Pubs

Day 7 – #12BeersofXmas

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Day 7 – #12BeersofXmas 2016

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Brewery – The Spell Factory

Location – Burnley, Lancashire.

The Drink: Spell One

ABV: 7.0% – 330ml

Style: E.S.B

Additional info: Triple Hops of Citra, Cascade and Centennial.  Triple Malts of Maris Otter, Munich and Rye.

Pours a wonderful deep orange with a quickly dissipating white head. The aroma is of any typical lightly malted bitter with a sweet almost sticky twang.

Mouth feel is light and well rounded, smooth with a nice sweet but slightly bitter after taste.  This is very much a beer of balance and precision and I first had this at one of my favourite pubs The Pendle Witch in Atherton (pronounced a-theeer-tun) and I’d highly recommend a visit there if you fancy getting away from tawdry city centre boozers.

If you’ve not heard of the brewery before, that is because it was supposed to be an off-shoot of Moorhouse’s (much like the other bigger family breweries have started their own, slightly more craft, side projects) but this appears to be the only drink they produced.

If it is the only one then it remains a corker.

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Thanks for reading.

Golden Pints 2016

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This is my entry into the Golden Pints of 2016, also known as the “bloggers just make up awards for specific things they wish to heap praise on, generally done by their mates.”

Also also known as “beer bloggers try, generally in vain, to make a blog that isn’t about themselves”

Best UK Cask Beer – This and the keg beer were more or less going to be the same as last year, that was until last weekend’s brewery taps happened.  As it stands the same to breweries get the awards, only swapped around and with different beers. Viva la Change.  Wee Beastie by Beer Nouveau gets my vote

Best UK Keg Beer – Evil Keg Filth award goes to – Triple Cone by Track Brew Co. which narrowly beats out Damage Plan by Marble Beers.

Best UK Bottle or Can – Bottle goes to Three’s Company by Magic Rock, CloudWater and JW Lees yeast.  Can goes to Weightless by RedWillow Brewery.

Best Overseas Draught – Anything by Weird Beard Brew Co. of that there London.

Best Overseas Bottled or Canned Beer – Anything by Kernel Brewery of that there London.

Best Collaboration Brew – Hmmm, I’ll go with Five Towns Brewery and the Beauty and the Beast made in collaboration with Beers Manchester…and me…(again I’d like to thank the academy, my mum and dad…)

Best Twitter Collaboration – The conversation and knowledge exchanges between @CheshireBrewShane and @tabamatu (Andy Parker)(of Elusive) are a pleasure to watch.  In fact most things involving Shane on twitter are always interesting.

Best Overall Beer – Old Ale by Marble – had this in February on bloody gravity cask and it still stays stuck in my head.

Best Branding, Pumpclip or Label – Marble and their metal series

Best UK Brewery – I can’t decide, its been quite a close and competitive year.

Best Overseas Brewery –  Anheuser-Busch InBev – come on, they’ll soon own everything, some of it will be good.

Best New Brewery Opening 2016 – Elusive Brewing

Pub/Bar of the Year – I still won’t be drawn on, there are too many good ones.

Beer Festival of the Year – Easily Salford Beer Festival  and if you missed out then…well, hope springs eternal.  Not enough praise can be heaped on @BeersManchester for the effort he put(s) in.

Supermarket of the Year –Still don’t use supermarkets for beer shopping.

Independent Retailer of the Year – Bargain Booze in Davenport operates as a franchise and they get in some great local and further afield UK beers at good prices.  I was going to finally spill as to who and where my mystery beer shop is but to be fair their customer service is massively lacking so in lieu of that and if Bargain Booze isn’t independent enough then I’ll go with Heaton Hops.

Online Retailer of the Year – Not shopped online for beer in 2016.

Best Beer Book or Magazine – Meh

Best Beer Blog or Website – I would like to put forward a fair few here.

@MarkNJohnson for his BeerCumonmyfaceyoupleb blog for consistency on and about and a wide variety of subjects.

@oldmudgie for The Pub Curmudgeon for his clear pieces about the health fascists out there.

In a more classical beer blog sense I’ll dual nominate @StymieSi (British Real Ale Pub Adventure) and @NHS_Martin (Retired Martin) for their fantastic work on visiting and writing about pubs.

Best Beer Blog Piece – https://beersmanchester.wordpress.com/2016/10/25/the-independent-salford-beer-festival-2016-the-other-side-of-the-coin/

Best Beer App – Twitter. Untappd for badgewanking.

