The 2013 Top Ten Movers and Shakers on the Birmingham Beer Scene

A year ago, I done a blog post, which I was actually rather proud of.  It constructed a list of the 10 most influential people in Birmingham's crazy 'world' of good beer.

12 months on and much has changed (or is in the process of changing), therefore we need to do a follow up.  The only slight problem is that the formulae used to determine how influential people were/are, and therefore where they ranked in the list, has disappeared into the mists of time - in fact these formulae may never have existed in the first place.  As such, these ten are served up to you in alphabetical order (by surname).  Annnnnnnnnnnyway, here is this years list - the Top Ten Movers and Shakers on the Birmingham Beer Scene for 2013.

Nigel Barker (Wellington and Post Office Vaults)

The Wellington yet again took CAMRA's top prize as the Birmingham pub of the year, but it was with Nigel's newer venture - the Post Office Vaults, that he made the biggest impact on Birmingham this year.  With a mind boggling range of Belgian and German beers, crammed into a tiny space, the POV has quickly become a staple of any Birmingham pub crawl, and finally (FINALLY) offers somewhere for us to consistently drink world classics such as Orval, Rodenbach Grand Cru and De Molen Vuur and Vlam.  Tiny Rebel often feature on cask too, which is a big plus.  Strictly speaking, this ranking is sort of shared between him and Mike Perkins, with them both being co-owners of the POV, whilst Nigel, is sole licensee of the Welly.

Dr Paul Bennett (Beer Geek Brewery)

Launched in February 2012, Beer Geek are a common sight in the pubs of Birmingham, plus their excellent branding is now being recognised in London and other faraway places.  Following the demise of the Two Towers' brewery tap at the Brown Lion, Beer Geek are now Brum's most recognisable local brewer and have the chance to broaden their range to seriously tickle the fancy of the city's swelling band of actual beer geeks.  

Marverine Cole (Beer Beauty)

Not just an award-winning beer blogger and former Sky News presenter; this local-girl come good, is also a veritable tour de force banging the good beer gospel on television and radio (as in here).  Savvy, well connected and glamorous, Marverine is ideally placed to use her national celebrity and local pride to bear on the Birmingham beer scene, with hopefully marv-ellous results.   

Paul Halsey (Purity)

If this list had been written in a few months time, I would expect Paul to be higher up the list*.  This would be because of the projected opening of the Purity Craft Beer bar, which is, I believe, due to touch down near John Bright Street to form (along with Brewdog Birmingham, The Victoria and the also imminent Craven Arms) the city's 'Craft Beer Quarter'.  However as it stands we don't yet know what the new place will look like.  Purity Mad Goose is still delicious however, and with their three beers still being ubiquitous in Birmingham, Paul is still a shaker.

Jaz and Kal Kandola (Cotteridge Wines)

This time last year I didn't even know that Cotteridge Wines existed.  Now they are a nationally recognised off licence, with a range of 700-800 different bottles, offering access to US brewers not previously glimpsed in our city.  It is an astonishing rise. Via a twin assault of well priced UK craft beers (and a big range too), plus access to foreign beers (Mikkeller, Evil Twin, Anchorage, Bruery et al) Cotteridge now present an irresistible offer, which has undoubtedly diversified the craft beer audience in Birmingham.

Gerry Keane (The Anchor)

The Anchor keeps rocking and rolling.  The line up of great cask beers keeps coming, with a excellent representation of lesser known brewers from around the country.  Also their range of beery events is as impressive as ever.

