In which I usually post a half-dozen links to items of interest I’ve spotted around the Beerblogosphere since my last Six Beer Links post. But seeing as I’ve been on holiday for a couple of weeks since my last proper read-through my RSS feeds and tuned back in to find 717 unread items waiting for me, I’ll be posting stuff in longer-than-usual batches until I’ve caught up…

1. Here’s a video chat with three members of Bellowhead, back-stage at this year’s V Festival on the subject of touring, brewing and diverse other things [via properganderonline.com]. Folk and Ale? Winning combination.

2. SIBA has launched (or possibly re-launched?) their ‘Local Beer Champion’ accreditation scheme for pubs who do their bit to support breweries in their region. More info at www.siba.co.uk/sibalocals.

3. This year’s 2011 CAMRA Champion Beer of Britain – Mighty Oak Oscar Wilde – looks like one I’d definitely like to try. And I’ve enjoyed many a pint of the always excellent runner-up (Marble Chocolate) and a one or two of the third-placed (Salopian Shropshire Gold) before now. Congrats to all three breweries!

4. The People’s Pint y’say? Good idea, having a lower-strength option on the bar for extended sessions. Bloody stupid name though. Would you be tempted to try a beer that sounds like a government initiative?

5. Via www.siba.co.uk, news that Molson Coors has announced plans to invest £175m in its UK breweries, including the recently-acquired Sharps. Which is a Good Thing in anyone’s book, surely?

6. Gotta love those Ralph Steadman labels from Flying Dog. Here’s news of a new one, courtesy of beernews.org.

7. Will Hawkes has profiled Sussex brewer Dark Star for The Independent Online [via darkstarbrewing.co.uk].

8. Zak Avery discussed the Is Saison the New Citra?, decided it isn’t and then explained his flavour-profile-based conclusion.

9. Mark Dredge got a few things off his chest with a piece on beer branding and I have to say I find myself nodding in agreement with just about everything he says there.

10. …his piece also prompted Boak and Bailey to follow up with a few simple but rather excellent Branding Tips for Small Breweries.

11. …and on the same topic, Jeff Pickthall’s PumpClip Parade blog was featured in a Guardian Online article on Real Ale’s Image Problem.

12. Over at Eating Isn’t Cheating, Neil has been looking into the world of Foreign Export Stouts and mentions a couple I haven’t tried yet.

13. Via Brew Wales, news that Brains Original Stout may soon be appearing in a larger Tesco near you. Any new bottled stout on the supermarket shelves is a cause for celebration (and worth a try or two) if you ask me.

14. Pete Brown encountered brilliant bar service at BrewDog Edinburgh, based around the principle of friendly, good-looking young people handing out hundreds of free samples of beer (he’s got a point there, what’s not to like?)

15. Martyn Cornell got a bit hot under the collar about Roger Protz and Otley Brewery’s new Burton Ale, which due to an accident of 1970s brand reinvention, apparently isn’t a Burton Ale.

16. BrewDog have announced the winner of their 2011 Photo Competition. I voted for the swimming dog myself, but there you go :)

The latest batch of beery goodness from MyBreweryTap.com‘s US 52 Week Beer Club arrived safe and sound yesterday morning.

• Goose Island Honkers Pale Ale – 4.2% ABV
• Flying Dog Road Dog Porter – 6.0% ABV
• Flying Dog Snake Dog IPA – 7.1% ABV
• Flying Dog Tire Bite Pale Ale – 5.6% ABV
• Brooklyn Brown Ale – 6.9% ABV

• Ballast Point Calico Amber Ale – 5.5% ABV
• Ballast Point Big Eye IPA – 6.0% ABV
• Uinta Anglers Ale – 5.8% ABV
• Smuttynose Robust Porter – 5.6% ABV
• Smuttynose Finestkind IPA – 6.9% ABV

• Caldera IPA – 6.1% ABV
• Buckbean Black Noddy Black Lager – 5.2% ABV
• Caldera Pale Ale – 5.6% ABV

Another interesting, varied selection from MyBreweryTap – none of which I’ve tried before, as far as I can remember – which I’m looking forward to getting to grips with. I’m particularly intrigued by those canned goods, anyone know if I should chill ‘em before I pop ‘em?

Seth Ridley is a partner at web design agency Kino Creative, based up in the fine city of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. Over the Xmas / New Year season he had reason to jet off to California and, while he was there, decided to do a spot of research into the local beer scene, the results of which he’s very kindly sent over…

In 1923, amidst great controversy, the Hetch Hetchy valley was dammed to supply the San Fransisco bay area with fresh water. John Muir, who led the campaign against the damming of this once beautiful valley and tragically died of a broken heart shortly after the dam was completed, once remarked:

“Dam Hetch Hetchy! As well dam for water-tanks the people’s cathedrals and churches, for no holier temple has ever been consecrated by the heart of man.”

