Autumn Beer Extravaganza (Wetherspoon Autumn Beer Festival 2013)

Its that time of year again, autumn is upon us which can only mean one thing...Wetherspoon are back with another selection of cask ales for their real ale festival. This time around we have an extra special treat, all ten of the collaboration (collabeeration!) beers (that's 20% fact fans!) were brewed by American brewers with UK breweries. Brewers from 7 states took part producing beers in 8 different styles. Plenty for the tickers amongst you! Remember they're all one offs too; so make sure you get along to try them out. Here's a preview of those beers and others that I'm most looking forward to.

Shaun O'Sullivan from 21st amendment in San Francisco California travelled to Wychwood to brew American Bitter Red a sessionable Amber Ale with "agressive" hopping. 

The brewery is of course named for the repeal of prohibition, without which this brewery and all of the others below would have been unable to exist. @21stAmendmentBrewery

Next up is Restoration Pale Ale brewed by Mark Wilson of Abita Brewing Co with Wetherspoon collaboration stalwarts Wadworth. Normally based in Louisiana Mark rocked up in Devizes and used a large amount of cascade to get plenty of citrus character into this beer. @TheAbitaBeer

Ballast Point are a well known US craft brewer from San Diego California; so  "session IPA" Even Keel brewed at Marstons should be something special (and is a recreation of a 3.8% regular beer in cask form). Again using new world hops; so expect plenty of citrus character but there's also some noble hops in there to provide plenty of bitterness too. @BPBrewing

There's an unusual sounding brew from Will Meyers of Massachusetts' Cambridge Brewing Co - Beatles inspired Sgt Pepper is a saison with rye malt and four types of peppercorn. I think its great that Wetherspoon make this kind of creative ale available to the UK drinking public at large and well done to Everards for collaborating on this!
@CambridgeBrewer





Another fantastic sounding beer is Seattle's Elysian's Avatar, a jasmine IPA brewed by brewer Dick Cantwell with Thwaites on their "Crafty Dan" kit on 17th September.

via Thwaites

Featuring the fairly recent Glacier hop alongside superstar Amarillo and bittering stalwart Northern Brewer. At 6.3% its fairly hefty too and should work well as a warmer for the journey home.
@ElysianBrewing



 Sunshine Daydream is a 5% brew named for a Grateful Dead documentary released in 1972. It was brewed by Matt Cole owner of Ohio's Fat Head's brewery at Batemans on 9th September (welcomed by an Ohio state flag!) with centennial, citra and simcoe triple-teaming on the hop-front to produce a citrus bomb IPA.
@FatHeadsBeer






Harpoon IPA was brewed by brewer Jamie Schier at Bank's. Its been brewed in their Boston brewery for 20 years; so great to get a UK cask version brewed over here.
 @harpoon_brewery






Another uncommon beer style for the UK and the first outing at a Wetherspoon fest is Cream Ale. This one has been brewed by Oregon's Ninkasi at Caledonian in Edinburgh. Cream ale is a light fruity ale using simcoe and liberty for fruity apricot and mango notes, then lagered (cold conditioned) a hybrid style akin to kolsch.
@NinkasiBrewing





 
Mitch from Stone has documented his trip to the UK here. He brewed Supremely Self Conscious alongside Fergus at Adnams. I'm a big fan of Stone beers and Adnams is a well respected brewer plus I love Black IPAs; so this is surely my most anticipated beer at the fest this year.
@StoneBrewingCo







And last but not least is Spike Buckowski of Georgia brewery Terrapin's collaboration with Shepherd Neame - Treehugger. Its another rarely seen beer for the UK a German style Altbier with authentic Hallertau region hops.
@TerrapinBeerCo

I'm also looking forward to Roosters All Star Brewster's Aromatic Porter and even the GK Abbot's Confession. but there should be something for everyone with 50 beers to choose from! I think you'll agree with me that Wetherspoon have outdone themselves with the selection this year, I'm not sure how they'll raise the bar again in 2014!

All the tasting notes for these beers may be read in the festival program, along with interesting background stories for each of the brewers. All of the beers have already been added to ratebeer, so I've linked them in to the above. Remember that you can get three thirds for the price of the pint during the festival, making it easier to try the full range (don't try 50 in one day!)

Northern Ireland CAMRA and Beoir are coming together to celebrate the festival in the Bridge House Belfast on Saturday 19th October, all are welcome. Its a chance for you to meet fellow beer enthusiasts, a brewer or two and hopefully try all ten US cask beers at the same time.

