A revisionist approach to supermarket beer

It seems that the supermarket chains are getting in on this craft beer game. We’re familiar with Aldi stocking O’Shea’s stout, pale ale and red ale produced by Carlow Brewing Company.   A more recent entrant to the scene is Rye River, somewhat double jobbing with its Crafty Beer (Lidl) and Solas (Tesco) ranges.

Of course this is nothing new.  The tactic of ‘own’ or indeed ‘exclusive’ brands has been used for decades.  Think of cans or stubby bottles of cheap own-brand cheap lager that have littered many a student party or bbq over the years.  In fact it would appear that there are even more own-brand lagers appearing on supermarket shelves.  And it is a pattern replicated for cider as well.  So should we be worried when more and more ‘own-brand’ craft beers start appearing?

Why can't more supermarket offerings take after Carlow Brewing Co. O'Shea's range?
Why can’t more supermarket offerings take after Carlow Brewing Co. O’Shea’s range?

Well naturally it all comes down to quality.  And given how price conscious supermarkets are, we have to ask, can the two be combined?  The Carlow Brewing Company has demonstrated that it can with its O’Shea’s range.  The beers are great value and have introduced more people to the world of craft beer.  I know of one person, a die-hard Guinness drinker, often the hardest to convert, who when at home, drinks nothing but the O’Shea’s Irish Stout.   And he tells me that he’s tempted to explore different stouts as a result.  So if the supermarkets adopt a similar approach to the one they use when considering wines for beer, well it could be a win-win.  For example, how many times are we told that the ‘own-brand champagne is the one to seek out for value and quality?

Supermarket chains are more than likely to partner with larger craft brewers that have the necessary production capacity.  They are more likely to focus on session-type beers rather than extreme ones; although, BrewDog produces a “variant” of its 9.2% abv Hardcore IPA for Tesco.  For the brewers, it can be a valuable source of revenue; also regular and sizeable orders from large multiples can impress the banks when looking for loans to expand the business.  It is no surprise that lenders prefer big, dependable orders over smaller, though numerous accounts.

So why am I writing about this now?  Well recently I had the chance to try a number of supermarket-brand beers. It will come as no surprise that some were better than others, but what struck me was that some of those were considerably better than the rest.  I then recalled one of the first ‘own brand’ beers I had ever tried. Perhaps it was time to refresh my memory.

The four "Revisionist" beers most likely to be spotted in Tesco
The four “Revisionist” beers most likely to be spotted in Tesco

The ‘Revisionist’ range is produced by real ale behemoth, Marston’s and Tesco has an exclusive on the bottles.  It’s worth noting however, that beers like Craft Lager can be had on draft in the likes of Wetherspoons.  My local Tesco stocks the Red Ale, Rye Ale, Dark IPA and the Wheat Beer. The range also includes Steam Beer and Saison in bottles.  These beers are produced at the different breweries within the Marston’s stable (Bank’s, Jennings, Wychwood, Brakspear, Ringwood and Marston’s itself).

The Revisionist American Hop Rye Pale Ale – to give it its full name – was as I say, the first beer from the range which I tasted.  And if I’m honest, it is also the only one on which I have notes as I tried some of the others while judging a beer competition.

image

Firstly the branding is certainly interesting and certainly catches the eye, while scanning the shelves.  The beer pours an unsurprisingly amber colour with good clarity.  There are sweet tropical fruits and a hint of spice on the nose.  The beer was dry hopped with citra® and amarillo so that explains the fruitiness and the rye gives the spicy notes.  Initially, there is fresh citrus on tasting but a dry, almost Bombay mix-inspired spiciness takes over.  It is however, let down a little by the fluctuating carbonation levels. The dryness of the rye also leaves it tasting a little flat at times. It finishes quite dry.

It’s safe to say that the ‘Revisionist’ range encapsulates a problem for both the real ale brewers and for the retailers across the water.  Are they edgy enough in today’s fickle craft beer world?  Five years ago Tesco used to be the go-to place in this country if you were looking for English ales.  But now that range is dwindling, and not only in Tesco.  Yes, it’s a good thing that some of the space is being occupied by local Irish offerings, but part of me is sad to see that English brewers are being sought merely to imitate rather than innovate in terms of the beers to be stocked.   And yes these beers are fine, they do the job.  But I would argue that unfortunately they come in at too high a price point in Ireland to be deemed as good value.