And now to water-tanks and cathedrals you can add microbrewed beer. John Muir might not necessarily approve, but the crystal fresh water of Hetch Hetchy (which remains the sole supply of water to the Bay Area to this day) gives the locally microbrewed beers a truly unique and wholesome flavour. Maybe it’s the hops, or the brewing process, or some other secret ingredient, but the romantic in me believes that the beers of the bay area get their special taste from the history-infused water of Hetch Hetchy.

The Bay Area, and Berkeley in particular, are renowned as an enclave of fine food. I was staying in the eye of the culinary storm right in the heart of a few square blocks known locally as “The Gourmet Ghetto”. I’ve been travelling to and from Berkeley for over 25 years now, and both the raw and cooked food you can get out there is in my opinion the best in the world.

It’s a delight to report that this year I can confidently recommend the local beer scene too. There have always been the classic west coast brands such as Sierra Nevada or Anchor Steam, but these are now supplemented by a huge range of other local, national and international microbrewed and craft ales, beers and lagers, including the selection that I sampled when I was over there, from the likes of Trumer, the Anderson Valley Brewing Company, North Coast Brewing Company, Flying Dog and Alaskan Beer Company.

Almost all are sold bottled, and their strength tends to start at around 4.5%, with the average being around 5.5%. This is stronger than what I’m used to in the UK, and it hits hard. I’m unsure whether it was the raw strength of the beer, or the fact that I was drinking ales made of ingredients that my body wasn’t used to, but my IBF (Inbibement Capacity Factor^TM) was certainly lower than normal.

Another interesting feature of the ales out in California are the way that they tend to be consistently rated using the International Bittering Units scale or IBU. All the decent farmers markets, and indeed the better supermarkets, will use the IBU to give you an idea of the bitterness of the ale you’re looking to buy. In combination with more familiar titles such as IPA, stout, or pale, the IBU gives a really good indication of the taste you’re likely to be getting out of your purchase.

On the downside the Bay Area bar scene is pretty miserable by UK standards. I honestly couldn’t recommend a decent pub or bar in Berkeley. The last decent one was the Triple Rock Brewery on Shattuck, but this place looks to have ditched its shuttlepuck table in favour of extra seating, and with it lost a lot of its character. San Fransisco was equally dry of good pubs, with the vast majority being cookie cutter “Oirish” bars so loathed by Irishmen. After about four hours I did find the Magnolia Brewery on the Haight Ashbury, and thankfully the locally brewed beer was great, but it’s a rare gem for such an otherwise fantastic city.

It’s easy to enjoy the beers out in the Bay Area even if you’re not a fanatic and for the beer enthusiast it’s the new El Dorado; just don’t expect to find somewhere decent to drink them outside of your living room.

Copyright (c) 2011, Seth Ridley

Thought I’d give The Golden Pint Awards a go this year:

Best UK Draught Beer
Winner: Marble Brew 1691 Mild
Hon. Mention: Thornbridge Alliance

Best UK Bottled Beer
Winner: Thornbridge Alliance Madeira Reserve 2007
Hon. Mention: Thornbridge Halcyon 2009, Adnams Sole Bay Celebratory

Best Overseas Draught Beer
Winner: Matuska Black Rocket
Hon. Mention: Anchor Steam Beer, Porterhouse Wrasslers XXXX Stout

Best Overseas Bottled Beer
Winner: Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout
Hon. Mention: Flying Dog Gonzo Imperial Porter

Best Overall Beer
Winner: Marble Pint – One of the most refreshing session beers available, bar none.
Hon. Mention: Thornbridge Jaipur – A perennial favourite.

Best Pumpclip or Label
Winner: Ralph Steadman‘s Flying Dog labels are always excellent.

Best UK Brewery
Winner: Marble. Or maybe Thornbridge. No, wait… Marble, definitely. Unless it’s Thornbridge… look, do I have to decide right now? Or can I have a couple of pints and think about it some more..?

Best Overseas Brewery
Winner: Flying Dog

Pub/Bar of the Year
Winner: The Marble Arch, Manchester.
Hon. Mention: The Angel, Manchester, The Euston Tap, London.

Beer Festival of the Year
Winner: SIBA Great Northern 2010
Hon. Mention: Bury Beer Festival 2010

Supermarket of the Year
Winner: Sainsburys, but only by a whisker – our local branch’s range is better than Tesco, although it doesn’t change as often.

