Flying South

Bit of a strange start, this trip. As my flight isn't until 20:35. Which gives me a big chunk of the day to continue my current project: creating my 1970s beer guide. I'm now about halfway through the independent breweries.

Before heading to the airport, I check my flight. It's delayed by 70 minutes. I delay my departure accordingly.

It's pretty quiet at Schiphol. Before I know it, I'm in the duty free buying a bottle of Tomatin. Not for me the delights of Islay whisky’ It’s all way too expensive.

The lounge is fairly quiet, too. Soon, I have a brace if whiskies and a plate of food. And get stuck into reading Private Eye. Which passes the time nicely. Some more food and a couple more whisky pairings see me well-prepared for the arduous journey ahead of me. Eighteen hours.

When the board says "go to gate", that's what I do. And hang around for 10 minutes or so before boarding. That's not too bad.

The flight is chock-a-block. As always seems to be the case nowadays. At least the bloke sitting next to me is tiny and doesn't take up much room. I'm most of the way through my fist film (Crazy Stupid Love) when the first food service appears.

I opt for the chicken rather than the veggie option. It's not very inspiring. I don't eat much of it. Just as well made sure to scoff loads down in the lounge. Two plates of the warm stuff.

After a second film, it's time for a kip. Which goes reasonably well. I get 7 or 8 hours of OK sleep. Not exactly deep sleep. Some sort of rest, at least.

The lights come back on and we're served breakfast. I eat a bit of it. Then we all have to get off in Buenos Aires. Traipse through the airport a bit, go through security, then traipse back to the plane. So much fun. Just what I need after a long flight.

It's less than two hours to Santiago. During which we're served another breakfast. I eat just a little of it.

Hurray! Not much of a queue for immigration. Unlike last time. But there's a new twist: the luggage takes ages to appear. The explanation: that the plane has to be fumigated. Great.

I message my mate Chris Flaskamp to warn him of the delay. He's waiting to collect me landside.

Despite being "priority", my bag takes ages to pop out. I'm starting to worry that it's been lost when it finally shows up. That’s a relief.

With Chris are Pete Slosberg and his wife Amy. Who arrived from the US a couple of hours earlier. I feel embarrassed that they’ve had to hang around for me. Not fun after a long flight.

Once in Chris's car, we head for Kross. A brewery located in Curacaví, between Santiago and Valparaiso. It was founded by a German Asbjorn Gerlach. He’s still involved, despite selling up to Concha y Toro, the largest winemaker in the world. Their distribution network means that the beer is widely available in Chile.

First, Asbjorn gives us a quick tour of the brewery. Which is pretty big. It has a capacity of 100,000 hl and is currently producing 70,000 hl.

We sit in the beer garden, chat with Asbjorn and, of course, drink some beer. It's a proper beer garden, with trees and everything. And it’s warm enough to sit outside.

We get several sets of samplers, encompassing all the beers on tap. Ranging from light Lagers to a strong Scotch Ale. Though most are in the range 5% to 5.7% ABV. I’m quite taken by the Maibock, which is a beautiful amber colour and well-balanced. That is, not too fucking sweet.

The others are peckish and order some food: empanadas and some sort of maize fritter. After my two breakfasts, I’m not really that hungry. My body seems unsure of what time of day it is. Almost a full day on the plane has confused the hell out of it.

Pete and Amy head off to Valparaiso with a Chilean couple they know, while me and Chris go to Santiago.

I'm staying on Concha y Toro again. It’s so calm there. In a different hotel, though. One which has no sign outside to indicate that it's a hotel. It's quite a contrast to where I stayed in with the kids. which had an original interior. This one is totally modern inside. And rather nice.

I should tell you about why I’m here in Chile. I’ve been invited to the First International Araucania Cervercera Congress. To do some beer judging and talking. They paid for my flight. And for my hotel in Temuco, along with food and drink. Here in Santiago, I’m paying my own way.

I arranged to meet Chris in town. But I'm too knacked. I just sit in my room watching YouTube and drinking the free bottle of wine provided by the hotel. After the long journey, rest is what I need.

A tot or two of whisky helps me to an early night.



Cerveceria Kross
Cam. El Toro 20589-20926,
Curacavi,
Region Metropolitana.
https://www.kross.cl
 

Smaller measures

As I was trudging my lonely path around the mean street of the Hoofddorpplein neighbourhood, I got to thinking of recent suggestion (I can't be arsed to look up the link). That moving to two-thirds instead off pints would reduce beer consumption.

That's total, utter, utter, utter, utter, fucking, bollocking bollocks.

