Could this simple bit of loveliness be going away? Apparently a ⅔ pint schooner is to be offered in British pubs and, perhaps, the pint will be phased out altogether.
It makes me sad.
(via Reuters (via Boing Boing))
A simple pint
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Tag Archives: united kingdom
Beer news sampler
A sixer of news items on beer that we spotted recently.
BBC News: Anheuser-Busch InBev to cut 800 European jobs
That’s about 10% of their European workforce and is ” a response to falling beer sales”. Well, if they made any products I’d want to drink…
Idaho Statesman: It’s been a good decade for craft beer
Patrick Orr talks about some of the gains and newsworthy items in craft beer during the aughts.
Heineken to buy FEMSA beer operations for $5.5 billion
Fomento Económico Mexicano, S.A. de C.V. is the Mexican brewer of Sol, Tecate, and Dos Equis. This deal gives the Dutch giant a larger foothold in the Americas. I don’t expect much innovation here. In fact, I just expect the same old fairly bland mass-produced beer, just produced by fewer companies.
Counterfeit beer in China
Apparently, “fancy” beers like Corona and Budweiser are being substituted with cheaper lagers. Fleeced customers apparently don’t notice.
UK beer drinkers should expect beer prices to go up
Brewing giants InBev and Diageo both cite sluggish economy as the need for the increase.
Mid 18th-Century beer mug may auction for upwards of $100K
“A 268-year-old beer mug that was spirited to Canada during the American Revolution by an iconic Loyalist refugee — Rev. John Stuart, the future founder of the Anglican Church in Upper Canada — hits the auction block this month in the U.S. and is expected to sell for close to $100,000 because of its remarkable provenance.”
Nanny State
Scottish craft brewer, BrewDog, known for their “big” beers, have come full circle against their critics with “Nanny State“.
We felt a little bit hard done by with the onslaught of mass hysteria, consensual hallucination and nailing of BrewDog to the stake which surrounded the Tokyo* [18.2% ABV oak aged stout] launch a few weeks ago. Anyone who knows BrewDog, knows beer, or has more common sense than a common (or garden) gnome will know that the scathing and unrelenting criticism we faced was pretty unjustified.
However we are a brewery, beer is what we are passionate about, beer is our canvas, beer is how we express ourselves. Consequently we have decided we would also make our point with a new, special beer.
Nanny State is our quiet and dignified response to the ongoing controversy surrounding Britain’s strongest ever beer, Tokyo*. Nanny State is a 1.1% ale. We have gone from making Britain’s strongest beer to a brew so low in alcohol it is below the legal classification of beer and not strong enough to be subject to beer duty.
Nanny State is an extraordinary little beer. It contains more hops than any other beer we have ever brewed. There is over 60 kilos used in our tiny 20HL batch. It contains more hops than any other beer ever brewed in the UK. It has a theoretical IBU of 225. It is jam packed with our favourite hops and already tastes amazing. Nanny State picks up where How to Disappear Completely left off and takes the low ABV hop-bomb concept to the next level and cranks the BrewDog craziness up a few notches.
I love it. I wonder if it’ll be subject to alcohol tariffs here in the States? I know I’d get some in order to support them.
American Beer In The UK
While Ron and Al take a little break, please enjoy this guest post from Mark at maeib’s Beerblog.
I recall a joke from my childhood where an American tourist is in London on a guided bus tour. She is shown Buckingham Palace and says “that’s tiny; my outhouse is bigger than that”, then she is shown St. Paul’s Cathedral to which she states “my village church is bigger than that”, and on it goes. Everything is so much bigger and better across the pond.
That’s pretty much how I view American beer; bigger and bolder than British beer. There’s no scrimping where ingredients are concerned. Brewers enjoy making big beers.
However, ask most Brits about American beer, and they’ll say it’s just Bud and other crap lagers. And that’s the problem, we don’t see enough of it. We need an importer to take the bull by the horns and get us these big, bold beers and show those who think it’s just Bud how wrong they are.
I’ve written previously about some American beers being newly imported into the UK, and that’s good, but those beers have only been seen at a handful of off-licences up and down the country. We need them in the supermarkets where they will gain a wider audience. In 2003 one of our supermarkets, Safeway, which has sadly been taken over since then, sold the 23% version of Dogfish Head World Wide Stout and Raison D’Etre. But it wasn’t enough. We have also seen Dead Guy Ale, Imperial Stout, Mocha Porter, Smoke Ale and Youngers Special Bitter from Rogue. Other than those though the only micros we’ve seen are the biggies of Anchor, Brooklyn and Sierra Nevada. We don’t even see American beers at festivals except for The Great British Beer Festival.
