the Cruel Sea in Hampstead, north London, which was renamed around 1958 in AUTUMN 2016 BEER 09

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feature | THEME PUBS

people something to write about at the mannequins, disco balls, rainbow murals, time of opening, an angle for stories in waterfalls and giant fruit. the local papers, but that was about it.

In London, the White Hart on King’s It was this superficial idea of the theme Road became the Chelsea Drugstore, pub that made it outside city centres, to a shopping-pub-dining complex with towns and estates. The rough-and-ready no particular theme beyond its own Lima Arms on Peru Street, Salford, for Barbarella-esque futurism: it was all stark, example, built around 1970, had bare concrete, glass, aluminium and Other popular themes were Victoriana a relief mural of the Andes neon. Depending on who you and Edwardiana. An early example ‘Because rather at odds with its listen to, it was either the of this trend was the Champion in creating a theme ‘tough’ atmosphere. most happening place in Fitzrovia, refurbished in the late 1950s. pub properly was The Bull’s Head in town, or a monstrosity.

There, great pains were taken to source expensive, many were Handforth, Cheshire, The Rolling Stones, beautiful engraved and enamelled mirrors only ever half-hearted was decorated with at any rate, found it advertising imperial stout and porter.

– a name, a fibreglass images of flamenco interesting enough to The woodwork was tasteful and frieze on the bar and dancers and bullgive it a mention in their convincing, and the cast-iron tables perhaps a handful fighting in 1965 – an straight out of the 1890s, via architectural song ‘You Can’t Always Get of prints’ echo of the name, yes, What You Want’. salvage yards and antique shops. The but what, otherwise, did it If the 1950s saw the invention effect was so convincing that, in fact, it have to do with the price of fish? of the teenager, perhaps we can say that is hard to persuade anyone today that the the 1960s saw that carefree adolescence interior – still largely intact as per 1960 – extended, with young adults wallowing isn’t a 19th-century original.

As the 1970s set in, the taste-making in childhood nostalgia (‘Penny Lane’) There was more of this to come classes began to turn their backs on and continuing to muck around long after pop art with its bright colours, Perspex in the mid-to-late 1960s, which saw the age at which their parents had settled the emergence of a brand of swinging and neon, and towards earthy colours, into parenthood and the daily grind. vintagery that had psychedelic rock natural materials and rustic simplicity.

Theme pubs, combining playful, groups recording songs about World In 1975, the Cruel Sea was taken over fantastical décor with booze, were War I accompanied by brass bands,

by CAMRA’s spin-off pub company, playgrounds for the barely grown-up. their members clad in Edwardian military CAMRA (Real Ale) Investments, The problem was that few lived jackets bought at shops with names like headed by Chris Hutt. Having written up to the descriptions in print. Unlike ‘I Was Lord Kitchener’s Valet’. If the about them, Hutt had strong views about traditional pub interiors, whose Champion was tasteful, olden-days how proper pubs ought to look. He at woods seem warmer as they theme pubs from this time once changed the name back to the ‘The effect was wear, theme pubs relying were fun and kitsch, with a more prosaic but traditional Nag’s Head so convincing that, on fibreglass, papiertouch of a Hammer horror and removed the nautical décor. Robert in fact, it is hard to mâché, plastic and set about them, as in Lenkiewicz now has a cult following and persuade anyone today plaster – cheap-looking his murals are a sad loss. the case of the Mutual that the interior – still to begin with – only Friend restaurant in the Even as plastic and pop art became largely intact as per became more tatty as basement of the Victoria unfashionable, the idea of escapism only 1960 – isn’t a 19ththey aged. How long near Paddington station, became more firmly embedded, and more century original’ did the giant revolving which had fake shopfronts literal, as the theme pub mutated into the bishop’s mitre at a Reading and a Sweeney Todd pie shop; international drinking hole. First there steakhouse last before it failed? or the Hansom Cab in Earl’s Court, came German bierkellers, such as the And, because creating a theme pub where an actual antique hansom took one in Leeds filmed by the BBC in 1973. properly was expensive, many were only pride of place.

There, amid oompah music, dirndl-clad ever half-hearted in the first place – a waitresses, free-flowing lager, and crowds name, a fibreglass frieze on the front of of young drinkers singing and dancing Some themes were more abstract. the bar and perhaps a handful of prints arm in arm, one woman summed up the In Glasgow, an eating house called Lang’s throughout the premises, as at the World appeal: “You can do anything you want.” became the pop-art-themed Muscular War II-themed Desert Rat in Scunthorpe.

When the interviewer asked, “Can’t you Arms (geddit?) in 1970, filled with Yes, this kind of thing gave brewery PR do that in the pub?”, she replied with papier-mâché or fibreglass gargoyles and honour of Nicholas Monsaratt’s novel of naval combat in World War II, and comprehensively fitted out with “nautical gear and prints of whaling ships and the sea, as well as murals by London-born artist Robert Lenkiewicz”.

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THEME PUBS | feature

an incredulous laugh: “You’d get thrown out!” These kellers were, in a sense, no longer part of England, and so the usual rules of English behaviour did not apply. They were a kind of Club 18-30 holiday, but only a bus ride from home, a chance for holiday romance without the air fare. There were enough of these in Manchester by 1975 that a local pub guide could recommend a specific venue, the Lowenbrau Keller on Piccadilly, as the best of the lot.

Those were followed, in much the same vein, by Irish pubs – not places frequented or run by Irish people, but which were intended to make drinkers feel as if they were on holiday in Dublin.

The first of those, Flanagan’s Apple, opened in Liverpool in 1984 and, by the 1990s, this had become made it sound as if all the ‘Irish pubs a full-blown craze, with customers were farting”. were not places around 500 across the In the 1990s, the Ten frequented or run by country by the end of Bells in Whitechapel Irish people, but were the decade. Everything briefly, and tastelessly, intended to make must pass, however, and became the Jack the drinkers feel as if they those in turn gave way to Ripper. Eerie Pubs were on holiday Australian bars, run along even managed an entire in Dublin’ much the same lines, with chain of theme pubs with Foster’s replacing Guinness, fake cobwebs and toilets and surfboards instead of bodhráin hidden behind bookcases. All on the walls, but otherwise much the good fun unless you needed the loo. same. (A final, mischievous thought on And a pub in Hereford was elaborately this front: are modern ‘craft beer’ bars decked out (pun intended) as a galleon in with décor inspired by San Diego and the 1990s under the name the Jolly Roger.

Portland a high-class modern equivalent?)

But, generally, the moment passed. The cricket-themed Yorker on Piccadilly, once among the most lavish of Whitbread’s Every now and then someone attempts theme houses, is now a bland Spanishto revive the idea of the theme pub Italian-tapas-karaoke-restaurant-vodka proper. In the 1980s, some publicans bar, while the Horseless Carriage in in London attempted to cash in on the Chingford is long gone, replaced first by coincidence of their pub the Jewel in a brand-new old coaching inn, and then the Crown sharing a name with the popular ITV series by decorating the place a block of flats.

And yet one aspect of the themethroughout in colonial chic and installing pub craze has survived and, in fact, palm trees. In Stockport, with similar become mainstream: the faux Victorianinspiration, there was the Far Pavilions Edwardian gin palace is the default mode (now the Chestergate Tavern) which, in around 1985, according to local CAMRA for pubs in the 21st century. Over the past 30 or 40 years, those that had been activist John Clarke, had a “ten-foot given minimalist makeovers in a postwar illuminated pith helmet over the bar and modernist frenzy reverted, and those built taped jungle noises in one room that just

in the 1950s or 1960s, minimalist to the point of plainness, had fake Victorian features nailed to their fronts and wood panelling installed.

It was not always as well done as at the Champion, and plastic beams became shorthand among pub snobs for a particular kind of fakery. Even the Soho space pub, the Duke of Argyll, now has a thoroughly brown, Victorianstyle interior, installed by the relentlessly conservative Samuel Smith of Tadcaster.

Most branches of Wetherspoon are arguably theme pubs, only the theme is ‘The Pub’.

Like the 1950s Whitbread theme pubs, Wetherspoon pubs have also tended, since around the turn of this century, to have names that refer to local history or culture, and their walls are covered with prints, paintings and artefacts better than those found in some small-town museums.

If you want to visit a real-deal fantasy

land theme pub today, there are a mere smattering of surviving examples, but few as complete and spectacular as the Jolly Roger, now named the Victory, in Hereford. Jim Kenyon bought the pub in 1999 and is proud of it, and bridles at the suggestion that theme pubs are necessarily naff: “No one’s actually called it a theme pub in about 15 years, but it is. I feel like a custodian – I’ve kept it the same as it was in the early 1990s. They did such a good job of it – I think they spent about £30,000 – that it looks as if it’s always been there. I don’t think I’ve ever had a negative comment. People come in and they’re taken aback by it. They say, ‘Wow – it’s a ship!’, and then they sit there in the window seats, just marvelling.”

If built with care and given time – a mere 20 years in this case – the theme pub, like any other type, has the potential to become an institution. It would be a tragedy now if the galleon at the pub was ripped out and thrown in a skip, or if the Sherlock Holmes near Charing Cross reverted to being the plain old Northumberland Arms.

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HOPS ¦ feature

Hop innovation

Faced with a demand for hops that deliver big flavours, but lacking the climate to create them, British growers did what they do best ‒ innovate, as Jane Peyton explains It is not the strongest of the species that

survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” When Charles Darwin wrote that, he was not referring to the British hop industry, although it perfectly suits what has been happening in the cultivation and marketing of Humulus lupulus.

Tastes in beer have changed dramatically in the past decade, thanks largely to the brewing revolution that started in the US in the late 20th century and continues to influence brewers around the world. In Britain, traditional bitter is no longer the dominant style of ale; that honour goes to its golden counterpart.

A significant number of British breweries have contemporary versions of IPA in their range – session, regular, double or imperial – or beers named for the provenance of the hops they are brewed with, for instance, South Pacific pale ale. Those lip-smacking beers are dominated by aromatic hops that bestow vibrant, juicy aromas and flavours of tropical fruit, citrus in all its guises and berries, among others. Hops are now the sexiest botanical in the garden and pump clips across the land are emblazoned with names such as Citra, Galaxy and Motueka – poetry to hopheads. To some people, the venerable Fuggles and Target seem rather old-fashioned compared with those nosetingling interlopers from overseas.

New World hops are grown with the aid

of irrigation and powerful sunlight that intensifies oils in the hops that give aroma and flavour. Consequently, hops from Australia, New Zealand and the US confer a punch to the senses that British-grown hops have not, until recently, been able to do. Thousands of tons of hops are shipped

to Britain from these countries to feed the insatiable demand for varietals with flamboyant characteristics. So what has the British hop industry done to counteract the turbocharged competition from abroad? Innovate.

Britain has the fortunate convergence

of several exceptional factors: unique terroir, including fertile soils; a mild maritime climate with regular rainfall; and intermittent sunshine. These all contribute to delicate but complex and balanced characteristics in hops.

Other factors include a hop-growing heritage stretching back centuries, a national collection of hops with varietals dating to 1737 and two of the world’s leading hop breeders – Dr Peter Darby of researcher Wye Hops (see BEER, Summer

Despite Britain having only 1.5 per cent of world hop production, with more than 27 varietals, there is great diversity growing in the UK s hop yards 2016) and Peter Glendinning, working with hop merchant Charles Faram.

Glendinning, based in Worcestershire, is concentrating on developing hops with niche aromas, such as rhubarb and gooseberry, so customers have a British alternative to imported hops. “We are suffering from hop creep nowadays, with our aroma expectations getting higher every year,” he says.

Jester, Minstrel and Olicana, latter-day aromatic varietals, have survived the years-long farm and brewing trials necessary to establish a viable and sustainable hop varietal, and they are now

commercially available. Several unnamed experimental hops chosen by members of the panel at Charles Faram’s annual aroma test are currently growing on Stocks Farm, where Alison Capper, British Hop Association spokesperson, grows hops with husband Richard.

As Will Rogers of Charles Faram says: “The aim is to develop hops with higher oil and more intense aromas. Our latest test varietals have powerful tropical-fruit notes, such as kiwi and guava, and we are confident they will be akin to a New Zealand hop.”

The human brain registers most flavour through the millions of olfactory cells in the nose, so when we taste anything, in reality we are smelling it. That’s why someone with a blocked nose cannot taste food and drink properly. The tongue is a crude instrument in terms of flavour, recognising only the basic tastes of salt, sweet, sour, bitter and umami. Aroma is nature’s gift to help us relish what we consume. Those highly aromatic hops in modern beers are enticing new drinkers, who desire big flavours, into the category.

Despite Britain having only 1.5 per cent

of world hop production, with more than 27 varietals, there is great diversity growing in the hop yards and gardens of Blighty. More than 50 per cent of British-grown hops are exported, with the US being the biggest market. US brewers rhapsodise about British hops with their subtlety and sessionable qualities. Down on China Farm in Kent, where Wye Hops is based, Dr Darby is working on genetics to speed up the identification of potential hops that have advantageous characteristics that appeal to farmers (for example, disease resistance), and AUTUMN 2016 BEER 15

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feature ¦ HOPS aroma and flavours that please brewers and drinkers both here and overseas.

There are two main areas of research. The first is searching for markers on hop DNA that act as signposts to particular traits.

These molecular markers are known as single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) and they are priceless in the time-saving benefits they offer the breeder. Without the markers, it can take six years of testing before a new varietal can be identified as wilt resistant. A marker would identify a seedling as resistant to wilt within its first few months. It will also reveal whether a plant is male or female, tall or dwarf, resistant to pests and diseases, and if it has high alpha-acid content – the all-important compounds that contribute those dazzling aromatics.

The second big focus is the search for

homozygous male hops. When an organism is homozygous, it has identical pairs of genes that transmit hereditary characteristics. In hop breeding, males are used to introduce traits such as pest and disease resistance to offspring.

Homozygous males are rare, and their value lies in the ability to pass on attributes to their progeny and reduce the number of tests required to find new hops with the best potential. The identification of homozygous males and SNP markers provide the breeder with tools to detect the superstar hops of the future in a much shorter timescale than previously possible.

