It was only a few weeks ago now I read a slightly offensive article by beer writer Alistar Gilmore painting the basic picture of mild as disappointing, minimalistic ‘past its date’ beer style. My personal opinion is that mild is a style that is far too under rated and has gained its current reputation through brewers and landlords disrespect and adulteration of mild ales in years gone past.
Besides its image problem, mild has its practical downsides, its low gravity and often subtle characteristics of the beer make for a product less stable. This means as the product must be served young its stability in a bottle form is questionable. In cask form mild is in its element, and freshly tapped is often a truly divine experience. But because if its instability brewers have to be confident that the beer will sell (without it lying around too long) and landlords need to know they can shift the volume without having to return half full casks. Tie this in with an image problem and you see where the main problem lies. Alongside myself mild has a cult following and the more memorable mild tasting experiences I have had to date are from examples such as Mighty Oak Oscar Wilde Mild, and Mordue Born to be mild. But if you are hunting out mild this month and have little knowledge of the style, here are some outline descriptions of milds most commonly found today;
Dark mild: Can be very roast malt influenced and dry with lots of burnt coffee like flavors. Many are not as dry with layers of indulgent malt complexity.
Ruby mild: The less roast malt influenced versions are typically red to deep red/amber in color with lots of sweet malt flavor dominating.
Stronger Milds: Before the second and first world war mild was typically stronger than it was today, some rare examples are surviving beers from that ere, other strong milds are often classified as strong or brown ales or (its one of those areas of beer style classification that gets a little unclear).
Light milds: Light in colour and very subtly hopped. Sometimes confused for ordinary bitter.
As I say much opinion these days mentions mild in decline, CAMRA seem enthusiastic enough to try and keep it going, and rightly so. Its almost like its been just hanging on in there for a long time now, struggling to stay on the cards for brewers and publican who usually doubt its potential (almost reflecting the recent history of Newcastle United). This month I myself will be hunting out any new milds I can, and the surprising this is when I do find one these days a great proportion of the other customers in the pub are usually giving it a try as well. As I say, maybe its underestimated?
Wednesday, 6 May 2009
Sunday, 26 April 2009
Beer history and origins
Since the failure of English beer night (announced in my previous post) Here is a little post about beers origins and history.
I once hosted a short quiz at a family event in which one of the questions asked if it was true or false that beer was invented by a fictional individual in the eleventh century. The people who know could probably guess this was one of those easy questions to separate the people who have no clue from the others. Surprisingly some people thought it was actually true (obviously just guessing) and were later shamed.
But the thing is evidence to date has it that beer itself is around as old as civilized society and no one really knows who or how it was discovered. I have quiet often found it a quite fascinating concept that someone (or it could have been a group of people), most probably by accident discovered beer. Because beer itself is such produced by such a complex process it might be logical to think that it was unraveled step by step over time and constant trial and error. For instance you could assume that once man learnt that germinating barley kilned over a fire produced malt (which is edable) someone must have thought of then blending the malt with hot water (to produce a simple mash). Separating the liquid from the malt after a certain time, the resultant liquid could be left to cool, and this (if left open to the air) would ferment (via natural microorganisms found in the air).
Now this is where things get more interesting, because at this stage the beverage in question was probably foul tasting and alcoholic, with plenty of fermentation bi-products, off sour flavors and all sorts. Alcoholic effects would certainly interest people of early civilization but this beverage was probably not safe to drink. Someone from this point must have thought to boil the wort (or liquid separated from the malt) for the sterility before allowing microorganisms in the air to naturally ferment it (producing what is technically beer). Thus we have here a possible theory of how beer was discovered, but I could be wrong, I mean it could have been the brainchild of some genius mastermind or passed onto humankind from an alien race that visited many thousand years ago.
