Open it! Don't open it...

Open it! Don't open it... OPEN it!!!

Don't

ok do... *sigh*

Yeah so it's the end of January and I'm still catching up on some interesting threads from last year. Who knows? Perhaps by the end of 2011 I'll have dealt with all the loose ends rather than sitting in the larder looking at the 'collection' of beers I've managed to gather up, painstakingly working out which one is the PERFECT beer for this particular moment...

I was semi-inspired by an initiative towards the end of last year from Mark Dredge called 'open it'. Essentially a rallying call to beer types to get out those beers that have been lingering in the cellar. Those beers that have become resident, hoarded or stashed. Those special beers regarded by oddballs like myself as to be worthy of not being drunk just yet, they are being saved for the perfect moment.

If you have a bottle of Ambrosia - do you drink it straight away? Or do you save it for the evening before the Great Reckoning?

Well the gods seem to have omitted guidance on bottle ageing and certainly didn't give a fuck about best before dates or suchlike.

That's the problem with collections you see.

I suspect that most bloggers/experts/aficionado/nerds are collectors or indeed hoarders. It doesn't necessarily mean they all have cellars full of hard to find delights (they do). It does mean they collect experiences, tastes and memories (and beers). That's what's unsettling about an initiative like 'open it'.

I regularly find myself sitting in the larder procrastinating over my small but respectable stash, angst ridden, attempting to decipher which particular drink fits the moment perfectly. That's also why I'm ohhh 7 weeks behind the rest of the beer blogging world (and a comfortably detached 52 in the wikio wankings).

So in mitigation...

I did open a few from the stores over December they were lovely, I'm not going to brag... but they were all rare and all aged to perfection! HA! You see I run a brilliant bar, as such I drink fair bit and drink well. I drink fresh beer, aged beer and everything in between. I constantly train people and I sell people stuff that they have never tried before (it's ace!) It's my bread and butter. I also quite like drinking brilliant beer in the company of friends, in bars and sometimes in a state of disrepair. This clearly does not lend itself to good writing and thus, reader, I have spared you the details.

Apologies to Mark Dredge

- OPEN IT - I HAVE BEEN DRINKING -

Hitachino Nest - Red Rice Ale - 7%

Hmm, now then, Rice Ale? Now of course I've slagged off the use of Rice in beer on many an occasion, Budwieser are the most prominent 'bastard adjunct' brewer but this is different of course and is a beer brewed with Red Rice - apparently it's ancient. It certainly makes for a bonkers ale.

Golden amber with a reddish tinge, strawberry scented, grapey and tangy with gentle fermented rice almost miso edge.

There's a little bit of umami soy sauce-ness there along with Blackpool rock. It's a bit like a tripel in body but is tangerine-tart enough to quench a 10 hour bar shift or indeed a 3 am thirst.

People who I have spoken to about this brewery have variously described their beers as OK, brilliant, cute or intriguing. I am falling in to the latter camp, this is a very good beer - it takes the japanese sweet/savoury umami sensibility and holds fourth a complex, slaking, oddity of a beer.

Oh yeah and it's dead fucking cute and their website is suitably bonkers...

Hitachino

A bit of a year in beer?

What ho!

Oooh inactive for two months eh? Broken computer innit guvnor? Can't write proper posts on them damn mooble phones...

Thought I'd do a bit of a catch up then and hopefully a little round up of some of the good stuff that happened this year. Let's see how it pans out...

I got on the radio again the other day - it was yet another industry opinion needed to try and rationalise some inordinate twattery by the government or scientists of somewhat. My advice to everyone - let the craft beer industry do its work. It has incredible potential to provide work, products and exports that we can be proud of. Drop the taxes on craft beer, penalise irresponsible pub management, and stop people selling chemical drinks for stupidly low prices.

Society will thank you for it.