Independent Retailer of the Year
Winner: Micro Bar, Manchester – currently the best bottled beer shop in Manchester, and they serve draught as well…

Online Retailer of the Year
Winner: Both MyBreweryTap.com for their US 52-week Beer Club and BeerMerchants.com for selling self-pick-n-mix cases from a very impressive range.

Best Beer Book or Magazine
Winner: Amber, Gold & Black by Martyn Cornell

Best Beer Blog or Website
Winner: Martyn Cornell’s Zythophile – always informative, always interesting.

In 2011 I’d Most Like To…
Have a pint with a few more beer bloggers – I’ve managed to miss all three Twissups so far, even the Manchester one. Going to have to set that straight next year.

Open Category: ‘Cor, Blimey!’ Beer Moment of the Year
My first taste of Hawkshead Damson and Vanilla Stout, which went a little something like this…

Slogging through snow, ice and who knows what else, the intrepid delivery bloke made it to my front door yesterday, bearing a Big Box of Beer: the second instalment in the US 52 Week Beer Club saga from MyBreweryTap.com.

• Anchor Humming Ale – 5.9% ABV
• Anchor Christmas Ale 2010 – 5.5% ABV
• Odell Isolation Ale – 6.0% ABV
• Odell IPA – 7.0% ABV
• Sierra Nevada Porter – 5.6% ABV
• Sierra Nevada Celebration – 6.8% ABV

• Goose Island Harvest Ale – 5.7% ABV
• Mild Winter – 5.6% ABV
• Stone IPA – 6.9% ABV
• Levitation – 4.4% ABV
• Brooklyn Post Road Pumpkin Ale – 5.0% ABV
• Brooklyn Winter Ale – 6.0% ABV
• Flying Dog Gonzo Imperial Porter – % ABV

I’m happy to say that most of those are entirely new to me, with the honourable exceptions of Sierra Nevada Porter and old favourite Gonzo Imperial Porter, which is always welcome (and harder to get hold of these days, since Tesco stopped selling it a few months back).

I’m looking forward to sampling a few of those over the next couple of weeks. Mind you, I think I’ll stick the Anchor Christmas 2010 in the special cupboard and let that mature for a while. Twelve months or so should do it. Likewise the Sierra Nevada Celebration, I reckon.

Looks like Tesco might be a good place to head for to find some decent bottled beer bargains at the moment. I’ve just come back from a weekly shop with a bag full of bottles, and while I was there I scribbled down a few of the more interesting offers, which included:

• 3 for £4 on various beers including Grimbergen Blonde, Grimbergen Dubbel and Innis & Gunn Original Oak Aged Ale [TN].
• 4 for £5 on BrewDog Punk IPA [TN] and a whole raft of Badger ales (England’s Gold, Golden Champion, three or four others), plus a few more from other breweries.
• 20% or so off Flying Dog Gonzo Imperial Porter [TN] (£2.58 down to £2.06) and Flying Dog Classic Pale Ale [TN] (£1.76 down to £1.40)
• Leffe Brun 750ml (wine-bottle sized) for £2.00

They were also loading up the shelf with Young’s Special London Ale at 94p a bottle. Baron, you want to get yourself on the motorway down to Tesco in Prestwich, mate… :)

Edit from Ed – The two Flying Dog offerings have been further reduced to half price, so I just emptied the shelf of my local of the Classic Pale Ale. At 88p each it would have been just wrong to leave them there.

Brewery: Flying Dog
Location: Frederick, Maryland, USA
ABV: 8.7%
Version: Bottled
Source: Tesco

[Part three of a Flying Dog Triple, along with Old Skratch Amber Lager and Classic Pale Ale]

Gonzo Imperial Porter is another recent addition to the Tesco World Beer Range. I grabbed a couple of bottles of this one as soon as I spotted them on the shelf and I urge you to do the same; this is an absolutely fantastic example of the imperial porter style, a truly fabulous beer.

Enough hyperbole (fuelled, I might add, by the fact that I’m supping another glass of Gonzo Imperial as I type). I think it’s probably time for some description. The pour is a pleasure in itself: the beer almost gloops out of the bottle and settles down to present an opaque, black body with a creamy, tan-coloured head that lingers right to the end of the drink. The first sip releases a flood of rich, mocha, coffee-chocolate flavours: sharp, dark chocolate and smooth, mellow coffee. Further sampling reveals hints of vanilla and black treacle, creating a lingering, palate-tingling sweetness that reminds you of the after-taste of good, creamy, treacle toffee and there’s a very, very slight hint of pepper in there as well.

