Blog Tracker
05-11-2022, 06:50
Visit the Boak and Bailey's Beer Blog site (https://boakandbailey.com/2022/11/beer-pub-news-links-5-november-2022/)
Here’s all the writing about beer and pubs that leapt out at us in the past seven days, from Lambic beef to laidback bars.
You know we’re fans of the basic bartop bread roll (https://boakandbailey.com/2017/05/ham-rolls-clingfilm/). Now, a pub not too far from where we live has gone viral thanks to its particularly chunky examples of the ‘popular bar snack’.
someone sent me this picture of cheese and onion sandwiches from their local pub pic.twitter.com/WSJ9OPLkBL (https://t.co/WSJ9OPLkBL)
— Parker (@panoparker) November 2, 2022 (https://twitter.com/panoparker/status/1587892298410446848?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
The BBC interviewed the landlord (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-63513997), Martin Donlin, who says: “They are basic sustenance after work and go nicely with a pint of cider… They make you more thirsty too.”
https://boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/strait_narrow_lincoln.jpgSOURCE: Pellicle.For Pellicle Jane Stuart has written about The Strait and Narrow (https://www.pelliclemag.com/home/2022/10/24/hanging-on-the-telephone-calling-in-to-lincolns-the-strait-and-narrow), a nice-sounding bar in Lincoln:
Situated at the foot of Steep Hill, where it meets the top of Lincoln High Street, for me, the Strait is a pub like no other in the UK. It’s not traditional, it’s not a micropub, it’s not a family pub, it’s not a foodie pub, a brewpub, or a sports pub. So what exactly is it? Well… it’s a Strait and Narrow thing… Immediately upon entering, it feels like you’re transported to another country. The long bar dominating the room’s left took me back to San Diego and the Monkey Paw Brewpub (sadly now extinct). The room—riddled with cosy nooks—is dimly lit by chandeliers, spotlights and Tiffany lamps—an odd mix that somehow just works. The background music hits that sweet spot of being loud enough to lose yourself while being comfortably able to hear conversations.
There’s no particular angle or remarkable story here, but sometimes, it’s just good to read someone being enthusiastic about a place you’ve never been.
https://boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/lambic_circles.jpgMartyn Cornell has provided an in-depth review of a new book by Raf Meert about the history of Lambic beer (https://zythophile.co.uk/2022/10/31/is-everything-you-have-ever-read-about-the-history-of-lambic-and-gueuze-totally-wrong-raf-meert-thinks-so/). It’s interesting, and controversial, because it “puts a big bomb underneath all the marketing efforts of of companies such as Boon and Lindemann’s”. Reviewing serious history books is hard work – how do you verify their accuracy, especially when the sources are obscure, and in languages you don’t speak? Martyn treads appropriately carefully but concludes:
If you’re at all interested in the history of lambic and gueuze, and especially if you are ever going to write about the history of lambic and gueuze, this is a book you are going to have to read, because its alternative take on the story of these two fascinating and important beer styles is so radically different compared to the story that HORAL and the big lambic/gueuze makers put out that you are getting only half the picture if you don’t read it.
Martyn’s review prompted a bit of discussion on Twitter about the grumpiness of this kind of history writing and Martyn says: “The tone is sometimes polemical – I thought I was occasionally a little rough on people who get their facts wrong, but Meert has no fear of sticking the clog in hard.” We tend to prefer our history dispassionate, so that’s not a selling point as far as we’re concerned.
https://boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/IPA_letters.jpgAt Craft Beer & Brewing Jeff Alworth has provided an update on what’s going on with IPA in America (https://beerandbrewing.com/the-great-american-ipa-convergence/), where the dividing lines between sub-styles are breaking down:
You might imagine that along [the 3,000 miles between Portland, Oregon, and Portland, Maine] you’d find differences in the way people make their beer. That was the initial idea behind this article—to document those differences in the ways that brewers in different regions make their hazy IPAs… Yet, when I set out to investigate this question, speaking with brewers and writers across the country, they kept describing the same kinds of beers. As a control, I polled my readers on social media and my blog about their preferences. I was astounded to find that not only did drinkers from different regions prefer pretty much the same things, but they also agreed with the brewers, too… Americans may be riven by political and cultural divisions, but in this one small area, we seem to speak with a single voice.
https://boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/CAMRA_macro_GBG1984.jpgFor the British Beer Breaks newsletter Phil Mellows writes about the new edition of the CAMRA Good Beer Guide (https://britishbeerbreaks.substack.com/p/its-a-good-beer-guide-but-its-not) and its status after 50 years in print:
The strength of the Good Beer Guide, and what makes it different from, and in many ways better than, competing guides, is that the people picking the entries are so close to the ground… This is also a weakness. A pub can fall out of favour with these individuals for all kinds of reasons that may be obscure to the occasional visitor. And there must be, it seems to me, a growing pressure on the decision-making resulting from the limit imposed on the number of entries allocated to each county or region… While each Camra branch has its own way of doing things, Strawbridge suggested that rota systems are common. Regular entries may take turns dropping out for a year to make room for others – though they can hardly now leave out any of the Big Five on that basis.