Dan Muldoon (Brewdog Birmingham)

Finally, in December, the big boys arrived.  Brewdog, undoubtedly the superbrand of UK craft brewing, finally killed off Brum's reputation as a desert for kegged craft beer.  With a dozen or so taps of unadulterated quality, BD now bring us their own highly flavoured offerings, plus guest beers we would previously have had to get to London to sample (Nogne, Mikkeller, Evil Twin, Brodies etc).  With imperial stouts such as Tokyo, AB:12 and Paradox they are the first place to offer high strength beers on tap.  With regulars such as Dogfight, Punk IPA and 5AM Saint, they are pretty much the only place in Brum to guarantee hoppy draught choices.  Two big pluses.  Since opening, they have also killed off the myth that Birmingham couldn't support such a 'craft' establishment, or that there simply wasn't the demand in our great city for premium beers.  The place is rammed each night - go figure.  With a De Molen tap takeover on the horizon, and other such events in the pipeline, we now have a place to light up the beery imagination of a generation and blaze a trail for independent outlets to follow.  He built it. We came.

Jen Nadin (Cherry Reds)

Cherry Reds is a wonderfully homely and friendly bar/cafe in Kings Heath, which has made a concerted effort to stock good beer in bottles and on tap.  Jen has also programmed a consistent range of themed beer tasting events, and a held their second annual beer festival last August.  This would be enough to earn Jen a place on this list, but, coupled with her participation in the Foreign Beer Bar at the Birmingham Beer Festival, and, perhaps more intriguingly, the projected opening of a city centre version of Cherry Reds this year, Jen is right at the heart of the good things which are afoot. 

Krishan Rajput (Stirchley Wines and Spirits)

Krishan and his father are Brum beer pioneers; perhaps last year was the year where we saw his spiritual children begin to emerge, blinking, into the Birmingham sunlight.  Stirchley Wines and Spirits continues to be a nationally recognised off licence, with an awesome range of bottles, PLUS they now have their own tap, offering fresh, draught craft beer to take away - to my mind, one of only two places in the city to offer this!  In addition, Krishan again brought beer quality to the Birmingham Beer Festival, with a powerful selection at his foreign beer bar.  


Matt Scriven (Bitters and Twisted)

Matt's Bitters and Twisted chain continued it's expansion this year, by opening the steak-fuelled New Inn in Harborne.  More importantly (for me) however, this year the beer range in his pubs was certainly on the up.  With consistent cask offerings from Dark Star, Thornbridge and Red Willow and with a range of excellent bottles, the choice of good beer for Brum beer geeks suddenly got better overnight.  Not only were the Victoria, New Inn, Jekyll and Hyde the first pubs in the city (to my knowledge) to stock beer from UK craft brewers such as Kernel, Summer Wine and Arbor, but they remain amongst the few to do so.  (plus Magic Rock on tap is in the pipeline...) 

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Initial observations on the list?  Well clearly it shows the importance of entrepreneurs.  12 months ago, there was space on the list for people who headed up national companies - this is no longer the case.  In fact, apart from the Brewdog, whose brand power in the world of 'craft' beer is irrefutable, all of the other people who make this ten are local, highly motivated individuals, seizing Birmingham's beer scene by the scruff of the neck.

Next year (if I'm still alive) I fully expect the following people to appear in the list, for a variety of reasons: David Shipman (Birmingham Beer Bash), Keith Marsden (Prince of Wales, Moseley), Chris Sherratt (Craven Arms).      

Having completed the above list, I sit here perambulating in my own glory.

<5 minutes elapse>

In this post-perambulation period, I have also come to a sort of encapsulation regarding exactly what it means to be a 'mover and shaker' on my list.  It is part to do with the impact on the progressive beer scene in the city, and secondly, it's to do with the personal trajectory of the individual - have they improved or remained steady, etc etc.  I hope that's clear.

*even though, as Carl Durose has pointed out - this sentence is complete nonsense. After all, for someone to move up the list, it would involve them knobbling all/some of the people ranked alphabetically higher than them on the list.  Watch out Paul, Nigel and Marverine!  Happy now?

Beer Tasting in the State of Cotteridge

Hello all.

Rah rah rah, it's really important as a blogger, to declare your interests, tell everyone if you've been sent a free bottle of beer to review etc.  After all, the two people reading (hello Richy) might be wondering. 

