August Is All That I Know...

August would usually be busy enough for beer drinkers with GBBF, and the London Craft Scene generating some synergy off that by organising the nascent London Beer City week. This year, we've also had the big news that Binnie Walsh has sold The Harp to Fuller's. A former Boggle Award winner (and also a Camra National Pub Of The Year), I hear promises have been made about the running and offer at the pub, though some regulars I spoke to are a little trepidatious about creeping corporatism. I'd hope not – after all, Fuller's would be killing a golden goose by making The Harp just another Fuller's pub. But can a pubco in the business sense of the term be as nimble about managing their beer range, and bringing in new stuff? Binnie and her team dealt direct with breweries, which kept the bar looking interesting. Fuller's have put Pride and Gales Seafarer on the bar, and that's all, so far. We'll see, and I understand Camra's 'London Drinker' will have a big feature in their next issue.

This Bank Holiday has been a decent weekend for beer. Meantime hosted their third Brewfest at the Old Naval College, and Brew By Numbers held another Sunday event at the brewery.

Meantime seems to be honing the offer at Brewfest. More of the beer is draught, which keeps the queues moving, and the beers available are a bit less scatter-gun. This go-round,they had plenty of Brooklyn beers alongside Founders, Rogue and Flying Dog from the US, I assume because of the recent big Brooklyn presence in London for their Big Mash Bash Week, or whatever it was called. I chanced on an event at The Rake earlier in the month, leading to an excellent evening of tasting and banter. Their exclusively-imported Konrad Czech beer was on, and I missed Schoenram Dunkel again. From the UK, as well as Dark Star, Thornbridge and Beavertown, they had some Redwell stuff. I've been seeing them in London a lot, and I quite like what they do with hops.

Meantime craftily (see what I did there?) slipped in some specials of their own – Old Naval College porter, 8% but carrying its weight easily and without any booziness. This is the latest batch of the first beer they brewed at the ONC. They've also brewed Botanical Beer, a collaboration with Chase Distillery. Ginger, cinnamon, botanicals and, I was informed, vodka. I don't always care for this type of fusion – bergamot in beer is just wrong, for instance, but the adjuncts weren't overwhelming, and it makes a change from brewers working with distilleries just to acquire barrels to age beer in. Botanical poured hazy, had a lively mouthfeel and was refreshing in the Sunday sunshine. A bar manager wondered whether it might stand mulling...

Beer-branded cyclewear. Don't tell the anti-fun brigade

I made it to BBNo for their Sunday event. They've just taken delivery of branded glassware, for which the imbiber pays £3. The money is refundable upon return of the glass, or you can take it home. The brewery suffered a lot of glass theft early on, and this is a good way to incentivise punters to return the glass, or they'll be out of pocket. New fermenters have been installed, and the brewery is creaking a bit at the seams – there's talk of another space for storage, which will help. I bumped into Andy 'Partizan' Smith and histeam, who is also thinking about expanding into another arch. Happily, it also seems that the infamous 'Bermondsey Beer Mile' is now history. A harmless attempt by Anspach & Hobday to brand the chain of breweries starting out by Southwark Park and ending in Druid Street, this had the unfortunate consequence of sucking in large groups of lads who thought it was some kind of pub crawl. The Kernel and BBNo had to change their opening hours to discourage the 'eight pints of your strongest beer' crowd, and things seem to be quieting down now.

For me, this next bit is the biggest news of the month, and it's not about London. Matt and Karen Wickham, the management team of The Evening Star in Brighton, have ended their 16-year association with the pub and Dark Star, and are heading west as I write, to take over The Colston Yard in Bristol, a Butcombe pub. I've known the Wickhamses for a decade, and they're an extraordinarily well-travelled pair of publicans. I've been on beery adventures with them on both coasts of the US, and the Evening Star was always an oasis of quality beer before the rest of Brighton caught on. In some ways, they ran a craft beer bar before we had craft beer. Beloved of their local Camra branch (though apparently the Kevin/Craft schism in Sussex caught them in its crossfire more recently), there were always interesting beers in the fridge, well-kept Dark Star casks and a top range of guests. They'll be a tough act to follow at The Star, and I wish their successors well.