Thanks are due to Gary Holmes and the marketing team at JDWcreative for sending me through a PDF with all of the pumpclip artwork, cheers guys.

Unlikely Places

Sometimes you bump into people in the most unlikely of places. 

A trip down to the Linen Green craft village last week ended with a coffee in the cafe : who should bump into me but Davy from Tempted Cider. He'd been delivering juices to  the farm shop on site and was refuelling for the journey back to Portadown.

Davy (right) with Mac's cider's Seán
at Hilden Beer Fest August 2011

A cry of "cider!" led me to recognise him and we chatted a while about the apple harvest for the year just gone (pretty poor) and the year to come (signs are good at the moment) and success of his cider south of the border. Some orchards which had produced 16 tonnes in 2011 barely managed a tonne after last years wet weather.

For the first time; some cider apples have been included in the blend, sourced from orchards in the Republic. This should bring more tannin to the mix to make ciders more reminiscent of Somerset which I grew up on.

He's recently secured a large order for a well known large pub chain for their summer cider festival. It will be the first time that a Northern Ireland producer has been featured alongside those from across the water and another great sign that an area that was once dominated by the big boys South of the border is coming into its own with artisinal production. Hopefully they'll take their rightful place in Pete Brown's and Bill Bradshaw's new World's Best Cider.

Wetherspoon Spring 2013 Beer Festival

Wetherspoon do a lot to further the availability of real ale in the UK and the biggest push comes twice a year during their fortnight-long real ale festivals. The Spring 2013 list has just been released and seems to feature even more international collaborations than ever, including one with the illustrious Kelly Ryan of Good George (formerly Thornbridge and Epic).

It runs from 3rd to 21st April.

By my reckoning there are 34 new beers, which is a major improvement on previous beer festivals, though there a lot of similar breweries again. There a umber of interesting styles including the obligatory spiced beer, but there is also a California common beer and two black IPAs as well as a Belgian dubbel brewed by a Trappist monastery's head brewer.

I'll be looking out for the Corfu coffee porter, the Deschutes beer, Wadworth's strong anniversary ale and the IPA from Acorn.

Read on below for more info on the beers and Ratebeer links. As always I'll post some thoughts on whatever beers I get to try once the thing's over.

Arundel Budding Beauty
Inveralmond Frisco Steamy
Shepherd Neame New World Pale Ale
Titanic Molly Brown
WharfeBank Spring Hop
Otter Seville Bitter
Cairngorm Pollination
Marstons Single Hop Pacific Gem (cask)
Conwy Riptide
Leeds Vienna Mild
Lancaster 1842 Pilsner
Corfu Ionian Coffee Porter (cask)
Lodewijk’s Fly By Night (Cask)
Banks’s Cereal Thriller
Hawkshead American Red
Skinners Sennen
RCH Wheat Beer
Pivovar Kocovnik Vivat Bohemia (Cask)
Robinsons Hoptimus
Elgoods Spring Gold
Central City Red racer IPA (cask)
Nethergate Bowler
Hydes Burnt Sienna
Wadworth 6X Anniversary Ale
Everards Malty Tasker
Vasileostrovsky Siberian Red
Devils Backbone American Amber

Deschutes Twilight Ale (cask)
Celt Experience Continental Drift
Acorn Barnsley IPA
Orkney 1878
Daleside Spring Tide
Good George Pacific Pearl
Hilden Number Four   Rudgate Pursuit of Hoppyness Caledonian Brewer's Passion Phoenix St George's Flag O'Hanlons Red Brains Willy Nilly Holts IPA Belhaven Black Lymestone Pounamu Wickwar Station Porter Adnams Belgian Style Abbey Ale Batemans Mocha Moorhouses Amber Rambler Mauldons Blackberry Porter Wolf Tasmanian Wolf Thwaites Daniels Hammer Wood's Twist Grip

The start of another beery month.

GK IPA "action shot"

 Yesterday I made the convoluted journey to Belfast to attend the Royal Society of Chemistry Christmas Lecture "Mines a Pint" given by Professor Jack Pearce, Emeritus Professor of Food Science at Queens University, Belfast. Not having had a chance to meet fellow Northern Ireland chemists, I went along not really sure what to expect. What we got was an entry level talk on brewing and tasting beers with a few tantalising anecdotes and chemistry titbits thrown in.

Jack's first voyage into the world of home-brewing was when he spotted a sign for "brew your own, ha'penny a pint". Fed up with being stung for Belfast beer prices (3/-6!) he opted to give it a try and never looked back. The selection of beers chosen are widely available in supermarkets and in a range of styles, though all from "regional" brewers. Aside from a mishap with beer selection (Old Golden Hen rather than Old Speckled Hen being provided!) the talk went well and the audience seemed appreciative of their new found beery knowledge. 