Best Beer & Food Pairing – Just visit any Manchester brewery tap, one that especially has involvement by @GRUBMCR on the food side of things and you’ll find something.  I’ve found many, too numerous to mention.

Simon Johnson Award for Best Beer Twitterer – @CraftBeerHour – granted it’s a collective effort but I can think of nothing better than bouncing ideas of fellow beer drinkers and brewers, well apart from going to the pub with the same group, which would be financially crippling.

Best Brewery Website/Social media – Squawk Brewing Co (@SQUAWKBrewingCo) – you like beer, food, wild animals and 80’s cheese then this is just pure entertainment.

Golden Shites 2016 – Beer not being beer. Mango Lassi, Lemon Meringue Cream Pie – FUCK OFF.

Apologies for lack of hot-linking to the winners, this will be rectified when I get my old computer back.

Thanks for reading.

Roll on 2017

If Beer Was…

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JAWS

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Beer in the shape of a Great White Shark (Carcharodon carcharias) descends on the small, seaside town of Amity bringing confusion and panic to the locals.

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The local chief of police, Brody, does not know what to make of this new arrival, after years of complacency all of this just crept up on him.  He is aware that this force of nature can be harnessed but at the same time is also a massive threat to his way of life and to the status quo.

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Unsure of how to tackle this new foe he enlists the help of two men.  The first is the salt-of-the-earth Quint.

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Quint has been dealing with the tribulations brought on by sharks for decades.  Battle-hardened, wistful and with a lifetime of experience he can sometimes come across as a little insane and immovably stuck in his ways.

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Obsessed with taming sharks only by the use of barrels.

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Quint could possibly be accused being a bit too casual about sharks.

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The second man to come to Chief Brody’s aid is the quiet and university educated Hooper.

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Possessing a wealth of knowledge gleamed mainly from books Hooper is a man who is initially intimidated by Quint and is therefore prone to antagonistic behaviour.

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Which can sometimes be excused given how the locals of Amity seem blissfully unaware that different types of shark exist.  In trying to explain he realises he really isn’t going to convince everyone that he knows more than most regular, as he would call them, bozos.

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And later, when he find just how irrational Quint sometimes behaves, never listening to reason and ploughing on regardless.

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However Quint and Hooper do bond slightly when they realise that they each have something to bring to the table given their past dealings with sharks.

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Brody, the outcast between the yin-yang of Hooper and Quint’s knowledge of sharks seems more concerned about gas and always wanting things to be bigger.

 

 

For the sake of everything, these three men come together to try and get a grip on the shark and after some effective use of barrels it appears the three men may be victorious.  But the exertion of it all is too much and via a stray gas cylinder, Quint meets his fate in the jaws of the shark.

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Hooper, after one trick too many also appears to succumb leaving only Chief Brody left to do battle, which he eventually succeeds at, using another gas cylinder.

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As Brody surveys the scene of victory, of a shark tamed, he is startled then relived to see Hooper did in fact survive, and as they lament the passing of Quint they had back to the shore.

But as the credits roll it is not the two survivors but the rough and ready Quint, with his history evoking stories that linger in the memory.

 

Thanks for reading.

 

A word about the sequels:

Jaws 2: Something original always has inferior follow ups.

Jaws 3-D: The painful exploitation of that latest techniques and styles that quickly outstays its welcome.

Jaws, The Revenge: Horrible cash-in that only swells the coffers of a small few.

Beerilingus

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Subtitle: FellALEtio – What’s In a Cloudy Beer?

Taking care of beer (even cask beer) is not a massively difficult job, assuming that those in charge of cellars are also in charge of the most rudimentary functionings of common sense.

On a recent escapade to that there London it can’t have been remiss of those on twitter that I made a rather large deal about cloudy beers.  It could be suggested that being a Northerner we are led like a bull with a ring through the nose by other Northern beer bloggers that London can’t keep or serve cask beer properly, and for the sake of argument they also seem to struggle in brewing it (or at least conditioning it) properly too.

Whether the fault of getting a cloudy pint does indeed either lie with the brewery conditioning tactics (yes, yes, it isn’t just exclusive to London), with either a lack of training or more worryingly a lack of care during cellaring is moot in the realms of this piece.

I personally know from serving beer that I will give a warning that a beer is “hazy” – a more socially acceptable phrase for describing beer that isn’t as bright as a (insert your own simile) but isn’t that cloudy to look at.

You can try to explain about chill haze, hop haze and throw in words like clarity and turbidity and things being unfiltered, or you can just go for the tried and tested fob-off “its supposed to be like that”, and with the rise of hop-bomb fruit juices masquerading as beer it’s getting harder to justify the condition a beer (cask or keg) appears to be in.

