tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64684838801578703152024-03-10T20:23:40.918-07:00Craft Beer LondonNews and reviews of London's growing craft beer movement.Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16133638023710376414noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6468483880157870315.post-21514939527732108402014-03-10T07:48:00.000-07:002014-03-10T07:54:26.788-07:00We're crowdfunding!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4AwORPnzsAGKas8O7edSdbnm0M5bDhd6EkfcBr3Lsdwy5gUlD7n4Ad-HYn4-jq-_ADg4BqP_3MhHf1MzRQGe5Hmup91BMmlk79CpYo355QRCBoaUZXss6Pbxz4HIE3B12t31xSxzEmMY/s1600/bluecrowfunding.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4AwORPnzsAGKas8O7edSdbnm0M5bDhd6EkfcBr3Lsdwy5gUlD7n4Ad-HYn4-jq-_ADg4BqP_3MhHf1MzRQGe5Hmup91BMmlk79CpYo355QRCBoaUZXss6Pbxz4HIE3B12t31xSxzEmMY/s1600/bluecrowfunding.jpg" height="200" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: large;">We're raising seed capital on Seedrs, an equity crowd funding site. Investments begin at £10 and buy equity in Blue Crow Media as we grow. We have over 50 investors thus far, the vast majority of whom are people who regularly use our apps and maps. Here's the <a href="http://www.seedrs.com/startups/blue-crow-media">link</a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;" /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This funding will go towards a Craft Beer London online guide and a series of new London apps, including a cocktail bars app, a wine bars app and a cycle guide app. More apps and maps will follow. Please invest and tell your friends!</span><br />
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<a href="http://www.seedrs.com/startups/blue-crow-media" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">http://www.seedrs.com/<wbr></wbr>startups/blue-crow-media</span></a></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6468483880157870315.post-68237697464382256162013-05-15T01:21:00.000-07:002013-05-15T01:21:03.854-07:00Black Velvet, Brett and the beer that came back from the dead<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgulw3YLq2W_I2gdi0_O7vCLxDDW0RDLyARuXlOD933u_TOHeUxLvyb9zxbLNxjgC46_N2yD0rOY0Ogb7BHJO5UMHPJs5i3IXcN9B3BSO-cNI18fNd0g7NY5x1BCk3oPpiuJG5vceqNL4/s1600/jimrobertson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgulw3YLq2W_I2gdi0_O7vCLxDDW0RDLyARuXlOD933u_TOHeUxLvyb9zxbLNxjgC46_N2yD0rOY0Ogb7BHJO5UMHPJs5i3IXcN9B3BSO-cNI18fNd0g7NY5x1BCk3oPpiuJG5vceqNL4/s320/jimrobertson.jpg" width="226" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Christmas at
the old Courage Brewery by Tower Bridge began with Black Velvet and oysters.
Not just any Black Velvet, though, as Jim Robertson (the head brewer at Well’s
and Young’s, who began his career on the south bank of the Thames) explains. “Every
Christmas, the brewers got together in the sampling room, all dressed up, at
noon on Christmas Eve,” he says. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“The head
brewer would produce a 13-year-old magnum of Russian Stout and a 13-year-old
magnum of vintage champagne - which I’m
lead to believe is the optimum age for vintage champagne, but I’m not an
expert! And the two were mixed together
in an old enamel jug in the sample room
to form the brewer’s Christmas Black Velvet. Then the porters came in
from the market with huge plates of oysters; we started our Christmas
festivities with black velvet and oysters.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It’s no
wonder that Robertson, who worked at Horselydown between 1977 and its closure in 1982, has
been the driving force behind reviving this most fabled of beers. It was in
2006 that the resurrection of this beer – which was last brewed in the early
1990s – first became possible. “That was when we [Well’s and Young’s] bought
the Courage brands,” he says. “That immediately refreshed my memory. The major
brews that we produced were Courage Best and Courage Directors - but IRS caused
most excitement. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“It took
probably about three years to get anybody else interested in it. There was not
much enthusiasm four or five years ago for strong bottled beers: it was
perceived to be flying in the face of commercial wisdom. But I was very
passionate and I talked to ex-colleagues from Courage: a chap called Tim O’Rourke,
who I’d worked with for many years, and others. They teased me: ‘when are you
going to bring it back?’ <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFRgBS_l0IcWDMFGca5TmWfcB7ursbzFDTilPLmzRV876pcvzPZt4owsJCCyJO74BsAlABWC1qCduhBNMrb6vSCuzJquE1dELIMNcqlb4IZTbcDmWKoFb1sahw4BMlFES74WWhf8q24Mk/s1600/imperialrussianstout2011.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFRgBS_l0IcWDMFGca5TmWfcB7ursbzFDTilPLmzRV876pcvzPZt4owsJCCyJO74BsAlABWC1qCduhBNMrb6vSCuzJquE1dELIMNcqlb4IZTbcDmWKoFb1sahw4BMlFES74WWhf8q24Mk/s320/imperialrussianstout2011.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“The key
moment was when we started to work in the US with an export team. I was at a ‘Meet
The Brewer’ function in Philadelphia, in a bar with the importer, and the bar
owner said: ‘You used to work for Courage. Would you like to try some Russian Stout
I’ve got stacked away in the cellar?’ So with great enthusiasm, we tucked into
the poor chap’s stock of bottles going back to the seventies! Much-treasured, we
polished them off. He said it was about time we started brewing it again and
replenished his stock.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And here we
are. This second vintage has been well-received, although beer geeks would surely
like to have had a taste from the barrels that were seeded with Brettanomyces -
but never released to the public.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“We did some
experimentation where we took some of the brew off, put it in separate barrels
and seeded it with Brett,” says Robertson. “That produces a very interesting
beer but for me it wasn’t correct. It wasn’t Russian Stout. I’ve no doubt,
particularly in America, there would be a heck of a lot of interest in a
barrel-aged Brett version but that wasn’t what I wanted to produce.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">If that
seems a little bit of a shame, then the beer that has been released is ample
recompense. The effort required to produce it has been <a href="http://www.wellsandyoungs.co.uk/home/news/revived--historic-brew-courage-imperial">written about elsewhere</a> but the steps taken to make sure the second vintage (2012)
matched the first as closely as possible in terms of flavour are interesting. “I
don’t believe the average drinker would be able to tell the difference between