In light of that, please read the following report into a fantastic evening, safe in the knowledge that I had some free beer and thoroughly enjoyed it.  I wasn't the only one.

Cotteridge Wines tell me that they have been around for 17 years, but being a Johnny-come-lately myself, I've only really been aware of their existence for about 6 months.  But during those 6 months they have demonstrated to me, and perhaps to themselves also, that they are capable of stocking a really excellent range of high quality beers, from around the World.

On Monday evening they did something a bit different, or different for Birmingham at least: they held a beer tasting.  Now obviously beer tastings sort of take place every evening in pubs and homes around the country, but I do mean a sort of organised tasting in which people come together to taste beers and say "hmm" quite a lot, and scratch their forelocks, and marvel at the blend of malt and hop flavours, and so on.

And so it went on Monday evening.  A group comprising Birmingham Ratebeerers (The_Bish, RichTheVillan, Tomman and moi), Paul from Arbor Ales and assorted members of the Brum Beer Twitterati (@Kaufmanised, @RobertoRossUK, @CarlDurose, @tania_nexust, @MarbleTim, @nebolland) gathered at Cotteridge Wines to sample some incredible beers.

I may or may not have forgotten some of the bottles on offer, but the ones I sneaked a nip of, were as follows (in no particular order):

De Molen Bommen and Granaten
- a blindingly good 15.2% Barley Wine

Fyne Ales Jarl 
- a full flavoured 3.8% UK Golden Ale

Arbor Goo Goo G’joob
- a super smooth Imperial Stout

Arbor Ginger IPA
- a hoppy IPA infused with ginger??? IT SHOULD NOT WORK. IT DOES WORK.

Zwiesel Dampfbier
- a malty, nutty German Lager variant

Rogue Chipotle Ale
- a US Amber Ale, made with chipotle chili peppers - smoky/spicy

Durham St Cuthbert
- a medium strong hoppy UK ale

Haandbryggeriet Røyk Uten Ild (Smoke Without Fire)
- a deliciously smoky and smooth Norwegian dark ale

Lambrate Ghisa
- an Italian Smoked Stout

Durham Diabolus
- an exclusive sample of this Imperial Stout brewed with gueuze yeast - a blend of dark malt power and sour tang.  IT SHOULD NOT WORK. IT DOES WORK.

Mikkeller The American Dream
- a Lager so good, you wouldn't even know it was a Lager

Moor Northern Star
- one of the best, most hoppiest UK 'session' beers around

The beers were clearly delicious, but honestly the beers were only one half of the evening's fun.  The other half was the excellent conviviality on show, both from fellow guests and of course from our gracious hosts.  The final half of fun, as an extra treat, was the presence of Arbor Ales, ably represented by Paul.  Arbor are obviously one of the better breweries in the UK: even when sober (which I am now) I know that this is a fact.  It was cool to get the background to some of Arbor's excellent beers - such as the two mentioned above and other top hits like Single Hop Citra and Oyster Stout.

 A 'tasting' and a 'Meet the Brewer' in a single evening - a double first for me.

 So then, in short, it was great to attend a fantastic tasting event, celebrating solidarity and the existence of nice beer, deep within our midst.  It would be remiss not to pay tribute to our hosts for putting such a nice event on, and inviting us along, so I happily voice my gratitude here.

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On a separate note, the Bank Holiday Weekend also marked a very impressive Craft Beer Festival, held at Cherry Reds in Kings Heath.  Unfortunately I was not able to get to the festival, but I know several people that did attend and loved it.  The beer list was very impressive, and I hereby send an electronic pat on the back for a job well done.

The Hype Machine

Are things really kicking off for Birmingham beer fans?

Is it finally happening?

