Finally getting some stuff done

After distractions like being in Canada and writing very interprative recollections of my time there. I returned, remarkably quickly, to my day job. Doing this beer history writing thing. I've knocked out a fair few words this week.

With a few distractions, admittedly. Like the last volume of my epic trilogy of being abused by my kids on holiday. Which I'm fucking paying for, incidentally.

Being a good boy while away, I knocked about 75% of the trip reports. 8,000 words. Way more than usually. Hooray. For me. The last volume of my epic trilogy of being abused by my kids on holiday. If the tempation of a free all-you-can-drink holiday is too much for them to resist next year, I may need to start a new volume.

Returning to the "Free!" manuscript, it was depressing to see my original publicaion date was November. 2022. How optimistic was that? I've been wofking on this book for more than four years.

What did I do this week? Complete the chapter Lonson Strong Burton Ale. A couple of thousand words. And some other random bits I filled while scrolling through the manuscript. That's the way I work. I create the structur: headings and subheadings, then just fill them in. Starting with the easy bits. The stuff I know off the top of my head.

Like the introductory text about IPA I wrote yesterday. Which left the manuscript at 188,000 words, 730 pages.The recipes are fairly close to completion. The beer style section, not so much. Hence the Strong Burton Ale stuff.

I really need to the book finished this year. Oh, and release "Shut up, Dad." Which is just about done. Just about. 

My next book

I carefully reviewed all your opinions on which book I should complete first. And completely ignored them. You wanted "Free!". Which, if I'm honest, is the book I would have voted for. I've gone for "Youngs!"

Why? Don't ask me why. You bastard. I'm old and grumpy. I can do what the fuck I want. What are going to do? Get me sacked?

If you insist, it's mostly a case of I've started so I'll finish. I'm working my way through the Young's records and want to put them to use. If I don't press on now, I won't really make use of the material. Does that make sense? Probably not.

Turning to the book itself, there are currently 41,000 words and 150 pages. Only 60 recipes at the moment. That will grow. Considerably.

"Free!" remains a sort of priority. Once "Youngs!" is out of the way, I'll be back on that full time. 

 

 

 

The next book I actually release will probably be "Tour! vol VI" or "Shut up, Dad!". Or maybe I should finally release "America!". So many decisions.

Which book would you like me to finish first?

I'd love your opinions. Not that I'll necessarily pay any attention to them. An overwhelming vote might just tip my opinion over the edge.

I do my best to focus. If not, I'd be all over the place. Literally. In time and geography. That's the curse of being fascinated by all aspects of brewing everywhere. Sticking to the UK helps. Without being 100% effective.

After assembling a mass of material while putting a talk together, and seeing how little there was about beer in the VLB book on the DDR brewing industry, I'm extremely tempted to write a second book about East Germany. But who the hell is my expected audience? It's a bit of a niche topic.

Sometimes, you know, you stumble into writing a book. I do, at least. Quite often. It's an example of my ability to get side-tracked. Because I had lots of lovely fresh brewing records from Youngs, I published quite a few recipes. Then I had the interview with former Youngs brewer John Hatch. It just made sense to collect it into a book format where I wouldn't lose or forget about it. Currently 32,000 words, the manuscript.

My principal project is "Free!". UK beer 1880-1914. Another of the chapters from my Meisterwerk documenting UK beer from 1700 to 1973. I've been doing it in a random order. With these published so far:

1914-1920 Armistice! 
1918-1939 Peace!
1939-1947 Blitzkrieg!
1946-1969 Austerity!
1970-1979 Keg!

Being totally honest here, I have a thing for late Victorian an Edwardian beer. And pubs. They still exist. The beer doesn't. And I wish it did. Publishing a shitload of recipes from the period will hopefully give me the chance to try a few beers from the Golden Age of UK brewing. As I've chosen to call it, based purely on my own prejudices.

411 recipes so far. Quite a few more to go.

Which of these three books would you like me to finish first? (DDR! vol. 2, Youngs!, Free!)

Let me know. Then I'll decide if you're right. Or not. 

Most notable achievement of the year

Publishing "Keg!", my guide to the beer of the 1970s was mine. 

It's a very special book for me because it covers a period I lived through.I include many personal recollections  of the decade where beer geekdom began

It documents the clash between technocrat brewers, enchanted by all the latest shinny things and the traditionalists principally interested in the flavour. I've recipes from Drybrough and Youngs, who epitomised those two opposites.

