British Guild Of Beer Writers Newsletter October 2011 Plans are going well for At the last committee meeting, we this year’s awards dinner also agreed to make changes to the and everyone should have Guild’s website. The current site has served us well, but it now needs to received an electronic flier evolve to take advantage of with details on how to buy developments in electronic media. tickets. The event takes We plan to make greater use of social place on 1 December 1 at media and endeavour to make the site a central hub for beer writing. the Plaza River Bank Plans are now well underway for a opposite the houses of day’s seminar to be held on the Parliament. We are ingredients of beer. We have enlisted the help of former brewer Harry White, confident it will once again who was one of the judges for last be a sell out event, so to year’s awards. He plans to put avoid disappointment now together a list of top people who will is the time to buy a ticket. be able to inform and entertain us with talks on malts, hops and brewing. As well as our awards for writers, We are currently looking for a date we will also be presenting our Brewer some time early next year, with the of the Year accolade. This award is venue being the National Brewing given to the person the Committee Centre at Burton-on-Trent. The event believes has made the greatest will be open to all members and will contribution to brewing the previous be a great way for people to get 12 months from the nominations together, and if all goes well it will made by members. Sometimes the include a walking tour of some of the choice is easy, but indicative of how town’s greatest . If there is a dynamic and creative brewing has demand we may make the event open been in the last 12 months, not only to non-members too, though it is was there more nominations made likely they would be expected to pay than I can remember, but any one of a small charge. We are also looking them would have been a worthy at holding a second seminar, with recipient of the award. yeast as the topic. Chairman: Tim Hampson Tel: 01865 245711; 07768 614283 [email protected]

Treasurer: Paul Nunny [email protected]

Secretary: Adrian Tierney-Jones Woodcote, 2 Jury Road, Dulverton, Somerset TA22 9DU Tel: 01398 324314 [email protected] www.beerwriters.co.uk British Guild of Beer Writers newsletter october 2011 We have a trip organised to the Welbeck removes the need for all that tiresome Abbey Brewery, which is being hosted by barhopping. That it was Belgium’s hottest Dave Wickett. It should be quite a special weekend of the year, and that I was with trip, and there is still room for a few more the funniest, cleverest, thirstiest bunch of members to attend. Contact the Secretary beer writers it has ever been my pleasure if you would like to come. to spend time with, made for a memorable As part of our plans to add even more mini-break. value to membership, all members who The beer festival boasted the A to Z of have paid this year’s subscriptions will Belgian brewing from Abbaye to Zot, and receive a copy of the British Beer and though — despite Jerry’s very best efforts Association’s excellent Statistical — we couldn’t try them all, we did tick off Handbook. And if this is not enough most of the major styles: lambics and members will also be receiving a copy of gueuzes, lagers pale and dark, fruit beers the Cask Report. It shows that cask ale is and Saisons. Sophie and Stephanie, wine appealing to a new audience of younger, drinkers both, were soon converts too. affluent and sociable drinkers. So put away Beyond the festival there was plenty of your flat cap, leave the whippet at home time to visit some of the city’s best bars and get off to the pub. Tim Hampson — the atmospheric Le Cirio, idiosyncratic La Becasse, bohemian Metteko and the Brussels sprouts good beers dark and forbidding L’Imaige Nostre Age slows the reflexes. So when Adrian Dame, once a favourite haunt of that nice Tierney-Jones rang to ask if I would like to Monsieur Magritte. join a trip to Belgium, it must have taken Restaurants too. Belga Queen offered me a full half-second to respond. some really innovative beer and food We met at St Pancras — Tim Hampson, combinations, though our visit here was Mark Fletcher, Marverine Cole, Jerry more memorable for Tim’s family-sized Bartlett, Adrian and me — where we were seafood platter, and Marverine’s wide-eyed joined by the lovely Sophie Bouallègue astonishment at the high-tech toilets. and Stephanie Gauthier-Bujold from the At Cantillon, Brussels’ only lambic Belgian Tourist Office, who were to be brewer, we climbed wooden ladders and our guides for three days of great beer, ducked past low beams, where the old great food and wonderful company. bare wood of floorboards and gnarled We barely had time to check into the rafters, ancient barrels and abandoned beautiful Dominican Hotel before we dray carts support a microclimate where headed off to church. And in the awesome the air is thick with the wild yeast needed beauty of the Cathedral of St Michael and for natural fermentation. St Gudula we joined the blessing of the Across town at La Senne, the city’s beers, a ceremony of pomp and dignity, newest brewery, brewer Yvan de Baets music, prayer and incense. explained the company’s absence from It was a blessed short walk from here to the Grand Place: ‘The festival is about the stunning cobbled square of the Grand bigger and more commercial breweries, Place, focus of activities for the Brussels CALENDAR 2011 Beer Weekend. Of course, every weekend • Czech Beer Festival @ the Porterhouse, Covent is beer weekend in Brussels, in this city of Garden November 17-27 hundreds of bars and thousands of beers. • BGBW Awards and Dinner, December 1 Cramming the centre of the square with Please send details of any relevant events 40-something open-air trade stands merely to Adrian Tierney-Jones British