Real Ale Reviews

British beers are bland and boring, aren’t they?

Well, that’s what the general consensus isn’t it?

I’ve heard this comment twice in the last two weeks. A week ago, my friend Sam was on business in northern France, where he was accosted by a local spouting rubbish about how all English people drink is Stella.

Yes, in Yates. But not everyone. And today, one of the breweries pioneering the exact opposite of bland and boring beers, Scotland’s BrewDog, were interviewed by The Full Pint. Both parties agreed that the perception of British beers is one of ‘uninspired session ales‘ and James went so far as to say ‘pretty much all the small UK brewers make the same boring 4% ales’.

Now hang on a minute.

I get where these perceptions come from. When Greene King IPA is the most exciting beer in a pub this country’s brewing scene is in trouble. And I can understand how the US craft brewing scene can consider the UK beer market uninteresting. But to say that British brewers all make the same beers with the same hops – that’s simply not true.

Yes there are predictable beers. Yes there are predictable breweries. And it could be argued that the British beer scene has been in the doldrums over the last 30 or 40 years perhaps?

But not anymore. Perhaps we should thank the craft brewing scene across the Atlantic for been a catalyst? Maybe the UK really are fed up of the monotonous shite of Carling and Fosters? But there’s no doubt that beer and brewing is in the beginnings (or even well in the middle?) of a renaissance.

Boring? Halcyon and Jaipur? Golden Champion?

Uninspired? Gadds No. 3? Summer Lightning?

The same hops? Unpronounceable IPA, Ring of Fire?

Look, I’m a massive fan of American ales, my top ten beers would be full of North American pale ales and hop laden concoctions. But I will say that there are British breweries just as bold and daring as many other countries around the world. And I’m  a massive fan of BrewDog, they push boundaries and are fun to drink.

We should not be distinguishing between beers across borders and classifying countries as bland or boring. We should be praising those beers that do dare to be different, those that shine above others when you’re tasting, and those that you’ll always come back to, because when you need a beer, when you’re desperate, they are the beers that you will come back to time and time again.

‘Tadcaster Brown’ doesn’t have the same ring…

This week saw the end of Newcastle Brown Ale production in the North-East, as Scottish & Newcastle Brewery, one of the largest brewing conglomerates in the UK, announced they are shifting production of ‘Newcy Broon’ to one of their other plants in Tadcaster, North Yorkshire.

This marks the end of over 90 years of a brewing tradition in the North East and ends an association that has become mutually synonymous for both the locality and the brand.

This couples with the current threat hanging over the Tetley’s brand, with a reported shift of the famous Leeds beer to Northampton when Carlsberg closes the Tetley’s brewery next year.

Here at Real Ale Reviews, we champion innovation and development in beers, and could possibly be expected to be pleased to witness the downfall of the larger brands as their multinational owners struggle to balance vast production and decreased sales (resulting from, I am sure,  the growth in desire for a quality pint of cask ale as opposed to a bland ‘Smooth’ brand). However, there is a strong argument in the defense of traditionalism in brewing culture.

Myself and Mark met at University and one of our close friends is a Geordie. One of the first drinking memories I have of our friend is his pride as he introduced us all to the joy of Newcastle Brown. He made sure we were drinking it at the correct temperature; in the correct half-pint glasses and told us of drunken adventures he had enjoyed growing up in the North-East.

The Geordie was by no means an ale drinker, preferring the cost of cheap lagers that dominated the Uni years. But this was one of the things that he could show off to his new companions – Newcastle had a recognisable brand to be proud of. (Predictably, his other pride was Newcastle United Football Club, but that’s another story!).

As certain household brands came under corporate ownership, they immediately lost that sense of belonging and connection to the local community. No matter what promises a large company might make about retaining an interest in the region, money talks and it soon becomes apparent that large companies such as N&S (themselves owned by the Carlsberg Group) didn’t get themselves into positions of international importance by remaining in one place.

Discussing this move on internet forums, one thought that came across was the idea that some of the large brands that are seriously struggling would benefit from a move away from the larger owners and start afresh in a smaller, dedicated operation that produces the ale for the sheer love of it, putting some pride and care back into the brewing procedure.

Of course, this is a pipedream and there is certainly no shortage of excellent breweries across the country doing this with their own brands. But there is a reason that certain ales have survived as long as they have, outliving their contemporaries and continuing throughout a world that has changed dramatically around it.

This is far from the end of Newcastle Brown in terms of a production beer, but taking it away from its hometown makes it just another beer.

Copper Dragon blaze through the credit crunch

Okay, I’ll say it: I’m sick of it as well. For well over a year now, we are bombarded with horrendous doom-mongering phrases such as ‘credit crunch’ and people cannot talk about ANYTHING without the grating expression “…in the current climate”. Yes, it’s a bad situation; but in the face of adversity, I often prefer to take a look at the positives, if only to have a holiday from the negatives for a while.

Which is why I felt a glow of enthusiasm whilst browsing the various news sites and blogs this morning and noticing there was much talk of the financial success and growth of Skipton’s Copper Dragon brewery.

Now I confess, I have a huge soft spot for CD; their Golden Pippin ale was the first beer that truly converted me to real ale, and began a sequence of events that has led me and my companions to invest a ridiculous amount of time talking about, writing about and (most importantly) brewing beer. In a garage, using a converted Hotpoint Twin-tub washing machine, we have spent around nine months simply trying to create an imitation of our favourite beer (for the record, our recipe is tantalisingly close now; brew three gave us a lesson, however – you CAN have too much alcohol in beer!).

It is this kind of creative spirit and dedication to finding a high quality ale that has generated a rapidly rising industry that is on the way to becoming big-business. There is money to be made in running a relatively small brewing operation it seems, if a professional approach to business and high quality of products can be achieved.

In the past year, Copper Dragon has increased turnover by 50% to £4m, as well as moving into a new £4.5m brewery and visitor centre last November and increasing staff levels by half.

This is an incredible growth for a fledgling company of seven years competing in a market that has in the past been considered very tricky to break into.

Other micro-breweries across the country are also making huge leaps in production levels and standards. Mark Dredge over on the ‘Pencil and Spoon’ blog reported on his visit to Thornbridge’s new multi-million pound brewery that looks incredibly advanced and futuristic in his photographs (also see Reluctant Scoop’s photos of the opening). As well as the move (and increased capacity) the company were projected to be reaching sales of £650,000 this year, another company that was only founded this decade (in 2004).

All the evidence of why such companies are increasing their trade can be found in the confines of a neatly-packaged glass bottle. The breweries have developed exciting brands and terrific, boundary-pushing flavours that can only have been blended together by those who are excited, and want to excite, with their craft.

The country may be bust, but the boom of one of the most exciting growth industries continues through the hell of recession (there – I said it; no need for that phrase again!).