Boak Baileys Beer Blog

Time 2020-11-08 11:06:59

Web Name: Boak Baileys Beer Blog

WebSite: http://boakandbailey.com

ID:108917

Keywords:

Baileys,Boak,Blog,

Description:

How on earth can it possibly be a week into November already? Well, it is, and here’s everything on beer and pubs that s grabbed us in the past week, from hazy beer to misty West Cornwall.First, though, the big news is that it s finally happened – a second national lockdown in the UK. Well, sort of. It s much softer than back in March and we re all a bit better at it so there s already a sense of things being generally less disrupted.Pubs, however, are once again closed. Initially, the legislation as drafted forbade the sale of takeaway beer – a lifeline for many pubs during the last round. After much lobbying from CAMRA, SIBA and others, that was amended, although the new rules are still fairly restrictive: pre-orders only, collection only, sealed containers.The Prime Minister wants to open things up again from 2 December but he doesn t sound massively convinced that will happen. Still, the ONS reports that infection rates might be stabilising, and the daily rates provided by the COVID Symptom Study project seem to show a decline, so fingers crossed.For Belgian Smaak, Breandán Kearney writes about something we d never noticed before – the tendency of Belgian breweries to put animals on their beer labels, from wolves to oxen:The Flemish lion, black and yellow with red tongue and claws, takes centre stage in the logo of Brouwerij Verhaeghe, appearing on all of their beers. The Walloon rooster adorns the Belgian Pale Ale Le Coq (6% ABV), brewed by beer company Brasserie Gosselin F. at Brasserie de Blaugies. Indeed, it’s difficult to scan the shelf of a Belgian bottle shop without coming across an animal, whether it’s the iconic Orval trout, the delirious pink elephant of Huyghe, the Golden Dragon of Van Steenberghe, or the Belgian draught horse of Palm.Liam at BeerFoodTravel has done some digging into the history of non-alcoholic beer in Ireland, prompted by a report of a tragic brewery death:On a Sunday morning in January 1896 there was a freak accident at no 45 Stafford Street in Dublin, when an unfortunate individual named William J. Keogh tumbled out of the open and unprotected upper storey window while coming down a stairway and fell 25 feet into an internal courtyard while allegedly, and ironically as we shall soon see, under the influence of drink. A company called the Hop Stout Brewery was named as owners of the building at the inquest into his death A company brewing non-intoxicating drinks is not something that many people would associate with late 19th century Dublin but the above mentioned brewery was just such a producer SOURCE: Pellicle/Lily Waite.This piece for Pellicle by Lily Waite has a structure that mimics the experience it records: a long walk finishing with a much-needed pint. The fact that it covers some of our old stamping grounds in West Cornwall makes it all the sweeter:The Gurnard’s Head in an unmissable pub. Not in the way that reviews laud it—though the pub has indeed won many awards—but by virtue of it being painted bright yellow. Against muted browns and greens of the Cornish countryside, on a lane flanked by bramble and bracken, the pub stands out. It was a welcome sight, not least because it was only the third pub we’d been to since March 2020.The Beer Nut will occasionally hide a little industry commentary among the tasting notes on his blog. In this post, he draws a tentative conclusion from several weeks of drinking: the hazy NEIPA might be dead. (We pass no judgement on whether that s good or bad news.)Helen Anne Smith at Burum Collective has been reflecting on seasonal beers and German-style Festbiers in particular:I drank my first ever seasonal beer about six years ago, on my first date with my wife. I was a student at the time, I hadn’t a clue what craft beer was but I knew I didn’t like it. Yet there I was, sitting in a bar, on a dark and rainy night in late October, pint of pumpkin beer in hand As much as I still love pumpkin beer, I have started to turn my attention to other beers which are considered seasonal, like Festbiers and Märzen. But how have they become associated with this time of year?For Ferment, the promotional magazine for a beer subscription service, Hollie Stephens offers an update on the status of that most English of hops, the Fuggle:Once the undisputed ruler of the hop fields of England, the Fuggle hop has seen a downturn in recent years. In the middle of the 20th century, Fuggles accounted for more than three quarters of the English hop harvest, but unfortunately this heyday for the classic hop appears to be in the past. Fuggle’s acreage in the UK has been threatened in recent years due to the crop’s susceptibility to Verticillium wilt It is not just susceptibility to wilt that could threaten the future of this classic British hop, but demand too. As the COVID-19 pandemic places restrictions on the on-trade consumption of beer, the effect trickles down the supply chain to hop farmers.Finally, from Twitter, there s this: There s a famous photo of the Fitzroy Tavern in London which is full of lovely details, including a sign that reads ‘WYBMADIITY’.We got to know this photo quite well because for many years, it was blown up across one wall of the Fitzroy itself – very meta, a pub whose theme was its own history.It was taken by Margaret Bourke-White in 1939 and you can see a nice high resolution version via Google s Arts Culture portal.For years, we tried to work out what WYBMADIITY stood for, in the days before everyone had Google on their phones. We got as far as ‘Will you buy me a drink if I _____ you?’What ITMA, Max Miller, Round the Horne naughtiness might that missing word suggest?Then we left London, the pub got refurbished, and we forgot about this unresolved mystery.It popped back into our heads as we read Eoghan Walsh s piece about a Belgian café preserved as art, with its overwhelming collection of tat. The WYBMADIITY sign would fit right in.And, of course, having let our brains stew on it for a decade or so, we immediately realised what it stood for: ‘Will you buy me a drink if I tell you?’At this point, we also got the joke.Imagine one dozy punter after another seeing that curious sign.