So, why do we not have a huge amount of imports? There are three reasons, each of which may have some truth but can easily be overcome. The first is price. It’s true to say that importing beer brings with it a fair amount of cost, but the American beers we have seen haven’t been sold at exorbitant prices, and in addition we export tons of beers over the water, so a reciprocal agreement could easily be arranged.
The second reason is that there isn’t a market for US craft beers as English beer aren’t willing to accept they will be any good. I agree that there are thousands of heathens who wouldn’t give them a try, but they are the same heathens who won’t buy imports from other great brewing nations such as Belgium which are readily available. The amount of Chimay, Duvel, Orval and others that are sold are testament to the customer base good beers have.
The third reason which links to number two, and is the one which frankly angers me the most is that we are just not ready for American style beers. I recall a quote from Meantime head brewer Alastair Hook which, paraphrased, said that the British palate isn’t capable of appreciating his own IPA or Old Smoked Bock and that was the reason they were for export only – thankfully the IPA is now widely available over here but the Bock is not. Alastair and others underestimate us. The US cask beers at GBBF sold far quicker than was expected this year, and customers lapped up the big Scandinavian beers that are brewed very much in an American style.
So, if there are any US brewers out there who fancy dipping their toes in the British market, do not hesitate. There are thousands of beer lovers over here. We don’t all just drink 4% session bitters. We like big flavours. We like American beer!
No American beer in London, but lots of American hops
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.
Beer News Sampler
Newport poster storm brewing
Sexual innuendo has been part of beer marketing for decades. This is news?
Beer-flavored ice cream is a big hit
Those beer-mad English are gaga over it.
There’s a beer out there
Australians are heading out into the bush in search of good beer at one of the many microbreweries opening up.
John Young dead at 85
Colorful brewer and fixture of British brewing died before the last batch of cask ale was due to be brewed.
Coors Brewing scores perfectly for equality
For the third year in a row, Coors Brewing has received a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s “Corporate Equality Index”, which evaluates how major U.S. corporations treat their gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees, consumers and investors.
New York plant benefiting from synergies
Former Miller Brewing Company plant finds that beer and biodiesel is a good fit.
Carlsberg looks to expanding Serbia beer market
To invest €20 million into its Serbia operations.
New brews launched as drinkers lose taste for strong ale
Sales in the UK of beer with an ABV of 5% and up are down, so brewers are rolling out lower alcohol alternatives.
Suburban beer bandits on the rise
This is only one of several stories throughout the US where young people are breaking into garages and cribbing the beer in extra refrigerators.
Beer being served at 1982 prices
Now would be the time to visit the UK and pop into a pub or three.
Paris Hilton promotes beer at Octoberfest
The billionaire socialite is mobbed by photographers and onlookers in Munich. Is there nowhere to escape her?!
British beer consumption is up. Way up.
An article in The Publican states that beer sales are up 7.8% over the last six weeks compared to one year ago, according to the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA). That’s an increase of nearly 60 million pints.
Communications director Mark Hasting attributes the increase to the hot summer and the World Cup. It’s also noted that the increase was generally in pints, especially cider, over alcopops.
Brits don’t pay enough for beer
At least, that’s what Belgian megabrewer InBev is telling British pub operators.
According to a story by ProBrewer.com, a professional trade site for the brewing industry, an InBev spokesperson claimed that pub operators are loathe to bring their wares above a certain price point.
Steve Kitching, managing director of on-trade sales, said some pub managers treat beer “like petrol” and have a “price point ceiling in mind, which they are wary of breaching.”
“Traditionally, retail pricing was determined purely on margin terms based on retailers’ need to make a certain percentage profit,” Kitching. “Today it’s more about what consumers are willing to pay, but there is still some way to go.”
Of course, Mr. Kitching denied that his statements indicate a pending price jump. Coincidentally, InBev’s Stella Artois is the best-selling lager in the United Kingdom.
The article offers a counter argument from a gentleman named Steve Martin (no, not the American actor/comedian) who manages sales for a chain of pubs.
“In theory the principle is the right one,” Martin said. “However, the expectation of the customer paying more for their liquid may not work. Just look at off-trade volumes and off-trade prices.”
I agree with him. The single largest factor keeping me from spending more time in pubs is that the beer is so overwhemingly more expensive than I can get buying it retail. Sure, I miss out on all that atmosphere, but given a choice of hanging out in a bar drinking some beer, or hanging out on my deck, drinking the same beer at ⅓ the price, I know what I’ll usually pick.
Be warned, our British friends. You may have some price hikes on the horizon.
(via Brew-Monkey)
