Castle Milk Stout

So Thursday is apparently one of the two days a week that the cleaners come into the apartment so i had to make myself scarce for a couple of hours this morning and off i went to the shops.

I had to buy some milk for Lucille anyway so it all worked out well. She'd also pointed out a bottle shop to me and said that they sold beer as well as wine so in I ambled.

The fridges for the beer were decidedly disappointing but something caught my eye as i looked at the rows of six packs of bottled of Fullers ESB and London Pride the cans of the much maligned Castle Lager....Castle Milk Stout...?

What is this canned creature that dares rear it's ugly head in the fridges of a posh little bottle shop? I mean look at the picture below, that is one UGLY can! It's like it hit every side of the canning line on the way out! ;-) ok that didn't work but it's a horrible looking thing.

I was hooked though, I couldn't look away, I really wanted to try it but I didn't want to waste any of the money in my pocket. What to do? What to do? Intrigue got the better of me as I reasoned with myself that as someone who professes to love beer and keep an open mind I should buy it. So I did.

I don't even really like Milk Stouts I said to myself as I meandered home. Its a style that I generally find too sweet.

It says on the tin: Rich, Dark, Smooth. Rich yes, dark certainly, smooth it aint. It's just too fizzy to be smooth. It's not unpleasant though and i'm really, really glad about that because I like a good stout from time to time and I thought that somewhere so hot and sunny(most of the year) might struggle to produce a decent one. I was doubly glad because I'd also found a Milk Stout that I liked that wasn't made by Left Hand Brewing Co!

The head collapsed in the glass a little too quickly and as I said it was a bit too fizzy but i'll be drinking this again without a doubt!

Tasting notes : Rich, lots of burnt malt in there, little too fizzy with a sweet, cloying after taste that lingers just long enough to not be unpleasant. Pretty nice actually.

Smile Like You Mean It.

I don't know about you but I'm getting a bit bored of reading about lots of negative experiences that people post online about bars, breweries, staff, service etc...after all, it seems far too easy to bitch and moan about things.

I got a tweet about the staff at The Rake last night that made me smile as it was a positive one and it's got me thinking and what I'd like you to do is share your experiences in the comments box about great experiences you've had recently or ever really and I'll collate them and post on here in a couple of days time.

I'll get us started with an easy one.

Last Thursday Nick Otley and one of his sales guys, Lee were in town and we had a few beers at The Rake before heading off to Dukes Brew and Que for dinner.
I had not booked dinner, I merely gave them a call and asked if they had three seats available, they said come on down so we did.
The service, as ever was impeccable. The food was amazing(as usual) and the beer was great(also as usual). I had a great evening with friends and everyone went home happy. Dukes is one of my most favourite places to eat and drink and I can't wait to go back.

so that's it. Please share your stories, I'd love to hear them and I think we could use a smile every once in a while.

I Have a Dream!

It's been bugging me for some time now, probably 2 or 3 years. With between 3800 and 7000 pubs(depending on who you believe), numerous craft beer bars popping up here there and everywhere, 23 active breweries(and more to follow) and two active home brewing networks London is coming to the forefront of the craft beer scene in Great Britain.

As we should be.

So why then do we not have something akin to New York Craft Beer Week or as just announced Beijing Craft Beer Week! Beijing!! 


Don't get me wrong, I'm delighted that Beijing is enlightened enough to have a craft beer week but it makes me extremely frustrated that we haven't got something at least similar in the UK.

Yes we have a week where CAMRA puts on the Great British Beer Festival but it's limited in that it won't serve kegged beer and some of London's best brewers only keg beer.

Is the fact that some of us are so preoccupied with just arguing about the meaning of 'craft beer' rather than just enjoying the beer holding us back from hosting such an event?

We have the London Brewers Alliance so we're already halfway there. Should we set up another group for bars, pubs and restaurants? Would it help us get to the stage where we can pool our collective resources and actually market and put on an event which could help get craft beer noticed by the wider public and not just the beer geeks who already know about it?