In a competitive international market where New World hops are the sexy option, it is essential the British hop industry leads the way in breeding innovation. Dr Darby has form in

The newly revived hop is used to brew Farnham White (4 per cent ABV), a singlehopped golden ale, and adds a peppery and spicy character to the balanced, quaffable beer

Ultimate LocAle ‒ Rupert Thompson (right) with the green-hopped TEA

that respect. Among his hop hits are First Gold, the world’s first dwarf variety (now one of the most widely grown of the British hop varietals); Boadicea, the world’s first aphid-resistant hop; Pilgrim, the world’s most wilt-resistant variety; and Sovereign, which has the most resistance to powdery mildew disease in Britain.

Dr Darby is also connected with the re-establishment of commercial hop cultivation in Surrey. Hogs Back brewery chairman Rupert Thompson asked Dr Darby to revive Farnham White Bine, the 250-year-old varietal that was last grown in the 1920s.

Historically, hops from Farnham had an excellent reputation for flavour and earned premium prices. Thompson was determined the area should be associated once again with quality hops, and Farnham White Bine is now thriving, alongside Fuggles and English Cascade, in a 3.5-acre field next to the brewery. This makes Hogs Back the largest hop-growing brewer in the UK. The newly revived hop is used to brew Farnham White (4 per cent ABV), a single-hopped golden ale, and adds a peppery and spicy character to the balanced, quaffable beer.

Thompson is a devotee of localness and wanted to grow hops to “get a feeling for the ingredients and understand them, so we can more accurately reflect their character in the beer”. When

Hogs Back brewed a green-hopped version of its TEA (4.2 per cent), it was the ultimate fresh beer, given the hops only needed to travel a few paces from the field.

Wimbledon brewery will also be able to brew beer with its own hops. In 2015, head brewer Derek Prentice planted 12 Fuggles seedlings in the 18th-century walled garden of the Wormsley Park estate in Buckinghamshire. Appropriately, he watered them with the brewery’s leading beer, Tower Bitter (4.6 per cent), and in three years the hops will be harvested.

Breweries crowd-sourcing hops grown

in gardens or allotments, or foraged from hedgerows, is a recent innovation, and growing in popularity. Triple fff (Alton), Adnams (Southwold) and Pipes (Cardiff) have brewed beers with hops donated by people who live in the local area, and the resulting beers are the epitome of LocAle. Hops continue to be the big story in beer and, as a result, new growers are entering the industry. For the first time in years, Britain’s hop acreage is increasing.

It’s good timing, because if the influence of American brewing continues as it has, then British brewers and drinkers who are enamoured of US hops will eventually turn to British hop varietals, following the lead of the American brewers who seek the subtlety of hops grown in this country. For drinkers who crave beers with mouthwatering flavours where malts and hops are balanced, this will be nirvana.

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profile | TINY REBEL

Rebel, rebel

They may call themselves Tiny, but the brewing duo from South Wales is making big waves in the brewing world with a series of award-winning brews, even scooping the coveted Champion Beer of Britain crown, as Craig Heap discovered

PHOTOGRAPHY: BEN WRIGHT

In the late summer of 2015, Tiny Rebel

brewery claimed the Champion Beer of Britain award with its red ale, Cwtch (4.6 per cent ABV). The year before, it swept the board and won every gold medal at the Great Welsh Beer and Cider Festival (GWBCF). It seems there’s no end to the awards, with Cwtch also picking up gold at the Swansea and Salisbury CAMRA Beer Festivals, along with a fair few accolades for Tiny Rebel’s other brews at events across the country. This continued success is even more impressive when you realise Tiny Rebel was founded just a few years ago by two home brewers.

In April 2012, brothers-in-law Gareth ‘Gazz’ Williams and Bradley Cummings (pictured opposite) gambled on their brewing ambitions and quit their engineering careers in the construction industry. The leap of faith wasn’t without consideration: for the previous two years, Gazz and Brad had been tinkering away on the home stovetop, trialling recipes to understand what results each ingredient would achieve, throwing aside flavours they didn’t like until they created the definitive Tiny Rebel profile – traditional styles merged with vibrant, modern hops.

When they decided they had learned enough from their experiments, they committed themselves to an industrial unit in their home town of Newport, South Wales. It was a staggeringly large step up from their home brew kit and felt way too big for their needs when they moved in, but within 12 months they had filled it to capacity and had to expand into the unit next door.

Today, there isn’t a square foot of floor space in either unit that hasn’t been turned over to fermentation vessels and conditioning tanks. Even the awards cabinet has been chucked out to make more room for brewing.

“We’ve got 10 fermenters – eight singles, two doubles; two singleconditioning tanks, with a third coming

“We’ve got 10 fermenters – eight singles, two doubles; two single-conditioning tanks, with a third coming in. Brewing twice a day, five days a week.

20,000 litres of beer a week.

We’re bursting at the seams” Gazz Williams

in. Brewing twice a day, five days a week.

20,000 litres of beer a week. We can’t get any bigger. We’re bursting at the seams,” said Gazz, when I met him and Brad at the brewery in October 2015. They had not long returned from Japan, where they were promoting Welsh beer. They also found time to squeeze in a collaboration brew with the Kyoto brewery.

Now in their early 30s, Gazz focuses on

the brewing, while Brad looks after the operation of the brewery. Gazz is the more outspoken of the two, while Brad has a dry sense of humour that fits their rebel image.

Along with Brad and Gazz, there are now 13 employees at Tiny Rebel. The increased staff allows the two founders to concentrate on nurturing the business.

“The first two years were difficult; we couldn’t leave the brewery very much. It was only in the past six months we were able to get out and about and grow the business,” said Gazz.

Growing the business has involved designing new beers, collaborating with other breweries, increasing their export share and, in August 2015, organising the Cardiff Brewfest along with Otley brewery.

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12/07/2016 12:18

TINY REBEL | profile

Above: Gazz and Bradley are quick to praise the enthusiastic team now producing award-winning beers in the Newport brewhouse

“We were down at Craft Beer Rising and it started out as a joke. Nick from Otley said, ‘Let’s do our own beer festival’; after we heard [GWBCF 2015] wasn’t happening, it snowballed from there. We had about five weeks to organise and promote it.”

Gazz added: “We had people in from 18 to 60. Beer drinkers, non-beer drinkers, men, women, young and old. What people loved about it was being able to talk to the brewers. It was fantastic they were able to agree on it at such short notice; I’m talking managing directors, not just brewers, coming down. That was the best feedback we had – that level of interaction.”

The GWBCF 2016 (22-24 September) was announced shortly after the Cardiff Brewfest in the same venue. The genie is out of the bottle now and Tiny Rebel is organising a follow-up festival at the Depot, Cardiff, for 26-28 August.

In 2013, Tiny Rebel opened its Urban

Tap House in Cardiff city centre. Keen to support its home town of Newport, the brewery trialled a pop-up pub in the town centre in May 2015. It proved successful, and the permanent version followed at the end of November. When asked if they had

designs on a Tiny Empire, with bars in Bristol or London to follow, Gazz laughed.

“It’s time the brewery got a little focus.”

Gazz is aware of the difficulties facing today’s brewers, with consumers pushing demand for new and better beers. “People say Punk IPA [5.6 per cent] and Jaipur [5.9 per cent] aren’t what they used to be, but is it your palate changing? I think Fubar [4.4 per cent] is pretty boring now.

My heart says let’s put a bit more Amarillo in and my head says no, you can’t do that.

You can’t tweak the recipe otherwise you lose what it is.”

Fortunately for Tiny Rebel, it has resisted the urge to tweak its recipe for Cwtch, a beer that has proven to be a big

“We love cask beer, it’s what we predominantly do. We do keg, but cask is our heritage. It’s not something to be scoffed at and you can’t really get anywhere else in the world as good as what you can get here really. It’s the number one beer in my eyes” Gazz Williams

favourite with their fans. “Cwtch was one of our first beers,” said Gazz. “We wanted a red beer that still had the malt of a best bitter, but the hops to be more American, so you have that 50-50 mix between traditional best bitter and American red ale. It’s a modern take on a traditional style beer.”

If you’re still trying to wrap your tongue

around Cwtch it’s pronounced ‘kutch’, and is the Welsh word for cuddle.

“We love the name,” Gazz laughed.

“There’s a lot of people who can’t pronounce it. We have clients in bars who say ‘the beer went down well, but we’re not having it again because we can’t pronounce the name!’ We get people calling it all sorts… kwitch, kwatch, sitch, cooch… We use a real English strain of yeast, which we think suits the cask ale well. It’s not just about the hops. Four things make beer and those things need to be the best they can. We have a very traditional style brewery. We have open-top fermenters, we top crop and reuse our yeast, and we acid wash.

“We love cask beer, it’s what we predominantly do. We do keg, but cask AUTUMN 2016 BEER 21

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TINY REBEL | profile

Above: Tiny Rebel’s brewery was brewing to capacity before it won Champion Beer of Britain, prompting a move to a bigger site

beer is our heritage. It’s not something to be scoffed at and it’s something you can’t really get anywhere else in the world as good as what you can get here. It’s the number one beer in my eyes.”

In spite of their youthfulness and modern take on traditional styles, the word ‘craft’ is used sparingly, if at all,

by Tiny Rebel. “I don’t know what ‘craft beer’ is to be honest,” Gazz said.

“We try not to play up on it. I don’t think it has a definition. I just use it as a differential between microbrews and macrobrews, but that’s as far as I take it. We are beer drinkers making beer.

Beer fans making beer. That’s what it comes down to.”

Winning the Champion Beer of Britain

often has a radical effect on a brewery and the brewers. Tiny Rebel is more than happy with the award. “It feels amazing. CAMRA is probably the most recognised body in the world for beer, and to get Champion Beer of Britain is the ultimate prize. In my eyes there is no bigger competition. After three years of brewing, and to come from a home brewing background, to win

something as prestigious as that is beyond our dreams,” said Gazz.

He is modest about the brewery’s success, but proud of his team’s achievements. “We never go in to win them. The only review you need is if the pub keeps asking for your beers. It’s nice to have recognition and it’s great for everyone in the brewery. It shows what a great job they’re doing. We’ve got a young crew and they’re enthusiastic; you’re only ever as good as the team around you.

We’ve got some diamonds.”

Since winning Champion Beer of Britain,

the demand for Cwtch has skyrocketed beyond Tiny Rebel’s ability to cope.

“We always make sure the bars and pubs that have supported us are still able to get Cwtch – we look after the people

“CAMRA is probably the most recognised body in the world for beer, and to get Champion Beer of Britain is the ultimate prize. In my eyes there is no bigger competition” Gazz Williams

who have looked after us. There’s a limit to what we can do,” said Gazz.

Even before winning, it was already brewing to capacity.

With the brewery bursting at the seams, Tiny Rebel has decided to move to larger premises in the Rogerstone Industrial Estate. Due to open in December 2016, the 25,000-square-foot site will house a twin-stream 30BBL brewery, giving it a 60BBL capacity, but the flexibility to run two separate brewhouses simultaneously.

The brewery will also offer visitors a bar, shop and interactive tours.

Interestingly, while the existing 12BBL kit is being sold off, it is keeping its options open about retaining the current site.

“That’d be our wish list, to keep both plants. That will give us a lot of flexibility to make specials and one-offs, stronger beers, smaller batches,” Gazz said.

Ultimately, the pair’s top wish has been

ticked off – finding a larger site within Newport. The new brewery will be up the road from where they are now, which is a crucial factor for Brad and Gazz. Newport is a strong part of their identity, and not something they could ever give up.

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travel | LOST BREWERIES

WALKING PAST Evidence of London’s past as the brewing capital of the world can still be found as Des de Moor reveals on his tour of the highlights London might have transformed itself

into Britain’s most dynamic beer city over the past few years, but it still has some way to go to reclaim its former status as the world capital of brewing. Back in the 18th century, the surging demand for porter created one of the world’s first large-scale industries, and London’s breweries became modern wonders of the world. Then, in the 19th century, the capital gave the world its second global beer style, India Pale Ale. All these brewing behemoths are now gone, but many traces remain, as you’ll discover on this five-mile walk through the former brewing heartland of the East End and Southwark. Be warned – no working breweries are included.

Start from Old Street station under the

‘silicon roundabout’, so-called because of the number of hi-tech companies in the surrounding streets. If you want to meet in a nearby pub, I recommend free house the Old Fountain in Baldwin Street.

Otherwise, leave the station towards the west side of City Road and follow it south until, opposite Wesley’s Chapel, you turn right on the path through the old cemetery at Bunhill Fields, passing close to the tombs of William Blake, John Bunyan and Daniel Defoe among others.

On the other side you may be tempted by a small and attractive Fuller’s pub, the RIGHT: Truman brewery dominated the local skyline in Brick Lane in 1842 24 BEER AUTUMN 2016

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ABOVE: Much of the extensive Whitbread brewery from 1902 remains, including the Porter Tun Room with its impressive roof

Artillery Arms, named after the Royal Artillery Barracks just to the south of the cemetery. Otherwise, wind left, then right along Dufferin Street, almost immediately left along an alleyway to Errol Street, left on Lamb’s Buildings and right on Lamb’s Passage, looking out for the Cardinal Hume Memorial Garden on the corner.

Lamb’s Passage emerges on the edge of the City of London opposite the former Whitbread brewery on Chiswell Street, rebuilt on the site of the Goat brewhouse in 1750 as the first purpose-built massproduction brewery in the world. Brewing ceased in 1976 and the site has now been converted into an events venue and hotel, but if you ask the smartly dressed commissionaires, they’ll likely let you look inside the old brewery yard with its cobbles and Victorian clock.

In the 18th century, porter was made

from highly roasted malt and required maturing for anything up to two years to mellow it, driving its breweries to everlarger economies of scale. Within the

complex is the Porter Tun Room, where the beer was once stored in giant wooden vats, which still has the second-largest unsupported roof span in London, though it’s only open for events. Under your feet are concrete cisterns lined with a special pitch developed by ships’ caulkers to withstand the beer’s acidity, where around 3.4 million pints of porter once slept.

Facing the brewery, turn left along Chiswell Street, passing the Dining Rooms,

‘Under your feet are concrete cisterns lined with a special pitch developed to withstand the beer’s acidity, where around 3.4 million pints of porter once slept’ once the brewery tap. Cross City Road to Finsbury Square Garden, and take the path across the square left, then right, past the bowling green. Cross the road, turn left, then take the first right along Christopher Street. Keep ahead across Wilson Street, turn right along Clifton Street and keep ahead on the footpath to Earl Street, where

you turn left to the end. Cross Appold Street and go up steps into the Broadgate development where Exchange Square opens out over the tracks into Liverpool Street station. Leave via a path in the far left corner and follow it right and down steps to Bishopsgate.