The point is although no one truly knows, beer history and historic beers have captured the imagination of brewers worldwide with many brewers producing their own interpretations. From Dogfish head in Delaware to London’s Meantime brewery brewers have on many occasions gone to great lengths digging up old brewing records to recreate ancient beers. Interestingly some may know of the ‘yeast libraries’ that can be used for such attempts. These are storage facilities that hold (in frozen form) yeast strains often incubated from age old bottled beers which allow people to replicate (with the formulation) age old beers. I myself have considered brewing my own replications (except I would have to use my house yeast strain). But even given resurrected ancient yeast strain, exact methods and formulations brewers or centuries gone would have suffered from unpredictable raw material qualities and inferior process technologies than today meaning consumers were given beers of far more inconsistent quality. This point was often empathized by my old lecturers at Heriot Watt university, and must recognized by all those drinkers out there that keep complaining that beer today isn’t what it used to be (if we were in 1975 I would agree with them). But today craft brewers globally have the technology, scientific knowledge, experience, creativity and inspiration to create truly outstanding beers. Even in the face of the dominating mass market brands, craft brewers have surged from the ashes developing cult followings worldwide.
Every day whilst I’m at work casually running the cask washer or CIP system, or just cleaning up I always feel privileged to be part of the new golden age of Brewing.
I once hosted a short quiz at a family event in which one of the questions asked if it was true or false that beer was invented by a fictional individual in the eleventh century. The people who know could probably guess this was one of those easy questions to separate the people who have no clue from the others. Surprisingly some people thought it was actually true (obviously just guessing) and were later shamed.
But the thing is evidence to date has it that beer itself is around as old as civilized society and no one really knows who or how it was discovered. I have quiet often found it a quite fascinating concept that someone (or it could have been a group of people), most probably by accident discovered beer. Because beer itself is such produced by such a complex process it might be logical to think that it was unraveled step by step over time and constant trial and error. For instance you could assume that once man learnt that germinating barley kilned over a fire produced malt (which is edable) someone must have thought of then blending the malt with hot water (to produce a simple mash). Separating the liquid from the malt after a certain time, the resultant liquid could be left to cool, and this (if left open to the air) would ferment (via natural microorganisms found in the air).
Now this is where things get more interesting, because at this stage the beverage in question was probably foul tasting and alcoholic, with plenty of fermentation bi-products, off sour flavors and all sorts. Alcoholic effects would certainly interest people of early civilization but this beverage was probably not safe to drink. Someone from this point must have thought to boil the wort (or liquid separated from the malt) for the sterility before allowing microorganisms in the air to naturally ferment it (producing what is technically beer). Thus we have here a possible theory of how beer was discovered, but I could be wrong, I mean it could have been the brainchild of some genius mastermind or passed onto humankind from an alien race that visited many thousand years ago.
The point is although no one truly knows, beer history and historic beers have captured the imagination of brewers worldwide with many brewers producing their own interpretations. From Dogfish head in Delaware to London’s Meantime brewery brewers have on many occasions gone to great lengths digging up old brewing records to recreate ancient beers. Interestingly some may know of the ‘yeast libraries’ that can be used for such attempts. These are storage facilities that hold (in frozen form) yeast strains often incubated from age old bottled beers which allow people to replicate (with the formulation) age old beers. I myself have considered brewing my own replications (except I would have to use my house yeast strain). But even given resurrected ancient yeast strain, exact methods and formulations brewers or centuries gone would have suffered from unpredictable raw material qualities and inferior process technologies than today meaning consumers were given beers of far more inconsistent quality. This point was often empathized by my old lecturers at Heriot Watt university, and must recognized by all those drinkers out there that keep complaining that beer today isn’t what it used to be (if we were in 1975 I would agree with them). But today craft brewers globally have the technology, scientific knowledge, experience, creativity and inspiration to create truly outstanding beers. Even in the face of the dominating mass market brands, craft brewers have surged from the ashes developing cult followings worldwide.
Every day whilst I’m at work casually running the cask washer or CIP system, or just cleaning up I always feel privileged to be part of the new golden age of Brewing.
Saturday, 18 April 2009
Beer themed Events
So far the spring has went well with some nice but often changeable weather. The Newcastle 33rd annual beer festival was as entertaining as usual featuring a few new releases including Allendale’s characterful Adder Lager and Entrepreneur ale (one I have yet to try). Of current times I am developing my own summer ale for future months and a lovely dark mild for May.
But another idea of mine I had whilst reading beer writer Jeff Evans’s latest book ‘A beer a day’ was to have my own themed beer evenings. For example national themes could work well, meaning that evening only beers for a specified country can be consumed by myself an other participants. St Georges day is coming up soon so an English beer night might be on hand. So far other ideas include American beer night (July 4th) Belgian beer night (July 18th) and German beer night (October 3rd). However Australian, and Scottish beer night (on Australia day and Burns night) I shall have to wait until next year for as both dates have passed. Another idea is to do beer style themed nights, where by participants consume numerous beers of the same style.
