The Joy Of Beer » Uncategorized

Island life

Brian — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 20:04:40 +0000

One of the reasons that there hasn’t been much happening on this web site for a while is that we’ve just been on holiday to Cyprus. It was the first time we have been there, and overall, it is a very pleasant place – sunny and warm, very friendly people, most of whom speak English, and many things that will be familiar to British people, mainly due to the island being under British rule up until the end of the 1950s – they drive on the left, for example – and beer comes in pints, not half-litres like the rest of Europe. Sadly, as far as beer is concerned at least, that is where the similarities end. Yes, you can get imported keg beers such as Caffreys and Boddingtons, but I don’t particularly want to drink those beers when I’m in England, let alone when I’m on holiday – and besides, the “British pub” type bars where they are sold don’t really appeal either (OK, let’s be honest, it’s not so much the bars as the people who frequent them that don’t appeal).

I could only find two local brands of beer – Keo and Leon – and internet searches haven’t revealed any others (but let me know if you know of any). Keo is by far the most widely available, and to many people is synonymous with beer – “a pint of Keo, please”, regardless of whether you end up with Keo, Leon or something else, such as Carlsberg. Both Keo and Leon are 4.5% lagers, and pretty ordinary at that. You could be drinking any of the insipid “standard” lagers that you’d find in any British pub, and neither brewery seems to produce a “premium” lager that might at least have a bit of taste.

Leon is the older of the two breweries, having been established in 1937. However, they stopped producing the brand during the 1960s when they acquired the licence to brew Carlsberg locally. They relaunched the beer in 2003, using the same recipe as when it was first brewed in 1937. Keo has been around since 1951. I never got round to doing a direct side-by-side comparison of the two beers, but my unscientific view is that Keo is the lighter, crisper taste, with Leon being just a tad darker and sweeter – but there’s not much to choose between them – they are a refreshing drink, but they both need to be drunk as cold as possible otherwise they both taste a bit sickly.

Cyprus is a lovely place, and a good holiday destination. Lots of Brits have moved there either to live and work, or to retire to somewhere warm. If you get the opportunity, go there to visit – but put your beer-buds on hold for the duration – unless you happen to like boring lager.

The Keo website is probably quite interesting, but I don’t know Greek! Leon don’t appear to have a web site – there is a bit of information in this Wikipedia article, but I’ve already used most of it in this post anyway.

Gone to the dogs?

Brian — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 21:15:31 +0000

I’ve had a go before about brewers who claim association with “respectable” places, even though they are based in a place that is maybe a bit less grand – see Dreaming Spires? and I’m going to have another go. Ascot Ales is not based in Ascot, but in Camberley, several miles away. Okay, Camberley isn’t a slum by any means – far from it (before I start getting hate mail from Camberley residents) but you have to admit that Ascot, in the Royal County of Berkshire, with its association with toffs swilling Champagne at the racecourse does sound a bit more up-market than a pleasant but essentially dull (sorry Camberley residents, but it is!) commuter town in Surrey. The website doesn’t give any history of the brewery, so I don’t know whether they actually started up in Ascot and subsequently moved. Perhaps someone who knows could enlighten me.

Anyway, I tried a bottle of their Posh Pooch bottle-conditioned ale (4.2%). It’s an amber/copper colour, and has a slightly sweet fruity, malty, yeasty smell and a fruity, slightly bitter taste. It’s very drinkable, and could be a good session bitter. The bottle notes claim that it is brewed using “Specialty Yeast” (their spelling and capitals) – and according to their web site, they also use one of the less common varieties of hops – Chinook – as well as Cascade, to produce the flavour. Worth looking out for.

Dum-di-dum-di-oops!

Brian — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 07:36:03 +0000

Well, nobody spotted my Archers aberration the other day (Think global, drink local). I said that Pip Archer lived at Bridge Farm in Ambridge, when of course she actually lives at Brookfield Farm. I’ve now corrected the post.

What a fool! I must have had too many pints of Shires at The Bull!

Director’s cut

Brian — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 19:22:53 +0000

Ohe dear, what a disappointment. I tried a bottle of Courage Directors (4.8%), now brewed by Wells & Young’s. My first disappointment was when I read the bottle label and found that the ingredients included “Colour E150C”. Obviously somebody has got an idea about what colour a beer should be, and when the product doesn’t match up to expectations, they are prepared to use a bit of artificial help.

The beer smells slightly sweet, and also has a slightly sweet – almost sickly - taste on top of the bitterness – again, the ingredients include sugar, which must be to supplement the sugars in the malt. Perhaps it was because of what I had read in the list of ingredients, but it tasted a bit “artificial” – I was quite disappointed. Pints of the draught version that I have drunk in the past have tasted OK – I suppose that the recipe could be different – or maybe it’s because they don’t print the ingredients on the side of the glass! Perhaps I just wasn’t in the right mood when I tried the bottled version.