– What The HELL Is Craft Beer? A Blog.
As an idealist I went into this discussion thinking we would sort this issue out once and for all, alas as I am beginning to learn the idealist is oft disappointed. I say disappointed, however this is a gross exaggeration, it was a real privilege to take this discussion out of the internet and into the real world, a lively and animated discussion amongst esteemed members of the beer community, what more could I have asked for? Our panel comprised of John Clarke (south Manchester CAMRA), Toby Mckenzie (Head Brewer, Redwillow Brewery), Zac Avery (Blogger and owner of Beer Paradise), Peter Alexander (CAMRA type, NWAF organiser) and James Watt (Head Honcho, Brewdog), we attempted to make the panel as balanced as possible with some pro-craft and those with a more traditional CAMRA perspective. There were certainly flaws in the event, chiefly among them a lack of women on the panel, this was highlighted by the very mixed demographic of the crowd in attendance, perhaps an imbalance in the panel, we possibly needed another staunch craft perspective. We live and learn, if you have any comments as to flaws or possible improvements in the format then please let us know.
As the compere for the evening my brief was to keep the discussion going, stimulate discussion and to try and keep my opinions to myself. Each member of the panel was given 3 minutes to state their case, a very brief run down of some of the live tweets from the talk:
“Trying to define it (craft beer) I don’t think we’re going to get anywhere” – John Clarke (CAMRA)
“A really powerful thing is how you define yourself ” – Zak Avery
“we need the definition, to protect it from the multi corporate bastards” James Watt (Brewdog)
“I don’t think we can define craft beer” – Tandleman
“we should not follow the USA in relation to their definition of craft beer” – Tandleman
“You’ve got your own palates! We brew beer you like it, you drink it. You don’t like it, you don’t drink it.” – Toby Mckenzie
“It’s about education. Information for the consumer is key to drink better beer.” – James Watt (BrewDog)
“Not everyone can drink expensive beer” – Zak Avery
“We don’t need a definition. Summer Wine, RedWillow, Thornbridge, Quantum are growing – does it matter?” – James (SWB)
“Be wary of selling things. Don’t push people out. Keep the prices low.” – Tandleman
Well that gives you a flavour of the discussion, the only person who really advocated a tighter definition of craft beer was James Watt, stating size, independence and something else, a broadly similar to the American Brewers Association definition. I was surprised that more people didn’t really support this type of motion, personal I think there is some sense in it.
Do we really need a definition at all? I would argue that maybe we don’t, the US have a constitution set in stone the UK do not, is there a parallel to be drawn here, do us Brits need strict rules to judge these things by and even if we did would we still argue about them anyway? I would say that maybe we need a set of aspirations so that consumers can judge for themselves what is and isn’t craft, some guidance through the world of beer particularly for the uninitiated. I think some of the proposal containing in Tandleman’s blog are very sensible, to develop a broad qualitative definition, maybe using size, independence, ethos and other such wooly terms, at least this gives people a framework by which to make up their own minds.
In terms of ‘craft beer’ being derided as a marketing term, what is the problem with it being a marketing term? Real ale has become a marketing term and plenty of brewers have hung their hat on that, why not have a marketing term which could help small brewers, pubs and customers a like in the same way real ale has done so far.
I think it’s fair to say outwardly we may not have come to a conclusion, however I think it was good to get the discussion out in the open and it has maybe thrown up a few possible discussion points for future events such as:
What future for CAMRA? Beer is an exciting and dynamic industry with a changing demographic, young people, women, previous non-beer drinkers of all ages are getting interested. Can CAMRA keep pace? Is it interested in moving forward? Is it too late? Has the campaign(for real ale) been won already?
Why are PROFIT and MARKETING dirty words in the beer industry? Two words which are vital to the success of any small business or industry as a whole so why do so many get so worked up a bout them?
