Pints of View the Bi-Monthly Publication for Every Discerning Drinker December/January 2012 Circulation 8500 No

FREE PLEASE TAKE ONE ! 250 - HERTFORDSHIRE’S SHIRE’S Pints of View The bi-monthly publication for every discerning drinker December/January 2012 Circulation 8500 No. 250 Seasonal pubs for our 250 th edition, clockwise from top left are three CAMRA Good Beer Guide pubs: The Woodman at Chapmore End, The Swan at Wheathampstead, and The Boot at St Albans. Also, bottom left, is the Coach & Horses in Rickmansworth. Also inside: th The 5 Sawbridgeworth Beer Festival Visit to the new Red Squirrel Brewery PLUS : NEWS BEER PUBS BREWERIES1 EVENTS SPECIAL FEATURES THE BITTER END High Duty Pain offsets Low Duty Gain 50% reduction in excise duty on beers at “Park bench” threat to classic beer styles 2.8% abv or below was to be introduced in “In this world nothing is certain but death and AOctober alongside a new 25% levy on taxes,” said Benjamin Franklin, one of the founders beers at 7.5% and above. Unfortunately it is of the United States and a devoted beer drinker. illegal under EU laws for this duty reduction for There’s a terrible synthesis in that statement, for a low strength beers to apply to small brewers which rise in beer duty could spell death for some of benefit from “Small Brewers’ Relief”. This means Britain’s historic beer styles. The increase will that none of the small/micro brewers will be able affect beers of more than 7.5 per cent alcohol. HM to take advantage of the reduction; this even Revenue & Customs will bring in the change as a includes Hertford-based brewers McMullen’s. result of this year’s Budget. High Strength Beer CAMRA will be compiling a list of beers at 2.8% Duty (HSBD) will mean an average rise of 25 per or below. The whole issue is covered in much cent in the cost of making beer. For example, a more detail in Roger Protz’s “Park bench” threat to beer of 7.6 per cent will see duty rise from 80.18 classic beer styles article opposite. Larger brewers pence a pint to 100.22 with pro rata increases for are of course able to benefit and there is an article beers of up to 12 per cent or more. Microbrewers about Greene King reviving the Tolly Cobbold will continue to pay reduced Progressive Beer Brewery name (which was in Ipswich before they Duty but they will have to pay the full HSBD closed it) for their 2.8% offering. amount. On average, high-strength beers will see Suffolk brewer Greene King has duty rise by £1 a pint. The increase is the result of launched Tolly English Ale , to the government wanting to be seen “doing take advantage of the something” about alcohol abuse. But the rise will forthcoming Small Beer Duty for not only hit sales of “park bench” strong lagers but lower strength beers. also magnificent beers with their roots in the 18 th The new 2.8% abv brew will and 19 th centuries. HSBD could also stop the only be levied with 50% duty, fascinating development of oak-aging: strong beers so that licensees will be able to matured for many months in oak casks obtained choose whether to increase their from the American bourbon, Scotch whisky, and margins or to pass on savings to French wine and cognac industries. The likely their customers to help drive result is people with serious alcohol problems will sales. I have already had a trade down from 9 per cent to something cheaper report that the beer was recently on sale in the and nastier while those of us who enjoy a fine Harpenden area but without the 50 pence per pint barley wine in the comfort of our homes will have reduction one would have expected. Low gravity to pay a premium for the pleasure. beers have less fermentable material in them and The CAMRA Good Beer go off more quickly, so not reducing the price to Guide lists 16 beers that promote sales could be a very bad move on behalf will fall foul of HSBD. of the publican. They include such Greene King’s head brewer John Bexon said: “The familiar names as Parish extensive trials we ran in our pubs showed us that Baz’s Bonce Blower (12 introducing a quality lower strength beer would per cent), Robinson’s open up an attractive option for those looking to Old Tom (8.5 per cent), enjoy the great taste of a freshly-brewed proper Thornbridge St pint without having to worry about it being too Petersburg (7.7 per cent) strong. We believe Tolly will be popular with and Traquair House Jacobite Ale (8 per cent). The consumers because it offers them the best of both Good Bottled Beer Guide has a further 21 in its worlds”. Old Ales and Barley Wines listings that will have JW Lees of Manchester, Hook