Blog Tracker
02-03-2017, 11:52
Visit the Boak and Bailey's Beer Blog site (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/03/everything-wrote-february-2017/)
https://i0.wp.com/boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/month_was_feb_2017.jpg?resize=650%2C444 We missed a few days in February because of the pressures of real life — family, flu, work — but still managed to knock out a few decent posts*from beer reviews to Belgian bars. We warmed up for the month by reviewing a bottled beer from Vibrant Forest, the stars of last year’s Great British Beer Festival for us:*‘Once we’d accepted that there was to be no grapefruit festival as advertised, we enjoyed it for what it was… (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/02/quick-review-rustically-charming-more-oak-than-pine/)’
https://i0.wp.com/boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/hops_macro_672.jpg?resize=650%2C433
More for the record than anything we rounded up responses to a*Guardian*article suggesting that Brexit might already be stamping on the toes of UK craft brewers (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/02/the-politics-of-hops/) and added a few thoughts of our own:
At the root of the Buy British school of thought*it seems to us there are a couple of wrongheaded thoughts. First, we think some people believe the popularity of*pale, hoppy American-influenced beers threatens the very existence of traditional English bitter — that they are the thin end of a wedge which will inevitably lead to total domination…*but*who can seriously say they struggle to get a pint of something brown and old-school*in Britain in 2017?
https://i2.wp.com/boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/bullseye_brown_november_2014.png?resize=650%2C371
For the 120th edition of The Session (which takes it to ten years, by the way) we let Joe Tindall’s wide-open choice of topic, brown beer, inspire a bit of whimsy (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/02/in-which-we-fall-into-a-brown-study/):
Some people will tell you brown isn’t a flavour, but it is.*It’s why you sear*meat, and about 50 per cent of the meaning of toast. *(N.B. black is also a flavour.)
Joe’s round up of all the contributions is here (http://thefatalglassofbeer.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/the-session-120-round-up.html).
https://i0.wp.com/boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/halfton_tv.jpg?resize=650%2C440
A newspaper article from 1955 gave us an interesting bit of insight into how the arrival of television in British homes threatened the pub (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/02/pub-bits-televisions-in-pubs-1955/):
TV has affected us undoubtedly… But it’s nothing like as bad as some people make out. I find the only nights that my trade is poor are when there is something really big on. Mind you, I’ve got to set out to attract people now and I think that’s what a lot publicans tend to forget. But provided you offer some incentive I don’t think TV need be feared.
https://i0.wp.com/boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/page_11_flair_authenticity_2.jpg?resize=650%2C467
Chris Bates sent us a c.1968 manual on pub design from his days working at Ind Coope (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/02/pub-design-advice-c-1968/) which we filleted to share only the choicest cuts with our readers.
https://i2.wp.com/boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Thornbridge-Brewery-today.jpg?resize=840%2C630
Mark Dexter is annoyed at Thornbridge for putting their beer in 330ml bottles and apparently taking the chance to hike price-per-litre at the same time. We gave the issue some thought (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/02/are-thornbridges-330ml-bottles-a-con/):
First, we wondered whether the price rise people noticed with the switch to 330ml bottles might have happened anyway. This is far from scientific — we just grabbed info from Twitter and newspaper articles — but it does seem that the price-per-litre of Thornbridge Jaipur at Waitrose has been on the climb fairly steadily since 2012, going up by about 6 per cent each time. With the switch to 330ml, though, the increase was sharper at about 15 per cent, even though the absolute price of a bottle dipped back under £2. So, some sort of price rise was probably due, but the numbers certainly do seem fishy.
By way of an update, Thornbridge’s Simon Webster was asked about this issue by*Imbibe magazines Susanna Forbes (http://imbibe.com/news-articles/beers/thornbridge-makes-move-to-33cl/):
Speaking exclusively to Imbibe, CEO Simon Webster said that bars, restaurants, wholesalers and overseas markets all had made the*same request, with complaints that the previous 500ml size did not suit all fridges. ‘For consistency and simplicity’ the full portfolio has made the swap.
https://i0.wp.com/boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/cask_barrel_wooden_barrel_manual_1951.jpg?resize=6 50%2C478
‘Why are the ends of wooden beer casks always painted red?’ Barry asked; we got an answer from Britain’s last Master Cooper (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/02/qa-cask-ends-painted-red/). Short version: (a) they’re not; and (b) red has become a sort of default because there’s no longer a practical need to use different colours.
https://i2.wp.com/boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/brixton_megawatt.jpg?resize=650%2C425
For our Magical Mystery Pour series we tasted Brixton Megawatt Double IPA (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/02/magical-mystery-pour-22-brixton-megawatt-double-ipa/), over which we had a rare disagreement:
Every now and then, not very often, our palates get out of sync — you say hints of tomato, I say notes of potato, let’s call the whole thing off, and so on. With this beer we both tasted more or less the same things but in terms of overall*likeability it fell into no-man’s-land.