I spent a day with them last summer in Bristol, a city with a buzzing beer scene, and I've known for a while that they were interested in moving on. While I'll be spending less time in Brighton from now on, I'm looking forward to Mine Hosts (and yours) showing me around Bristol again, and I'll be keen to see how they deliver their vision of a new type of pub for Butcombe. Good luck to them both.

And that's it for now.

Disclaimer: Meantime gave me a freebie ticket for Brewfest. Thanks to them. I bought my spiffy beer glass from BBNo.

We Are BeerBox

(It's been months since I wrote about Beer. 2014 has had the same sort of ups and downs as 2013 did. Some of what will turn up here was drafted contemporaneously earlier this year, and there are some themes I might run at. And there's Frank Sidebottom. So, fingers crossed, time and inclination to commit more to cyberpaper...)

To Greenwich for the launch of Meantime's new pop-up venture, the Beerbox. Though I tend to be conspicuous by my absence from the blogosphere, Meantime still pop the odd invite my way, for which, much thanks.

Anyway, I'd been chatting to a Meantime insider a couple of weeks earlier about pubs and been told that, more or less, Meantime would stick with The Union on Royal Hill and the Old Brewery at the Naval College in Historic Greenwich. Rather than permanent sites, temporary pubs and bars would be the way ahead. And lo, it has come to pass.

Up top, We Are Scientists. Underneath, They Are Meantime

An email from their PR invited me to the Greenwich Peninsula, hard by the O2, for the launch of their new bar, BeerBox. A converted shipping container yards from North Greenwich underground, with a performance or terrace space on top. For the launch, they'd lined up We Are Scientists to play on the roof of the bar, and their set was underway as my mate Steve and I rocked up. I'm not familiar with The New Pop (though a lot of it sounds to these aged lugholes, sort of like the Old Pop), but they twanged their thang most pleasingly while we got on with sampling beer. This year's Fool's Gold Citra-hopped pilsner was first, lovely and refreshing on a warm, still London August evening. Steve, currently working at Drake's Brewing in San Leandro, CA, took time to sign the wall in the bar, leaving a cool sticker which added a dramatic splash of red to the persistent monochrome of the wall. Meantime have brewed a special beer for the venue called Peninsula Pale, which I recall was nicely balanced, and I have some memory of blackcurrants for some reason.

The bar will be here for three days a week for the next three years.

Brandino Forges An Impromptu Alliance

It got me thinking about Meantime's strategy here. I'm sensing a pattern, and when I mentioned this to a Meantime worker, the notion drew a knowing smile. Last year, they played with pop-up venues at places like Shoreditch Boxpark. That container motif at BeerBox might not be an accident. During the late May Bank Holiday, I was at their early summer Brew Fest at the Old Brewery. The weather dampened what was a promising fest, but again, it seemed Meantime had learned from their 2013 venture into fests at the Old Brewery. The offer was tweaked for this one, and when I asked whether that was because the 2013 Fest had cost Meantime money, that was denied though an observation was offered that the company had learned a lot about how to put a fest together.

Meantime have expanded capacity at the brewery, keeping them at the heart of Greenwich for a while longer yet, and they've plans to develop the visitor centre and brewery shop. They've developed their own hop fields close by the brewery, and they continue to offer some interesting beers. In a week when young London blogger Matt Curtis appears to have opened a Pandora's Box with this, I find myself more convinced that they'll never get a fair hearing from the geek end of the New London Beer Scene, but there are plenty of younger beer drinkers, and beer drinkers who want to try something different but not too extreme, who will give them a go.

Steve and I were guests of Meantime for this launch. Well, Steve wasn't exactly, I was able to blag him a ticket.

Boggle Awards 2013

As we're at the circle-jerk end of 2013, it's time to reflect on the Year In Beer. Per tradition, I don't bother with the Golden Pints, instead bestowing The Boggle Award on beers, brewers and bars I've thought were best through the year.

This year is a bit different, and my radar hasn't necessarily been targeted at beer. Still, I did get to try some some notable new stuff. I'll start with brewers. It seems much longer than 11 months ago that Brew By Numbers were getting attention. I blogged about them as part of my short 'New Boys' series. They were scaling up in the early summer, but various let-downs meant they're only just now brewing on a commercial scale. They've had their tasting room at 79 Enid Street in Bermondsey, open a while, and the beer has been very good, but I imagine they'll want to get 2013 out of the way and get cracking on getting their beer out to a wider audience.