Cross and keep ahead through Stothard

Place into Old Spitalfields Market. Turn right through the square, then left along Brushfield Street, where you have a fabulous view of Christ Church Spitalfields directly ahead. Cross Commercial Street and take Fournier Street, just to the left of the church, which brings you to bustling Brick Lane. Tellingly, the mosque on the corner has previously been both a Huguenot church and a synagogue.

Turn left and you can’t miss the former Truman brewery buildings on both sides, with the 160-foot boiler chimney, added in 1929, dominating the skyline. This was a country lane through open fields when Joseph Truman first worked at the Black Eagle brewhouse in the 1660s.

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LOST BREWERIES | travel

CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE: The Old Hop Exchange; former Anchor Brewhouse; Artillery Arms named after nearby barracks; Dickens Inn

By 1697, he owned the business, but it was his ambitious grandson Benjamin, who masterminded its expansion from the 1720s. With the help of new partners Hanbury and Buxton, it became one of London’s porter giants. Truman’s held out as London’s biggest independent until 1971, when a takeover saw it eventually lumped in with Watney. It closed in 1988, and has since been redeveloped into a busy media, food and entertainment hub in the heart of what’s now one of London’s trendiest districts. Meanwhile, the Truman brand has been revived under new ownership, brewed in Hackney Wick.

Retrace your steps along Brick Lane

and continue ahead. Just along Heneage Street is the tiny Pride of Spitalfields, a rare, remaining traditional pub. This was once the tap for Best & Co’s brewery, which operated next door between 1861 and 1902: no 5 is the old brewer’s house.

Continue along Brick Lane, which becomes Osborn Street, cross Whitechapel High Street and take the street ahead,

White Church Lane. Cross Commercial Road and look back: the Victorian industrial pile opposite is the 1848 Furze & Co’s St George’s brewery. It was absorbed and closed by Taylor Walker (another East

‘Truman’s held out as London’s biggest independent until 1971, when a takeover saw it eventually lumped in with Watney. It closed in 1988’ End brewery, only tenuously connected to today’s pub chain) in 1901.

With your back to Commercial Road, turn right and fork left along Alie Street to Leman Street – the Dispensary on the corner is a pub in an interesting building, which usually has guest beers. Turn left on Leman Street and continue under the railway bridge to Cable Street and turn right into Royal Mint Street. Now wind your way through the site of the old Royal Mint, turning first left on John Fisher Street, down the first alley on your right, across a residential square, and then left

and immediately right to follow a path heading left across a little green. Turn left along Cartwright Street to East Smithfield.

Turn right, cross at the crossing and go through the gates into St Katharine Docks.

Keep ahead and to the right of Ivory House and through an arch onto the dockside. Turn left and keep right over a bridge to the Dickens Inn pub. Across the dock behind the pub stood the Red Lion brewery, one of the most historic brewing sites in London, in business since at least 1492. It was here, in 1736, that owner Humphrey Parsons created Parsons’ black Champagne by first maturing porter in tall wooden vats, arguably the founding act of modern brewing.

The brewery survived the construction of

the docks in 1827, becoming Hoare & Co, whose Toby jug logo was appropriated by Charrington when it took over and closed it in 1933. The pub is an 18th-century, timber-framed warehouse, which could once have belonged to the brewery: it usually offers a couple of decent cask lines.

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14/07/2016 13:43 14/07/2016 15:42

LOST BREWERIES | travel

MARTYN CORNELL; ALAMY; ©NATIONAL TRUST IMAGES/ANDREW BUTLER

CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE: Barclays brewery circa 1840; Greene King’s George Inn in Southwark; no missing Truman’s 160-foot chimney

With your back to the Dickens, walk ahead and then right to the bridge over the lock gate. Cross it, turn left and pick up the Thames Path right along the riverside. On the opposite bank, immediately on the downstream side of the bridge, is the former Anchor Brewhouse at Horselydown, which likely dates back to the 16th century. In 1787, it was bought

by John Courage, a Scottish shipping agent of Huguenot descent. What you see today is mainly an 1895 rebuild. It was finally closed in 1981, becoming one of the earliest Docklands industrial buildings to be converted to offices and luxury flats.

Go up the steps under Tower Bridge and walk across it, then down the steps on the other side. Turn right along the Thames Path, passing City Hall, HMS Belfast and Hay’s Galleria, where a riverside Nicholson’s pub, the Horniman at Hays, has a reasonable choice. Just before London Bridge, follow the Thames Path sign left, then go right under the bridge, sharp right past the Golden Hinde II, left along Clink Street and under Cannon Street Railway Bridge. You emerge by the Anchor Bankside, now a Taylor Walker pub popular with tourists, but once the tap of one of the best-known closed breweries.

Turn away from the river and, just as Park Street joins from the right, look for a wall plaque commemorating former head brewers. The original Globe Theatre stood on the site in front of you, replaced in 1616

‘When General Julius Jacob van Haynau, known as the Austrian Butcher, toured the Anchor brewery, he was recognised and beaten up by draymen’ by the Anchor brewery. This became a successful porter brewery under the Thrale family in the 18th century, and was sold on in 1781 with the help of Samuel Johnson, who promoted it as an opportunity to get rich “beyond the dreams of avarice”.

He wasn’t far wrong, as new owners

Barclay Perkins turned it into a technological marvel and visitor attraction.

When General Julius Jacob von Haynau,

known as the Austrian Butcher, toured it in 1850, he was recognised and beaten up by draymen: a plaque on Park Street commemorates the incident. Bought by Courage in 1955, it ceased brewing in the 1970s and was redeveloped in the 1980s.

Continue along Park Street away from the river back to Borough Market, where you’ll find real-ale champion the Market Porter. But to finish your walk in historic style, follow Stoney Street, cross Southwark Street and Borough High Street (don’t miss the Victorian façade of the former Hop Exchange), turn right and left into George Inn Yard to find the George Inn, the only galleried coaching inn in the city.

Managed by Greene King, it usually stocks beers from smaller London brewers. There are numerous other good choices, including the Rake in Winchester Walk, a pioneer of international ‘craft beer’ and responsible for educating the taste buds of many now restoring London’s brewing glory.

n You can enjoy this walk with Des as your guide on the weekends around the Great British Beer Festival, meeting at Old Street tube station at 10.30am on Saturday 6 and Sunday 14 August. Advance booking is highly recommended as places are limited. See londonbeercity.com

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feature ¦ REAL ALE HEROES

Real Ale Heroes

Number 15: Sir Geoff Palmer

The hero’s hero

Sir Geoff Palmer OBE is responsible for scientific discoveries that have saved the brewing industry millions; he has also taught some of the world s best brewers.

Claire-Michelle Pearson talks to him to find out his story One month.

One month could have made all the difference to this real ale hero’s life. As well as to the brewing, distilling and malting industries (which he saved millions of pounds for). And also to many lives, including children from deprived backgrounds and the vulnerable elderly.

It’s 1955 and that one month is March. A month before Godfrey Palmer’s 15th birthday. His mother had been in London since 1948, and having saved the princely sum of £86 (more than £2,000 in today’s money), had sent for her son from Kingston, Jamaica. Once in the UK, keen to get him into work, she got him up early the day after his arrival. But as they left, a suited man informed her that, as he was not yet 15, he needed to go to school.

“He was insistent. I always remember he said ‘I don’t make the rules, he’s got to go to school’,” Sir Geoff recalls.

But who was he? “God knows. In fact, my mother said ‘well there you are, you think you’ve achieved it all, but God done it.

It was an angel’,” he jokes.

Whether you believe in divine intervention or not, the man at the door proved to be one of a handful of ‘angels’ in Sir Geoff’s life that helped him fulfil his potential to become the worldrenowned brewing and grain expert he is today.

He s one of the brightest people I ve ever met in my life, says

one of Sir Geoff’s first students and Thwaites’ head brewer, Brian Yorston. But that wasn’t always the opinion.

After being tested, and found to be ‘educationally subnormal’ (“the questions were very euro-centric”), Sir Geoff’s mother found a school that would take him. Much to her chagrin, the headmaster, Mr Bullen, had a proviso – Sir Geoff not only attend up to his birthday, but until the end of term (so the attendance

register would be complete). Fortuitously (“my whole life is just this great series of accidents”), being the summer term, meant the games master noticed Sir Geoff’s flair for cricket.

“He took me to Gants Hill. There were a lot of other boys there playing cricket. A week later [he] came to me and said ‘I’ve got some news for you, young man. You’ve been picked to play for London.’ Secondary modern boys don’t play for London.

Grammar school boys do, so it was unique for my school, my class and my culture.”

Appearing in the Islington Gazette (‘Valuable Schoolboy Cricketer’), he caught the attention of RJ King, headmaster at grammar school Highbury County. “No 11 plus exams were required. He was just going to take me because he needed a cricketer. So I had to break the bad news to my mother,” Sir Geoff recalls. Although he struggled at the grammar school, he came away with a few grades, and an aptitude and love for botany. He was then accepted as a junior technician at Queen Elizabeth College, London, for Professor Garth Chapman – the man who changed his name to Geoff.

Chapman called me into his office one day when I was messing

around and he said ‘look, this place isn’t big enough for two of us.

I want you out this building by 1961’.”

Sir Geoff set about gaining more qualifications so he could apply to university. However, despite having a grant, he couldn’t find a place. Professor Chapman found out and made some calls.

Sir Geoff was heading to Leicester University.

And his mum? “Well, she was still wanting her £86 back.

Just a long line of never-ending excuses,” jokes Sir Geoff.

Coming away with a degree in Botany, the university had an everlasting effect on Sir Geoff.

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PHOTOGRAPHS: JO HANLEY

w co

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REAL ALE HEROES ¦ feature “There was no harassment or fighting on the street like in London. To me, it was so peaceful. I met people who I’d never have met. That’s where I met my wife.”

After briefly heading back to London to find work, Sir Geoff spotted an advert for a PhD student spot at the world-famous brewing school, Heriot-Watt in Edinburgh, with the formidable Anna Macleod.

“She had this tremendous respect from brewers and distillers,” recalls Sir Geoff. Despite thinking his interview hadn’t gone well, Anna said she would be taking him. “I should have said thanks. But I asked why.”

Sir Geoff says Anna gave some spurious reasons, but now he

realises what she was doing.

“She was widening access. She was providing someone from a deprived background with an opportunity. She recognised my achievement so far merited the place. Getting an honours degree second class wasn’t bad from arriving in the country not very literate. And living the way I lived, in the areas I lived. And this is what they do now with deprived kids – trying to improve access to higher education.

My boss was the great Oxford University has found, Dr Cook. When I told if you take in kids with poor him the potential, he performances from deprived said oh no, my man, areas, they tend to do better it s a technical problem. if given the chance. And You have to do about 10 that’s what she did for me. tonnes an hour . It took I think Chapman did the me an hour to do 2g! same. Somehow [they] saw Sir Geoff something in me I didn’t.”

Of the many papers Sir Geoff has published, one of his most

notable discoveries has saved the malt industry (one of the four key ingredients in beer) time and millions of pounds – the barley abrasion process (BAP).

While at Heriot-Watt, Sir Geoff started to develop research concepts on barley malting. He then went to work at the Brewing Research Foundation in 1968 and developed the concept into the BAP. Back then, people thought the grain started to germinate from one end only, after 24 to 48 hours. The whole process took around eight days.

Sir Geoff analysed what the grain was doing in the first 24 hours. “I came to the conclusion it was asymmetric. Now that caused a whole load of trouble – everyone said it was symmetric for 200 years,” he explains, laughing.

“I was of the view the bran was overall important – not just a tiny bit. And the aleurone goes all the way around the

She was widening access. She was providing someone from a deprived background with an opportunity.

She recognised my achievement so far merited the place Sir Geoff

endosperm. If it is capable of producing the enzymes, the aleurone at the back of the grain should also do the same, but it takes quite a while for the hormone to get to the back of the grain. If I can get it [there] quickly, then the grain should start to malt from both ends.”

To do so, Sir Geoff needed to damage the grain. Initially, he experimented with pins before finding a small machine capable of holding small quantities.

“My boss at the time was the great Dr Cook. When I told him the potential, he just scuffed and said ‘oh no, my man, it’s a technical problem. You have to do about 10 tonnes an hour’.

It took me an hour to do 2g!”

However, Paul Northern of Watney Truman (formerly one of the largest breweries in the world) had found out about Sir Geoff’s work and the pair travelled to a bread-making factory.

“They had a machine used to kill bugs in flour. We adjusted it and made it into an abrasion machine, and it did 10 tonnes an hour. Just slightly damaging the end of the grain.” And in the process shaving two days off the time, as well as changing the textbooks (and throwing out the rule book).

Fuller’s head brewer John Keeling recalls seeing Sir Geoff’s work in action. “I remember as a student going around malting with him – it was the latest thinking. It cut time and it was saving money. I always thought he was an important person. I remember getting a mini maltings for our lab – he got that sponsorship from Japan,” says John.

BAP had been patented around 1969 and the commercial

applications were in full swing by 1971. “Watney Truman was using it – it saved its maltings, because it wasn’t producing enough in it. So taking off two days increased production.

“Bass had six or eight machines. Allied Brewers had about the same, and was making the most of its own malt using it,” Sir Geoff recalls. While he feels “the commercial use of it was a great achievement”, he’s quick as ever to point out the contribution of others – such as the technicians who worked with him.

Sir Geoff also did some of the first electromyography (EMG) to study the structure of cereal – especially barley and sorghum.

“Those [EMGs] are still in people’s offices all over the world, or AUTUMN 2016 BEER 33

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REAL ALE HEROES ¦ feature breweries or distilleries. The first photographs were produced in 1972 and it was Professor Chapman who got Imperial College to let me use their machine,” he says.

In 1977, Sir Geoff was invited to teach at Heriot-Watt and became the first black professor in Scotland.

“He taught me so much. Those notes have stood the test of time – I’ve still got them. I actually still use them,” says Brian. “He always has this infectious laugh, which is endearing.

