We popped into Reading to the Hope Tap last Sunday to see what they had – and to meet up with some friends for a meal.  I tried 3 of the festival beers, plus a pint of Loddon Hoppit (3.5%) – a lovely local beer brewed just to the north of Reading.  The festival beers I tried were:  Greene King Boss Hogg Bitter (4.1%), brewed specially for the festival, a very tasty golden ale; Adnams Pale Champion Ale (3.4%), another beer brewed specially for the festival – I think this suffered from following a more full-flavoured beer – I’m sure it’s a very nice drink, but after the Boss Hogg, it tasted a bit thin; Bath Hefewiezen Hare (4.7%) from Bath Ales in Bristol, another special brew for the festival, and absolutely delicious – a wheat beer with fruity, spicy tastes – definitely the best of the session.  The full list of beers, complete with tasting notes, is on the JD Wetherspoon website, along with a lot of other useful information.

I have mixed views about JD Wetherspoon.  They do a lot to promote good beer, and support local breweries, and that is brilliant.  Their pubs are usually quite clean and presentable, and serve a good range of reasonably priced food.  What bothers me a bit is that they are so ubiquitous, and they are such good value, that the smaller, more traditional pubs find it hard to compete, and I’m sure that JDWs, along with other similar chains of bars, contribute in no small way to the rapid rate of pub closures.  What confuses me greatly is the closeness of JDWs and CAMRA.  On the one hand CAMRA are bemoaning the closure of so many traditional pubs, but on the other hand are giving JDW money-off vouchers when you join or renew your CAMRA membership – doesn’t anybody else see the contradiction here?  CAMRA seem intent on blaming the supermarkets selling cheap booze for the demise of the pub – perhaps they should be looking a bit closer to home.

This doesn’t mean that I’m anti-JDW – you know what you’re going to get when you go into one of their bars, so if you’re in a strange town and looking for a decent pint, they are the safe bet.  They do champion the cause of proper beer, and of local small brewers (though I believe they screw them down on their prices – they clearly have the clout that independent pubs don’t have).  Maybe we get the pubs we deserve, and maybe the places we want to drink are changing to reflect our preferences – as has always been the case.  It’s a complex issue, and one that is best discussed over a pint.

I have to say that the brewery put on a good event, and were definitely not at all stingy with the samples of beer – it was unfortunate (for me at least) that it was my turn to drive, so Sarah got to enjoy more of the beer than I did.  We had time for a taster before the tour – I went for the Hooky Bitter (3.6%) – a good session beer, golden and hoppy with a fine malty taste – went down very well.  Sarah tried the Hooky Gold (4.1%) and was really impressed – I managed a slurp and agreed.  As the name suggests, it is a golden beer, light tasting nd very hoppy – apparently it is the first Hook Norton beer to use American hops – Willamette from Oregon – or so they thought, but when they looked through some old brewery papers from the late 1800′s they found receipts for … Willamette hops from Oregon.

The brewery tour was interesting – well, breweries are interesting – though to be honest, if we hadn’t already known a fair bit about how a brewery works, I’m not sure we would have learned a lot.  Maybe it’s the layout of the brewery, but the tour was quite disjointed and out of sequence – we saw the coppers and the hopback, then the mash tuns, then the malt store and the mill, then the cooler…then a brief look through the door of the fermenting room – for some reason we weren’t allowed to go inside – then the racking vessels and cask fillers.  Having recently been round the St. Austell Brewery, where you start at the top and work your way down the building and through the brewing process, this was a bit haphazard.  Anyway, our guide Barbara did her best – I don’t think she was used to a tour full of CAMRA members asking difficult questions!

Then to more samples and a look round the shop (unfortunately time did not permit us to look around the museum – that’s something for another visit).  I tried the seasonal beer that had just been released – Summer Haze (4.5%) - a wheat beer – the first that Hook Norton have brewed.  At first I thought it tasted a bit thin, but as I got down the glass I came to like it more.  Very refreshing and a bit fruity – very much a summer drink.  Sarah went for the Haymaker (5%) – a pale ale, with quite a bit of taste – again, quite hoppy (Goldings this time).  After that I had to stop so I could drive home – but Sarah kept going back for more – mainly the Hooky Gold – a definite winner with her.  We brought a few bottles back to sample, as you can see from the picture.  You might notice that one beer that is not there is Old Hooky – that is one Hook Norton beer that we can get quite readily in the supermarkets where we shop, so we didn’t think it was worth bringing any back with us.  I’ll let you know what the bottled versions taste like.

The beer itself is very good – a very powerful taste, quite bitter with a touch of sweetness – malty and fruity, but not over-sweet as some beers of this strength can be.  The bottle claims that six varieties of barley are used – “hand malted in the oldest working independent floor maltings in the UK” – and three varieties of hops – First Gold, Fuggles and Golding.  All in all a very nice beer.  Is it “The Best”?  Probably not, but it’s definitely worth trying anyway.  I’m quite a fan of supermarket own brand beers, as these days they do seem to make an effort to put their name to very high quality products – and you can bet that they will ensure that what the breweries produce is of a consistently high standard.  A gold star for Morrisons for this one.