A shout out, too, for Alpha State, Jon Queally's start-up. Much of his output is going to Scandinavia, but the odd keg of stuff finds its way onto the London scene - The Old Fountain will usually have some if he's selling. His fondness for mental hopping rates is legendary around the scene, as is his willingness to take on beer styles and mutate them with same - witness his doppelbock hopped with Sorachi Ace. His recent smoked Belgian ale was very good, and I hope more of his beer is on bars here, if only to tempt drinkers out of their comfort zones.

My brewery of the year, maybe controversially, is Meantime. Not so much for their regular beers, but for the small-batch kegs and bottles I've been able to try. I blogged about their pilsners in the summer, and I've also been able to try some of their 'Brewer's Collection' 750ml cork-and-caged bottles. The 2013 Cali-Belgian IPA was sublime, while the recent Imperial Pilsner, also hopped with Sorachi Ace, was offbeat yet drinkable. The recent Hop City Porter, hopped with 'crowdsourced' hops grown around the City, also drew favourable comments from my informal tasting panel (I should say Meantime gave me these bottles). As well as the beer, they showed they can put on a show with their World Beer Fest in the early summer. Coming soon after the clusterfuck that was London's Brewing, it was reassuring to be able to head down to the Old Brewery, drink some excellent beer,eat some good food and chill out in the early summer sunshine, and all for twelve notes.

For bars, I really haven't been to many new places this year. I did get to spend some unplanned time at the splendid Cock Tavern in Hackney. It became Twitter Central on the first Saturday in May as the London's Brewing fiasco unfolded before the horrified yet fascinated gaze of the UK Craft Beer Scene.I wouldn't have said it was a Blitz Spirit, but the gallows humour made the time spent there well worth while, and the Howling Hops beer they make in the basement soothed quite a few furrowed brows.

I've been to a few pubs in Woodbridge (near Ipswich) on a few occasions this year. It's been quite a reality check to see what happens away from big conurbations. Woodbridge is more or less in the middle of Adnams and Greene King territory, so their beers and pubs tend to dominate. There are a couple of free houses in the area, but the pattern tends to be food-led with events, and then some guest beers, usually from around East Anglia. It's nice, but after a few days I start to miss hoppy golden beers, and tastes around those parts are too traditional for there to be a market just yet, although The Cherry Tree, an Adnams house, has a new management team who ran a beer fest with beers from further afield including Dark Star, and they were trying to open locals up to new experiences by, for example, having Kostritzer on as a regular beer. Worthy, and I'll be checking them out for progress over the ho-ho-holidays.

I'm giving a special award this year for street food. Working close to hipster Shoreditch, there's a different vibe and a greater range of crafty food outlets. Fridays for me have been eagerly anticipated since I discovered the Big Apple Hot Dog stall near Shoreditch Fire Station on Old Street. Fantastic sausage, simple but really well-made, good value and great with beer. They do good business on Friday lunchtimes (I'm off for mine after this is finished), and the sausage is starting to find its way into a range of venues such as independent cinemas, pubs and bars, and even restaurants, I hear. The stall has a loyalty card scheme, which I think is innovative, and the owner has ambitious plans for his franks. They've been as far afield as Leeds and at the fabulous pit barbecue joint in Bristol, Grillstock. Keep an eye out for them.

Resolutions for 2014? To start home-brewing. I was talking about BBNo. They've had former Craft bar manager and brewer Steve Gray working with them recently, and he's also the guv'nor of Massive Brewery. This is an innovative full-mash home brew kit in a box, which he sells online for about a hundred quid. I tried some pale ale a punter had brewed on the kit the other week, and it was clean, with a good body and quite drinkable. Maybe some dry-hopping would have rounded it out. I mean to get myself kitted out and have a go.

So that's this year's Boggle Awards. Here's a final seasonal wish for my reader(s), dedicated to Rabid Bar Fly Glyn Roberts...

I'm-a Drinkin' In A Box...