Guild of Beer Writers newsletter september 2011 and we’re just not part of that life. We demolition. The Wenlock Arms in have values to fight for, but money isn’t has been under a cloud for a while as one of them.’ owners Steve Barnes and Will Williams He talks a good game, and brews some have pondered its (and their) future. amazing beers too, and while some well- Local scrutiny of Hackney Council’s oiled locals sang drunken folk songs website has discovered an application by inside, we lounged in the brewery yard someone called Wenlock LLP to demolish with pale Taras Boulba, herby Zinnebir, the building and replace it with five flats fruity Very Speciale and — best of all — and non-pub commercial space on the the full-on, full bodied, full-flavoured ground floor. Jambe de Bois. When Steve and Will took over this It means ‘wooden leg’. And though we run-down street-corner boozer many were soon back on the Eurostar for home, it years ago, they turned it into a was a couple of days before I felt like I was destination free house. It was admired for walking properly again. Simon Jenkins its constantly changing range of real ales Own brew and ciders and was one of the first pubs Guild member Jane Peyton, who is in London to stock unusual imported Principal of the School of Booze, along bottled beers; it also had its trademark with Sara Barton, founder and head door-step sandwiches and last, but not brewer of Brewster’s in Grantham, are least, its commitment to live jazz music. It keen to inspire more women to brew and showed what could be done when drink beer. To this end they have devised licensees had the freedom to stock beers a competition for women who fancy of their own choosing and in some ways having a go at brewing beer. Entrants will can be seen as a torch-bearer for more be asked to devise a beer recipe inspired recent cask ale and cider specialist pubs, by one of the brands of Britain’s leading such as The Bree Louise, Southampton Fairtrade chocolate maker — Divine. So if Arms, Euston Tap and Craft Beer Co. Divine’s Dark Chocolate with Orange and In doing what it did, it attracted not only Ginger is the inspiration, then the beer customers from far and wide but those recipe might be an IPA with citrus and from its own doorstep. It did not eschew spicy hops. The person who devises the local custom to bring in the cask drinkers winning recipe will be invited to brew the — it supported darts and cricket teams, it beer alongside Sara Barton at Brewster’s. was a part of its local community. Ironically, And it may even go on sale in Brewster’s many of the newer residents, in the flats range of bottled beers. Entries are that have been created from former welcome from October 28-December commercial premises, might have 31. Sara Barton will choose a winner in considered the Wenlock Arms one of the January 2012. For more information attractions of moving into the area. And please contact Jane Peyton by email — now the housing juggernaut has the pub in [email protected] or phone its sights threatening another local amenity 07729 601 590. which adds to the well-being of citizens. So, if you read this and feel aggrieved, Landmark pub under threat then object to the application by going to An iconic North London pub and a three-time winner of the local CAMRA deadline for the next issue is branch’s Pub of the Year Award faces the October 20, 2011 threat of closure and subsequent British Guild of Beer Writers newsletter October 2011 http://easteight.com/plappshow. November 8 php?param=158243 — go down the left- 90 Minute Tasting, Dark Ales, The hand side and ‘Click here to comment’ White Horse, London opens up a screen easily completed. If November 15 you don’t have access to the internet, How to Judge Beer, then write to The Planning Inspectorate, The George Bristol London Borough of Hackney, Town Hall, Go to www.beeracademy.co.uk for Mare Street, London E8 1EA quoting more details. reference 2011/1996 and the site address 26 Wenlock Road, London N1 7TA. News Several beerwriters have books out just Comments must be submitted by in time for the Christmas market. First up October 18. John Cryne is Roger Protz with Beer Town, which is Get on the Ale Train (oh yeah) subtitled The Story of Brewing in Burton Download the CaskFinder app to a Upon Trent, which sounds pretty self smartphone either through iTunes (for explanatory. It is published by the History iPhones) or through the Android Market. Press and retails at £12.99. Then there is Register your details on the app ale trail Melissa Cole’s Let Me Tell You About and when visiting Cask Marque pubs Beer. This is Melissa’s first book and is scan the QR Code (Quick Response published by Pavilion Books on October code) on the Cask Marque annual 24; it retails for £14.99. Finally (and if certificate. Visits mean prizes: 25 pubs: there is any member out there who has a Cask Marque bottle opener fridge book coming out and has been magnet; 50 pubs: Cask Marque designer overlooked then do contact the T-Shirt; 100 pubs: Cask Marque Secretary), there is Adrian Tierney-Jones’ ambassador. The trail is launched on Great British Pubs, which will be October 1 to coincide with Cask Ale available on November 1. This retails at Week. Ale trails are a proven method of £14.99 and is published by CAMRA. encouraging extra visitors to pubs. Let’s have some fun! Paul Nunny Beer Academy news There has been a wealth of interest for the Academy’s Accredited Beer Sommelier Scheme — there are only two assessment slots left for the November Assessment Dates. To be amongst the first Beer Academy Accredited Beer Sommeliers please visit the website for further details — www.beeracademy.co.uk. The next round of assessments is on the November 11, 2011. These assessments are held at the Beer Academy HQ, Green Park, London. Selected Beer Academy dates October 11 90 Minute Tasting, Oktoberfest, The White Horse, London