I remember his laugh quite vividly.”

While teaching, Sir Geoff also worked with a PhD student doing basic fundamental work on sorghum.

“That work helped us to understand the process to make it possible to brew with it,” says Sir Geoff.

Teaching at Heriot-Watt until he retired in 2005, Sir Geoff was made a professor emeritus.

of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). In 2008, he became the fourth person, and first European, to be bestowed with the American Society of Brewing Chemists Award for distinction in scientific research and good citizenship – an award considered to be the Nobel Prize of brewing. He was also knighted in the 2014 New Year Honours for services to human rights, science and charity, and has been given multiple honorary doctorates.

He says the ones from Jamaican universities have been especially important to him, but his most recent, this July, is particularly poignant – Leicester University. “They gave me my first degree, so to speak. Leicester was very good to me.”

“When he was knighted, I thought we should acknowledge this,” says John.

“We’re a member of the London Brewers Alliance [LBA], and all those brewers in the [LBA] who owed Heriot-Watt or Geoff something, all donated a bottle of beer and posted it to him.

“He phoned me up and said ‘thank His students head up breweries around you very much for the beer. One of the these isles, and across the world. To know reasons I got my knighthood is because Sir Geoff, heck, even just to chat to him of my students’.” briefly, it’s hard not to see why others regard To get a full idea of the extent of him so highly. He has that winning formula Sir Geoff’s many other achievements/ of talent, tenacity, philanthropism, and it’s contributions, extra reading is a must, topped off by that laugh. and thoroughly encouraged. Briefly “I was asked many years ago who was my I found the lessons a (and by no means exhaustive), Sir Geoff hero and he was one of them. He’s fantastic,” whirlwind of writing and is a prominent human rights activist, says Brian. giggles. It started with a has written extensively on the topic of John recalls: “His lectures were always picture of barley grain and improving education for children of ethnic interesting, but he had a great sense of then it would get annotated minorities, has worked with Benjamin humour as well. He was always cracking ‒ lines, labels, information.

Zephaniah to encourage Africanjokes or telling a story. He’s a modest man, Every lesson was fascinating, Caribbean children to pursue a career in but very friendly and easy to get along with. but you wouldn t call the science, has been president of one of the He’s a good person to have a beer with as whiteboard a work of art Equality Councils in Edinburgh for more well as listen to a lecture from.”

Georgina Young than 30 years, is on the board of his local Buster Grant, founder of the Brecon Citizens Advice Bureau, the board of Sacro brewery in Powys, Wales, says he’ll “always (Safeguarding Communities – Reducing Offending), is involved remember him as a very good-natured, jolly, yet serious lecturer, with Age Concern and is on the board of Hanover Housing who conveyed a real love for malt and maltings. He was a great (housing for the elderly). Sir Geoff was also named one of the 100 storyteller and a superb teacher.”

Great Black Britons in 2007 (the bicentenary of the abolition of “I always found the lessons a whirlwind of writing and the slave trade in the British Empire). giggles,” recalls Fuller’s brewing manager, Georgina Young. “The whiteboard would become a mass of pen. It always started with a picture of barley grain and then it would get annotated – lines, Angels in the architecture of Sir Geoff s life or merely the labels, information. Every lesson was fascinating, but you wouldn’t happenstance of meeting generous benefactors; whatever the call the whiteboard a work of art.” reasons, Sir Geoff has taken each and every one to heart and This admiration is mutual, as Sir Geoff considers it one of his recognises that all boats rise with the tide. “greatest achievements” every time he comes across a student’s “People have rung me up since the [BBC Radio Four] Life beer in a pub or shop.

Scientific, who I don’t know, and still do because they like to hear that people with difficulties can succeed. I’m not a self-made man – it’s the contribution of a lot of people.

His many varied achievements have been recognised outside “So the end of the story is you need people to help people to of the classroom and brewing industry, and he has been do well. Being able academically is not enough.” highly decorated as a result. In 2003, he was appointed an Officer AUTUMN 2016 BEER 35

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PEAK TIMES

The revival of brewing in Derbyshire has been nothing short of astonishing, with more than 50 breweries now in production Downing a pint of the house-brewed

White Feather (3.6 per cent ABV) in the Brunswick Inn in Derby, it struck me just how the revival of this fine pub has mirrored the renaissance of brewing in the county as a whole.

Back in the 1970s, the Brunswick was derelict. This characterful, wedge-shaped, Victorian building, built for the railway community, had seemingly had its day.

There were plans to bulldoze the district to build a new relief road but, thankfully, common sense prevailed when a group of local history buffs began fighting its corner.

In 1987, the refurbished pub reopened and in 1991, it added a brewery.

The brewing scene in Derbyshire seemed just as redundant back in the 1970s. At one time, dozens of breweries quenched local thirsts, but one by one they disappeared over the course of the 20th century, the last notable survivor being Offilers’ in Derby itself, which was closed by Charringtons in 1966.

Just as the Brunswick needed committed conservationists to ensure it had a future, so the British brewing industry required a champion, and it took the emergence of CAMRA to change the landscape so that breweries could once again flourish in Derbyshire and elsewhere in the UK. The first Good Beer Guide, published

in 1974, made dismal reading for anyone thinking of a trip to the Peak District or one the county’s bustling market towns.

While there were still plenty of good pubs to visit, none sold Derbyshire beer. There were simply no breweries to provide it.

It took time for things to turn around and it all began at the John Thompson Inn, a pub converted from a 15th-century farmhouse that opened its own brewery – still in operation today – in 1977. The tiny Saxon Cross brewery in Buxton followed in

1979. This survived barely a year or so but, like John Thompson, it no doubt set minds thinking about what might be possible.

By the time the Brunswick brewery opened just over a decade later, traditional ale was back in fashion and breweries across the country totalled around 250. In Derbyshire, however, there were still only three, including a Firkin brewpub in Derby.

What has happened since has been astonishing. Good Beer Guide 2016 lists

Traditional ale was back in fashion and breweries across the country totalled around 250.

In Derbyshire, however, there were still only three, including a Firkin brewpub in Derby

a remarkable 56 breweries for the county, 18 of them in operation for more than 10 years. The longest established include Whim and Leatherbritches, both of which opened in 1993. Whim Ales is a farmbased brewery known for its Hartington Bitter (4 per cent) and IPA (4.5 per cent).

Proprietor Giles Litchfield also owned Scotland’s Broughton Ales brewery for many years. Leatherbritches began life behind a country pub at Fenny Bentley and moved a few times before settling in Smisby. The brewery name comes from the spurious legend of the ale conner, a onetime tax collector, who tested the strength of beer by sitting in a puddle of it. If the malt content was sufficiently high, the beer would stick to his leather trousers, and the appropriate tax would then be levied.

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DERBYSHIRE ¦ regional report

Left: Wedge-shaped Brunswick Inn s revival mirrors that of brewing in the county

which sells beers with mythological and Roman names, and Middle Earth that offers beers that have Tolkien connections.

And if it’s award winners you want, take a look at what’s on offer from the Dancing Duck brewery in Derby. Dark Drake stout (4.5 per cent), just one of its many beers, was judged third overall at last year’s Champion Beer of Britain contest.

In Derbyshire today, you are spoilt

In Derbyshire today, you are spoilt for choice, thanks in part to the support provided by RuRAD (Rural Real Ale Drinkers), a group that promotes local ales, assisted by pubs

ALAMY

Of the later arrivals, a couple of names

stand out. The first is Thornbridge. It’s hard to believe it was only a few years ago I was standing in the tiny outhouse behind Thornbridge Hall, watching a couple of brewers tinkering with their latest experiment. Today, Thornbridge is based just down the road from the old country mansion, in a modern brewery at Bakewell. It employs more than 40 people and has a reputation second to none for

interesting, quality beers, such as Jaipur IPA (5.9 per cent), Kipling (5.2 per cent) and the imperial stout Saint Petersburg (7.4 per cent). The other very successful brewery is Buxton, which has successfully tapped into the ‘craft beer’ zeitgeist.

While many of the more recent arrivals remain small, others, like Thornbridge, have grown significantly. Peak Ales is one. Its original home was a barn on the Chatsworth Estate, but beers such as Swift Nick (4 per cent), Bakewell Best Bitter (4.2 per cent) and Chatsworth Gold (4.6 per cent) have proved so popular, it has a new base in Ashford in the Water. Other breweries that have expanded and moved include Ashover, Spire and Tollgate.

Adding to the colour of Derbyshire brewing are companies such as Derventio,

for choice, thanks in part to the support provided by RuRAD (Rural Real Ale Drinkers), a group that promotes local ales, assisted by pubs such as the Old Oak in Horsley Woodhouse – the tap for the well-established Leadmill brewery – that runs pop-up RuRAD bars at weekends.

There are now far too many breweries to mention in such a short space as this, but there is room for one, very important, final credit. Trevor Harris is known as the owner of Derby brewery, which he has run since 2004, but his influence on beer in the area goes back even further – Trevor was the man who reopened the Brunswick and its brewery, helping to re-establish Derbyshire as a brewing heartland once more.

Jeff Evans is the author of CAMRA s Good Bottled Beer Guide, now in its eighth edition, and has written widely on beer and brewing. Read more of Jeff s work at insidebeer.com AUTUMN 2016 BEER 37

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l a v i t s e f MY r u o t LOCAL

ISLE OF WIGHT CLASSIC BUSES, BEER AND WALKS WEEKEND

MY LOCAL | feature

Around the country, some communities are treated to a beer festival unlike any other – one that takes place across an array of the area’s pubs. Three readers share their local pub beer festival stories

Above: All aboard for the Isle of Wight Classic Buses, Beer and Walks Weekend

By Trevor Whelan

JOHN KILLICK; WENDY BERRY

At first sight, an autumn weekend

event involving real ale and vintage buses might seem an unusual concept.

However, anyone who participated in the Isle of Wight Classic Buses, Beer and Walks Weekend last October will tell you that it’s a winning combination.

A collaboration between the island’s branch of CAMRA and the Isle of Wight Bus Museum, the third such event will take place over the weekend of 15-16 October 2016.

The objectives of the event are to link as many real ale pubs as possible with a modest network of bus routes operated by classic buses. This appeals to transport enthusiasts and real ale aficionados alike, and provides a welcome autumnal boost for island tourism. In addition, the island has a comprehensive network of footpaths, which allow many of the pubs to be accessed by walkers. The 2015 event proved extremely popular and attracted

The Isle of Wight branch of CAMRA a wide variety of visitors, with many was one of the earliest to be formed and making the trip from the mainland. its members provide vital voluntary Despite being a major attraction in the island’s tourism calendar, it is only possible support to the bus services by acting as marshals and information because of the substantial input of volunteers. Of the 57 ‘The objectives of the points. The 2015 event was hugely successful and preserved buses and coaches event are to link as social media was buzzing in attendance, 43 visited from many real ale pubs with complimentary the mainland at the owners’ as possible with a remarks and anecdotes. expense, with some travelling modest network of The 50 participating considerable distances. Forty- bus routes operated pubs also reported five were in service at some by classic buses’ significantly increased point during the weekend, patronage. The historic Buddle Inn at while the remaining 12 provided a static Niton received an award for best pub, display on the quayside in Newport. as voted for by visitors over the weekend.

The Isle of Wight Bus & Coach Museum relocated to the former Southern Vectis depot in Ryde in 2014, and this provides Planning for the 2016 event is already a natural focal point for many of the quite advanced and all the signs are that special services. The remainder operate it will be even better than last year. Find from Newport Quay. In 2015, seven routes information at iwbeerandbuses.co.uk, were operated, totalling more than 3,600 which will be updated over the next miles over the two days. few months as details are finalised.

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THE THREE VALLEYS BEER FESTIVAL

By Andrew Cullen

are double-deckers), around 10,000 The small town of Dronfield, Derbyshire, visitors and a huge programme of real ales, (and nearby villages) have some great ‘craft beers’, ciders, food and live music. It real ale pubs, clubs and breweries with the beer scene in the area developing into takes place on the first Saturday in June.

Many of the rural pubs involved in something of a recommended destination. the festival are in villages with limited This is thanks to a combination of the public transport and some have no bus creation of a new Dronfield & District service evenings and Sundays, so the CAMRA branch, some enterprising free festival bus service running at least publicans and the success of the Three every half hour on festival day until 9pm Valleys Beer Festival in the area. significantly improves accessibility. To me, The Three Valleys Beer Festival was this adds to how impressive my idea, inspired by the it is that many of those Welland Valley Festival in ‘This adds to how pubs carry a good beer Northamptonshire. At the impressive it is that range and attract plenty time, Dronfield was still many of those pubs of custom. part of Sheffield & District carry a good beer A number of positive CAMRA branch and I was range and attract developments on the local delivering our Beer Matters plenty of custom’ pub scene have taken place to many of the pubs in the over those years. Apart from a general area and so got to know the licensees. improvement in the beer range, a number That first event, six years ago, saw a of former pub co-owned pubs have been handful of pubs (a mixture of town centre, sold and become successful free houses. suburban and rural) all make an extra Some of the excellent venues include effort on the beer front on the same day, the former Old Sidings pub – owned by and chucked in a few quid each for flyers local property man Chris Sinclair, who and posters, and to fund a free minibus to pick customers up from the railway station. refurbished it and reopened it as the Dronfield Arms free house, and has since Fast forward to this year and I’m still coordinating the event with the assistance installed a microbrewery in the basement, called Hopjacker. The pub and brewery of Dronfield & District chairman Rob is run by manager Edd Entwhistle and his Barwell – although it now involves 16 staff. On Three Valleys Beer Festival day, venues, a fleet of 10 buses (most of which

the car park is closed off and the pub bar is joined by three outside bars, two food stalls and a music stage.

The Three Tuns at Hallowes, now leased

out to Sarah West and Dave McLaren, operates as a free house with 10 handpumps – many of those pumps used to showcase the new Drone Valley Community brewery where Dave is head brewer. For the festival, the car park is closed off for an outside bar, food stalls and live music.

The Coach & Horses is owned by Sheffield FC, which plays next door, and the pub is operated by Thornbridge brewery. During the event, an outside bar with rotating guest ales, a barbecue and live music stage hosted by the Honey Bee Blues Club appear in the beer garden.

Lauren White runs the Miners Arms at Hundall and has just won CAMRA’s North Derbyshire Pub of the Year award.

