Beer of the Year 2012

The ever excellent Campaign for Really Good Beer recently issued their call for Beer of the Year selections (**and then announced the winner, which I'll mention at the end). 

I'm a stats geek, I love lists and I use Ratebeer to record every new beer I try.  In short, I was built to choose my beers of the year.  In fact, I took the whole nomination process so seriously that I ended up writing copious notes for myself, to ensure the rigorousness of the submission.

Here then, for your information and 'enjoyment' is a schemata showing how I came to settle on the eventual selection of my 3 beers of the year for 2012.

First task was to scour my reviews on Ratebeer, to see which beers earned the best marks during 2012.  The results are as follows  (showing which beers scored 4.7 out of 5.0 and so on):

{I'm not doing links in this post, otherwise I'd be here all night.  I have been here all night anyway, but .....}

4.7

1.                        De Molen Mooi and Medogenloos

2.                        Mikkeller Beer Hop Breakfast

3.                        Kernel Black IPA III

4.                        Lindemans Cuvee Rene Gueuze

5.                        Brodies Hoxton Special IPA

4.6

6.                        Brewdog/Mikkeller I Hardcore You

7.                        De La Senne Jambe de Bois

4.5

8.                        Mikkeller Beer Geek Breakfast

9.                        Lion Stout

10.                    Kernel Double SCCANS

11.                    Nogne India Saison

12.                    Ska Modus Hoperandi

13.                    Mikkeller/Grassroots Wheat is the New Hops

14.                    Gouden Carolus Hopsinjoor

15.                    De Ranke Saison de Dottignies

16.                    Kernel IPA Summit

17.                    Tiny Rebel Urban IPA

18.                    Brodies Smoked IPA

Now aside from beers specifically falling within those three highest score 'brackets', I also felt that there were some which, though they had scored lower, left such a positive impression on me, that they deserved to be included in this conversation.  These are they: 

Selected highlights

19.                    Kernel Brick

20.                    Brodies London Lager

21.                    To Ol Raid

22.                    De Molen Amarillo

23.                    Buxton Imperial Black

24.                    Beavertown 8-Ball Rye IPA

25.                    Guinness Foreign Extra Stout (Nigerian)

26.                    Arbor Single Hop Citra

27.                    Brodies Hackney Red IPA

28.                    Nogne Imperial Stout

Now inevitably there will have been other beers which I really enjoyed but have missed.  I've tried to minimise that risk, but it's still an outside possibility. That's life.  I'll live with it. 

Having selected the contenders, I still needed to pluck three from within.  The most straightforward thing would be to pick the 3 beers I liked best, from that group which scored 4.7 - such a trio would look like this:

Top 3 by score

De Molen Mooi and Medogenloos

Kernel Black IPA III

Brodies Hoxton Special IPA

The other [alternative] thing to do, would be to nose through the whole list and then pick the three which give me the warmest, fondest feelings - such a list would look like hence:

Top 3 by ‘hunch’

Brodies Hoxton Special IPA

Tiny Rebel Urban IPA

Nogne India Saison

OK, have you noticed anything?  Yes, we have a clear winner, which is Brodies Hoxton Special IPA.  Well done to them, very well deserved.  However, in terms of submitting a trio to CAMRGB, I still needed to make a decision.  It came down to one of my enduring internal wrangles - i.e. does scoring/reviewing a beer on Ratebeer always reflect exactly how much you enjoy it?  If you think yes, then the beers with the best scores are the best.  Simple as.  However, if you think that there is some contextual x-factor which impacts upon how much you enjoy a particular beer, then there is a real chance that your Ratebeer scores (based as they are on technical proficiency*) will not capture the pleasure gained from imbibing the beer in question.  Now obviously this is deeply boring and naval-gazing beer geekery, so I will cut to the chase and say that I decided to pick my three 'hunch' beers, i.e. the ones which I believe I loved the most this year.

But it's been a great year for beer.  No debating that.

As an addendum, here is a list of breweries and how many times their products featured in my Top 28. 

Mikkeller - 4

Kernel - 4

Brodies - 4

De Molen – 2

Nogne - 2

Buxton - 1

Brewdog - 1

Guinness - 1

Beavertown - 1

To Ol - 1

Arbor - 1

Tiny Rebel - 1

De Ranke - 1

Gouden Carolus - 1

Lion - 1

Dottignies - 1

Ska - 1

Lindemans - 1

De La Senne – 1***

Almost as equally fascinating (I think), and by this measure then Mikkeller, Kernel and Brodies are joint top of my tree - which pretty much sums it up.

