GBBF Week.

It came, it saw, it fucked me up.
Sunday - The Rake was supposed to be hosting the bar managers from GBBF but they finished so late that they found somewhere local instead of coming to The Rake - These guys work hard and I for one want to thank them for what a great job they did with the festival.
Monday - It was the British Guild of Beer Writers event at Brew Wharf for me but obviously I was working during the day and by the time I actually got to the event, most of the food was gone and most of the beer was gone too, I did manage a Redemption though which are always worth it!
Tuesday - Trade Day at GBBF, the one day of the year where I get to catch up with lots of people that I haven't seen for ages and talk beer all day long. For me and I remember saying this to a couple of people, the event ends up being about catching up with friends rather than drinking beer. That's my excuse for drinking only 7 beers in 7 hours and I sticking to it!

The beer I had were a pint and a half of Thornbridge Chiron (Kai-ron) which was pale, light totally drinkable and a only 5% abv - heaven in a glass boys, keep up the great work! Then I went off to Des de Moor's tasting which was celebrting the release of his latest book, London's Best Beer Pubs and Bars of which The Rake is in the top 25 and Des tells me was the original pitch for the book! I went for a bottle of the Camden Helles, beautiful, just what I needed as the festival was starting to heat up. Then I had Lagunitas something or other, I don't remember which though, I do remember thinking, this isn't hoppy enough. After the Lagunitas I stumbled across the bottled real ale bar and went for a bottle of Kernel Pale Ale, this is a beer that does the trick over and over again, it's one that the geeks don't rave about anymore because Evin and his team have pushed so many beer frontiers in the last 19 months that in order to be raved about they are going to have to brew a 2000 IBU bitter chocolate, strawberry tarte, lambic frosted, whisky freeze distilled in a chipmonks arse brown and dull bitter!Oh and it'll have to be named 'Dryer than a nuns chuff, to get into the Pumpclip parade n'all! Pale Ale does for me, it's cold, it's hoppy, and thirst quenching, perfect! My last beer of the day was De Molen Hout & Hop, this is only 4.6% and a beautiful, lambic, cloudy as hell(it looked like I might have to chew it) Luckily for me I don't drink with my eyes(a lot) and as I took the first waft up the nostrils I was smelling just what I wanted. Nom. By the time I finished that I was ready to move on. It is and always will be a painful experience for my feet because I don't like to site down, I prefer to mingle and meet the people. Somewhere in the middle I went back for a third Chiron and it had run out so I plumped for Kipling instead. Another great Thornbridge beer.
At some point I remember hearing that a Mild had won champion beer and this of course got the predicted reaction from me....boring!
Don't get me wrong I like Mild's and I do like the Mighty Oak Oscar Wilde, it's a good beer, I just happen to think that there were better, more interesting beers that should be winning in these competitions. After all it is called the GREAT British Beer Festival! So anyway, it was time to have a sit down and get a good meal so off to the White Horse in Parsons Green I went. Now for the really poor part of the day, shit floor service by the girls who were running the floor down stairs, very unhelpful and thoroughly up their own arses. So I went and sulked upstairs, now for the really great part of the visit - The service I got upstairs was amazing, there was one girl up there running the floor by herself, she was friendly, polite and efficient. The food was, as always stunning and the Orval topped it off nicely. Finished off with a Gin and Tonic, grabbed a cab and got my sorry arse home.
Wednesday - We were hosting the Brewers Association at The Rake in the evening and we had the pleasure of Dave from Smuttynose and Doug Odell turning up for the event, but I was flagging quite badly, my feet are starting to feel the week of schmoozing and boozing and I ducked off early(9pm). Great people though.