The beers tasted were Greene King Moorland Old Golden Hen, Shepherds Neame Spitfire & Bishop's Finger, GK IPA, Newcastle Brown and Theakston's Old Peculier. We were given a bit of history about each style and then allowed to taste. Innis & Gunn were mentioned for their use of oak and Brewdog also got a mention, though professedly too hoppy for the Professor! The remaining beer was then shared around and a few cheeses enjoyed.  A fun night but seemed far too brief! Thank you to Dr Dermot Hanna for organising the evening and Professor Jack Pearce for hosting.

18 Empty bottles and a plateful of cheese

I found it interesting to compare Spitfire and Bishop's finger side by side as I always assumed they were the variants on a theme, but noticed that Spitfire was much hoppier and did not really enjoy Bishop's finger at all. I declined the Old Golden Hen as I have recently tried a bottle and the GK IPA was as bland as I remember. I do enjoy Old Peculier however.

Post-lecture we headed along the Ormeau Road to the Vineyard off-licence where I was delighted to see that both Kernel and Buxton beers were in stock, as well as some Sam Smith's beers I had not yet had a chance to sample. I was also on hand to advise my friend Julie on some good winter warmers for Christmas.

Not so Christmassy

We finished off the evening with a pint in the Bridge Bar - Box Steam Christmas Blonde, which is one of those beers that starts off promising but becomes a bit meh by the end of the glass. In fact the whole "Christmas" beer selection for Wetherspoon this time around is fairly dull. To send me to bed with a good taste in my mouth I couldn't resist tucking into my S.C.G.A.NS from The Kernel. It poured hazy pale amber with a good thick head and gentle carbonation. Delicious aroma of mango, lychees and lime zest. Quite a pithy bitterness with resin following on swiftly afterwards. Long finish which saw me all the way back to the hostel. I did not enjoy the early start to get back to Cookstown however!

Whilst I was in Belfast a much bigger beer event was alo happening, the British Guild of Beer writers Annual Awards ceremony. The winners list reads as a whos-who in the beer writing world, and its interesting how all winners are also users of Twitter, suggesting that those who embrace new media and social networking are most likely to get ahead. Rather than list the winners here I'll direct you to someone who was there.

Click to see this properly!

December is shaping up to be another beerful month, what with my planned Fullers Vintage Ale tasting at home next weekend, the 12 stouts from Bristol beer factory and plenty of other beery goodness awaiting me in the run up to Christmas here in Cookstown (and indeed at home in Yeovil) I shall be needing a detox month in January!

Wetherspoon Festival roundup

Yesterday marked the end of the second of 2011's JD Wetherspoon beer festivals. I've just got back from a great weekend visiting the Northern Ireland Wetherspoon pubs and got a lot more beers tried. Before the festival I was sceptical about the beer line up, so how did my experiences pan out?

The Good

By far the stand-out beer for me was Adnams American Style IPA (good brewer vlog here). It pissed all over Stone's effort (which I was disappointed about) and I enjoyed it so much I managed to fit in three pints of it over the weekend. For such an unassuming amber beer it is packed full of hop flavour, with character from each of the five hop types used, perfectly balanced. I only hope Adnams make it a regular brew, hop availability permitting!

St Austell Proper Black was even better in cask-conditioned format than the afore-tasted bottle.

Bend Eclipse Cascadian Dark Ale was the best of the American efforts. Plenty of cascade hops on the nose with a balance of sweet lemon and bitter chocolate and great condition made it very moreish.

The bad

Caledonian brewery and Doug Odell got together to produce cask 90 shilling. The beer was basically pure butterscotch and not at all pleasant to drink. Conversely, some people really enjoyed this.

Taking the pith had far too much peel added making it seem like drinking washing up liquid, I'd like to see future versions with much less.

The ugly

The first third of Everards Whakatu I tried was undrinkable, horrible beer a real butterbomb. I put this down to brewery error and it was the first beer in about three years I've been unable to finish.I gave it another try back in Belfast and itwas much better, perhaps a little thin but a decent NZ-hopped session beer. It goes to show that for all the decent cellar managers Wetherspoon ha, there are still those who don't know how to look afterbeer properly

My biggest disappointment? Caledonian Cossack Imperial Russian Stout. Neither fullbodied nor complex as the tasting notes suggested. Very little hop character andtasting more like a low ABV stout than something of 6%, verydisappointing indeed.

