Flying to the tropics

Not too early a start. My flight isn't until 13:40. I leave just after 10 AM.

Why so early? I'm not flying KLM. Or one of their partners. Meaning no lounge access or, more significantly, pushing-in security and boarding. I've no idea how long the pissing around will take.

Today is Sunday. I only had my flights confirmed by the organisers on Thursday. I think they were waiting for money from the Bahia state government. Just as well I don’t have anything else to do.

I’ve also a fair bit of experience of South America. Despite the chaos, things usually get sorted. Eventually. Events have taught me to be more patient. Which isn’t a bad thing. Or maybe I’m just getting too old to worry about stupid shit.

I’m looking forward to seeing a new part of Brazil. Much further North than I’ve been before. To the tropics. I’m expecting exotic fruit and lots of sun. I’m especially looking forward to the latter. It being so fucking cold and grey in Amsterdam at the moment.

I remember to go through the Schengen security this time. So no passport control. Which speeds things up. No queue to speak of at security, either.

A homemade sandwiches and spiked coffee  breakfast.

How can I recreate the lounge experience? (At low cost, I might add.) I’ve brought my own sarnies. I say my own, Dolores made them. Better than I would have. ham, cheese, lettuce and cucumber. Heel erg lekker. As us Dutch people say.

What about the booze, though? Well, I'm not wasting dosh in a bar. I get myself a few miniatures of Jameson. Once I've found a relatively quiet spot close to, but not at, my gate, I grab a coffee. And discretely pour in some whisky to liven it up. And get stuck into reading Private Eye.

A quiet spot close to gate C5 at Schiphol.

Bum. My flight is delayed by 30 minutes. That wouldn't usually bother me on a long flight But I'm changing planes in Lisbon and only have 1 hour 20 minutes. It's going to be tight.

It says that the flight is boarding when the inbound flight hasn't even arrived. No way it's only going to be 30 minutes late.

When we finally get airborne, it's 50 minutes behind schedule. I'm starting to resolve myself to missing my connection. It's not such a biggie. They'll have to put me up in a hotel and I'll get the next day's flight. Could be worse.

I've never flown TAP before. It's a bit budget airline like, as you have to buy the food and drink. Still full from Dolores's sarnies, I limit myself to a brace of whiskies. To accompany reading Private Eye.

I ask the cabin crew about my connection. They tell me that staff in red jackets will be there to help. I hope so.

On the way to my gate in Lisbon airport.

It turns out to be true. The staff are there at various points to show the way to passport control and then to the gate. I get there 10 minutes before the scheduled departure time. When they're just finishing up boarding. That was much less stressful than I feared.

At least there's a screen to watch on this leg. Game Night, How to be Single and Hangover III entertain me for a while. Then the TV series Shrill.

TAP meal of beef stew and chips.

The main meal isn't too bad. Some sort of beef stew with chips. Just a shame there's no vinegar. Way better than the usual KLM slop.

When we hit Brazil, rather than heading for Salvador, we go to Fortalezza. where we have an unscheduled stop to refuel. Great. It makes us 90 minutes late.

Immigration takes no time, taking the priority queue. It’s great being an oldie person in Brazil. My bag comes out quickly, too. Leaving me time to browse the inbound duty free. And get myself a bottle of Dewar's. As I started off Schengen, there was no duty free for me in Amsterdam.

There's a bit of waiting for my lift in arrivals. But nothing too crazy. Then a wait for Jan Lichota, a Polish judge who was on the same flight. Soon we're rocking and rolling towards our hotel. Which is quite a drive away.

It's 1:30 by the time I’ve finished checking in. That's 5:30 Amsterdam time.

Just enough time for an eye-closer of whisky. Not that I really need it.




Disclaimer: my flights, hotels and most meals were paid for by the Brazilian International Beer Awards.

Beer Guide to the 1970s (part twenty-three)

Another intriguing trio of 1970s breweries today. All quite different, both in terms of scale and location.

By far the largest was Federation. Which, in terms of outlets served, was up there with the biggest regional brewers. And, given that clubs were generally larger than pubs, might have had the most output of any of them. They were the last of the club breweries to close.