Damn, this stuff is delicious. Since we started Blog o Beer I’ve sampled some truly incredible beers. The vast majority of the ones that I’ve enjoyed the most (so far) seem to have been stouts, porters and strong, imperial stouts and porters – such as Red Rat Crazy Dog Stout, Outstanding Stout, Meantime London Porter, BrewDog Rip Tide and the pick of the bunch so far, Brewdog Tokyo* – and Gonzo Imperial Porter is definitely up there with the best of them.

Seriously: go straight to your local (large) branch of Tesco and clear the shelves. I reckon I’ll be doing just that the very next chance I get.

Brewery: Flying Dog
Location: Frederick, Maryland, USA
ABV: 5.5%
Version: Bottled
Source: Tesco

[Part two of a Flying Dog Triple, along with Old Skratch Amber Lager and Gonzo Imperial Porter]

Flying Dog’s Classic Pale Ale was originally called “Doggie Style” but I’ve heard the name was changed to protect the innocent shoppers in Tesco, when a UK distribution deal was recently done. And that’s where I found this one in the course of a recent stocking-up sweep.

Colour-wise, Classic Pale Ale turned out to be a fair bit darker than the name might suggest, more amber than golden, quite similar to Old Skratch Amber Lager in fact. Classic Pale Ale had a fresher, sharper aroma though and there was a lot more hoppiness in the flavour. There was a grassy note in there as well, and some fruit: notably peach and apricot.

All in all it was a very fresh, refreshing, enjoyable beer. I had another bottle when I was out the other night: I spotted one in the fridge at the Knott Bar in Manchester and ended the night with a re-visit. Chilled, the flavour wasn’t quite as complex a straight out of the cupboard. Still extremely pleasant though and a great one to end the night on.

Two successes out of two for the Flying Dog selection so far. Next up, it’s the finale: Gonzo Imperial Porter.

Brewery: Flying Dog
Location: Frederick, Maryland, USA
ABV: 5.5%
Version: Bottled
Source: Selfridges

[Part one of a Flying Dog Triple, along with Classic Pale Ale and Gonzo Imperial Porter]

Old Scratch Amber Lager was the first of three beers from US brewery Flying Dog, whose beer I’ve been keen on sampling for a good while now, that I finally got to try recently. I picked this one up in the Selfridges Manchester food hall; they only had a selection of ten or so beers, but there were some interesting ones in there, and I made a b-line for Old Scratch when I saw it on the shelf.

The beer poured a lovely, dark amber colour and was only lightly effervescent (always a good sign: the less fizzy the lager the better it ends up tasting, in my experience of craft lager so far). The flavour was much maltier than the lagers I’ve tried recently, with a faint hint of caramel sweetness that gave way to some lingering bitterness and then a toasty-dryness that saved itself for the after-taste.

Very tasty. Very tasty indeed. Definitely a cut far above your average bottled Far Eastern Lager (I won’t even bother to point out it tastes far superior to the vast majority of typical, mass-produced, factory lagers. I definitely wouldn’t hesitate to drink this one again if the opportunity presented itself.

Up next: Flying Dog’s Classic Pale Ale.

Our local (Prestwich, Manchester) branch of Tesco has scored poor to middling for its bottled real ale section for some time, but I usually stroll down the appropriate aisle on the optimistic, but usually-disappointed, off-chance that they’ve managed to stock something interesting for a change.

So I was pleasantly surprised yesterday when I wandered on by and discovered a scattering of ‘NEW!’ shelf-tags in the section. Pick of the bunch had to be two from Flying Dog, not only their pack-leading Classic Pale Ale but also one of their speciality brews: Gonzo Imperial Porter. At 8.7% I’m betting that one packs something of a wallop and I’m looking forward to trying it (£2.49 a bottle, by the way, and I think it was £1.69 for the Classic Pale).

I also picked up a bottle of Budweiser Budvar Dark Lager, on the grounds that there’s always room for another Czech dark lager in the beer cupboard. And then, crossing the aisle to the UK real ale in a bottle section, I spotted a few that were new to Tesco but that I’d either already sampled or seen in Sainsburys. Although the, up in the top-right corner, I spotted a few bottles of Morrissey Fox Brunette, so I grabbed one of those for sampling as well. The beer cupboard is once again full to over-flowing and there’s another consignment on the way from BrewDog as well. I know, I know, I really need to drink more…

But yeah, anyway, head on down to your local Tesco – you might be able to pick up something new and interesting. And speaking of supermarkets, have Sainsbury’s cancelled this year’s real ale competition / promotion or something? Not a sniff of it in our local branch, and I haven’t heard anything about it on my regular-read blogs, either. Anyone know what happened there?