Words By Jonathan Heyes
– Budapest beer explorations by Niall Lecoustre
When people think of Hungary they think of amazing architecture and possibly good wine but certainly not beer. Hungarians keep most of their best wine for the domestic market and don’t seem to export their beer. By chance my visit to Hungary coincided with the Sorfesztival, a celebration of Hungarian mainstream and craft beer, also offering some decent stuff from Belgium, Germany, the Czech Republic and even Brewdog. The majority of Hungarians seem to drink lager and dunkel style beers but under the surface there is a growing interest in craft beer and small breweries are experimenting with less traditional styles.
The Sorfesztival (29 Aug- 2 Sep) took place in the spectacular location of Budapest castle, east of the river Danube in the Buda part of the city. The castle was worth exploring and its courtyards provided an ideal backdrop for the beer festival. Each brewery had its own wooden stall with the majority serving draft beer and the odd one offering bottles. So was the beer any good? Well the majority was pretty average but one or 2 offerings were worth seeking out. Armando Otchoa runs the beer shop Csak a Jo Sor (Only good beer) and his Grabanc IPA was supposed to be available at the festival. Despite searching every inch of the courtyard, disappointingly I couldn’t track it down. When I met Armando a few days later he informed me that his latest batch wasn’t ready for the festival and would only be available after I had left town! I started the festival with Sefforas IPA; the first IPA brewed in Hungary and a pretty flat, watery affair on this showing. Next up was Koleses Sor, a pale, refreshing beer ideal for the hot weather.
The festival took a turn for the better with a visit to the Bors brewery stand. Despite all their beers being bizarrely named after characters from Robin Hood, they certainly seemed to make some of the more interesting craft beers available in Hungary. On draft Little John pale ale was a bit cloudy but still had plenty of flavour. The bottle version was even better, a bit yeasty with nice hints of fruit. Tuck Barat a Belgian style double, was a tasty, well-balanced affair with hints of caramel and dark fruit. The Bors brewery is still a work in progress but they are definitely a brewery worth watching and their beers are well worth trying. Next, the Gyertyanos Kriek was a nasty cherry beer best avoided. This was followed by Buza from Szeles and Szeles, an instantly forgettable wheat beer sold in plastic bottles by the likeable brewer.
The beer of the festival and probably the best Hungarian craft beer of the trip was Keseru Mez brewed by Foti. This was a well-balanced, honeyed beer with fruit notes and a subtle hop bite which was quite moreish. It was popular with the locals in Skanzenclub and also came in decent 500ml bottles. The Sorfestival cost £7 including a couple of beers and was an enjoyable affair and a good introduction to Hungarian craft beer. It also provided a chance to wander round the grounds of the fantastic castle. The Hungarian scene is still in its infancy but a couple of breweries have the potential to up their game and enter the export market. Budapest does have some great bars worth visiting to escape the generic mass produced lagers that dominate the city. Csak a Jo Sor is a small but excellent beer shop/pub run by the knowledgeable Armando. The shop sells some of the best Hungarian beer and also has a good selection of craft beer from heavyweights including De Molen, Brewdog and Flying Dog at very reasonable prices. The fruit beers from the Bekesszentandrasi brewery were definitely worth trying, especially the plum beer which was extremely refreshing after traipsing round in the hot summer sun. Other places worth checking out in Budapest include Skanzenclub, Bier Beer, Piratos Pub and the IF Café. Skanzenclub in particular was really fun. It is an unlicensed pub which doubles as a tobacco museum where you pour your own pint and pay for it in a collection tin. The bar served really good draft Kesuru Mez and the local crowd were very friendly. Budapest is certainly a great city to visit and although the Hungarian craft beer scene is very much a work in progress, if you search around you might find something worth drinking.