the vintages,” he says, “but I noticed some difference. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdcRjfnaSzsE8esKf48MRdXjs2rGnL6_kwf9GwpcmxRxMzUQed2UWgvB5wXRp2U6osqqfYlhqcBRXd8i58UntDN3NZ1sCef5pgsA3ecq41dBSBPqQ-aw_XDuhYCr6LJoHFDehnHg31RLQ/s1600/ImperialRussianstout1976.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdcRjfnaSzsE8esKf48MRdXjs2rGnL6_kwf9GwpcmxRxMzUQed2UWgvB5wXRp2U6osqqfYlhqcBRXd8i58UntDN3NZ1sCef5pgsA3ecq41dBSBPqQ-aw_XDuhYCr6LJoHFDehnHg31RLQ/s320/ImperialRussianstout1976.jpg" width="97" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“The second time,
we brewed six times as much beer as in 2011. There was quite a significant
difference between batches – six brews, divided into two maturation tanks. One
matured better than the other- it was a matter of yeast quality, I believe the second
batch got too much dead yeast and hop from the fermenter. We re-pitched the
second one, and blended it together before bottling. That meant that the final
blend of 2012 was very similar to 2011.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Robertson’s
experience with IRS has clearly whetted his appetite for brewing historic
beers, of which there are a number in Well’s and Young’s portfolio. “There’s a couple I’d like to work on,” he says. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“One – which
I’m keeping under my hat - is a very
standard, working-class beer which goes back to my Courage roots, and another
one that I can tell you about - because we’re just about to launch it - is McEwan’s
Scotch, which is seven per cent ABV. Again we’re really focused on the American
market. It’s totally different to other beers in that category: sweet, full-drinking
and lower in hop character.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I spoke to Jim Robertson recently for
<a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/721393ac-b40b-11e2-ace9-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2TBQKFk1F">an article in the Financial Times</a>. Not everything he said could go into
that story, though, so the rest is here. Strictly speaking, of course, he’s not
really a London brewer - but his experience of London beer and brewing surely
qualifies him to appear here.</span></i></div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6468483880157870315.post-14988866289720780392013-05-03T02:39:00.001-07:002013-05-03T02:39:40.094-07:00An Argentine brewer in London<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs2h6mS1KQfxtZ5MHa8E0EkmNR5lA9YlFn8FHRjBrCni770crWBqdHPJpLVtqFDI498cbN-JdwdrXZ2AAbvOtc3NWCjd7hxKxxlYJv7cOkwlvUEy63wSIXQqpdqCt76eARF7BP3xldG0I/s1600/moncada+040.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs2h6mS1KQfxtZ5MHa8E0EkmNR5lA9YlFn8FHRjBrCni770crWBqdHPJpLVtqFDI498cbN-JdwdrXZ2AAbvOtc3NWCjd7hxKxxlYJv7cOkwlvUEy63wSIXQqpdqCt76eARF7BP3xldG0I/s320/moncada+040.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18px;"><i>This weekend sees the first <a href="http://londonsbrewing.co.uk/">London's Brewing</a>, at which over 30 of the city's best breweries will present their wares. It's a sign of how far London's beer scene has come in the past few years - and</i></span><i style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18px;"> few brewers have come as far as Julio Moncada...</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Julio Moncada’s life took a decisive turn the
day he first walked into a London pub. “I saw these things on the bar, these handpumps,” he says. “I'd never seen them before. I said to the barman: ‘What is that? Can I try it?’ </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"It
was completely different to what I was used to, so full of flavour and aroma.
It just blew my mind. </span><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">From that day on, I have been drinking cask
ales, I have been trying different beers all the time. I haven’t stopped
since.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">That was in 2001. 12 years on, Mon</span><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">cada is not only
a keen drinker of cask ale but a producer, too, having set up his eponymous
brewery in Kensal Green just under two years’ ago. It’s not something that the
35-year-old would have predicted when he left his hometown of </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Villa Mercedes in
the Argentine province of San Luis. That part of the world is better known for
its wine: Moncada grew up near to Argentina’s
most famous wine region, Mendoza.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Becoming a brewer was an accident more than a
plan,” he says, smiling. “I didn’t think I would ever own a brewery. [After I came to the UK] I was a homebrewer
for five years: I was more into cooking, I wanted to become a chef. I did
different courses and worked in different restaurants around London to get
experience. But it was very demanding ... </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“With my wife, I decided to open a deli. I
thought it would be nice to have the brewing equipment behind the counter and to produce my own beer for the
deli. That was the first step, when I thought it could be a business. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“It was after a course at [brewing training
centre] Brewlab in Sunderland that I decided to just be a brewer: on the train
back, I phoned my wife and said: ‘Forgot about the deli. This is what I want to
do’.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">If brewing English beer (Moncada currently
produce seven beers, all of them in <a href="http://www.moncadabrewery.co.uk/our-beers/">traditional British styles</a>) in London is
an imaginative choice for an Argentine, it seems plenty of his countrymen have
also been converted to craft beer. Moncada is a regular visitor to his home
country – where Quilmes, a flavour-light pale lager, is ubiquitous - and made
his latest trip home in April.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“I think the spread of good beer is everywhere,”
he says. “I think there are probably 200 microbreweries in Argentina now,
opening up everywhere. Patagonia is quite a big area for microbreweries:
there’s lot of European communities there.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“There’s actually a town in <a href="http://www.elsitiodelavilla.com/oktoberfest/">Cordoba</a></span><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">,
they do the Oktoberfest, it’s a German
colony. They start exactly the same day as in Bavaria. That was one of the
first places I really enjoyed beer, I went when I was 17. After that, I was
going every year.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Moncada is now a Londoner. The beer may be
improving in Argentina, but he has no plans to return. “I’m established here,”
he says. “My kids were born in London.
