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The Quandary

When I was last in London, I visited The Craft Beer Company on Leather Lane and got a bit depressed in the process. A couple of days later I got confirmation of tickets to go to a recording of The Infinite Monkey Cage, so a plan was hatched. Rather than a fleeting visit to Craft, what if I went and spent the whole afternoon there. Would I still feel depressed that I couldn’t try all the beers I wanted, or would I get bored sitting in the same place all afternoon, I thought there was only one way to find out.

In the couple of weeks since, all I’ve thought about is where else I could go, what else I could fit in. Should I pop out to Tap East and try their new Coffee in the Morning stout. Should I visit The Southampton Arms again and go to BrewDog Camden for the first time. Should I get off at London Bridge and pop into Utobeer. Should I go here, should I go there, should I just stick to my original plan…?

The comments on that last blog post got me thinking, what is my ideal pub? I’m not quite sure yet, but I think I may have an inkling, but I’d need to find a pub that fits the bill and try it out.

As amazing as The Craft Beer Co is, I’m not sure I could ever say it’s a pub that could fit that bill, at least for me, I think I’d rather spend the afternoon in its sister pub Cask, Pub & Kitchen in Pimlico. I’ve been trying to work out why; is it the atmosphere, the layout, the fact that I feel less intimidated by the number of beers on offer? I’m not sure, but I think it’s closer to my ideal pub than Craft, but there’s only really one way to find out.

It’s not like I can spend an afternoon in each though, I’m not in London often enough, the Olympics will probably be the next time I’m there and I’ll have the family with me. So my quandary is this; do I spend the afternoon in Craft, Cask or trawling various places I’ve never been to or have only fleeting visited in the past? Do I give in to my continual desire to not miss out, or do I try and get comfortable in one place and watch the day drift by?

I’m desperately trying to talk myself out of trawling around London, I’d quite like a relaxing afternoon. But I really can’t decide between Cask and Craft and I’m not sure I’ll be able to until I get off the train at Kings Cross. I’m leaning towards Cask, only because I think it’s more like my ideal pub, but what if I’m missing out on something that Craft have on that Cask don’t, etc, etc…

The thought of missing out on something is what drives a lot of my obsessive behaviour and is probably the subject of a blog post all on its own. For now, all I can do is accept that I have a quandary and try and put it out of my mind.

Posted in General, The Pub.

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By fatboab – 2012/05/13

The Oxygen of Publicity

BrewDog are well know for their marketing; you can think what you like about them, while it does result in both positive and negative column inches, it has also produced a loyal following. So I took the news that Diageo had forced the British Institute of Innkeeping to give the Bar Operator of the Year 2012 to someone other than BrewDog, or loose all future sponsership, with a rather large truck load of salt.

I did think there maybe some substance behind it, mainly due to the language that was being used in their blog. You don’t really want to be coming out with that kind of rhetoric if it’s not true, espcially as you’ll probably have to back it up in court, Diageo have a rather active legal department after all. Then there was the social media shit storm they kicked up, Andy Parker has analysed the Twitter side of things quite susinctly.

Even so, it was with quite a bit of surprise that Diageo issued a press release, appologising for a serious misjudgement by Diageo staff at the awards dinner. It’s staggering to think that any sponsor of an independent awards, would act in this way, especially given the social media nous of their target.

I imagine that James and Martin were dancing round the brewery this afternoon, unable to believe their luck. All their hair brained marketing schemes of old wont have had the impact or the reach of this incident and they didn’t have to do anything, other than spin it the right way on Twitter and Facebook. After seeing it explode into the main stream press and onto evening telly, they must have felt like they’d won a triple roll over on the lottery, along with their birthday and Christams all rolled into one.

Money and planning can’t buy publicity like this, Diageo should be ashamed of themselves.

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By fatboab – 2012/05/09

The Session #63 – The Beer Moment

The SessionThis months Session is being hosted by Pete Brown "The Beer Drinker’s Bill Bryson" and the topic is The Beer Moment.

While I’ve had plenty of beer moments, I have a memory like a sieve, so would be hard pressed to remember many. Mostly beer moments are fleeting, it’s all about the time and the place, the people you’re with and obviously the beer. They come, they go, I appreciate them when they happen, but I don’t dwell on them.

Since it’s all about the time and the place, can you plan a beer moment and have it all sketched out in advance? Or are they ephemeral and of the moment, unable to be planned?

I hope they are a bit of both, while the unplanned ones are a joy when they materialise, I have a beer moment that I want to happen, that I’m clinging to for dear life. We’re having a load of building work done on the house, it feels like it’s been happening forever, as it took eighteen months to get it through planning and they broke ground last October, on what was supposed to be a four month build.