**The Overall Result

In the time it took me to write this post, CAMRGB performed the much more impressive feat of counting up all the votes and publishing the results.  According then, to the members and supporters of the Campaign for Really Good Beer, the beer of the year was Kernel S.C.C.A.NS. IPA.  I must admit, that even though it wasn’t on my list, I’m pleased that a Kernel beer won, as they are a magnificent brewery. 

So I didn’t back the winner, but ho hum it’s no biggie.  The main thing is that loads of people have managed to identify loads of lovely beers this year, which made this year a 12 month celebration of erm lovely beer.  [unbelievably poor sentence].

*I have always intended to write a fulsome blog post, which attempts to explain the fascination of and the mindset required for a full appreciation of Ratebeer.  I daresay I'll do it, once I perform some significant self analysis.

***Eagle-eyed UK beer fans will be aghast to see that no Magic Rock beers made my list of 28 finalists.  I’m a bit surprised myself, but there is good reason: almost 11 months after beginning this blog, with the aim of trying to bring Magic Rock and other top breweries to the pubs of Birmingham….. they have still not arrived.  Aside from the odd [extremely] isolated occasion and at beer festivals, I have still never, NEVER glimpsed a Magic Rock beer on a handpull in the city.  I have witnessed not a single one of those lovely Magic Rock pumpclips winking at me, as I entered a bar.  Surely, surely this cannot go on for much longer?  Next year’s new batch of Birmingham ‘craft’ pubs must surely right this wrong (surely). 

Brum Beer Fest 2012 + other stuff

Hello yes.

The 2012 version of the Birmingham Beer Festival 2012 took place last week (24th-26th October).  I attended on Friday and here are a few 'observations' (which is a posh way of saying that I'm going to tell you things about it).

First off, it was a massively good chance to catch up with fellow beer lovers from Birmingham and the surrounding sectors; people one regularly converses with on Twitter.  In fact, the Thursday and Friday evening sessions were designated #Twissups, allowing me to check in with a selection of friendly faces.  This was obviously a massive pleasure.



Second, the Foreign Beer Bar being run by Krishan and the Stirchley Wines team was a big plus, offering access to treats such as Emelisse Triple IPA and Duvel Tripel Hop, as well as £5 shots of 32% Brewdog Tactical Nuclear Penguin.

From a very personal point of view, the foreign beer options made up for the rather pedestrian cask beer list, which offered up a series of so-so beers during my foray.  Now, I'm not not trying to be sniffy, but having been denied some promised Summer Wine beers, and with a hugely in-demand barrel of Magic Rock High Wire refusing to clear sufficiently to be sold, I was left slightly disappointed at a lack of cutting edge/well-hopped beers.  Indeed, it was tricky to move beyond standard Bitters or Golden ales, but I did enjoy a Revolutions Paranoid Porter and a Tyne Bank Southern Star.  Sadlers also came up with the goods (as they usually do), with a very nice double IPA entitled Sweet Leaf.  But sadly, there were not many other cask beers sampled by me, which put their bubbly heads above the parapet.

Lastly: music at beer festivals.  What's that about?  By about 9.00 on this Friday evening, the upper floor of the festival venue was 'rocking' to a heavily metal band.  This band may have been brilliant for all I know, but the volume, and my consequent inability to have a conversation with fellow beer geeks, meant that effectively the national beer floor became off limits.  Which was a shame.

Still for all the mixedness of the above bag, the experience was undoubtedly positive.  As a member of the BrumBeerTwitterati pointed out - it was good to feel 'part of something [a community]".  The organisation of the fest was exemplary and the queues outside the venue on Friday evening were clear testimony to the popularity of the event.  It has to be said that I don't really enjoy beer festivals (I prefer pub crawls) but I did enjoy my visit to the Birmingham Beer Festival.

**

The following day, I had another lovely beer experience.  Following an exciting LCFC loss against Crystal Palace, I managed a mini-crawl of Leicester which took in the Swan and Rushes, Criterion, The Pub and the Ale Waggon.


