Mordue meet the brewer. Mordue brewery. 30/07/2011.

"One. Two... One. One, two" taps the mike "One. Two... One. One, two"

Meanwhile head brewer Craig would be handing round samples and chat to pub goers. During my time at Daleside I was the official roadie for parts of the Daleside meet the brewer tour. But this time it would be different, I would be the brewer, and support man Dave would be the one holding back the crowd surfers. Another big difference would also be that this meet the brewer would be exclusive to the North East CAMRA branch, held on the home turf of Mordue Brewery itself. Additional to this the CAMRA group would also witness a bit of the magic of the brewing experience themselves as (due to it selling out so fast) I would be in brewing a batch of Northumbrian Blonde.

So, knowing I would have to manage both a tour group and brewing, much preparation was needed. Everything was weighed out in advance, malt samples were prepared and the answers to many obvious questions were revised;:

'yes, I'll sign your sandals'
'yes I'll sign your tickers book'
'yes I'll sign your girlfriends ass'
'no I won't sign your girlfriend's dog's ass'
'no, I'm not sure how many barrels per year we produce, but give me a minute with a calculator and I could have a good guess'

But in the end none of these answers were needed, and our CAMRA friends got a nice tour whilst my batch of blonde sat quietly steeping in late hops. Boss man Matt Fawson and Dave 'the yeast-maister' later took over as various beers were sampled. I even ended up showing off Elizabeth (currently not in use) and some bottles of oak aged 1750s porter (bottled a few months back from Elizabeth herself) were cracked open.

So all in all not bad for my first meet the brewer as the brewer and the CAMRA crew were rather entertaining. Lots of more technical than usual questions and was totally digging the beards. I myself might get the Zakk Wylde look one day. So all in all a grand day out for all.

Growing my own hops

Now I am aware of a few bloggers who have done this and reaped the rewards, but none of them in anywhere as far north as Northumberland. But as it was my birthday present I thought I would finally get round to giving it a go. Apparently the tubs have to be kept indoors for a few weeks and germination takes 2-3 months. After that they are unleashed into the elements of Northumberland and if I will be very chuffed if I get any cones off them.

Sadly it doesn't tell you what hop variety your growing but if I do manage to grow any hops from it my plan would be to use them for dry hopping.

Some old school beer literature.

The world was a very different place in the 1970s. Judas Priest were at large, classic films like Rocky and Scum were invented. CAMRA was just making a name for itself and beer blogging didn't exist. I didn't exist.

Richard Boston's Beer and Skittles is a book that provides a very informative and personal perspective of the British beer scene from the '60s and '70s when beer meant mild, bitter, stout/Guinness, occasional strong ales or the growing trend that is continental lager beer. Pubs were architecturally sound havens for the working man to smoke, drink and play pub games like billiards. They were also under constant threat from the unstoppable evil empires of tied pubs owned by the infamous 'big six' whose tied houses were constantly being adulterated and manipulated by the brewer to suit commercial needs.

The book, like many other beer books, briefly covers the the history of beer going back to ancient civilisations and (just like Pete Brown did many years later) the origins of the pub are also explored. The brewing process, homebrewing (very popular in the 70s) and pub games are also covered to some extent. The strong support of pairing beer and food doesn't really go into any guidelines of how to pair beer and food but does give a lot of old-school cooking recipes such as Guinness stew, and steak, kidney and oyster pudding which include beer. Back then good bottled beer apparently meant Worthington's White Shield, Guinness (then bottle conditioned), Newcastle Brown Ale and keeping beers such as Eldridge Pope Thomas Hardy Ale (RIP) and Courage Imperial Russian Stout.


The thing I find most interesting about this book, is that it gives an insight to a bygone era.
Admittedly a lot of it did remind me of the numerous occasions I've got chatting to old pub locals about beer. Many an old local has the opinionated old codger in the corner rambling about how things were 'back in the day' and how much better pubs and beer were before the 60s. Perhaps one of those old codgers was Richard Boston? Who knows, but what I did realise was that where most modern beer authors rave in celebration about the successess of CAMRA and artisan beer over the decades this literature gives the reader the impressions of an underlying insecurity from the author. The tone is fiercely defensive of all that is small, traditional, original and authentic or in short all that was under threat in an era that was progressively becoming more mainstreamed, mass-marketed, mass-advertised and just boring.

