The BeerCast

Our 54th BeerCast revolves around the theme of names – and highlights five unusually titled-beers. Our panel also discuss the wacky real ale stereotypes of such (genuine) examples as Crafty Shag and Hairy Helmet. Thankfully the examples tonight aren’t quite as extreme – although we do begin with Old Slap and Tickle (4.0%), produced by Integrated Bottling Solutions in Gloucestershire. We follow that with Marble Dobber (5.9%) from Manchester, and then head over the Pennines to Tadcaster for Samuel Smith’s Yorkshire Stingo (9.0%). Our fourth beer is Criminally Bad Elf (10.5%) from Ridgeway via Hepworth’s, before we finish with a bonus beer – the newly released Kernel Brewery IPA S.C.A.NS. (7.7%). On the panel today are Shovels, Richard, Grooben, and back for his third BeerCast appearance – Stuart.



1. Old Slap and Tickle (4.0%abv)
Integrated Bottling Solutions, Coleford, Gloucestershire.
500ml glass bottle

Integrated Bottling Solutions – or Branded Drinks – are a contract brewery previously known as the Wessex Craft Brewery Co-op. Based in Gloucestershire, most of their beers have unusual names (Jockstrap, Old Gee Spot, Old Shag) and ‘cheeky’ labels. They also used to brew beers for other producers, such as Freeminer. Old Slap and Tickle is a 4% bitter.

What’s In a Name? – Slap and Tickle -
A British euphemism for sexual activity, informal playful kissing or caressing, foreplay, or, now, often, sexual intercourse. Also refers to a funky style of bass guitar. “Slap And Tickle” was the fourth and final single released from Squeeze’s second album, Cool for Cats. [yourdictionary.com]

What They Say -
“Hops, malt & water slapped together. Enough to tickle anyone’s tastebuds.” [Official Website]

What We Say…
Shovels – Smells slightly smoky, and of burnt caramel 5
Grooben – Manages to be sweet and really bitter at once 4
Stu – Didn’t like the first taste, second not too bad 3
Richard – Soapy and medicinal, I don’t like that in any way 2

2. Marble Dobber (5.9%abv)
Marble Brewery, Manchester
500ml glass bottle

The Marble Arch on Rochdale Road is one of the most heralded pubs in Manchester. Nestled behind the main building is a small five barrel plant microbrewery, which many beer writers tipped to be worth watching in 2010. So it proved, as their range of organic and vegetarian-approved beers have been winning fans all over the blogosphere. Visitors to the pub can watch the brewing equipment operating behind glass display doors, and they produce a range of bottled beers for drinkers around the country. Dobber is one of their strongest, at 5.9% abv.

What’s In a Name? – Dobber -
A tool used to play bingo, a member of the working class in Scotland with poor taste in clothes and no social skills, an Australian who informs on others, a small electrical device that plugs into a larger one, a float used by anglers, a type of wasp, Scottish slang for the male genitalia, and…a large marble. [Wikipedia]

What They Say -
“The balance of hops provides a great aroma which follows through in the taste and lasts long afterwards. A massive beer in all senses and a perfect IPA.” [Official Website]

What We Say…
Richard – Big citrus hops, really can’t taste much alcohol 6½
Shovels – Hop stuff I like but grapefruit aftertaste I don’t 6½
Stu – Not as smooth as other IPA’s but I am enjoying it 6
Grooben – Gone too far with the citrusy acid thing for my taste 6

3. Samuel Smith’s Yorkshire Stingo (9.0%abv)
Samuel Smith’s Old Brewery, Tadcaster, Yorkshire.
500ml glass bottle

Taddy is home to two giant brewers – the distantly related John Smiths and Samuel Smith’s Old Brewery. The former are owned by Scottish and Newcastle, the latter are still independent – although they were started by members of the same family back in the mid-19th Century (Samuel being a cousin of John). These days, Sam Smith’s use Yorkshire square fermenters and retain their links to tradition by delivering their products on a shire horse-driven dray (within a certain distance of Tadcaster).

