Charts - Saison

OOOOHHH!

One of the most consistently satisfying beer styles and perhaps also one of the most misunderstood. There's a double #1 in here as the farmhouse IPA is a hybrid BUT it tastes more saison than IPA so I'm fucking rolling with it...

1. Flying Dog/In De Wildeman - Farmhouse IPA
1. Glazen Torren - Saison D'Erpe-Mere
3. Quintine - Saison 2000
4. Silly Saison
5. Fantome Saison
6. Saison Du Pont
7. Brooklyn Sorachi Ace
8. Saison du buff
9. Saison De Dottignies
10. Nogne O - Saison (draught)

Apologies for the lack of links I'm on t'mobile and blogger isn't playing links today - will update in due course xx.

In praise of MALT

HOPS HOPS HOPS, it's all we get nowadays isn't it?

HOPS and MORE HOPS!

I love em of course but malty beers don't get as much of a look in. The mass of new converts to beer seem to progress along a pretty steep curve, as demonstrated thus...

GRAPH

I was training a couple of new staff the other day and found myself dwelling for some time on the subject of malt. Of course my North 'mega beer talk' always starts with malt, it's where all beer starts, it is the main ingredient, beer is essentially seasoned, fermented malt juice! But it did prompt me to get something on t'blog that I've been meaning to do for some time.

Hops have taken centre stage for some years but I feel a clarion call for malt coming on and it all goes back to balance... You see the other day we tried a few beers and yes we had a bunch of hoppy beers on, great beers but the paler beers lower alcohol British beers really didn't come over to the new kids as well as the stronger, sweeter more malty beers.

Case in point 1: trainee A doesn't get the hoppy blonde british ale (we'll call it 'plantagenet') at all  - too bitter. But give her a 10% double IPA from bleeding Norway, (we'll call that 'oris') and she's after another one. Now there's a ton of exotic hops in both beers but oris has loads more than plantagenet, but it is also DAMN STRONG and the only way you can get extra strength in beer is by mashing up loads of extra malt.  oris is also, a much more balanced beer, now I'm not sure whether it is easier to achieve a better balance simply by putting in more of everything and thus gaining a stronger, bolder and subsequently less nuanced flavour but that perhaps is too much fiddle-de-de. What I'm saying is that my friend that has a very limited knowledge of beer is more charmed by the mad strong beer than the lighter very hoppy beer and the reasons for this are malt and balance.

Case in point 2: The Roosters brewery in Knaresborough is famous throughout the world of brewing for a very specific type of beer. It's the type of beer that really brought British brewing to the fore and that beer is the pale ale. Specifically it's a type of beer that dragged so many drinkers back to cask due to the trick that looks quite like lager and whilst complex is not challenging. Every first generation UK micro has one of these beers, Roosters have taught a lesson through Sean Frankiln's strict adherence to the use of pale malt as a canvas to show of the qualities of aromatic hops. Roosters standard hop presence is ultimately restrained by many of todays standards and has occasionally been denigrated for being too restrained by those new to the scene who have had access to so much extreme beer that they have become... Hop zombies.

What Sean has achieved through his brewing is balance, if you're gonna use pale malt you can't bang in so many of those ultra citric US hybrid hops else you'll loose the character of the malt, and that is a part of the beer that is, just as, if not more important than hops.

Now here's a thing, has balance in beer changed over the years, does it change according to where you're from? Perhaps so or perhaps just truly great brews achieve balance. For me i've been beginning to tire of solely hop led beers - ALL the truly great, extremely hoppy beers are only great in my book because they have a heavy malt presence, very pale thin bitter beers fail to carry me past a pint.

In addition many of the great beers that people hark to in the past seem very much less led by the hop and these great beers are the British tradition and that tradition is balance.

Charts

Ok, here's an idea that I've nicked off my good friend Nick Frizzell who is a music producer, DJ and music blogger.  His blog is lovely and he occasionally produces the odd chart. Not a chart in the top of the pops sense, but a chart of what he thinks is good at the time he is writing.

It's a great way to recommend new music.