In a similar vein I urge everyone to resist whatever government cut is relevant to them - it is your responsibility. We need heavyweight politics now and what we have, on all sides, are lightweight ideas that have no respect to the progress human beings have made in the last century.

ENOUGH! That's politics out of my system...

I noted that Zak Avery ran a competition to write something about 'beer' and 'time' I of course am ready and on hand to delve in to my most creative depths. Although I wasn't and thus missed the deadline. But better late than never.

HA! All I did was googled beer and time!!! You can almost see the 'A hole' there!

Anyway the following entry to Zaks competition did inspire me no end and I feel was the most eloquent exploration of the theme. Apologies to Stuart - it wasn't an instant association with the image above

Now please do not feel this video mere whimsy - this is one of the UK's finest brewers in action! We've had the pleasure of many a Crown brewery beer at North bar this year from the inspiring heights of Django Reinhardt, named after my cat, a wonderful collaboration with the aforementioned Avery. A deep fruitful damson porter (often surreptitiously spiked with port by the denizens of North).

Crown's Brooklyn heights is also been an utter winner this year - now this is no lie - I haven't heard anyone mention this wonderful bright hoppy ale without waxing lyrical about its brilliance. SERIOUSLY! Good fucking work Stu, please someone get this man a bigger brewery!

The other big hitters for me were Marble and Brewdog. For me these seem at almost opposite ends of the spectrum, which is just fine.

Marble have upgraded this year and have produced some stunning beers which have now stepped fully in to the national market. Dobber! Good god man this beer is such a brute! Probably one of the finest IPAs I had and I have had a hell of a year folks.

With a solid stable of regular beers, marble do the job right. But the specials have been of such a high quality too - Ginger 6 on draught, Special, Vuur & Vlam and their peerless Chocolate Dubbel. Just reciting those few beers makes me want to get on the train to Manchester and go burgle the brewery right now!

Of course there's no review of the year that can be complete without mentioning Brewdog. Fine tuning in the brewery has turned brilliant US inspired beers in to flawless UK classics. Hardcore IPA anyone? I've a man in the bar that pretty much goes through an entire case a week when it's in. It's genius and deserved winner of gold medal in the World Beer Cup.

5am saint in kegs? Tokyo? The Mikkeller collaboration beers?

I have never smelled mangoes like I do in I Hardcore You - not even in mangoes. This sums up the beer, with the irksome omission of mangoes.

Of course the highlight of my year was my role in picking the hops and malt for this beer.

It was made as a one off. It has been drunk and appreciated beyond my wildest dreams and is actually in production now (!!!). Considering the rather chaotic inception of the beer I'm so pleased that it came out so well. It's a testament to the guys at the brewery could turn a somewhat deranged concept in to a winning beer.

I can't help but gloat of course - it wouldn't exist without me and a few 'artful' friends...

And yes of course my wife... and of course getting married was the non-beer highlight of my year darling xxx

Oooh look I got through that whilst drinking a DFH Palo Santo Marron and a FD Raging Bitch and I don't think I made any spellingg mistakles.

Blockage in a de sistim...

New computer on the way... I refuse to post using my phone as it will give me arthritis in later life and I have people to socialise with...

Why don't you go and read a book?

Like this,
Or this...
Or this...
Or THIS!

Or just listen to sense and start questioning the system we are allowing to rule us... http://www.dancarlin.com/

Stagger do! My Visit to Fraserburgh to brew something NEW

You may or may not know and perhaps care even less, but I've recently tied the knot! It was brillant actually and wholeheartedly recommend it to all of you!!!

So of course it was my stag do a few weeks back and rather than going go-karting or some other nonsense we decided to pay a visit to the chaps at brewdog where Brewdog's Emperor Penguin had invited us to try our hand at brewing. How good was it? FUCKING BRILLIANT! The guys up there are fantastic and incredibly hospitable. It was, despite my somewhat accelerated state of stag do 'refreshment' a really great insight in to what goes on at this now world famous brewery and what makes it utterly special.

