Twelve Beers of Xmas 2016

Here we go again.  The 12 Beers of Xmas is now in its 4th year and it is a chance for beer lovers everywhere to choose a dozen beers for Christmas and drink one each day beginning on December 20th and thereby ending on New Years Eve.  For me, the Christmas period is a time for indulging in some of my favourite beer styles.  Imperial stouts, imperial IPAs and barley wines are particularly sought after for my list and that usually means ABVs in excess of 10% too.  This year I have really indulged with six imperial stouts.

If the 12 Beers of Xmas is all new to you then it really is easy to take part.  Buy a dozen beers and drink them is all there is to it.  Add your comments on the Beer O'Clock Show website and/or follow it on Twitter with the hashtag #12BeersofXmas.  If you are a blogger then you can also write a review of each beer too so we can all imagine the finer points of the beers you are enjoying.  

My selections have been made but there may be one or two late substitutions as I am planning on a visit this week to the Birmingham beer mecca, Cotteridge Wines.  Last year I found some absolutely cracking beers from all over the world.  This year I am staying closer to home with only two beers from abroad (and these are the two that might be substituted) as well as three beers from my home county of Sussex but I don't think I will see any reduction in quality.  I certainly hope not.  Due to working away I won't be opening my first beer until Thursday December 22nd.  The second beer will also be opened on this day and beers three and four will be opened on December 23rd by which time I will have caught up with everyone.  That's the plan.  So with no further ado here is my lineup for this year (as it currently stands).

Thursday December 22nd

Hanseatic Porter - Little Earth Project (10.0% ABV)
Pagoda Power - Ballards Brewery (8.5% ABV)

Friday December 23rd

Imperial Raspberry Stout - Thornbridge / St Eriks Bryggeri (10.0% ABV)
2014 Imperial Export Strength Stout - Dark Star (10.5% ABV)

Christmas Eve

Christmas Ale - Harveys (7.5% ABV)

Christmas Day

Imperious Oak Aged Imperial Stout - Durham Brewery (11.6% ABV)




Boxing Day

Oak Aged Silverback - Blue Monkey (13.0% ABV)

Tuesday December 27th

Odyssey 006 - Siren Craft (10.5% ABV)

Wednesday December 28th

Imperial India Pale Ale (#500) - Nogne O (10.0% ABV)

Thursday December 29th

Sadako Imperial Stout - Weird Beard (9.5% ABV)

Friday December 30th

Berlin Passionfruit Berliner Weisse - Oersoep Microbrewery (3.5% ABV)

New Year's Eve

Imperial Stout - Cloudwater (11.2% ABV)

Craven Arms, Birmingham

Destination pubs.  Many cities are lucky enough to have one.  Bristol has the Barley Mow, Norwich has the Fat Cat, Portsmouth has the Hole In The Wall, Brighton has the Evening Star, Manchester has the Marble Arch and Birmingham HAD the Craven Arms.  There are many others too I'm sure but I'm just listing pubs I know well here.  To me a destination pub is your first port of call when you go somewhere.  It is a pub you know will have a fantastic range of beer in a relaxing environment.  A modern range of beers too.  Most cities have some excellent pubs but these pubs go above and beyond the excellent.

This brings me back to the Craven Arms.  I was fortunate to be working in Stratford-upon-Avon when Chris and Sharon Sherratt took this pub on back in early 2013 and I reviewed it here.  Well worth the arduous train ride into Birmingham.  When I was sent back to Stratford this year the train times to Birmingham were more convenient and the Craven Arms has become a weekly trip.  It even got a second review from me here.

During one of these visits I got to know Tim Rowe who had plans for some Meet The Brewer events at the Craven and I was lucky enough to see the pub host James Kemp from Marble and Andy Parker from Elusive.  That's the thing about the Craven.  Only the best is good enough on their bar.  Well there is one exception to this I guess and therein lies the problem.  The Craven Arms is owned by Black Country Ales and three handpumps here have always been wasted on their efforts.  Despite this though there was a constantly changing range of cask and evil keg for the beer aficionado to enjoy in this wonderful pub.  

