Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Tag: Beer

  • Craft Beer : 365 Beers in the World – Citra

    Craft Beer : 365 Beers in the World – Citra

    Screenshot_20240124_235137_Readly

    And on another one of my random sojourns, I was browsing through the latest issue of ‘Craft Beer – 365 Best Beers in the World’ and was pleased to note that the first beer in the magazine was one sitting just two metres away from me.

    20240124_235734

    And here it is, with my favourite Duration glass, a half pint of Citra from Oakham Ales. Alongside a perfect food pairing of a Freddo bar. I hadn’t thought of this beer as being one of the best 365 in the world, but it is a really rather lovely real ale. It’s the first beer that used the Citra hop commercially and it’s certainly been used by many breweries since. Quoting the article:

    “The first sip is a mouth-puckering, palate-popping burst of soft, chewable fruit. A light malt base provides a simple biscuit base as the Citra hops march out all-singing, all-dancing. Rather than muddled bursts of different fruity, butter flavours, Oakham Citra is a smooth, rolling wave of juicy grapefruit and lime that coats the tongue and leaves a sticky, resinous finish without becoming too cloying. The finish is quite sharp, quenching and dominated by grapefruit, each sip offers a little more: peach, melon, papaya and juicy white grapes.”

    My own description of the beer was:

    “Light and fluffy. Is that a beer word?”

    What a beer aficionado I am…. Or something like that.

    That’s 1 out of the 365 that I’ve tried. Let’s see how many more of the 365 I’ll be able to try, or have tried. There might be another series of posts on this whole matter.

  • Saloon Bars and Public Bars

    Saloon Bars and Public Bars

    This article was published fifty years ago today in the Birmingham Post and there’s an element of this being a watershed in the evolution of British pubs. The distinction between the public bar and the lounge (or saloon bar) was being removed and women were being encouraged to visit pubs, although there was some considerable way to go on that at the time. It meant that prices were being standardised across the two areas of the pub, and being realistic, that usually meant a price increase.

    John Gilbert, the Labour MP for Dudley, wasn’t best pleased by all accounts, saying:

    “Some people are being forced to drink in places more like ladies’ boudoirs, when all they want is to drink a man’s drink in a man’s bar”.

    He commented on the influx of plush furnishings, carpets, colour TVs and jukeboxes, suggesting that this was forcing up prices. And fair play on this, a decent pub even fifty years on doesn’t need plush furnishings or carpets, and it certainly doesn’t need a colour TV or jukebox. Gilbert also described himself as “modest drinker”, which is a phrase that I’d use about myself, he sounds a rather measured man.

    I quite like the response from Watney Mann, who the article noted owned 6,500 pubs:

    “There would be no point in a pub on Park Lane having a public bar, but down by the docks it would be a necessity”.

    As an aside, Watney Mann were the brewery who produced Red Barrel, not a product that would ever be called a craft beer, let’s say that. Indeed, they were probably pushing it calling it a beer and there’s an interesting article elsewhere about that. But without breweries such as this, maybe there wouldn’t have been a CAMRA…..

    So, perhaps there’s something about the democratisation of the pub here, the removal of the class barriers between the different sections of the pub. I’ve seen articles written about how locals would ensconce themselves in the public bar, meaning that visitors would be encouraged to use the lounge bar. And that wouldn’t play well with how pubs are marketing themselves today, which is to a wider audience and not just to a small bunch of locals.

    I normally rail against change, especially when pubs, railways or crisps are concerned. But here, I think the right decision was made, a pub for the many, not the few…. As for John Gilbert, he was probably right that pubs didn’t need this wave of plush furnishings and maybe chains like Greene King even today could focus more on the beer than their pub interiors, but I’m not convinced that every pub needed a public bar. And the Government agreed, the letter that Gilbert sent to the then Home Secretary Reg Maudling was in vain, the dual bar set-up was coming to an end.

  • Toppling Goliath Assassin 2020

    Toppling Goliath Assassin 2020

    I’ve never been to Iowa, just near to it, but this seems a very good reason in itself to go. From this month’s Craft Beer & Brewing magazine, this sounds a most decadent treat. And, looking at the score that the magazine has given, it looks to be the pinnacle of dark beer…..

  • M&S and Their Beer Selection

    M&S and Their Beer Selection

    Since I’ve started shopping at M&S, which is new to me and entirely because I can’t be bothered to battle around Morrison’s, I thought I’d investigate their beer selection a few weeks ago. It was pretty unimpressive, nearly entirely IPAs and there was just one darker beer. I walked by last week and there were several darker beers, all of which seemed to be popular given by the gaps in the shelf. It’s probably just a different season of beers, but it almost looked like they changed the beer buyer at M&S Head Office.

    Anyway, not normally one for buying beer for home, I thought I’d encourage M&S slightly (and slightly is the word here, as I doubt my purchase volume will be noticeable, unlike my purchase of their reduced priced Easter Eggs…..) and buy this Salted Caramel Porter from Meantime Brewing.

    It’s excellent in its intent, although its delivery isn’t particularly good as they seem to have forgotten to put any salted caramel flavour in. The Untappd reviews aren’t marvellous either, mainly based around the lack of flavour, but it’s a smooth porter nonetheless. And I like what they’re trying to do.