“I say, what does WYBMADIITY stand for?”“Will you buy me a drink if I tell you?”“Well, OK – what ll you have?”It was apparently a stock, standard gag in British pubs, American bars, Australia, South Africa… everywhere – and of a similar ripeness to ‘Please do not ask for credit because a smack in the mouth often offends’.Another variant was apparently the more specific ‘Will you buy me a double if I tell you?’One newspaper article from the 1940s connects it with the craze for acronyms such as SWALK (‘sealed with a loving kiss’) on correspondence between servicemen and their sweethearts but the earliest reference we can find is in a London restaurant review from 1935.Which brings us to our blogging challenge for November 2020, or, rather, blogging challenges.First, what s something about beer or pubs that s always puzzled you?Now s the time to find out, and write a quick blog post or Twitter thread sharing your newfound knowledge. Let us know and we’ll do our best to share whatever you write.Or ask us and we’ll do it – we like answering questions.Secondly, we’re going to dig deep into the world of pub tat. We’ve already explored pump clips, beer mats, coin stacks and bell pushes, but what about all that crap gathering dust on the back bar and useless shelves? The stuff that gives a pub texture.What springs to mind when you think of pub tat, cheap gags and advertising junk? We thought we might as well get this out of the way as it s going to be the world s briefest round-up.We didn t even bother with a monthly email newsletter, having very little to say.Why the limited output? Well, it s obvious, isn t it? Between pandemic, family stuff, work, housing troubles and the Coming of Darkness, it s been hard to get motivated.Back in spring, there was at least the motivating power of lockdown mania, but now, the weariness is real.Don t think we re being idle, though.Jess has knitted five pairs of gloves in the past month, as part of something called ‘Mitten Madness’.Ray has written a couple of stories like this one, several thousand words of his almost-complete second novel and compered an online event for his writers group at the Bristol Festival of Literature.We ve also got an idea for how we might motivate ourselves in November – watch this space and so on.Anyway We started October with a big feature piece on Watney s Birds Nest pubs which were briefly trendy in the 1960s and 70s:[The] Twickenham Birds Nest has become the “in” inn for young people from all over southern England, would you believe? And packed every night, would you also believe? This came about largely through the ‘rave’ buzz getting around among 18-25 year-olds – inspired by the fun experienced there by early young customers – that ‘The Birds Nest’ scene was really different. Guys and dollies were even making the trip from Chelsea to Twickenham, would you believe, so loud was the buzz of approval.We wrote about a lost pub, The Cook s Ferry Inn, the name of which lives on as a road junction and bus stop:In the inter-war years, it was decided to build a great north circular road to connect newly populous outer London neighbourhoods, open up space for industry and provide jobs. In 1927, the stretch between Angel Road, Edmonton, and Billet Road, Chingford was opened The rebuilding of the Cook’s Ferry Inn was made necessary by the fact that the new road was higher than the narrow old lane it replaced In 1928, this was a grand, well-appointed pub – part of Whitbread’s commitment to make pubs bigger, smarter and more respectable.Pondering why we see such different attitudes to pubs during the pandemic in different contexts, we reflected on the different meanings of pub:There is no universal understanding of what ‘the pub’ means – no single image that materialises in the mind at the sound of the word For us, it’s a space with low light, nest-like corners and the murmur of conversation. Though not right now, of course. Together with the world but separate. This is the George Orwell ideal, about contentment more than excitement.Yesterday, we gave our thoughts on life in Tier 1+ where pubs are open, trading, but weird:Humans are terrible at risk assessment, aren’t they? People who were not going out when new cases were at around 20-30 a day and were stable or falling, are now happily visiting pubs with cases at 250 a day and rising. Great British Common Sense in action.We did, at least, keep up our regular schedule of Saturday morning news and links round-ups:31 October 2020 | Pubs, clubs, festivals24 October 2020 | Existential crisis17 October 2020 | Memory, colonialism, beer styles10 October 2020 | Architecture, yeast culture, the nature of time3 October 2020 | Beer Orders, Bridgnorth, black market sahtiWhat an amazing volume of fascinating, insightful, entertaining stuff our fellow beer nerds have produced, despite everything.We did some Tweets, too, like this:Overheard, a young feller on the phone: “I ll be gutted if there s no pubs left after this. That s my whole gameplan for when I m old – go pub, play pool, drink beer.” Boak and Bailey (@BoakandBailey) October 18, 2020And, finally, we popped a few bits on Patreon, such as additional notes on Watney s Birds Nest pubs from our pal Adrian and several sets of Beers of the Weekend tasting notes. Here s all the news and commentary on beer and pubs that s grabbed our attention in the past week, from aerosols to online