Meantime has been spending a Sunday each month in trendy Shoreditch, spinning choons and aiming to entice the Hipsters with some of their limited-batch beers. The venue for this is the Boxpark, a pop-up retail experience constructed from shipping containers and scaffolding. Here, global brands like Nike sit side by side with local start-ups and street food outlets. On Bethnal Green Road, vintage cars cruise up and down, although the Hipsterati wouldn't be seen admiring them. Meantime are doing six summer Sundays here, under the guise of #hopsatthebox.

It would appear an unlikely setting for one of London's more conservative craft brewers, but is part of an effort to put their beers in front of what is an increasingly important demographic for craft beer in London. Earlier in July, Meantime launched their latest seasonal Pale Ale (Pacific) at something called Frank's Cafe, atop a multi-storey car park in Peckham. I was due to go, but got my dates mixed up, and anyway, an online search of the place revealed this whole 'cafe' thing is a bit ironic (what else?), with not a bacon or sausage sandwich to be found on the menu.

I'd been invited to the previous two Boxpark events, but hadn't been able to get along. What persuaded me this time was the beer. Called Fool's Gold, a pilsner brewed in 'collaboration' with a listings magazine on the small Old Brewery plant, this had been single-hopped with Citra. I'd not had a lager with Citra before, so wanted to check it out. It's also my view that Meantime's most recent seasonal lagers have knocked the socks off their ales. Tandleman recounts his recent taste of the Friesian Pilsner here. While the Pale Ales are solid enough, I prefer a bigger hop character, and a lager hopped with something as distinctive as Citra needed to be tasted.

Alex Morgan. A Geezer

So I did, in the company of memorable Meantime Beer Sommelier Alex Morgan, a real character who I'd met a few weeks earlier at one of Meantime's beer dinners. All wide boy patter and a real and infectious enthusiasm for beer and food, he was working his socks off getting tasters of the beer into the hands of passers-by. In one of those moments of synchronicity you find around beer, he introduced me to a young American couple on their first trip to London. Turns out they were from Berkeley, in the East Bay, an area I've visited a couple of times now. They were visiting London for four days and were hitting as many beer venues as they could. Admirable.

So. The beer. It poured a delicate pale gold and, being quite chilled, didn't show much of the distinctive Citra character at first, but as it warmed a little some of the cattiness started to show. Berry fruits were in evidence, too. The hop wasn't overwhelming, rather it made this a flavourful and easy-drinking beer. I had several, and every one was refreshing and went down nicely, without any gassiness or bloated feeling. And it's named after a Stone Roses song, so what's not to love?

Meantime are a funny brewery. Their regular beers are well-made but can seem a bit unexciting. I'll happily drink their wheat beer if I can find it fresh. As I said, their recent lager styles have been excellent, but who'll be able to drink them? I'm off to this weekend's beer fest at The Old Brewery, and I'm hoping that there'll be some Fool's Gold left.

Disclaimer: Boggle paid for all of his beer at #hopsatthebox and bought his own ticket for the fest at The Old Brewery.

It's Friesian In Here

A balmy Tuesday night in Greenwich. I'm at Stage 2 of Man-Flu as I plod along Royal Hill for an evening with Rod Jones of Meantime. The brewery is launching their 2013 iteration of Friesian Pilsener, and I've been invited to go along and try some.

There's already a small gathering waiting as I walk in. Rod is at the bar while the staff pours several pints of the golden-hued beer. I note the collective youth of the assembled scribblage (scribblage = a gathering of beer reporters). I don't feel old. That only happens at Brewdog bars, but Rod and I are giving a good few years away to the rest of the group.

Rod is an engaging compere, quickly taking us through the creation of the pilsner style, and the variations that grew up in other parts of northern Europe. He's knowledgeable on the culture of Frisia, the region that straddles the Netherlands and parts of NW Germany, which is the inspiration for this beer.

As Rod takes us along, we're sipping the beer and nibbling on a very nice buffet, provided by the Greenwich Union. My olfactory sense is badly impaired so I'm having real trouble getting the nose of this beer, but here's the Boggle Impression.

A pale soft gold with a creamy head, there's very little sweetness. Instead, the beer is dry and quite pleasingly bitter. That long dry finish clears and refreshes the palate and, for me, makes the beer very drinkable. I was tempted to draw comparisons with the Dortmunder style, and actually would like to see Meantime take that style on in the future.