What’s In a Name? – Stingo -
”A fashionable slang word of the eighteenth century for strong beer originating in the North of England. It was first mentioned in literature before 1700, and derives from the word sting.” [encyclo.co.uk]

What They Say -
“Yorkshire Stingo is aged for at least a year, matured in these well-used oak casks in the brewery’s underground cellars deriving fruit, raisin, treacle toffee, Christmas pudding and slight oaky flavours, before being further naturally conditioned in bottle.” [Official Website]

What We Say…
Stu – I’m a man with a sweet tooth so I’m enjoying that 7½
Richard – Syrupy sweetness with some sherry in there as well 7½
Grooben – I’m usually dead against this kind of beer but it works 7
Shovels – Smells whisky-like, with some prunes. I was expecting it to be bad, but it’s quite well balanced 7

4. Criminally Bad Elf (10.5%abv)
Ridegway Brewery, South Stoke, Oxfordshire (brewed at Hepworth’s, Horsham, West Sussex)
500ml glass bottle

Ridgeway can be loosely pushed into two pigeonholes – as a phoenix brewery, and a cuckoo brewery. They were founded from the ashes of a defunct producer, as ex-Brakspear head brewer Peter Scholey left and managed to start up another company in his own right. He named the new operation Ridgeway, after the ancient upland pathway that meanders along the South Downs, first trod by the Druids. They contract brew, so Peter leases time from brewers with the capacity to spare, most commonly Sussex’s Hepworth. They export a lot of their beers to North America, and revel in the use of elf puns, increasing in strength from Bad Elf through Very Bad Elf, to Insanely Bad Elf. We featured Bad Elf on last year’s Christmas Special podcast.

What’s In a Name? – Criminally Bad Elf -
It turned out to be a case of mistaken identity, of course – wrong place at the wrong time…but Claus was soon back on the street with the polite apologies of the authorities – no questions asked. All’s well that ends well, surely, but still, the reporters wanted to know…it takes its toll, doesnt’t it? “Indeed” sighed Claus, “my elf is going crazy, and I fear I shall soon go crazy as well” And with that he hoisted a great flagon of his favorite barleywine-style ale, silently contemplating the future and straining to remember why he got into this particular line of work in the first place. [Official Website]

What We Say…
Shovels – Not quite criminally bad, but bad enough 3½
Grooben – Unpleasant aftertaste is not sitting right with me at all 3
Richard – Thick, syrupy, medicinal barleywine kick 3
Stu – Tastes like cough syrup and Special Brew, It’s not good and I’m not enjoying it 2

5. Kernel IPA S.C.A.NS. (5.5%abv)
The Kernel Brewery, Bermondsey, London.
330ml glass bottle

Two podcasts ago we featured London’s Kernel Brewery in a Kernel Showcase, after paying a visit to Evin O’Riordain’s Bermondsey brewery. If Marble were one to watch for 2010, Kernel are undoubtedly one to watch for 2011 – their mix of traditional recipes and strong abv’s without doubt appeal to craft beer fans everywhere. When you consider that Evin does everything himself – even hand-stamping each label – it’s a remarkable operation. In ordering some Kernel IPA C.S.C. (7.1%) for our upcoming Beer of the Year show, Evin told me his newest IPA – called S.C.A.NS. was even better. Clearly, we had to get some to find out…

What’s In a Name? – S.C.A.NS. -
Evin names his IPA’s after the hops that he adds to them – his IPA C.S.C. contains Centennial, Simcoe and Chinook for example. It makes a good quiz for hop fans (play along at home) – S.C.A.NS. contains Simcoe, Chinook, Apollo, and Nelson Sauvin.

What They Say -
“One of the finest Double IPA’s on the market from the up and coming Kernel Brewery. Drawing “wow” from brewers and beer lovers from afar, even hop-head Californian brewers. I can’t express how impressive this beer is. Hopped with Apollo, Simcoe, Chinook and Nelson Sauvin for a good hit of fruit over a refined malt body.” [BeerMerchants.com]

What We Say…
Richard – More bitter punchiness than CSC, there’s a bit more malty sweetness 7½
Shovels – How good a smell is that? Not as citrusy as the Dobber 7
Stu – One of the best beers I’ve ever smelled, this would make a great Glade plug-in 6½
Grooben – I think I preferred CSC, this one may be too far for my personal taste as it’s slightly too bitter 6

Panellists – (clockwise from top left) Richard, Shovels, Stuart, Grooben

BeerCast panel verdict
Samuel Smith’s Yorkshire Stingo 29/40
Kernel India Pale Ale S.C.A.NS. 27/40
Marble Dobber 25/40
IBS Old Slap and Tickle 14/40
Ridgeway Criminally Bad Elf 12½/40

Thanks to Jeff Pickthall at Pump Clip Parade for the photos of wacky beer names and pump clips. You can also visit Jeff’s regular beer blog – It’s Just the Beer Talking

Please keep those comments and emails coming in, and check back next week for our fourth annual Christmas Special – half a dozen festive warmers for our panel to enjoy, before the excitement of our 2010 Beer of the Year Show in January. Will any of the Christmas beers make a late surge into the final four? Stay tuned…

In these financially troubled times, pricing has become more of an issue for consumers than ever before. This covers the entire retail and entertainment sectors, as people become more reticent to spend large amounts of money on things that they can probably do without. This is undoubtedly one reason why the pub industry is suffering, and why organisations such as CAMRA are eager to keep the issue of pub closures in the public agenda wherever possible.