But the main problem for such events is the lack of availability of certain beers in this country. For example I really wanted to do a Canadian beer night, however only a few Canadian beers can be found even in specialty beer shops. Other ideas such as Munich Helles or Saison nights could also prove to be tricky.
Regardless of this the idea is simple, and such events could provide as a temporary substitute to my big dreams of doing a beer hunting world tour. Coincidentally my next beer themed night is English beer night on the 25th of April, the same date as the Skipton Beer festival which I will be attending. But I may consider having it on a different evening, in a more peaceful setting that allows for lengthy reviewing to be done, and perhaps an additional cheese board featuring classic English Cheeses. Exiting stuff.
But another idea of mine I had whilst reading beer writer Jeff Evans’s latest book ‘A beer a day’ was to have my own themed beer evenings. For example national themes could work well, meaning that evening only beers for a specified country can be consumed by myself an other participants. St Georges day is coming up soon so an English beer night might be on hand. So far other ideas include American beer night (July 4th) Belgian beer night (July 18th) and German beer night (October 3rd). However Australian, and Scottish beer night (on Australia day and Burns night) I shall have to wait until next year for as both dates have passed. Another idea is to do beer style themed nights, where by participants consume numerous beers of the same style.
But the main problem for such events is the lack of availability of certain beers in this country. For example I really wanted to do a Canadian beer night, however only a few Canadian beers can be found even in specialty beer shops. Other ideas such as Munich Helles or Saison nights could also prove to be tricky.
Regardless of this the idea is simple, and such events could provide as a temporary substitute to my big dreams of doing a beer hunting world tour. Coincidentally my next beer themed night is English beer night on the 25th of April, the same date as the Skipton Beer festival which I will be attending. But I may consider having it on a different evening, in a more peaceful setting that allows for lengthy reviewing to be done, and perhaps an additional cheese board featuring classic English Cheeses. Exiting stuff.
Saturday, 28 March 2009
A post about work
A few of you have questioned (including myself) why I haven’t dedicated any posts to my work i.e. Daleside brewery. So for these reasons I decided to dedicate this post to Daleside and all the great blokes that make it work. You see Daleside is no mass market commercial operation owned by some holding company, its an Independent small brewer, of classic and often intriguing beers. Based in North Yorkshire we are a 20 barrel plant producing beer for both local cask sales and distribution further afield (sometimes internationally) by various distributors. Our bottled beers are also bottled externally and can be found in various outlets however I have found one of the best places to find Daleside bottled beer to be Booths supermarket, a chain that seems to only be found in the North West of England, however most specialty beer shops, and some wine shops are almost certain to have them.
Previous to my work at Daleside I had sampled Daleside beer very few times since my days as a Biochemistry student in Lancaster (where a trusty Booths supermarket was near by). Of recent times I have got to know the beers of Daleside well indeed, here are some short reviews of the core products:
Daleside Blonde; This is one of the main core products and makes a great summer thirst quencher. The medium to light soft malts are overlaid with lively floral citrus hop notes that linger in the finish. Admirably this one doesn’t seem to wonder into the dry bitter finish (often with lots of resins hanging around) that other golden ales do but sticks to a gentle, rounded balance fitting with the house style. As a bottled beer blonde is almost a completely different product, more refined in character from filtration and an additional lagering step conducted.
Bitter and Special Bitter; Both core products with great drinkability. On cask bitter is mid amber in color and goes down very easily due to its subtle light caramel and gentle hop tones. Special bitter also has great drinkability, but is a little more upfront with more plumpness to the body and well integrated toffee notes. Both of these beers can be used as examples of classic Yorkshire style bitters.
Old Leg over; Another session ale in true Yorkshire style, Leg Over pours a deep amber to brown in color and balances well the interplay between sweet caramelized malt flavors with those of mature fruit from the fermentation. In cask and bottle Leg over is sessionable yet moderately complex.
As you may have guessed Daleside excels in crafting malt balanced beers, and a number of higher gravity beers are also brewed which showcase this ability even further. Ripon Jewel, Morocco ale, Crack Shot and Monkey Wrench, all individual in character and packed with well layered malt structures to be savored. I have discussed this numerous times with head brewer Craig Witty who has crafted many of them himself and has a fondness for his style of brewing. Another novel factor of my work is that I can chat about beer for much greater lengths of time than in previous jobs before people get sick of it. Additionally it is in Yorkshire, which as a superior respect for and output of quality beer. Grand.