As I write I don't have my notes in front of me, but it's a couple of additions of Tettnanger late on for aroma. I can't remember what was used for bittering. Maybe I'll add that info later.

Lager is being rehabilitated because our newer brewers are producing excellent versions created with care and respect. This beer spent 5-6 weeks lagering before being racked. Brodies has been producing their excellent London Lager, 6 weeks in the tank, a different beast to this beer, but complex and drinkable. Magic Rock Bearded Lady, Camden Town Hells... this stuff is getting out there, changing drinkers' minds about the style.

I still haven't tried Meantime Brewery Fresh. Rod says they're trying to put it into the Union, so something to keep an eye out for.

Thanks to Meantime for the evening of beer talk, and the grub and beer.

(Mean) Time For A Beer

Time was you only heard from Meantime if you went to the Greenwich Union for a pint, some food and a read of Alistair Hook's latest manifesto, handily inserted into the menu. Or (as I've noted previously), somebody like Peter Haydon wrote to 'What's Brewing' to take UK brewing to task over closed-mindedness.

Lately, though, they've had a PR agency plugging away, inviting bloggers and others to launches of their seasonal beers. Thus it was I was able to finally accept an invite to visit their brewery to try their newest beer, the 5.5% Californian Pale Ale. A quick bus ride from the Elephant & Castle had me out near the O2 in plenty of time, and I was ushered into their pleasant shop while the taproom was made ready.

A late cancellation meant our group was fewer than ten, but it included new beery acquaintances Justin Mason and Matt Curtis. The latter had been at Bunny basher the previous Saturday, just about igniting a spark of recognition. Why does this always happen when I'm at Brodie's?

I'd been wanting to see this brewery for a while, and we were given the tour and talk. A huge forest of fermenters takes up most of the brewhouse space, while beer packaging is sorted out at the front near the loading dock. They do all their own bottling, including the 'sharing' bottles which are corked and caged. We saw a couple of the tanks Meantime are using in a few Young's pubs, and which got steam coming out of the ears of somebody called Mark Justin at that Wandsworth Beer Fest recently...

I pinched this off Dredgie's blog...

Word is that another ten Young's houses will be selling Meantime London Lager this way, and I saw a review (by Will Hawkes?) which was positive, and storing and delivering the beer this way seems to be a selling point. The End of Civilization? Hardly. Just more choice in a city that's bursting with it these days.

Demand for the range means that the brewery may outgrow this space in a few years which will give Meantime some headaches as they decide how to expand. Back in the taproom, there was time to look over a bit of the Michael Jackson collection, which The Beer Hunter bequeathed to Alistair Hook. Bottles from all over the world, glassware, awards, are all around you, a reminder that the world of beer started to shrink once he'd written The World Guide To Beer.

Other impressions? The lad who took us round, Jack, offered the opinion that UK brewing was still a decade behind the US. That sounds like the sort of thing Alistair Hook used to put in his manifestos, but I don't think it could seriously be claimed our scene is that far behind in 2013. The big profile-raising push? I wondered if perhaps Meantime think they might be a bit under the radar, despite being only one of only four or five London brewers left flying the flag for the capital by 2006.

The new beer? Hopped with Slovenian Celeila and American Crystal, it sort of belies its name a bit, but was refreshing with a long bitter finish and, once it had warmed a bit, gave up some intriguing burnt rubber (like you used to get off Simcoe). It wasn't my favourite beer, though. That would be the Bohemian Dark, a lovely chewy dark lager. And a mention for their Wheat. I hear that Camden have stopped brewing their excellent hefeweizen (no, Jasper, NOOOO). Meantime's was fresh and delicious and could fill the hole left by Camden. However, they say (as Camden did) it isn't a big seller. Shame.

On the way out, there was time to pick up a bottle of the barley wine Meantime recently exported to the US. You won't find it anywhere else in the UK, I believe. So I guess UK beer lovers still have some ground to make up before Alistair trusts us completely...

So you know: I was invited to the brewery by Hope & Glory, who are doing PR for Meantime. I was comped the beers I tried, which are included above. The other beer I tried was Yakima Red. I bought that bottle of barley wine.

British Brewers, Then And Now. A New Worldview?