I'm happy to say that the Swan came out on top, by retaining a dynamic selection of foreign bottled beers and by offering bar staff with the wit and knowledge to coherently discuss your potential choices.  Because of the staff intervention on Saturday, I managed to add a DELICIOUS De la Senne Jambe de Bois, to the Kneitinger Bock and Forsting Festbier which I had already necked.  When I was starting my beer journey in the early noughties, it was this pub that grabbed my tackle and got me excited.  10 years on and I still relish every visit.

The Criterion no longer has a bottled range to rival the Swan, but I did pick up a nice bottle of Krusovice Imperial.  The Pub meanwhile had St Feuillien Brune on tap, which was a deliciously smooth Belgian treat.



Finally, after nipping into the Ale Waggon, I managed to grab 3 off licenced treats: Slovakian Saris, UAE Barbican (pineapple flavoured, alcohol free) and Ukranian Obolon.  Cheering indeed.



***

Thirdly.

On the day previous to the Beer Festival (Thursday) I had a super, smashing, great sightseeing trip to London.  Having visited all the 'hot' spots and scoffed a delicious falafel sandwich, I managed a lightning visit to the Euston Tap, which never disappoints, and which didn't disappoint.  3 x halves of Bristol Beer Factory Acer, De Molen Blikken and Blozen and Red Willow Soulless were all extremely well tasty and sent me on my way happily.

More soon.

Birmingham Beer Heroes, No.1 - David Byrne

In this, the first of an unspecific series, we meet the first of our nominated Birmingham Beer Heroes. Birmingham Beer heroes, people who have added a touch of pizzazz to our drinking landscape with their ingenuity, skill and fortitude.  Here then is David Byrne* (@DSByrne), who is on a quest to [literally] drink himself around the planet.  What follows is the text of an actual interview between me and him.  It's like real journalism, isn't it?

"

So tell us about your project - you're aiming to drink at least one beer from each of the countries in the world, is that right?

Yes, the aim is to drink 280 beers: no more than one from each country, each state in the USA and each county in England.

First question (the obvious one) - Why?

A personal challenge, and something to encourage me to try different beers. Just a little bit of fun really.

So that's your answer and you're sticking to it, but honestly, what drives you to do this - is it a love of collecting/documenting, or an appreciation of World beer heritage?

Mostly I like drinking beer and trying new things. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have a collectors streak and this is something to spend my money on other than late 80s alt-rock records.

Presumably you keep notes, photos details of each beer as 'proof'?

Of course, every beer is documented on twitter with a photo and it’s number in the challenge. I’ve got a scratch off world map and have documented on a map on the internet as well. Initially I considered a blog, but it turns out drinking a lot of beer and then making time to write it isn’t so easy!

You're a ticker.  We all are.  It's what makes us sane.  How far are you along?  Have you nearly finished?

I’m about 130 beers in. Just less than half way numbers wise... not in time though!

OK, so stating the beetling obvious, but some countries must be easier to tick off than others?

Obviously it’s getting progressively more difficult. I’ve exhausted anything I can get in supermarkets, specialist off-licences and it’s even getting tricky on online specialists.

Of the ones that you have not done, what are the common factors - small countries?  Far flung? No beer heritage in that country?

A number of factors: prohibition (although this hasn’t stopped all), no exports or small far flung places which the UK just doesn’t trade with. There are a couple of annoying countries which have alluded me – who knew South Africa was so hard!

How will you tackle countries where alcohol is actively discouraged or banned?

I’ve had to accept that some of my beers with be non-alcoholic. I’ve recently had UAE and Iran – there’s just no way around that.

I know the answer to this one, but will ask anyway..... what type of beers are you mainly getting hold of from these varied locations?

I’ve had flavoured “malt” drinks which are advertised as beer (and acknowledged as beer on Ratebeer). One was lemon, one was apple. Not the same as a proper beer but fairly drinkable.

Hmmm.  you must now be an expert on Pale Lagers - are they much of a muchness or have there been some standouts?

I’ve gone for – wherever possible – a range of different styles of beer. There have been a lot of pale lagers. A lot of the asian beers have been fairly poor lagers, but I do really like the robust Eastern European beers such as Zywiec and Viru.

Time to put your money where your mouth is - what is the best beer you have tried during this project?

By far and away my favourite beer has been Einstok Toasted Porter from Iceland. I’ve gone on to try all of the Einstok range of beers which I can recommend highly.