There's the false assumption that people go out for a set number of drinks and then go home. That's not how most people drink.* They go to the pub for a fixed length of time. The number of drinks consumed is fluid.

You arrange to meet friends at eight and drink until closing time. You spend your lunch break down the pub. You meet at 1 PM for a few pints before the match. There's a set start and time. The latter usually being last orders. That's how social drinking mostly works. A fixed time, not a fixed number of drinks.

But there's an even bigger problem. People don't drink at the same rate from every size glass. The smaller it is, the quicker they drink. Two halves will be knocked back more quickly than a pint. As will a two thirds.

I'm not a fan of litre measures. They slow me right down. It becomes depressing that the thing takes so fucking long to empty. A half litre is much more manageable.

Do you see where I'm going? 

In my youth, 15 to 20 minutes per pint was a comfortable pace. Which I could up,  if needed, as last orders loomed. Six or seven pints in a two-hour session on average. I'd want at least five pints of Mild just to get an appetite for fish and chips on the way home..

I never said  to anyone "Let's go out for seven pints." It was "Let's meet at half eight in the Adelphi."

In general, the longer the session, the more pints I'd drink. I think this was especially true when drinking in a group.

Your average drinker, in a two-hour session would drink more if the glass were a two-thirds. Because they'd drink them more quickly than pints. And wouldn't have a fixed number of drinks in mind. 

Smaller measures would lead to increased consumption. Publicans should welcome them.

* Pensioners and filthy, dole scroungers** are exceptions. And people on shit wages. So I guess that's pretty much everyone in the UK now.

** I spent many happy years on the dole. Filthy scrounger that I was.

Beer Guide to the 1970s (part ten)

Back to my pointless guide to 1970s breweries and their beers. This time with a trio of breweries who are still, against the odds, operating today.

It's a bit sad, when I'm assembling this list, seeing how many breweries have disappeared. Many of which brewed either decent or good beer. And it's not as if they were all poorly run companies. In most cases, bad management wasn't the reason for closure. Neither was poor-quality beer. For the most part, it was external factors - principally a takeover - which did brewers in.


Everard
Leicester,
Leicestershire.
Founded:    1849
Closed:            still open
Tied houses:    134

Originally from Leicester, where the brewery had its headquarters, the beer was all brewed in Burton-on-Trent. Though the tied pubs were all within 30 miles of Leicester. Brewing in Burton ended in 1983 and production was moved to a new brewery in Enderby. Tiger was a pretty decent Best Bitter that cropped up reasonably often in the free trade.

beer	style	format	OG	description
Beacon Bitter	Pale Ale	draught	1037	well-balanced
Tiger Draught	Pale Ale	draught	1041	stronger
Old Original	Pale Ale	draught	1050	malty and finely hopped
Burton Mild	Mild	draught	1033	Dark Mild
Tiger Special Keg	Pale Ale	keg
Amber Lite	Pale Ale	bottled		Light Ale
Red Crown Bitter	Pale Ale	bottled		Burton Bitter
Tiger Special Ale	Pale Ale	bottled		stronger
Gold Medal Barley Wine	Barley Wine	bottled
Nut Brown Ale	Brown Ale	bottled		Brown Ale in large bottle
Bradgate Brown	Brown Ale	bottled		Brown Ale in small bottle
Meadowsweet Stout	Stout	bottled		sweet

Felinfoel
Llanelli,
South Wales.
Founded:    1840
Closed:            still open
Tied houses:    75

A local brewery whose tied estate was mostly around Llanelli and the Welsh coast. They were notable for being one of the first breweries to can beer in the 1930s. I served their beer at one of the early Great British Beer Festivals in Alexandra Palace. And very good stuff it was, too. I particularly liked their Mild.

beer	style	format	OG	description
Bitter	Pale Ale	draught	1035	light and hoppy
Double Dragon	Pale Ale	draught	1040	distinctive light Bitter
Mild	Mild	draught	1032	darkish Mild
Bitter Ale	Pale Ale	bottled
Pale Ale	Pale Ale	bottled		stronger
Nut Brown Ale	Brown Ale	bottled		not too sweet
John Brown	Brown Ale	bottled		stronger and sweeter

Fuller
Chiswick,
London.
Founded:    1845
Closed:            still open
Tied houses:    110

One of the two London independent brewers who had survived into the 1970s. At the time, Fullers pubs were mostly concentrated in West London, north of the river. Though they did have a few pubs in central London. For example, The George & Vulture, a pub I frequented quite a bit in 1979, when I worked nearby. Hock was a cracking Dark Mild, but was difficult to find. And, when you could, was often in poor condition due to slow sales.