I was going to post the following to gauge readers' views on how things have changed, but then I saw Melissa Cole's latest blog, where comments from Brewdog in the recent book by Stone's Greg Koch and Matt Allyn have provoked a gush of steam from her fragrant ears and some pointed comments from elsewhere in the industry.

This is from the scrapbook, a letter to the Ed published in What's Brewing February 2005...
You'll see it's from Peter Haydon of Meantime Brewing, then a newish brewer making beer for Sainsbury's and annoying some UK pundits with their reluctance to sell beer to domestic drinkers in favour of exporting to a more open-minded market. Sound like anybody we all know?

I wished I'd kept the original letter and the editors' comments (from Ted Bruning?) which provoked Peter's response. At a time when the new young brewers were start-ups or just starting to gain reputations outside of their local markets, when there wasn't a large blogosphere, and craft brewers didn't exist in the UK (they were all 'microbreweries'), he foresees the importance of the US beer scene and makes some pointed observations about the UK scene.

Things have changed a great deal in the seven years since his missive was published. I remember thinking at the time, supping regularly on a beer like Dark Star Hophead, that evolution was inevitable, as brewers were exposed to influences outside of the UK. Safeway was about to cease UK trading, but they'd already put a wide range of US beers in front of their customers, thanks to visionary beer buyer Glenn Payne. Beer lovers were gathering online in multinational communities and becoming aware of the scenes growing up outside the UK.

And so it seems to have come to pass. You could argue that beer going global is enabling beer lovers to drink well locally. Would London's scene be so exciting without foreign beer and brewing? In an online world, it's a benign virus infecting and mutating beer cultures everywhere. Even German brewing is feeling the impact. Schneider have kicked on from their early collaborations with Brooklyn and boutique brewpubs like Braustelle in Koln are mixing tradition with experimentation.

Why this chimes with Melissa's post relates to Peter's comments in the final paragraph. He bemoans the British brewing industry as "complacent, insular, staid and introspective", perhaps not a million miles from the complaints of James Watt in that Stone book. Perhaps that was the case in 2005, but is it true now? Are those family brewers and established regionals still wary of talking to their peers? Is it just the new younger breed who take a lead from the American experience? Have things really changed so much in the period since Peter's letter, or was his view wrong?

Incidentally, when I read those comments at Melissa's, I initially thought they were made by Stone top man Greg Koch. Following his Wetherspoon adventure in 2007, I remember him noting that UK brewers seemed 'aggressively disinterested' in the US scene. Wonder which brewers he was referring to...

Elitist? Exclusive?

I see that Zak Avery has followed Adrian Tierney-Jones in writing positively about the Meantime College Beer Club in return for a bottle of their first beer. A loyal reader (I think there's one of them) might recall I asked who this club was for a while back, offering as it does some kind of colour-supplement lifestyle proposition as part of the package.

I still don't know, but am interested in any views about where something like this sits in the current elitism debates that have occupied the likes of Zak, Tandleman, Phil at Oh Good Ale and, across the pond, Stan Hieronymous. For sure it is, as Zak notes, "exclusive" at 350 notes for an annual membership, but is it the same thing as "elitist". Phil posits that money affords opportunity, it does make a difference. Elite, then?

As an aside, I see Zak got bottle 74 out of 100 of the RIS Meantime brewed as their first CBC beer. I assume they haven't had all 500 memberships taken up, or the series would have to run to an edition of 1,000 bottles. A cynic might suggest a bit of below-the-line advertorial from a couple of respected industry writers might move things along. I wonder if there are any spoogebeerian consortia in the membership list? I can't imagine they'd want to miss out on such rare spooge...

From The Spambox

I don't get too much spam as a result of writing this blog. The occasional request to publish feeds from trade recruitment companies, or some PR trying to generate some excitement over a beer-naming competition for Butlins. I expect the 'opinion-formers' of our community are pestered more. Still, the odd interesting email turns up. I fished a couple of missives out of the spam box this week which I thought I'd share.