For the rest of July the outlook is bitter

The Porterhouse is back with its latest festival. This time it’s the IPA Festival, which runs over ten days in July starting on Thursday. With predictions of a heat wave on the way, what could be beer than a festival celebrating pale ales and IPAs.

image

The festival will see many familiar beers putting in an appearance on their rolling bank of guest taps such as the erstwhile citra-packed Torpedo from Sierra Nevada, its archetypal Pale Ale and Ruthless Rye. Founders’ All day IPA, Centennial IPA and its Pale Ale will be there, along with Flying Dog’s Pale Ale and Snakedog IPA. England will be represented by Camden Town Brewery and Thornbridge. Camden, like Founders has been making inroads into the Irish drinking-scene in recent months and its Pale Ale will be served. Derbyshire’s Thornbridge will be represented by its black IPA Wild Raven, the stunning Jaipur, the Nelson Sauvin infused Kipling and Chiron, which is wonderful when fresh. Festival goers can also expect to taste Twin Peals, its collaboration brew with Sierra Nevada. Rumours are circulating that Hippocrates’ Purge, a summer ale with elderflower and Spanish orange blossom honey will be available on cask. Italy will be represented by much-acclaimed Birra del Borgo (My Antonia anyone?) and ReAle will be putting in an appearance. Irish variants will consist of Eight Degrees’ Full Irish (in the running for Beoir beer of the year) and Galway Hooker.

image

Some of the most eagerly awaited beers will be from Yorkshire’s Magic Rock Brewing brewer of the excellent Cannonball (think pine, tropical fruits and some sweetness), their flagship IPA but also look out for their double IPA (Human Cannonball) and triple IPA Un-human Cannonball, which is released annually. During the Porterhouse festival, customers can experience the following beers from Magic Rock Brewery on cask: Ringmaster (3.9% original pale ale); Carnival (4.3%, golden summer ale); and Great Alphonso (5.6% Mango pale ale).

It wouldn’t be a Porterhouse festival without them launching a special brew. However, Dublin Pale Ale is not just a festival special but a new regular offering for their five Irish bars and their London and New York outlets.  It’s styled as an “Irish-style pale ale” (one of those descriptors that provokes debate amongst beer geeks). So what’s it like?

image

Dublin Pale Ale pours clean and clear copper, an appearance that is very much at home in The Porterhouse Temple Bar. It’s earthy with light citrus notes on the nose. The carbonation is typical of kegged pale ales. It’s in the taste and the finish that this beer gets started. Notes of orange and lemon meld into a dry biscuit and an assertive bitter finish. At 4.2% this would be a good session full-bodied beer for hopheads looking for an Irish bitter equivalent of an All Day IPA (minus the pine). This beer is the sibling of Hophead, which is described as a beer “beyond the pale” and hopped with Cascade and Centennial. Dublin Pale Ale, however, is billed as a beer “within the pale” (even though it’s going to be available across the group) and it’s hopped with European varieties, namely Styrian Goldings and the high-alpha acid beast that is Admiral. Hopefully they’ll go on to produce a cask version of this beer.

No doubt this festival will prove popular. Let’s face it hoppy beers sell. I have no doubt the new beers on offer will be in high demand but also the festival will give us the opportunity to be reacquainted with old-favourites as fresh as possible.

 

The Red Devils: bitter in victory or defeat thanks to the USA

Ahead of tonight’s match between the USA and Belgium in the second round of the World Cup in Brazil, I thought what better way to mark this game then by doing a piece on the transatlantic knowledge exchange of hops. This is the first of two pieces I’m doing on hoppy Belgian beers. This piece focusses on the Tripel style with the anti certainly upped in terms of hop usage. A lot has happened since Urtherl Hop-It first burst onto the scene back in 2005.

A popular standard bearer has to be the excellent La Chouffe Houblon Dobbelen IPA Tripel The beer pours a hazy golden colour with lemon and herbs on the nose. It’s a case of initial sweetness meets dry bitterness, thanks to the addition of Tommahwak (houblon being the French word for hops).  There’s a good bitter bite in the huge finish. Good on draught but better in the bottle. Beer lore has it that this beer from the Ardennes took the mantle of the bitterest Belgian beer title away from Orval. Following on from Brasserie d’Achouffe founded back in 1981the beer itself being sold for the first time in 2006, new and old breweries have been pushing the boundaries for beers much as new breweries around the world have been doing for brewing traditions in their countries.