Conversely, Sarah loved it.  She has always been quite keen on the stronger sweeter beers, and will often have a half-pint of one of those while I swill a pint (or so) of a session bitter.  When we go to events such as the Reading Real Ale and Jazz, she is straining at the leash waiting for the 9pm “watershed” when the strong ales go on sale.  Anyway, Poacher’s Choice is one for Sarah’s list, but not for mine – which is unfortunate, as I don’t like to think that there are beers out there that I dont like – especially from a brewer such as Badger (Hall & Woodhouse) that brew a number of beers that I really love.  Incidentally, I just picked up a bottle of their current seasonal beer – Stinger (with added nettles!) so watch out for a write-up of that in the near future.

White Horse Oxfordshire Bitter (4.1%) has a good hoppy, malty smell, a full-flavoured, fruity taste and a bitter finish – very good.  They also do a cask version at 3.7% which I’ve never seen, and which I suspect you would only see in the pubs local to the brewery.  Worth looking out for though.  The bottle label declares “An exclusive partnership with Morrisons Supermarkets allows more discerning drinkers to sample this exceptional ale”.  I don’t know whether this means that it is only available in Morrisons – but even if it does, that still gives them a significant market opportunity.

Wayland Smithy (4.4%) – named after a well-known landmark on The Ridgeway.  This is a little bit stronger and slightly darker than the Oxfordshire Bitter.  A malty, fruity, slightly smoky smell, with a sharp edge to the taste reminiscent of lime juice.  A bitter finish, but with an underlying sweetness that was starting to cloy just a little bit by the end of the second bottle – another lovely drink, all the same.

I can’t track down a web site for the brewery, but the White Horse branch of CAMRA has some information about it.

I much prefer events such as the Reading Real Ale and Jazz that is held every July just the other side of the Thames.  Okay, so there are only about 30 beers on offer – many of them local to the area, but the enjoyment of the beer is enhanced by the enjoyment of the jazz bands.  Yes, there is some queueing and jostling, but it is less intense, as people are not there just for the beer – it is an interesting adjunct to the music.

A few weeks ago, while we were doing some shopping in Lidl (they usually have a few good beers at reasonable prices – see Plane drunk), I picked up a bottle of Staropramen Premium Beer.  This lager style beer, brewed in Prague, is a bit stronger than your ordinary “throwing lager”, and I have to say that it is very tasty – quite bitter, which came as a little bit of a surprise to me, as I’ve always found that continental lagers tend to taste fairly sweet and not very bitter.  There are a lot of Eastern European beers available these days – I don’t know whether this has anything to do with the number of people coming to this country from Eastern Europe, or whether it is our increasing willingness to try different beers.  I’ll certainly try to be a bit more adventurous about the beers that I try – rather than sticking to the tried and tested British Bitters that I know I like.

First Gold (4%).   What I enjoy in a beer – a “nice bitter” beer at a strength suitable for having a few.  The bottle notes claim it is “perfect with traditional English roasts & pies” and I can quite believe that, although I drank this on it’s own.

Fursty Ferret (4.4%).  Once you get past the fairy tale on the bottle about how it got it’s name, this is a very good beer – it must have grown on me as I was drinking it – I usually jot a few notes down so that I can remember what a beer was like (important when I’ve had a few of an evening), and my notes on this one started out as “pleasant enough” and ended up with “yummy”.  I’m not sure I can put my finger on exactly what it is about it that I like – it has a taste that is malty, and maybe a bit reminiscent of chestnuts or brazil nuts.

England’s Gold (4.6%).  Pale and with a flowery – elderflower I think – smell and taste.  Refreshing bitterness – very Spring-like.  I enjoyed it, although I’m generally not keen on “flowery” beers.

Poacher’s Choice (5.7%).  Not my cup of tea, I’m afraid.  Very sweet, toffee, almost sickly taste – very little bitterness.  The taste reminded me of cantaloupe melon, but when I checked the bottle it said damsons and a touch of licorice.  The bottle notes claim that “the robust flavours combine well with game dishes and mature cheeses”, but I think I’d struggle to find a food to match it with.  Possibly an end-of-night drink in the winter, but I certainly wouldn’t want more than one.

I didn’t drink all these beers one after the other in one session – I once did that with the Fuller’s Brewery Tour selection pack, and had “a bit of a head” the following morning – I think I’m getting too old for that kind of thing these days!

Wychwood seem to have acquired quite a chunk of the supermarket own-brand beer market.  I’ve enjoyed all the ones that I’ve mentioned, so I don’t think that this is any bad thing – far better that the supermarkets are open about where their beers are brewed, and that they use a brewer with a good reputation, such as Wychwood.

I mentioned the other day (At the double) about Sarah keeping me supplied with an interesting range of beers, and a few favourites – well, the weekly shopping was delivered by Sainsburys this evening, and it included … 3 bottles of the Sainsburys Organic Blonde Ale – along with some Brakspears and some Adnams – so it looks as though I’ll have a happy Easter beer-wise.