And what was the worst?

Uinta Brewing Company XVII anniversary Barley Wine Ale from Utah. Who knew an almost entirely dry state made such bad beer?! It may well be to somebody’s taste, but it tasted to me like someone had spiked my beer with vodka.

A project like this requires a strong support team; who have you enlisted to help out?

My girlfriend has helped a lot – she’s a serious cataloguer/organiser and I quite often find her trawling the internet for beer. She also managed to persuade her friends and family to send beer from holidays and travel – managed to get Cape Verde and Tanzania this way! My friends have been great too – helping with making my incessant online ordering a little more normal and of course stopping me from having to drink all on my own – so thanks to @grammaticalrecords and @natef15her.

There must have been some moments of euphoria, as you located a new country.  What has been your greatest moment to date?

After having bought Nogne #100 (Norway) quite early on, I managed to save it to drink as my 100^th. Not a bad beer, but a great feeling of achievement.

There must have been some surprise finds too...... tell us about them.

The biggest surprise was finding the non-alcoholic beers – mostly because it was a find that I wasn’t looking for it. One of the most satisfying finds was finding a South Korean supermarket and realising they stock South Korean beer (Hite – and very reasonably priced too!). It’s lucky we live in such a multi-cultural city.

Will there come a point where you give up or will you still be doing this in 30 years time?

I don’t intend to give up until it’s a completed project – however the pace of new beers slows quickly and I imagine it will continue to do so.

Has this project changed you?  Will you ever be able to enjoy beer like you used to?

The project was more a sign of how my beer drinking had changed, rather than the other way round. When I first started drinking, I only drank premium lagers such as Stella or Kronenbourg. However, during my early twenties I started discovering ales and stouts.

And what beers would you like to drink were you not on this mission?  What is your favourite style(s)?

Guinness would be my “go to drink” or often whichever guest ale I haven’t previously tried.

Mediocre Beer Adventures loves this project.  I use Ratebeer to keep track of my finds in exactly the same way, and as is well documented, I love to visit small off licences, looking for obscure beers.  We are brothers.

Thank you for you time - any closing remarks?

It’s good to see that with the help of Stirchley Wines, Cotteridge Wines, Rai Wines, as well as pubs like The Post Office Vaults and The Wellington it’s now really easy to get good variety of quality beer.

"

Couldn't have said it better myself.  If anyone spots beer from any obscure countries, or is going on holiday to Bhutan, perhaps they could drop David a line, via Twitter. 

*This link is a hoax.

September Round Up

A. There are a few bits and bobs I can update you on, and a few photographs you can drool over.

Q. What is the point of this post?

First up, some sad news.  Apparently the Brown Lion has closed.  This is really sad, for not only was this a friendly venue, but they were also Birmingham's only genuine brewery tap, offering Two Towers' beers, such as Jewellery Porter and Complete Muppetry, both of which were very drinkable indeed.

Way back in April I reported on quiz night at the Brown Lion and (I hope) conveyed my enjoyment.  Fingers crossed that the Brown Lion will return in some form, but perhaps by then, Birmingham's sights will have moved to John Bright Street and the impending Brewdog Brum.  Speaking of which...

Brewdog Birmingham is now scheduled to open in errrrr, not sure.  It was originally due in August, but the last official word was that it'll be mid-November.  I don't suppose it matters when it gets here, as BD's fans are so rabid, that they'll lap it up come what may.  I probably will too.

Last week I had a lovely super quick tour of Leicester, which mixed Richard III tourism, with visits to some of the City's lesser known boozers/hidden 'treats'.



I hit the Salmon, the Ship and the Longstop, of which the first one was the best.  All were interesting though.   



In Twitterati news, this week I, along with Carl Durose and Tania Nexust hosted national beer legends Jezza, Martin Ridge and the enigmatic Black Haddock.  This was a good opportunity to sample excellent Thai food and Oakham Carioca at the Bartons Arms, some Saltaire at the Anchor and bottled UK 'Craft' beer at the Victoria.