Oldham, probably on account of its limited geographical distribution, tended to get forgotten about. I can't remember it having a reputation one way or the other, good or bad. Unusually for brewers in the Manchester area, it didn't produce that much cask, Which might also explain the lack of attention from CAMRA.

While to try Okell's beers, you needed to visit the Isle of Man. Which enttailed a fair amount of effort.


Northern Clubs Federation
Newcastle,
Tyne & Wear.

Founded:    1919
Closed:            2010
Tied houses:    900 clubs (not owned)

One of the club breweries founded in the aftermath of WW I. They were notable for being the only brewer to publish the gravity of their beers. Mostly supplying clubs, the beer was usually in tank form. I never got to try it myself. They sold most beer in the Norttheast, but also supplied clubs in Lancashire, Yorkshire and, weirdly, Coventry and Cornwall. A new brewery was built South of the Tyne in Dunston in 1980. Scottish & Newcastle bought them in 2004. They were shut by Heineken in 2010.

beer	style	format	OG	description
Federation Pale Ale	Pale Ale	tank	1032	well-flavoured
Federation Special Ale	Pale Ale	tank	1041	well-flavoured
Federation Pale Ale	Pale Ale	keg		well-flavoured
Federation Special Ale	Pale Ale	keg		well-flavoured
Special Ale	Pale Ale	bottled	1041
Export	Pale Ale	bottled	1046
Light Brown Ale	Brown Ale	bottled	1032
Strong Brown Ale	Brown Ale	bottled	1047
Sweet Stout	Stout	bottled	1044

Okell
Douglas,
Isle of Man.

Founded:    1850
Closed:            still open
Tied houses:    80

The larger of the two Isle of Man breweries, Okell had tied houses spread across the whole island. I can’t remember their beers ever making it to the mainland. And never tried then myself, not having visited the Isle of Man. It merged with Castletown, the other local brewer, in 1986, forming Isle of Man Breweries.

beer	style	format	OG	description
Bitter	Pale Ale	draught	1035.9	good hopping rate
Mild	Mild	draught	1035.2	Dark Mild
Falcon Keg Bitter	Pale Ale	keg
Falcon Pale Ale	Pale Ale	bottled
Falcon Nut Brown Ale	Brown Ale	bottled		medium sweet
Falcon No. 1 Strong Ale	Barley Wine	bottled

Oldham
Oldham,
Greater Manchester.

Founded:    1868
Closed:            1988
Tied houses:    100

Oldham was one of the smaller regional brewers in the Manchester area. Most of their pubs were either in Oldham itself or a few miles from it. With a couple in neighbouring towns. Quite a lot of the beer was sold in tank form and only about 25% selling cask. I can’t remember seeing the beer at beer festivals. I only ever drank it on a daytrip to Oldham with my mate Simon. I thought they were perfectly OK beers. Purchased by Boddingon in 1982 and closed a few years later.

beer	style	format	OG	description
Bitter	Pale Ale	draught	1037.2	well hopped
Mild	Mild	draught	1031.7	medium sweet Dark Mild
Bitter	Pale Ale	keg	1037.2
Mild	Mild	keg	1031.7
Rheingold	Lager	keg	1035
Pale Ale	Pale Ale	bottled
Brown Ale	Brown Ale	bottled
Old Tom	Old Ale	bottled		strong and dark
Oldham Stout	Stout	bottled		medium sweet

 

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1880 Chapman XX

There was sill a range of Mild at Chapman. With XX the middle one of three.    

At 7% ABV, it’s a pretty powerful beer. Though it wouldn’t have been considered as being super-strong at the time. Still, around double the strength of a modern Mild.

Though all were brewed single-gyle, XX has exactly the same grist as X: two-thirds pale malt one-third sugar. The only difference is that this time all the malt is Saale. That is, made from German barley.

It is rather sugar-heavy. Though it’s strong enough that I couldn’t imagine that it would taste thin.

Three types of hops: Sussex from the 1880 harvest, along with two types of Mid-Kent, both from 1878.