Is our inherently 'British' or 'Conservative' nature holding us back?

So how do we make this happen? Someone needs to get the ball rolling because otherwise London will once again look like we're stagnating or indeed going backwards again.

Come on London, let's get our act together!

Beer and Football

Well we did it, IT ONLY TOOK 9 YEARS! we all bellowed at the end of the penalty shoot out. I planned to do a sort of diary style thing for the day, keeping up with what I had imbibed but that idea fell over straight after leaving the house at 6.30am when I realised I'd left me note pad at home! Epic Fail, right there!
I did however, remember to pack some beer for the train up to Manchester! Epic Win, right there!

So about halfway into our journey(9am) I took out the first of our beers. A gift from Mark Dredge, it was a can of 21st Amendment's Back in Black, the beer that inspired Evin(O'Riordan, Kernel Brewery Owner) and I to do a Black IPA.
There's a couple of reasons why I like this beer. Firstly, before you even taste the beer the packaging in superb, great art work on the can and only 330mls to boot. Secondly of course, there's the beer itself, now although this can tasted just a wee bit sour, it was still really drinkable and I necked mine just fine.
Even if it was a little sour it still  beat the slops Virgin trains were serving in a can.

Next up we had the third version  of the Kernel Black IPA, just goes to show this beer and it's style are so popular that Evin keeps on having to produce it! God I fucking love this beer and I've found out that it's great for calming the nerves on the way to play-off finals!

Third up was another bottle of Black IPA from Kernel, only without a label as it was so new when Evin gave it to me that it hadn't reached labelling stage. The hops were different and forgive me but I can't remember which hops were used in this one, Summit and something else (Mt Hood?). Still a great beer and I'm looking forward to getting it in The Rake soon!

So with the decent beer finished it was time to get off the train and find a pub that was open at 10am! It was highly unlikely but we eventually stumbled upon the Old Devonshire for a couple before heading to the Marble Arch. I went for a pint of Kelham Island Best to start with, very good nick it was in too, I like Kelham Island, they brew good beer. When I went up for another pint, the Kelham Island was gone so I went for a Thwaites Original(I think), not quite on the same level as the Kelham Island but still a decent beer in good nick.

Then it was off to the Marble Arch pub to meet up with Tandleman for a couple of beers before he went off to his CAMRA meeting(Am I the only one imagining silly handshakes and stand up confessions?).
The Marble Arch has good points and bad points, there are more good points than bad but the really niggling point was the service. One of the main things that I had to sort out at The Rake was service, and it always will be, it's one of the things you can't take for granted, so when I get bad service, I try and give people a second chance but was informed that it was standard practice at the Marble Arch to keep their backs to the customers. It's a pity because in my two experiences of the Marble Arch are ones that speak volumes about the quality of the brewery and the beer it produces.
Then it was time to get to Eastlands.

I can't remember if I drank anything at the actual stadium (maybe a lager, definitley a coke), I think I was concentrating too much on the game at the time to remember little things like pints of beer!
So we won on penalties, got promoted to the league and off we went to find a pub in Manchester to celebrate in. We spotted Mr Thomas Chop House, which has a good reputation for beer and food. So off we trotted towards that. By the time we got there, I was so thirsty only apples would do and so I opted for a pint of some refreshing fizzy cider and out into the beer garden we went. Pint of something else I don't remember afterwards(what? you want me to remember everything??) and it was time to find alcoholic supplies for the trip home.
Champagne and G&T's all round then! And I was nicely blotto by the time we got back to Euston 45-odd minutes later due to some incident or other(probably due to the fact that the police had de-classified the whole train, so even if you booked a first class ticket, you we're fucked if someone was sitting in your seat). It didn't ruin my day though, we got into the league and justice is almost done. Now if only Milton Keynes had been destroyed in our Rapture!

We're all in this together, Really?