Speaking of which, did I tell you that a Birmingham pub has finally taken the plunge and started stocking bottles from the UK's best new breweries, i.e. the ones who have invigorated and/or reinvigorated our national scene?  Kernel, Bristol Beer Factory, Arbor and Summer Wine are all (or certainly have all been) available, with highlights such as Amarillo Pale Ale and Cohort.  It is worth saying again, simply to highlight how gobsmacked I am that it has taken this long, but let me emphasise that the Victoria are still the ONLY pub in Birmingham stocking bottles from our top breweries.  Well done to the Victoria, I hope that their adventure is rewarded by people buying the new range by the truckload and that therefore the experiment widens and becomes a permanent feature.

But honestly, all other Brum pubs need to look hard in the mirror and ask themselves why no one else has been prepared to have a stab at stocking UK bottled craft.

In happier, or rather equally happy news, here are some of the best beers I've sampled in the last fortnight:

Raw Citra Black Ale - a magnificent Black IPA sampled at the Anchor,

Flying Dog In De Wildeman Farmhouse IPA - a deliciously funky Saison, which utilises New World hops.

Raw Dark Peak Stout - sampled at the Salmon in Leicester, this is the second delicious Raw beer I've tried recently; with this one being a super smooth and tasty Stout.

Great Heck Powerhouse - as recommended by @ckdsaddlers, this was a well balanced UK Golden Ale, replete with many hops and sampled at the Anchor.

Ksiazece - a lovely Polish Hefe Weizen, picked up in Whitmore Reans, Wolverhampton



Finally, as previously mentioned,

Oakham Carioca - a wonderful tropical fruit salad of hops and that. Smelt like an Avon saleswoman's basket.

Oh, one final thing - here are a photo of bottled "treats" which have latterly been placed in my beer cellar [cupboard] for future consumption.



Lager is for life, not just for Michaelmas.

Black Country - Parte Un

The</\>Black<\/\/>Country</\/\>

Parte the First.

Cannot believe I haven't previously written about the Black Country.  But then again it took me over a decade of living in Birmingham, to discover and appreciate this geographical wonder on my doorstep.

Actually geographical wonder might me a bit misleading, instead the Black Country is more like a frying pan of sociological, demographical, cultural intrigue.  Moreover, it is a mecca for beer and pubs: and really, that's
where I come in, isn't it?

Where to start?  Now that is a tough one.  In introducing you to the Black Country, (or simply offering my perspective), my work is going to be split between a guide to it's pubs and a guide to it's beers.

1.

Pubs.

The BC is a wide and many-varied place.  Consequently, pubs are scattered across the region and offer a good ratio of gems.  In fact, by head of population, the BC is much better than Brum for pubs - and that may be a fact.  I'm splitting this mini guide into a clutch of guides covering routes or sub-regions:

The Number 9 Bus Route
This pub crawl involves getting on the Number 9 bus, either in Birmingham city centre, or Stourbridge and then getting on and off, periodically, at the following pubs:


Waggon and Horses, Halesowen

Classic scoopers pub - crammed with character, wonkiness, cheap grub, over a dozen handpulled ales, plus Belgian kegs.  Unmissable.

Hawne Tavern, Halesowen

Up the road from the W&H, this is a homely backstreet boozer, with a nice range of real ales.

Windsor Castle, Lye

Home of Sadlers Ales, and as such has about 10 well kept and extremely tasty beers always available.  Good food options too.

Shovel Inn, Lye

Quite a few real ales available and themed food nights.  Up the road from both the Windsor Castle and Lye railway station.

Duke William, Stourbridge

Very sympathetically tarted up trad-pub.  A few guest ales, a fistful of good bottles, and several beers from Craddocks microbrewery, who own this place and another in Stourbridge.

Roberto Ross is the man to give you a full run down of the other excellent Stourbridge offerings. 

Gornal
"A little corner of beer heaven".  Some of the best pubs ever, which can be traversed by walking from the bottom to the top of a big hill (or vice versa).  Going between Lower and Upper Gornal will make you love the Black Country forever.


Old Bulls Head, Lower Gornal

Home of Black Country Ales, which is either a good thing or a mediocre thing, depending on whether you like their beers.  Pretty unspoilt blokey type place.

The Fountain, Lower Gornal

Clean, welcoming pub halfway up Gornal.  Nice food (including juicy faggots) and several real ales and foreign kegs.  Good.

The Black Bear, Upper Gornal

Great country style pub in Upper Gornal.  Good beer, good views.

Britannia, Upper Gornal

Wonderfully preserved boozer.  Could almost have been plucked intact from 1931 and dropped back in the present.  Great f&f and Bathams' beers.

