Fullers and BBC day 3

So its been a while and with moving back to the UK and trying to find employment I haven't been able to update the blog! Sorry for this. I'm back now and I'm working on several ideas for blogs in the next few weeks. In the meantime here is my review of my last day at the Beer Bloggers Conference in London.

 The last day was optional but there was no chance I was passing up a chance to visit a family run brewery in London. So despite my somewhat tender nature I got up had breakfast and made the long trek over to Fullers. I thought I was going to be late with the silly Sunday service tube trains but after jumping in a taxi I got there bang on time. First up I have to say a massive thanks to the whole team at Fullers. They worked on a Sunday especially for us and they worked damn hard making sure we all had a great time. When we arrived there was a massive choice of excellently kept Fullers cask to try. It was a bit early for my still rather tender head and I opted for a half of Chiswick Bitter which was rather tasty.


After all the troops arrived it was time for the real reason we were all here; the chance to have a good look around the brewery. I won't say too much about the workings of the brewery as I am sure most people reading this have seen a brewery or two (or twenty). Needless to say though it was the perfect mix of old and new. Some of the original kit still stays in the brewery (although no longer used) and they had the scariest lab I have seen in a brewery. I could spend many a geeky hour in their testing samples and playing with the equipment.

Next it was back into the old hock cellars to have some special beers and food. I can't list all of the beers we had as we had so many fantastic one's. All of them served with commentary from Derek Prentice from Fullers. Fullers Reserve 2000 and 2010, Brewers Reserve 1 and 3 and Past Masters. Everyone as good as the next. Fullers sometimes get a bit of stick from typical ale drinkers and especially from younger drinkers such as myself who are championing craft keg as well as cask but I was truly impressed with my tour of Fullers and all of the beers.

I then spent the rest of my afternoon with some of my new friends in the Euston Tap. This made me remember why I like finding new pubs.

I will be writing a little post about Fullers in the near future so stay tuned for that. Next post coming soon is my reasons for avoiding this years Scottish Real Ale Festival which will be a balanced look at why I couldnt bring myself to go this year. To make sure I don't ruffle too many feathers I am going to take my time and try to make it as balanced as possible.

My top 4 French beers for London

Ive chosen a selection of 4 French beers to bring to the Beer Bloggers Conference in London. French you say? They make beer? Well yes they do and very well indeed. I could have brought tens, maybe hundreds of beers. But I have my bank balance and my back to think of when getting the Eurostar. So I chose the following four to bring to London (I should point out at this stage that they are all 750ml but still wont go around everyone so sorry if you dont get to try)

First up is a Belgian Style strong ale. Saint Rieul Grand Cru. For me a great example of a French brewery making a Belgain style. Its 9% so it a big hitter but its very,very tasty. Here is what she looks like

Second is one of my personal favourites from my time here in France. Its brewed by a Scotsman at DeProef in Belgium but he lives in France. Confused? Me too.....Not strictly French but the recipe was made here at least. Its called Agent Provocateur (yes like the ladies knickers) and it is described as  ' a hybrid of an IPA and a Belgian golden ale ' but I would probably call it an IPA. Its 6.5% abv and she is a beauty. Here is how she looks

Next is proof that French brewers can also make up styles. Fleurac make a Triple Dark IPA. Confused? Me too......Its 8% abv and mighty tasty.  She looks like this

Lastly is my favourite. This is a special one. It takes 24 months to make and it is aged in oak wine barrels. It starts of as a sour beer and becomes more funky and a little woody over time. The bottle I am bringing is one of only 500 made this year. Its pretty young but still tasting fantastically complex and interesting. Bulles de Vignes is 6% and will probably be sure to split opinion.Here is my photo of year 2011 in the shop they all came from

And finally I might have a couple of little bottles of something from a brewery called De Struise but I am sure nobody would be interested in that!


Here is what they all look like (and hopefully will still look like tomorrow)

If you are going to the conference, hunt me down at some point and I will try and make sure you get some. 


Cheers


M

Raising the Bar

For the past week or so I have started watching a BBC show. It was a farce from the beginning, it involved lots of misunderstandings, someone who wasn't really sure what was going on and quite a lot of booze. You would be forgiven for thinking I was talking about the 1980's comedy 'Allo 'Allo but just like that the BBC have cracked the mix of farce and comedy once again with Oz and Hugh Raise the Bar. The pairing of Oz Clarke and Hugh Dennis is much more fluid this year and seems much more professional than last years Oz and Hugh Drink to Christmas.

                                                               Copyright 2010 BBC

Don't get me wrong it certainly doesn't live up to the comedy pairing of Oz Clarke and James May in their wine series or in their tour of Britain and it isn't nearly as good as some American examples of shows in this genre (see Three Sheets and Brew Masters if you haven't seen them). To be honest though we have never really done unpretentious booze focused shows in this country full stop and we have a lot to learn from the aforementioned shows.

As far as UK shows go though Oz and Hughs' latest offering has been entertaining whilst still remaining pretty easy for viewers to engage with. Don't get me wrong, I would love to see a program of the same type which really went into the finer details and explained a bit more about the beer,spirit and wine making process in finer detail but the fact is that the Beeb need to ensure that programing is accessible. There would be no point in making the exact show all of us bloggers wanted to see as there would probably only be around 200 viewers per episode- all of them us!

So I say well done to Oz Clarke on another great series, even if Hugh Dennis has been a touch annoying. I know that some people object to a 'lush' such as Dennis being paid by the license fee payers to go around the country getting trollyed, but honestly if he wasn't there just think what Mr Clarke would get up to on his own. Surely it would cause more uproar from the licence payers!

Please BBC......bring back James May for another wine series!