1880 Chapman XX
pale malt	8.25 lb	66.00%
No. 1 invert sugar	4.25 lb	34.00%
Fuggles 90 mins	2.00 oz
Fuggles 30 mins	2.00 oz
OG	1068
FG	1015
ABV	7.01
Apparent attenuation	77.94%
IBU	40
SRM	9
Mash at	147.5º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	57º F
Yeast	WLP023 Burton Ale

 

 

Beer Guide to the 1970s (part twenty-two)

Well, we've got about half-way through the alphabet. And as far as brewery number 66. Still quite a way to go. Especially as, so far, I haven't included either home brew pubs or national brewers. I reckon that I'm only about a third of the way through.

Three closed breweries this time. All of which ceased brewing at around the same time. And all of which I rather miss. Mitchells I only drank occasionally and beer festivals. On the other hand, I drank in multiple Morland and Morrell houses.


Mitchells
Lancaster,
Lancashire.

Founded:    1871
Closed:            1999
Tied houses:    47

The relatively small town of Lancaster was lucky enough to have two local breweries, both making pretty good beers. Mittchell’s pubs were mostly in and around Lancaster, with a couple just over the border in Yorkshire. Brewing transferred to the former Yates & Jackson brewery in 1984. Company acquired by York Brewery in 2008.

beer	style	format	OG	description
Bitter	Pale Ale	draught	1037	malty
Extra Special Bitter	Pale Ale	draught	1045	more hopped and much stronger
Mild	Mild	draught	1034	Dark Mild
Keg Bitter	Pale Ale	keg	1045	kegged Extra Special Bitter
Premium Keg Mild	Mild	keg
City Pale Ale	Pale Ale	bottled
City Brown Ale	Brown Ale	bottled		medium sweet
City Shield Stout	Stout	bottled	1045	high gravity

Morland
Abingdon,
Berkshire.

Founded:    1761
Closed:            1999
Tied houses:    240

There were several good breweries in and around the Thames valley, including Morland. Their estate covered Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Hampshire and Surrey. They brewed a decent range of draught beers. Which I had the pleasure of drinking when I attended the Reading Festival. Bought by Greene King in 1999 and closed.

beer	style	format	OG	description
Bitter	Pale Ale	draught	1035	well hopped
Best Bitter	Pale Ale	draught	1042	full-flavoured and stronger
Mild	Mild	draught	1032	medium Dark Mild with an agreeable dry flavour
Morland Light Ale	Pale Ale	bottled
Viking Pale Ale	Pale Ale	bottled
Monarch	Barley Wine	bottled
Brown Ale	Brown Ale	bottled		medium sweet
Stout	Stout	bottled		medium sweet

Morrell
Oxford,
Oxfordshire.

Founded:    1797
Closed:            1998
Tied houses:    140

Another good Thames Valley brewery. With an estate mostly in Oxfordshire, but stretching as far as Swindon to the West. Which is how I came to love their Dark Mild when I lived in Swindon. Brewing ceased in 1998, basically because they wanted to redevelop the brewery’s valuable riverside site. But they continued as a pub company until 2002, when they were bought by Greene King.

beer	style	format	OG	description
Bitter	Pale Ale	draught	1036	well balanced
Varsity	Pale Ale	draught	1040.6	malty and rare
Light Mild	Mild	draught	1031.6	lighter version of the Bitter
Dark Mild	Mild	draught	1032.6	pleasant and rare
College Ale	Pale Ale	draught	1073	winter only
Varsity Keg	Pale Ale	keg		medium gravity, chilled and filtered but not pasteurised
Pale Ale Keg	Pale Ale	keg		lighter gravity
Light Oxford Ale	Pale Ale	bottled
Castle Ale	Pale Ale	bottled		medium gravity
College Ale	Barley Wine	bottled
Brown Ale	Brown Ale	bottled
Malt Stout	Stout	bottled

 

Back from Brazil

Again. Yesterday. I had a great time, as always. Those Brazilians know how to have a good time. What crazy van journeys.

This time I was in Bahia. A properly tropical bit.  With exotic fruit, lots of palm trees, beautiful beaches. And cocktails. With exotic fruit.

