London Club Wins National CAMRA Award (See Page 34) Vol 34 No 2
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D ON ON L Apr Vol 34 May No 2 2012 London club wins national CAMRA award (see page 34) EST 1721 23-25 NEW END • HAMPSTEAD VILLAGE • NW3 1JD 1st Annual Cotswolds Beer Festival A taste of the countryside comes to London Thursday 21st to Sunday 24th June 2012 • Over 30 fabulous ales from the Cotswolds region • Delicious food and West Country delicacies • Live music and entertainment throughout the weekend • Meet the Brewer and other special events See our website for up to date beer list and event information Best Tel: 020 7794 0258 London Pub of the Year 2011 twitter: @dukeofhamilton Fancy a Pint Reviewers www.thedukeofhamilton.com Awards 4 PINT RATED PUB All ales £2.50 a pint Mondays and Tuesdays. See website for ales on tap. Editorial London Drinker is published by Mike Hammersley on behalf of the London NDO Branches of CAMRA, the Campaign for Real O N Ale Limited, and edited jointly by L Sarah Bleksley and Mark Davies. Tel: 07747 494840. Material for publication should preferably be sent by e-mail to [email protected]. Correspondents unable to send letters to the editors electronically may post them to Brian Sheridan at 4, Arundel House, Heathfield Road, Croydon CR0 1EZ. Press releases should be sent by email to [email protected] Changes to pubs or beers should be reported to Capital Pubcheck, 2 Sandtoft Road, London SE7 7LR or by e-mail to [email protected]. Hoppiness, hoppiness, the greatest gift For publication in June 2012, please send electronic documents to the editors no later than Wednesday 16th May. that beers possess SUBSCRIPTIONS: £4.00 for mailing of 6 ver the last decade both drinkers Developing a new hop is not editions or £8.00 for 12 should be sent to Stan Tompkins, 52 Rabbs Mill House, Chiltern View Oand brewers have become more easy. Firstly, there are no genetical - Road, Uxbridge, Middlesex, UB8 2PD (cheques adventurous, welcoming the fuller, ro - ly modified hops to enable any payable to CAMRA London). bust flavours that American and shortcuts. Secondly, you can’t sim - ADVERTISING: John Galpin Tel: 020 3287 2966. New Zealand hops bring to a beer. ply take a hop variety and grow it Printed by Cliffe Enterprise, But have you ever wondered why elsewhere. Take New Zealand. The Eastbourne, BN22 8TR these hops are prevalent abroad but north end of the South Island with Views expressed in this publication are those not in England? strong winds and ‘intense weather’ of their individual authors and are not In the Shakespeare‘s Head by gives a hop that has a strong resinous necessarily endorsed by the Editor or the Campaign for Real Ale Limited. Carnaby Street, Marston’s spoke flavour. Take the same hop and plant about their One Hop beer range, it in Kent and the temperate climate Advertise in the next LONDON DRINKER which they launched in January. will give a hop with a softer charac - Our advertising rates are as follows: Each month, they are producing a 4% ter. Whole page £325 (colour) £260 (mono) ABV golden coloured beer with a dif - So how do you decide on a Half page £195 (colour), £145 (mono) ferent hop. The evening gave some good hop? Seeds are planted and Quarter page £105 (colour), £80 (mono) then blasted with diseases. If they Phone John Galpin now on interesting insights. 020 3287 2966, Mobile 07508 036835 Although the UK is still well survive that, they are then tested in [email protected] known for its hop growing, it is not a brew. It is estimated that in every in the volumes it once produced. In 15-20,000 seedlings you might get 1879, 17,000 acres were given over two varieties. So thinking that In this issue to hops. At that time one million bar - through, the twelve single hop News round-up 8 rels of beer were sold in London beers that Marston‘s are brewing in alone each year. Today it is a mere 2012 have come from thousands Awards 32 2,500 acres that have hops grown on and thousands of seedlings! Defend the Castle 38 them and tastes are changing. In It was interesting to see the Britain it has been traditional for a range of hops Marston‘s have North London pub crawl 41 beer to be brewed to be subtle, chosen this year. During the Book review 44 with a number of hops combining to evening the audience got a chance give a mellow flavour and aroma cou - to try the first three in the range: Letters 46 pled with bitterness, i.e. the brewer Wai-iti (New Zealand), Galaxy London, City