Lauren and her team provide a warm welcome in a country pub that has a range of five real ales and an extensive cider selection. This pub offers a range of drinking areas, including a beer garden with a great view over the valley. n For more information on the area’s pubs and the festival, see dronfieldcamra.org.uk

THE SOPWELL BEER AND CIDER FESTIVAL

ALEX LATHAM

By Alec Latham

During last year’s August bank holiday, a beer and cider festival was held in St Albans.

‘Sopfest’ 2015 spread out to engulf six pubs within a single crawl. You could simply walk out of the garden or door of one pub and cross the threshold into the next. All of the pubs roughly describe a terraced block in Sopwell – one of the most picturesque and friendly quarters of the

city. There’s virtually no road traffic and the houses are little changed from 100 years ago, while some of the pubs’ architecture is little changed from 500 years ago. All of them sit under the red-brick gaze of the Norman tower of St Albans cathedral. Taking part were the Goat, the White Lion, the Hare & Hounds, the Garibaldi, the White Hart Tap and the Beehive.

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MY LOCAL | feature

‘Apart from a general improvement in the beer range, a number of former pub co-owned pubs have been sold and become successful free houses’ The Three Valleys Beer Festival involves rural village pubs, so the free festival bus service is invaluable for transporting people to them

Left: ‘Sopfest’ 2016 is located in the heart of St Albans

A special bitter – the Sopwell Special (4.3 per cent ABV) – brewed by The 3 Brewers of St Albans was a conkercoloured barky autumnal ale. Other local Hertfordshire breweries represented were Paradigm from Sarratt, which included Loose Head (5.1 per cent) – a very British maltforward interpretation of an IPA – and Erasmus (4.7 per cent), a dry-hopped saison

by Red Squirrel Brewing Co from Hemel Hempstead.

The White Hart Tap set up its own brewery last year and had host of house brews on stillage, including the indulgent Strong Dark Ale (9 per cent), which was impregnably black with a mocca aroma and notes of Kirsch chocolate liqueur sticks.

Another beer seeded with Belgian yeast would have

‘There’s virtually no road traffic and some of the pubs are little changed from 500 years ago’ joined the others under the marquee, but tragedy struck when it exploded in the cellar.

The beers were dispensed via beer engines at the bars inside, and from stillage by cask and beer box outside. n For more information, go to sopwellfestival.co.uk

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Cumbrian retreats The tranquillity of the Lake District and three top brewpubs were perfect for Susan Nowak after the Liverpool AGM Towards the heel of Cumbria

you’ll find a cloudburst of brewpubs, little gems of selfsufficiency creating amazing beers and food all under one roof. I found CAMRA’s annual conference in Liverpool an unusually rumbustious affair, so the day after it ended I headed for the hills.

It was a timely reminder of just why our organisation exists, and no place reminds us more than the Beer Hall in Staveley, home of Hawkshead brewery, where owner Alex Brodie recalls the crisis that spawned CAMRA. “I saw it happen. I saw the handpumps being taken out in the 1960s. I am a beer hunter and I spent most of my adult life looking for a decent pint,” says Alex (particularly difficult during his years as a BBC journalist in Middle East war zones). Once returned to the tranquillity of the Lakes he

‘As a grand finale, head chef Kester Marsh brought out deepfried beer ice cream, pavlova featuring ice cream made from malty Hawkshead Red, coated in honey nuts and corn before a dunk in a deep fat fryer’ Right: Beer Hall head chef Kester Marsh Inset: Owner Alex Brodie, right, with head brewer Matt Clarke

wanted to stay there, and his wife joked that the only other thing he knew anything about was beer…

Opened in a barn in 2002 four years later, the brewery moved to its present purposebuilt premises – an ‘in your face’ statement of the fusion between hops, malt and yeast.

Two steel conditioning vessels greet you at the bar entrance, while glass walls over two storeys demolish any barrier between the brewing and swigging. The building has been orchestrated to create a living homage to real ale, including the kitchen, opened in 2010 by his consultant chef Steven Doherty, formerly head chef at Le Gavroche.

Eleven beers of huge diversity (from £2.80 a pint) – including Cumbrian Five Hop (5 per cent ABV), Lakeland Gold (4.4 per cent) and Bitter (3.7 per cent),

‘This whitewashed Lakeland hostelry is as much a giant as the Old Man of Coniston towering 803 metres above it. This is the mouse that roared – the only UK micro to produce two Champion Beers of Britain’ which are used in, and matched to, beer tapas.

A noble homemade Yorkie is filled with beef marinated and braised in dark, malty Brodie’s Prime (4.9 per cent) topped with horseradish cream (£6.50, unmissable); a wisp of crisp bitter batter coats Fleetwood plaice goujons; Dry Stone Stout (4.5 per cent) replaces wine in French onion soup (and all the better for it); Scotch egg is made with sausage meat from the butcher opposite, who also puts Brodie’s Prime into his bangers (£4.50).

The Brewer’s Lunch could not be scoffed by any brewer with work to do, the wooden board a still life of what to eat with ale. It boasted various sausages: chorizo marinated in Windermere Pale (3.5 per cent), a spicy smoked beef sausage supplied by a former Texas rodeo queen and smoke pit master now living in Windermere – Cumberland from Garside butchers, locally produced ham, along with black pudding, Parma and salami; a slice of Huntsman pie – pork, chicken and stuffing by Higginsons of Grange; sticky barbecued ribs and mushroom caps stuffed with Stilton. Not forgetting sourdough bread from the artisan bakery next door, where I bought a bloomer made with Hawkshead beer; £16 buys a feast for two.

As a grand finale, head chef Kester Marsh brought out deep-fried beer ice cream and ale lovers’ pavlova featuring ice cream made from malty Hawkshead Red (4.2 per cent), coated in honey, nuts and corn before a dunk in a deep fat fryer.

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BREWPUBS | food

Clockwise from far left: Black Bull head chef Spencer Metcalfe; Black Bull; Drunken Duck Inn exterior and bar

Hawkshead is Cumbria’s largest independent brewery selling 6,500 barrels a year with its own Beer Hall the biggest customer. ‘Proper beer made by people who love beer for people who love beer’ etched on one glass wall is ‘the nearest we come to a mission statement’.

PHOTOGRAPHY: FRAN NOWAK; ALAMY

My next watering hole is a

total contrast. The Black Bull, 400 years old, in the same family for the past 40 of them, reeks of tradition. Do not be deceived. This whitewashed Lakeland hostelry is as much a giant as the Old Man of Coniston towering 803 metres above it. This is the mouse that roared – the only micro to produce two Champion Beers of Britain (CBOB). In 1998, Bluebird Bitter (3.6 per cent) won that accolade.

“It was an amazing day and one I’ll never forget,” says Ian Bradley, who opened Coniston

‘While the Beer Hall opts for tapas, the Duck goes Greek with a beer meze board at £12.50 to accompany its ales’ brewery behind his parents’ freehouse in 1995. After the CBOB gong he brewed virtually nothing but Bluebird for a decade, even while originating 10 other house beers (including oatmeal stout, IPA and pilsner) with beer chemist David Smith. But 14 years later, in 2012, he really was gobsmacked when, after winning CAMRA’s Champion Winter Beer of Britain title, his glorious No. 9 Barley Wine (8.5 per cent) went on to become his second champion.

And can the pub kitchen create dishes to grace such pedigree pints? Darn right it can. Head chef Spencer Metcalfe learned his trade at 18 from Ian’s late father, Ron

Bradley, who was a chef; Ian’s mother Susan is still landlady.

From a wealth of local produce – Cartmel venison and pheasants, dressed crab, cheese from a Kendal cheesery, hogget, fell-bred beef and Cumberland sausage from Woodalls of Waberthwaite – Spencer and his team create flavours to harmonise with their beers.

Bluebird is on my shortlist of iconic ales, and its pepper-pot finish made it a perfect partner for gently smoked local black pudding topped by a poached duck egg, the yolk so rich and yellow it was more a meal than a starter (£7.95).

Prime beef marinated overnight in Coniston beer then cooked in it and served with herb dumplings (£14.95) tempted… but I chose fresh plaice from Fleetwood topped with potted Morecambe Bay shrimps, salty sweet morsels adding the taste of the sea

(£12.95). And it won’t surprise you to hear that a glass of that barley wine is ‘champion’ with sticky toffee pudding.

A few miles away, the

Drunken Duck Inn, home of Barngates brewery, is renowned for fine dining.

While the Beer Hall opts for tapas, the Duck goes Greek with a beer meze board at £12.50 to accompany its ales – potted beef shin and stout suet pudding with red cabbage is on the evening menu (£16).

Ten regular ales include a dark mild, full-bodied at 3.4 per cent, malty bitter Cracker (3.9 per cent) and the pale Cat Nap (3.6 per cent), which was as ‘unapologetically bitter’ as I could wish. I have never seen a pub ceiling so hop bedecked!

For more details, visit hawksheadbrewery.co.uk; blackbullconiston.co.uk; and drunkenduckinn.co.uk

Susan Nowak writes CAMRA’s Good Pub Food, and has made many TV and radio appearances talking about cooking with beer AUTUMN 2016 BEER 43

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tasting | PERFECT MATCH

WHAT CHOCOLATE?

It’s a fact going back to the ancient world, that chocolate is manna from the Gods. Ayo Kila spends an evening with Dea Latis to discover why pairing it with beer is a match made in heaven

A night of chocolate and beer

– some people would never put the two together. But as a group attending a beer and chocolate tasting found out, they make a delectable duo.

Hosted by Dea Latis, the female beer group whose mission it is to bring beer to women, this evening’s session was held at the Clarence pub in central London. Attended by beer experts, novices and industry people, the tasting explored the tantalising world of chocolate and beer pairing, led by sommelier Jane Peyton.

Jane started by explaining how brewing was originally done by women (brewsters), and the four core ingredients that make up beer: water, yeast, hops and malt.

The first pairing was

PHOTOGRAPHY: AYO KILA

Elgood’s Coolship (5 per cent ABV) and Divine Dark Chocolate with Raspberries.

The mention of a sour beer was met with suspicion; surely a sour beer and a fruity chocolate would contradict each other.

On opening the beer, a strong, fruity aroma of summer berries (particularly raspberry, with hints of strawberry and blackcurrant) burst forth.

Contrary to our suspicions, the fruitiness of the Coolship complemented the bitterness

of the dark chocolate while enhancing the raspberry flavours within the chocolate.

This pairing became the second favourite coupling of the night, as the majority enjoyed the tanginess of the beer bringing out the sweetness of the chocolate. A pleasant surprise for the tasters.

We then moved on to the second pairing for the evening – an experimental match of Erdinger Weissbier (5.3 per cent) and Green & Black’s White Chocolate. Even the

experienced hosts like to try out new combinations, so the outcome was going to be a surprise for everyone.

Based in Germany, Erdinger has been brewing wheat beer for more than 100 years. Its Weissbier is full-bodied, rich in flavour with a strong banana aroma and subtle aromatic hints of vanilla.

The beer started off rather sweet, but had quite a hop-bitter finish. This made the pairing awkward as the duo didn’t marry well. As one guest simply put it: “the beer does nothing for the chocolate.”

‘Surely a sour beer and a fruity chocolate would contradict each other’

The beer did, however emphasise the bitterness in the white chocolate – traditionally one of the go-to sweeter chocolates.

Understandably, after the successful first pairing, the group was a bit disappointed that this one lacked the same oomph. With no strong feelings or opinion in favour of the combination, it turned out to be one of the least favourite combos of the night.

After cleansing our palates, we then moved on to the Badger’s Poacher’s Choice (5.7 per cent) and Valrhona Jivara Milk Chocolate.

Hall & Woodhouse’s Badger brewery has been brewing for more than 230 years and Poacher’s Choice is one of its flagship beers. After finding out this is an award-winning brew, expectations among the group were high. Some of the women were eager to taste the beer after pouring it into their glasses and watching the red ale settle.

The deep ruby-coloured ale is a well-rounded brew, with a fruity aroma, full-flavoured malty taste, and quite a spicy finish. The malt character of the Poacher’s Choice complemented the milk chocolate, as it created the surprising illusion of fruity

Clockwise from top: Drinkers assemble; some of the group discussing the pairings; the beers; assessing the beer; chocolate for pairing

‘As one guest simply put it: “the beer does nothing for the chocolate”’ flavour notes in the chocolate.

However, the combination was quite rich and filling, so the group found it only wanted a little bit of the chocolate (thankfully not the case with the beer!).

The initial reaction to the

fourth combination of the night was one of uncertainty when Jane announced the group would be trying Hogs Back Montezuma’s Chocolate Lager and Montezuma’s Lordy Lord Dark Chocolate.

The 4.5 per cent Hogs Back lager did not have the distinctive roasted malt taste typically associated with a chocolate stout or porter; it looked like a traditional pale-coloured lager.

On the nose, it was delightfully chocolatey... even though we knew it was a chocolate lager, it felt a

44 BEER AUTUMN 2016

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046_BEER_Aut_16.indd 46

13/07/2016 11:17

PERFECT MATCH | tasting ‘Its 70 per cent cocoa solids intensified the chocolate flavours in the Montezuma’s Chocolate lager’

somewhat strange aroma to associate with this style.

The beer had a mild, pleasant taste, but no one could pinpoint what flavours they were tasting. After trying the lager on its own, some said they could taste chocolate; others said it was malty, but a few were unable to pick out a specific flavour. When tried with the chocolate, the whole room agreed the beer brought out the sweetness in the Lordy Lord, and its 70 per cent cocoa solids intensified the chocolate flavours in the lager.

This pairing became the third most-popular match of the night, simply because the group was unanimous that, although the pairing was quite unusual, it was very pleasant, with the elements bringing out new flavours.

The final pairing – the Left Hand Brewing Co’s Milk Stout Nitro (6 per cent) and Divine Milk Chocolate with Toffee & Sea Salt – was also the most

popular combination of the night. The deep black stout gives off a distinctive sweet chocolate aroma created from the mixture of dark malts.

Clockwise from top left: Jane Peyton leads the session; some of the tasters discussing the beer; two of the pairings

The brew also has a sweet, iced coffee and roasted malt taste with a bitter finish that complemented the toffee notes, while the chocolate’s saltiness balanced the bitterness of the beer.

