Live beer blogging…or speed beer tasting. 10 beers in 50 mins. Each brewer gets 5 mins to present their beer.
First up…Controversial brewer of Top Totty…Slater’s. They want us to taste the beer not judge them on their pump clip – which they stand by! Although they do offer a bunnyless version.
It’s a thirst quenching cerealy brew but hasn’t set my world on fire.
(Apologies for sideways pic!)
Next Camden Town Brewery USA Hells…first beer of theirs I’ve liked. Zesty, tropical fruity, green tea perfumey brew.
Another post to follow!
It’s been bothering me for a while that too many of the exciting beery things I do don’t make it on to my blog. In an attempt to remedy the situation, may I present to you…
“Sophie’s Beer Diary”
Look out for regular posts under this heading which will be made up of three or so short ‘stories’ each time. Here’s the first so you know what to expect:
How I became an official beer taster
Late last year I got an email inviting me to apply for one of 30 positions as a taster for Welsh brewery Evan-Evans. The 245-year-old Carmarthenshire brewery has plans to launch a series of new cask and bottled beers, including a range of organic beers, and they want a team of people to blind taste them as part of the development of these additions to their portfolio.
Apparently they thought they’d struggle to get 30 tasters but were overwhelmed by 250 applications and decided they’d make the most of this interest and increase the team to 50. I was selected to be one of them.
Last weekend half the team attended a training session (led by a tutor from the Beer Academy, who run a range of interesting courses two of which I attended last year) at Evan-Evans Cardiff pub The Cricketers, on Cathedral Road. If the cask ales they already brew are anything to go by (for example their 4.8% premium bitter Warrior – which has a delicate caramel-toffee flavour leading to a gentle but dry, astringent finish with a slightly chocolate aftertaste and rather belies its name; or May Fly a 4.3% tropical fruity golden summer brew) it looks like it could be quite a pleasurable job.
Evan-Evans ‘Cricketers pub, Cardiff
I am too scared to open these beers
Well, not scared exactly but when a limited edition beer arrives at my house in a splendid presentation box or a numbered bottle as well as thinking, “Wow! This looks exciting. I wonder what it tastes like.” I also can’t help thinking I should save it rather than opening it straight away. I know others have similar ‘issues’ given Andy Mogg and Mark Dredge’s Open It! weekends encouraging beer enthusiasts to drink those special beers rather than let them languish in the cupboard. Like them I think the answer to this conundrum is not to wait for a special occasion but make an occasion out of drinking the beer.
Shepherd Neame Generation Ale & St Austell Diamond Imperial IPA
I’ll report back on how I get on with this when I have my Shepherd Neame Generation Ale, a 9% “burnished gold ale [which] combines five classic roasted malts with five … varieties of Kentish hops,” and was then matured for 12 months. It’s been created to celebrate five generations of brewing by the Faversham-based brewery and comes in an impressive looking wooden presentation box. Priced at £17.50 for a 75cl bottle it’s exclusively available from www.shepherdneame.co.uk/shop.
I’ll then have to come up with another way of creating an occasion* when I have my St Austell Brewery Royal Diamond Imperial IPA which as you might imagine has been brewed to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. Rather helpfully St Austell suggests it is best served chilled, in a champagne flute and would be complimented by a dish of seared scallops in butter and bacon with asparagus. Royal Diamond Imperial IPA is available from www.staustellbreweryshop.co.uk at £12 per 750ml bottle.
European Beer Bloggers Conference
It feels like much more than a year since I attended the first EBBC in London last May, but the second one (in Leeds this time) is now upon us! I am looking forward to sampling many new beers and learning about other interesting things, including a tasting session examining the effects of glass shape and style hosted by Spiegelau Glassworks. Other highlights will be catching up with the crew – and beers – of Williams Brothers Brewery; a tour of Magic Rock Brewery in Huddersfield and I have high hopes for the ‘keynote speech’ by Sharp’s Head Brewer Stuart Howe as I enjoyed his irreverent style at the British Guild of Beer Writers Ingredients Symposium earlier this year.
I’ll endeavour to bring you some ‘live’ blog posts from the EBBC12 if I can.
Bring it on (as they say).