But are we coming to a time when people are being priced out of the market? How much would you pay for a pint of real ale? This question came to mind the other day when we were conducting some hard-earned ‘research’ in one of the locations highlighted in our BeerCast Edinburgh Pub Guide. Since we were in there last, the price of a pint had been raised to £3.50. To some of you, this may not exactly be news – but the steady (and stealthy) increase in the price of a pint is ongoing, and it may be changing the way people drink real ale.

Traditionally the drink of the working public, British beer can now be compared (price wise at least) to a pint of imported lager in a trendy bar. Of course, there are a range of factors to this – most notably the duty on alcohol in this country – but also British brewers have been hit hard by the increased cost of bottling and transportation, recent hop shortages, and the overall economic downturn. As this has a knock-on effect to the pubgoer, will real ale become a luxury to be enjoyed once in a while, rather than something that’s cheap and comforting?

To a huge extent, that depends on where you go – Wetherspoon’s pubs may be bland and atmosphere-less, but they sell decent beer at tremendously cheap prices. Even without the much-publicised 99p pints, our local branch serves numerous real ales at £1.95. I also recently visited the Cramond Inn, which given it’s location is rather strangely tied to Yorkshire brewer Samuel Smith’s – and enjoyed a great pint of their Brewery Bitter for a tremendously reasonable £1.77.

The moral here seems to be that you need to shop around. Bargains are harder to find these days, but they are to be had. The popularity of supermarket offers for crates of generic lager are worrying for the real ale fan, but for those of us that balk at paying £3.50 plus for a pint, there are other options. Nobody need resort to a twelve-pack of Fosters. The pricing situation might be difficult, but it’s not desperate.

The London office has opened it’s doors again for a second podcast, this time welcoming BeerCast newbies Andrew Hayes and Nick Fraenkel to the bar to share their thoughts. Nick and Andrew play with Jess (of Andy & Jess) in an electro-band called The Unrecorded and so it was a pretty cosy and raucus affair. So much so in fact that we’ve had to add the explicit tag to this one!

Unusually for The BeerCast we didn’t have a theme for this episode, instead we asked Nick and Andrew to bring along a couple of beers of their choosing to sample, and we added a couple of random ones into the mix.

We sipped and slurped our way through five beers on the night, not always staying on the beer theme – the conversation meandered into the sedimentary pork geology of Melton Mowbray, summertime wee, blackcurrant Vitamin C tablets, egg filters and famous metallic air of Bath. It was a very spirited and slightly surreal episode and we look forward to having Nick and Andrew back soon.

Enjoy!

1. Melton Red (4.3%abv)
Belvoir Brewery, Old Dalby, Leicestershire.
500ml glass bottle

The lengthily titled Belvoir Brewery, Sample Cellar, Exhibition and Visitor Centre lies in the centre of England, near the border between Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire. Pronounced ‘Bee-vor’, it was established in 1995 by Colin Brown, who learned his trade at the now defunct Shipstones Brewery in Nottingham. They specialise in malty bitters, with two of their staples being Star Bitter and Beaver Bitter – the former winning a Bronze in the Best Bitter category at the 2005 GBBF. The latter is known as Beaver Bitter when on cask, but Melton Red when bottled – unless it’s the bottle-conditioned form, in which case it’s Beaver Bitter. I think.

What They Say - “A premium full flavoured and well balanced smooth malt beer with a subtle blend of hops leading to a pleasant rounded finish.” [Official Website]

What We Say…
Andy – Not as exciting to drink as it is to smell, a bit chalky 5
Andrew – Good, but not exciting me 5
Jess – It’s a little bit like herbal tea 4
Nick – Tastes like soluble blackcurrant Vitamin C 4

2. Kew Gold (4.8%abv)
Wells&Young’s Brewery, Bedford.
500ml glass bottle

The Ram Brewery in Wandsworth started commercial brewing in 1581 during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, and produced ale for the local hostelry called the Ram’s Inn. The brewery distributed by horse and cart to the local area until 1803 when the world’s first public railway opened from Wandsworth to Croydon enabling transport by rail. In 2004 Young’s (as they had become) announced a “review of brewing operations” and two years later on the 25th September 2006 closed their Wandsworth concern and moved outside the city to Bedford. Here they merged with Charles Wells’s Eagle brewery and renamed the operation Wells & Young’s Company. Kew Gold is ‘inspired’ by hops grown at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew.

