This weeks Desert Island Beers is a real coup for us as it features none other than Sir (well he would be if he was a UK citizen) Tomme Arthur, the co-founder and director of brewery operations for Port Brewing and The Lost Abbey.

A professional brewer for more than 15 years, he is widely regarded as one of the leaders of the American Craft brewing renaissance. Tomme lives in San Diego County with his wife and two daughters. A native San Diegan, Tomme returned home to San Diego in 1995 after earning his Bachelor of Arts in English from Northern Arizona University where he cultivated his passion for brewing.

In 1996, he began his professional brewing career at the now defunct Cervecerias La Cruda (The Hangover Brewery) in downtown San Diego. After La Cruda closed its doors in March 1997, Tomme went to work for White Labs in San Diego where he spent his days selling yeast and developing product as he waited patiently for the right brewing job to become available. In 1997 he was hired by Pizza Port in Solana Beach where he remained Head Brewer until June 2005 when he was named Director of Brewery Operations.

Tomme Arthur

No ordinary pils

Orval

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale

In addition to promoting San Diego as a great beer city, Tomme is known for his bold experimentation and willingness to blur the boundaries between beer, wine and spirits; with his flavor-forward brews having inspired a new generation of brewers and consumers to re-think their notions of what a beer could and should be.

During the 8 or so years that Tomme was Head Brewer at Pizza Port the brewery won 13 Great American Beer Festival Medals, numerous medals at the Chicago Real Ale Festival as well as other regional and national competitions. And after joining Port Brewing in 2006, Tomme kept up his winning ways as in 2007 Port Brewing was named Great American Beer Festival, Small Brewery of the Year, and Tomme Small Brewer of the Year.

To cap it all in 2008 he and Port Brewing were then named World Champion Small Brewer and Brewery at the International World Beer Cup. Since then he’s taken home a raft of further medals and been consistently noted as one of the world’s top brewers.

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This weeks Desert Island Beers features Jeff Rosenmeier, the founder and owner of Lovibonds Brewery of Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire. Jeff caught the brewing bug back in the mid 1990’s after tasting a friends homebrewed stout. His successful career in software engineering gave him the opportunity to move to England. The job entailed traveling all over Europe, giving him a further opportunity to sample many of the great European beer styles during the week and at the weekend Jeff would then be busy cloning them in his garden shed.

Finally, the hobby put a strain on household resources (not enough water pressure, not enough electric phases) and Jeff packed in his successful career to start Lovibonds in his adopted home of Henley-on-Thames. Lovibonds is one of only a handful of craft brewers in the UK that kegs 100% of its production, despite disapproval from the consumer rights group, CAMRA.

Jeff Rosenmeier

A castaway classic?

Orval and cheese

Cheeky La Chouffe

The Beers

Hello Jeff! Which five beers would you want to have with you if you were stranded on a desert island, and why?
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Orval is the sort of beer spoken about with reverence. I like to think the same goes for North Bar.

It should have been me and my friend Tom sat there, dissecting Leeds United’s yo-yoing fortunes, laughing at the Howson Is Now blog and deliberating the creaminess of the Orval cheese whilst sat on the classroom chairs and the well leaned on tables.

But it’s my brother partnering this trip due to Tom’s tight schedule as a relatively new father, North being one place us siblings have a record of sharing together, along with a sense of adventure and an intuition for getting pissed. And brother Fletch is not going listen to me rabbit on about the brettanomyces qualities of the difference between yeast-in and yeast-out, or how the bitterness of this anti-quintessential Belgium beer cuts through the cheese (which it does) …

And so I’m drinking one of my favourite beers with a cheese I’d actually craved (made by the brewers) and I’m chatting about Leeds United’s yo-yoing fortunes, laughing at the Howson Is Now blog, and… generally forgetting about the beer and cheese North’s manager had so kindly put to one side for me because I couldn’t make Orval Day earlier in the month.

That North Bar had enough bottles of aged Orval to reserve some is very kind. That they could even get some of this coveted cheese let alone put some aside for me speaks of their customer service ethos. That I scribbled a hasty one liner on my smartphone as my only tasting note is just plain disrespectful to their efforts.

But here’s the thing. Sat in the dimly lit confines of North, veiled in conviviality and that twilight between sober and drunkenness, the yellow light of North illuminates a certain truth about beer.

So the two-year aged Orval tastes good, and is probably worth waiting to experience. So the cheese is rare and barely seen outside of Belgium. And not to mention the bread – so luxuriously soft and cleansing – which is to die for. So what? Is beer not meaningless if not enjoyed in a place that’s bright with conversation, buoyed with gesticulations, rich in the patchwork diversity of people, and splashed with beers of colours Yates or Lloyds or Scream could never imagine.

If an evening spent extolling the virtues of Ken Bates leadership of Leeds United could be improved in anyway, it’s surely by the creamy monastic cheese paired with the musty, peppery Orval and all its always-changing quirks of character. Does it matter that I thought the end of the bottle shared the same earthiness of the bottom of a well made mojito?

No, because it was a good night out with great beer. We saw the hygge, we tried aged Orval, we put the world to rights, and we liked it.

Cheese, beer, chat. Football optional.

Potted Cheese with Toast

Like me, you are probably more familiar with the phrases Potted Beef or Potted Shrimp than Potted Cheese. ‘Potting’ ingredients is a traditional way of stretching ingredients with butter while adding flavours and it can be  done with a good cheese in the same way as it can with meat or fish. These days it is a great way of doing  something different with your cheeseboard and also linking the beer you’re drinking to the food you’re eating.

Ingredients

350g Yorkshire Blue cheese (Stilton or any other strong, crumbly cheese can be used)
75g unsalted butter (at room temperature and cut into cubes)
½ teaspoon ground mace
3 tablespoons Beer Read the rest of this entry »

My last review of this bar shows that I wasn’t massively taken by my last visit. I had been on a sunny bank holiday weekend and had been disappointed by the lack of summer or pale ales available on draught.

People who know assured me that I should go back and take another look, focussing on the bottled selection rather than what they have available on draught. Firstly I should say that the bar is far larger than I realised on my first visit (we had sat outside last time) which is lucky as I’m told that it can get very busy on evenings through the week.

The range of bottled beers could easily keep a beer hound happy all evening. Naturally my instinct is to compare it to the places that I know and visit often and the ranges of beers available offers easy comparison with North Bar in Leeds. The range of bottles available is probably broadly similar to North although I would again mention that the range is pretty limited in Porterhouse if you actually want a pint. The other main difference between the  two is the decor and I have to say that, while I do find the rustic minimalism of North appealing, the strange copper (nautical themed) interior of the Porterhouse was ultimately far more comfortable.

On the day I opted for an Anchor Pale Ale and recommended a bottle of Orval for Jack but there was plenty of range on the beer menu so I’m sure most people wi’ll find something they like here.