This is my home. I don’t see myself moving out.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It’s an exciting, confusing time for beer in
London, as Moncada acknowledges. Barely a week goes by, it seems, without a new
brewery opening. “When I decided to open a brewery, I got a phone call,” he
says. “The first person who called me was Paddy Johnson from <a href="http://www.webrew.co.uk/">Windsor and Eton</a>,
he explained to me what the <a href="http://www.londonbrewers.org/">London Brewers’ Alliance</a> was about, and that I was
brewer no 14. How many do we have now? 40, I think. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“At the last LBA meeting, we had another 10
planning applications to go ahead. By the end of this year, there should be at
least another five new breweries. In 2014, there will be more. It keeps going
up and up.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A number of these breweries are and will be in
West London, where craft beer is yet to fully take hold as it has in the
Eastern half of the city. It’s an interesting peculiarity (perhaps explained by
the relatively high cost of living in West London), but the overwhelming
majority of London’s best places to drink beer can be found in its eastern
half. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“It is more difficult in West London,” Moncada
admits. “Often, we need to do business over there [in East London], but there
are lots of microbreweries there, too. I’m like a foreigner!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">With the business thriving (Moncada, who along
with brewer Sam Dicksion does all the work for now, is aiming to increase
capacity and take on new staff soon), says this presents a problem. “Our
biggest challenge now is to find and convince new pubs around here to stock our
beer,” he says. “We have the problem with the tied pubs, there are so many
around here.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Perhaps some new beers will convince local
publicans to take a chance on a local brewery. Although Moncada concentrate on
English styles for now, that won’t always be the case. “We don’t want to get
stuck in a routine,” says Moncada. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“I always want to experiment and try something
new. I’m always happy to try something new. What we like to do is try something
and give it to people, to see their reactions. With our porter, for
example – we wrote three different
recipes, gave it to a pub, gave it out for free. The punters voted for which
one they liked best.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRqRAZBkgHiziAcbzh_9FjiLlrH8wBce_lShozBBk-EoyAdBDCJXCL_Uq-KzmsCRCyDfmLmjM_gg38czyK2p0kt3WV1N1UWnFDIVVCGC-Yooa_fuutiS0kghBM09P5y9lLTWsWPgJZEBI/s1600/moncada+022.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRqRAZBkgHiziAcbzh_9FjiLlrH8wBce_lShozBBk-EoyAdBDCJXCL_Uq-KzmsCRCyDfmLmjM_gg38czyK2p0kt3WV1N1UWnFDIVVCGC-Yooa_fuutiS0kghBM09P5y9lLTWsWPgJZEBI/s320/moncada+022.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">If that sounds like fun, it clearly is. Moncada
is soon to open a bar at the brewery (initially one Friday a month, but perhaps
more often depending on demand) and the atmosphere at the brewery is happy and
optimistic. “I’m really having fun,” says Moncada. “This job has stressful
elements – we want it to be a success, to stay in business for many years to
come - but I’m having a good time.”</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6468483880157870315.post-19908726880245845612013-03-15T04:03:00.004-07:002013-03-15T04:03:54.803-07:00'I've never met a brewer that I don't like'<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif4n5qxyXA4Ak-enyk87zOnSl30bZdkdmG4AhImnrVn2_rGNgsWOyx5kHRxM9CbvvF7CyOLIUe2z4GOmQzWzhzw1O_KQRvCA40aZqHPmpTKaAnuiXsVGCDAXdhlEsTHoIs7mCSDswDh0k/s1600/lateknights+021.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif4n5qxyXA4Ak-enyk87zOnSl30bZdkdmG4AhImnrVn2_rGNgsWOyx5kHRxM9CbvvF7CyOLIUe2z4GOmQzWzhzw1O_KQRvCA40aZqHPmpTKaAnuiXsVGCDAXdhlEsTHoIs7mCSDswDh0k/s320/lateknights+021.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">How many
breweries can a big city like London support? Depending on how you work it out,
there are somewhere in the region of 40 now: it seems a lot, but In 1700 there were
<a href="http://zythophile.wordpress.com/2011/11/03/londons-brewing-londons-brewing/">190</a></span><span style="line-height: 115%;">.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Historical
comparisons notwithstanding, London’s brewing boom continues apace. New
operations are opening all over the city, from <a href="http://www.brewbynumbers.com/">Southwark basements</a> to
<a href="http://www.wildcardbrewery.co.uk/">Walthamstow pubs</a> via <a href="http://weirdbeardbrewco.com/">industrial units in Hanwell</a>. Such is the
demand for space that some brewers are sharing: that’s what’s
happening as the last-named, from where Weird Beard and Ellenberg’s are ready to spring their wares on a thirsty public.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">It’s also
the case in Penge, a part of London most famous for its amusing name and
the fact that Bill Wyman, erstwhile Rolling Stones bassist, grew up there. This
is where Late Knights, whose beers have until now been produced in
Middlesbrough, should be brewing soon. They’ll be joined by <a href="http://shamblemoose.co.uk/brewery/">Shamblemoose</a> and <a href="http://www.signaturebrew.co.uk/">SignatureBrewing</a> on a site that has in the past been a wine warehouse and a
slaughterhouse. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_U2Luq30ff1wiBj0lqIla142rxDLXPJtOHAdQj0sz6cQCytfscK-vS26EkPEGvNBs_ORIGmjwpBMcp6-YXj_CVO-Ien8TGRH9rSD31LOt1BT9N3zMNggVfTSNlrLZnfl7dOsxrwvvZXw/s1600/lateknights+010.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_U2Luq30ff1wiBj0lqIla142rxDLXPJtOHAdQj0sz6cQCytfscK-vS26EkPEGvNBs_ORIGmjwpBMcp6-YXj_CVO-Ien8TGRH9rSD31LOt1BT9N3zMNggVfTSNlrLZnfl7dOsxrwvvZXw/s320/lateknights+010.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">“I live 150
yards away from the brewery,” says Steve Keegan (pictured above), the man behind Late Knights. “We
came over to have a look to see if it would work – it was an absolute state. It
was chaos in here. You could tell it was a good place for a brewery though.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">It’s a
particularly interesting development for Craft Beer London since the app
actually played a (very small) part in ensuring Late Knights ended up in Penge.
I knew Steve, having contacted him for information for the app, and I knew the building’s owner, Graham Lawrence, because he owns
Mr Lawrence, a wine bar and former off-license in Crofton Park, where I live.