All the upheaval, the noise, the dust, the ruined garden, the triple glazed argon filled composite windows, the under floor heating, the (not quite as fancy as we really wanted) kitchen, the stress, the financial burden of trying to get what we want, not just what we can afford. It’s all taking its toll, but the light at the end of my tunnel is a beer moment.

The moment when my wife and I sit in the new extension on a balmy summers evening, with the double doors wide open, looking out over the ruined garden to the paddocks beyond and share a beer. At this point I don’t care what beer, although a Pyraser Hopfenpflücker Pils would certainly hit the spot, it’s just about sitting there and forgetting all the stress and worry and just appreciating what our hard work has enabled us to build for our future.

The thought of this beer moment is keeping me going every time I get home to the dust and grit that has invaded every nook and cranny in the house. Every time a new problem arises and a delay occurs, every time a new quote comes in that makes me wince, I think of the beer moment that awaits at the end of it. I don’t know how far away this beer moment is, a couple of weeks, a month or two, at who knows? But when I it does arrive, I hope it’s as good as the one that’s in my head.

Posted in The Session.

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By fatboab – 2012/05/04

Great Expectations at the East Anglian Beer Festival

I’ve written before about how building up a beer in your mind can lead to it failing to meet expectations. So it was with some trepidation that I went to the East Anglian Beer Festival the other night, as they had the mythical Greene King 5X down on the beer list. This is a beer that I’ve long wanted to try, but since you can’t normally buy it for love nor money, to say I was excited would have been an understatement.

Think what you like about Greene King, any brewer that ages a 12% beer in a massive oak vat for two years so that it goes stale and funky, can’t be all bad. You’d be going mental for it if it was from [insert favourite progressive UK brewer here], or some rare hip US brewery. Just because it’s Greene King that’s doing it, shouldn’t matter. Just like the whole cask/keg/bottle/can container debate being a load of crap, it’s the beer inside that matters, it’s not really the brewer that matters (unless they’re pure evil), it’s the end product that matters. If the beer’s good, it shouldn’t matter how it got to your glass, you should just be thankful that it did.


Oooooooo, ahhhhhhh, fuck me side ways, oooooooo, fuck me, sensational, utterly fucking sensational…. (5X) http://t.co/AmAr68Hh #photo
2012/04/25 22:34 via UntappdReplyRetweetFavorite
@RecentlyDrunk
Bob Arnott

As you can see from my expletive filled Untappd checkin, my expectations were met and them some.


Oh my god. Greene King 5X is everything I hoped it would be. So good, I’m not going to give you tasting notes… #FindOutForYourself
2012/04/25 22:39 via Twitter for AndroidReplyRetweetFavorite
@RecentlyDrunk
Bob Arnott

Greene King really are a paradox, as they can obviously brew exceptional beer, but choose to fill their pub estate with, even at its best, mediocre brown bitter. Maybe it’s the vast volume of IPA that they shift, that enables them to invest the time and money in laying 5X down to sleep in a giant oak vat for two years, I don’t know. But I’m still having a hard time trying to get my head round how a company can produce something as good as 5X and as mediocre as IPA, I find it even more puzzling that they don’t sell it in nip bottles at a premium price; I for one would certainly buy it, especially if it was available in their pub estate.

It was truly a phenomenal beer and if you’re in the Bury St. Edmunds area, either today or tomorrow, then I suggest you get down to The Apex and give it a try. It’s not often I get that excited about trying a beer and it’s even less often when those expectations are met so comprehensively…

Others have managed to try 5X, you can read their mussing here:

Posted in Beer Festivals, General.

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By fatboab – 2012/04/27

So Much Beer, So Little Time…

I was in London on Saturday for the South East regional heat of the Sainsbury’s Great British Beer Hunt 2012, I’ll be doing a full blog post about it soon. I managed to visit some pubs, both before and after, one of which was The Craft Beer Company, on Leather Lane. While I was there, I couldn’t help but think about Boak and Bailey’s recent blog post The Agony of Choice:

A place like the Craft Beer Company, unless you can visit it everyday, and have the funds to support such a habit, can actually be a little depressing. Even if we drink ourselves under the table, we’ll still leave wondering about the beers we didn’t try, the half that never was.

I’ve said before that I like choice and variety, which is one of the reasons that I hardly ever drink the same beer twice in a session. I also hate missing out on things, it’s one of the drivers of my obsessional behaviour and has lead to me getting into all sorts of trouble. I’m sure you can imagine that somewhere like The Craft Beer Co. is both an ideal venue and the worst nightmare for someone with these traits.

