The Brewery Bird column
As I write this (late June), summer is officially here, it’s ‘scorchio’ and there’s 50 days to go till the biggest Beer Festival in the UK kicks off from August 8 to 12 at Olympia in London!
If you like beer and you’ve never been, well then this is perhaps the year to gird your loins, grab a friend (or six) and join in this annual festival of imbibing some of the best beers (over 900) from the UK and further afield. And it’s the latter which gets Brewery Bird a little hot under the feathers.
Now we brew some bloomin good beers here in the United Kingdom, world-beating, award-winning beers in fact. However it’s fairly safe to say that with the exception of Coniston’s No 12 Barley Wine winning in 2012 and Elland 1872 Porter taking the crown the following year, the Champion Beers of Britain have been, for the most part great examples of traditional bitters/beers. And perhaps rightly so. But there are so many more styles of beers which our treasured breweries are putting out there, whether experimental one-offs or collaborative brews, or just a concerted effort to have a saison, sour or wheat beer available year round.
The GBBF has also for many years hosted beers from the likes of Belgium, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands on the ‘foreign beer bars’ of Biere Sans Frontiers, which ok, are a little pricier than the cask ales on offer, but when did you last get your hands on a half glass of 5% Dutch Saison infused with Hibiscus & Roseleaves or a 8.8% Biyagama Lion Stout from Sri Lanka?
So whether you are heading to Olympia in August for GBBF, or to your local or regional beer festival now or later in the year, take a deep breath and embrace those beer styles which, at first glance may seem unappealing or downright scary, but which might just surprise you…
Brewery Bird’s Alternative Beer Style Suggestions
If you like… rich, bold, velvety, red wines and intensely fruity desserts… try Barrel Aged Imperial Stouts, Porters or fruit beers (FrÜli Strawberry, Bacchus Framboise etc).
If you like… tart, peppery, earthy flavours and don’t shy away from stinky cheeses….. Try Saison (prominent estery flavours, often with added spices and herbs) and lambic beers (fermented with wild yeast, can be bracingly sour but very refreshing).
If you like… Christmas spices, mince pies, pudding and pie….Try Barley wine - a strong beer of at least 10%, similar in style to Maderia or Port.
If you like... bacon, whiskey, bonfires….Try Rauchbier – a speciality German beer, made with malted grain which has been toasted over a beechwood fire
If you like… Duck confit and earthy Pinot Noirs…Try Dopplebock - a German lager, ranging in colour from deep mahogany to almost black, exceptionally malty with little bitterness
“A fine beer may be judged with only one sip, but it’s better to be thoroughly sure.” - Bohemian proverb