https://boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/duvel_sign.jpgWe continue to watch Sergey Konstantinov’s beer history book project with interest. Recent posts have concerned the development of modern Belgian styles such as Quadrupel (https://twirl.medium.com/beer-lecture-chapter-25-gradus-ad-parnassum-fd935019d056) and the strong golden (Duvel) type (https://twirl.medium.com/beer-lecture-chapter-26-the-devil-for-sale-507b6b53e266):
In 1923 (or 1918, as some sources claim) the Moortgat brewery released its special strong ‘Victory Ale’ to celebrate the end of the First World War. To do so, one of the Moortgat brothers, Albert, went to Scotland searching for proper yeasts (and had found them either at William McEwan’s or William Younger’s brewery — the sources are again inconclusive). More importantly, he brought not only the yeasts, but the recipe as well: in fact, Victory Ale was a Belgian interpretation of the classical Scottish Ale (which was, in turn, the Scottish interpretation of the classical English barleywine) and had an impressive 8.5% ABV. So impressive that the local shoemaker named Van De Wouwer reportedly called it ‘the real devil’ (‘nen echten Duvel’ in the local dialect) — and the Moortgats unhesitatingly renamed ‘Victory Ale’ into ‘Duvel’.
Finally, from Twitter…
I just did a quick basic running cost increase/comparison for an interview and the cost of blue roll has increased 137% since last year!!! Holy guacamole it’s frickin wild out there!!
— The Dodo Micropub (@thedodomicropub) November 1, 2022 (https://twitter.com/thedodomicropub/status/1587403942203461632?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
For more good reading check out Stan Hieronymus’s round-up from Monday (https://appellationbeer.com/blog/are-you-prepared-to-define-craft-beer-culture/) and Alan McLeod’s from Thursday (http://abetterbeerblog427.com/2022/11/03/the-fascinating-if-not-captivating-beery-news-notes-for-novembers-start/).
News, nuggets and longreads 5 November 2022: Bread rolls, blue rolls (https://boakandbailey.com/2022/11/beer-pub-news-links-5-november-2022/) originally posted at Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog (https://boakandbailey.com)
More... (https://boakandbailey.com/2022/11/beer-pub-news-links-5-november-2022/)
Here’s all the writing about beer and pubs that leapt out at us in the past seven days, from Lambic beef to laidback bars.
You know we’re fans of the basic bartop bread roll (https://boakandbailey.com/2017/05/ham-rolls-clingfilm/). Now, a pub not too far from where we live has gone viral thanks to its particularly chunky examples of the ‘popular bar snack’.
someone sent me this picture of cheese and onion sandwiches from their local pub pic.twitter.com/WSJ9OPLkBL (https://t.co/WSJ9OPLkBL)
— Parker (@panoparker) November 2, 2022 (https://twitter.com/panoparker/status/1587892298410446848?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
The BBC interviewed the landlord (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-63513997), Martin Donlin, who says: “They are basic sustenance after work and go nicely with a pint of cider… They make you more thirsty too.”
https://boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/strait_narrow_lincoln.jpgSOURCE: Pellicle.For Pellicle Jane Stuart has written about The Strait and Narrow (https://www.pelliclemag.com/home/2022/10/24/hanging-on-the-telephone-calling-in-to-lincolns-the-strait-and-narrow), a nice-sounding bar in Lincoln:
Situated at the foot of Steep Hill, where it meets the top of Lincoln High Street, for me, the Strait is a pub like no other in the UK. It’s not traditional, it’s not a micropub, it’s not a family pub, it’s not a foodie pub, a brewpub, or a sports pub. So what exactly is it? Well… it’s a Strait and Narrow thing… Immediately upon entering, it feels like you’re transported to another country. The long bar dominating the room’s left took me back to San Diego and the Monkey Paw Brewpub (sadly now extinct). The room—riddled with cosy nooks—is dimly lit by chandeliers, spotlights and Tiffany lamps—an odd mix that somehow just works. The background music hits that sweet spot of being loud enough to lose yourself while being comfortably able to hear conversations.