But my favourite part of this book, is the bit that illustrated that some things haven't changed. Apparently many followers of the 'big six' and the new kegged beer  had written off the 'real ale' market as small, dying and comprised of old flat caps who in ten or twenty years or so would have all died off. Now where have I heard that before? Funny how I'm reading this over thirty years later and the 'real ale' market looks far from dead, yet very occasionally I still hear this same opinion.

So in conclusion, not a bad read at all. To celebrate finishing it I thought I'd crack open an old school beer so without the much mentioned White Shield at hand I thought I'd go for a Directors Courage, one of the first bottled beers I ever tried.

Is it cos I is black?

Black IPA can be a contraversial subject these days. I mean isn’t India Pale Ale meant to be mean pale? That’s like painting a black Labrador white and calling it a white black Labrador (WTF!). OK not the best example. But I think part of the concept of the style's inception was to be totally rebel, new world and bad ass. That’s why many people snub it and that’s why it’s sometimes given the alternative name Cascadian Dark Ale.

Up till now my best impression of a black IPA have been from the all powerful Stone Sublimely Self Righteous ale, that goes brilliantly with steak (topped with the strongest Stilton cheese you can find) and chips, but this Italian beast, picked up at Gradi Plato in Rome tells a rather different story.

Birrificio RuRAle Castigamatt, at 7.5% is jet black in colour and has a bottle label that looks like it’s been styled from a super bike or formula one racing logo. The aroma is slightly baffling and seems to switch between liquorice, coffee and  dark chocolate one minute then perfumed tangerine and spicy hops the next. Then on the first taste it starts with this slick oily mouth feel, sherbet, orange roast grain then all of a sudden… WHAM! The full force of high alpha American hops comes at ya like a tiger in an intense finish of bitter espresso coffee combined with a super crisp dry hop bitterness.

The thing with this beer is it kind of grows on you the more you drink of it. Once you're past the shock and awe the intensity is embraced, but don’t get me wrong this beer isn’t just about boldness. Compared to Stone’s version this beer has a lot more mystery and subtle nuances with a sort of smooth espresso like intensity. Honestly I wasn’t expecting to like it this much so that’s a thumbs up from me.

All Romed out. Holiday conclusions.

It was only three days ago now that I spent my last beer of the Rome holiday sat in Ma Che Siete Venuti a Fa (aka the Football pub) enjoying the last beer of the holiday. The German smoked Bock Gaenstaller Brau Affumicator sure leaves you with a craving for smoked cheese and bratwurst sausages.

A tiny little pub with football strips and scarves adorning the walls and a beer range largely dominated by European imports it's a good place to stop by for a few beers before or after dinner. This is quite convenient as it's directly opposite Bir & Fud and it's definitely worth mentioning as the last of the big four beer hunting destinations of the holiday.

But now, with it all over, some Rob's Beer Quest Awards... 

Best overall beer range: Brasserie 4:20. If you count the bottled beer list that included vintage lambics, US craft limited edition beers and even vintage bottles of Hardy's Ale going back to 1995 costing over 100 euros a bottle you could also say it has the most expensive beer range.

Best place to embrace the Italian beer: Open Baladin. Co owned by Birra Baladin and Del Borgo brewers Open Baladin is no less than a world class palace of worship for Italian beer. Here I discovered many of the most exceptional beers of the holiday. Although the food menu is a little limited to mainly burgers, chicken wings etc it's still exceptional.

Best beer of the holiday: Montegioco Open Mind. Never tried anything quite like it and according to the bar man wine wort was used in its production. Interesting indeed.

Best food: Bir & Fud (but the desserts at bar 4:20 are still hard to beat).

Best beer and food pairing: Del Borgo Re Ale Extra with a pizza at Bir & Fud. Totally effortless. Can't remember the name of the pizza it but it had sausage and potato on it and although any hoppy pale ale would have done the job this one was exceptional.

Best staff: Brasserie 4:20.

Best Place for a session: Ma Che Siete Venuti a Fa (it's also marginally the cheapest)

Most decorated bar: Open Baladin..Especially with the giant hanging transparent picture of Teo Musso (Baladin) and Leonardo Di Vincenzo (Birra del Borgo) holding a giant goblet of beer in some kind of garden displayed above the bar.

That's it, happy times. But remember if you do go to Rome to look out of the small armys of little Indian blokes hanging around big tourist attractions trying to sell you umbrellas, roses, hats and the like. Then you have the blokes dressed as Roman soldiers trying to get pictures of you posing with them for 10 euros... And don't give tips, as I said to the wife, "were British, not American and we don't do that unless we think their worth it".