Good posts from Pete Brown and Tandleman have engaged the cynic in me.
You know me dear reader, never one to tow the line, I feel the need to vent on this issue. As far as the airy fairy we should all work together notion goes I agree with it, however, big drinks companies are not ever going to do this, they are purely driven by profit not passion. I accept the argument that every brewery is looking for profit otherwise they would cease to trade and beer would die but some companies need castrating at the board level it seems.
Secondly as far as the CAMRA bashing that Tandleman comments on quite often is concerned, if some CAMRA members actually looked in the mirror before leaving the house it might not be such a huge issue for you. Cheap shot and I'm sorry.
However!
Thirdly I'll just state an actual occurrence at The Rake during our Welsh Beer Festival last week.....

Customer : that Tomos Watkins Lager, do you know if it happens to be filtered and pasteurised? - (At this point I hope you're all thinking that this guy means 'is it real ale?')
Me: Not being an expert on every single beer that comes through the doors here, I'm gonna guess yes, although I may be wrong.
Customer : So it's not 'real' then?  (I shit you not fearless reader, those words were spoken). Now I'm sorry for this because I have lots of time for CAMRA members, tickers, scoopers, beer hounds call them what you like but after a long week this question just wound me up and I answered.
'Well it's not a figment of my fucking imagination is it?'

This sort of question is exactly why Kevin and co are seen as extremophiles and why they will always be more of a cause of factionalism than a voice for good beer!

Why? because they care, sometimes too much? It's a good thing and a bad thing, it's a good thing because they are on the front lines of the fight for good beer and they want people to drink it.
It has it's bad points too because they are cutting themselves off from some of the best beer in the industry.

I don't want to turn this into an anti CAMRA rant though. This isn't about one organisation. This is about the whole industry.

It's a very polarised industry and it always will be, this has it's ups and it's downs too. The upside is that the amount of people that are appreciating craft beer is increasing, is this because the amount of great beer available is increasing? Yes, and it's awesome! There's more access than ever before to micro brewery beers and the more available the more people will enjoy them. CAMRA's newly crowned pub of the year is an excellent example of this, there are traditional beers alongside more contemporary ones, all of them kept extremely well.
Cellarman/womanship is a massive deal too, what's the point of getting great beer in if you can't keep it correctly?
But as I said before it's a very polarised industry, driven by a polarised public. As much as we as craft beer appreciators are shouting about great beer, there are the nay-sayers. There ARE still customers out there that drink alcohol to get pissed. I came across this just last week at the BrewDog dinner at the Dean Swift and I mentioned it in the blog.
Thankfully though, the amount of people who want to enjoy the beer in front of them seems on the surface to be increasing and people like Pete, Tandleman, Cooking Lager, Melissa and the rest of the high-brow beer writer folks are helping that with their various books, blogs etc.....
People like me will just have to keep getting incensed and driven on by the ignorance, we need to be strong, hold true to our values and shout about the beer that can unite people of all 'factions' and educate the public one person at a time if necessary.
I said at the top of this piece that Pete and Tandleman had engaged my inner-cynic, and they had, but after saying my piece(sense or nonsense) I feel hope again.
There is a lot of ground to make up but there are a lot of good, nay great, people out there who work hard every day to bring the best beer to the paying public.
I raise a glass of Kernel Black IPA to each and every one of you, keep it up, we'll all be fine.

Now all we need is for the government to stop hiking the duty on beer and give our national drink and the people that produce and serve it a chance to thrive!

Women Who Drink Beer Are...

So the poll is closed on the debate over women drinking beer. A massive 22 of you voted and you decided what all of us actually already know.

Women who drink beer are....Sexy and Sophisticiated.

Of course they are! Meaningless poll really but for those of you that voted 'Just Fucking Weird'...Shame on you!

