Readers will, of course, need no reminding that I maintain a healthy scepticism about the benefits of aging beer deliberately, as opposed to drinking it fresh. LATER EDIT: Apparently, a few forgetful souls did need reminding, so here’s a link. Do try and keep up in future. Having said that, there’s no denying that beers… Read more »
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The BeerStash Chronicles 6: “You want La Chouffe? You can’t handle La Chouffe.”
So, in a midseason revamp cynically calculated to try and boost flagging audience figures, this BeerStash Chronicle once again strays from the agreed format, in that I won’t be tasting a beer that has been knocking around my collection – by which I mean “beers I haven’t got around to drinking yet” – for years…. Read more »
The BeerStash Chronicles 5: Lager than Life
There seems to be a lot of lager about at the moment. That may well be down to several factors coming together at the same time. The coronavirus lockdown means there’s less (or no) ale being brewed for pubs, so the economies of the industry make it less viable to brew ale just for at-home… Read more »
The BeerStash Chronicles 4: A Touch of Glass
As one of those generous souls who believes in giving something back, I run the occasional beer appreciation session for chef students at Westminster Kingsway College. With most drinks knowledge in classic chef education focused on wine, it’s an attempt to at least give beer a fighting chance with the generation that will be cooking… Read more »
The BeerStash Chronicles 3: “But why’s it called wine?”
An excellent question. Why is a barley wine called a wine, when it’s so very clearly and marvellously a beer? For a detailed study of the history of the term, let’s look no further than this excellent exposition by my friend and colleague Martyn Cornell http://zythophile.co.uk/2010/09/14/so-what-is-the-difference-between-barley-wine-and-old-ale/ The Campaign for Real Ale, meanwhile, tells us that… Read more »
The BeerStash Chronicles 1: A matter of taste
Like many jaded hacks, one of my initial thoughts on being told to stay at home as the coronavirus took hold was, “well, that’s a chance to do a bit more blogging”. Inevitably, I reasoned, the multitudes sitting on their sofas with the thin end of bugger all to do, scrolling dead-eyed and listless through… Read more »
There’s a Starman waiting in the Brewery!
Some years ago, my then-small son came home from primary school and, unexpectedly, asked me “what do you do for a job?” Delighted that he was taking an interest, I explained about journalism and dug out some copies of a number of newspapers and magazines containing articles which bore my byline. He regarded these with… Read more »
It’s a Trappist!
As someone very clever once remarked, just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should. They were almost certainly talking about something even more important than beer, such as building an atomic bomb or holding a referendum, but there are also plenty of breweries who would be well advised to have the saying inscribed… Read more »
“A beer sommelier? So, is that a real thing?”
The query, which I was most recently asked when I hosted a beer tasting for delegates to the Dads Network Live event in London recently, isn’t that uncommon in in one form or another. Even people familiar with the role a wine sommelier plays in the on-trade – and that’s far from everyone – can… Read more »
The Treasure of the Sierra Nevada
There is much talk of consolidation in beer circles at the moment. It seems to received wisdom on both sides of the Atlantic seems to be that the craft beer boom has left us overbreweried, which will inevitably lead to the big global players snapping up bargains by buying out the biggest craft players, while… Read more »