beer	style	format	OG	description
Bitter	Pale Ale	draught	1035.5
London Pride	Pale Ale	draught	1041.8	pleasant and fruity
Extra Special Bitter	Pale Ale	draught	1055.8	well hopped and distinctive
Hock Mild	Mild	draught	1031.5	splendid and malty
Light Ale	Pale Ale	bottled	1032.2	parti-gyled with the Bitters
London Pride	Pale Ale	bottled	1045.6
Strong Ale	Strong Ale	bottled	1072	parti-gyled with Hock
Golden Pride	Barley Wine	bottled	1090	parti-gyled with the Bitters
Brown Ale	Brown Ale	bottled		bottled Hock

 

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1910 Barclay Perkins KKK

The stronger of Barclay Perkins two Stock Ales is similar to KK, but not exactly the same. It was also brewed in rather large volumes for a strong beer. This brew was, for example, 552 barrels.

The biggest difference is in the base malt. Which is all pale malt, rather than a mix of pale and SA malt found in KK. Other than that, the recipes are pretty much identical. Which makes you wonder why they didn’t parti-gyle the two of them together. Perhaps the volumes were too large for it to be necessary.

Three types of hops again, Two East Kent, both from the 1909 harvest. And Hallertau from 1908, cold stored.

1910 Barclay Perkins KKK
pale malt	13.25 lb	70.33%
crystal malt 60 L	0.75 lb	3.98%
flaked maize	1.75 lb	9.29%
No. 2 invert sugar	3.00 lb	15.92%
caramel 500 SRM	0.09 lb	0.48%
Hallertau 135 mins	3.75 oz
Hallertau 60 mins	2.00 oz
Goldings 60 mins	1.75 oz
Goldings 30 mins	3.75 oz
Goldings dry hops	1.50 oz
OG	1087
FG	1026
ABV	8.07
Apparent attenuation	70.11%
IBU	116
SRM	17
Mash at	153º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	135 minutes
pitching temp	59º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1099 Whitbread Ale

 

Peculiar Old Peculier

Adulteration. It doesn't seem to have died out in the 1960s. Because here's a case from the 1970s.

Personally, I think they got off lightly in this case.

The 'Old Peculier' was so peculiar
THE "Old Peculiar" beer sold at a pub called The Brahms and Liszt lived up to its name, a court heard today. 

For the beer reckoned by real ale addicts to be the strongest in Britain contained 21 pc more water than it should have done. Even with the extra water, it was the most potent beer in the pub. 

But today. licensee Alan Richard Cookman (30), pleaded guilty at Leeds to selling "Old Peculier" - one of its peculiarities is its spelling - not of the quality demanded. He was fined £60 with £l5 costs. 

Mr John McCandlish, prosecuting, said the Brahms and Liszt, in East Parade, Leeds, specialised in real ale. "Old Peculier." made by Theakstons of Masham, was the strongest beer sold in the pub "and to my knowledge anywhere else." 

A sample bought on June 6 was, on analysis, found to contain 21 pc extraneous water. 

"Such is the strength of this particular beer that even with this percentage of water it was still the strongest beer sold in that public house." said Mr. McCandlish. 

Mr. George Moorbouse, defending Cookman, from Bothwell, near Leeds, said: "There was no question of the beer having been watered. Two types of beer had been mixed as a result of an employee's mistake." 

Mr. David Loy, stipedary magistrate, said he accepted it was not a deliberate offence. "But it is important that the public get what they pay for and are protected against receiving beer not of sufficient quality so far as gravity is concerned."
Belfast Telegraph - Tuesday 11 October 1977, page 6.

How could they have "accidentally" mixed two beers? And where did the mixing take place? Was it in the cask or at point of service? I can't see how the latter could be accidental. The most likely seems the former. That some sort of slops were being put back into the Old Peculier cask. Do they mean that they "accidentally" put Mild slops into the Old Peculier barrel?

Was Old Peculier the strongest beer in the UK at the time? No. Not even close. They probably mean the strongest draught beer. But it wasn't even that. Marstons Owd Roger was a good bit stronger: 1080 to Old Peculier's 1060. Maybe they mean the strongest year-round draught beer. As Owd Roger was only available in the winter.

I remember The Brahms and Liszt. It was a new pub opened up in the mid-1970s. There were some objections to the licence and it was only granted on the condition that they only sold real ale. No keg and no brewery-conditioned bottled beers. I can remember that they sold a range of Selby Brewery bottle-conditioned beers.

On a personal note, The Brahms and Liszt is the only pub where I've ever been refused service. Which, given the number of pubs I've been to, is pretty notable. Why did they refuse to serve me? Because I looked like a hippy.