My point is, why bother?

A cursory search of the interwebs didn’t bring up any list to described the clarity of beer and after a few random discussions in person and on twitter I settled on this:

Bright

Clear

Hazy

Cloudy

Murky

Sludge

Of course I could whack these words into a thesaurus and come up with a different set of words that would also give a witty acronym that would fit in with this piece…but I’m lazy and just want to publish this nonsense.

Point being, we may well eat/drink with out eyes first but we’ve got four (well you mortals have) other senses to discern if something is suitable for our consumption.

Lets be honest, human genitalia is not the most appealing thing to look at but a quick sniff and visual check for possible brie-like residual smeg and a quick flick for resonance should be enough to gauge whether or not its worth putting your laughing tackle anywhere near it.

Still, in the throes of passion or a drunken state sometimes the need to fulfil base desires sees all semblance of dietary discretion go out of the window.

As always, buyer beware.

 

Thanks for reading.

 

The Pubs of Bangor, Gwynedd, Wales

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It seems I’m going to be going off to that there Ynys Môn or Anglesey in a short while for what will appear to be long beach walks and not much else.

It been a long while since I was up that way, Bangor specifically, I’m thinking my last time there was 2002 and while doing a bit of a tidy up I found a CD full of pictures, mainly of people but also of pubs.

 

 

Belle Vue

My local – though it took me 4 years to win the bloody quiz.

Black Bull

This Wetherspoons pub saw me take full advantage of their 2 meals for £5.

County

Very much like a “country” pub inside, all horse brasses and the like.


 Greek

They guy who managed this at the time looked like Patrick Stewart.

Harp

The site of many a lock-in and 4am games of pool.

OSheas

An Irish pub.

Patricks

Another Irish pub.

Ship

I recall this had spiral staircase (stupid idea) and a dance floor on the 2nd level that, by means of dense glass, you could see up from the ground floor.

Skerries

Very much like the County Arms.

Tap & Spile

Near the pier and the destination to go for a filled Stottie breakfast after a heavy night before.

Waterloo

Again, like the County Arms and Skerries.

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Like the County Arms Waterloo Inn and Skerries.

Firkin

This was one of those “Its a Scream” pubs, prior to that is was a Firkin (I forget what the & part was) but it remains the site of my greatest domination of pub quizzes.  So much so that our team couldn’t spend all the prize vouchers we won each week so ended up buying take-outs all the time, leading to my one and only….beer fridge.

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…plus milk.

Absent from these pictures is The Globe, which I was always warned not to go in, especially during the 6 Nations and also The Mostyn Arms, which was around the corner from where I briefly lived and if memory serves was so small you could get a sweat on if you sat too close to the gambler.

There are of course the obligatory bars and clubs (mainly the Octagon) that I found myself in, surrounded by mini-buses full of people who’d made the weekend pilgrimage from the hills and valleys of the area.

Oddly, apart from the weekends, when the students were away on holiday it was like a ghost town.  I don’t been noticeable because it was so busy when the students were there, I mean really, really quiet.

It made for a hell of a pub crawl, just in lower Bangor alone.  A complete bugger trying to stagger up Glanrafon at the end of the night though.

The thing is, I looked up all these pubs on What Pub? and to my surprise (given the current trend) most of them are still open.

I look forward to going back.

 

Thanks for reading.

 

All photo courtesy of Frivolous Monsters

Smile…CAMRA is being Candid

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In a flu ridden state I am quickly writing this.  Having observed all week chatter of what CAMRA was planning, really you should think, as a member, I would have known about this in advance.

Last December I wrote a piece suggesting that CAMRA may well evolve (it is there, in between the ranty stuff).

Reports of the death of CAMRA are greatly exaggerated but they haven’t helped themselves with self-published articles like this

Of course that is the idea; to get people talking that the biggest consumer group may be coming to an end based on some article that has that pissant question/non-question title.

If CAMRA move from solely being about real ale and instead are revitalising their campaign then the shift of focus does mean the acronym is not correct, but that is mere pedantry.

The organisation I’m a part of has been changing over the years anyway, with the dawn of the Asset of Community value, pubs are trying to be saved and so when the BBC writes “Should there be a crusade to save British pubs?” (oh look, there is that twatty question mark again), the answer is that there already is.

You also get poorly researched articles like this (oh look another question mark) – but that is the standard of random journalism about beer these days – take a hand full of clichés, sling in a few names of breweries, add the word beard and suddenly you too can become a freelance journalist with little knowledge of any subject to back anything up, but the pay check is in the hand so who cares, modern paid journalism isn’t about getting across facts any more, it is about clickbaiting.