https://i0.wp.com/boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/duck_under_screen.jpg?resize=650%2C475
We were delighted by the inherent comedy of the snob screens at The Prince Alfred in West London (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/02/low-cant-get/), and the beer wasn’t half bloody bad either:
Young’s beers, now brewed in Bedford by Charles Wells, are a notable example of products*universally acknowledged as Not What They Used To Be. But we’ve observed Young’s Ordinary improving for the last few years and now Special seems to be going the same way: here it tasted fresh, leafy-green, full of English hop character. Spring shoots and rising sap. Truly great.
https://i0.wp.com/boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/ron_fred_ad_1993.jpg?resize=650%2C532SOURCE: West Coast/Dobbins/The Grist, 1993. Everyone loves a listicle, right? Michael Lally prompted us to think about what might be The Most Important British Craft Beers (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/02/the-most-important-british-craft-beers/). He’s working on rounding up suggestions from lots of different people but, in the meantime, you might also want to check out Dave S’s thoughtful contribution (http://brewinabedsit.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/very-important-beers.html).
https://i1.wp.com/boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/ribbleton_cromwell.jpg?resize=650%2C387The Cromwell Lounge. As part of a resolution to share images of pubs in a slightly more permanent way than firing them off on Twitter we put together a set of pictures of post-war boozers in the north of England scanned from editions of the Tetley in-house magazines from the 1960s (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/02/tetleys-post-war-estate-pubs-in-the-north/). (Do check out Birkonian’s comment with memories of life in just such a pub in the 1970s.)
https://i2.wp.com/boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/strawberry_thief_beer.jpg?resize=650%2C457
Finally, we wrote up our visit to The Strawberry Thief, a Belgian beer cafe in Bristol (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/02/strawberry-thief-belgium-bristol/) that, by not quite being convincingly Belgian, helps shine a light on the real thing.
There were also our usually weekly links round-ups (4 Feb (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/02/news-nuggets-longreads-4-february-2017-lexicography-st-louis-ateliers/) | 11 Feb (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/02/news-nuggets-longreads-11-february-2017-pretzels-craft-and-care-bears/)*| 18 Feb (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/02/news-nuggets-longreads-18-february-2017-mackeson-market-towns-mainspring/)*| 25 Feb (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/02/news-nuggets-longreads-18-february-2017-mackeson-market-towns-mainspring/)), a 1000+ word monthly newsletter (sign up! (http://tinyletter.com/boakandbailey)) and the usual outpourings via Twitter (https://twitter.com/BoakandBailey) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/boakandbailey).
Everything We Wrote in February 2017 (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/03/everything-wrote-february-2017/) originally posted at Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog (http://boakandbailey.com)
More... (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/03/everything-wrote-february-2017/)
https://i0.wp.com/boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/month_was_feb_2017.jpg?resize=650%2C444 We missed a few days in February because of the pressures of real life — family, flu, work — but still managed to knock out a few decent posts*from beer reviews to Belgian bars. We warmed up for the month by reviewing a bottled beer from Vibrant Forest, the stars of last year’s Great British Beer Festival for us:*‘Once we’d accepted that there was to be no grapefruit festival as advertised, we enjoyed it for what it was… (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/02/quick-review-rustically-charming-more-oak-than-pine/)’
https://i0.wp.com/boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/hops_macro_672.jpg?resize=650%2C433
More for the record than anything we rounded up responses to a*Guardian*article suggesting that Brexit might already be stamping on the toes of UK craft brewers (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/02/the-politics-of-hops/) and added a few thoughts of our own:
At the root of the Buy British school of thought*it seems to us there are a couple of wrongheaded thoughts. First, we think some people believe the popularity of*pale, hoppy American-influenced beers threatens the very existence of traditional English bitter — that they are the thin end of a wedge which will inevitably lead to total domination…*but*who can seriously say they struggle to get a pint of something brown and old-school*in Britain in 2017?
https://i2.wp.com/boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/bullseye_brown_november_2014.png?resize=650%2C371
For the 120th edition of The Session (which takes it to ten years, by the way) we let Joe Tindall’s wide-open choice of topic, brown beer, inspire a bit of whimsy (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/02/in-which-we-fall-into-a-brown-study/):
Some people will tell you brown isn’t a flavour, but it is.*It’s why you sear*meat, and about 50 per cent of the meaning of toast. *(N.B. black is also a flavour.)
Joe’s round up of all the contributions is here (http://thefatalglassofbeer.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/the-session-120-round-up.html).
https://i0.wp.com/boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/halfton_tv.jpg?resize=650%2C440
A newspaper article from 1955 gave us an interesting bit of insight into how the arrival of television in British homes threatened the pub (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/02/pub-bits-televisions-in-pubs-1955/):
TV has affected us undoubtedly… But it’s nothing like as bad as some people make out. I find the only nights that my trade is poor are when there is something really big on. Mind you, I’ve got to set out to attract people now and I think that’s what a lot publicans tend to forget. But provided you offer some incentive I don’t think TV need be feared.
https://i0.wp.com/boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/page_11_flair_authenticity_2.jpg?resize=650%2C467
Chris Bates sent us a c.1968 manual on pub design from his days working at Ind Coope (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/02/pub-design-advice-c-1968/) which we filleted to share only the choicest cuts with our readers.
