Beer, beer, everywhere....

My first thought on entering Craft Beer Rising last Thursday was “What a zoo!” and the second was that although it seemed crammed with people, it was smaller than I expected. Then I spotted a doorway through which was another room, also crammed with people, then I saw another doorway, and another, and.... There is a logic to it somewhere, and a floor-plan in the programme, but on the ground it's labyrinthine. This impression was accentuated by architecture reminiscent of a multi-storey car park, and the many bars apparently constructed of wood and hessian.

Once I started to look around, there were bars everywhere – and from such a variety of names. Many of the old family brewers were there, but so were pretty much all the 'names' from modern craft, plus there were a goodly number of overseas brewers, some distributors, and even a few craft cider producers. And all of them had drinks for you to sample in your third-pint festival glass – or to buy a bigger measure if you wanted.

Could anyone sample everything? No way – there were seventy-odd bars, and hundreds upon hundreds of choices. So I wove (and sometimes pushed) my way from here to there. I spotted names I've read about or seen elsewhere but not tried yet, and faces I knew but hadn't seen in a while, and I stopped for a chat and a spot of something interesting to drink – or in one case, to eat. (I'll write more here on all of these things soon.)

And I thought to myself that this is just the trade session – how much worse is it going to be when it's open to the public? Then someone told me that even for this session they were turning people away at the door, so maybe it was already at the fire limit. Hopefully the public session crush will have been eased by more people moving into the large central hub set aside for food and music – just about the only thing going on in there during the trade session was a speed-dating session, with brewers and retailers chatting each other up. Well, that and confused people like me walking in through one doorway, out through another, and going “Hang on a minute, where am I now?!”

Anyway, 9pm and session-end came all too soon – I could easily have spent the whole weekend there. Such is life.

London's Craft Beer Rising

Another month, another beer festival - and this one's looks to be a doozie: London's Craft Beer Rising opens tomorrow, with 76 stands/bars pouring hundreds of interesting beers.

I missed it last year, being off pillaging, but this time the longship's firmly docked and the drinking horn is ready... Skål!

Check out the programme here, and the Twitter feed here. I'm told there are still tickets available for the public sessions.

A fistful of Brewfist: say hello to Italian craft beer

Italy's best known drinks might be wine and forgettable Euro-lagers, but to the surprise of many it has now become one of the hottest markets for craft beers, and yes, even real ales. So in the week that London's first Italian craft beer bar has opened – almost inevitably named The Italian Job – here's an interview with that country's top brewers, Pietro Di Pilato of Brewfist, based not far from Milan.

We met last month at Brewfist's tap take-over at the Three Johns in Islington. A dozen of Pietro's beers – including collaboration brews with the likes of De Molen, Beer Here and To Øl – were on keg and the place was buzzing.

Brewfist is not well known on the British market, but has been growing fast in other countries. Pietro said that its number one export market is the US, followed by Japan and Scandinavia (the craft beer market in the Nordic countries has exploded in recent years), but with Russia growing fast and bidding for the number two spot. “In 2015 we want to break into Brazil and Canada, those are two countries we're missing,” he added.

His range is broad – “20 beers in regular production, and every year we add three or four.” They run from Stouts to Saisons via the odd Imperial Pils, although like most craft brewers he also does quite a few in the American Pale Ale and IPA mould. “Italian people said 'IPA is just a fashion' – it's not just a fashion,” he declared. Interestingly, he added that Saisons are very popular in Italy.

One of the challenges of doing so many different brews is that you may end up having beer in storage for a while. Pietro said that's why Brewfist recently invested in a new refrigerated warehouse with a capacity of over 400 pallets. They are also getting a centrifuge so they can remove yeast without needing to filter: “The Italian market expects clear beer,” he said.

Brewfist now produces some 6000 hectolitres a year on a 20 barrel (32 hl) kit, which is pretty big by Italian standards. For example, Pietro estimated that in two weeks he produces about as much beer as Loverbeer [another very highly regarded Italian craft brewery] brews in an entire year.

“People said we were crazy, but now there's over 700 craft brewers in Italy,” he continued, adding though that only 10 to 15 of those are really good, while another 50 or so are average. (My own experience of Italian craft beer tends to confirm that.)