So I'm going to give it a go for beer, I'll go a step further and give the charts an occasional theme, the idea being that it's not necessarily number 1 that is the best, more that it's just the one in the forefront of my mind at the time of writing. So a simple list of recommendations and acknowledgement of what I think great beer is, it's pretty personal of course and perhaps may just be for my own benefit in getting the constantly changing list in my head down on digital paper. Who fucking knows eh?

I'll mix up the links  so fell free to click em all, and I hope that you'll find something new to try or something you didn't know about these beers. Either way I invite comments and discussions in any form...

Of course...;|)

All time favourites...
1. Orval
2. Westveleteren 8
3. Flying Dog/In de Wildeman - Farmhouse IPA
4. Brewdog/Mikkeller - I hardcore you
5. Zinnebir
6. Unita - Labrinth
7. Schlenkerla Eiche
8. Stone Ruination IPA
9. Marble Dubbel
10. Weltenburger Kloster Asam Bock


*easier than I thought

Beer & Food: Easy

Beer goes great with food - NO SHIT!

It's pretty straightforward, and I'm going to do this without pitting beer against wine, I'm not even going to mention wine!

Put simply beer has plenty of different ingredients, in that it has many opportunities to pick out, balance, quash or brighten the flavours in your food.

Check it out - malty flavours will balance rich flavours just like the bread they give you with your meal does. It will augment fruit flavours. Rather than fight against foody flavours malt joins up flavours - it is integral to the beer and food thing in that it provides a complete and continuous experience. Soft, sweet, bready and caramelised flavours just melt together and dance across your tongue because that's how your tongue works. Nothing goes beter with deep rich meats than a roubust beer with a strong malt presence.

Bitter or floral hops in beer will lift rich flavours and balance sweetness. Acidity, bitterness and pungency fill the mouth but don't dominate food, they ride alongside. They will balance hot flavours and moreover they are one of the only things other than milk that will quell very hot chilli. They will also cut through fat. Let it be known across the land that it is a travesty that you can't get IPA in curry houses - they are an unexploited market. The multitude of flavours that you find in hops can echo and counterbalance food flavours and provide an appetising bitterness that makes you want more.

Hops are the top note of beer and can go anywhere from extremely bitter to fruity to flowery to any combination of the three, the flowery and fruity flavours complement some subtler dishes like fish and chicken or salads. As a basic rule the stronger tasting the beer the stronger tasting food it will work with.

Fizz is usually provided from CO2 and CO2 is the one thing made when yeast works with sugar. The other is alcohol which is a pleasurably intoxicating thing. Fizz works with lighter, zestier flavours in beer and will lift fatty foods away from the palate, leaving it fresh for more. That yeast presence itself will provide flowery flavours if you're lucky and all sorts of high notes that work with a myriad of different types of food, the more pungent of yeast notes work especially well with cheese.

Most beer will match most food - the right beer will provide a contiguous experience that expands the flavours in both things. I'll be expanding on this theme in the coming months, in the meantime get drinking.

Weisse not...

Hmm yes... You may hear me occasionally denouncing light wheat beers.

I'm not right keen on em see and there are only a few that I really enjoy and only at specific times.

I'm not that keen on overripe bananas either - they belong in cake. It's something to do with that ripe ester stench, something shared by many wheat beers.But I'm not a total refusenik when it comes to white weisse and Belgian style wit though.

I do find them one of the most palatable drinks when you have one of those crackling, mother fuckers of a hangover.

I'll clarify slightly just to say when it comes to darker wheat beers (Schneider Original being at the lightest end of this spectrum) I'm all over it. I talk a lot about balance in great beers and that extra roasted malt in darker brews for me provides that balance alongside, usually, a higher alcohol content.

But as a little guide for those types of people who are turned off by cloudy bright yellow wheat beers, here's a few that work every time for me.

Standard Weihenstephan is pretty good - it's got the thing I need in weisse which is that touch of acidity that the great ones have, it's brisk and full bodied. Snappy and thirst quenching on the finish.