of Beer 48 was not looking for big flavours. (Australia) and East Kent Golding Therefore, any hops that were con - (England). The first is a brand new Branch diaries 50 sidered too aromatic or too intense hop that came from Riwaki Capital Pubcheck 52 in flavour were rejected. Because of Research Station’s work that the obvious success of hops with big - annually picks 1,400 different hop Membership form 55 ger flavours, the British hop industry varieties. It has an unusual flavour LocAle pubs 67 is now considering varieties that in that the citrus character is were rejected in the 1950s as being distinctly of limes, which made the Obituary 67 too powerful. It was only four years beer very refreshing. Stocks of the Idle Moments 68 ago that Marston‘s decided that hop are limited but it is definitely one to watch out for. Crossword 70 their drinkers weren’t ready for this type of intense taste. Others in the series include a 3 Editorial Polish hop, Marynka, and a French hop, Strisselpalt. And the next stage? There is the thinking to do something with British hops but, as at first they feel they need to try some of the hops that are being developed to deliver ‘the big flavours’ that drinkers now want, this is likely to be three years down the line. Good things come to those who wait! Christine Cryne LD 4 A new micro-brewery from Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire NOW D LIMITED EDITION DELIVERE N TO LONDO VIA VALE BEERS! BREWERY We look forward to taking drinkers on a voyage of discovery, with beer styles new and old from around the world Follow us on www.aylesburybrewhouse.co.uk Email: [email protected] Call Kate or Anna on 01844 239 237 @AylesburyBrewCo SIBA National Gold 2008 Brewers of award-winning beers from Oxford Beer of the Year 2010 Reading Beer of Festival 2010 Brill, Buckinghamshire NOW DELIVERING DIRECT INTO LONDON! Follow us on ValeBrewery @ValeBrewery CAMRA GBBF Bronze 2009 www.valebrewery.co.uk Email: [email protected] Midlands SIBA Silver 2010 Call Kate or Anna on 01844 239 237 News round-up Duty calls 2007/08 to 2010/11, beer duty rev - future of pubs. CAMRA’s members enue received by the Government are contacting their MPs asking n the sort of move normally as - has only increased by 1% - yes, one them to tell the Chancellor that Isociated with the size of choco - single percent. If you then think enough is enough .” late bars, AB InBev, Carlsberg and about what has been lost in terms As I write this, sadly, I doubt if Molson Coors are reducing the of such items as business rates and there will be any change to this ABV of their premium lager brands income tax not being received year’s budget, especially with the from 5% to 4.8%. A concession to from closed pubs and their staff, this row about petrol duty kicking off so-called binge drinking? No. It is policy really fails to make any again. When it comes to striking, I to save 2.5p in duty on every pint sense. suspect that lorry drivers have that they sell. That 0.2% ABV This time around, efforts to more clout than us beer drinkers. equals 2.5p a pint gives you a no - stop the escalator have intensi - There is however another tactic tion of just how much duty is in - fied. Andrew Griffiths, the chair - available. Wychwood Brewery – cluded in the price of a pint. man of the All-Party Parliamentary part of the Marstons (Wolver - The rate of duty is set to in - Beer Group, has put forward an hampton & Dudley) operation – crease again come the budget on Early Day Motion calling on the es - have set up an e-Petition on the 21 st March when the ‘duty escala - calator to be suspended. An EDM Government’s DirectGov website: tor’ will automatically increase the will not necessarily lead to any di - https://submissions.epetitions.direct.gov.u k rate by inflation plus 2%. Remem - rect change in policy but it does get /petitions/29664. Once 100,000 peo - ber also that VAT is charged on the the issue discussed, which is a ple have signed up there has to be price including duty so any increase start. CAMRA is calling on all its a debate in Parliament. The petition in duty means an increase in VAT. members to lobby their MPs to is open until February 2013 so if we London Drinker readers do not support the motion. Some 4,600 cannot do anything this budget, need to be told of the effect of these have done so already and if you why not the next? increases but you may not know want to join in, just go to the that according to CAMRA’s figures, CAMRA website.