     

So what do Black Country Ales do?  They make it impossible for Chris and Sharon to continue.  I don't know the full story but it seems BCA want to bring it in line with their other pubs by offering a range of exceedingly average (cheap?) beers.  If you want to see an example of this in action then visit their flagship pub in Birmingham, The Wellington.  A massive list of cask ales from which you will struggle to find one that stands out from the crowd.  Quality not quantity is what the beer lover wants Black Country Ales !!  Chris and Sharon left last week and most of their excellent staff have since left too and this evening I visited the pub and could not bring myself to stay for more than a pint.  Birmingham's one and only destination pub has been wiped off the map and I am extremely pissed off about it. 

So all you beer lovers out there looking for places to drink in Birmingham please strike this from your list.  It's a hard climb up Gough Street to this pub and you really should save yourself all that effort and avoid it.  If you like bland, boring beer than it might be the place for you because it is still a fabulous building but I'm sure BCA will do their worst with it.  I will probably pay it a visit in a few months to see how it has changed.  In the meantime I really hope Chris and Sharon get the pub they deserve.  They have a lot of friends and followers who will be beating a path to their door on opening night.  In the meantime, I will try and find a new pub to frequent in this fine city.  I am told it might not be an easy task though.

Cheers.

          

    

Meet The Elusive Brewer

Another Meet the Brewer event at the fabulous Craven Arms, Birmingham was held on Monday evening.  The star of the show was Andy Parker, brewer and owner of Elusive Brewing based in Finchampstead, Berkshire.  They are close enough to Siren Craft, that they can smell each others hops and it sounds like they have been a great help to Andy too along the way.  In fact they have done many collaborations prior to Andy getting his own brewery operational, particularly with Siren's 'Dinner For' series of beers.
 

 

It seems that Andy's fame and stature was already legendary when Elusive began.  It is hard to believe he only began home brewing in 2012 and within two years he had been crowned National Homebrew Champion netting himself a £5000 prize.  Since then he has made numerous collaborations notably with Weird Beard and Siren before embarking on his own brewery, a 6 bbl set-up which produced beer number one in April.  He says he is risk averse and it was his wife who gave him the kick up the butt to give up the day-job.  And, of course, the thing he misses most about his job is the salary!!!  The brewery is now a true family affair with his recently-retired parents helping out.

Many questions were asked and one which always comes up at any MTB is where did the name come from.  Andy is into gaming and he wanted his gaming tag to be Elusive.  As is often the way with these things the name he wanted was already taken.  In the end he looked at words for Elusive in foreign languages.  His gaming tag became tabamatu which is Elusive in Estonian.  That also became his Twitter id so when he was seeking a name for his brewery it had to be Elusive (Tabamatu wouldn't have worked quite so well I think).

The bar at the Craven Arms was loaded with Elusive beers.  The first one I tried was Level Up (Level 3: Colombus & T'n'T) - 5.0% ABV.  I love good hoppy reds and this is one of them.  This was the beer which won him the National Homebrew Champion crown (albeit with different hops).  Andy was keen to point out that he is keen on marrying malt and hops in a way which provides excellent balance and that is certainly the case because the flavours of both shine through in all of his beers. 

The second beer I tried was Carve'n Yams (5.2% ABV).  The name was a clever play on the name of the pub of course as this was the only cask of this beer available anywhere and, although it is a pumpkin beer, I particularly enjoyed this one.  It was a pumpkin porter with a dash of cinnamon and nutmeg but ultimately it was a smooth porter full of flavour and character.

There were three evil keg beers alongside the six casks and it was time I dabbled in one of those.  Spectres' Lair was a fabulous 4.9% ABV APA with lovely grapefruit notes coming through.  That was it for the evil keg though for the night as far as I was concerned.  The next beer was a full pint of Brimful of Masha (7.2% ABV), a beer that was only available on cask here tonight.  This is a beer that has appeared in all the Brewdog bars recently in keg and Andy told me how different it was here tonight.  I absolutely loved it.  My favourite beer of the evening.  It is another American red ale and it had so many flavours combining to give a beer of perfect balance.

My final beer was Ultrahops Vienna (4.8% ABV).  This was a pale ale that I should really have had earlier in the evening because it was a beer with plenty of lighter tones but the quality still shone through.  It is rare to go through such a range of beers from a brewery that is still so new but that was the reality of the evening I experienced here.  Every beer was superb and I cannot wait to see what gems Andy will come up with in the future (something special for Yapton Beerex hopefully !!)