*I think I’ve given away my left wing, non-royalist leanings by it not being obvious to me to open it for the Jubilee!
How’s your hop knowledge?
04/05/2012
Apparently around half of wine drinkers can name some of the grapes used to make their preferred tipple but beer drinkers struggle to name even a single hop.
I’ll confess I’ve based the latter on some deeply unscientific ‘research’ I did; add that I didn’t ask any beer aficionados and of course I realise the situation is skewed by so many wines bearing the name of the grapes they are made from. But all the same it made me feel a little sad for hops. I’d even go so far as to say they are underrated.
What do hops mean to you?
What do they mean to you? Are you aware that hops not only bring bitterness to your beer but countless other flavours AND aromas too? If you are then I apologise for preaching to the converted, but the more I learn about hops the more I like them and want to share what I know.
I’m not the only one. There is a campaign under way to, as they say, big up British hop varieties which are too often being passed over in favour of ‘exotic’ varieties from overseas. Hop Farmer Ali Capper of Stocks Farm, Worcestershire, has teamed up with Hop Merchant – and self confessed hop lover – Paul Corbett of Charles Faram & Co Ltd to spread the word about what UK hops can do and they are aiming their message at brewers rather than consumers. Capper believes we not only need to be talking about hops but that we should also be spending time really getting to know them.
“Most brewers only know four or five hop varieties really well, but we grow 20 commercial varieties in the UK. We [the hop industry] need to campaign because we’re not very good at marketing ourselves,” she says.
Her contribution is to go out, talk to brewers and showcase British hops. She has an attention grabbing way of doing it – the rub ‘n’ sniff. Hop samples are displayed so people can literally grab a handful, crush them between their palms and smell the aromas released by the little yellow sacks of oil at the base of the flowers.
“I’ll go rub and sniff English hops anywhere,” she adds. “We want brewers to think about the varieties they don’t know.”
The rub ‘n’ sniff sits alongside Paul Corbett’s overview of hop farming and production, including the fact that hops are produced by cloning (through cuttings from an original plant) because each new seed would produce a new variety and the effect of the UK’s ‘terroir’ (conditions such as mild summer, mild winter, fertile soil and maritime climate from the Atlantic Ocean) on the hops grown here.
“UK hop flavours are different from what is produced by the rest of the world,” says Paul, going on to explain about plans for new hops.
“More intensely flavoured hops are being developed in all countries, but many of the UK’s new varieties would be from the hedgerow varieties,” which he says are believed to be more sustainable and environmentally friendly than the current climbing species. (Traditionally hops bines can grow up to 20 feet tall).
Hop farm, Kent
If it seems like this is all about brewers and what they can do I’d urge you to think again. If we, as consumers (or if you prefer drinkers) knew more about hops then we too could speak up for British varieties and if you’re passionate about locally grown produce and its benefits to the environment then home grown hops fit perfectly with that issue too.
Many breweries already appreciate the value of talking up hops and provide information about what varieties are used in each of their beers on labels and pumpclips. There’s also an increasing trend for single hop brews, with a number of breweries creating beers featuring a different hop each month and at least one – Tring Brewery in Hertfordshire, who hosted the rub ‘n’ sniff I went to – supporting the Great British Hop cause by featuring all UK hops in these monthly specials.
If other breweries seem to be taking their time telling us what hops they use, and whether or not they’re British varieties, then maybe it’s up to us to heed Ali Capper’s lead and give them a little nudge.
Table of British hop varieties, courtesy Charles Faram & Co Ltd
Ali Capper’s Guide to Rubbing & Sniffing Hops!
- Warm hands (by rubbing gently together to get your circulation going).
- If rubbing several varieties, start with a low flavour intensity/less pungent hop and work up to higher intensities.
- Really rub the hops to crush the oils out.
Really rub those hops!
- If you’ve done it properly you should have yellowish oil residue on your hands afterwards.
Look for the yellow oil residue…
- Lift your palms to your nose and sniff the aroma you’ve released.
Get a good sniff!
- NB: DO NOT wash your hands between varieties – residual oils interfere less with good sniffing than soap from hand washing will.
- What hops are used to make your favourite beer? Post a comment below if you already know or if you feel like doing some research and find out.