In all theturn-outwas mediocre at best thistime around, with a couple of hidden gems that I'd drink again. I got through 30 of the 50 beers, not bad going for living in the arse end of nowhere! If you're interested in what I thought of the other beers than check the ratebeer thingummy over there --->

As  always, I'm nosy and want to  hear your thoughts on the festival selection or your reasons for avoiding if that was the case.

There are a few other festival write-ups already online. The beer monkey did a Glasgow perambulation whilst Tandelman got a chance to try a lot of beers in one night and agrees with me Re Adnams.

(I'll update this post with other links if I find any more!)

Further Notes on JDW Autumn Fest

After my post earlier in the week I decided to go through rate beer in order to find out how many beers were new and was pleasantly surprised! By my count there are 28! I then decided to create all of the beers that weren't already listed and thought I'd post them here as a quick-find guide for those rating on the fly.

I'm not sure how many of these beers are aliases, the Cotleigh beer certainly is. You'll be pleased to see two retired beers have also been brought back into production. You have just over a fortnight starting on Wednesday 5th October. Happy sampling!

(Edit, you can now dowload the festival program here)

Adnams American Style IPA

Banks & Taylor’s Albion Ale

Bateman’s XXXB

Beartown Wojtek

Bell’s Kalamazoo Black Silk

Belhaven St Andrews Ale

Bend Eclipse Cascadian Dark Ale

Box Steam Piston Broke

Brains Dark

Brakspear Triple

Brewsters American Chopper

Butcombe Rare Breed

Caledonian Cossack Imperial Russian Stout

Coach House Whiplash

Cotleigh Commando Hoofing IPA

Evan Evans 1767

Everards Whakatu

Exmoor Hart

Fat Head’s Yakima Sun

Harviestoun Number of the Beast

Hereford Wyvern Warrior

Hilden Twisted Hop

Hook Norton Flagship Ale

JW Lees The Governor

Maxim Double Maxim Andersons Best Scotch

Moorhouse’s Pendle Porter

Mordue Red Rye Riwaka

Moorland Old Crafty Hen

Oakleaf 10 Little Acorns

Odell 90 Shilling

Okells Saison

RCH Firey Liz

Roosters Last Stand

Salopian Vapour Trail

Shepherd Neame Whitstable Bay

St Austell Proper Black

St Peter’s Golden Ale

Stone San Diego Session IPA

Thornbridge Brother Rabbit

Thwaites Daniel’s Hammer

Titanic Fit Out

Traditional Scottish Ales Taking the Pith

Tring Pudding Porter

Vale Long Dark Nights

Wadworth Octoberzest

Wells Naked Gold

Wharfebank Treacle Toffee Stout

White Horse Horse Rustler

Woodforde’s Kett’s Rebellion

Wychwood Ginger Beard

Wetherspoon Autumn Beer Festival

At the end of last week the Wetherspoon Autumn Beer Festival list was released, but I've only had a chance to look at it now. You can find it here.

Running from October 5th-23rd and is as big as ever with 50 beers available, with extra ciders and perries planned for the fortnight too. On first glance there was nothing all too inspiring, a lot of the brewers featured are the same as last time around, but digging a bit deeper there's still beers to get excited about. In addition to some decent old favourites (St Austell Proper Black, Thornbridge Brother Rabbit) there's a saison from Okells, Cossac Imperial Stout from Caledonian and an Everards beer single hopped with Whatauku. I love new zealand hops so look forward to getting a chance to try that. Northern Ireland is represented too with Hilden's new beer Twisted Hop.

Something to get more excited about are the five beers brewed by American brewers in the UK. Previously these international beers brewed in the UK have been festival highlights. This time we're treated to:

Eclipse Cascadian Dark Ale 4.8% was designed by Tonya of Bend Brewing. However she "was stranded at the airport" because of Hurricane Irene. Not sure where this was brewed.

Kalamazoo Black Silk, a 4% oatmeal stout from John Mallet of Bell’s Brewery brewed at Marston’s.

 

Fat Head’s Yakima Sun, a 5% US hopped ESB by Matt Cole, from Fat Head’s Brewery, has travelled to Shepherd Neame.

Odell 90 Shilling (5.3%) from Doug Odell was brewed at Caledonian. I've always found this beer a bit too sweet for my palate in bottle form; so look forward to seeing how it works in cask.

Stone San Diego Session IPA is probably the most exciting. Mitch Steele, from Stone Brewery has brewed a hop-forward session strength American Pale Ale at Wadworths brewery.