It was pretty damn interesting for me to feel the atmosphere of the brewery and to meet the brewers and workers - there's a great collegiate kinda feeling with young brewers from around the world as well as local lads doing what must be one of the hardest and most fun jobs you can do! Brewdog have a great background in collaboration with the likes of Three Floyds and Mikkeler - the gypsy brewer, it's the way it should be and I congratulate James and Martin for fortering this kind of atmostphere. Frazerburgh is one hell of a place, right on the very edge of Scotland, stuck right out in to the North Sea. It's a place of extremes. Extremes that I discovered whilst camping in the most unsheltered campsite in the UNIVERSE and I didn't feel so fucking clever at 4am in the morning, clutching a bottle of Sink the Bismark while my tent whipped around me in the salty lashing rain, 'you should have pegged it in properly' I hear you say... No that campsite is the devils own work, don't go there in Winter, you'll die.

It makes sense that what's made there is equally extreme and Brewdog have made such an impact on the UK scene, they've ruffled plenty of feathers and in the process have created some beers of true brilliance. Several of which I sampled, regularly, throughout the weekend... In particular we drank a shed load of 5am saint right from the tank.

I was pretty lucky to try a brand new IPA made Bramling cross hops which was bang on. Bramling is a British hop with a distinctly American aroma but a brilliant British fruity taste. The beer is cracking and has a juicy traditional IPA roundness, coupled with a great level of bitterness and a salty bite - this in particular is intriguing and something I've only really noticed in a couple of beers before now. I love it. Is it something to do with brewing with the North Sea literally at your back door? Is it something to do with my tastebuds being fucked after the weekend?

We're just about to put on our creation at North Bar. It's named Alice Porter in honour of my wife (her maiden name) and of course it's a porter! It's 6.2% and smooth as hell, we used alot of the aforementioned Bramling cross as well as a great hop called sorachi. The idea was essentially to brew something pretty stout but use the fruit of the Bramling and the lemony-ness of the sorachi to add that porter tang! It's worked and has produced a highly quaffable beverage along the lines. If you can't get down to North over the next month or so then you may find it at Further North or the Marble Arch in Manchester. A small amount has also been released in London and Aberdeen under the name 'Santa doesn't exist'.

So there you go - ace eh. I must credit the brewers with the creation of the beer - we picked hops and malt and did a load of donkey work, those guys are amazing and I'm looking forward to seeing them at North so I can return the favour... So to speak...

Raise your glasses!

I was interviewed by Radio Aire today.

"What did they want?" I hear you cry... In my head...

Was it for some insightful advice on the Craft Bar scene? To talk about North's brilliant Oktoberfest that starts, incidentally, next Wednesday... To recommend that people drink sensibly and carefully and eschew beers made of corn industrial enzymes and rice syrup?

Nooooo. It was about the proposed ban on Glass in pubs. Yes this is a real hot issue and no mistake. Up and down the land marauding thugs are slashing innocent punters with stella 'chalices', bludgeoning with branded tankards and slashing with Strongbow etched nonics...

Nonsense.

Far be it for me to make light of a serious issue, a 'glassing' is a nasty, vindictive act which permanently damages the recipient physically and mentally - I've seen it and it's horrible.

Not at North of course... Why is that then? I mean if it's such a problem as to require a total ban then surely it must be A HUGE PROBLEM???

No, it's not. The problem is... The people who hit other people with glasses. Now how do we deal with this. Simple - good staff and good security. In 'cattle market' venues this seems to be and thus trouble can lead to violence. But for the majority of licensed premises well trained staff will refuse service to people who have had too much and people who are aggressive. Well trained doormen know not to let in known troublemakers, they will also, in one or two swift sentence be able greet the punter and discern whether they have had too much or are likely to be aggressive. People who know their jobs, know the signs and thus are able to deal with problems before they turn nasty.