Beyreuther Bio also has this citric edge that provides balance to the softer fruit flavours. The biggies like Paulaner Hefe that are becoming more and more common in the UK in places like Bierkeller are too cloying for me and that is not something that I want in beer. I can go a few rounds with Erdinger Urweisse and Oktoberfest, they are pretty meaty and celebratory!

If you're looking at Belgium then I'd go for one of the following... Brugs Tarwebier is super refreshing, the Belgians are much softer than their german counterparts but the best have some great bonus flavours that usually come from the addition of orange peel, coriander and other herbs and spices. Another to look out for is Watous Wit, which is interesting for its toffeeish quality.

You might see some places serving this type of beer with fruit, I'd avoid it in general. It is practiced in Germany, Belgium and Holland and if you try it and feel it's better then go for it. But beware - for me the addition of lemon, lime or orange is often used to bulk up the flavours that should be prominent in the original beer. Blue moon being a particularly shitty example of this habit/marketing tactic.

I haven't ever had a brilliant US version but Sierra Kellerwiesse works and Flying Dog do a decent job too.

So to summise then; some are better than others, but don't be put off if you try one and don't like it try some more. Once you've tried lots you can then form an opinion. How's that for lazy blogging...?

Licensing gets tough?

So I'm an advocate of the pub industry, I believe that alcohol is a valuable social lubricant and that under the right kind of supervision great fun can be had, great ideas can be exchanged and great relationships formed. 

For me pubs and bars are a vital part of communities and, when looked after by responsible owners, landlords and managers, are the best places for the consumption of alcohol to take place. 

What really grinds my gears though is walking through town and seeing once great pubs and some potentially great bars suffering in the recession. Further on you go past 'super bars' and tacky shit holes which are full to the brim with gyrating masses laced out of their tiny minds on chemically produced beer, fluorescent fizzy cocktails in bottles and semi viscous, flavoured and coloured industrial spirits.

Why's that then? Because if you make products very cheaply you can sell them very cheaply. Sell cheap - attract customers, young customers who want to fraternise with other young customers and find that getting smashed as quickly as possible is the best way to do that.

So here for once is the licensing authorities doing something half decent that should level the playing field for those who sell proper drinks at responsible prices and still uphold the duty of care that everyone in this industry should uphold.

Please see the message below from West Yorkshire Police Licensing:

With Freshers' week approaching West Yorkshire Police and Leeds City

Council are more than aware of some of the heavily discounted prices of

alcohol being advertised throughout the city at various premises on their

specific student nights. We view some of this pricing and the associated

promotions as completely irresponsible. I write to remind you of the

mandatory conditions on all of your licences in relation to irresponsible

promotions. I also warn you that we consider 'students nights' and severely

reduced pricing of alcohol at these events to fall under the following:

'activities carried on for the purpose of encouraging the sale or supply of

alcohol for consumption on the premises in a manner which carries a

significant risk of leading or contributing to crime and disorder,

prejudice to public safety, public nuisance, or harm to children.

Should premises choose to continue with these irresponsible promotions West

Yorkshire Police will have no option other than to consider review

proceedings against their licences. Please remember that we will also

disclose evidence at any hearing of other incidents associated with your

premises.

This is the first and only warning we will be giving and we expect

appropriate action to be taken immediately.

SO...

As the students return to their universities let's all show them what drinking and pubs should be about. Many of us have suffered from the media portraying the industry as unhealthy and debauched - we need to teach these 'students' what it's all about...   

The man from ranti - BEER SOMMELIER?

Beer sommelier? BEER SOMMELIER?

Give me a break. Whilst all quarters of the beer community should be rightly proud of the progress that beer has made in recovering ground lost to wine in the last 30 or some years it's important not to forget the roots and potential of our national drink.

Yes - beer is by far and away in almost all cases the most appropriate beverage to enjoy with many foods but we must steel ourselves and refuse to indulge in pretentiousness.

With the proliferation of new, delicious and complex brews is coming new and more complex understandings of a humble drink. Don't get me wrong I love new interpretations of beer, drink them regularly and of course I spend much of my time indoctrinating new followers to the massive possibilities and exciting flavours that are available like never before in the UK. But as one majorly influential and highly respected purveyor of great beer noted to me recently; we must guard against the 'wineification' of beer.