There’s no particular angle or remarkable story here, but sometimes, it’s just good to read someone being enthusiastic about a place you’ve never been.
https://boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/lambic_circles.jpgMartyn Cornell has provided an in-depth review of a new book by Raf Meert about the history of Lambic beer (https://zythophile.co.uk/2022/10/31/is-everything-you-have-ever-read-about-the-history-of-lambic-and-gueuze-totally-wrong-raf-meert-thinks-so/). It’s interesting, and controversial, because it “puts a big bomb underneath all the marketing efforts of of companies such as Boon and Lindemann’s”. Reviewing serious history books is hard work – how do you verify their accuracy, especially when the sources are obscure, and in languages you don’t speak? Martyn treads appropriately carefully but concludes:
If you’re at all interested in the history of lambic and gueuze, and especially if you are ever going to write about the history of lambic and gueuze, this is a book you are going to have to read, because its alternative take on the story of these two fascinating and important beer styles is so radically different compared to the story that HORAL and the big lambic/gueuze makers put out that you are getting only half the picture if you don’t read it.
Martyn’s review prompted a bit of discussion on Twitter about the grumpiness of this kind of history writing and Martyn says: “The tone is sometimes polemical – I thought I was occasionally a little rough on people who get their facts wrong, but Meert has no fear of sticking the clog in hard.” We tend to prefer our history dispassionate, so that’s not a selling point as far as we’re concerned.
https://boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/IPA_letters.jpgAt Craft Beer & Brewing Jeff Alworth has provided an update on what’s going on with IPA in America (https://beerandbrewing.com/the-great-american-ipa-convergence/), where the dividing lines between sub-styles are breaking down:
You might imagine that along [the 3,000 miles between Portland, Oregon, and Portland, Maine] you’d find differences in the way people make their beer. That was the initial idea behind this article—to document those differences in the ways that brewers in different regions make their hazy IPAs… Yet, when I set out to investigate this question, speaking with brewers and writers across the country, they kept describing the same kinds of beers. As a control, I polled my readers on social media and my blog about their preferences. I was astounded to find that not only did drinkers from different regions prefer pretty much the same things, but they also agreed with the brewers, too… Americans may be riven by political and cultural divisions, but in this one small area, we seem to speak with a single voice.
https://boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/CAMRA_macro_GBG1984.jpgFor the British Beer Breaks newsletter Phil Mellows writes about the new edition of the CAMRA Good Beer Guide (https://britishbeerbreaks.substack.com/p/its-a-good-beer-guide-but-its-not) and its status after 50 years in print:
The strength of the Good Beer Guide, and what makes it different from, and in many ways better than, competing guides, is that the people picking the entries are so close to the ground… This is also a weakness. A pub can fall out of favour with these individuals for all kinds of reasons that may be obscure to the occasional visitor. And there must be, it seems to me, a growing pressure on the decision-making resulting from the limit imposed on the number of entries allocated to each county or region… While each Camra branch has its own way of doing things, Strawbridge suggested that rota systems are common. Regular entries may take turns dropping out for a year to make room for others – though they can hardly now leave out any of the Big Five on that basis.
https://boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/duvel_sign.jpgWe continue to watch Sergey Konstantinov’s beer history book project with interest. Recent posts have concerned the development of modern Belgian styles such as Quadrupel (https://twirl.medium.com/beer-lecture-chapter-25-gradus-ad-parnassum-fd935019d056) and the strong golden (Duvel) type (https://twirl.medium.com/beer-lecture-chapter-26-the-devil-for-sale-507b6b53e266):
In 1923 (or 1918, as some sources claim) the Moortgat brewery released its special strong ‘Victory Ale’ to celebrate the end of the First World War. To do so, one of the Moortgat brothers, Albert, went to Scotland searching for proper yeasts (and had found them either at William McEwan’s or William Younger’s brewery — the sources are again inconclusive). More importantly, he brought not only the yeasts, but the recipe as well: in fact, Victory Ale was a Belgian interpretation of the classical Scottish Ale (which was, in turn, the Scottish interpretation of the classical English barleywine) and had an impressive 8.5% ABV. So impressive that the local shoemaker named Van De Wouwer reportedly called it ‘the real devil’ (‘nen echten Duvel’ in the local dialect) — and the Moortgats unhesitatingly renamed ‘Victory Ale’ into ‘Duvel’.
Finally, from Twitter…
I just did a quick basic running cost increase/comparison for an interview and the cost of blue roll has increased 137% since last year!!! Holy guacamole it’s frickin wild out there!!
— The Dodo Micropub (@thedodomicropub) November 1, 2022 (https://twitter.com/thedodomicropub/status/1587403942203461632?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
For more good reading check out Stan Hieronymus’s round-up from Monday (https://appellationbeer.com/blog/are-you-prepared-to-define-craft-beer-culture/) and Alan McLeod’s from Thursday (http://abetterbeerblog427.com/2022/11/03/the-fascinating-if-not-captivating-beery-news-notes-for-novembers-start/).
News, nuggets and longreads 5 November 2022: Bread rolls, blue rolls (https://boakandbailey.com/2022/11/beer-pub-news-links-5-november-2022/) originally posted at Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog (https://boakandbailey.com)
More... (https://boakandbailey.com/2022/11/beer-pub-news-links-5-november-2022/)