Graham said that he was interested in getting involved in a brewery, I
mentioned Late Knights, and a thus-far fruitful relationship was born.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Steve’s beer
history goes back a little further, though. Until recently, he was employed by
Fuller’s to manage pubs: he played a big part in turning the Union Tavern (in
Westbourne Park) and The Barrel and Horn (in Bromley) into the craft-beer dens
they are today. Before that, he ran pubs in Richmond, Oxford and Finchley. Suffice
to say, he knows a little bit about beer and the pub trade. “I’ve been working
in pubs since I was 14,” he says. “I’ve dabbled in homebrewing in the past, I
felt I understood it. [When I left Fuller’s] I thought it was time for me to do
something for myself – to take a risk.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Steve, 30, had
been making beer during his time off from working for Fuller’s at the Truefitt
Brewery in Middlesbrough, which is run by Matt Power, who Steve has known since
he was eight. He decided at Christmas that he could no longer do both jobs. “I
had to make a decision,” he says. “Do I
continue to work for Fuller’s and do both jobs half-arsed? Do I focus on the
pubs - or the brewery? I spoke to my family, my girlfriend, and this is what I
decided. When I went back after Christmas, the first thing I did was hand my
notice in. I don’t think Fuller’s are
entirely happy, but in all honesty I didn’t expect it to reach this stage.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Penge-brewed
beer will soon be on bars across the city, but another central feature of Steve’s
project is still at the planning stage. It also involves Graham Lawrence and his
much-missed off-license, which until the end of January was one of the best
places in the capital to buy beer. Beer-lovers disappointed by the closure of Mr
Lawrence (<a href="http://www.mrlawrencewinemerchant.co.uk/">you can still buy beer and wine online</a>), though, will be
placated by the plans Steve has for the place: license-issues allowing, it will
be a brewery tap for Late Knights, and more besides.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuZEViuTr8qV0cdg7xOz4Vj7a42oFzzyfdKsIDCtVJ8cg0alJhmSjFg14uPUIY8QkXcPvguDLRrHhu5HexQsJjWCeOB4oB4kd-RH1J4cfwhnLjwreIuV1EJRNwGkDHgkFZDbi3aOGdNhM/s1600/mr+lawrence.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuZEViuTr8qV0cdg7xOz4Vj7a42oFzzyfdKsIDCtVJ8cg0alJhmSjFg14uPUIY8QkXcPvguDLRrHhu5HexQsJjWCeOB4oB4kd-RH1J4cfwhnLjwreIuV1EJRNwGkDHgkFZDbi3aOGdNhM/s320/mr+lawrence.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">“We’d have
the full Late Knights range and a selection of other London micros,” he says. “Eight,
perhaps 10 hand pumps. On keg we’ll have other American-style beers; we want to
do a large bottled selection – 100 bottles and 100 whiskies. The bottles we
will also sell as off-sales, so what you could get from Mr Lawrence you’ll be
able to get from the bar. I’ve got the experience [of running pubs], I have the
level of knowledge that we’ll need.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">As Steve says, other London
brewers will also be on the bar – including, no doubt, The Kernel, who have a
long relationship with Mr Lawrence. Steve is keen to help others out as
he has been helped. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">“I got a
helping hand from Matt [at TrueFitt],” he says. “I want to offer that to other
people. Like Shamblemoose: Matt and Lera [O’Sullivan] used to be locals at a
pub I worked at in Richmond. Lera told me they were going to open a
microbrewery.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">“When I was
looking into setting up this brewery, I spent an hour on the internet trying to
track them down – I knew she was an American brewer living in Guildford, so I thought
‘I must be able to find it’. I couldn’t find them, and ended up going out to
get a haircut. When I got back, she’d emailed me! This was 18 months after I’d
spoken to her for ten minutes. Asking me advice – “oh, we’re looking at pubs, can
you help me do projections.” So odd!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid3vzGZ5sswAF8U625mSLkSvx59DnaQ7v5tga_dhnPyv1zSkfhWPaBJWi4kLVos3lN3YJASFyKoOJ1ZBEWVFYDORUuGK47zSGKV58X1ZNul-_4dbcwwyDL07JVqaKwlCdkUa7FlpkRwRU/s1600/lateknights+026.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid3vzGZ5sswAF8U625mSLkSvx59DnaQ7v5tga_dhnPyv1zSkfhWPaBJWi4kLVos3lN3YJASFyKoOJ1ZBEWVFYDORUuGK47zSGKV58X1ZNul-_4dbcwwyDL07JVqaKwlCdkUa7FlpkRwRU/s320/lateknights+026.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">And then
there’s Signature Brewing, who make beer in collaboration with
musicians. Steve met the three men behind the brewery (Sam McGregor, David
Riley and Tom Bott) a few months back and a plan was hatched. “I started
talking to them, giving them advice,” he says. “Like how to get beer in pubs. </span><span style="line-height: 18px;">They've</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> done some cuckoo brewing at Titanic [in Stoke] and at London Fields. They’re
coming to do some brewing here every month; we’ll see what happens.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Steve is
clearly excited by what the future holds. “</span><span style="line-height: 18px;">I've</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> never met a brewer that I don’t
like,” he says. “They’re mostly really nice people and they do it because they
love it. That’s the kind of industry I want to be involved in. There will
always be competition because we want to sell our beers. But </span><span style="line-height: 18px;">we've</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> got to work
together as much as we can.”</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span>
<i><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">You can buy the Craft Beer London book <a href="http://vespertinepress.bigcartel.com/product/craft-beer-london">here</a>, while the app, which is now available for Android, can be </span></span><span style="font-size: 19px; line-height: 21px;">downloaded</span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"> <a href="http://craftbeerlondon.bluecrowmedia.com/">here</a>. </span></span></span></i></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6468483880157870315.post-55757979184374799082013-02-15T03:41:00.002-08:002013-02-15T03:41:59.953-08:00Brewing in the shopping centre<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2DTRlluAQMdM3kRQUYK9vxLsGsncyh4FMPf0t23veCswQm3X_qmZ_7i_QayeJyZPjooEXAWelo81fgpHdgBy67ksF73rzjHuqHWCC7Yq15K4YRtg1W1b4OkWC29t6WxxCCRbsbNsvr2c/s1600/variedpictos+040.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2DTRlluAQMdM3kRQUYK9vxLsGsncyh4FMPf0t23veCswQm3X_qmZ_7i_QayeJyZPjooEXAWelo81fgpHdgBy67ksF73rzjHuqHWCC7Yq15K4YRtg1W1b4OkWC29t6WxxCCRbsbNsvr2c/s320/variedpictos+040.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">London has a lot of breweries but not many native brewers. There
are a few, most notably Alastair Hook at Meantime, but it’s striking just how
many of the city’s most well-known brewers come from somewhere else. Jim
Wilson, the East Londoner who’s in charge of the shiny brew kit at <a href="http://www.tapeast.co.uk/">Tap East</a> in
Stratford, is something of a rare beast.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The story of how Wilson, born in Bow and brought up in Dagenham,
came to cask ale demonstrates neatly why this is. “I used to be an avid
Carlsberg drinker,” he laughs. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“That was until I went up to Lincolnshire with
my partner to visit one of her friends. We went into a country pub, there was
lots of ale; I though, let’s try that. That’s what got me into home brewing
and drinking the usual suspects like
[London] Pride and Bombardier. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“I used to go out with my mates and it was always ‘ten pints
of lager and one pint of that weird brown stuff’. My mates would say: ‘oh it’s horrible, why do you want to drink
that?’ ‘It’s not, it’s got flavour.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Wilson’s refusal to give in to public humiliation has
prepared him well for his role at Tap East, which, he tells me, is the only brewery in a shopping centre in the whole of Europe. Tucked away in the corner of the
huge Westfield shopping complex (which sits alongside the Olympic Park), the
brewery is on show to the world – or at least those who wander past on their
way into the shopping centre. All that stands between Wilson and a constantly
changing cast of smokers, amblers and fascinated toddlers is a large window.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Of course, it means that Wilson, 26, can see what’s going on
outside, too. That was particularly handy during the Olympics, when all manner
of famous sportsmen and women flitted past his brewery. Some of those taking
part even partook of his beer, he says. “I remember there was a Puerto Rican
doctor – he was really interested, I showed him around the brewery. We had all
manner of East European coaches drinking in here, too.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">If things are a little more humdrum these days on the other
side of the window, Wilson’s brewing is going from strength to strength.
