Over forty bloggers from around the world participated in this edition of the Session. Boak and Bailey have posted the wrap-up:
The session round up – there are many roads to good beer
Several themes emerged:
Geistbear Brewing Blog will be hosting Session #16.
This is a guest article by Boak.
Attitudes towards women who drink can sometimes seem a little Victorian. One of the areas where this is plainest is if you try to go to the pub on your own.
If you’re lucky, you might just get a strange look (particularly when you order an ale). If you’re unlucky, a wise-guy at the bar might decide that what you really need is a bit of company. Doesn’t matter if you’ve got a paper, if it’s clearly obvious you don’t want to chat. Once one of these jokers starts, there’s nothing you can really do to get rid of them other than tell them to go away. At which point, if you’re really lucky, you get one of the “ooh, time of the month is it / lesbian are you” school of comments.
Annoyingly, it’s often the little “traditional” pubs that sound so great which are the worst. I was in Brighton last summer, and had an hour to kill before meeting some friends. I thought it would be great to try the Evening Star, an outlet for the wonderful Dark Star brewery. Great pub, shame about the clientele. I had to leave after one drink, as one moron, egged on by his mates, would not leave me alone.
Now I hasten to add at this point that I don’t make a habit of drinking on my own, but when I’m waiting for a friend, why shouldn’t I go into the pub to wait? I used to travel a lot for business – is it that weird to want to avoid the gloomy hotel room and go out for a swift one, especially if there’s some nice brews to try?
I bet if you’re a bloke and a beer geek, you wouldn’t think twice. But it has to be a really special brewery for me to do it these days, at least in the UK. For some reason, they seem to be more civilised in Germany. How is it in the US?
Boak is half of the writing team at boakandbailey.com (RSS feed)
Read Hop Talk’s interview of Boak
Boak
What is your name?
Boak
What is your location?
London, UK
What is your blog?
www.boakandbailey.com
Do you have a favorite style of beer? What is it?
Not really – my tastes are pretty catholic, and it really depends on my mood. Sometimes I crave a dark fruity Belgian ale, sometimes only a hoppy IPA will do.
How did you come to write a blog about beer?
We (that’s me and my other half, Bailey) were on the train back from a beer-holiday in Germany. We thought it would be interesting to start a blog – it would lend some focus to our drinking and would help us keep track of what we’d knocked back…
What prejudices have you had to overcome?
When I started blogging, I chose a gender-neutral name because I didn’t want people pre-judging my opinions or not taking them seriously because I’m just a girl…which is something I’ve had plenty of in the “real” world.
I’ve been patronised on a couple of occasions by homebrew shop owners trying to convince me that I want something different (or rather, that my boyfriend wants something different!), and I generally don’t bother trying to talk about beer with any men that I don’t know really well. But worst of all for the female beer lover is going into a pub on your own. It may be the twenty first century, but it appears you still need a chaperone. More on that later…
Any other passions?
Good food, cooking and travelling – all very compatable with beer!
Any parting thoughts?
It would be nice to have the alcohol capacity of a man sometimes…sometimes you do just have to accept there are gender differences.
Boak is half of the writing team at boakandbailey.com (RSS feed)
While Ron and Al take a little break, please enjoy this guest post from Bailey of boakandbailey.com, based in London.
It’s still comparatively rare to see American beer in bars and pubs in London. Almost every place now has at least one Belgian beer, even if it’s only Leffe, whilst some of the best places don’t have any American beer at all. There are some places with a bigger selection — the Rake at London Bridge, for example — but they’re few and far between.
The most common brands are Brooklyn Lager and Anchor Steam, which are turning up in corner shops and supermarkets as well as pubs, bars and restaurants. Goose Island IPA is becoming more common, too.
This is a bit odd, given that beer enthusiasts are more-or-less united in their enthusiasm for American craft brewing — witness the scrum around the American bar at the Great British Beer Festival last month. The fact is, though, that Belgium, Germany and the Czech Republic are very nearby, whereas there’s a bleedin’ great ocean inbetween Britain and America.
But don’t despair. The taste for American beer in Britain, combined with its scarcity, has led to a very welcome development. Many small British breweries are being inspired by American beer to add to their range British style ales with huge amounts of citrusy American hops. Crouch Vale‘s Brewer’s Gold and Buntingford‘s 92 Squadron are great examples, but by no means the only ones.
These beers come in a range of colours and styles, from golden ale to brown ale, but stand out from the crowd because of the use of these distinctive and refreshing hop aroma and flavour. The style where American hops are making the biggest impact, however, is IPA. Even in the UK, where fuggles or Kent goldings have been the the more traditional choices, cascades or similar are becoming a necessity — it’s just not an IPA without the intense floral, orange aroma. St Austell‘s excellent Proper Job (better in bottles than on tap) could pass for an American craft brew, thanks to the use of American hops amongst a blend of five or six others.