Another problem I've noticed with Italian craft beer is excessive pricing, and Pietro confirmed that too (as did the price list at the Three Johns!). He said it is partly the very high cost of running a company – any company – in Italy, to the extent that people can import craft beer from America and sell it cheaper than a locally made brew. “Italy is the worse country in Western Europe for doing business,” he said. “There's around 65% tax on business when everything's included.” But it seems it's also a business decision by some of the other brewers, who have gone for expensive packaging and so on in order to compete with wine.

Thankfully, that expensive – and probably largely futile – route is not one that Brewfist is following. The beers on tap that night were almost all very good, and some were quite excellent. Particular stand-outs were two of the stronger ales: Spaghetti Western was an 8.7% roasty and dry Imperial Stout that's a collaboration with US brewer Prairie Artisan Ales, while One Way TripHell was Pietro's 9.5% take on a Belgian Tripel that expertly blended the sweetness of an abbey beer with the dry spiciness of something like a strong Pils.

So, tasty beer out of Italy! I think this means I had better get myself over to The Italian Job soon and find out more – especially as it's only a couple of miles away in Chiswick.

What does 'local' mean to you?

A PR person contacted me today to promote “a client who specialise [sic] in locally brewed ales.” Mildly curious I investigated a little, only to find it's actually Marston's, wearing its Classic Ales hat...

Much as I respect Marston's – and yes I really do, as it produces some excellent beers and hasn't closed down pretty much every brewery it acquired, unlike say Greedy Ker-ching – it is not exactly my idea of 'local'. If I still lived in the West Midlands it would be different, but as it is I think its closest site would be Wychwood, some 60 miles away.

Ah well, they got their client mentioned here anyway, so well done. (-:


*As CAMRA notes on its LocAle page, "The Sustainable Communities Act, which CAMRA strongly supports, provides a definition of local as up to 30 miles from the point of sale."

Beer sales rise in Britain and Germany, but not in pubs

Annual beer sales were up last year by 1.3% in Britain and by 1% in Germany. The small increases followed eight consecutive years of decline in Germany, and a job and pub-destroying nine years which saw British beer consumption tumble by 24%.

Statisticians and other commentators tried to credit the jump to football, tax cuts, or as Germany's The Local reported, the growing popularity of ready-made beer-mixes such as Radler and cola-beer. Sadly, none of them seemed to think it might be down to a wider choice of interesting, non-industrial beer, or because craft brewers of all varieties have made beer cool again.

However, when you dig into the numbers in the press release from the official German stats agency Destatis, most of the increase actually came from export sales and the home-brew segment. Are they exporting or home-brewing cola-beer? I suspect not. Meanwhile in Britain, the growth was all in off-sales. Indeed, off-sales actually exceeded on-sales for the first time on record, according to the Quarterly Beer Barometer published by the BBPA.

Even though the percentage increases are so similar, it is hard to draw conclusions. In the BBPA press release, its chief executive Brigid Simmons uses the figures to call for another cut in beer duty. Of course that would be welcome, given that a succession of short-sighted, greedy and frankly dim Chancellors have ignored economic reality to squeeze the beer trade past the tipping point where with each tax hike the revenue declines, instead of increasing. It misses the point though: Germany's beer tax rate is tiny by comparison, yet it too has had a decade of declining sales.

Conversely, the Destatis spokesperson rambles on about international football boosting beer sales, then dismisses as a blip 2010, when sales fell despite a soccer World Cup. That's the sort of statistical cherry picking that normally gets researchers into trouble, isn't it?

Something that neither of them tell us is how the value of the beer market shifted. Because one thing these two beer-drinking countries have in common is a strong focus on drinking cheap supermarket beer at home.

Which is why this increase should be a cause more for concern than celebration for the beer trade. Not only does it mean less business for the pub and bar sector and more for the supermarkets, but I wonder what effect it has on new brewers if they must vie for fewer bar taps and ever busier supermarket shelves.

Fuller's to close the Harp - but only for 10 days

Last night I paid a visit to the Admiralty, Fuller's new flagship pub (ho-ho) on Trafalgar Square, just around the corner from Admiralty Arch, and what nice job they've done with it. Although how do they get permission to have white ensigns hanging up inside - I thought they were only for HM's ships and shore stations?