Beer Styles

Well this was always going to be a contentious one! Monday night I was getting pissed, sorry, enjoying the atmosphere at The Old Brewery in Greenwich for the British Guild of Beer Writers Seminar on beer styles. I'm not going to go into the seminar much because other people have already done that.
Dave Bailey a.k.a. Hardknott Dave of Hardknott Brewery fame gave me a bottle of his Dark Energy, a 4.9% beer that when we had it on draught for Hardknott Night at The Rake, whilst Dave it described as a stout he qualified the style classification to say he wasn't entirely sure what style it was but that it was the easiest hat to put on the beer.
It tasted enough like a stout at the time but the bottle is distinctly different, it's much more like a Mild and a very nice one at that. at 4.9% though, can it be called a mild? a strong mild?
Since the seminar there have been numerous posts on beer styles, a lot of people saying that there are too many(133 apparently), that we don't need all these classifications, I tend to agree; with consumer choice becoming more widespread regarding beer there is a real danger of confusing the customer to a point of alienating them all over again.
The Molson Coors UK Cheif says he wants beer menus in every pub, well in a lot of pubs cases that is a decent idea after all you have a wine list, why not a beer list. How are you going to lay it out though? It's a question that I have battled with in the last couple of years, deciding how to lay out a beer menu for The Rake, no easy task I can assure you with the fluidity of my ever changing line-up.
It's easy to pigeon hole things, and it happens every day in life, doesn't mean we need to do the same with beer though. After all there aren't really any right or wrong answers in this debate, which kind of makes the whole thing a bit pointless and dull.
There have been comments though that intimate the need for clarity so my beer list will eventually read by simple style and any description will have to fit into that category. For example a Raspberry Porter would come under the Stouts and Porters category rather than fruit beer or 'Raspberry Porter' or the SOS that I recently brewed with Otley would come under the Wheat Beer Category, after all it is a wheat beer.
Keep it basic and don't confuse the customers!

Beer Cupcakes

Before

The cupcake war has been going on for some time now and more and more people seem to be getting involved in some way. Started by brewing Leg-End Phil Lowry and Dominic Driscoll others have started making them and I started getting the itch to try it on Wednesday, unfortunately I couldn't partake until Sunday. I was having had ideas for 'normal' cupcakes, you know, lemon drizzle, vanilla etc...Bacon was then mentioned on twitter and the aforementioned Mr Lowry suggested that would be a Yorkshire Pudding 'or a muffin' I retorted.
Then the idea came to me, beer! Now this was partly because I was feeling like shit all week and hadn't really had anything to drink because of it.
So which beer to use? Kernel Export Stout? Sierra Nevada 30th Anniversary? Beaumonts Ginger Beer?
All of the above?
I decided on Ginger and Lemon Cupcakes with Beaumonts Ginger Beer and fresh grated Ginger.

After

So I'm not going to go into the details of the recipe because I'm not a chef and you don't want you all nodding off but suffice to say you can find the recipe I used here.
What I will say is I modified it from Lemon to Lemon, Ginger and Vanilla and I also used Beaumonts Ginger Beer which I've blogged about before, it's a light, refreshing alcoholic ginger beer from Cornish Orchards and it's damn fine stuff!
All in all I guess it's a success, the cakes are light and fluffy and the icing is lovely and gingery too!
Now I'm going to...and drumroll please....have my cake and eat it!

Girlie Beer Anyone?

Picture supplied by Cooking Lager

Not once, not twice but three times today we were asked if we had any 'Girlie Beer' by ladies who had been brought in by their other halves. Ok now I'm one for equal opportunities but I knew what they meant, something that tasted of fruit. Oh dear.
My mate Melissa Cole has been shouting about this subject for years(not going to give her age away though) and I'm sure if she was standing in the bar at the time she'd either a) walk out in disgust or almost certainly b) try and educate these ladies into trying something other than an over-sweetened fruit beer.
Now, I have a whole shelf in one of my fridges dedicated to fruit beers and there are some very good ones but clearly we still need to shout about the fact that ladies can enjoy any beer on any occasion so, anyone up for ladies night soon at The Rake?
I could put some very 'unladylike' beers on and invite all the ladies I know, hell! YOU could invite all the ladies YOU know, how does that sound?
You can also vote on the poll to the right, and before I get people complaining that it's sexist, it's just a bit of fun and my wife approved it!