 Invest in a copy today! 

 

Unpublished

Would you be interested in seeing some of my unpublished manuscripts?*

My question is selfish, really. Push it out on the blog or nail it together in a shoddy self-published book. Some form where it will be better preserved than on my hard drive. (And an external drive. The NAS, too. And the backup NAS. Along with the hard drive in Germany.)

I've quite a large manuscript, one chapter of which I posted as what may have been the longest blogposts of all time. With quite a few other chapters that I've never published.

Then there's "America!". Still not published that. With a bit of extra material, it might be worth releasing. Lert me know if you're interested. (About 10 sales would make it worth my while.) 

Did I ever publish "Newark!"? A spreadsheet tells me that I did, in 2014. I can't find it in Lulu, though. I only have a front cover. Where the volume number doesn't match the one in the manuscript. Do I have a copy? I'll have to look.


* That sounds like a terrible pick-up line. 

Legacy II

Following on from my earlier post about the legacy of Martyn Cornell. What would happen to the stuff I'm working on if I dropped dead tomorrow?

I'm assuming here that my son Andrew will handle this. You never know, though. The git could betray me.

What I do trust, is his writing ability. He's pretty good. Annoyingly, in two languages. Why did I make all that effort to bring up the kids bilingual? I remember. Because I'm not an egocentric twat.

I am, what you say, prolific, when it comes to writing. I've published loads. Still, there's lots lying around. Several complete manuscripts. "America!", for example. I can't remember why I've never released that. Private ones, like "Xmas!". 

I've a couple of books or travel reports on the go. They can just be ended where they are. I particularly like "Shut up, Dad". (My attempt to be the new Hunter Davies.) Andrew can just whiz them through to Lulu.

Then there's "Free!". A really important book for me. Covering 1880-1914. (Where I'd like to spend the rest of my retirement.) I'm 75% of the way through. I'd hate it to be unseen.

Andrew might not totally pay attention to what I say while I'm still breathing. He should be able to find these back.

The recipe section can be published pretty much as is. It would have been a separate volume anyway. Really, everything other than the beer styles section can be published. That still needs a lot of work.

OK, Andrew? 

Yule Logs!!!!!!!!!!

Once again, I've managed by the skin of my teeth to get my Christmas book out just before Christmas. Let's see if I manage to sell as many copies as last year.

Once again, I've assembled a collection of old brewing records and crudely stuck the together into a book. One where the only complete sentence is the copyright statement. That's what I call writing.

Get your copy now!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Past or present?

Is a question I sometimes ask myself. In those two or three minutes between flopping into bed and flipping into sleep.

Twenty years back, I was spending a lot of time on my European Beer Guide website. Trying to keep up with the beer scene in multiple European countries necessitated reading lots of publications, mostly the magazines of beer consumer orgainsations. A stupid number of which I was a member of. Just as well I'd taken the time to learn to read so many languages in the preceding decade.

When I started my blog, the main point was to direst traffic to the website. How quickly that changed. With the blog and history taking over. From the guide and the present. Because I had to make a choice.

Why? Very simple: time. Keeping the European Beer Guide up to date was a Sisyphean task. Especially in the highly-dynamic modern beer world. Simply treading water was pretty much a fultime task. As I started to dive deeper and deeper into the history loch, I didn't have time to work on the Guide. Slowly, I gave up updating it.

I'm easily distracted. Too many things fascinate me. If I come across an interesting source of information, I can all too easily slip into its icy waters. Keeping a tight focus is the solution. And history is my focal point of choice.

Much tighter than that, now. The focus. Not just history, but a specific bit of it. I try to spend most of my time on my current book project. Currently, "Free!", about UK brewing between 1880 and 1914. My favourite period. For the beer. I wouldn't want to live there permanently.

I abandonned the present for the past.* Partly, because the past doesn't keep changing. Unlike the annoying present. I'm sure I made a good decision.
 




* Only in my research, not in real life. I very much live in the present. As I have a limited amount of future left. 

Great News!

While Dolores was tidying up today, she found a box of books. Thirty copes of "The Home Brewer's Guide to Vintage Beer" that I'd forgotten I had.

Dead useful, as I was about to order more copies. Thinking I was down to just two.