Thank you once again to Chris and Sharon, the wonderful hosts at the Craven Arms, along with Tim Rowe, the events organiser for this wonderful pub.  Sadly I cannot make the next event (Lost & Grounded on Monday November 7th) but I will definitely be along later in the week to sample some of their beers if any are left.  I know that Tim is only interested in inviting quality brewers to these events so the beer will definitely be first class. 

Cheers.
   

Big Beery Night 2016

I have long been a vocal critic of big charities trying to encourage people to stop drinking with campaigns such as Dryanuary, Stoptober, etc.  Last year a group of beer fans led by those awesome guys at the Beer O'Clock Show decided to do the opposite.  Big Beery Night was launched and nearly £4000 was raised for Macmillan Cancer Support.  The idea was that for one night drinkers were encouraged to donate the cost of the beers they drink to charity.  Obviously, the more you drink, the more you donate.  

This year I lost my mum to cancer and I'm sure most people have lost a loved one to this dreadful disease at some point in their lives.  It is therefore a cause I am keen to support and, although I don't normally need much encouragement to have a beer or two, it is good to know I will be doing it for a good cause.  Click on the link here to get the full details of what is happening this year and join in if you wish.  

There are a few ways in which you can join in this year.  You can stick to donating the cost of what you drink on the night or you can organise your own event with your drinking buddies.  One thing I will be taking part in this year is #BadgeQuest2016 and my preparations have already begun.  The social media drinking app, Untappd, awards badges for drinking.  Badges are categorised across beer style and venues along with some special badges throughout the year for meeting certain criteria.  The idea of #BadgeQuest is to donate a £1 for every badge you receive on Untappd from November 1st - November 13th.  I am taking this seriously because I want to donate as much money as possible to this worthy cause.  For the past couple of days I have been trying to avoid winning any badges and I have been looking at which beers I will need to consume to get as many badges as possible once the competition starts.  Last year the winning haul was a monumental 45 badges.  Without causing massive harm to my liver I don't think  I can compete with that but I am confident I can manage 30.  A bold prediction indeed as this number would have put me second in the table last year.  If I hit this target I will double my donation so please give me plenty of encouragement.  I have been studying the criteria for Untappd badges for a few days now and I have a few beers already lined up.  A trip to Cotteridge Wines in Birmingham will be made later this week when I will have a very specific shopping list.  

The competition starts tomorrow and in the meantime I have a Meet The Brewer event at the Craven Arms in Birmingham tonight.  I think I have planned it so that I will get no badges tonight but I will put myself within touching distance of two or three for when it all kicks off tomorrow.  Coincidentally, the brewer in question is Andy Parker of Elusive who just happens to be the winner of #BadgeQuest from last year.

Anyway, I think there may be a blog post or two from this to let you know what I have been drinking and the badges won along the way.  

Cheers. 

Meet the Brewer - Marble

All roads and train tracks led to Birmingham last night for those who appreciate the excellence of Marble beers.  Birmingham's top real ale pub, the Craven Arms, were throwing another 'Meet the Brewer' event and the star of the show this time was James Kemp, head brewer at Manchester's finest.  I love these type of events and I had this one in my diary since it was announced. 

Things took an unexpected turn which made it even better.  A former work colleague of mine, John Goodsell, has recently begun getting involved with North Sussex CAMRA doing their social media stuff.  Through this involvement we got back in touch with each other via Facebook but apart from a brief chat at a GBBF quite a few years ago we hadn't seen each other for 25 years - until last night.  He put out a comment on Facebook to say he was in Birmingham for the evening and asking for recommendations.  He did not take any persuading to join me at the Craven when I told him it was a Marble Meet the Brewer. 

The bar was loaded with Marble beers.  Six cask, six keg and a sprinkling of bottled beers.  A few of these were the same beer so it was possible to compare and contrast the two methods of dispense.  I didn't double up though as there were plenty of beers I wanted to try.  I began on the first line of three casks beers shown below. 

The first was Built to Fall (5.6% ABV).  This APA was delicious with a full citrus hit.  I had time to drink this one and fill my glass with the Howgate & Kemp (6.4% ABV) before things began.  This beer turned out to be my favourite one of the evening with a real hit of pineapple from the New Zealand hops. 