By the time the first international IPA day came along I was so sick of beer that all I wanted was a glass of orange squash and a lie down, hey! I'm not as young and pretty as I once was alright? I tried the St Austells Proper black and their Cornish Bock I like the Proper Black, it's their (black) version of Proper Job and it works well, although it does finish a little too roasty for my liking. I went for Lovibonds 69 IPA too, this is another stunning beer, Lovibonds are a great brewery, they only produce Keg and bottled beer and they make no bones about the fact that there's no cask available. If brewers believe their beers are served better by keg than cask, who am I to argue? It's their beer and their choice. But As I said, I was all 'beered out' by thursday and all I wanted was my bed.

SWAndy, Me and SWBrewery James

Friday was different, because I'd had a couple of early nights I was ready to party on friday night! Once Simon Johnson turned up the working day was pretty much a write-off and when we were joined by the likes of Andy and James from Summer Wine Brewery, Mrs Rabidbarfly, Leo aka @caskcrusade, Recently Drunk Bob and his mate...whose name I shamefully still can't remember it was game on! It was one of those nights that I'll remember for a long time, it was excellent, there was laughter, ranting, more laughter, signatures on the wall and more laughter. Lucille and I ducked off at about 10...I think as I had to get up early for the football but a good night was had by all.
Saturday was all about football - I was enjoying the Castle Rock Harvest Pale that was on when I got to Kingsmeadow - incidentally another Champion beer of Britain(2010) that whilst I've enjoyed on numerous occasions, just don't think it's champion beer stuff. When the Harvest Pale finished it was onto Caledonian Flying Scotsman, not a beer I'd had before but I actaully enjoyed the sweetness of the pint, it was just dry enough to hit the spot as the weather turned a bit grey and cold.
So, that was GBBF week for me, caught up with old friends, made new friends, drank good beer and generally had a good time.
I am however, raising a glass to everyone who was working a bar in London last week, I thank you for your hard work and dedication, be you a CAMRA volunteer, a kid earning minimum wage behind a bar or a bar manager, Cheers!

Kelly Ryan Obituary

You'd never guess this guy was a genius!

Ok, HE'S NOT DEAD but the first thing I have to do is give you the waiver, this post might make you cry. After 4 years with Thornbridge, Kelly Ryan is going home, he's done his handover post for the BeeRevolution blog and started a new one for the Thornbridge guys which I'm hoping they keep up.
I'd like to say thanks to Kelly, he's an extremely generous fella, especially with his time. After all it's not everyone who can right the wrongs of the beer world and still have time to reply to emails! Indeed when I heard he was leaving Thornbridge I contacted him for a meet the brewer piece I was thinking about writing, I emailed him some questions and he had the answers a couple of hours later!

Innovation, Passion, Knowledge.

When I came up with an idea of a collaborative piece on Cask Ale(I think it was my idea, feel free to correct me!) which was initially going to be pitched to the papers, Kelly was an obvious choice for the brewers point of view and he was the one that came up with the simultaneous blog posting idea that eventually happened. He put his time, his knowledge and his passion for craft beer into the piece and it was a very good read.
I first met Kelly at the Great British Beer Festival a couple of years ago and have met him sporadically at various beery events since then. In that time Thornbridge (and Kelly) have gone Stratospheric. The beers they have produced in the last couple of years have been on a par with some of the best I have ever tasted. One of my favourites being the Lord Marples, a fantastic hoppy session bitter that I could drink over and over again.
I'm also a big fan of the Kipling amongst others and I'm keen to see how it works on keg.
Anyway....Back to Kelly.
I think the best way to remember what he's done for the British craft beer scene is this :

Jaipur(yes I know they were brewing this before he got there)
Lord Marples
St Petersburg
Kipling
Wild Swan
Raven
Larkspur
Lumford
Bracia



A heady list to say the least and not a bad beer among them! If you look at Ratebeer or other beery sites you'll see the full list of just how many beers they've actually released(I could go on for ages!) but these are some of my favourites.
I'd like to say thanks and good luck, I'm sure you'll all join me in raising a glass to an amazing brewer that New Zealand are lucky to be getting back.
Quick! It's not too late to keep him locked up in a brewery somewhere!