CAMRA Awards 2010

Last Saturday I had the pleasure of attending the CAMRA awards lunch. Now having had Roger Ryman, Head Brewer at St Austells and one of the winners at The Rake the night before, I was somewhat hungover so it took me a bit of time to get into my stride.
I was lucky enough to get a mini tour of The Oval too before the function, it was awesome! It's a ground I've been to loads of times, being a member at Surrey CCC but I had never been behind the scenes before, what a treat!
I got to see the original copies of the Wisden almanacs and the dressing rooms. Interestingly, the away dressing room has a wall not unlike The Rake's brewers wall. It's been signed by lots of international players from all countries that have played at The Oval.
The Lunch itself was superb, the staff at The Oval really did a superb job. Lunch started with beer, of course! I started on a pint of the Castle Rock Harvest Pale Ale, a lovely light hoppy beer that's apparently good for getting rid of hangovers!
The menu went thus...

STARTER

Ravioli of Butternut Squash with a sage butter sauce, crisp sage leaves with grated aged Parmigiano Reggiano. Served with Castle Rock Harvest Pale Ale.

MAIN

Roast breast of creedy carver duck, celeriac souboise, root vegetable and sweet potato galette, creamed savoy cabbage and a port and sage jus. Served with Timothy Taylor Landlord and Fullers Gales HSB.

DESSERT

Creme Brulee with Scottish shortbread biscuit and blueberry confit. Served with O'Hanlon's Port Stout and Thornbridge Jaipur.

COFFEE AND CHOCOLATES

Served with St Austells Admiral Ale.

Now I don't usually eat posh nosh like this but it  was really rather good and the beer parings were excellent, introduced by the brewers of each beer they went extremely well. I've never really liked creme brulee but because I was in polite company(surrounded by Fullers & Thornbridge brewers!) I thought I'd give it a go and very nice it was too, exactly the right consistency and great flavour, made all the better with the beer paring of Thornbridge's Jaipur and the O'Hanlons Port Stout.

If you weren't aware there were awards going on too, these were I believe announced at GBBF but given out last week. If you didn't know who won here's the list:
Mild Category
Gold : Surrey Hills, Hammer Mild
Sliver : Greene King XX Mild
Joint Bronze : Golcar Dark Mild & Nottingham Rock Ale Mild.
Bitter Category
Gold : RCH PG Steam
Silver : Moor Revival
Joint Bronze : Orkney Raven & Purple Moose Snowdonia Ale
Best Bitter Category
Gold : Timothy Taylor Landlord
Silver : St Austell Tribute
Joint Bronze : Evan Evans Cwrw & Great Oakley Gobble
Strong Bitter Category
Gold : Thornbridge Jaipur
Silver : Fullers Gales HSB
Bronze : Beckstones Rev Rob
Golden Ale Category
Gold : Castle Rock Harvest Pale Ale
Silver : Marble Manchester Bitter
Bronze : St Austell Proper Job
Speciality Category
Gold : Amber Chocolate Orange Stout
Silver : O'Hanlons Port Stout
Bronze : Breconshire Ysbrid y Draig
Bottled Beer of Britain Category
Gold : St Austell Admirals Ale
Silver : Pitfield 1850 London Porter
Bronze : Great Oakley Delapre Dark
OVERALL WINNERS
Champion Beer of Britain 2010 : Castle Rock Harvest Pale Ale
Silver : Timothy Talyors Landlord
Bronze : Surrey Hills Hammer Mild