Of course there is always the chance that perfectly calm and sober people could suddenly lose it and smack some poor fool in the face with a glass. They could also use a chair, I mean they are heavier and better for bludgeoning... They could tear the pictures from the walls, the bottles from the bar, pool cues and bits of the staircases in some kind of mock cowboy brawl. They could use guns or knives!!!! God the world is scary!

Don't fucking believe it. The streets and bars and pubs are safer now then they ever have been. Horrible things can happen but it's well within our means to keep them to an absolute minimum.

Bars and pubs with persistent problems should have their licenses revoked. Venues with good training and good records should be held up as examples to the rest, not tarred (yet again!) with the same brush as irresponsible booze trough venues.

This sort of nonsense puts fear in to people's minds so they stay in their homes and drink; 'unsupervised' towards a miserable, frightened, cheap booze soaked death.

The glasses aren't the problem. It's the hands that hold them...

Of course we could always ban hands, have everyone drink their allotted number of units through a fucking straw and then stagger back in to the streets and bash together like a half pissed army of demented weebles...

Of course if you do get in to a bar fight a bit of advice is always useful:

Czeching the Saigon situation

Ha now there's a good title, czeching! Ha it's a pun... And we all love a pun don't we? Don't we?

Yet again you find me in another improbable beer drinking situation, a Czech style brewpub in Ho Chi Minh city, known locally and formerly as Saigon. I'm quaffing the local Hoa Vien Tmavy Lezak... That's a mouthful, quite literally!!!! Ha ha ha ohhhhhh. Yes dark roastily bitter Czech style beer in Vietnam and brewed in the lovely copper brewhouse right on the premises...




Beer is great eh? It's something that seems to transcend boundaries, borders, classes... Every great pub, brewhouse or bar seems to me to have a similar mix of young and old, both sexes, loners and boozy groups. It's commonly said but I'm going to do it again, beer is an unrivalled social lubricant!

It must remain as such.

In the whirlingly stupid morality of today we are within the reach of legislation to curb drinking. I see it regularly in reactionary local policing and council anti binge policy. Did you know that it's now illegal for me to pour booze in to someones mouth in a pub?

Nice work the council!

When I was in Erding a couple of weeks ago on a bit of a jolly I was stuck by the unity of the people of the town at their annual harvest festival. Erdinger beer IS the focal point of that little Bavarian town, young and old rally around it and all hang out together in their massive beerhall, eating stupid amounts of pork! They are inspired to wear leather shorts and chicken hats! Even the cool teens get in on the act sloshing down litre after litre of the stuff.



Now what the hell is wrong with that?

Anyhow, I can say with pretty much complete Euro-beer-snob authority that I am drinking the best beer that Vietnam has to offer, lovely shit and no mistake.



Now, where's my fucking weiner schnitzel?

Nam!

How's about that then? I'm in Vietnam on my honeymoon and I'm on a beach with tropical flowers, palm trees, coconuts, amazing seafood, mopeds and amazing beers!

Fucking a!

Travelling through the forests and jungles of Vietnam is amazingly like watching the films I so loved in my youth. You almost expect hueys to come panelling over the horizon and hard bitten GI's to start shouting shit about DANANG and LV'S!

Of course they don't and clearly the 'traveller' world has moved on a bit since I took a drug addled year out in Mexico some 11 years ago. Back then (yes I cringe to say it) all we had was an out of date rough guide and a will to get smashed on anything we could get our hands on. Cue dangerous incidents in shanty towns, loud hallucinations and worrying weight loss.



Right now I'm sitting in an agreeable colonial-ish bar on a strip of road, adjacent to a beautiful beach, listening to a big Mexican chap playing Eric Clapton, Louis Armstrong and Hey Jude and bleeding Lady in Red! Fuck it eh - wherever you go in the world there's always a fat Mexican playing the Beatles...

It's nice!

