The usual round goes on, the brewery’s pretty much flat out, everybody’s hard it – but a couple of meetings stood out from last week’s very full diary.
One was a bit of a weird one. As you know, I don’t like to lock myself away in the brewery. Getting out and about as much as my many and various duties allow isn’t just part of the fun of the job, it’s also something of a reality check. There’s no better way of finding out how well you’re doing than actually talking to the people who drink the beer – not just beer writers and licensees, but the drinking public in all their splendour and glory. So last week we hosted a meeting of the London Bloggers at one of our pubs in London, the City Tavern.
The London Bloggers meet regularly, so hosting them – and laying on a few beers and some nibbles – seemed like a great way of getting views from some interesting and influential folk we wouldn’t normally meet. About 80 of them showed up, and it was a very talkative, sociable affair. They’re a mixed bunch: some professional, but the majority social bloggers who blog about life, art, food, sport, culture, charitable work – anything really; but other than Steve Williams of London CAMRA and Pete Brown, an expert who writes, broadcasts, and lectures about beer, I don’t think any of them had blogged about beer before.
I had a chance to take the floor for a while, which involved showing them how to taste beer. Now I know you might think this is obvious, but there’s a science as well as an art to it. I told them all about Greene King IPA and introduced them to a device we call our Greene King IPA Cask revolution font. I’ll go into more detail another time, but for the moment I’ll just say that it allows the publican to serve a pint Northern-style which is smooth and creamy, or Southern-style, which is clean and crisp and has a looser-bubbled head. As it turned out, there were quite a few Northern ex-pats at the meeting, so we ended up having a very lively discussion about which style of serving a pint is best. I’ll provide some links to the resulting blogs.
On a more serious note, I had a meeting at the brewery with our Campaign for Real Ale liaison officer, Andy Shaw from Huntingdon. He’s a pretty switched-on guy, and we talked a lot about the state of the licensed trade, but having him round got me thinking about the big variety of cask beers we brew here. IPA might be the jewel in the crown; but that doesn’t mean we concentrate on it to the exclusion of all else. On the contrary: we brew 10 regular real ales and a whole host of seasonal and special-edition ales as well as bottled and brewery-conditioned (aka keg) beers.
The four main seasonal ales are pretty well-established now, and people do tend to watch out for their favourites, so I hope you didn’t go through the whole Christmas holiday without your ration of Rockin’ Rudolph and won’t let Easter pass without sampling Abbot Reserve! The special edition ales tend to be themed around the calendar, such as Ale-pril Fool for – guess when! – and Back of the Net, which we’re bringing out for the World Cup.
One thing I really love, actually, is going through my collection of old recipe books and trying to evoke some of the flavours of the past. It’s not always easy, because some of the older books aren’t quite as detailed as I’d like, and over the years some of the ingredients have changed. Sometimes we’ve got a few bottles from 30 years ago or even longer, and analysing them gives us a clearer idea of how to recreate them. Look out for Tolly Phoenix, everybody!
But I’m also allowed to play with existing brands to keep bringing you something new and original. Old Crafty Hen, for example, is a blend of Old Speckled Hen and our unique and truly wonderful stock ale, Old 5X. We have two huge oak vats at the brewery where the 5X matures for up to two years. Privileged visitors are allowed a sip of 5X in its natural state – but at 12% alcohol by volume, it’s perhaps just a teensy-weensy bit strong to sell as it is! We use it for blending, a centuries-old tradition which we have been determined to keep alive when everyone else has given up on it.
Strong Suffolk Vintage Ale is another of our blends and is a mixture of Old 5X and another stock ale, BPA. I’ve just done a variant called Suffolk Springer, which has exactly the same recipe but uses fresh rather than matured Old 5X. It’s a bit sweeter and rounder, like Strong Suffolk and yet subtly unlike it. Give them both a go and see what you think – I’d love to hear your views.
Locally-caught muntjac from Attleborough and roe from Diss were fried off in Suffolk Springer by Mark, who is attending the Real Food and Beer Festival at Greene King on the 15th and 16th May.
combined with the colour and bitterness of the Strong Suffolk creates a mouth-watering treat for food lovers.”
Company, Powters Newmarket Sausages, The Cake Shop, Yum Yum Tree Fudge, Aspalls Cyder, The English Whisky Company, Colchester Oyster Fishery, and many more.