https://i2.wp.com/boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Thornbridge-Brewery-today.jpg?resize=840%2C630
Mark Dexter is annoyed at Thornbridge for putting their beer in 330ml bottles and apparently taking the chance to hike price-per-litre at the same time. We gave the issue some thought (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/02/are-thornbridges-330ml-bottles-a-con/):
First, we wondered whether the price rise people noticed with the switch to 330ml bottles might have happened anyway. This is far from scientific — we just grabbed info from Twitter and newspaper articles — but it does seem that the price-per-litre of Thornbridge Jaipur at Waitrose has been on the climb fairly steadily since 2012, going up by about 6 per cent each time. With the switch to 330ml, though, the increase was sharper at about 15 per cent, even though the absolute price of a bottle dipped back under £2. So, some sort of price rise was probably due, but the numbers certainly do seem fishy.
By way of an update, Thornbridge’s Simon Webster was asked about this issue by*Imbibe magazines Susanna Forbes (http://imbibe.com/news-articles/beers/thornbridge-makes-move-to-33cl/):
Speaking exclusively to Imbibe, CEO Simon Webster said that bars, restaurants, wholesalers and overseas markets all had made the*same request, with complaints that the previous 500ml size did not suit all fridges. ‘For consistency and simplicity’ the full portfolio has made the swap.
https://i0.wp.com/boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/cask_barrel_wooden_barrel_manual_1951.jpg?resize=6 50%2C478
‘Why are the ends of wooden beer casks always painted red?’ Barry asked; we got an answer from Britain’s last Master Cooper (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/02/qa-cask-ends-painted-red/). Short version: (a) they’re not; and (b) red has become a sort of default because there’s no longer a practical need to use different colours.
https://i2.wp.com/boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/brixton_megawatt.jpg?resize=650%2C425
For our Magical Mystery Pour series we tasted Brixton Megawatt Double IPA (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/02/magical-mystery-pour-22-brixton-megawatt-double-ipa/), over which we had a rare disagreement:
Every now and then, not very often, our palates get out of sync — you say hints of tomato, I say notes of potato, let’s call the whole thing off, and so on. With this beer we both tasted more or less the same things but in terms of overall*likeability it fell into no-man’s-land.
https://i0.wp.com/boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/duck_under_screen.jpg?resize=650%2C475
We were delighted by the inherent comedy of the snob screens at The Prince Alfred in West London (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/02/low-cant-get/), and the beer wasn’t half bloody bad either:
Young’s beers, now brewed in Bedford by Charles Wells, are a notable example of products*universally acknowledged as Not What They Used To Be. But we’ve observed Young’s Ordinary improving for the last few years and now Special seems to be going the same way: here it tasted fresh, leafy-green, full of English hop character. Spring shoots and rising sap. Truly great.
https://i0.wp.com/boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/ron_fred_ad_1993.jpg?resize=650%2C532SOURCE: West Coast/Dobbins/The Grist, 1993. Everyone loves a listicle, right? Michael Lally prompted us to think about what might be The Most Important British Craft Beers (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/02/the-most-important-british-craft-beers/). He’s working on rounding up suggestions from lots of different people but, in the meantime, you might also want to check out Dave S’s thoughtful contribution (http://brewinabedsit.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/very-important-beers.html).
https://i1.wp.com/boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/ribbleton_cromwell.jpg?resize=650%2C387The Cromwell Lounge. As part of a resolution to share images of pubs in a slightly more permanent way than firing them off on Twitter we put together a set of pictures of post-war boozers in the north of England scanned from editions of the Tetley in-house magazines from the 1960s (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/02/tetleys-post-war-estate-pubs-in-the-north/). (Do check out Birkonian’s comment with memories of life in just such a pub in the 1970s.)
https://i2.wp.com/boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/strawberry_thief_beer.jpg?resize=650%2C457
Finally, we wrote up our visit to The Strawberry Thief, a Belgian beer cafe in Bristol (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/02/strawberry-thief-belgium-bristol/) that, by not quite being convincingly Belgian, helps shine a light on the real thing.
There were also our usually weekly links round-ups (4 Feb (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/02/news-nuggets-longreads-4-february-2017-lexicography-st-louis-ateliers/) | 11 Feb (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/02/news-nuggets-longreads-11-february-2017-pretzels-craft-and-care-bears/)*| 18 Feb (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/02/news-nuggets-longreads-18-february-2017-mackeson-market-towns-mainspring/)*| 25 Feb (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/02/news-nuggets-longreads-18-february-2017-mackeson-market-towns-mainspring/)), a 1000+ word monthly newsletter (sign up! (http://tinyletter.com/boakandbailey)) and the usual outpourings via Twitter (https://twitter.com/BoakandBailey) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/boakandbailey).
Everything We Wrote in February 2017 (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/03/everything-wrote-february-2017/) originally posted at Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog (http://boakandbailey.com)
More... (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/03/everything-wrote-february-2017/)