Words by Niall Lecoustre
– Review – Haandbryggeriet Norwegian Wood / By DJ Adams
Haandbryggeriet – what a mouthful, and we haven’t even got to the name of the brew yet! Actually, when you break it down, this name is from two Norwegian words and simply translates to “Hand Brewery” – in other words, an extremely small scale operation. Four guys, working on a voluntary basis, brewing by hand in a small building in Drammen, southwest of Oslo. At this scale, and with the enthusiasm that oozes from the pages of their modest website, it’s clear that the brewers are fantastic amateurs, in the original, complimentary sense of the word – working the brewery for the love of it. (If you’re curious about this reclaiming of the word ‘amateur’, read Paul Graham’s essay “What Business Can Learn From Open Source” here: http://paulgraham.com/opensource.html)
For a small operation, Haandbryggeriet has certainly produced a wide range of beers – from a wheat stout called “Dark Force”, through an Akevitt barrel aged porter, to a hop-free Gruit beer made with herbs, brewed as a guest beer in cooperation with the de Molen bewery.
Norwegian Wood is a Haandbryggeriet beer available at Port Street Beer House on tap, and is brewed all year round. It’s a traditional Norwegian beer that has been recreated in memory of the farm brews that abounded when old laws required them to produce ale (farms were sometimes confiscated and went to the church and the king if they didn’t). In fulfilling their requirements, the farms usually kilned the malt over an open fire, giving each brew a smokiness that has been recreated here. The brew was enhanced with the traditional spice for all Norwegian beer at the time – juniper. The juniper spice comes not only from the berries themselves, but also from the twigs that are placed in the mash tun.
So many miles and years away from these traditional Norwegian farms, I sit here with a serving of Norwegian Wood. As I observe the hazy copper colour and the fading creamy head, there’s an intense aroma of pine and smokiness. Not an unpleasant or strong smokiness, but something more subtle, akin to pipe tobacco. There’s a taste of pine and a hint of cooked juniper berries, and rather than smoky, the flavour is more nutty and slightly sticky sweet, with an undercurrent of charcoal or cinder. The first sips also had a fruitiness about them but towards the bottom of the glass this had been replaced with a decent hint of malt that was very pleasant.
Haandbryggereit brews Norwegian Wood with smoked malt from Germany, along with other malts including crystal and chocolate. There’s a wealth of aromas and flavours in a small glass of this traditional ale, and the smokiness is by no means the dominant feature. I wouldn’t describe myself as a fan of smoked beer in the classic “Rauchbier” sense, but I definitely would order this again. With pine, hazelnuts, juniper and cinder in there, this beer is not only a mouthful to pronounce, but a very pleasant mouthful to enjoy.
Brewer: Haandbryggeriet
Brew: Norwegian Wood
Style: Traditional Ale
ABV: 6.5%
Words by DJ Adams www.pipetree.com/qmacro/
– Beer on the ‘moon / Part Two (San Francisco) by William France
Well it’s taken me a while to finish this off but here is the second instalment of my ‘tales from the ‘moon’. The amount of amazing beer around in San Fran is ridiculous, being a serious beer lover I was in heaven. Once we’d recovered from the long flight our first port of call (pun intended) was the ‘Ferry Building’, we started our day with some ‘Blue Bottle’ coffee, these artisan roasters really know what they’re doing, the coffee was excellent. The Ferry Building houses a wealth of independent businesses selling everything from pottery to wine. That evening we booked into ‘Foreign Cinema’, an outdoor restaurant that projects films onto a large wall outside in the aching cool Mission district, we popped into the bar beforehand only to hear Stone Roses on the Jukebox, typical! I spied ‘Lagunitas IPA’, this now famous beer has been on the lips of craft beer geeks for a while now, so I thought I’d better see what all the fuss was about. To be fair, it was fantastic, no heavy caramel malt base and searingly hoppy, it was bordering on a perfect IPA and I don’t say that lightly.
After dinner, on a recommendation from a bartender we hunted out ‘Monks Kettle’, a gastropub in the Mission District with an excellent draft menu, they even had J.W Lees on. I treated myself to a Existent, a saison noir brewed by Stillwater and from what I remember tasted great, it was getting late after all.