What They Say – “Rather lively and fizzy, making the mouthfeel more harsh than it could be. Flavours are soft pale malt notes with a little hop bitterness and a hint of citrus. Finish is dry, but with an underlying syrupy touch.” [bottledbeer.co.uk]

What We Say…
Andy – Quite dry, quite fresh but not exceptional 6
Andrew – There’s a little bit of wee in there, but in a good way 6
Nick – Grassy fresh taste 5
Jess – Yeah, not too bad 5

3. Hopping Mad (4.7%abv)
Wood’s Brewery, Winstanstow, Shropshire.
500ml glass bottle

The Wood Brewery in Winstanstow is very much a family affair – it was founded in 1980 by brothers Anthony and Edward, together with their father Basil. Like many small English rural breweries, it began with the conversion of outbuildings near a country pub – in this case the abandoned stables next to the Plough Inn. They seem to be firm supporters of worthy causes, historically brewing ‘Hedgehog Bitter’ for the British Hedgehog Preservation Society, they have now released ‘Air Ambulance Ale’ to benefit the local flying doctors. They also rescued the Sam Powell brewery, and brew for the Welsh concern that folded in 1991.

What They Say – “Hopping Mad uses just one single hop variety, Progress, to achieve its appealing aroma, its pleasingly bitter taste and its delightful sparkle. We believe the result is uniquely enjoyable. So did the judges at the Beauty of Hops Awards, who awarded it a Silver Medal.” [Official Website]

What We Say…

Andrew – I can taste the lemon in there 6½
Nick – Tastes a little bit like a swimming pool 6
Andy – You’d struggle with more than a pint of this 5
Jess – It’s like being in a room for too long 4½

4. Organic Best Ale (5.0%abv)
Samuel Smith’s, Tadcaster.
500ml glass bottle

Tadcaster in North Yorkshire is home to independent brewer Samuel Smith, and the much larger Scottish & Newcastle owned John Smith’s. This is no co-incidence – they were also started by the same family. In 1847 Samuel Smith (a Leeds butcher) funded his son John in a brewery takeover of the Hartley Brewery, originally opened in 1758 (and the oldest in Yorkshire). John moved his business to new premises, so his cousin – also called Samuel – re-opened the vacated original buildings and started brewing in direct competition with John, under his own name.

What They Say – “a delicately flavoured golden ale in which the subtle fruity esters from the old Samuel Smith yeast strain interact with a background of maltiness and fresh hops.” [beersofeurope.co.uk]

What We Say…
Nick – The smell of a nice bath 7
Andrew – Orangey biscuity, chocolatey notes 6½
Andy – Very floral, citrusy but there’s something in it i’m not keen on 5
Jess – Hey there! tastes a bit like Soreen, too sweet though 4

5. Tom Paine Ale (5.5%abv)
Harveys Brewery, Lewes, East Sussex.
500ml glass bottle

Georgian wine merchant Jon Harvey produced his first batch of ale in 1790 on the banks of the River Ouse in Lewes, East Sussex. In 1838 he built a new eight quarter brewhouse on a site at Bridge Wharf which he had purchased for £3,707, going into business with his three sons. It was Henry Harvey who took over the brewing – he was producing stout, ale and porter in the mid 19th century. Today their beers are incredibly popular on the south coast – there’s currently a two-year waiting list for their brewery tour – and Harvey’s Best is a two-time GBBF winner in the bitter category. Tom Paine Ale is named after the radical writer and philosopher who lived in Lewes, but went on to become one of the founding fathers of the United States, co-draughting the Declaration of Independence.

What They Say – “Hazy golden ale with a small, creamy, off-white head. Good retention. Sherry-like nose with additional notes of caramel and red apple. The flavor is malty with esters of honey and toffee. Hopped just enough to prevent cloying sweetness. Medium-bodied with a creamy mouthfeel and soft carbonation. Lengthy, creamy finish.” [ratebeer.com]

What We Say…
Jess – Quite metallic and bitter, but well balanced 7
Andy – Best beer of the night 7
Nick – It becomes more bitter & less complex the more I drink 7
Andrew – It’s metallic but not like drinking a ship 7

BeerCast panel verdict
Tom Paine Ale (28/40)
Samuel Smiths Organic Best Ale (22½/40)
Young’s Kew Gold (22/40)
Hopping Mad (22/40)
Melton Red (18/40)

Panellists – (from top left) Andy & Jess, Andrew, Nick

• Listen to the episode here: BeerCast #32 – The Unrecorded
• Subscribe to the podcasts in iTunes or our site feed

We’ll be back in a couple of weeks with our next podcast. As always please leave us comments on the website or iTunes, or emails, Twitter or any other method of communication you fancy.

Cheers!