It's a difficult task - the vocabulary of describing beer is derived directly from the techniques used by experts in analysing wine and thus it's hard not to sound preening when talking about 'nosing' a beer and discerning the metaphorical flavour associations of multi level flavours. We also need to redress the balance as regards food and 'go after' the wine drinkers for sure. But hoighty toi ghettoisation ain't the way. People need to be engaged and remember that in the UK we are lucky to have the perfect platform for furthering our cause - we still have (for now) tons of pubs.

As we slowly convince down at heel landlords about the benefits of great beer the customer will respond in demanding better drinks in the bars, 'gastropubs' and restaurants. Yes of course there's going to be some top down influence but on its own, top down will isolate the ordinary drinker and provide yet another platform for people to look down their noses from.

It will also lead us further down the path of singular venues with great beer selections that are poor in almost every other area. Bad staff, horrid decor, high prices.

High prices is the elephant in the room here of course as I often have to defend the prices I set, it's fair enough criticism, it is expensive to drink super serious beers in North but we always make sure there are some very competitive options as well. But remember tax on beer has increased 35% in two years, imported beers have had huge price increases due to the crazy fluctuations of the euro, dollar and pound and ingredients - especially barley malt - have also soared in price.

That's not to mention all the myriad costs of running a small independent bar in a city centre... But that's by the bye, you pays your money and takes your choice. Trust me when I say we're working really hard to try and get some great deals in the coming months and years. But still if you don't have a brilliant experience in North then you are likely dead (!) We compete through great service, brilliant booze (yes that does include the one of best selections of spirits in the land and yes wine and yes cocktails) the importance of music and atmosphere on an afternoon or night out. This is something that I have not yet found in venues purely focused on beer.

It's really hard not to appear snobby when you know a lot about something but everyone needs to at least try...

Alice Porter 1 year on...

Well it's been around a year since I dragged a bunch of loyal mates to the arsehole of world to brew at one of the worlds finest breweries.

I can confirm that I am still married and the former Alice Porter is in great condition - but what about the beer eh? HO HO!!

Well... Super high marks on ratebeer and beeradvocate, it's also cropped up in various far flung places across the globe and has received some brilliant reviews and been drunk by many, many people in bottle, keg and cask. It's pretty amazing really as this beer was conceived in a truly advanced state of refreshment, but then it was my stag do.

We did have an idea of what we wanted to make, a strong baltic style porter around 6% it needed to be rich and balanced with a porter type tang plus if we could squeeze some smoke in there - all the better. Well hot damn - with the help of the legendary brewery team at Brewdog, it worked!

this is what a legendary brewer looks like

I've saved a good size batch of the original brew with the intention of seeing how it ages. I also bottled a little right from the keg and dosed it with Belgian yeast and a bit of rudimentary brown sugar syrup. More on that another time though, lets stick to the original.

So a year in the bottle and I've got some interesting developments and I'm pleased to say that the beer has improved - it's deeper, better balanced and more intense. There's tons of fruit on the nose and that touch of German smoked malt comes through lovely - something that I have noticed improves with time in the cask.

Please believe me when I say I'm trying to be objective here... But it's just a really great beer despite my obvious bias. It's also much better for a years ageing, the intensity is great and it's still very much a classic porter. I'm very happy with the combination of hops we used; there's some great traditional Fuggles fruity bitterness in there but the stars of the show are the Bramling Cross which gives you all those lovely deep blueberry and soft fruit flavours and of course the Sorachi Ace which we added to see if it would help achieve that porter-y acidic tang. It does add a touch of citric sharpness and also that creaminess which makes Sorachi ace such a difficult hop to like in lighter beers and IPAs but perhaps a really, really great hop for darker beers - take note brewers!!

There's also that touch of vanilla in there and the mystery ingredient just seems to bring the whole thing together (what is it eh?).

So anyway I'll pat everyone who was involved heartily on the back once again and watch as our creation goes global... Alice Porter will be available in a shop, supermarket, bar or pub near you pretty much NOW!

pic courtesy of digital newsroom