While I was there, I bumped into a party from West London CAMRA who were on a pub crawl, with their next destination being the Harp in Covent Garden - CAMRA's former national pub-of-the-year (that's a link to the pub's old website), which Fuller's bought last year. Also there to meet the CAMRA party was a small team from Fuller's, including Harp manager Sara Bird and the MD of Fuller's Inns Jonathon Swaine.

Jonathon and Sara were present because of the FUD following that Fuller's takeover. At the time, Fuller's said the Harp would continue to operate as a free house, though with the addition of London Pride as a regular on the bar. Not everyone believes that though, not least because similar things were said in 2005 (ale buffs have long memories!) about the acquisition of the Head of Steam free house by Euston station - that's now a Fuller's pub called the Doric Arch.

So with the Harp due to close for 10 days from February 16th, they wanted to allay fears of major change. The story is that it's just a repainting and some updates to the loos, with no more changes to the beer range planned. One of the Fuller's team told me that they have even arranged contingency measures for those drinkers who rely on the Harp for their fix of Dark Star - it's a regular outlet for the Sussex brewery - during the closure, it will be on at the nearby Lamb & Flag instead.

Talking of which, I was impressed by the range and quality at the Lamb on my last visit there - I think it was four cask guests alongside four Fuller's ales. The ale quality at the Admiralty was also excellent, with pretty much the entire current Fuller's cask range on handpump, including Bengal Lancer and Jack Frost; no guest ales that I could see though.

I also discovered that the branded glass for ESB is no longer the heavy stemmed goblet - now it's a trendily-retro straight mug. Doesn't it look gorgeous?!

London beers for London 'Spoons

I heard recently that one of my local(-ish!) Wetherspoons – the Moon on the Square, in Feltham – is having a London Breweries Beer Festival from Monday 16th February to Friday 20th. I've now learnt that this is actually a regional thing and that all 132 London-area 'Spoons are taking part.

Hopefully there will be a comprehensive beer and brewery list along soon, as there was for the similar festival run last year, but in the meantime here's the cask ale list sent over from the Moon:

By The Horns – Bison American Pale Ale 4.8%, Mick The Miller 4%, Diamond Geezer 4.9%
Clarence & Fredericks (Croydon) - Cascadian Black 5%, Golden Ale 3.8%
Cronx – Standard 3.8%, Kotchin 3.9%, Mad-Ass Entire 5.2%
East London – Foundation Bitter 4.2%, Cowcatcher American Pale 4.8%, Quadrant Oatmeal Stout 5.8%
Hop Stuff – Fusilier 4.3%, Renegade IPA 5.6%
Portobello – Chestnut Ale 4.5%, Ginger Bread Beer 4.4%, Apachi 7%
Truman’s – Eyrie 4.3%, Original Porter 4.5%, Runner 4%

And here's some others that will be on at the Kings Tun in Kingston:

Hackney Brewery – NZ Pale, Bitter
Southwark – Best, Gold
Sambrooks – Red, Chocolate Stout
Redemption – Pale Ale, Urban Dusk

Unlike last year though, the festival's not just going to be cask ale – there will be keg too. Windsor & Eton's has brewed Hurricane IPA (5%) specially for the festival, it'll be in all 132 pubs according to W&E's Facebook page. Here will be others too, for example the Kings Tun will also have Twickenham's dry-hopped Tusk keg IPA (4.7%) on tap.

I have to say I've been hugely impressed by the range and quality of the beer in recent Wetherspoons real ale festivals. I know some people have a problem with these pubs, and it's true that they are rarely as comfy and appealing as a cosy local, but they do a great job in providing a good range of well-kept cask ales and now a variety of interesting bottle and keg beers too, all at sensible prices.

I know too that there are various rumours spread about how they keep the prices down – all of which are false, as far as I can discover. Brewers have told me for instance that yes, Wetherspoons expects big discounts, but no more so than any other pub company. It also gave staff an above-inflation pay rise last year.

What's your take on it – do you drink in 'Spoons, and if not, why not?

PS. Through chatting with Andy, the head brewer at Southwark Brewery, I've realised what's going on here. The festival runs throughout February, but different areas of London focus on it in different weeks. So in south-west London the main week is from the 16th, but it'll be different in other areas. Check with your local...