Jolly Crispin, Upper Gornal

[Yet] another traditional boozer, which has a low-beamed front room, and bright airy eating area out the back.  Usually around 6 or 7 great handpulls in operation.

Dudley and Surrounds
Dudley is the heart of the Black Country, as far as pubs are concerned.  Unfortunately it can be a bit tricky to get to, but don't let that put you off.

Court House, Dudley

Owned by Black Country Ales, this place has a really good range of real ale, and used to be a, wait for it, Court House.  Bang in the middle of Dudley. 

Park Inn, Woodsetton

The tap for Holdens, adjoining the actual brewery.  A bit of a strange mish-mash of decor, but worth a visit to get your fill of Holdens - who provide some sweet, bitter Black Country beer legends, such as Golden Glow. 

Beacon Hotel, Sedgley

An absolute, cast iron legend.  Home of the Sarah Hughes brewery, this is a wonderful pub, with a very strange central serving hatch, where you shout your beer order through a chest height hole and are served without ever seeing the barman/maid's face.  A beautifully preserved treat.  Unmissable under no circumstances/not missable under any circumstances.  ?????  

Tame Bridge, Great Bridge

Pillar box red, just down the road from Great Bridge Library - this is primarily a locals' pub, next to Sheepwash Urban Park and offering a few guest ales.  Worth a look. 

Waggon and Horses, Tipton

The brewery tap for Toll End Brewery.  This is another one which will require a bit of perserverance/organisation to get to, but if you are prepared to head to Tipton, you could possibly get the train, and combine with visits to other local boozers, like the famous Pie Factory.  If you do get to Tipton, look out for horses - the locals tend to keep them tethered on urban grass verges, or in their back gardens. 

Ma Pardoes/Old Swan, Netherton

Another [yet another] legend.  This, along with the Beacon Hotel, the Waggon and Horses (Halesowen) and the Bull and Bladder, are rightfully the most famous pubs in the Black Country.  Ma Pardoes is the home of the Old Swan brewery.  The front bar, including it's ceiling needs to be seen to be believed.  Great and cheap beer.   

Metro Run
For those who don't know, the Metro is a tram service which runs from Birmingham Snow Hill to Wolverhampton.  It's very helpful in planning your pub visits to the Black Country and can indeed form the basis of your crawl - as here>>>>> 

Great Western, Wolverhampton

Magnificent boozer, extremely close to Wolverhampton railway station.  Train themed pub [duh], owned by Holdens and serves their range in addition to Bathams and guests (the former of which is a massive draw).  Really charming.  If you start your Metro run here, you might be tempted to stay all day.

Olde White Rose, Bilston

This place is a bit of a maverick.  A good choice of ales, very cheap carvery, but occasionally comes across as a bit grubby.  I like it though.  Very close to Bilston Central Metro station.

Trumpet, Bilston

A jazz pub in the middle of Bilston.  Owned by Holdens. 

[Ye Olde Leathern Bottle, Wednesbury]

I've mentioned this place because Wednesbury is one of the most obvious stop-offs on any Metro Run.  However.... when Steve and I got off the tram at the Wednesbury Parkway stop on our Metro pub crawl, we didn't find any good pubs.  It transpired that we walked in the wrong direction, and thus didn't make it here.  Take a map.  And if it's not up to much, don't blame me.  But it probably is a very good place. People say it is.  

Wheatsheaf, West Bromwich

I'd say that this is the only decent pub in the centre of West Bromwich - which is itself [one of the] centre[s] of the Black Country.  This is on the High Street, closest to the Lodge Road Metro stop, and an extremely pleasant, cheap and quite welcoming place.  Contextually, a real gem. 

The Vine, West Bromwich

Lovely old fashioned boozer, popular with Baggies fans and well served with excellent an Indian grill menu.  Not much beer, but that isn't everything [wha??] in this case. 

Right, to complete this Black Country run, you have to actually leave the Black Country, so just to be clear, the next four pubs are not in the Black Country. 

[Black Eagle, Soho]
Use the Soho Benson Road stop.

[Red Lion, Jewellery Quarter]
Stop at, wait for it, Jewellery Quarter.

[Lord Clifden, Great Hampton Row]
Stop at St. Pauls.