Norton of to pay HSBD. These are not “park bench” beers. Oxfordshire, Adnams of Southwold, and Fuller’s of Barley wine has been handed down to us by the Chiswick ( Mighty Atom ) are all producing a 2.8% English aristocracy of the 18 th Century. When beer and launches from other breweries are England was at war with France, aristocrats expected. Steve Bury 2 THE BITTER END considered it their patriotic duty to drink strong ale haven’t decided what to call it, rather than imported French claret and Burgundy. but Old Tom won’t be brewed Modern interpretations of barley wine include to a lower strength.” Fuller’s Chiltern Brewery’s Bodgers (8.5 per cent), Fuller’s says it has no intention of Vintage Ale (8.5 per cent), Hogs Back A over T (9 reducing strengths. This is good per cent), Otley 08 (8 per cent), and Woodforde’s news as the Chiswick brewery Norfolk Nip (8 per cent). launched the third in the series of its Oak Aged Beers in August, a 9 per cent beer matured for 800 days in single malt whisky casks. Mike Betts at Woodforde’s in Norfolk is similarly disinclined to cut the strength of his Norfolk Nip (8.5 per cent). A special edition of the beer was also launched in August and was matured for four months in wine barrels from France. Mike says Norfolk Nip dates from 1929 when it was brewed Old ale is another 18 th century beer style, stored in by Steward & Patteson, one of three Norwich oak vessels for a year or more and nicknamed breweries bought and closed by Watneys in the “stale” as the result of an acetic flavour picked up 1970s. With such a painful past, Norfolk Nip from wild yeasts. Old ale was one of the needs to keep its strength up. But at Thornbridge constituents of the early London porters, which brewery in Bakewell, Derbyshire, Alex Buchanan were a blend of pale, brown and “stale”. Today’s said that while no final decision had been taken, old ales include Burton Bridge Tickle Brain (8 per “we’re minded to reduce the strength of St cent), Old Chimneys Redshank (8.7 per cent) and Petersburg”. As the decrease would be just two Gale’s Prize Old Ale (9 per cent), now brewed by degrees and the beer is packed with roasted grain Fuller’s, and the closest to a Belgian lambic, strong and burnt fruit character, the difference in taste stouts such as Harvey’s Imperial Extra Double would be slight. Harvey’s head brewer Miles Stout (9 per cent) and Thornbridge St Petersburg Jenner says he will keep his Imperial Stout at 9 per (7.7 per cent). All these recall the period in the 19 th cent “to maintain its authenticity. A lot of it goes Century when strong versions of London porter for export and no one sane would drink it in and stout were exported to Russia and the Baltic quantity.” The feistiest response comes from States: high levels of alcohol and hops helped keep Catherine Maxwell Stuart, the beers during the long sea voyages. Harvey’s who runs Traquair House stout is based on an original recipe developed by and its brewery at Thrale’s brewery in London. Thrale’s became Innerleithen. Traquair is Barclay Perkins, which later merged with Courage. Scotland’s oldest inhabited Courage’s Imperial Russian Stout was phased out house, dating from 1107, when it became part of the Scottish & Newcastle and has a small medieval group but is now available again as a bottle- brewhouse where a conditioned beer, brewed by Harvey’s in Lewes, “modern” copper was and matured for a year before it is released to the installed in 1738. The main beer, House Ale , is 7.2 public. Calls to some of the brewers of strong ales per cent and falls outside HSBD. But Jacobite Ale showed most will not reduce the strength of their at 8 per cent will be caught and Catherine has no beers. John Robinson of Robinson’s of Stockport, plans to reduce its strength. “More than half our producer of the legendary Old Tom, said they’d production is exported and it would become too been brewing the beer since 1838 and wouldn’t complicated to reduce the alcohol for the domestic change it now. “We did brew a trial at 7.5 per cent market. I would not be happy at having to change but it didn’t taste anything like Old Tom,” he said. the recipe. “We may brew a 7.5 per cent beer and we “I am also pretty cross that we are being penalized 3 THE BITTER END for producing high quality, authentic, traditional ales when the government should be concentrating on minimum pricing and penalising supermarkets for selling alcohol at below cost.” It’s clear most current brewers of high-strength beers will not reduce their levels of alcohol.

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