First was a request from a character called Uncle Wilco, who introduced himself thus:

Hello I follow you on the interwebs and read your beer stuff (but I am different from the other nutters)

Hullo, I thought, makes a change from claims that the contents of the email will increase traffic and help me monetize. This guy runs what I'd call a beer porn site called beercupboard.com, but I've encountered him before in his guise of garden shed enthusiast, when I posted this pic of Frank Sidebottom on flickr. He runs a site called Readers' Sheds, so definitely not your usual nutter... anyhow, seems he wants to do for beer what he's done for sheds, and he's signed up such luminaries as The Boy Dredge and Zak Avery to reveal all, so watch out for my dirty little beer secrets being revealed alongside theirs.

The other email was from Meanatime, announcing their College Beer Club. This was trailed earlier this year, and expressions of interest invited from 'aficionados' to see if the limited subscription of 500 memberships would be taken up. Interestingly, at the beginning of the week, my source 'Deep Pint' texted me to enquire rhetorically, whether I knew how many members there were. I assume there weren't any because the club hadn't formally launched, but if you know different, drop me a line.

My initial thought was, who is this for? £350 for 12 months is a lot, even if the core offer of 24 bottles of exclusive Meantime spooge means access to beer nobody else will drink. Is that a good thing? Peter Haydon, who wrote out to the blogerati, proudly exclaims that

When you join the College Beer Club, you are not just buying beer you are buying a first class ticket on a journey of discovery

He goes on to describe some of the other benefits, including:

...exclusive brewery tours, brewmaster’s dinners, tutored tastings, and a range of exclusive events and offers with Club’s affiliate organisations including, the Courtauld Institute of Art, the Sir John Soane Museum, Class Magazine and 86 St James.

Class Magazine? 86 St James? Really, I mean, who IS this Club for?

As a mate of mine said only this Thursday, it's only beer.

A Week In Beer...

I haven't been doing this very often, but regular readers (I say 'readers', in reality that probably means Glyn Roberts) might have wondered why I don't really say much about beer and places I actually visit. The reason is I have very limited time each week to check out venues and brews. If you've ever perused my profile, the answer's there - I'm a full-time carer.

So, having arranged a week of respite, I packed my caree off and made some plans. Here's some highlights...

MONDAY 8.3.10
I'd never been to Zerodegrees. Not once. Got close to the one in Bristol in 2003, but that was it. So, first stop of my week in beer aimed to rectify this. I headed to Blackheath for lunchtime and arrived around opening time. They say it's modeled on US style premises, and I wouldn't argue. The entrance and lobby put me a little in mind of Thirsty Bear in San Francisco, though the layout once inside is quite different. They've built a dining space on two levels with provision for people who just want to drink to prop the bar up or lurk near the kitchen.

Lots of exposed ducting and metalwork, some nice secondary branding and the brewery built over both floors behind the bar. They use their literature to educate patrons about how their beer is made, and lots of glass screens permit easy viewing. They weren't brewing today, but all the beers were on, their four regulars, plus a special. I tried all of them - the Pale Ale makes claims to brewed in the West Coast style, but the hops were very understated, and it put me more in mind of Young's Ordinary than a big C-hopped American version; I bought a Pilsner and Wheat Ale together, and initially had trouble picking them apart - the colour was identical, no tell-tale haze in the wheat, just a larger softer head. The Pilsner I found too sweet, while the Wheat was very drinkable, just a bit... ordinary. The best of the beers was their Black Lager - nice toffeeish and roasted malt character, pleasing bitterness in the finish. The special was a Dunkelweizen, which was very similar to the wheat ale, but the proportion of dark malt used imparted a little bitterness and additional malt sweetness which made it taste a bit more complex.

I'd like to visit again and try their pizza, and go at the beers again. I can see they wouldn't want to scare punters off, especially if they're beer novices, and their premises had a nice feel to it.

I walked over to Greenwich for a pint in the Greenwich Union. It was pretty busy so I found a stool and supped at a pint of cask Meantime LPA. It has a very clean and refreshing mouthfeel, though I'd prefer a little more bitterness. The barman pinched my quarter-pint while I was in the loo, but, realising his error, gave me another half-pint. I wouldn't have made a fuss.

I popped next door to the Richard I, a Young's house. They had the new London Gold on, a 4.0% bitter brewed with Styrian Goldings hops. I honestly can't figure out why they've brewed it, and calling it 'London Gold' when the brewery has been in Bedford for four years is probably a bit rich, but it was the best beer I tried while I was in the area. It put me completely in mind of a very good pint of Ordinary, but then when I've had Ordinary in the Richard in the past, it's been good.