Meaning I've got plenty of copies to sell. For the moment. Why not get a copy now? Who knows how much longer you'll be able to get a copy autographed. I won't be around forever.

 

Buy a signed paperback edition of the Homebrewer's Guide to Vintage Beer. For locations inside Europe.

 

Buy a signed paperback edition of the Homebrewer's Guide to Vintage Beer. For the USA, Canada, Australia and other locations outside Europe.

 

 

What am I up to?

Thought I'd give you an update on my current activities. Not sure of how much interest it is. But I'm going to tell you anyway.

My current long-term project is the book "Free!". Which is a history of UK beer 1880-1914. Another part of my long-long-term series covering UK brewing  1700 to 1973. These are the volumes I've published so far:

Armistice! 1914-1918
Peace! 1919-1939
Blitzkrieg! 1939-1945
Austerity! 1946-1969
Keg! 1970-1980!

I've covered most of the 20th century. With "Free!" I'll have pretty much finished it off. Plus a bit of the 19th century.

1880 to 1914 is probably my favourite period of UK brewing. When the beers were still full strength and there were plenty of different styles. My idea of heaven.

The first section, which covers general brewing statistics, brewing materials, brewing equipment, tax and licensing, is pretty much complete. The second section, which is about beer styles, is way more incomplete. All I've completed is most of Mild Ale and a bit of Pale Ale.

I've been putting quite a bit of effort into the third section, which consists of home-brew recipes. And it's coming along pretty well. With 318 recipes, I'm about two-thirds done. 

With a good tail wind, I might have "Free!" finished by the end of the year.

All my travelling is plumping out a couple of travel books quite nicely. Which I will probably publish later in the year. Not that I'm likely to sell any of those. 

Reminding you of some more of my excellent books

And also that I promise all the money I raise will be spent on kid's shoes. Maybe a little whisky as well. And the odd bottle of cachaca.

Talking of the kids, this book recounts some of my travels with them.

 

My book in brewing in WW I recounts its true horrors: like 1% ABV Mild. 

 

 The happy years of post-WW II brewing you can find in "Austerity!",

 

Follow me on my travels, mostly around the USA. 

 

 I usually describe this as an expansion pack for the Home Brewer's Guide to Vintage Beer. Just recipes. Lots of them.

 

 Me touring around again, this time pushing my Scottish book.

 

 And this is that Scottish book. By far the best history of Scottish beer.Full of facts rather than myths. Lots of recipes, too.

 

 Finally, guide to a country that no longer exists.

Reminding you of my books

 Just a reminder of some of the excellent books I have for sale.

First, there's my latest on UK brewing in the 1970s, which includes over 100 recipes, including such classic keg beers as Watney's Red, Whitbread Trophy, Whitbread Tankard and Drybrough Heavy.

 

Then there's my wonderful monograph tracing the history of London Stout from its 18th-century origins through to the 1970s. It includes 277 historic London Stout recipes.

   

My book "Blitzkrieg!" on brewing in WW II is so detailed that it spreads to two volumes. The second volume containing 553 wartime recipes, including some from Heineken.

 

Then there are two volumes of travel reports. Books so popular they have single-digit sales. 

 

My little book on Berlinet Weisse is easily the best work on the topic in English. And includes 19 historic recipes. 

 

Another of my many beery obsessions is covered in "AK!", a detailed look at the classic style of Light Bitter. As you would expect, it comes with a couple of dozen historic recipes

   

"Strong!" is part of my series on UK beer styles. Volume 2 contains the recipes, of which there are 135. Volumes 1 and 2 contains both the general history text and recipes.

 

And finally, another little monograph about IPA during WW II. Includes 31 historic recipes.

Stout!

No, this isn't a plug for my book "Stout!" Though it is excellent and well worth buying.

Checkpoint Charlie is the theme. And it's a followup to an earlier post  Where I wrote that I was getting to feel more comfortable about Checkpoint Charlie as our new local. But that there was one thing that I missed from Butcher's Tears. The beer.

Being able to drink a Stout of a Mild. As at Butcher's they usually had at least one of each on tap. Something I really appreciated. But was never going to happen at Checkpoint Charlie.

And, blow me, if the very next time I went to Checkpoint Charlie they didn't have a Stout on their guest tap. And not just any Stout. De Molen Hel & Verdoemnis (Hell & Damnation). A really, really good Stout. I was in heaven.