The night was a huge success,

a mixture of flavoursome finger foods, chocolate, full-flavoured beers and good company.

n Dea Latis is a group of female brewers, beer tasters, publicans, writers and marketers whose name comes from the Celtic goddess of beer and water.

The group runs many tasting events with the aim of getting more women trying beer and to break the stereotype that women are not beer drinkers.

Go to dealatisuk.wordpress.com for more information about the group and information about upcoming tastings.

Back for more Following the exciting experience of the Dea Latis beer and chocolate tasting, the need to share and recreate it with a few friends and introduce them to a world of beer, meant hosting and organising a second pairing evening a week later.

Using the tasting notes of the beers from the previous tasting, similar beers and chocolate were chosen: n Badger’s Fursty Ferret (4 per cent) and Tesco Dark Chocolate. n Meantime Chocolate Porter (6.5 per cent) with Green & Black’s Butterscotch Milk Chocolate. n Erdinger with Green & Black’s White Chocolate. n Badger’s Poacher’s Choice with Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate. n Westmalle Trappist Dubbel (7 per cent) and Lindt Excellence Dark Cherry Intense.

Coming from a non-beerdrinking background, all my friends had apprehensions

about the night, but were still willing to experiment with a new hobby.

At first, they all had the same reaction “ew, it smells like beer” until they were shown how to cover the glass and swirl the beer around to bring out the flavours.

Then all their ‘ews’ turned into ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ as they discovered another side to beer and were amazed at the fruity, sweet and luscious chocolatey aromas.

Not surprisingly, by the end of the evening, the Poacher’s Choice and Erdinger were the favourites because of their rich aromas and the delectable flavours.

While there was a unanimous disappointment with Meantime’s Chocolate Porter, this was the drink they were all looking forward to tasting because of the name and tasting notes. n Note: Not all the beers featured in the tastings are bottle-conditioned.

AUTUMN 2016 BEER 47

44-47 Tasting.indd 46

12/07/2016 11:11

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13/07/2016 15:16

YEASTIE BOYS ¦ bottled beer

This is one of the most remarkable beers brewed in Britain, with sherrylike notes, tart jam sweetness and a mild sourness from lactic acid bacteria

While the keen contemporary

interest in hops is a joy to behold, the resinous strobiles are by no means the end of the beer flavour story. After all, beer was brewed for thousands of years without them. Yeast, on the other hand, is fundamental: as US brewer and author Derek Dellinger points out, it’s “what transforms sugar water into beer”. But it also produces up to 1,000 other substances that can affect the aroma and taste of the finished product.

The main difference between lagers and ales is that the former are fermented at low temperatures with Saccharomyces pastorianus yeasts, resulting in a clean, smooth taste. Lagers are typically filtered, but Weird Beard Spreadsheet Ninja

(4.8 per cent ABV) is a bottle-conditioned exception.

This superb west Londonbrewed beer uses a powdered lager yeast and a long period of cold-conditioning. It currently foregrounds the decidedly untraditional US hop Citra, giving lemon and tropical fruit notes, but with a classic pilsner crispness and creamy background malt, emphasising gentle bitterness in the finish.

Ales use a different species, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, that prefers higher temperatures and tends to produce more esters. But some strains ferment more cleanly than others, notably those used for American-style pale ales.

A beautifully balanced British example, using the popular Safale US-05 yeast derived from the Sierra Nevada strain, is Mad Hatter Penny Lane Pale (3.9 per cent), the flagship brand of a Liverpool

YEAST OF EDEN

In all the clamour surrounding hops, it s easy to forget the role yeast plays in beer micro launched in 2013.

There’s plenty of orange and mango from Mosaic on the aroma, with waxy, peppery Simcoe contributing a controlled bitterness to the flavour, helped by a sweetish body with a dose of malt sugar the yeast didn’t quite eat away.

Belgian yeast strains tend to produce more complex flavours. Take Legless Liz (3.8 per cent), made by

Dorset’s Gyle 59 brewery, another 2013 foundation, for the Queens Arms in Corton Denham, using Safale T-58 to produce a loosely saison-styled beer. You should be able to spot banana-like esters and clove-like phenols of the sort that are typically more pronounced in a Bavarian wheat beer, where they’re also a by-product of the yeast. Here, they add interest to a delicate

Des de Moor is one of the country s leading writers on bottled beer, and author of CAMRA s London s Best Beer, Pubs & Bars. Read more of Des de Moor s reviews at desdemoor.co.uk

beer with lightly floral, bitter orange and grapefruit notes.

Most small breweries today order their yeast from international commercial suppliers, but many oldestablished breweries still maintain their own strains.

The yeast at St Austell was changed in 1999 to the strain from Kent’s Shepherd Neame, and has since adapted to its new Cornish home. You can taste it at work in Proper Job (5.5 per cent), lending lightly honeyed and berry-fruit aromas to a powerful IPA, featuring Fuggle-derived hop Willamette, a rich orangey beer with a bitter finish.

The most outspoken yeasts

are Brettanomyces, naturally occurring and long exploited around Brussels in spontaneously fermented lambic beers. Bret works more slowly and thoroughly than Saccharomyces, leaving damp and farmyard-like flavours, which are evident in Elgood s Coolship (6 per cent), from the Cambridgeshire brewer that’s now one of the few outside Belgium making wild ales. This is one of the most remarkable beers brewed in Britain, with sherry-like notes, tart jam sweetness and a mild sourness from lactic acid bacteria. Taste it alongside Spreadsheet Ninja and be amazed at the breadth of the brewer’s art.

AUTUMN 2016 BEER 49

49 Des .indd 49

12/07/2016 13:07

A Campaign

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of Two Halves

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050_BEER_Aut_16.indd 50

12/07/2016 17:26

YOUR OPINION ¦ letters

Your

shout

ISSUE THIRTY -TWO

| SUMMER 201

6

5 £3.9

H EA D

CASHerts Write to BEER, CAMRA HQ, 230 Hatfield Road, St Albans, AL1 4LW, ES email claire.pearson@camra.org.uk or continue the debate at forum.camra.org THE CH AN THE HE GING FACE OF AD BR EWER

01 COVE

R.indd

1

ADRIAN TIERNEY -JONES INSIDE /RON PAT TINSON/ MARTYN

CORNEL L

12/04/2016

The piece by Glynn Davis was the

most interesting article in the last BEER (Summer). Pity my nearest pub is in London. All power to Sam Smith!

Derek Rowlands, Farnham, Surrey

I don t know all the details of Samuel

Smith brewery’s behaviour after the Tadcaster floods, but it seemed rather selfish. Could not the matter have been broached in the article (BEER, Summer)? There are some things even more important than beer!

Roger Jenking, Oxford

SAMUEL SMITH ¦ profi

le

Samuel Smith:

the secrets of success as an innovative and profile masks what it sees Samuel Smith s ultra-low brewing and pubs, as Glynn Davis discovers to experimental approach

unlike wholly profit-led businesses a low profile. horizon, good reputation and we keep that can die from short-termism.

Cock Tavern on as much as some lot of larger We don’t bang the drum “We’re very long term. A Street, it was do. People London’s Great Portland record profits others. We just do what we Sam Smith, companies have to show will recognise a great surprise to bump into alien to who understand the beer every year, which is totally Smith family, says Smith. the fifth generation of the to have us and what we’re about,” us. For us, it’s a great bonus the Yorkshireview on which continues to own maybe even The brewery takes a similar and a long-term view of 50 or which is given based Samuel Smith brewery, puts us marketing and advertising, 100 years. It’s a strength that this central have large numerous pubs, including Smith. short shrift: “Some companies ahead of the game,” says quality of the London gem. put to advertising budgets, but the This philosophy has been it was him. anything on Not that I’d have known era under the beer is poor. We don’t spend modern the in with use beer a good that money I was fortunate to be having Humphrey, advertising and instead spend to run a stewardship of Smith’s father, ingredients.” a friend whose parents used recently on the finest natural brewing and his brother, Oliver (who brewery’s home Samuel Smith pub in the some retired). They have overseen Yorkshire. It was held for many years town of Tadcaster, North at the This is a stance it has cutting-edge developments Smith agreed major, that surprise 1758, to greater an even customers – possibly even dating back company, although to regular me about his established to have a casual chat with when the Old Brewery was it can seem rather old school.

Samuel Smith family’s under-the-radar business. put into in Tadcaster. It took on the All its cask beer is uniquely Samuel some early family Much has been said about by its in-house name in 1886, following oak barrels that are made the years, and situation of odd the Smith and its beers over to led an that on apprentice ructions on the back cooper (it has just taken the town – the many myths have been built and this beer two breweries running in failed to either to continue the tradition), of rumours the brewery has Smith’s. cent per John (4 being Bitter other is called Old Brewery has been to a rather sad confirm or deny. Its policy Tadcaster site.

John Smith’s has suffered ABV) as a reference to its I fortuitously of simply say nothing. Until to deliver decline while under the ownership The brewery uses shire horses organisations, bumped into Smith, it seems. traditional various uncaring corporate to locally, and still deploys the to do its Samuel Smith has preferred system but Samuel Smith has continued and running Yorkshire Square fermentation concentrate on brewing beer with a very much long-term off. “We’ve a own thing, pubs than shouting its mouth

While drinking in the

I would like to point Alastair Noble

(BEER, Summer), in the direction of Worcestershire if he would like a decent pint to watch music with.

Worcester’s Firefly has a fantastic selection of real ales. It also regularly hosts successful and up-andcoming bands. The Paul Pry, also in Worcester, has recently reopened.

As well as serving its range of local and nationally notable ales, the pub also hosts local artists and traditional music sessions. Another good reason to support local breweries, bars and bands while they are still in business.

Nick Hatton, Bromsgrove, Worcs

Many thanks to Ron Pattinson for

his excellent Mild Times (BEER, Summer). I would just like to point out that, despite frequent statements to the contrary, David Lloyd George was not actually a teetotaller.

Not that it lessened my enjoyment of the piece. The mind boggles at a golden-hued 7 per cent ABV mild

ts every year, have to show record profi of 50 or A lot of larger companies to have a long-term view We re very long term. us. For us, it s a great bonus us ahead of the game which is totally alien to It s a strength that puts maybe even 100 years.

19 SUMMER 2016 BEER

The piece by Glynn Davis was the most interesting article in the last BEER. Pity my nearest pub is in London

12/04/2016 16:42 19-21 Brewer.indd 19

13:03

a bitter (which was light and malty) and a rare dark mild (which I only sampled at an early CAMRA beer festival). These were always dispensed by top pressure (not uncommon at the time), but later it introduced a new beer at about 1050 gravity called Eynesbury Giant (EG), which was handpumped. After this, the bitter was usually served by handpump and showed itself to be rather pleasant (unless in pubs where the landlords did not understand real ale!).

Paines may not have been a world beater, but it was OK. Peter Fleming, Dunstable, Beds

Martyn Cornell (BEER, Summer)

failed to mention the dimpled jug maintains the beer closer to its draw temperature than the straight glass.

Hubert Smith, Jacksonville, Oregon, US

made with American hops; surely a ‘craft beer’ in search of a yet-tobe-invented key keg?

Paul Cornish, Tunbridge Wells, Kent

The article on Cambridgeshire

breweries (BEER, Summer) was a little hard on Paines of St Neots.

An early Good Beer Guide may have described it as “a complete waste of time”, but there were other breweries more deserving of that accolade then (as there are now).

It’s true the business neglected the brewing and pubs, as is shown in the decline of tied houses from 24 in the early 1970s to nine when it closed.

In the early days of CAMRA, Paines produced only two beers,

Very interesting article by Roger

Protz (BEER, Summer). Although I am not visually impaired, could I point out that I found the lack of contrast in the type made that article difficult to read? This is not the first occasion that I’ve noticed this.

Any chance future designs take into account visually impaired readers?

Derek Barber, Bingley, W Yorks

Editor replies: We do try to keep this in mind. Apologies if anyone found the feature difficult to read. If you would like the magazine in an alternative format, see members.camra.org.uk/ group/guest/beer-magazine or contact the CAMRA office.

AUTUMN 2016 BEER 51

51 Letters K.indd 51

12/07/2016 09:56

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12/07/2016 17:26

ASSETS OF COMMUNITY | campaign

ACTION STATIONS Help CAMRA protect pubs – love your local? List it!

COMMUNITY ASSETS

REX WARD

If you’re a regular reader of BEER and What’s Brewing, you’ve probably already heard of Assets of Community Value (ACV) – and how 1,500 communities across England have already clubbed together to get their pub registered.

Whether you visit your local for the weekly pub quiz, a charity event or to simply sample some of the great beers, cider and perry on offer, pubs are at the heart of our communities and central to Britain’s way of life.

ANTWERP ARMS – TOTTENHAM Open since 1822, ‘The Annie’ (as it’s known to its locals) is the oldest working pub in London N17, and the local of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club.

In 2013, after nearly 200 years of being part of the Tottenham Community, Enterprise Inns put the Antwerp Arms up for sale. Campaigners soon got the pub listed as an Asset of Community Value – and launched a share offer to buy the pub and run it as a community enterprise.

Despite having its first offer refused, the group applied for an SIB Capital Assets Grant and raised £285,000 to purchase the pub. After some top negotiating, the group’s offer was accepted and they took ownership of the pub on 21 March 2015.

The pub is now running as a community enterprise – and is back to being at the heart of the community. It recently won the North London CAMRA award for Pub of the Season and takes part in various charity events.

Despite the positive impact pubs have on our lives, current planning laws simply don’t do enough to protect them. Without ACV status, your local pub could be demolished or converted into several other uses, such as mini supermarkets, without community say-so.

Thanks to new ACV powers, pubs are also filling the gaps to provide muchneeded public services, including post offices, libraries and local shops. When an ACV pub comes up for sale, you’ll

ROSE & CROWN – ST ALBANS Nigel Wild is a licensee in St Albans; a tied pub of Enterprise Inns. As a way of having his pub recognised in the community, he nominated his own pub as an Asset of Community Value (ACV) with St Albans City Council.

He said: “It’s important for me as a licensee to have my pub recognised in the community, which is why I nominated it with the CAMRA branch to be listed as an ACV. Not only does the ACV prevent the pub company from selling the pub to a property developer without our consent, but it also acts as a quality mark that the pub is clearly valued by the community and the local council.”