Yes, I think it is and they are.  [Remember to edit this sentence, it's rubbish.] [But isn't it deliberately rubbish? Isn't it slightly knowing?] [Yes, I suppose you're right, OK leave it.] [Thanks]

This issue of the Mediocre Hype Machine will give you cast-iron proof that things are on the turn:

i) Brewdog Birmingham
No visible sign of building work at their John Bright Street site yet, but we I believe they are still due to open sometime in August.  This will bring uber-trendy beer in bottles and on tap.  Plus, we should get new beers when they are new, rather than eons after the rest of the country.

ii) Purity's new Craft bar
Just round the corner from Brewdog, we now have news of a second new craft venue, which will be run by Purity team.  Twitter brings news that it will feature a range of craft beers, in tandem with a top-notch food offer.  This sounds good.

iii) Brumcraft
In July 2013, Birmingham will have it's first Craft beer festival, organised and delivered by Birmingham beer fans.  No longer prepared to wait for the very best new beers to make their way to our City, a small group of determined activist have raised their heads above the parakeet and are now in a position to deliver a new kind of beer event - one peppered with the very best flavour combinations, from the very best new brewers.  This will be a big one.

iv) Off licences flexing their muscles
I dare that say that both Stirchley Wines and Cotteridge Wines would rather that their competitor was located a bit further away; BUT given their close proximity, it's Birmingham beer fans who are reaping the benefits.  There is no doubt at all that Cotteridge and Stirchley are driving up each others' standards - bringing in more and more of the World's best beers to us, at an ever quickening pace.  The work of new and hitherto unseen breweries is arriving day by day, and the choice of so many great beers, means that personally I no longer feel like I have to live a compromised beer existence.  Dan in 2005: "What beer shall I sup at home tonight?  Samuel Smith? Freeminer? Erdinger? Marston?; Dan in 2012: "What beer shall I sup at home tonight? Mikkeller? De Molen? Kernel? Summer Wine?  No contest.  I may be asking too much, but I hope this level of competition continues, as it will surely breed a newer, larger audience for quality beer in Brum.

v) Better beer in existing pubs
Dare I hope?  Is genuinely high quality beer starting to become commonplace in venues like the Old Contemptibles, and the Wellington?  This may seem facetious, as these are two pubs in the City, already known for a premium beer choice; however.... they were are not always home to the very, very best brands.  But in recent weeks, we have seen Hawkshead and Moor at the OC's, Red Willow and Buxton at the Wellington and Tiny Rebel at the Post Office Vaults.  I accept that these are very small, isolated examples, but I am still taking them as a positive.  In fact, when I popped into the Welly on Friday, they had a mini-festival underway, featuring beers from a fistful of London's new breed of microbreweries - By the Horns, Hackney and the Botanist, in addition to Happy Valley from Macclesfield.  Now I'll leave aside the fact that the Wellington failed to publicise this via social media, which would have been helpful, but you can't have everything.  Pubs of Birmingham, we want these top beers, we want them regularly and we want to know when you have them.

vi) Cherry Reds
A tiny venue single-handedly taking on the apathetic giant, this Kings Heath venue are doing a great job with their range of great beers on offer and by hosting beer tasting events - to my knowledge they are the only venue really doing this at the moment.  This outfit are a model of independence and integrity.  More please.

vii) Beer Geek
6 months (or so) on from their launch, they are now an increasingly established local brand, available in loads of places across the region.  More please.  On a personal note, I would like them to brew a delicious beer in my honour, but I realise that does sound a bit grandiose and bit git-like, now I come to type it.

viii) Birmingham Post
Talented journalist/cum PR Manager Keith Gabriel neatly captured the gathering beer zeitgeist in the City, in this article.  It's clearly a great piece of writing and clearly mentions all the most important beer figures in the City - namely moi.  But seriously folks, when the Birmingham Post starts noticing that beer is on the up, beer really is on the up.  In actual fact, the article in question appears to have been heavily plagiarised (in theme and tone) by me, in this post, here.  Whoops.

So then, lots to be positive about.  Are there any more?