Yesterday he brewed a Blood Orange Pale Ale with noted beer guru Melissa Cole (“I’d
never seen a blood orange until earlier this month,” he laughs) and the size
and flexibility of his brewing kit means experimentation is easy. “I’d like to
try a Pilsner; Not that many small breweries that have that opportunity – to
try different stuff, keep the beer world turning. It’s a case of, ‘let’s have a
go and see what we can do’.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Perhaps Wilson’s late conversion to cask ale has created this
expansive approach to brewing. For a number of years, he was a refrigeration
engineer – then came that Lincolnshire revelation. He began to homebrew, and a day
helping out at Brentwood Brewery in Essex turned into a full-time job. He was
there for two-and-a-half years before coming to Tap East in April of last year.
“It was a new challenge, I knew the guys
at Utobeer,” he says, matter-of-factly. “It’s a nice place to work.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Certainly, Wilson takes a lot of satisfaction from seeing
his beer being enjoyed. “There’s nothing better than coming in on a Monday and
seeing all these empty casks – at least someone has had a good weekend!” he
says. “It is very rewarding, that’s the best part of the job.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">He is also quite heavily involved with the London
Brewers’ Alliance. “Because we meet
each other regularly, we know what everyone is doing. It keeps everyone on
their toes,” he says. “We want to improve beer in London. It is an exciting
time to say the least." </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Wilson now lives just outside London, in Chelmsford, but he’s
still delighted to be part of the city’s burgeoning beer renaissance. “It’s
great to be part of the history of brewing in London,” he says. “To work where
you’re from – it’s really rewarding.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As for the future, Wilson is fairly open-minded. “I’d love
to have a restaurant with a small brewery, doing American-style food, not
over-complicated,” he says. “Or work for a big brewery. Hopefully by the time I’m
there, some of the smaller guys will have grown – but I don’t think I’d ever
have my own brewery. Too much stress. All you want to do is make the beer but
there’s too much other stuff.”</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6468483880157870315.post-44191579095095571192013-01-18T01:17:00.000-08:002013-01-18T01:29:45.434-08:00Bermondsey's reluctant brewer<br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Andy Smith
likes his music loud. Approaching <a href="http://www.partizanbrewing.co.uk/">Partizan Brewing</a>’s base under an railway arch
in Bermondsey, you can hear the brewery before you see it. Specifically, you
can hear the music of Gang of Four, a suitable choice since Smith, 31, comes
from Leeds.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“I’ll just
turn that down,” he says with a smile. Behind him is the brewing kit, a gift
from <a href="http://thekernelbrewery.com/">Evin O’Riordain at The Kernel </a>when they moved from their own Bermondsey
railway arch to a bigger one, and a huge pile of boxes filled with bottles. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Smith, sporting
a thick woolly jumper and an even thicker beard to combat London’s winter
chill, is somewhat wearily attaching Partizan’s stylish, witty labels to the
bottles: not everything about brewing is as glamorous as some appear to think.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But Smith
wasn’t attracted to the world of beer by glamour, but by money. Back at the
tail end of 2009, he was working as a chef at a restaurant in Chelsea which was
struggling to pay its staff. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In order to deal
with his bills, he got a job at <a href="http://www.whitehorsesw6.com/">The White Horse in Parson’s Green</a>, where he
ended up working in the cellar. That’s how he met <a href="http://craftbeerlondon.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/maybe-i-need-to-be-more-ruthless.html">Andy Moffat, head brewer at Redemption in Tottenham</a>. “Andy was dropping off some casks,” he says. “I’d been
homebrewing and asked him if he wanted some help.” He did. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">More than
two years on, and having enjoyed the full Andy Moffat experience (“He’s almost
too nice at times,” laughs Smith. “It gets to five o’clock and you want to
finish your job but Andy’s pushing you out of the door!”) he has his own
brewery.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If it seems a
natural next step, it didn’t appear that way to Smith. “It wasn’t something I
intended to do,” he says. “When I was a
chef, it was always ‘are you going to open your own restaurant?’ ‘No, I’m not
interested!’<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“I had a
chat with Andy in January. </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">We talked about my future, I felt I wasn’t getting
anywhere anymore. It felt like I was doing a 9-5 job. He’s a really open guy to
talk to about that. He said I could try and get a job at a big brewery like
</span><a href="http://www.thornbridgebrewery.co.uk/" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Thornbridge</a><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">, or start on my own – which I wasn’t too keen on.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“I talked to
a few people, including Evin (The Kernel), and he offered the brew kit for
nothing. That was decisive – it was almost impossible to decline.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If Smith sounds at all half-hearted, a taste
of his beer should be enough to dispel any misgivings about his commitment. The
Foreign Extra Stout, in particular, is excellent: it comes from an old <a href="http://www.breweryhistory.com/Breweries/LondonSE1Courage.htm">Courage</a>
recipe, he says, and it deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as some of
London’s other recent revived recipes.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“The beers I
make are the beers that I want to make. They won’t all be very strong [like the
FES, which is 8.6 per cent]. I’m making a Saison which should be four or five
per cent. They have to taste good. With strong beers, it’s like reducing a
stock: the more you reduce, the more flavour you get. That’s what I want.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Smith’s
background in cooking makes him an interesting brewer. Plenty of people have
compared brewing and cooking, but Smith isn’t so sure. “Organisation is the big
thing you learn in cooking – have everything laid out,” he says. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“That’s
helpful in brewing, too - but when you’re cooking, you can taste as you go
along. If you make a dish and didn’t taste it until the end, that would just be
the worst thing to do. There’s nothing you can do about it when you’re brewing
– you have to wait until the end, fingers crossed.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">His career
as a cook began in Leeds, and it’s there that he first got a taste for great
beer, too, at one of the country’s foremost craft-beer haunts. “We used to go
to <a href="http://northbar.com/a/">North Bar</a>; it was a big chef hangout on Friday and Saturday night – you’d have
a bottle of [Schneider Weiss’s wheat dopplebock] <a href="http://www.schneider-weisse.de/index.php?lang=en&tpl=brauerei.spezialitaeten.aven">Aventinus</a> after you’ve
finished service on a Saturday night. It’s about eight per cent but it goes
down incredibly easily!”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Smith believes
that London has something to learn from Leeds when it comes to beer
appreciation. “The drinking culture there is different,” he says. “You can go
to a nightclub and drink cask ale, which is unheard of down here.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Partizan’s
beer can be found in a number of London’s best craft-beer pubs and bars (if not nightclubs), but if
you want to get a closer look at the brewery it’s now open on Saturdays. Just
follow your ears.</span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">You can now buy the Craft Beer London book <a href="http://vespertinepress.bigcartel.com/product/craft-beer-london">here</a>, while the app can be </span></span><span style="font-size: 19px; line-height: 21px;">downloaded</span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"> <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/craft-beer-london/id529777025?mt=8">here</a>. </span></span></i></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0London, UK51.5073346 -0.1276831000000129351.1912111 -0.77313010000001292 51.8234581 0.51776389999998707tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6468483880157870315.post-45701863639697469712012-10-26T04:52:00.000-07:002012-10-26T04:52:24.546-07:00The malt man<br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Hops get an
awful lot of attention. These little green cones are the undisputed stars of
the craft-beer world: any self-respecting drinker can tell his Citra from his
Nelson Sauvin, his Simcoe from his East Kent Golding. Brewers have helped to fuel
this hop mania - Brewdog used to advertise Hardcore IPA as having more hops in
it than “any other beer brewed in the UK”, for example. Hops are hip.</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malt">Malt</a> is not quite so fashionable. Despite being the real engine room of any beer (like
Charlie Watts to hops’ prancing, pouting, gyrating Mick Jagger), malt doesn’t
appear to excite drinkers like hops can. It’s a shame, especially since Britain can
boast any number of beers which give malt the co-billing it deserves (balance,
I think they call it).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">One of the
best examples of this type of beer is brewed here in London – and that’s official.