Exotic Brazilian fruit.

All great fun. Except my right hand is out of action pretty. Due to a drunken fall in  Salvador airport.  Not my drunken fall, I should add. But a fellow judge drunkenly falling onto me. Not that I was 100% sober myself.

People take the piss out of my two-handed typing. One-handed. I'm less than half as good. Which is a pain when I have lots of writing to do. Like I do now.

Beer Guide to the 1970s (part twenty-one)

I hope you're not getting too bored with this 1970s brewery stuff yet. Three Midlands breweries today. None of them too far from where I grew up. Yet I only drank beer from one of them at the time. For a variety of reasons.

Marstons I drank quite a bit after the Old Kings Arms opened in Newark. I particularly remember Owd Roger and the effect it had on unwary drinkers. We had to pretty much carry Mogg out after he drank four pints of it.


Mansfield
Mansfield,
Nottinghamshire.

Founded:    1855
Closed:            2001
Tied houses:    180

Mansfield was a bit of an oddity in being a regional brewery which produced no cask beer, instead concentrating on bright beer. Despite growing up in Nottinghamshire, I can’t remember ever seeing one of their tied houses. Their pubs were mostly in the Northwest of the county. I never drank their beer until the 1980s, when they reintroduced cask. Bought by Wolverhampton & Dudley in 1999 and closed a couple of years later.

beer	style	format	OG	description
Bitter	Pale Ale	draught		well hopped
Mild	Mild	draught		Dark Mild
Pale Ale	Pale Ale	bottled
Strong Ale	Strong Ale	bottled		pale in colour
Brown Ale	Brown Ale	bottled

Marston
Burton,
Staffordshire.

Founded:    1834
Closed:            still open
Tied houses:    800

One of the largest independent brewers, Marston’s tied estate was spread over large parts of the country, stretching as far as the Lake District in the North, Hampshire in the South and Wales in the West. They didn’t tend to dominate in any region so didn’t tend to piss off drinkers. Pedigree was a great example of a Burton Pale Ale, with a distinct Burton “snatch”. While Owd Roger was one of the strongest beers sold on draught. Currently owned by Carlsberg.

beer	style	format	OG	description
Draught BB (Burton Bitter)	Pale Ale	draught	1037	quite well hopped
Pedigree	Pale Ale	draught	1043	perhaps a little sweeter
Mild	Mild	draught	1032	dark and medium sweet
Merrie Monk	Mild	draught	1043	Pedigree with caramel
Owd Roger	Old Ale	draught	1080	Originally only sold on draught at the Royal Standard of England, which had brewed it when it was a homebrew pub.
Burton Keg	Pale Ale	keg
Keg Mild	Mild	keg	1032	the Mild kegged
Light Ale	Pale Ale	bottled
Pedigree Best Burton Ale	Pale Ale	bottled		stronger
Low Cal.	Pale Ale	bottled		low-calorie, high gravity
Owd Roger	Old Ale	bottled
Nut Brown Ale	Brown Ale	bottled		medium sweet
Mello Stout	Stout	bottled		Sweet Stout

Melbourns
Stamford,
Lincolnshire.

Founded:    1816
Closed:            1974
Tied houses:    32

A small brewery whose beers I just missed out on trying. They gave up brewing when their equipment became too knackered to continue. They carried for a while as a pub company, selling beer from Sam Smiths. They eventually sold up to Cameron in 1984. The brewery is now a museum.

beer	style	format	OG	description
Bitter	Pale Ale	draught		well flavoured, well hopped from the wood
Mild	Mild	draught		Dark Mild, medium sweet, full bodied
Melbourn Keg	Pale Ale	keg		the Bitter matured, chilled and filtered
Melbourn Keg Brown	Mild	keg		medium sweet Mild specially brewed to be chilled and filtered
IPA	IPA	bottled
Doublet	Pale Ale	bottled		"export quality" i.e. strong
Dinner Ale	Brown Ale	bottled		similar to the draught Mild
Nut Brown Ale	Brown Ale	bottled		a stronger Brown Ale
Double Stout	Stout	bottled		Sweet Stout

 

Beer Guide to the 1970s (part twenty)

You must know the drill now. Three breweries linked only by their alphabetic proximity. Though, oddly enough, two of today's set were fairly close geographically, both being in Scotland.