Sometimes it's good to be bitter
Sometimes it’s good to be bitter

Achouffe is part of the Duvel Moorgat collection of breweries, which owns the likes of Ommegang in Cooperstown, New York. It also owns Vedett, a beer known more for the different photos on back of the bottle (making the drinker the star) rather than for a memorable drink. The beer became fashionable in Brussels about a decade ago and so it is surprising that it too has come out with an IPA. Billed as a 6% abv “extra ordinary” IPA, it pours a clear golden colour. It is topped by a fair amount of Belgian lace. There are plenty of tropical fruit notes on the nose. It drinks bitter and fairly sweet with the prerequisite bitter finish. However, it is slightly lacking in the body and makes this beer nothing extraordinary.

Vedette "Extra Ordinary" IPA
Vedett “Extra Ordinary” IPA

Last but not least is a beer for tonight’s match between the US and de Rode Duivels, les Diables Rouges, die Roten Teufel (one mustn’t forget about the small German-speaking area) or to us, simply the Red Devils. Duvel is one of the more instantly recognisable Belgian beers out there and perhaps this has affected the level of respect shown to it. It remains a good benchmark for Belgian strong golden ales. However, to regain some of the interest in Devil beer (Duvel being Flemish for devil), they produced an extremely limited edition triple hop version back in 200. Amarillo was added to the usual hop mix of Czech Saaz and Styrian Goldings. Due to the campaigning of a Belgian beer club, the Lambikstoempers (they collected 17,000 signatures through a Facebook campaign), the beer was brewed once more in 2010. Thankfully by 2012, it was decided to make Tripel Hop an annual limited release but changing the third hop variety used in each edition. Besides Amarillo, versions with Citra© and Sorachi Ace have also been sold.

Sensory overload with Duvel Tripel Hop in a "ballon"
Sensory overload with Duvel Tripel Hop in a “ballon”

Duvel Tripel Hop 2014 features the powerhouse addition of Mosaic. This is a hop that packs in as much of the hop aromas prized in new world hops. There are lashings of citrus, tropical fruits, herbs and pine. However, it’s grapefruit that emerges successfully from the fight with the pear and pepper aroma from the beer’s yeast. The Duvel glass, the “ballon” makes drinking the classic Duvel a real pleasure but this glass comes into its own with Tripel Hop. The collective aroma from the beer becomes pleasurably intoxicating, all the more with the artistry in the glass due to the pour of Duvel. A light golden colour topped with a spectacular head. It initially drinks dry and slightly bitter. Duvel is known for being sublimely effervescent but this version takes it to another level and becomes sherbert-like in the finish. Intriguing for a beer that comes in at 9.5% abv.

Regardless of who wins the match tonight, it’s interesting to know that both countries’ supporters are thankful for the brewing traditions of the other.

The Great British Beer Festival – a test of enjoyable endurance

August marks the annual pilgrimage to London for fans of real ale. The Great British Beer Festival (or GBBF to its friends) now in its 36th year features over 800 real ales. This was my second experience of the festival after having combined it with tickets to Katie Taylor’s gold medal winning fight at London 2012. It was most certainly a great way of continuing the celebrations. In 2013, the festival was once more held at the Olympia in Kensington, having returned here the previous year because Earls Court was being used for Olympic events. Accompanied by Cillian on this occasion, it was to be his first experience of the GBBF.


The Great British Beer Festival is a mecca for real ale lovers and is the annual pilgrimage for CAMRA members. Over 55,000 patrons were expected through the doors of what is effectively Britain’s largest pub (for the guts of a week at least). The attendee numbers are testament to both the work of CAMRA in promoting the popularity of real ale as well as the general growing interest in different beers across all walks of life. However, attending the festival one is reminded just how strong the stereotype of the real ale drinker is. Bearded and sandal-wearing, these attendees can be spotted as far away as Earls Court station and grow in numbers the nearer you get to the venue. Some are dressed accordingly for the festival and wouldn’t be out of place on safari, complete with tasting glass tied to clothing. Think plenty of beards coupled with sandals and I haven’t even gotten to hat day (oh yes Festival Thursday is Hat Day).