Whilst supping I was enjoying listening to Black Sabbath's 'Into The Void' when suddenly the volume went up and the lights went out.  This sudden upping in the volume did not last long as the sound was soon extinguished and the lights came back on.  Tim Rowe, the organiser of these events, stood up and introduced James.  James gave us a brief history of his brewing career before joining Marble at the end of last year.  Born in the UK, a move to New Zealand, learning the art of home-brewing and picking up a strange accent, coming back to the UK and working at Thornbridge, Buxton and Fullers.  Then getting the call from Marble to take on the role of head brewer.

It was then time to try more beer.  I went for the Earl Grey IPA next (6.8% ABV).  I had tried this once in the Marble Arch a couple of years ago but this tasted much better than I remembered it.  I am not a tea drinker and to be honest I did not notice any earl grey flavours in there unlike other 'tea' beers I have tried.  It was just the kind of big bold IPA that I love.

By now John had arrived and he was catching up quickly with pints whereas I was on halves.  Next up for me was my first keg beer of the evening, Skiffie Worlds (5.0% ABV), yet another IPA.  Marble love brewing IPAs.  This one lacked the flavour of the others so I followed this up with the Lagonda IPA (5.0% ABV), one of my favourite Marble beers, and this was in perfect condition.  As good as I remember it.

Whilst all this drinking was going on me and John were catching up on the last 25 years.  Working in IT and drinking good beer seems to go hand-in-hand.  It certainly does for us.  In the meantime James was circulating with Tim and it was good to chat with them when they got to us.  John had missed the earlier talk so I introduced him and we had a good chat about Harveys and old ales, a beer style popular in Sussex and one which James is keen to brew based on the fabulous Gales Prize Old Ale which we all have fond memories of. 

Marble celebrate their 21st birthday next year and many new beers are planned but it was refreshing to hear that Marble have no intention of expanding.  They are happy being the size they are and world domination is not part of the plan.  Also not part of the plan though is Dobber.  This beer has been consigned to the history books it seems.  I will mourn its loss.

The evening then took another unexpected turn.  Tim had a 10-year old bottle of a Marble imperial stout called Decadence and he got some sample glasses for us and offered it round.  This was sensational with a capital "S".  A definite advert for aging beers.  I just can't seem to keep mine long enough though.  Lots of chocolatey notes and a great boozy character to it.

After that my last train was calling me but there was time for yet another superb APA, Damage Plan (7.1% ABV).  This is another beer that I have tried before and it didn't disappoint.  

I would like to thank Tim for organising these events, the Craven Arms for hosting them (and for being the best real ale pub I have ever been in) and to James for his engaging manner and brewing expertise.  Finally to John for joining me and hopefully it won't be quite so long before we meet up again.  Next month's Elusive meet the brewer perhaps?

Cheers.

    

Vibrant Forest

It may be on an industrial estate but getting to Vibrant Forest you realise how close it is to the gorgeous New Forest National Park.  Within a mile of the brewery you are swerving round cyclists, slowing down for free-running ponies and driving over cattle grids.  Not what you need if you are heading to a brewery to present them with an award.  It's a good job I know the area and so allowed myself plenty of time.  The journey was a little slow but the scenery is quite fabulous.

The Vibrant Forest story begins in 2011 with Kev Robinson brewing in his garage at home near to Southampton on a 1-barrel plant.  Three years later saw them expand to this 10-barrel plant on an industrial estate on the outskirts of Lymington, a beautiful part of Hampshire.  In a week which saw established Hampshire brewer, Oakleaf, going into adminstration it was great to visit a brewery that is thriving and deservedly so.  

It is just over a year since I first tried a beer from Vibrant Forest.  This was a superbly bitter golden ale, Flying Saucer (4.3% ABV).  Since then I have enjoyed much of their range including the stunning Imperial Stout, Black Oktober (9.0% ABV) and their fabulous IPA, Kaleidoscope (6.5% ABV). 

The reason for visiting was to present Kev with the Yapton Beerex Beer of the Festival, an award they also won last year.  The winning beer this time around was Salted Liquorice (5.0% ABV), a sweet stout that is exactly what it says with strong liquorice notes and a subtle saltiness.  Looking around the impressive brewery bar they already have 13 certificates proudly displayed.  Yesterday they added two more because the Southampton CAMRA branch were also there to present them with an award for their Oat & Coffee Stout (5.7% ABV).  They certainly know how to do dark beers but, as we saw yesterday, they know all about hops too.       