Just the one survivor, again. Though one of the others did close very recently. Both of the Scottish brewers were sad losses, being the last long-established brewers in what were once proud brewing towns: Alloa and Edinburgh.

Lorimer
Edinburgh,
Scotland.

Founded:    1865
Closed:    2023
Tied houses:    

A subsidiary of Vaux, their one cask beer often turned up in the parent company’s pubs. Often as the only cask beer. I’m not sure how available it was in Scotland. I can remember drinking it in Kendal in the Lake District. It would latter become the Caledonian Brewery, be taken over by Heineken and closed. Best Scotch was a pleasant enough beer, a fairly light Bitter.


Maclay
Alloa,
Scotland.

Founded:    1830
Closed:    1999
Tied houses:    34

The last surviving independent in the famous brewing town of Alloa was Maclay. A fairly small outfit, producing the classic Scottish range of Light, Heavy and Export. Plus the occasional Scotch Ale. Their brewing records are possibly the dullest I’ve come across. As all of those were parti-gyled together in various combinations. Using the same recipe from the 1950’s to the 1980s. At coloured up post-fermentation. Which is why 60/- looked like Dark Mild. They abandoned brewing in the 1990s to become a pub company. I rather liked their beers. Especially the Mild.


McMullen
Hertford,
Hertfordshire

Founded:    1827
Closed:    still open
Tied houses:    200

I suppose I shouldn’t bear a grudge against an independent brewer. But McMullen piss me off by insisting on calling their AK a Light Mild. It’s a fucking Light Bitter. Or Mild Bitter. Not a fucking Mild Ale. Can’t say their beers ever excited me, but they were OK.

 

Let's Brew - 1910 Fullers Brown Stout

And here's the final Fullers beer of this set. And one of the strongest. There was another beer, Single Stout, which was blended from Brown Stout and Porter. Except I can't quite make out the quantities of each.

There’s also been a drop in the gravity of Brown Stout, though it’s relatively much less than in Porter, being 5 degrees.

You can probably guess what I’m going to say next. This was parti-gyled with the Porter above. Leaving me nothing really to say about the recipe. So I won’t even try.

The parti-gyle was about one-third Brown Stout and two-thirds Porter: 98 barrels and 192 barrels. Which is quite a high proportion of Stout, given how strong a beer it was.

The big question is this: was Brown Stout aged? The honest answer being, I’ve no idea. My guess would be that it was semi-stock. That is, aged for a couple of months, but no longer. 

1910 Fullers Brown Stout
pale malt	7.25 lb	53.82%
brown malt	1.25 lb	9.28%
black malt	0.75 lb	5.57%
flaked maize	0.33 lb	2.45%
No. 3 invert	3.50 lb	25.98%
caramel 1000 SRM	0.39 lb	2.90%
Cluster 90 mins	1.25 oz
Goldings 60 mins	1.25 oz
Goldings 30 mins	1.25 oz
OG	1070
FG	1020
ABV	6.61
Apparent attenuation	71.43%
IBU	48
SRM	48
Mash at	146º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	59.5º F
Yeast	WLP002 English Ale

What I ate in Folestone

On my recent visit to Folkestone, I ate all the classic English foods.  Starting off each day with a full cooked breakfast.

A breakfast of bacon, black pudding, eggs, tomato, orange juice and tea.

A breakfast of bacon, sausage, eggs, tomato, orange juice and tea.

Another breakfast of bacon, sausage, eggs, tomato, orange juice and tea.

As you can see, mine were pretty modest. The average amongst the other guests was at least double. And that was just the kids.

The first evening we dined on fish and chips. Proper chippy ones. A bit pricey at over eleven quid. But really, really good.

Fish and chips on a plate.

This wasn't in a proper restaurant or anything. Just one of two tables in front of the fish fryer. But it still came on a plate with proper cutlery.