A glass of De Molen Hel & Verdoemnis.

 "You really like the Stout Don't you?" the barman asked.

"Yes. How do you know?"

"You drink more than one. Most people only have the one."

"Well, I'm used to it."

The first sip is quite intimidating. But I soon got used to it. And it started going down scarily easily. 

Usually, the guest beer lasts two weeks. I think the Stout will last longer. As everyone else is sticking to just one. Fingers crossed it will still be on next week.

I can't pass up on this chance to push my book "Stout!"

https://facebook.com/events/s/the-story-of-london-stout-by-r/304408102440443/

Get your copy od "Stout!"now!

 

Keg! is out

The 1970s. A decade as fashionable as mullets and flared trousers. One not remembered with the same rose-tinted specs as the 1960s. But the time when I started drinking beer.

A worrying frailty of my own memories meant an idea to weave a book out of their fraying threads was immediately ditched. What if I could, like a lamprey, latch onto fellow oldies and drink their memories? Yes, that would work.

An attempt to cling onto a vanishing past. Before my memories fade into grey dust. And to keep alive those glorious technicolour days of the 1970s. 

Get your copy of "Keg!" now!

Yule Logs!!!!!!!!!!

Yes,I could be arsed again this year.If a little late. To publish a new edition of my Christmas book, Yule  Logs! I could even be bothered to produce a new  cover.

It's the same format as always: no words, just 30 images of brewing records. This time,spanning 1805 to 1984, with one record from every year inbetween. New this year are several Irish logs.

One day it will be a valuable  collector's item, as only a handful are printed each year.

Get your copy now!

A new book

Sadly, not one of my exciting ones. but an assemblage of travel reports. Imaginatively called "Tour! Vol. V".

I realised that  I hadn't published a book in 2024. Time to get my finger out and finish this book off. Which was really just creating a cover and uploading to Lulu. After a bit of proof reading. It's taken me the best  part of today. Despite the text already being complete.

Me ranting about Scottish beer

If you'd like to hear (and see)) me sweeping away the most egregious myths about Scottish beer, tune into the Beer Culture Summit this Friday (18th October) at 18:00. It should be loads of fun. 

The talk summarises my excellent book on Scottish brewing:

Which is also available in Kindle form:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Q8XHBL2

Back to work

As the casualties mount in your generation's regiment and you realise you'll be on the front line forever, poems and letters home become equally urgent. In my case, that means trying to balance travel and work. Work, in my "retirement", meaning writing those wordy things. What are they called? I know: books.

I've done a lot of travelling in the last few months. And it's pretty much - no, totally - stopped my principal work. Finishing "Keg!" and then "Free!" before I die. All the travel and travel posts are done. For a few weeks, at least. What now?

I have to get on with one or other of the books. But I don't know where to start. Or even where I left off. Was it Runcorn?

Getting back into history mode might take a while. Harvesting some Cairnes records should help. If I can still remember what everything means. I'm up to May 1942. An interesting time. Should electroshock me back into research. I hope.

A book for D Day

What could go better with D Day than a book about brewing in WW II? Exactly. Two books about brewing in WW II.

Even if I say so myself, it's pretty groovy stuff.

Get your copy now!

The second volume contains the recipes. But not just that. There are also overviews of some of the breweries covered, showing their beers at the start and the end of the conflict.

Buy one now and be the envy of your friends!

Both covers are courtesy Russell Gibbon, one of my readers.

 

 

 

Stout! erratum

I just noticed a mistake in one of the recipes in my book "Stout!" The quantities for black and amber malt were the wrong way around.

This is the corrected recipe:

1849 Barclay Perkins Imperial Brown Stout
pale malt	16.00 lb	63.37%
brown malt	6.25 lb	24.75%
black malt	0.75 lb	2.97%
amber malt	2.25 lb	8.91%
Goldings 90 min	7.50 oz
Goldings 60 min	7.50 oz
Goldings 30 min	7.50 oz
Goldings dry hops	1.50 oz
OG	1105
FG	1031
ABV	9.79
Apparent attenuation	70.48%
IBU	176
SRM	41
Mash at	153º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	56º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1099 Whitbread Ale

This is the book in which the recipe appears. Get your copy now!