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.
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