Yesterday I got to sample another beer from their Radicale range.  Belgian Zuur (3.5% ABV), a lovely sour that many were enjoying.  Ridiculously refreshing on such a lovely sunny day.  The Vienna Rye Ale (3.7% ABV) was a beautifully balanced beer with plenty of flavour from the rye but a refreshing character from the Chinook hop.  Finally, the Wheatwave (4.8% ABV) was another excellent refreshing beer and a great example of a Hefeweizen.  These three beers showcased how diverse and experimental Kev is as he holds nothing back.  Each beer is well crafted and delicious.     

Kevin (left) receiving the second of two awards yesterday

A selection of Western Sussex CAMRA members enjoying the beer 

This was my first visit to Vibrant Forest and hopefully it won't be my last.  The brewery bar is open on Fridays (noon - 6.00.pm) and Saturdays (11.00.am - 3.00.pm).  I want to shout out to all beer lovers about this brewery because their beers really are first class.  'We won't tolerate dull or boring' it says on their website.  How very true. If Vibrant Forest were based in London you would get beer writers going all gooey eyed over them.  However, if you want to try their beers you will now find them all along the south coast across to Brighton and they also make regular trips to Bristol.         

My little bit of Vibrant Forest will continue with a bottle of their Imperial Red IPA (9.7% ABV) that I took away yesterday.  I cannot wait to try that one.

Cheers.

Tilt, Birmingham - A Crafty Place

When I pop into Birmingham I generally go to the best places I've discovered so far and rarely try anywhere new.  When I was in the Craven Arms last week a bar called Tilt was recommended to me so last night I decided to check it out.  I had gone into Brewdog for a quick drink and a bite to eat and I felt like a bit more 'craft' was needed.  I wasn't disappointed.

It's only a short hop from New Street.  Head up Corporation Street and then sneak down Warwick Passage and you're there.  It's an odd wedge-shaped building at the entrance to an old arcade.  A bit like a ,micropub but without the casks of beer.  Some communal bench tables at one end and smaller, more individual ones scattered about elsewhere.  Plenty of space which I like.

The bar area is tiny.  There's one small counter with a couple of fine looking cakes at one end.  That's the thing about this place.  It's also a coffee shop and on the wall opposite the bar the wall has three rows of neatly arranged clipboards.  The top row has the eight beers (six were on last night).  The middle row is dedicated to coffee and on the bottom row I saw a tea menu.  Not being a tea or coffee drinker I reluctantly studied the beer list.    

Every beer sounded incredibly tempting.  Breweries on show tonight were Beavertown, Kernel and Brew By Numbers from London,  Thornbridge from Derbyshire.  Vocation from West Yorkshire and Electric Bear from Bath.  The latter was a brewery I had never seen before so naturally I started with that one.  This was a 9.5% ABV Doppelbock called Heisenberg's Double Decoction and what an amazing beer it was.  Massive complex malt flavours but packed with hops too.  Citrusy orange notes and a big boozy sweetness to the finish.  I can't wait to try more from this brewery.    

Whilst consuming my first drink I chatted to the young guy serving.  He told me they had been open less than a year and had plans for the top floor eventually.  He was very enthusiastic and knowledgeable about the beers and was happy for me to take a few photos.  What you don't see though when you first enter is the room to the back which is packed with pinball machines all in full working order and ready to be played.  There was also a Pac-Man lurking in there too.  Downstairs there was another area with more pinballs.  This place has bags of character and whilst I am not a pinball wizard I was tempted.  Next time for sure.     

I had time for one more drink before heading back to Moor Street station.  Looking at the beer lists I wanted all of them but the Bloody Obnoxious, a bloody orange DIPA won the day.  Beavertown's Bloody 'Ell was one of my favourite beers of 2015 and this is a supercharged version coming in at 9.1% ABV.  Priced at £5 for a half it had better be good.  Needless to say, I wasn't disappointed.  A stunning beer.    

If you love 'craft' beer you won't be disappointed with Tilt I'm sure.  I will certainly be adding it to my list of places to go on my regular trips into Birmingham.  This bar is actually handy for all three Birmingham stations so perfect for someone with time to kill while waiting for a connection although you may stay longer than you intend.

Cheers.