Anyway, as far as I am concerned that gap between “old” and “new” beer drinkers is still a bridge too far and something that CAMRA isn’t going to build on its own, especially when it comes to saving pubs.

*Insert relevant Hilaire Belloc quote here*

People who deal only in “craft” beer do not care about some dirty old pub and the dirty old people who are in it and the dirty old community that it holds together.

I’m still of the opinion that most are following a scene.  A scene that is still not inspiring people to go out and drink, as on the whole the entire “night-life” industry in on a downward spiral.

The nature of drinking, in the home or on the town, is changing.  People don’t go to the same places and are unlikely to be coaxed back into them.  It is all about trend and maybe in that respect CAMRA and pubs should consider themselves to be like heavy metal.

There are off-shoots and little cliques that raise the profile once in a while but once these are spun off there is always a faithful core that remains, always open and welcoming to both the original purpose and future evolution.

It won’t ever go out of fashion because it has never been in fashion.

 

Thanks for reading?

My Favourite Pub(s) in Greater Manchester

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I was asked to write this piece for Manchester Beer Week and figured whereas most of the focus will generally and inevitably be towards the city centre of Manchester, there is a whole metropolitan county erroneously formed in 1974 to focus on and whereas I’ve visited some great pubs in Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford and the cities of Manchester and Salford my drinking life began and very much remains in the borough of Wigan.

So as the evil claws of Wigan council look to stick their crest on every street sign and strip away any semblance of history and independent identity from those towns unfortunate enough to fall into their dark embrace I’d first like to make some honourable mentions:

The White Lion in Leigh and the Jolly Nailor in Atherton are excellent pubs.  Also of note is now the sadly lost Dog and Partridge in Bolton.  All have/had a fine range of beers and a warm welcome.

There are many others too but this is written as a piece of history; an ode to the first pubs I drank in and more importantly, still do to this day.

Union Arms, Tyldesley

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I find this pub to be quite an unorthodox shape.  It is a largish pub, though deceptively so as a central bar (with 2 main bars and a smaller one) services 5 distinct rooms but all are open plan so as not to be cut-off from each other.

Entrance through the main door generally takes me through to the right-hand side of the pub, up a couple of stairs to one of the main bars and a large room with an additional raised seated section, where bands sometimes play.  It used to house the pool table (now strangely absent) and a jukebox.   When I first started going in the main barmaid (who curiously still does some shifts there) used to whack on 20 free credits, select 3 songs and then leave the rest for myself and my comrades.

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From this side of the pub you could then go up another small step to another area of about 4 tables where the toilets are located along with the smallest bar and the staircase up to the landlords accommodation.

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Down a couple of stairs and you would be greeted by a small room that kept the table football and lots of football (mainly Manchester United) memorabilia.

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This opens up into the other main bar which had a lot more tables and a dart board.  Some gamblers and quiz machines were dotted around the pub.

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As you can see, bench seating is prevalent in this pub.

The pub served (and still serves) a range of keg Thwaites products and Warsteiner can be counted amongst its lager offerings.  After a change of ownership there are now 6 cask lines available, along with the “usual” international suspects.

The Pendle Witch, Atherton

Tucked down an alley from the main town centre, the Pendle is a rather small pub, though a few large alterations opened the pub out while also brightening it up and, along with the ban of 2006, made it less smoky (oddly something I seldom noticed in the Union).

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There is a beer garden to the back while the pub consists of one large room, a conservatory and a slightly smaller room where you’ll find a pool table.

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There is a jukebox, which due to the nature of most of the regulars will play heavy metal on very heavy rotation.  It is a Moorhouse’s brewery pub and their beers make up 5 of the 10 casks on offer.

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There is a wide, wide selection of international bottled beers at stupidly cheap prices and these go hand-in-hand with the regularly held bottle tasting events.

The pubs mentioned here are all great example of a public house with a good beer selection, cheap prices, welcoming atmosphere and a wide mix of drinkers; young, old, regular and passing trade but above all they are actually proper pubs.

What does that mean?

For me it is just a place I’d feel as comfortably in as I would my own home.  A place for both solitude and friendship and above all, a decent drink.  In writing about these pubs I could never possibly sum up just how important they are to me because pubs are more than just a place to that serves beer; they are part of the fabric of my life, integral to communities and they are worth fighting to keep because they are always more than just bricks and mortar.

Thanks for reading.