Daleside, a brief tour:
Mashing in; hot liqor meets milled malt being fed into the mash tun. After this process is complete the mash is left to stand at it specific temperature to allow starch in the malt to be degraded to more fermentable sugars.
Buckets of aroma hops wait their turn to be thrown into the copper boil.
Cleaning out FV8 (fermentation vessel 8); after the beer has fermented it is transferred to a seperate vessel, leaving loads of yeasty deposits in the Fermenter to be cleaned out.
Clean casks in store, infact every cask pictured was cleaned by myself.
B.R.D Unit (blue roll dispencer); this piece of kit enables staff to quickly and easily dispence blue roll to be used in cleaning duties.Friday, 13 March 2009
A beer adventure down south.
Casks of various brewers ready to depart for the Harrogate beer festival.It was only the other week when I overlooked much of the organization for the annual Harrogate beer festival. Coincidentally it was at my work, the Daleside brewery that many of the casks for the festival were collated together to be transported to the event. However the event itself, showcasing many of the greatest beers in Yorkshire, I would be unable to attend due to already scheduled liaisons down south.
However as a substitute for missing out, I would be visiting a brewery that I have admired and longed to visit ever since the very beginnings of my quest for real beer. It has produced many globally recognized classic beers with a certain flamboyancy and fondness of often using multiple English hop varieties to great effect.
As you have probably have guessed, the brewer was Fuller-Smith and Turner, of Chiswick, London. Many years ago I had almost dreamt about such a brewery visit (when I was about 20 I became pretty obsessed with Fullers beers) and the tour was very enjoyable. We were escorted around the brewery buy an old fellow called Jeff. The place seemed huge compared to humble Daleside brewery, with multiple buildings and forklifts roaming about and a sort of old but very well preserved feel about the place. Inside the brewhouse seemed a formidable size, with huge pristine stainless steel vessels of at least 60 barrels capacity and an overall red and green color scheme running throughout. Overall it reminded me a little of Caledonian brewery, back from my old days at Heriot-Watt university… Except alittle more posh.
Behold the mighty gleaming stainless steel copper, a centrepiece at the very heart of Fullers. I never thought I'd see the day.
London Prides well balanced, firm but smooth malty notes latched on to the meaty textures of the Cumberland sausage excellently.
Multiple fermentation vessels.
Me by the copper; note that my current beer diary is too large to fit in coat or trowser pockets like previous volumes. Instead volume 5 has to be carried by hand.
After the tour we got some free samples and headed for the brewery tap for some lunch where I excellently paired Cumberland sausage to a London Pride, and got another try of Chiswick Bitter, one of the finest examples of the style I have ever known. Oddly enough the great Mike Jackson beer hunter himself was also a big Chiswick fan, and until this point I had only got hold of the stuff twice in my entire beer hunting life. It was just as I remembered it, fruty hops to the nose, dry peppery hop resins on the gentle palate, a great beer, and obviously dry hopped.
Following the main event I was also given the chance to dine at one of London’s fine Belgo restaurants, a chain of restaurants specializing in Belgian food with Belgian beer and managed to pick some great beer-food pairings. Check out the beer lists at http://www.belgo-restaurants.co.uk/. In the end I left with a better impression of London that I first thought. I guess I have never really been beer hunting properly in London, and until this point thought it would be just cammed with trendy cocktail bars and clubs. But we saw more decent looking pubs than imagined and not that many trendy bars, which encourages me to visit again some day for a more intensive beer hunt. A grand idea indeed.
Following the main event I was also given the chance to dine at one of London’s fine Belgo restaurants, a chain of restaurants specializing in Belgian food with Belgian beer and managed to pick some great beer-food pairings. Check out the beer lists at http://www.belgo-restaurants.co.uk/. In the end I left with a better impression of London that I first thought. I guess I have never really been beer hunting properly in London, and until this point thought it would be just cammed with trendy cocktail bars and clubs. But we saw more decent looking pubs than imagined and not that many trendy bars, which encourages me to visit again some day for a more intensive beer hunt. A grand idea indeed.
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