Blog Noir #2

For a change it was a good week for this old hound and his battered liver. When I started bumping into old acquaintances at a boozy joint in town I knew it'd end up in me feeling like a freight train had run over my head.
The joint was jumpin' it had people from all over the world here, all walks of life, the atmosphere was one that I ain't gonna forget in a hurry. No shooters here, just big ol' glasses with big ol' beer. Need to get me some of that.
You get all sorts in here, from the big jolly guy who drinks in some dodgy t-shirt but makes every drink count, he's hanging out with his two skinny geeky mates, one with hair down to his shoulders like he wants to be a rock star or something, knows about beer though that kid and the other who gets so excited about everything that I'm afraid I'll be cleaning brain matter off my clothes for weeks but he's like a puppy on speed when it comes to the good stuff. Then there's the starers, these guys creep me out, if you get so sauced that all you can do is stare, don't get sauced. And don't even get me started on the goddamn beer activists, these guys will shout at you all day long about anything and fuckin everything, 2 pint motormouths who know everything, you wanna shut em up after the first hour then you just ignore them and they turn into just more background noise.
The bar tenders are out in force too, an older guy waves as I walk past, it's like one of those TV memories, black and white slo-mo, this guy's a legend, I need to catch up with him later, but he's busy so I leave him be.
I bump into one of the hacks that this place attracts, he's looking pretty beat in his wrinkled clothes and a loud shirt that says I'm trying to look fresh but really not feeling it, must have been a long night up until the deadline, now everyone wants a piece of him, I guess that's what you get for being famous.
All the other wannabe hacks are here too, they want their shot in the limelight, they want their 15 minutes of fame and so standing near their hero, they hope some of his genius'll rub off on 'em, he's influential dontcha know.
A good time was had by all I guess but now it's time to get some shut eye, next week is gonna be a long one. My wife ain't home, she's off in some God forsaken city and there ain't a damn thing I can do about it.
My sore head says get the fuck outta here, take a pill, ease the week off gently into oblivion with a last cold beer, can my pickled liver take it? who knows, but I'm sure as shit gonna find out.

GBBF, A Good week

There's been so much going on this week that you can't really help but have a fuzzy warm glow when you think about beer.
It's a positive week for beer, all the headlines are generally good and that can only help. It's also interesting that bars and pubs much as The Rake, The White Horse, Cask and Brew Wharf have all had events going on this week that have made it almost impossible to stay off beer for more than 24 hours, it's exciting!
The Rake turned 4 years old yesterday, and we had the Thomas Hardy's Ale on in celebration of that, if you don't know, it was the first beer that The Rake ever had on draught and the cask that's on is the last current cask in existence and even if I do say so say myself, it's in superb form! This time next year we'll be five and I'm planning something big for The Rake so eyes peeled folks.
Monday night was the British Guild of Beer Writers bash at Brew Wharf, and it was nice that it was just round the corner from work so I could nip round for a couple of hours of schmoozing. I finally met Tandleman there too, what a nice chap he is, not at all the grumpy old man that he claims to be!
Tuesday was trade day, as if you needed to be told, I wne to work for a couple of hours then headed off to Earls Court where all the fun stuff was happening. I got in, got my glass and then it took 10 minutes just to get to the bar. Yep I bumped into so many people I knew that the networking was starting without a beer in my hand! Four and a half hours later I'd had my fill and started my journey home, promptly fell asleep and ended up missing my stop, and the next and the next and the next.....
Wednesday I was off but I ended up at The Rake with Andy Mogg, Mark Dredge, Tim Hampson and Adrian Tierney-Jones before heading off to The White Horsed in Parsons Green for the Brewers Association dinner. Great night had by all I think and I was happy to be at yet another great beer event.
So what does today hold? well hopefully not too much alcohol, it's time to pay back my liver for letting me party hard this week.
If you're free on friday The White Horse will be holding an American craft beer evening upstairs which is bound to be good eye-opening fun.
So a good week, all in all but it's also important that we try and keep this good momentum going throughout the year, not just the one week when we all get together.