Even nicer as this particular bar is Joe's and Joe, knows good beer. We have all the Belgian biggies and a spot of Hofbrau too... Granted in comparison to the, very good, Saigon beer it's a bit pricey but hey what's £2 when a lobster costs you £4?



So Saigon export red is tops, clean and full and not so far from a Dortmund lager, saigon green is pilsner-esque and lighter but unfortunately not better than the local brewed heineken.

My Chimay has travelled many miles and is better for it, we get through plenty at north so it's aleays pretty fresh and the stuff I've put down to age really isn't ready yet. So of course I have to come all the way to Vietnam to try the aged stuff...



Genius eh? While all the nobs in Europe are buggering around with this and that there's brilliantly conditioned Trappist ale right under their noses at the other side of the world!!! Goddamittttt.

This Chimay red is woody to smell with a sherry barrely thing going on, get inside it and there's tons of fruit. Predominantly and unexpectedly it's strawberry that really comes through followed by layers of malt and softer fruit flavours, hints of pear, Blackcurrant, berries etcetecye.... Nice? O god aye...

I'll go do a blue...

Trading on ale

phew...

that was a sweaty night - busy again at North, which is great, there's something to be said for putting everything to one side and just hammering out loads of great beer to happy punters. The last year or so has been difficult for the on trade. Disastrous for many landlords I'm sure but I'm lucky to run two great forward thinking craft bars that can adapt to the new market...

YES the new market. You see the recession has hit pubs and bars just as it's hit everything else, the reliable routines have become erratic and the tea time rush/11pm rush/last orders rush have gone out the window and licensees have been fretting as people just haven't been drinking in the same way as they did in the early part of the 2000's.

For those who haven't picked up on the craft beer boom the recession has been a sorry tale. Yet despite pressure from the Government, the prohibitionists, the scare-story-medical-bandwagon and underhand supermarket 'below cost price selling' tactics, pubs and bars who have embraced real ale, decent drinks, food and service are glimpsing light at the end of the tunnel.

Eyes are open once more to the immense potential of beer and it's wondrous health giving properties! There's a million reasons why the on trade has been in decline but it's a fact that the rediscovery of real beer in its many forms has become a rallying cry and a boon for those who give a shit about pubs and the communities they maintain.

A good time to drink exceptional beer then, tonight I had a good hour or so after a busy night having the obligatory after work bevvy with my staff. I've been fairly exhausted over the last few weeks what with one thing and the other and I've been eyeing the 2008 JW Lees harvest ale, knowing that with 2 years of age on it there will have been some fantastic things happening inside those bottles.

Aging beer can be a little hit and miss, some won't take it - others, especially those with lower ABVs might only improve slightly before dropping off. Even then light, temperature and randomness can damage beer. Not so for the good barley wine of which JW Lees are purveyors of.

Harvest is regularly right up there with the best, a UK beer coming top of the polls in the mainly US based beer advocate. When I first tasted it there was full fruit, massive oloroso sherry-ness and a swish of bitterness to balance a very sweet beer. I caned it occasionally and it occasionally took the wheels off leading to out of hand whisky type incidents that I won't bore you with tonight. Two years in the cellar and it's even more delicious - light enough on the tongue but choc a bloc with amazing walnutty depth, datey sticky toffeeness and yet that tiny bite of bitterness that balances the sweetness. Marvellous.

What to follow that with? Well I'm on the case of a Paradox from Brewdog - Isle of Arran to be precise. It's heavy but the Arran cask that this imperial stout has been aged in has treated it well. You get all the wonderful bitter chocolate and lively espresso flavours that you expect but with a dollop of vanilla ice cream too...

You like the sound of that? If you're a licensee open up you mind and your pub to craft beer - you won't regret it. If you're a punter - don't accept anything less than a really great, satisfying drink, if your local doesn't do good beer, ask why, demand it. You might just be doing them a favour...

NORTH

JW Lees

Brewdog