For the Love of British Food

The JD Wetherspoon chain of pubs and bars is one of the UK’s biggest, and seems to be managing to stay profitable despite the current economic situation. Recently I’ve been in quite a few as a friend has been doing some market research on them and that was how we came to find out about their beer festival. 

This has become an annual event, JDW work with CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale, to seek out the best of british brewing and mix in a few interesting guest beers from overseas as well.  CAMRA started back in the 1970’s as a reaction against the bland and boring chemically produced beers which were easier for pub landlords to manage and serve, but were putting traditional breweries out of business – the UK was in danger of losing one of its trademark tastes!

Fortunately the trend has been reversed and via the festival, drinkers in all parts of the country can taste beers that are normally just available to a small area of the country and in some cases, just one or two pubs that are also on-site micro-breweries.

We visited our local JDW pub, the Parchment Makers in Havant, Hampshire to sample some of this year’s festival beers and enjoy a meal. Our tasting notes do not necessarily agree with the booklet that the pub supplied! However, where possible I have linked back to the brewery concerned.

Overall, the JSW 2008 Beer Festival featured 50 different beers, 10 of which were from outside the UK. The Festival has been running since October 15 and ends today November 16. It would have been impossible for every pub to have every beer on for the full period, so we didn’t get to taste some of the ones we would have liked to on just the one evening visit.

You’ll find details of all the beers on JDW’s website, at least for the time being. I’ll try to check back periodically if they take it off, if you read this at some later date and it isn’t there, please let me know.

We were drinking half-pints to be able to sample as many beers as possible during our visit, Dave drinks at least twice as fast as I can, so we got through quite a few. 

First round was Traditional Scottish Ales Loch Lomond Gold for me and Anker Gouden Carolus Ambio for Dave. The Loch Lomond was a light coloured ale, said to be in the IPA style, but was very sweet which wasn’t really mentioned in the notes.

Carolus is a Belgian beer, very much in their style of strong darker beers. Belgium produces an amazing range of beers for such a tiny country and some of their brewing is still done by monks in religious houses as it has for hundreds of years. I would describe it as deceptively strong with a robust character.

With our meal (sausages, mash and peas for me, and a burger and chips for Dave) we tried Titanic Iron Curtain Russian Stout and Brakspear’s Oxford Gold for Dave. The Russian stout went very well with the food. I thought it had an unusual hint of coffee in its bitterness. Other stouts like Guinness are too bitter for me to enjoy more than an occasional half-pint, but I could happily have carried on drinking this one.

I also liked the second beer in this round, Brakspears Oxford Gold. It had a beautiful aroma and was not too bitter, but Dave thought it lacked some aftertaste. May have been the comparison with the

The next round was St Austell Proper Job and Greene King Bonkers Conkers. The notes for the St Austell described it as having citrus grapefruit flavours and I certainly agreed with that. Although it was more bitter than I would normally try, it would make a really refreshing drink on a hot summer day.

The Bonkers Conkers was more appropriate to the autumn season, rounded and mellow. In another recent visit to another JDW pub in our locality, Dave tried Thwaites Nutty Black, but he was a little disappointed with it and said it didn’t have a lot of flavour.

The beers that we missed out on, that we would really like to have tasted include one with real coffee in it, Meantime Coffee Porter from London, Robinsons Old Tom Chocolate Ale from Cheshire and an Australian beer with an unusual ingredient, Baron Original Black Wattle which uses wattle seeds to produce its flavours, described as having chocolate and hazelnut overtones. We also missed a fruit beer from Poland, Namyslow Original Plum. I am a great fan of the Belgian fruit  beers like Kriek, made with cherries and Frambozen with raspberries, so this would have been right up my street. Hopefully it will make a re-appearance.

CAMRA also worked with Wiltshire brewers Wadworth, best known for their 6x bitter, to produce a special beer for the festival called CAMRAle. If you are reading this on Sunday 16th November, rush down to your local JDW as they may still have some, along with Coach House Cinnamon Special neither of which were yet on tap for our visit.

The festival has also featured some unusual ciders and perries (perry is made from pear juice or a combination of pear and apple). Hopefully as they are bottled, they will be on sale for a few more days. I particularly want to try one from California, Ace Apple Honey.

Visitors to the UK from overseas should not miss the chance to try British beers and JD Wetherspoon pubs are an excellent place to sample them along with some traditional British food. You’ll find them all over the country, but you should also take the chance to try other offerings from the same breweries in local pubs in their ‘home’ areas.

I hope this post has given prospective visitors an idea of the wide spectrum of British beer on offer and encourage a few Brits to try a distinctive local brew on their next pub visit rather than the nationally produced and distributed beers.

The British Government are currently considering tax cuts to boost the economy. One cut they might consider is the taxes on beers and wines which have hit pub landlords very hard. At present, up to 60 pubs may be closing their doors every week, which is very sad for the local communities they serve. Our pubs are part of British life. While I understand the need to educate younger people about the dangers of alcohol, perhaps destroying jobs and livelihoods is a rather heavy-handed way to do it.

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