WEDNESDAY 10.3.10
I was aiming to head for the opening session of London Drinker. An old mate texted to say he was planning to be around at the same time, so we hooked up at the Camden Centre just after one. Pete Brown had reported on the SIBA Conference, and I knew that the Saltaire Triple Chocoholic was going to be on, so I went straight for that. I love chocolate.

I wasn't greedy, just ordering a half, having found Tony Martens strategically propped right in front of the cask, working his way through his first half and planning to have another before word got round and it kicked. I don't think I've ever tasted such a complete chocolate beer in my life. I can remember the original Young's Double Choc with Cadbury's Dairy Milk, and I've sampled chocolate beers from all over. Southern Tier Choklat was a memorable US attempt, but none of them get close to this. You get a lovely carob nose, some bitterness in the first slurp over the palate, but then! I swear it was a chocolate ganache! I rolled it over and over in my mouth, getting some gentle spicyness amid the deliciously thick chocolate. I've tried other Saltaire beers, and not been disappointed by any, even that pale ale with lime, which reminded me of a lager & lime but in a good way.

I made my mate get some as soon as he arrived, and I went on to the Marble Stouter Stout. I'd like to visit the Marble Arch when an opportunity presents itself, but this was the first Marble beer I'd tried. I shouldn't have gone at it immediately after the Triple Choc, so it took a few draughts to get a real flavour of the beer. (Note to self: take water next time).

We had a few more UK beers, then headed for the foreign beer bar. Lots of spoogerific beers in the nice list available, including from De Molen (I had their Hell & Damnation Imperial Stout) and Mikeller. There was a nice German Xmas Ale which had a lovely spruce character to it, from the barrel.

From there I made my way to The Rake for Tom Cadden's Last Supper.

And lo, the body of the fallen saviour of the spoogebeerians was lain upon a dais of empty beer crates, and there did they anoint him with their offerings of spooge, and place him in the recovery position and there was a wailing and gnashing of teeth, for they knoweth that the Guv'Nor of The Rake despiseth those from Ratebeer and BA. Here endeth the lesson.

THURSDAY 11.3.10
Not too much happening. Met an old workmate in the White Horse & Bower in Horseferry Road for a catch-up and a few sherbets. Lots of talk about football and music (he's a Geordie who 'was there' when punk 'happened', and it's worth the price of a gig ticket to watch him do his strange new wave dance). This has been a Sheps house for some years, and they've done a good job. I like a pint of Master Brew, so I sessioned on that. Disappointed that they dropped their Porter this year, though. I can't quite accept having Late Red on in the early Spring.

FRIDAY 12.3.10
All the music talk sent me off to try and pick up some old A Certain Ratio stuff. I sold loads of original Factory Records vinyl 10 years ago, but there's been some stuff reissued. I managed to get a copy of their debut album 'To Each...' - a flawed gem. Story goes that legendary producer Martin Hannett had set up the mixing desk to do the final mix one night, and before he could do the master, some idiot engineer reset all of the dials and knobs. The error wasn't noticed, and so we have this. It's obvious in the final mix.

I walked through Soho to Charing Cross Road and popped into the Harp to slake my thirst. They sometimes keep a killer pint of Dark Star APA, but none today, so I had their Sussex Stout, and headed over to Cask. This place is pretty much the closest pub to where I live that sells decent ale. Zeitgeist is closer, and I like the Morpeth Arms too, but I like this place, and I'd seen that it had been blessed with the patronage of some of the blogerati the previous weekend, and I wanted to ask how they felt about such benediction.

I didn't get a chance, but I did have a cracking pint of Thornbridge Wild Swan. This one punches way above its weight. It reminded me of Phoenix Amarillo in the pleasantly harsh citrus and resin in the mouth and lovely drying finish.

I perused the papers and finished with a Jaipur. I've said elsewhere that the past few times I've had it, it's seemed different each time, and this was no different. The hop onslaught seems a little restrained. Maybe they're having trouble keeping it consistent in the new brewery, or perhaps they've been letting beer world 'celebs' at it again (I'm looking at you, Phil Parkin). Still OK, but no more.

So, a decent week's supping.