events.As is now customary, we ll start with the grim stuff: Spanish newspaper El Pais justifiably went viral this week with one of the best explanations yet of why indoor spaces are a problem for COVID-19 transmission. With some brilliant illustrations, it conveys the risks attached to hanging out with family at home, going to bars and attending classes – in that order. It s not cheerful news but it is, at least, clear, and that s a start.SOURCE: Nicci Peet/Good Beer Hunting.For Good Beer Hunting, one of our neighbourhood beer writers, Nicci Peet, provides an illustrated account of how Bristol went about staging its annual craft beer festival in September this year:Everything feels muted: quieter, more relaxed. There is still laughter and chatter but it’s somehow softer, maybe because the music has been turned down. That’s not to say the mood is subdued—everywhere I turn, there are smiling faces, and people talking to their friends across designated tables. Single-use cups start stacking up after being decanted, a visual record of how many beers everyone has tried. And there are still so many yet to drink I don’t know what I’d been expecting from a beer festival in late 2020, but the reality is both stranger and more laidback than I’d imagined. COVID-19 isn’t going anywhere, and all we can do is adapt to it.SOURCE: Breandán Kearney/Belgian SmaakFor Belgian Smaak, in association with Visit Flanders, Breandán Kearney provides an in-depth look at a cult Belgian beer, Poperings Hommelbier, and Brasserie Leroy:The cities of Poperinge and Ieper are located in the north western reaches of Belgium in a region known as the Westhoek (“hoek” means “corner”). It’s a place with a diverse range of breweries: think, among others, Trappist Westvleteren, De Struise, Kazematten, Deca, St. Bernardus, Vandewalle, and De Plukker. The two cities enjoy a friendly rivalry dating back to the 14th century when politics forced a division of commercial activities. Ieper were exclusively permitted by authorities to work in the lucrative industry of linen production. Looking for alternatives, the inhabitants of Poperinge took to hop farming, even though it offered less opportunity for wealth. Neither city has forgotten the story.SOURCE: Eoghan Walsh/Brussels Beer CityStaying in Belgium, Brussels Beer City author Eoghan Walsh tells the story of a Belgian cafe preserved as part art installation, part museum exhibit:The canny drinker might have already spotted a glitch or two in the image. The rules for billiards are tacked up behind the bar, but there’s no billiard table. Shiny enamel adverts for Brasserie de la Senne hang alongside more age-worn examples from Campbell’s, Carlsberg Beer, and Whitbread unexpected but not necessarily unusual. And what about those orange and green illustrations dotted around the bar’s three walls, tagged with the word Pogge, sitting awkwardly alongside the pastoral landscapes and photos of dear departed punters. The bar feels dusty, and yet there is grime on the windowsills. And then the more jarring dissonances. Those windows are absent of window panes, for one.We ve already linked to it once this week but we can t omit this excellent piece from publican Rowan Molyneux on the experience of trading under ever-tightening restrictions:There’s a regular who’s been particularly resistant to booking, and he’s just walked through the door. We’re full, all tables occupied, apart from a couple of stools which are reserved for ten minutes time. As my colleague is politely apologising, the guy is looking around at the tables where there are plenty of seats free, but are already occupied by our other regulars. One household per table here generally means one person per table. The majority live alone and pop in here to see their mates He makes a gesture of frustration and walks out to try his luck down the road. My colleague shrugs at me. Should have booked, we agree We both know that you shouldn’t have to book to come to the pub.Conservative Club, Bath.Tandleman reminds us that pubs aren t the only venues struggling this year with a shout-out for social clubs:In the midst of all the rightful angst about the way our pubs are suffering in this pandemic, I was brought up sharp by a letter, hand delivered, from my local Cricket Club, of which I am a member. While I won t give away figures too much in case they are confidential to members only, I will say that in the case of my club, the loss of income since March is now in six figures, leading to a potential loss of approximately half that amount by April 2021 The income has not only been lost through gate money a small part but through the ban on events such as wedding receptions, birthday parties, christenings, funerals etc. Annual events such as fireworks displays, beer festivals and more have had to be cancelled. Bar takings have been decimated. I could go on, but it is a grim picture and one that for the foreseeable future doesn t look like improving.Stan Hieronymus has flagged an interesting online event running from 11-14 November – the second annual beer culture summit. Speakers include Dr. J Jackson-Beckham, Garrett Oliver, Randy Mosher and Kate Bernot. Even after all this nonsense is over, we suspect online events will become a more regular part of our lives because, let s face it, we would never have made it to Chicago, but we might splash for a ticket to listen to interesting speakers from the comfort of our own sofa.From Twitter, there s this:Ruskin Spear 1911 – 1990, reliant on a wheelchair due to childhood polio, he focused on his immediate surroundings including the citizens of Hammersmith relaxing in local pubs.

TAGS:Baileys Boak Blog 

<<< Thank you for your visit >>>

UK beer blog running since 2007, with tasting notes, beer history, pub reports and commentary on British booze culture, by Jessica and Ray.

Hot Websites