It’s the ideal venue due to the sixteen hand pumps, twenty one keg lines and over three hundred bottles. The choice is so staggering, you could easily drink all day for days without having to drink the same beer twice. At the same time, this staggering level of choice is my worst nightmare, especially when I’m on a time limited fleeting visit.

How am I supposed to choose which beers to drink, when at first glance there are at least seven cask beers I’m going wide eyed at? How can I not feel anything other than a bit of drression that I have neither the time nor money to try all the cask beers I’d like to, let alone any of the keg or bottled beers. To be honest, I stood upstairs with my phone plugged into a wall socket and felt pretty miserable, I didn’t even look at what was on the keg fonts as I walked past.

I know that I was tired from trying all the beers at the Great British Beer Hunt, both physically and mentally and as a result I didn’t really fancy having much beer after wards. But I can’t really remember feeling that despondent in a pub for a long time, as I had to chose between beers that I’ve never had and likely wont see again, potentially ever.

I know that quite a lot of the problem is in my own head, not letting my obsessions get the better of me is hard work. I’m sure plenty of people go through pubs like Craft, Cask or the Euston Tap and they have what they have and move on without much of a second thought. I’m with Boak and Bailey though, the last few times I’ve been to these pubs, I’ve left wondering about the halves that never were and wishing that their beer selection wasn’t quite so stellar.

Posted in General, The Pub.

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By fatboab – 2012/04/25

Mout & Mocca Non-Carbonated

I picked up this bottle last week from the Bacchanalia in Cambridge. At the time Ed said that it was non-carbonated, as that’s how Menno and his team like they’re Imperial Stouts. I had my doubts, but I’ll give most beers a try, which leads us to this post.

So do I like my Imperial Stouts with no carbonation? In a word, no. I really, really didn’t like it to start with, in fact I almost poured it down the drain as I had a Magic Rock Bearded Lady chilling in the fridge and it was far more appealing. It definitely improved over time, but it was just lifeless, missing that spark to lift and separate the flavours.

I don’t really drink anything other than beer and water, no hot drinks and definitely no coffee. To me, this was just too much like a cold cup of manky beery coffee, pretty much my nightmare drink. I think I’ll stick to Imperial Stouts that have a bit of life about them in future…

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By fatboab – 2012/04/20

Mini-Kegs

I’ve always looked at the mini-kegs sitting in The Bacchanalia and thought they weren’t for me. How would I get through eight to nine pints of the same beer without it going off? Even the lure of that much Thornbridge Jaipur could’t make me buy one, so why then, did I buy a mini-keg of Adnams New Zealand Pale Ale on a whim?

It was September the 2nd last year, I know this as I checked it on foursquare. I must have been off work, as there’s no other reason why I’d have been in Saffron Walden at ten thirty on a Friday. I have a habbit of always going into the Adnams Cellar & Kitchen Store when I’m in Saffron Walden and picking up some beer, I think I was after some bottles of Ghost Ship, but they didn’t have any.

I’d wanted to try the New Zealand Pale Ale, but there aren’t many Adnams pubs near where I live or work, so getting an opportunity to try it was going to be difficult. I suppose that seeing a mini-keg of a beer that I really, really wanted to try was just too much, so I bought one. I’m still not sure why I bought it, as I managed to try the beer on more than one occasion later in the year, even managing to have a pint in The Sole Bay Inn, just a stones throw from the brewery.

I think the main issue I’ve always had with a mini-keg, is when I would drink it all, as it’s not like you can have a pint and then leave it for a week or two, you need to broach the keg and then finish it. It’s not that I don’t drink the same beer more than once, just look at how many Thornbridge Jaipur’s and BrewDog Punk IPA’s I’ve had (46 and 45 respectively, since November 2010), it’s more that I very rarely drink the same beer more than once in a session, I like variety. I suppose this is one of the reasons I don’t go down to my local pub more often, as I don’t want to drink the same beer all night, every night. That poses a bit of a problem when you have a mini-keg, especially if you’re going to drink it on your own.

This conundrum is probably the main reason why I held onto it for so long, I only drank it at the start of the month. I think that I was hoping for an opportunity to share it with some friends, or some such, but an opportunity never materialised. In the end, it sat in my shed for, pretty much, six months before I opened it, which was far, far too long.


@ how is the NZ pale ale? It’s ever so slightly over it’s bb date :)
2012/03/03 21:28 via Twitter for BlackBerry®ReplyRetweetFavorite
@Solebear
Fergus Fitzgerald

It was only recently that I convinced myself to open it, I also had the perfect oppertunity as my wife was away for the weekend and I had the Friday afternoon off; I had to pick the kids up off the school bus. I figured that I should easily be able to finish the eight to nine pints over the course of two and a half days.