It is not a comfortable festival and requires a fair bit of stamina. Given the sheer vast range of beers on offer, it was hard not to imbibe on all the strong and rare beers on offer early on. Also, the lower strength ales quickly begin to blend into one another. To get around and taste as many while still staying fairly upright, ordering thirds was the name of the day (because often you ended up getting a half for the same price). Thirds tended to be the selected measure that the rarer of award winning beers were served in.  However, at times half or full pints were ordered on favoured beers. For those who haven’t been, Pete Brown has put together a survival guide for the festival which gives a flavour of what attendees face. I even came across a few regular attendees that have deck chairs and provisions in tow. These are the particularly hardcore element that are settling in for the week because season tickets can be purchased.

There is of course a serious competitive element to the festival with a handful of beers in line for the coveted Supreme Champion Beer of Britain, an accolade that can change the fortunes for successful breweries Think of Timothy Taylor Landlord, the winning-est beer in Britain having scooped the title on no less than four occasions. Success for a particular beer style will also see many other breweries try to emulate the victor. There was a noticeable increase in barley wines on foot of Coniston’s victory last year with No. 9 Barley Wine (coincidentally the blend contains Bluebird Bitter, which won in 1998).

The announcement of the champion beer of Britain takes place on the afternoon of the first day of the festival. A large crowd gathers around the main stage and Roger Protz runs through the category winners before moving on to the overall winner. A succession of cheers takes place as each medal is announced. Most of the gathered audience seem to be just happy to have either tried the beers or failing that having heard of them, whereas others support particular breweries/beers like their local football team. The best description of the whole ceremony was provided by Cillian who summed it up as all “very British”. One of those phrases that no one can define but understand what it means.

Elland 1872 reigns supreme

This year Elland 1872 Porter from West Yorkshire took home the prize. As soon as it was announced, a number of regular attendees soured the festival programme and made a beeline for the bar that was serving it. I had a feeling that this was going to be the year for stouts. Besides the competition winner, those that I particularly enjoyed were Ascot Anastasia’s Exile Stout, London Fields Porter and of course Courage Imperial Russian Stout is brewed by Wells & Young’s in Bedfordshire.


Besides porters and stouts, there was of course the opportunity to indulge one’s moreish side by availing of a range of strong ales on cask. Particularly enjoyed were Hogs Back A over T and one of the much publicised pre-festival ales, Fullers Vintage 2013. I have a soft sport for Fullers’ beers and more than a few ESBs, 1845 and Old Burton Extra were consumed during this trip to London.

It is of course interesting to see real ale brewers tackle new world hop bitterness and aroma with the traditional sessionability that British brewers do so well. Beers tried included Goose Eye Chinook Blonde, Harvey’s Armada Ale, Tydd Steam Golden Kiwi, Thwaites 13 Guns, Redemption Hopspur and Oakleaf Nelsons Oak. The Citra© hop is very much in vogue and we can expect more and more brewers to be using this hop in English ales over the coming year. Two excellent variations were Durham Citra Nova (which will make @TheBeermack happy) and Pictish Citra. However, through tasting enjoyment was found in the excellent Moor Revival (on cask and certainly not at the price that we have to pay for a bottle in Ireland) and St Austell’s Big Job, the new brawnier brother of Proper Job and more likely to be found in bottle form in the future.


This year, the international beers featured prominently. It was hard to keep ones self-discipline and not to over-indulge on the foreign beers that all tended to weigh in at higher strengths than their British counterparts. Also, the prices at these bars show the increase in excise duties in the UK that has taken place over the last number of years. Beers that I allowed myself to consume include two different Dutch beers Joppen Mooie IPA, De Molen Rye IPA, one from the US in the form Allagash Brewing’s Confluence from Maine and a Belgian saison from De Ranke. The international bars proved extremely popular amongst patrons and the largest queues were found at them. This didn’t go down well with the more traditional real ale attendees and even with the organisers based on the number of pleas on twitter over the course of the event asking people not to just frequent the international bars. Perhaps they had a point because after-all the festival was to promote the real ale in Britain.

Author and Cillian clearly enoying the festivities

All in all, the festival is firmly on my annual to-do list and I think it’s now on Cillian’s as well. It was definitely worth going earlier in the week because it was slightly more relaxed. However, I fear I may have over dosed on scotch eggs during the festival and will have to get in better shape for next year. This is definitely a festival that one shouldn’t miss.