Second night, it was time for a curry. I do like a good curry.

Kicking off, as is traditional, with an onion bhaji.

An onion bhaji with salad and lemon.

A curry with naan bread

 It's always a good sign when they have proper naan bread. Yum. Really excellent stuff.

We had a day in Margate. And what do you do at the seaside? Eat chips, of course.

Chips on Margate seafront.

Pretty good chips again Nice and fat. Golden not scorched black like the often are in the USA.

And, of course, we had a Sunday dinner. A rather nice one.

A Sunday dinner of roast lamb, Yorkshire pudding, roast spuds and vegetables.

A home-cooked Sunday dinner, a big pile of food, for under nine quid. Total bargain.

This wasn't everything I ate. I also consumed a few cheese and onion sandwiches and bags of crisps. I just didn't think those were worth photographing.

Beer Guide to the 1970s (part nineteen)

A bit never-ending this series, isn't it? And we've still quite a long way to go.

Three very different breweries today including one of those I miss the most. And a bit of a weirdo new one. Most of the breweries founded in the 1970s were very much inspired by CAMRA. But not all of them. Was that a brave move of foolhardy?

King & Barnes
Horsham,
West Sussex.

Founded:    1850
Closed:    2000
Tied houses:    59

There some really good breweries in the South of England back in the 1970s. With distinctive, full-flavoured beers. King & Barnes was one of the very best. Their small tied estate was mostly in Horsham and the villages around it. In the 1990’s they introduced an excellent selection of bottle-conditioned beers. I was heartbroken when Hall & Woodhouse bought and closed them. One of my all-time favourite breweries.

beer	style	format	OG	description
Pale Ale	Pale Ale	draught	1034.9	well hopped and fully flavoured
XX	Mild	draught	1031.8	medium sweet Dark Mild
XXXX	Old Ale	draught	1047.5	winter only
Pale Ale	Pale Ale	bottled		with some of the Bitter's flavour
Festive	Pale Ale	bottled		strong Pale Ale
Golding Ale	Barley Wine	bottled		with the smack of hops
Brown Ale	Brown Ale	bottled		medium sweet
Sussex Wealdman	Brown Ale	bottled		strong Brown Ale
J.K. Sweet Stout	Stout	bottled

Lees
Middleton Junction,
Greater Manchester.

Founded:    1828
Closed:    still open
Tied houses:    150

Manchester was lucky in having several independent breweries. Which in addition to offering choice, had the bonus of keeping beer prices low. Lees produced solid cask beers, in the Northwestern style. They were one of the few brewers still making both Mild and Best Mild. As well as a strong, dark cask Ale, Moonraker. I had their beers plenty of times at festivals, but I can’t remember having them in Manchester, as they didn’t seem to have any pubs in the city centre. At least, not any that I could find.

beer	style	format	OG	description
Bitter	Pale Ale	draught	1038	well hopped
Mild	Mild	draught	1031	Light Mild
Best Mild	Mild	draught	1035	medium sweet Dark Mild
Moonraker	Barley Wine	draught	1074	dark and sweet
Bitter	Pale Ale	keg		A strong keg Bitter with some character
Best Mild	Mild	keg		Dark Mild
Gold Medal	Lager	keg	1033.7
Light Ale	Pale Ale	bottled
Export Ale	Pale Ale	bottled		A strong Pale Ale brewed at export gravity and only available in Wales
Strong Ale	Barley Wine	bottled		High gravity
Brown Ale	Brown Ale	bottled		medium sweet
Archer Stout	Stout	bottled		Sweet Stout
Tulip Lager	Lager	bottled		bottled version of the keg Lager
Edelbrau	Lager	bottled		high-gravity Lager

Litchborough
Litchborough,
Northamptonshire.

Founded:    1974
Closed:    1984
Tied houses:    none

One of the earliest new breweries. But rather out of step, in that they concentrated on keg beer rather than cask. Given that they only lasted ten years, that may not have been the wisest of strategies. I can’t remember ever trying their beer.

beer	style	format	OG	description
Northamptonshire Bitter	Pale Ale	draught	1037.5	hoppy