<a href="http://www.sambrooksbrewery.co.uk/">Sambrooks’</a> Wandle was recently named the best <a href="http://www.worldbeerawards.com/beer/sambrooks_wandle-8156.html">World’s Best Bitter</a> </span><span style="line-height: 115%;">at the World Beer Awards, where
judges hailed its “<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">nice fruity nose
[while the flavour boasts] fresh tobacco with biscuity malt and floral hops</span>.”
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 115%;">Part of what makes Wandle so good is the malt: Sambrooks use
Maris Otter, a type of barley revered for the nutty, biscuity richness it
contributes. “</span><span style="line-height: 115%;">We decided
right from the off to go for Maris Otter,” says Duncan Sambrook, founder and
owner of the brewery. “It’s widely – and rightly – regarded as the Rolls-Royce
of malts.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anyone who
steps inside his brewery – wedged between Clapham Junction station and the
grey-brown Thames – will take in great lungfuls of toasted Maris Otter aroma.
It’s a traditional scent that denotes a largely traditional brewery, although
not one that is stuck in the past: Sambrook’s now have a keg ale on the market,
a pale ale that undergoes a period of <a href="http://www.anchorbrewing.com/blog/anchor-terminology-krausening/">krausening</a>.
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“We’ve
produced something that is a cross between a lager and an English pale ale,”
says Sambrook, 34. “It was just [about] trying to do something innovative and
see how the market responds to it.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It’s an
interesting move from a brewery which has always sought to offer Londoners a
taste of traditional British cask ale. Sambrook, who comes from Salisbury and
still speaks with a soft West-Country twang, was surprised when he came to the
capital at the paucity of breweries. At that stage he was working in the city
but when in 2008 he decided to become a full-time brewer, his motivation was
clear.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“I always thought
that London was an untapped market for craft beer,” he says. “Where I grew up,
we had fantastic microbreweries like Hopback, Ringwood, and more traditional
ones like Hall and Woodhouse. I was very lucky. I was surprised when I came to London and there was only Young’s and
Fuller’s – and then Young’s left.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Cask ale is
an inherently local product. That’s true everywhere in the country – look at the furore over Tetley’s shutting down
[in Leeds], for instance. I met the guys from Leeds Brewery last week, and I
love their advertising, with the hints from the Tetley advertising – ‘the last
brewery left in Leeds’. There’s all these pubs up there now which they couldn’t
ever supply – overnight, they’re saying, ‘we want your beer in’.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For all of
his passion for tradition, Sambrook is delighted by the proliferation of
breweries across London. More good beer available means more interest in good
beer. Sambrook’s has certainly grown over the four years of its existence: they
now produce some 5,500 barrels a year, which equates to well over a million
pints. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The tide may
be turning in Sambrooks’ favour. There seems to be a move back towards
session-strength beers, like The Kernel’s much-admired Table Beer, which weighs
in at just 3 per cent. It’s a trend that Sambrook (whose brewery regularly produces
Wandle, at 3.8 per cent, Junction, at 4.5 per cent, Powerhouse Porter, at 4.9
per cent, and Pumphouse Pale Ale, at 4.2 per cent) is understandably happy to
welcome.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“I hope it’s
the next thing for craft beer,” he says. “We’ve often debated where the market
is going. I’ve not fully embraced the American hop thing – I love those beers
but our culture in the UK isn’t about that. My expectation is that over the
next two or three years you’ll see brewers asking: what are we good at? We’re
good at producing low-abv beers packed with taste, at using British ingredients
– more malty drinks, porters, stouts.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Which brings
us neatly back to Maris Otter, and Wandle. Sambrook admits he was surprised at
the World Beer Awards triumph. “I was absolutely delighted,” he says. “I’ve
always been cynical about beer competitions. I’m delighted that this was picked
by a panel of independent judges on a blind tasting. Some of the other competitions
you’re a bit sceptical about why things get chosen. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“I’ve always
thought that Wandle wasn’t a beer that had the flavour profile to stand out –
the best thing about Wandle is that it is a lovely, delicate beer. It doesn’t
necessarily stand up against something that is packed full of hops, that has a high
abv, and therefore if you’re judging it in a competition you’re likely to go
for the other one - but if you’re drinking it on a day-to-day basis you’ll probably have Wandle,
because it’s delicious.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6468483880157870315.post-64887355218804831552012-10-12T04:59:00.001-07:002012-10-13T08:28:14.218-07:00'This is the best time to be a brewer'<br />
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">John Keeling
has seen the ebb and flow of London’s brewing tradition. First came the ebb: when
Keeling joined <a href="http://www.fullers.co.uk/">Fuller’s</a> in 1981, <a href="http://www.breweryhistory.com/Breweries/LondonSE1Courage.htm">Courage</a> was about to become the
latest great name to abandon the capital. Some 25 years later, <a href="http://www.timeout.com/london/restaurants/features/1522/Young-s_Brewery_leaves_Wandsworth.html">Young’s</a> made their belated, much-lamented departure and left the Chiswick brewer as the
sole survivor of London’s brewing heyday.<span style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then came
the flow. Of the 30 or so breweries in the city today, only Fuller’s, <a href="http://www.meantimebrewing.com/">Meantime</a> and a handful of brewpubs have been around longer than a few years. It’s
a remarkable state of affairs. “I can’t keep track of them,” Keeling admits
with a laugh. “I don’t know how some of
them, like Brodie’s, can keep track of all the beers they produce, either.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span><span style="line-height: 115%;">That’s not
meant as a criticism: Keeling, 56, is evidently delighted with what’s happening
around him. He’s as interested in flavour as any craft-beer upstart, as those
who’s enjoyed one of Fuller’s recent series of <a href="http://www.fullers.co.uk/rte.asp?id=377">Past Masters</a> beers will
know. “The rise of the new breweries means you have to produce more interesting
beers,” he says. “You can’t rest on your laurels. You want to try and do more. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“My job is
more interesting now – this is the best time to be a brewer. Now, rather than
looking at the haze of the beer, the question is: what does it taste like? For
brewers like myself who are interested in flavours, that’s a great thing.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Keeling is popular
with many of the new brewers: more than one has told me how useful </span><span style="line-height: 18px;">they've</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> found
talking to him at meetings of the </span><a href="http://www.londonbrewers.org/" style="line-height: 115%;">London Brewers’ Alliance</a><span style="line-height: 115%;">. The
admiration appears to be mutual. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“I like
drinking in the company of brewers,” he says. “Even with the new wave of