 

So there's actually plenty to choose from. I recommend you go along to your nearest branch (unless you know its a bad one...) and make use of the three thirds for the price of a pint. Remember you can get 50p off per pint too if you're a CAMRA member!

Northern Ireland Wetherspoon has again organised a coach crawl around all 9 pubs over two days over the final weekend (22,d and 23rd). Details can be found on the branch website under the what's on page. I went along last year and its great craic, so can heartily recommend it. The week before is the Northern Ireland branch 30th anniversary too, also at the Bridge House in Belfast.

A confession

I have a confession: I love JD Wetherspoon. Not that any of their pubs would be in my top ten, but who ranks pubs in order of preference anyway? 

Wetherspoon as a pub chain will always have its detractors – in part due to its success at a time when still 25 pubs a week are closing their doors for ever. In 2009 they announced they’d open 250 new pubs and create 10000 new jobs. This year they went even further with chairman and founder Tim Martin announcing his intention to double the size of the company in the coming years.

I’ve always had a soft spot for Wetherspoon pubs. As a student in an unfamiliar town I knew I would at least be able to get a pint of decent ale from them. Moving to Northern Ireland 18 months ago would have been a lot harder had it not been for the fact that Wetherspoon pubs are dotted around the province. Without them the only place I could get a pint of cask beer would be Belfast. The food menu is varied and consistent from one place to the next, which is handy for a vegetarian as I know there are dishes I can eat. But it goes beyond that. Wetherspoon more than any other pub chain I can think of make the effort to be appealing to the full range of possible pub customers. From the early morning coffee gulpers to the lunchtime pinters to the full-on session fanatic. Its somewhere I could comfortably take both grandparents and grandchildren* and know they would be welcomed.

Aside from the community pub aspect Wetherspoon does a lot to promote good beer. They hold twice annual festivals with 50 beers from up and down the country.  When the festivals aren’t on they make an effort to support local breweries and at all times they allow people to try before they buy. They also pioneered the use of third pint glasses for sampling during beer festivals which is a great way to discover new favourite brews. Recently they’ve also been making an effort to reach beyond the borders of the UK with brewers being flown in from far flung corners to brew for their festivals.

People might bemoan the fact that as a larger company they can demand prices close to the cost of production for breweries, but they are able to take beer close to spoilage that other pubs wouldn’t touch with a bargepole because they know they can shift it. Their nationwide presence means that any beer that gets onto the seasonal list can be sure of plenty of promotion up and down the country. Being able to buy the beer for less means that they can sell it for less and if people see that they can get a pint for cheaper they’re more likely to give it a go. There’s still a huge proportion of the UK that have not even tried real ale, but if even one percent of these can be persuaded to try real ale and one percent of those (that’s 0.01% fact fans!) go on to further explore beyond the confines of mass-marketed lager brands then that surely can only be a good thing.

Other people do not like the atmosphere, describing them as “soul-less drinking barns” this may be the case with some but I’ve also found some very warm and welcoming pubs within the chain too. They also make an effort to preserve historical exteriors and convert buildings to pub use (see photo), something that should be applauded with pubs being demolished left right and centre. The lack of background music (which yes, is probably a cost saving on broadcast license) means that you can have a good conversation with your neighbour without having to shout.  There are generally plenty of tables too, how many town centre pubs/bars can boast that these days where vertical drinking has become the norm.

The Old Court House, Coleraine, a conversion to pub use.

Yes, Wetherspoon are not perfect. They are frequently understaffed but I find those staff that do work there to be well trained, professional and polite. There’s always room for improvement. I’ve had some dire pints in Wetherspoon pubs but no more so than in any other pub up and down the country. I’ve equally had some of my best drinking experiences in a Wetherspoon pub. Every year the Belfast Bridge Bar organizes a two-day coach trip around the Northern Ireland establishments to sample beers during the beer festival. This is free for participants and includes breakfast each morning too. I fully intend to go along this year too (stay tuned for the blog in November).

People are fully entitled to their opinion about Wetherspoon. CAMRA members who receive discount vouchers don’t have to use them. I don’t want to hear about your self-righteous non-use of them at the AGM or any other event.  It’s your right to choose not to frequent Wetherspoon pubs but equally it’s our right to make up our own minds without hearing all of your negativity.I for one will continue to frequent their fine establishments.

So fellow bloggers, what‘s your take on Wetherspoon?

*I’m not even a father yet.

full disclosure: I am a CAMRA member but am in no way affiliated to JD Wetherspoon