Now I like the Castle Rock Harvest Pale Ale but Champion Beer of Britain? Really? There are better beers on this list. Likewise the Silver position and I haven't tried the Surrey Hills Hammer Mild but I am reliably informed that it was superb.
There were some very interesting results in the mix, for instance, one of my favourite beers at the moment is the Moor Revival, it's a beautifully balanced beer that's 4% and tasty as hell, it only got silver. As remarked by Roger Protz who was doing the presentations, brewers are getting a lot younger! The Great Oakley lads got a couple of bronze's and they don't look old enough to even drink! So when they went to collect their awards I thought they'd let their kids collect instead! Now I haven't had their beers but they got two bronzes which usually means they're better than the golds when it comes to CAMRA so well done chaps!
All in all a massive well done to all the guys who got through to the final stages, I enjoyed almost all the beers I tried and those I haven't I'm looking forward to!
Slap on the wrist for Protsky though who STILL can't pronounce Ysbrid y Draig! You've had two months to practice Roger, school report says must do better!
Until next time folks!

Water, Malted Barley, Hops & Yeast

I'm about to start sounding like a right grumpy old bastard so please forgive me or stop reading this post now before you get bored.
There is a current trend in the beer scene that says that ales have to be hopped then dry-hopped, green-hopped, mega-fuckin-hopped and then hopped again. Really? Not so my friends. Those of you that read this blog on a regular basis will know that I am a bit of a 'hophead'. Last night however, I had a great balanced beer, what gave it the balance, why that'll be one of the other four main ingredients in beer, the malt!
The beer in question is Kernel Pale Ale with Amarillo and Centennial hops, this pale ale is slightly darker than most of Evin's previous concoctions in as much as it's a light amber colour! Boy it's great beer though, totally drinkable, so much so that I went from having a quick half before going home to having a couple of pints of it before leaving!
People were insisting on more hops last night for his next round of these beers but I personally think this was pretty much the perfect beer and without wanting to sound patronising, I think it marked a certain 'coming of age' or maturity in the brewing that whilst the beers were great, hasn't been seen before and I hope that he just get overly persuaded by the beer mafia wannabes and keeps making these superb brews. Hops are all well and good but when you find the perfect mix, why change it?
If it ain't broke don't fix it!

Mikkeller Nugget Single Hop IPA

330ml bottle from BeerMerchants.com I bought it on a whim, it's a plain label, no hype, no bullshit, just beer, in a bottle with one hop used, how refreshing.
Very herbal aromas as you might expect from a single hopped Nugget beer, the taste is amazing, it's clean, it's refreshing. The Nugget hop is usually one used for bittering only but this beer proves it's much more versatile than that.


I now wish I had bought more whilst I had the chance. Oh well, too skint for any of that now, saving for New York in January, I'll just have to hope you logt ain't bought it all in the meantime.
By the way if any of you are feeling generous I reckon this makes a great Christmas present, hint, hint!

Any Requests?

Afternoon my fearless band of trusty followers.
Whilst I was behind the bar last night I had a customer come up to the bar and ask if I would try and get some beers from Suffolk in. Well The Rake is a bar that will try new things so I asked what he wanted to see in the bar.
He gave me a list of three different breweries from Suffolk. I'll look them up and we'll see what happens. It got me thinking though, I don't have space in the bar for a requests board but I'm still interested in what people think is...well, interesting.
It Doesn't have to be just beer either, it could be anything.
So, is there anything that YOU want to see in The Rake? we'll of course strive to get new and exciting things in the bar as we always do but what about you?

In Vino Veritas

Alcaeus, a Greek poet, said it first and said it best. In wine there is truth. These days it means someone's got pissed and said something they shouldn't have. Inhibited judgement is a cause of drinking, people become more confident or bolshy.
Small disagreements between otherwise intelligent and good friends become full blown arguments where things get said in ways that they shouldn't.
I have two friends that I have known for over 30 years now, long enough that I now consider them my brothers, we have had many arguments in the past and have always found a way to get past them. Another two friends of mine, and I'm not going to name names, had a falling out last night, not just caused by beer but over it, now I'm not going to go into details but suffice to say, I have immense respect for both of them as people and in respect to their work.
And so, with all due respect to both of them, come on guys, it's only beer, lets move on.