Since Wild got his pub nominated, even more licensees are coming forward to celebrate their pub being listed as an ACV. Are you a licensee interested in joining our campaign? Visit camra.org.uk/ list-your-local

be given the opportunity to put it back in the hands of the local community, which can come together to bid to buy it as a group. With 79 pubs already owned by communities and a new £3.6 million investment from the government, community-owned pubs are opening up all over the country.

Why not get together in your local beer garden this summer and nominate your pub as an ACV? Here are three examples of pubs that have been listed as ACVs:

ROSCOE HEAD, LIVERPOOL The Roscoe Head in Liverpool is the only pub in Merseyside (and one of only five in the country) to appear in every edition of CAMRA’s Good Beer Guide since it was first published in 1974.

Despite its importance to the city, last year its future came into question.

But CAMRA successfully campaigned to secure the future of the Roscoe Head by listing it as an ACV. Why not join CAMRA today to join the movement to protect our pubs?

Joining CAMRA not only gives you the opportunity to get discounts at various local pubs across the country, but it also means you can engage with like-minded people and campaign to protect pubs in your area.

CAMRA wants to list 3,000 pubs by the end of 2016. Go to camra.org.uk/ list-your-local to find out how you can protect your local.

AUTUMN 2016 BEER 53

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12/07/2016 11:35

Railtrail

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Bruges, Brussels & the Poperinge Beer Festival DEPARTS: Thursday 27 October 2016

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Silver Award Winner – Britain’s ‘Best Rail Holidays Company’ 054_BEER_Aut_16.indd 28

14/07/2016 15:43

ROGER PROTZ | column

ON THE Don’t expect long rows of handpulls offering hundreds of brews at Munich’s great beer event – there’s just a handful – but that’s no reason not to visit Oktoberfest is a name that resonates

round the world. The original festival is held in Munich, but it has led to pubs, bars and breweries in scores of countries launching their own versions to coincide with the great Bavarian knees-up.

Compared with the Great American and Great British festivals, Munich is a bit short on choice. Only the local breweries can sell their beers in vast tented halls, complete with oompah bands. And there’s just one beer per tent, a special brew called, surprise, surprise, Oktoberfestbier. Oddly, Crown Prince Luitpold of Kaltenberg, who brews at his castle a few miles from Munich, is banned from featuring his beer at the festival, even though he single-handedly saved and revived a local speciality called dunkel, a dark lager.

Commercial politics aside, the Oktoberfest is a quite remarkable event that attracts enormous crowds. On the eve of the festival, there’s a parade through Munich of brewers’ drays and the lord mayor taps a wooden cask to declare the festival open.

If you get bored with the festival beer, there’s a wider choice in the city’s bars.

Munich is as famous for its wheat beer as it is for the festival, and you can enjoy these spicy top-fermenting beers along with superb helles, pils and bock lagers.

The best-known bar in the city is the Hofbräuhaus on a square called the Platzl. The name means the court brewhouse and it was built in 1589 by Duke Wilhelm V of Bavaria to supply his

palace nearby. In the late 20th century, the brewery was relocated outside the city and what remains is a vast beer hall over three storeys. On a quiet day, it’s occupied by elderly gents with serious moustaches.

But there aren’t many quiet days and it’s usually packed to the beams. And it’s hardly changed since the 19th century.

I recently came across a vivid description of the Hofbräuhaus written by an American called Henry Ruggles in 1881: “Behind a rough counter six men in shirt sleeves were plying every nerve in filling from six beer barrels, perched

‘The first glasses are met with the chant of “oans, zwoa, g’suffa”, which in the local dialect means “one, two, down the hatch”. Learn that and your German will be perfect’

Roger Protz is one of the world’s top beer writers, travelling the globe searching out new brews, and edits CAMRA’s Good Beer Guide. Read more of Roger’s writing at protzonbeer. co.uk or follow him @rogerprotzbeer

on plank staging at the rear, the beer mugs which were being rapidly passed to them... The streams of beer which were rushing through the large faucets of the barrels appeared never to be shut off.

“The men would grasp with one hand three, four, and often as many as six mugs by the handles, at the same time, which they would clap under the running stream and fill them in a twinkling, and then pass them to the thirsty customers.

As soon as a barrel became empty, and a full one was not over 15 or 20 minutes in being exhausted, it was pushed aside, and presto! Change! A fresh barrel takes its place as if by magic.”

The dizzy pace of serving and supping

hadn’t changed in the century or so that divided Ruggles from my first, bittersweet visit. My hosts took me into a room where we sat at benches with wooden backs embossed with the letters HB. As I took a swig of my tankard, one of my hosts asked: “Do you know who used to sit where you’re sitting now?”

The beer turned to vinegar in my mouth. I knew the answer before it was uttered. Hitler used the tavern to plan his failed coup in the 1920s.

Don’t let that put you off visiting this amazing place. I was in the Hofbräuhaus when the mayor – who has a pretty good job – tapped the first barrel of maibock, the pale strong beer brewed to herald the season. The first glasses are met with the chant of “oans, zwoa, g’suffa”, which in the local dialect means “one, two, down the hatch”. Learn that and your German will be perfect.

AUTUMN 2016 BEER 55

55 Protz.indd 55

12/07/2016 11:28

FOREIGN AGAINST

SHOULD THE GREAT BRITISH BEER FESTIVAL ONLY SELL BRITISH BEER? 56 BEER AUTUMN 2016

56-57 Debate.indd 56

12/07/2016 11:25

GBBF | head-to-head

The clue is in the title

– Great British Beer Festival (GBBF). Do I need to write anything else? This is not an original idea; I have YES read comments on social media expressing much the same opinion, but what really sparked it for me was a friend of mine saying “Bière San Frontières is the best bit about GBBF” – and this from someone who regularly drinks cask and sells cask beer.

How wrong does that sound? The beer he looks forward to the most at the GBBF comes from outside the British Isles.

We, as an organisation, should be showcasing only British beers at our flagship event, with the emphasis on the good and

First, let me state that

I believe British beers can hold their head up high on the world stage.

It is because of this very NO strength of character that I feel by providing the best examples of beers from other countries, we enhance people’s great impression of our own beers.

The world brewing scene is continually changing and improving, and by standing our own beers against the best of other countries, we allow the public to see why we rate our own brews highly and equally how we appreciate the choice and range that other brewing nations can offer.

During my involvement with the European Beer Consumers Union (EBCU), I was lucky, as I got to enjoy many beer styles from across Europe and I have to say,

great beers. Too many times I have been disappointed with some of the cask beers at GBBF, but when you get a great one, there are few drinking pleasures greater than that. If that means less choice, but a greater quantity of the best beers that the UK has to offer, then so be it.

After all, we have more breweries, with 1,430 appearing in the Good Beer Guide 2016, brewing more than 11,000 real ales (due in no small part to CAMRA), so why can we not fill Olympia with only British beer (so glad it is back at Olympia, fell out of love with it at Earls Court)?

We could still have a bottle/can bar,

or key cask/keg for those breweries that prefer those methods of dispense. Perhaps, a flagon-fill station? What could be more

‘From the north of Finland to the south of Italy, there is now an incredible variety of taste sensations available to choose from’ the range and variety is amazing and is still growing. From the north of Finland to the south of Italy, there is now an incredible variety of taste sensations available for beer lovers to choose from.

Beers are brewed to suit local tastes, ingredients and, in many cases, are also matched with local foods (if you are on holiday in Europe, look out for the fantastic regional beers and match them up with the area’s food).

This is something we can learn from European brewers – the matching of food

‘We, as an organisation, should be showcasing only British beers at our flagship event, with the emphasis on the good and great beers’ British than taking away one’s own flagon full of a great British beer?

Coincidentally, the deadline for submission of this piece was 15 June – Beer Day Britain, a day that would have seen me raise a glass of British beer, cheers!

Martin Oates has been a member of CAMRA for 15 years, runs a beer-tasting club at work and blogs about beer under Beer is the Answer (blogno1mjpo007. blogspot.co.uk). He occasionally thinks about other stuff, but only occasionally!

and beer – the UK has started to see the benefits of this, but I believe our European colleagues are still well ahead of us.

If we did not sell beers from outside the

UK, we would lose a great opportunity to showcase the best of our brews against the best of the rest. I simply say, let your mouth do the drinking and see why the whole world of brews needs to be shown and not just our own great British beers. Also, by doing this, we help to encourage the emerging beer cultures in other countries.

Terry Lock was a director of CAMRA from 1989-2003 and a delegate to the EBCU, representing CAMRA from 1991. He was elected chair of the EBCU in 1999, which he held until he stood down in 2012.

Currently, he is the East Midlands regional tasting panel coordinator.

AUTUMN 2016 BEER 57

56-57 Debate.indd 57

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14/07/2016 15:16 15:02 23/06/2016

REINHEITSGEBOT | history of brewing

PURITY BY DECREE

So, what is the Reinheitsgebot?

It’s the so-called German purity law, which originally restricted brewers to using only barley, hops and water. It was introduced on 23 April 1516. This year its 500th anniversary is being celebrated in Germany with lots of oompah bands, sausages and large steins filled with lager.

Tim Hampson reveals all you ever wanted to know about the German brewing law, which is celebrating its 500th anniversary

That’s true. The German Empire was founded that year in the aftermath of three successful wars by the north German state of Prussia.

The German Empire included Bavaria, whose politicians insisted that the decree, introduced by Duke Wilhelm IV, should apply to all of Germany.

But isn’t yeast an ingredient of beer?

Back to the original Reinheitsgebot, shouldn’t Prince Wilhelm be regarded as a consumer visionary as he cared about what people drank?

Hmm. Wilhelm was a farmer; he also cultivated rye and wheat. He wanted to stop these cereals being sold to brewers at lower prices than he could get by selling the grain to bakers.

Oh, come on, that’s just a detail. It is still an important law?

Well, in fact, it’s two laws. The Bavarian and the German. The Bavarian version still restricts the use of anything but barley malt, hops, water and yeast (which was added in at a later date). It also allows the use of malted wheat and malted rye in top-fermented beers. The German version is a bit more easy-going and allows the addition, to bottomfermented beers, of different sugars as well as colouring made from sugar.

And brewers could do whatever they wanted to do to the brewing water.

Hold on, Germany didn’t become a united country until 1871?

Indeed, it is, but yeast wasn’t discovered until the 17th century and it wasn’t widely recognised until the French scientist Louis Pasteur described its importance in his book Études sur la Bière in 1876.

Strictly speaking, if the wording of the original decree was applied today, only lambic, the Belgian beer style that is spontaneously fermented with wild yeast, would be permitted.

wasn’t coined until 1918, when a member of the Bavarian parliament used it in a debate on beer taxation. Until then, it had been called the Surrogatverbot – which banned the use of adjuncts.

But it is still the law, isn’t it?

Despite that, surely the Reinheitsgebot lays the foundation for laws giving consumers protection against poor ingredients?

Well, the decree may be five centuries old, but its current name, the Reinheitsgebot,

No. It was banned in 1987. The European Court ruled the law was a restriction on free trade, which stopped beers brewed in the rest of Europe being sold in Germany. However, German brewers are still compelled to follow it when brewing beers for their domestic market. But, they can choose to ignore it when brewing a beer for export, except in Bavaria, where brewers still have to adhere to their version of the law.

So can the term still be used today?

Tim Hampson is chairman of the British Guild of Beer Writers and has authored several books. He blogs at beerandpubs.wordpress.com

Of course, but don’t say only good beers are brewed to the Reinheitsgebot or that it’s the oldest, still valid, food-safety law in the world. And, in Germany, don’t say I want to brew with innovative ingredients.

AUTUMN 2016 BEER 59

59 History.indd 59

12/07/2016 11:22

CAPE BEER

Forget topping up the tan on golden beaches, when home brewer Phil Lowry goes travelling, it’s beer and brewing that top the agenda

PHOTOGRAPHS: PHIL LOWRY

Those of you on social media,

or in the London beer scene, may know of Glyn Roberts of the Rake, Sambrook’s brewery (or by his twitter handle @rabidbarfly). Over a year ago, he accompanied his wife to a new job in Cape Town and, as a beer aficionado does – instead of posting photos of meals or cats – he filled my timelines with labels and names of beers that sounded great, and his recommendations poured forth. So, when an opportunity came up to head to Cape Town, I grabbed it.

As any beer lover would, I tracked down the people driving change. People like Mark Mohr of 99 Bottles Distribution, Riot Beer’s Marc Fourie and Schalk Marais at Gallows Hill Brewing Co. There is a curious relationship with Cape Town’s beer scene and the elephant in the room, South Africa Breweries (SABMiller), now part of the monster AnheuserBusch InBev. And I wanted to confirm the stories of a pilot system at one of the local SAB plants that had a brew club.

I had heard so much about the place, but it may as well have been on Mars – Raphael Basan of Moncada and Sean Knight of Sambrook’s, both Cape Town natives, gave me recommendations.

Talking to Glyn, there are good beers being brewed here, but it’s a very new scene. That platform of guys from the brew

Above: Previous efforts at brewing have proved popular in Cape Town’s beer scene

‘Arriving at the peak of South Africa’s summer heat, after leaving a cloudy London, meant a change of attire and a cold, gold one’ club became the foundation for some of the new breweries.

Three of the Cape Town scene I wanted to meet were Wolfgang Koedel of Cape Brewing Co (CBC), JC Steyn of Devil’s Peak and Rory Lancellas of Aegir Project – a smaller operation creating exciting new beers inspired by visits to London brewers. And I got to brew with a couple of these guys during my stay.

Arriving at the peak of South Africa’s summer heat, after leaving a cloudy London, meant a change of attire and a cold, gold one was called for.

I was greeted by Mark Mohr, keen to get me hydrated and into my hotel safely. Not too long ago, that cold, gold one would have been an SAB beer, but today there is no need to

go down that road. Of the super selection of beers at the Beerhouse on Long Street, the CBC Lager (5.1 per cent ABV) was more than welcome.

I was lucky enough to be

invited to brew with a couple of the leading brewers, to make a couple of simple IPAs. Such is the demand for hops on the commercial scale, it presented a chance to try new things. There are new hops popping up in the market, as the farmers increase acreage, the reach of the crop increases along with the need to understand each variety’s place in a beer.

Brewing with friends is fun.

