Same Beer. Four Different Pints.

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I've recently been out and about doing some 'investigative research' and enjoying a few nice beer in some of Glasgow's better bars.

One beer that I've 'researched' more than others recently is a new offering from one of my favourite Scottish breweries, Fyne Ales. It's their West Highland Black IPA (WHBIPA) and for the past few weeks it's been making an appearance in The Three Judges, The Bon Accord, The State Bar and The Laurieston.

As you'd expect from Fyne Ales, it's a well made, tasty beer from a brewery with a reputation for crafting well made, tasty beers. However, what has struck me, imbibing this beer in four different establishments in just over a week, is that how much of a difference cellarmanship and correctly looking after the beer once it has hit the pub can make to the taste, aroma, flavour and overall enjoyment of the beer.

Some of WHBIPA I've sampled has been simply out of this world. The State Bar, for example, presented a stunning and well looked after, fantastic example of this beer. It was full of intense hop nose and creamy roast malt served at a temperature that allowed each of the flavours in the beer to be savoured and enjoyed in a beautifully balanced pint.

In another pub, the beer was served too warm and from the condition of the beer, I got the impression that it had not been cellared long enough for the beer to settle. In context, it was the first pint of the day poured in this pub and it may have not been pulled through the line thoroughly enough. In another, it was too cold and this masked some of the more subtle flavours of the beer.

It got me thinking.

How many times has beer left breweries in great nick only for it to be let down at the final hurdle in the pub due to it not sitting long enough, being poorly conditioned, badly poured or served as if it was a cold lager or tepid mug of bovril?

My favourite drink is getting too expensive these days to be playing beery Russian Roulette with my next pint not knowing whether it will be in awesome, awful or just alright condition. I know the Cask Marque system of accreditation exists as an indicator of a pub that serves well kept beer and the nature of beer as a living product means that it will change in the cask but sometimes there's no excuse for sloppy cellarcraft in some pubs.

Is it too much to ask that if pubs are selling Real Ale they concentrate on getting the basics right first?
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Should Camra promote all 'craft' beer?

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I've just received my Summer edition of Camra's quarterly publication 'Beer' and I was pleasantly surprised to see a healthy debate within it's pages titled - Should Camra promote all 'craft' beer?


Arguing for the 'YES' camp is author of the Good Beer Guide Belgium and former Camra exec member, Tim Webb. In the 'No' corner is the current Chairman of Camra's Rochdale branch and author of the Tandleman Beer Blog, Peter Alexander. It is an interesting debate.


Webb argues that 'Camra needs to get involved in the new world' and that a 'new generation of beer drinkers' are 'not impressed by technical correctness of production' but instead 'get excited by exploring taste and variety'. He goes on, 'What makes beer good...is neither dictated by technical specification nor advertising. It is defined by what experienced palates taste within it'. He describes Camra's definition of good beer as 'now plainly inadequate'.


Alexander counters in a concilliatory tone by stating that 'Few of us are so closed-minded to believe that cask is the only way to serve good beer'. However, he goes on to state that 'Our purpose, until the members say otherwise, is to promote real ale as the indigenous beer style of Britain. It is why we exist'. To reinforce this point, Alexander qoutes one of the Camra founders, Michael Hardman, 'I must point out that we're not fighting against anything, we're fighting for something'.


Alexander finishes his argument by saying that 'The craft beer movement must find it's own way in the world'.


On the following page, Fuller's head brewer, John Keeling continues the debate further by exploring the science of packaging, dispense and it's influence on flavour.


It is good to see Camra devoting some space over to this issue and exploring it in a mature and non finger pointing, knee jerk way.


This is an exciting time to be a beer drinker. The range and quality of beers out there has never, in my opinion, been better. Both keg and cask have their merits and on the issue of dispense, I'm fairly pragmatic. If the cap fits and all that. Keg has clearly moved on since the dark days of the 1970's when Camra first started and I believe that quality cask and keg can peacefully co-exist in a perfect beer world.


 However, on the question of whether Camra should promote all 'craft' beer. That is, as Peter Alexander says, down to the members of that organisation. If you are not a member of Camra and think that they should endorse keg, join the organisation and try and change it from within.








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Who wants another chain pub?

 The fight to save the iconic and 'much loved' Glasgow pub, Tennent's Bar has stepped up a gear and intensified after local  MSP Pauline McNeill  put forward a Motion to the Scottish Parliament which calls on it to 'note the strength of feeling against potential changes' and that the pub is not only a 'landmark' but also a 'Glasgow institution'.


The Motion, put forward on the 3rd of November, to the Parliament and supported by MSP Willie Coffey comes hot on the heels of internet campaigns and i-petitions designed to put pressure on new owners Mitchells and Butlers not to gentrify and turn the historic West End landmark into a gastropub.


Mitchells and Butlers, which has a portfolio of approximately 2000 pubs, recently acquired Tennent's and are considering an extensive refurbishment to the pub during the April/May of 2011.


Tennent's is an integral and iconic part of Glasgow pub culture. This traditional Victorian corner pub which sits in the heart of Glasgow's West End on Byres Road has been an institution since it opened in 1884. It has twelve handpumps dispensing nine regular ales from breweries such as Harviestoun, Orkney, Caledonian and Timmy Taylor as well as three guest ales. There is a real fear not only among its regulars but also the wider beer/pub community that Mitchells and Butlers intend to move away from the traditional real ale pub and rebrand and repackage it a restaurant/bistro/gastro pub.

In their defence, Mitchells and Butlers say that "We are looking at making some changes such as increasing the size of the kitchen. The pub is to be operated under the Nicholson's badge, our collection of historic pubs operating across Britain which all share a passion for Real Ale, traditional pub food and local heritage at their core".


For many Glasgow beer drinkers, it is unthinkable to consider Tennent's not being in its current incarnation this time next year. Instead, it could be another homogenous bar/bistro serving over priced beer and food in a place stripped of its history and legacy. That's a horrible thought.



You can add your name to the save Tennent's petition here -


http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/savetennentsbarfromchange/

the beer monkey says hello

Welcome to the beer monkey's blog.

A blog in which I will be discussing, contemplating and shooting the breeze about the wonderful world of beer and all things beer related.

So, pull up a chair, pour yourself a lovely drop of refreshing beer and I hope you enjoy the blog.

Cheers or as beer drinkers around the world say:  Prost, Skol, Cin Cin, Okole Manula!, Salut, Serefe!, Oogy Wawa!, On Egin!,  A Votre Sante.