brewers, there’s no ‘our beer is good and your beer is crap’ attitude. It’s
more ‘that’s an interesting beer, how do you do that?’ it’s always like that
with brewers – you only get a more competitive edge when marketing gets
involved.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Keeling has
plenty of knowledge to impart. He has been part of the brewing world since he
joined Wilson’s Brewery in his native Manchester in 1974. After three years’
there, he moved onto to Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh before accepting a
job at Fuller’s in 1981. In 1999, he became head brewer.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">It’s a role
he relishes, even if the Fuller’s head brewer no longer gets a </span><span style="line-height: 18px;">town-house</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> at the
heart of the complex as part of the job. Walking around Fuller’s part-historic,
part ultra-modern site, he enthuses about the brewery’s tradition. “Microbrewers
can make beers from the past, but a brewery that existed in the past can make
it better,” he says. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span><span style="line-height: 115%;">“We have a
certain amount of brewing books, we don’t have to use anyone else’s. It’s made
right next to the plant it was made in originally. We try very hard to make it
the same way – we’ve looked at how we made it, we realised in 1893, we didn’t
<a href="http://brewwiki.com/index.php/Sparging">sparge</a>. Everything here is designed to sparge, but we couldn’t do it
because they didn’t. We had to change the way we brew.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You don’t
have to go back to 1893 for a different way of doing things: much has changed
since 1981, Keeling says. Back then, they had two basic recipes. “One mild, one
bitter,” Keeling says. “From the bitter recipe we produced Golden Pride, ESB,
London Pride and Chiswick Bitter. From the mild recipe we produced two other
beers. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“In the
1990s we started creating new recipes: Mr Harry, 1845, we revived London
Porter. Now we’re actively looking at a huge variety of beers. Our autumn
seasonal has been around for 10 years but there’s no demand to get rid of it –
people want something extra as well. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">“When the
Hock Cellar [Fullers’ brewery tap, where tours of the complex end] was
originally designed, there was only three hand pumps. </span><span style="line-height: 18px;">We've</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> got six, and we
probably want ten.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">It’s not
just about cask ale. Fuller’s have produced a variety of superb bottled beers
in recent years, from the Vintage range to the Past Masters beers. Then there’s
the Brewer’s Reserve range of barrel-aged beers.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Next, it
seems, is a serious stab at high-quality keg beer. “Keg beer is the next big
thing,” he says. “If you think about it, cask beer is seven per cent of the
beer drunk in Britain. The best beer in Britain is cask beer but the worst beer
in Britain is cask beer too. there’s many places who cannot serve it because
they’ve no idea how to look after it.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some of
these places – particularly in central London – serve London Pride. It’s clearly
something that frustrates Keeling. “It does worry me. But if we don’t work with
them, do something with them, they’re never going to have cask beer. But now
we’ve got an opportunity to sell them keg beer that is equally as interesting. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“The thing
you have to learn is that keg is a different environment to cask – just as you
have to design a beer for cask, you have to design it for keg. I have no truck
with people who say keg beer is rubbish, or people who say cask beer is
rubbish. If you say cask beer is rubbish you simply haven’t drunk any good cask beer – the same with keg.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It’s a move
that will bring Fuller’s into line with the likes of Meantime and <a href="http://www.camdentownbrewery.com/">Camden Town</a>,
whose keg fonts are increasingly common across the city. More and more of London’s new beer fans expect
to find good beer on keg as well as cask; Keeling is well aware that any new
Fuller’s product must be of the highest quality. “Craft beer is bringing new
drinkers in, and they’re coming in with a relatively open mind,” he says. “They’re
quite happy to appreciate cask, can, bottles, keg. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">“I do think
there’s a load of lager drinkers who are searching for an interesting flavour
but can’t find it because it </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">doesn't</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"> exist in their environment. Now Meantime are
trying to fulfil that need, so are Camden. </span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"I think Fuller’s can enter that market. But we
won’t put cask London Pride in a keg. It won’t be very good, it would be
underselling us and them. It would be perfectly possible to develop a London
Pride that is very good in keg but there’s nothing wrong with developing
entirely new beers that are designed especially for keg.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6468483880157870315.post-35617211655928145712012-10-01T03:17:00.002-07:002012-10-01T03:26:17.327-07:00'Maybe I need to be more ruthless'<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJMt4SluIFtIvSot70dc5hq6-ZehoEr9-UB-NIk8EkGIR6SE9E4KzLpHTmnCGCcM0JDNBvNQV2KhdvVnpZrzEMTCdgKnfcFQKJ0C07r3xxrCQMvTdBmRBQC4lsZOgnlY9GblVEVPuFFHw/s1600/Redemption+021.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJMt4SluIFtIvSot70dc5hq6-ZehoEr9-UB-NIk8EkGIR6SE9E4KzLpHTmnCGCcM0JDNBvNQV2KhdvVnpZrzEMTCdgKnfcFQKJ0C07r3xxrCQMvTdBmRBQC4lsZOgnlY9GblVEVPuFFHw/s320/Redemption+021.JPG" width="214" /></a></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What’s it
like to be the nicest man in British brewing? Andy Moffat laughs. He’s heard
that one before. “Maybe I need to be a bit more ruthless,” he says, but the
smile on his face suggests he doesn’t mean it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">His actions
confirm that suspicion. If Moffat was more ruthless he might still be working
as a banker in The City, which he did until his gnawing desire to brew became
too much. That was in 2010, when he set up the </span><a href="http://www.redemptionbrewing.co.uk/" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Redemption Brewing Company</a><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"> in
Tottenham. In the short time since, the brewery’s cask ales have become
regulars on all the best bars in town. And last Friday, Big Chief, a punchy IPA made with New Zealand hops, was voted <a href="http://www.siba.co.uk/events/regional-competitions/south-east/2012-2">the South-East's best beer</a> by the Society of Independent Brewers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Such is the quality of his products that
Moffat, 39, has not had to be particularly ruthless in selling his wares. There's that
niceness again. “We don’t do any sales,” he says. “I don’t want to hassle
people. I just think about how many calls pubs get from people trying to sell
them beer. I think most good pubs in London want to have a nice spread of
beers - they know what they’re doing. They’ve got a clear idea of what
they want.”</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Which, more
often than not, includes at least one Redemption beer. The softly-spoken
Scotsman has the intelligence and clear-sightedness you’d expect of a banker,
even if he has rather more heart than the tabloid stereotype would allow. That