Never having had a mini-keg before, I was a bit unsure of what I’d get out of it and was quite disapointed when the first two pints came out with quite a lot of sediment. That calmed down and the last five or so pints were all pretty much clear. It was quite the novalty to have it draft beer sitting in the fridge, I have to say, it’s just a shame I’d waited so long to open it. The beer had obviously suffered out in the shed for six months, as it was lacking quite a bit of the Nelson Sauvin hop flavour that I remember from my pint at The Sole Bay Inn. It was still nice though, but it would have been marvelous, if it hadn’t lost that extra punch.

The main issue was boredom though. I wouldn’t say I was bored after the second pint, althought something with a bit more IBU would have been nice. I was definitly bored after the second pint on the Saturday and throughly sick of the sight of it by the Sunday. I know that’s my issue though, I’m sure if I only drank Greene King IPA down at my local, then eight to nine pints of Adnams New Zealand Pale Ale from a mini-keg in my fridge, would have been a breeze, but it was just too much for me, just not enough variety.

I know everyone isn’t the same, some people are quite happy drinking eight to nine pints of the same beer, one after the other. I have a work collegue who regularly buys mini-kegs of Thornbridge beer and it quite happy to demolish it all in a couple of days. I don’t think it’s for me though, I need more variety, I need to experience new flavours, I think a mini-keg is just a step too far for me to drink on my own. I’m not sying I wont buy another, but if I do, it will be for a party, where there will be plenty of people to help me drink it.

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By fatboab – 2012/03/28

A Setback For The Cambridge Tap

I meant to post about this the other week when news broke, but I’ve been busy. Looks like Cambridge will have to wait a while longer to get it’s own bona fide craft beer bar. The company behind the venture tweeted this the other week:


Tap update: For lack of a better word, we have been shafted. Plenty of time, money and attention blown. Looking at new site next week.
2012/03/16 10:18 via webReplyRetweetFavorite
@CambridgeTap1
CambridgeTap

The story even made one of the local rags yesterday, you can read the story online here. By the sounds of things they are trying to find a new location, either in the new CB1 station complex, or elsewhere in town. I hope they are successful in their search.

Posted in The Pub.

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By fatboab – 2012/03/27

Find Your Voice

I was going to write a blog about yesterdays budget announcement, but I’m sort of glad I was too busy. It would mostly likely have been written through a spittle-flecked screen and it would most definitely have called George Osbourne a cunt. In case you’ve been living under a rock for the last twenty four hours, you’ll have missed George’s whining:

"I have no further changes to make to the duty rates set out by my predecessor."

Which when translated, means a duty rise of inflation, plus 2%. Why? That because the last Labour government, who were also cunts by the way, introduced the beer duty escalator, wich is to run till 2015 and has already caused the duty on beer to rise by well over 40% since it was introduced.

I can see the spittle flecks starting to appear on my screen, which wasn’t the point. So instead of going off on one, I’m merely going to suggest you do a few things. Firstly, go and read Simon Johnson’s blog post 5% and very bitter. Then go and sign the e-petition to have the duty escalator removed. Finally, do something else as Simon has suggested, do some actual campaigning.

Find your voice.

Use it.

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By fatboab – 2012/03/22

I’m Back…

I’m back! Sort of… I’ve felt the itch to start blogging again, but I don’t really want to do what I was doing before. The beer reviews, while they were originally to remind me what I’d drunk, had turned into a bit of a chore. I didn’t look forward to them, I just wanted to sit back an enjoy the beer without having to analyse it. I found myself questioning everything, had I really smelt that, did it really taste of that, how can I be sure, what if I’m wrong…

I suppose you could say it’s a bit of a cop out that I’m going to try and stay away from reviews, after all, they are just my opinion, your milage might vary, as they say. But I read other blogs and there are a few that I really, really like; Adrian Tierney-Jones, Boak & Bailey, Zak Avery and Simon Johnson. I’d quite like to write about the kinds of things they write about, rather than just pumping out reviews*.

I’m not saying that I wont do the odd review here and there, stuff like Advent Beer and what not, but I’d rather try and dump some of the stuff in my head down and see what happens. So blogs probably wont be as frequent as they were, not that they were on any sort of frequency before, but as I’m not the greatest with language, some of them might have troublesome births. Anyway, I have a few things planned, a report on my December Paris trip, thoughts on some of the French beer I brought back, a round up of my home brewing and a few other things.

*I’m not trying to say that I don’t enjoy reading other blogs, especially those that review beer. I just think that there are too many that do that and do it better than me…

Posted in General.

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By fatboab – 2012/03/08