Friday on My mind

The Easy Pete special

The weekend is upon us and for all sorts of reasons it can’t come too quickly for me.

Excess Baggage
Can I suggest that while you munch your toast or snaffle your coco pops this Saturday morning and if you can aver Adam and Joe (you can always listen again) you may want to tune into Excess Baggage on radio 4. 10 am.

It’s a travel show which occasionally treads a bit too close to smug trekking in Patagonia for my liking, but this week hurrah they went for a grumpy bearded Northerner sorry Britain’s Leading beer writer(aka Peter Shaun Brown) who’ll be telling either Sandy T or Johnny Mc about lugging a barrel of beer to India.

Honestly there’s no escaping him when he’s not twittering or hanging around borough market he’s on the bleedin’ radio, he’ll be getting a part in The Wire next : ).

Anyway have a listen or use the iplayer or the podcast or sit next to the speaker with your cassette recorder and press play and record or maybe just embroider what he says in a cross stitch.

Go on if everyone listens he won’t have owt to moan about and being from Yorkshire this lack of misery in his life will confuse him .

Owt for Nowt
I’ll off to god’s own county myself this weekend, never a bad thing. Thought I’d belie our totally mistaken reputation for being tight by giving you a tune.

Apologies for the obviousness but I’ve only just sorted out who anybody is from V’60’s. Apart from V’Beatles and V’Stones I always thought most other 60’s tunes were by V’Hollies or Jerry and V’ Pacemakers so finding a best of on the market by the likes of V’ Easybeats is part of my tardy education and I like the bit at the beginning that sort of falls over its self.

My platter is a bit crackly so maybe you can just put in on and dance round the room with something cold to hand (not a packet of peas) and even if you are not going to the city like me make sure you have good a Friday and a corking weekend.

Friday on My Mind by The Easybeats

Normal Service will resume shortly

I should've known a book launch for a book on beer ohh my head.! Well done PB .

Hops and Glory:

Hurrah BLBW's new book:

has come out and it's excellent I finished it early this morning. If you like popular History ,travel writing or indeed beer you can't go far wrong. It's very funny and yet informative and in some parts quite moving. Oh and the beers good too!

If you go to to his site below there's more details of readings and possibly beer tastings and also a link to amazon where they are doing good deals.

Pete Brown Hops and Glory : One man's search for the beer that built the British Empire.
Here's my version of drinking a 140 year old bottle of beer.

Lost and Found

Last orders
Our mini odyssey to Burton on Trent.
The purpose for which was to carry a small barrel of specially brewed India Pale Ale on the start of its journey. On arrival at Burton we had the happy job of meeting with various brewers/beer types from Coors, Marston’s, Burton Bridge and sampling a sister barrel to the one on it’s way to India with BLBW. We also drank some of their own IPAs. The guy in the photo is Steve Wellington the brewer of Worthing White Shield with his hoard.

IPAs are strongish 4.5-8% beers high in hop content. Hops not only add flavour to beer but are also believed to help in its preservation. To someone expecting the usual bitter/ale taste they are often a surprise being lighter and citrusy but with a dry hop flavour making them refreshing and pleasant to drink.

Here are some British IPAs you might like to try:
Worthing White shield: many believe this to be the king of British IPAs and to my shame I only had my first pint in Burton (which is good in a way). Safe to say it’s really good.
Marston Old Imperial: is also really good a balanced delicious beer.
Burton Bridge Old Empire IPA: Was really good too slightly darker than the other but just as good.

Unlike the likes of London Pride IPA aren’t “session” ales being too strong to drink a lot of and also too flavoursome to knock back too quickly but are great with food the sharpness of the hops cuts through oily/fatty foods well. So try them with medium strength cheeses, but also pates and pork products. I’m not sure the curry we had (for obvious reasons) was best accompaniment as the strong spicing wiped out some of the IPA characters.

At Last the oldest drinkable beer in the world!

We heard many stories in Burton about all the different breweries and firms, it reminded me of Bordeaux or Oporto with all the different vineyards and wine sellers, the whole town is dotted with old offices, stores etc. One such story was of the cases of beer found in the cellars of old brewery that was being closed. Follow the links below for the full story. Suffice to say some the beer found had been brewed in Burton on Trent in 1860’s often to celebrate significant events in the brewers life.

Ian from Coors who now own Worthington’s had brought a bottle of 1869 (?) beer for us to taste. Lets’ get this right this beer is of the same vintage as Billy the Kid, is older than motor cars, Winston Churchill, it’s older than football it’s almost 140 years old.
I’m sorry my flash wasn’t working so I’ve no pics.

The bottle looks like a classic beer bottle but double size so was 2pints (?) or maybe wine bottle size. It had a cork and wax lid which were carefully removed. The beer inside was dark in colour like a darker ale. It didn’t smell of anything greatly but when you tasted it was quite strange. It didn’t taste like any beer we drink today as Ian pointed out most of the flavour was on the tip of tongue. Most of the alcohol had evaporated so it was around the 1% mark. It reminded me more of sherry or Madeira, a rich complex taste not unpleasant but not necessarily something to drink everyday. Remember that most wines don’t last this long, but the hops and alcohol in beer (and possibly the sulphur in Burton water) helped preserve and develop this beer flavour.
So a remarkable drink and something not available to many alas.

Where to drink in Burton on Trent.

Burton Bridge:
Excellent Pub attached to a small brewery, definitely keeping the heart of Burton’s brewing tradition going . Don't let the tankards put you off.

The Cooper Tavern a strange pub on the cusp of Real spoddery the back room bar is a trestle table with barrels behind, bottles on shelves, fairy lights and Greek chorus of regulars. A little quiet on Monday evening but a great pub the sort of place that if it were in France or Italy we’d get eulogies singing it's praises in the foodie pages but it is overlooked because it’s a side street in Staffordshire : worth a visit.

More on old Burton ale Here, and here