clear thinking is obvious when he talks. Listen to him, for instance, on the
subject of kegged beer and why Redemption, who for the moment produce only cask
ale, will not be joining the rush to put beer into keykegs.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“I think
there’s good keg beer around but it’s too much investment for us,” he says. “I
think that’s where the future growth is going to be but it would be a lot of
work. We have a brewing consultant, a guy called Dave Smith, who comes down
three times a year to do quality control here. [That shows how] We want to keep
standards up: if we were going to do the other things we might not do it
very well and that would affect our good cask reputation.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“I know
keykegs are the big things right now but the cost adds about £20 – I can
envisage myself having a conversation with the pub: ‘oh, if you want it in
keykeg that will be an extra £20’. They’d be ‘we’ll have it on cask!’”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Don’t get
the idea, though, that Moffat dislikes change. The recent
updating of Redemption’s branding illustrates how keen he and his five-strong
team at the brewery (which includes his other half Sam in the office) are to
reach a new audience. “If the beer’s good, the beer guys don’t care [about the
branding],” he says. “But if you want to get other people interested, who might
not otherwise try it in a pub, that helps.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Moffat is
clearly happy with where the company is. He says – and it’s easy to believe him – that he’s still pleased he made the
jump from city-boy to brewer. The blossoming London craft-beer pub scene is
opening up new avenues for those like him who produce good beer.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“The great
thing about London is that lots of the breweries are doing different things ,”
he says. “You’ve got <a href="http://thekernelbrewery.com/">The Kernel</a> who are a bit more niche, <a href="http://www.sambrooksbrewery.co.uk/">Sambrook's</a> who make good
solid session beer, <a href="http://www.brodiesbeers.co.uk/">Brodie's</a> doing all kinds of weird and wonderful stuff,
Stuart [Lascelles] at <a href="http://eastlondonbrewing.com/">East London</a> is making good beer, it’s a real family
business. We’re somewhere in the middle.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“One of the
things we like about being in Tottenham is that there’s still an edgy, urban
quality to it. You’ve got a contradiction in that there’s a brewery in a place
where very little cask ale is sold. But it’s a quirky place, there’s an element
that’s like Shoreditch 15 years ago – I’m not sure Tottenham will ever change
like that but it’s an interesting place.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It’s a long
way from Moffat’s previous life working for Deutsche Bank, too. Moffat, though,
insists bankers are not all bad. “I got on really well with the guys I worked
with,” he says. “ We helped each other out.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“But
there’s a minority, a large minority, I don’t know what the best word is to use
[to describe them]! They don’t care about anything. You don’t just want to care
about yourself, we’d be selling bonds to insurance companies and pension funds
and you’d want them to be happy. There were some of us who were interested in
more than just ourselves.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Moffat
admits it was a bit of a midlife crisis that led him to brewing (‘Some people
gets a sports car,” he says, “I opened a brewery”) but he doesn’t regret it:
“When I got out of banking, it was starting to go a little pear-shaped. It was
going in that direction.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“[At the
time] I thought, ‘There are lots of breweries up and down the country but very
few in London’ – I tried to analyse my way out of it: ‘Oh, it’s a bad idea, if
it was a good idea someone would be doing it already.’ The more I thought about
it the more I thought it could work.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was the
perfect time to make the leap: Redemption opened perhaps a year-and-a-half
before London filled up with little breweries. The last year has been good.
Moffat is now selling around 140 casks a week, as compared to 80 12 months ago.
There are no plans for rapid expansion: home will be a Tottenham housing estate
for the foreseeable future.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXjJYqFGXyaVgoOvnxB6_6mA9MCj_WwYS3W2UvovY39rKC13MHDLhvG9DUL4jPTfU_SiLXFst5XN0H9R-TftYZgtcznqU8Jdhf_l4-n8jD7cvviL07AN2mv-UVE_BuprShUCacgVknHbE/s1600/JEL_RedemptionBrewery-WILL3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXjJYqFGXyaVgoOvnxB6_6mA9MCj_WwYS3W2UvovY39rKC13MHDLhvG9DUL4jPTfU_SiLXFst5XN0H9R-TftYZgtcznqU8Jdhf_l4-n8jD7cvviL07AN2mv-UVE_BuprShUCacgVknHbE/s320/JEL_RedemptionBrewery-WILL3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Moffat is cautiously optimistic. “</span><span style="line-height: 115%;">There
are many more people opening in London now but we’ve not felt [the impact of
that] yet,” he says. “There’s still a big potential for expansion.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">“</span><span style="line-height: 115%;">I’m fearful that there’s an element of faddishness with cask ale
at the moment. I dare say that in </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">a couple of years things might move on – to
gin distilleries, perhaps, that might be the next thing.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“There’s always room for good beer. It
has to be of the right quality, though.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Images by James Lambie for 'Craft Beer London' (</span><span class="il" style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #222222;">Vespertine</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> Press 2012)</span></span></i></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6468483880157870315.post-29877090325194404832012-09-12T05:19:00.001-07:002012-09-12T05:19:48.096-07:00Welcome to Craft Beer London - the blog<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu-WjnenWWXRGdu45gn3kYNs9h4QCzpmAOBQPEBrEZVzlP24C7bo5eeWgKqFhEkepLdGu0tmzgy64vWGi2rBupJmICgNrVkU_RkHU1rzzQvDBrZ1LZWOi6isrD7bIUOenSgvnWVQRrxgQ/s1600/CraftBeerLdnApp-Frontpg+(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu-WjnenWWXRGdu45gn3kYNs9h4QCzpmAOBQPEBrEZVzlP24C7bo5eeWgKqFhEkepLdGu0tmzgy64vWGi2rBupJmICgNrVkU_RkHU1rzzQvDBrZ1LZWOi6isrD7bIUOenSgvnWVQRrxgQ/s320/CraftBeerLdnApp-Frontpg+(1).jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
The Craft Beer London app has been out for over a month now and the response from the capital's beer lovers has been tremendous. That's why we thought it was time to offer something else, in the form of a blog. Now that might not sound particularly original - the beer world has its fair share of excellent blogs - so we're going to aim to offer something slightly different, something along the lines of what I used to produce in my days at <a href="http://blogs.independent.co.uk/author/willhawkes/">The Independent</a>.<br />
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The aim is to give you a taste of beer culture, both in this city and further afield. The British beer scene has never been so complex: each brewer has his or her own philosophy and if you understand that then, perhaps, you can enjoy the beer even more. It's a living, vibrant culture and I'm hoping I'll be able to reflect that on this blog.<br />
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And even if I can't, at the very least it might introduce you to some interesting beers that you won't have tried before.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0