Brewing with people you’ve never met, from a different country, who’ve taken a different journey to their brewing, is incredible. JC Steyn is an ex-winemaker in the western Cape, Wolfgang is a 15-year veteran of Paulaner, who’s now been brewing nearly 40 years, and many others have European and American

brewhouse experience. Plus, many who’ve scaled up from home brew, part-time operations – it’s looking like it’s going to be exciting here.

There is also a big and growing home brew scene (the South Yeasters being the most celebrated group).

I was fortunate to be invited

by Marc Fourie who, like many brewers, is based in the Woodstock area of Cape Town.

Marc and I were off to brew a three-way collaboration with Devil’s Peak and an up-and-

‘It feels like I am trying to convince you I have just discovered the greatest tasting ale, brewed in Mortlake, dispensed from a red barrel’

60 BEER AUTUMN 2016

60-61 Home brew.indd 60

12/07/2016 14:45

PHIL LOWRY | home brew

‘I love hanging out with people who’ve got out of the comfort of homelands, and gone off to forge their own identity and tastes’

Clockwise from main: Table Mountain; tours are part of Cape Town’s brewing scene; final stop at Aegir Project

coming operation owned by the Aegir Project.

The day spent with Devil’s Peak was fantastic. Our challenge was to brew a beer with no hop additions, using some of the technical products more common to macro-scale brewers, but apply them in a more flavour-forward way.

What was the take away from

brewing this beer? We almost screwed up royally. There are technical ingredients like Iso and Tetra type hop-based bittering, and something I am super keen on, single-hop varietal CO2 extracts. These are starting to become available for the home brewer. For so long big brewers have used these to optimise production, losses to absorption, etc, brew after brew, and they do go on to affect the bottom line. These ingredients were treated as the bogeyman

in breweries for a long time.

It feels like I am trying to convince you I have just discovered the greatest tasting ale, that’s brewed in Mortlake, dispensed from a red barrel.

The reality was we were keen to try things the big brewers use to our advantage, but not to the detriment of the beer.

Going back to our screwup... Iso comes in at 30 per cent alpha acid, Tetra nine per cent. We opted to use the Iso (pre-isomerised alpha acid, that doesn’t need boiling) for its clean bittering, while Tetra offers additional head retention. But relying on the standard computer software – which we naively trusted – for an 1,100l batch, we thought we had to add 500ml to get the required bittering.

After much scouring of the interweb, while discussing further hop additions, we realised our error. The dose

was more than five times what was required. How to work it out? It’s just desired IBU x the number of litres. So, in 22l at 35 IBU, you need 22 x 35, which equals 770mg. As the solution is 30 per cent w/v Iso Alpha. 0.770/0.3 equals 2.5ml.

Iso extract gives you about 60 per cent utilisation when added pre-fermentation (for example, no-boil kit) and about 80-90 per cent post fermentation (for example, adjusting bitterness). For late additions, instead of traditional hops we used Columbus single-varietal CO2 extract.

The one we were using was 55 per cent aa. We used a whole can at the end of kettle/ whirlpool. That way we get all the benefits of the oils/ aromas, without the losses attributed to absorption to the green hop material. We decided to dry hop the beer at 7g/l with Equinox Type 90 pellets, towards the end of the fermentation.

A couple of days later, I was off to brew at sleepy Noordhoek Beach with Rory. He’s one of the most knowledgeable and enthusiastic brewers I’ve met recently. I love

hanging out with people who’ve got out of the comfort zone of homelands, and gone off to forge their own identity and tastes. And this shows in his beers.

Here with Marc and Glyn, we brewed an Australian, hop-heavy, not-quite pale ale.

Again, someone trusted a bit of brewing software and it proved to extract a fair bit darker than expected.

Once the colour of the wort was duly sworn about, additions of hops were moved around to make a more balanced effort.

Where it was supposed to be a gold brew, it was now on the dark side of copper. Software like Brewer’s Friend, ProMash and BeerSmith will allow you to do this.

We added new Australian hops, Ella and Vic Secret in various amounts, heavyhandedly at the end of the kettle to make the most of their super ‘juicy fruit’ aroma.

The beer will be dry-hopped heavily, even for Rory’s taste.

The bad part of travelling so far to brew is not knowing how the beer will taste...

Phil Lowry – home brewer, beer aficionado, blogs at phillowry. net and recently launched a new brewery.

This is Phil Lowry’s last column for BEER, as he’ll be concentrating on new venture Breakwater brewing. BEER thanks Phil and wishes him success for the future AUTUMN 2016 BEER 61

60-61 Home brew.indd 61

14/07/2016 14:31

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get

PUB QUIZ ¦ competition

You know your beer but what about chemical elements, Spanish composers and country folklore?

1 What s the connection between

Annabelle, Maxine and Victoria?

A

2 Which chemical element has the symbol W? A

3 Where is Cape Comorin?

A

4 Which brewery produces ales named Pig s Ear and Laurie Lee s Bitter?

A

5 What is the theme song for the

TV programme Peaky Blinders?

A

Compiled by James Daly. The quizmaster s decision on correct answers is final when choosing the prize winner

6 What is ephebiphobia?

A

7 Which disease was known as the White Plague?

A

8 What Bronski Beat song came from an opera by George Gershwin?

A

9 Which film opens with the sight of Nicole Kidman undressing?

A

10 What traditional belief caused country folk not to pick blackberries until after 29 September?

A

11 According to George Bernard Shaw s play, what was John Bull s other island?

A

Summer answers

1〉 Opals 2〉 John Webster 3〉 A fog 4〉 Brief intervals of time 5〉 All winners of the TV show I m a Celebrity...

Get Me Out of Here! 6〉 Three 7〉 Stuart Broad ‒ 21 8〉 George Eastman 9〉 Flying 10〉 1969 11〉 Leaves that are green 12〉 Derren Nesbitt 13〉 Oldershaw brewery in Lincolnshire 14〉 A cuttlefish 15〉 A balloon 16〉 You ve Got Mail 17〉 One who rides the near horse of the leaders to guide the horses drawing the coach 18〉 To soothe babies 19〉 Having buds 20〉 Willie Ormond

The Raj Quartet, was made into a TV series called what?

A

15 Which Spanish composer

drowned in the English Channel?

A

16 What is psittacosis?

A

17 What s the relative minor key to B major?

A

18 Where is the oldest mulberry tree in Britain?

19 Which player has scored 50 Premiership goals in the fewest number of games?

A

A

13 Angelique Kerber, Samantha

Stosur and Maria Sharapova ‒ the connection?

WIN!

banished to the Black Sea?

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12 Paul Scott s series of novels

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14 Which great Roman poet was

20 Hotel du Lac, The Bone People ‒ what s the next in sequence?

A

One of five prizes of a month s membership to Beer52.com

The first five correct entries to be drawn will win a month s membership to Beer52.com. Send entries to Quizzic-ale, BEER, CAMRA, 230 Hatfield Road, St Albans, Hertfordshire AL1 4LW, by 31 August. Your details will be passed on to Beer52.com, but if you would prefer this not to happen, please state so clearly on your entry.

Summer winners

C Bennett, Didcot; C Blackburn, Sheffield; A Gee, Chesterfield; R Kahn, Bedford; C Loader, Basingstoke

63 Quiz.indd 62

NAME:

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AUTUMN 2016 BEER 63

12/07/2016 11:15

heritage | NEW EDITION

SUPERIOR INTERIORS

Geoff Brandwood, author of the new edition of CAMRA’s Britain’s Best Real Heritage Pubs,

writes about the book and the good news stories surrounding historic pub interiors

PHOTOGRAPHY: GEOFF BRANDWOOD

One of CAMRA’s great achievements

over the past couple of decades has been raising awareness of genuinely historic pub interiors. It has identified pubs throughout the UK that have been barely altered for half a century or that possess features and rooms of real national importance. These form our National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors. CAMRA has been active in getting statutory protection for them, while – on the principle of use ’em or lose ’em – encouraging people to visit.

Part of this process involved publishing a book, Britain’s Best Real Heritage Pubs: Pub Interiors of Outstanding Historic Interiors, in 2013. This proved so popular that a new edition has been produced and is being launched at this year’s Great British Beer Festival. The text is updated and the photography is nearly all new, with more than 500 illustrations.

So what’s changed since 2013? We all know pubs are closing at a worrying rate, with 27 a week being a recognised figure at the time of writing (but who can be sure of an exact number?). Unfortunately, heritage pubs are not immune to this process and the number of featured entries in the new book has dropped to 260 from the 270 in the 2013 edition.

The reduction isn’t entirely due to pubs ceasing trading. There have been a few insensitive refurbishments, while painstaking reassessments have revealed a few pub interiors are not as significant as had once been thought.

But it’s not all bad news, and five

pubs that were noted as closed three years ago have come back to vibrant

life and are restored to their rightful place on the National Inventory main listings. There have also been several exciting discoveries in the intervening period. To take reopenings first, one great success story has been the Woodman, New Canal Street, Birmingham, of 1897, and one of the city’s splendid tile and terracotta pubs. It was impeccably restored in 2013 and reopened soon after our first

‘There have been a few insensitive refurbishments, while painstaking reassessments have revealed a few pub interiors are not as significant as had once been thought’ edition came out. Enjoy the excellent real ale and cider in the Victorian public bar or cosy all-over-tiled smoke room.

The Paul Pry in the Butts, Worcester, reopened at the start of this year. It has its original tiling plus a wedge-shaped public bar with an impressive counter and bar back.

It’s also good to see the Beech Hotel, Tong Road, Leeds, back in action.

There was much concern for its future during several years of closure, but it reopened last November after a sensitive refurbishment. This inner-city pub dates from 1931 and behind its attractive façade lie the original three separate rooms. There was similar concern about the future for the Dovey Valley Hotel, a simple, rural gem at Cemmaes Road in Powys, but this was reopened just as the last edition of our book went to press.

It, too, has been lovingly restored and features Welsh ales and cider. At the other end of the architectural scale, is Crocker’s Folly, Aberdeen Place, London, one of the great show pubs of about 1900.

It reopened in 2014 after 10 years’ closure.

Now more of an upmarket restaurant, the bar is open for just a drink, but sadly, there’s no real ale.

Among new entrants in the book, a real star is the 1930s Queens Head, Cranford,

London, for its three-room interior and top-quality woodwork. In Scotland, the Cuilfail Hotel, Kilmelford, near Oban, makes it into the new book for its bizarre bar fitted up in 1957 with imitation boulders to the walls and counter. A much more traditional addition is the Crown, Beeston, Notts, a real ale and cider pub, where the public bar and snug take you back a century in time. And finally, if you’re in Sheffield, a visit to the Sheffield Tap on the station is a must – it’s a superb restoration of the long-closed, old firstclass refreshment room.

The new edition of Britain’s Best Real Heritage Pubs: Pub Interiors of Outstanding Historic Interest will be launched by Geoff Brandwood at the Great British Beer Festival at Olympia (9-13 August).

Alternatively, it is available from camra.org.uk/shop

Clockwise from top left: Crocker’s Folly, London; Crown, Beeston; Woodman, Birmingham; Cuilfail Hotel, Kilmelford; Sheffield Tap, Sheffield; (bottom) Dovey Valley Hotel, Powys; (top) Paul Pry, Worcester; Queens Head, London 64 BEER AUTUMN 2016

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last orders ¦ NO CHANGE

Sultans of Ringwood John Illsley, co-founder of Dire Straits, bought his local pub to prevent losing its community spirit. He talks about keeping the regulars happy, sampling guest ales and drinking on tour

ILLUSTRATION: NOMA BAR; PHOTOGRAPH: DALE CHERRY/REX

Around 26 years ago, I got to know the manager of the East End

Arms [Lymington, Hants] quite well. Out of the blue one day, he announced that he was leaving, because the brewery – I think it was Whitbread – had to sell off 1,000 pubs.

I loved it the way it was, and having seen quite a few other pubs in my life being taken over and losing their character, I started wondering what it would cost. It turned out to be not too expensive and it’s an enormous amount of fun.

There’s always somebody there you can talk to, a very natural sense of community, and that’s what I wanted to preserve. In fact, when I bought it, I got a letter from several of the locals that said: “We’re very pleased that you’ve bought the pub. Please don’t change anything about it.”

There are chairs in the public bar that are ‘reserved’ for certain people. There’s a chair in the window, for example, that a regular called Neil sits in every day. From time to time I forget and sit in the wrong chair. Someone comes up and says: “I know you own the pub, but George and Harry will be here in 10 minutes, and that’s where they sit.”

We’re very close to Ringwood, so we have its Best (3.8 per cent ABV) and Fortyniner (4.9 per cent) on all the time – that’s the staple beers in the bar. We get in at least two guest ales a week. The locals like trying them and so do I, but if a certain ale is particularly popular, the locals will ask us to get it again.

When we re at a gig [on John s solo tours], they usually give us

a few local ales in the fridge. I can’t drink much before a show.

I know people who used to put a bottle of vodka away before they go onstage – if I did that, I’d be in hospital. When Dire Straits was still going, Mark [Knopfler] and I were quite strict about drinking before a show. Afterwards everybody gets stuck in because you’re celebrating a great gig. We’d get back to the hotel, and there’d often be a piano player tinkling away in the corner.

If there was nobody else in the bar, we used to give him £100 and tell him to stop and go home. The last thing you want to hear after you’ve been thrashing about on stage is some guy flourishing

When Dire Straits was still going, Mark [Knopfler] and I were quite strict about drinking before a show. Afterwards everybody gets stuck in because you re celebrating a great gig

his way through My Way. There’s a time and a place for that.

We did an acoustic gig in my pub a couple of years ago. We played a lot of Straits songs and a lot of my songs. I don’t think people could quite believe it. One guy said: “You’ve owned the place for 20 years, it’s about bloody time you played here.”

I intend to play there again, but I’m reluctant to do that regularly in case it disturbs the people in the restaurant.

The comedian John Fortune lived about five minutes’ walk from the pub. He used to come down with his dog. When he passed away, he instructed his family to have the wake in the pub. It was quite a moving experience, all these people coming from London and crowding into this place. A lot of people said: “I haven’t been into a pub like this for years.” That’s the reason why people like drinking in here – because nobody changed it.

John Illsley is co-founder and bass player of Dire Straits. His latest solo album, Long Shadows, is out now

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