[Old Contemptibles, Snow Hill]
Stop at the end of the Metro line, AKA Snow Hill.

Misc

Vine/Bull and Bladder, Brierley Hill

Very possibly the best pub in the entire West Midlands, but an absolute bugger to get to, by public transport.  For over a year, I have been wracking my brains about how to shoehorn this into some kind of crawl.   This is, of course, the home of Bathams - meaning beautiful beer + friendly locals + an absolutely charming and comfortable multi-roomed old skool boozer.  People come from miles around to visit - and quite rightly.

The Waterfall, Cradley Heath

Another slightly tricky one to get to.  A very well-loved Holdens' pub, close to Cradley Heath/Old Hill.

Waggon and Horses, Oldbury

A Brains' pub, slap bang opposite Sandwell Council House.  A really lovely, beautifully preserved and clean place.  The best in Oldbury, which a bit of a transport hub, rather than a destination in itself. 

The Malt Shovel, Blackheath (aka Rowley Regis)

Let me state that I need to return to Blackheath, to ensure that my pub knowledge is bang up to date.  Having said that, I know that this place was very nice on my visit and featured several guest handpulls.

So that's it for now.  This took me ages to write, so I'm now off for a rest, but will return at some point, to do Part II of my Black Country guide - focussing on the beers.

Special Report - Gurd's Trip to Marylebone

For a late Summer treat, this article, for the first time ever*, is penned by a guest columnist.  Gurdeep Singh is primarily known for his pioneering work in 15-minute drum solos, but is also a well respected respecter of beer, social activist, gardener and pigeon fancier.  So then, please enjoy his handcrafted report of a recent trip to Marylebone.  If it goes well, maybe he'll be allowed to write a regular column**. 

Enjoy.

Preamble: [not sure about the underlining here- Ed]

This was very much a “stolen crawl” in every sense of the word phrase, as the intention was to have just one pre-homeward-bound-train drink that turned in to quite a few more.  The night before, I had experienced easily one of the top 3 gigs of my life, watching the Afghan Whigs (doing a one off UK show after a 10 year hiatus) at KOKO in Camden.  Before venturing to Camden, we'd supped a sunset hued Staropramen overlooking the lake in Victoria Park, before the tube whisked us to Mornington Crescent, where a pre-venue Brooklyn lager was drunk to limber us up for haggling with (predominantly unspecific) ticket touts.  Cold cans of Red Stripe were standard “gig drink” fayre, but we did manage to find some late bars after the gig that sold real ale into the wee hours. 

After a relaxed brunch at a greasy spoon on the Roman Road in Mile End we headed off to Marylebone to get the train home before our ticket cut off point of 3pm – the rest did not quite go according to plan…

The crawl itself

Marylebone is a much more pleasant and civilised way to enter (or leave in this case) the big smoke by train, rather than coming in to the concrete mass of Euston except.... when it comes to watering holes - in a word mediocre!

We had a pint of Heineken on the station bar, which was as suitably acceptable and refreshing hair of the dog as I'd imagined on a scorching early afternoon.  It certainly washed down my fry up well enough, so much so that it actually gave me an appetite to scope out some proper boozers and sod the 3pm train - “we’re on holiday” after all.

Round the corner was a place called the Allsop Arms, which had a lovely line (literally) of young, female, olive-skinned European visitors outside it, waiting for the Easyjet bus to ferry them to the airport.  Shame about the choice of drinks though.  Peroni was supped by us both [Gurd was accompanied by his chum, pro-cyclist Sean] and onwards to find the next joint.  [I believe that 'joint' is a cool, slang word for venue - Ed].

Next stop was the Harcourt Arms whose only real ale was not on, but a decent pint of Budvar in a real suntrap of an intimate concrete beer garden, was enjoyed here leisurely, as the music was decent.  The street was home to all things Swedish, which was quite interesting, but we never did get to find out why, as we were on a time limit and I was itching to get to the next gaff for some proper ale.

Winsdor Castle was a peculiar place, with an amazing amount of cheap English paraphernalia tucked in to every nook and cranny of this mid-terrace haunt, and whose barman was very, very strange indeed (imagine the John Inman character in “are you being served” crossed with Kenneth Williams in a Carry On film).  We were genuinely unnerved by his opening gambit (or it could have been the cumulative effect of the 3^rd day of solid boozing).  Anyhow, a half of nondescript bitter was necked quick time in search of somewhere with a more unchallenging welcome.