The next morning we hunted down Ritual Roasters, great coffee but alarmingly arrogant baristas, they took being aloof to the next level. We wandered down Valencia St, towards the Mission District to hunt out yet more coffee. We stumbled across Fourbarrel Coffee, the place was buzzing, coffee being hand roasted in the back, people sipping single origin coffee filter coffee out front, I loved that place. We then popped to Little Star Pizza, they served up potentially the best pizza I’ve ever eaten, all washed down with Bear Republic ‘Racer 5’ on draft. I’ve never been blown away by ‘Racer 5’ when I’ve come across it in the UK, but fresh on draft it was delightful, a harmonious balance of west coast hops, American pale & crystal malts.
That evening we were pretty pooped but I managed to drag the wife to the Rogue Tap in North Beach, it had the quintessential ‘sports bar’ vibe with baseball on big screens, not really my scene but we were there for the beer. I tucked into a couple of IPAs and then went for a beer recommended by the bartender, Buckman Village Fruitcake stout, a rich stout with loads of malt, stewed and candied fruit. I was really impressed with the customer service at Rogue, really polite and knowledgeable, but that was us done for the evening so we went to the shop, picked up a four-pack of Dogfish 90 minute, some Reese’s and a weird Kit Kat, Dogfish from the off-licence!
On our penultimate day we went unto the Marina, a very OC type of area, lots a beautiful people and loads of high-end shops. We went for lunch in Delarosa, within minutes the manager and I were talking beers and weddings, I can’t speak of the staff there highly enough, attentive and really well trained. The manger mentioned the beer I was drinking was by a brand new local brewery, it was a ‘Squid Ink Black IPA’ from ‘Pacific Brewing Laboratory’. A heavily hopped black IPA with hints of tobacco and an amazing mouthfeel with squid ink to help with the colour. By chance Patrick Horn, the brewer, walked in doing the rounds and picking up empty barrels, the manager introduced me and he joined us for a healthy beery discussion. What a great guy, passionate and very knowledgeable, he even treated me to a half of his Hibiscus Saison, it was great stuff, dry, aromatic with a hint of astringency, not to mention it was bright pink. I’ve already been in touch with him about trying to get his beer over here, he’s still only contract brewing but saving up for a kit of his own, one to watch for the future though.
After a lovely afternoon we went to another bar in North Beach called ‘La Trappe Cafe’, a pretty typical take on a Belgian cafe, dark, moody lighting, great beer & belgian frites and a great draft selection. Jolly Pumpkin, Pacific Brewing Lab, Brasserie d’Achouffe and Alvinne, I was instantly drawn to the latter having never seen it on draft in Europe never mind the states. I went for the Alvinne Sour and it came in at a handsome $14 for 8oz, less than a half a pint, not only that but it was served by a bartender with a serious attitude problem. When I tasted it, it was completely devoid of any condition or carbonation & yes it was sour, but an acrid sour, I didn’t drink it. I went back to order Jolly Pumpkin Madrugada Obscura, which more than made up for the Alvinne’s poor showing, a Belgian inspired stout matured in oak with wild yeast, what’s not to like about that sentence? Absolutely amazing!
Our final day arrived and with this we went back to our favourite haunt again the Ferry Building. Here I had what was to be my favourite beer of the trip Green Flash ‘Rayon Vert’, this Belgian style pale ale had everything, a big hum from West Coast hops and the tang of Brett from the bottle conditioning. It was delicious, a real mash up of brewing traditions & techniques, basically what every American craft brewery stands for. Well that was the end of my days in San Francisco. Next stop NYC.
We will be featuring a couple of these beers in our American Festival:
Green Flash Rayon Vert in bottle.
Jolly Pumpkin Madrugada Obsura on draft.
Words by William France, dictated not read.