We heartily cheered up when we discovered the Wargrave Arms just around the corner with its bright, huge open plan bar/restaurant and beautifully kept hanging baskets and shrubbery adorning the outdoor seating.  A decent choice of ales was on here with Sean and I "keeping it Pale", by going for a lovely pint of Liberation Ale.

Sean at the Carpenters Arms

Things were on a steady incline of improvement by now, as we hit the best pub of the day next - The Carpenters Arms.  Small, busy, independent, loads of ales and Sky Sports to boot.  Sean had a Harveys Ale, I had a 5% IPA that was very nice, but I can't remember the name. [tsk tsk - Ed].  What more could a man ask for?  Errr maybe a meaty snack of the kebabish variety?  Being so close to Edgware Road it would be rude not to patronise a café of the Kurdish brethren while in the vicinity, so we had what we both agreed was the best kebab of our lives from a street food stall called Cafe Helen - a very Kurdish name I'm sure you'll agree.

The view out of the Larrik window

The final place we hit before the train, with one of the nicest, biggest ever window views I've ever experienced from a pub called the Larrik (and you know how much I love them).  The beers were just standard fayre, but we were struggling by now, so Marylebone station was a welcome sight.

The moral of this story is: when in and around the Marylebone vicinity, the pub you should head for is the Carpenters Arms, which is about a 10 minute walk away.  But to say that would only have taken up two sentences and that wouldn't have been very good, would it?

*And probably final time ever.
** I wouldn't bank on this.  In fact, for the removal of all doubt, I make no promises of any future columns.  Whatsoever.

A Challenge for you/Off licence map update

It's been a while since I did anything regarding the Off-Licence Project, i.e. that lovely Google Map which the readers of Mediocre Beer Adventures helped to populate with the City's best purveyors of East European lager and World craft beer.

The map is still here:- BIRMINGHAM OFF LICENCES

Recent additions are a couple of venues in Erdington, specialising in Polish beer and the deletion of at least one Dudley Road venue, which had gone to seed.

Now I think this still requires a little work, so I would exhort you and everyone you know to remain vigilant and look out both for interesting offies, but also good beer ranges in non-offie locations.

That was part 1 of this post.

Part 2 of this post is a plea.

Looking at Ratebeer (which I do regularly), I have been alarmed to see that my beer ticking brethren across the UK seem to be uncovering a range of East European beer treasure, which I are not clapped eyes on in Brum.

This is a worry.

It's not a worry because I'm missing out on good beer per se, but it is a worry because I'm an obsessive and one of my obsessions is questionable lager.  I'll be blowed if Scunthorpe folk are getting access to obscure Polish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Ukrainian stock, while I'm not.  Sadly however, this seems to be the case.

So I would like to enlist you all (yes, both of you) to help me find some of these new, 'mysterious' beer treats.  Here is a hit-list:

From Latvia:

Cesu Nefiltrētais

From Lithuania:

Bauskas Gaisais Specialais
Butautu Dvaro Alus Sviesus
Butautu Dvaro Alus Tamsus
Fortas Stiprus
Fortas Ekstra
Fortas Stipriausias
Kauno Senasis Porteris
Kauno Biržieciu Alus Stouts
Kupiškio Kupiškėnų Šventinis Alus
Kupiškio Magaryčių Alus
Kupiškio Keptinis
Tauras Porteris
Taruškų Kanapinis Alus Tamsus
Volfas Engelman Rinktinis

From Poland:

Książęce Pszeniczne
Lomza Export Miodowe
Perla Miodowa
Tyskie Mocne


From Romania:

Timisoreana

From Russia:

Baltika 6 Porter

From Ukraine

Zlata Praha Svetle Pivo

Please tell me if you spot any of these during you travels.

N.B. Tesco and Asda may not be the best places to start your hunt.

N.B. (2) There may be a prize for the person who locates the most - sort of like a scavenger hunt.

N.B. (3) Off licence owners of the region - please, please do not buy a crate of these beers purely on my say-so.  I am, by no means, providing a guarantee of quality, nor am I certain that these will be 'big' sellers.
However, if you do want to take a punt on these, why not do so?  Only please don't kick me, when you're flogging them off at 10p per can, come Christmas.