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BrewDog & CAMRA Battle
Some beer drama coming out of the UK. CAMRA (Campaign For Real Ale) and BrewDog have not seen eye to eye very often. With the Great British Beer Festival coming up on August, BrewDog tried to work together with CAMRA – a real ale festival in order have BrewDog beers served there.
It was a done deal, but it looks CAMRA had some buyers remorse. They challenged a aspects of the the amount of carbonation in the beers BrewDog was sending. In correspondence from CAMRA, they objected the yeast content (or lack there of) in the beer, to carbonation. In the end, the group just cancelled BrewDog’s table at the fest.
The battle wages on.
From the BrewDog blog:
Back in May, we announced that we would be attending the GBBF in August. We had came to an agreement with CAMRA to have a bar serving kegged our beers at the festival. We signed the contract and paid the deposit. We agreed to work together with CAMRA, put past differences behind us, and try and introduce something new and exciting to the Great British Beer Festival. We feel the festival lacks the stylistic diversity amongst domestic brewers that makes craft beer great. It is easy to get lost in a sea of boring, lightly hopped bland cask ales at the festival and we were determined to change that.
Foreign keg beers have always been present at the GBBF so it seems strange that CAMRA, in their infinite wisdom, would apply different rules to domestic, rather than overseas participants. We are sure this violates EU law as well as being deeply flawed. It was not easy initially, getting them to allow us to attend with keg rather than cask beer. Ironic that if Scotland was independent, we would qualify as foreign and could serve anything we wanted there.
During the course of the discussion we were able to satisfy CAMRA and Ralph Warrington, Chair of the wonderfully named ‘Technical Advisory Group’ that our draft beer does indeed contain 0.1 million living yeast cells per ml. Our kegged and bottled beers are only lightly filtered (around 5-7 micron), unpasteurized and the bulk of the carbonationisation comes from CO2 created during the initial fermentation which occurs under pressure. Despite this, a subject of our attendance was that our beers were going to be tested by an onsite laboratory (I did not know they had one!) and if they did not meet the CAMRA definition of ale, they‘would not be sold, then returned as ullage, not paid for and our bar cancelled’.
This begs the killer question; who actually cares is a beer contains at least 0.1 million living yeast cells per millilitres? Surely this is not the definition of good beer. For us great beer is great beer regardless of if it is bottle, cask, can, keg. Regardless of if it is bottle conditioned, carbonated during the initial fermentation or carbonated prior to packaging. Give me a Stone IPA (which is carbonated) any day over a fundamentally pedestrian cask bitter.
If we look at what is happening with craft beer globally it is all about a wide spectrum of beer styles with amazing flavour, diversity and craftsmanship rather than CAMRA who are rapidly losing relevance hiding behind arbitrary distinctions which no longer apply. Production and dispense techniques for craft beer have changed since the 1970s, CAMRA need to accept this and change too. Why apply one rule to foreign brewers and another one to domestic ones?
Is our beer real ale? Are other progressive UK craft brewer’s keg and bottled beers real ale? Firstly, I don’t think we should really care. However is CAMRA insist on imposing draconian rules they need to know what they stand for and where to draw the line. The problem is, they themselves don’t know.
We really don’t care what vessel beer is transported or stored in as long as it adds to the brew in a positive way. While we’re firm believers in the carbonation in beer — however taking a puritanical stance that rejects a beer on the basis of carbonation or keg alone only serves to push the industry backwards rather than forwards. Different beers suit different types of dispense. Beers such as milds and bitters are best showcased in cask whereas we feel hoppy, American style craft ales suit the draft dispense far better than the hand-pump. We also think some of our beers, such as Trashy Blonde suit cask better than keg. However, for us big dry-hopped beers need the carbonation to stop them from becoming sticky or cloying on the pallet and help deliver the flavour to your taste-buds in the most satisfying and encapsulating way.
Anyway, after we reached the agreement, paid the deposit and signed the contract, things started to get difficult. We had our order confirmed and thought we were all ready to rock. However, the first issue they threw back at us was with the fact our kegs were going to be 30L. CAMRA started insisting 30L was too small and we should take 18 gallon casks (after we initially agreed a keg order). 18 gallon casks are however massively different from 30L kegs, not just in size but in dispense style. They said 30L was too small, despite the fact brewers attended with 9 gallon casks (a comparable size to 30L kegs) the previous year. They also argued 30L kegs would be too much of a challenge logistically: This is despite the fact they are much lighter than an 18 gallon cask and also require zero racking or venting required thus saving loads of time and space and making them much easier to handle.
During the ensuing debate, it was patently obvious they regretted signing the contract with us and were desperate to find a way of cancelling it. They then reneged from our original agreement and insisted we take cask beer. Because of this discussion we told them we would withhold the balance of the £5,500 payment until we agreed or reverted to the original contract.
They then sent us an ultimatum saying we had to accept their order (including cask beers) by 12 noon on Friday 15th July and transfer the deposit or they would be cancelling our attendance. Feeling totally frustrated but still very keen to attend the festival we reluctantly accepted this at 11am last Friday and transferred the balance, only to be told they had already cancelled our attendance and there was to be no further discussion on this. They had done this on Thursday 14th.
We are pretty shocked CAMRA unceremoniously cancelled our attendance at the festival and also by the manner in which they acted. We intended to take some amazing beers and do some very exciting new beer launches. We wanted to work with CAMRA after our past difficulties and try and breathe some new life into the GBBF and get more young people excited about great craft beer.
Maybe we should also start a campaign to get BrewDog at the GBBF?
A New Feuillien
A new St. Feuillien for your winter drinking pleasure. This Belgian abbey arrives late fall, 2011.
According to Artisanal Imports:
It’ll be available in the winter but won’t have any holiday or Christmas markings, and will be the same beer as Noël.
Label:
Brewed at the end of the year. It is a festive ale full of flavor with a warm amber glow. Refermented in the bottle, St Feuillien Speciale is matured for several months in our cellars, lending it a delicate aroma, remarkable body & naturally rich head
Availability: 750ml bottles
9% ABV
Blue Moon Variations Include Peanut Butter
Blue Moon looks to be experimenting with some pretty extreme flavors. (Especially when you look at what they have BEEN brewing for some time now.) There is a Spiced Amber Ale arriving in the late fall. Check out these flavor variants. Interesting- the abv variations.
Lime Wheat – Wheat Ale brewed w/ lime peel. 5.7%
Lemon Wheat – Wheat Ale brewed w/ lemon peel. 5.4%
Farmhouse – (A Phish song is now stuck in my head) 5.7%
Valencia – Brewed w/ orange peel. 5.9%
and last but definitely NOT least –
Peanut Butter – Apparently Blue Moon brought this to GABF a couple of years ago as a fun experiment. Brewed with real peanut butter and honey. 4.7%
More on Blue Moon’s recent brews & projects – Spiced Amber, & Vintage Blonde Ale (Brewed w/ grapes)
Playboy’s Top Late Night Bars
Playboy Magazine is known for makings lists from party schools to bars. In a recent press release, Playboy names some of the U.S.’s best late night watering holes. Atlanta will be happy to see it made the list.
- Atlanta: The Highlander
- Boston: The Franklin
- Chicago: The Green Mill
- Dallas: Rio Room
- Hollywood: Jumbo’s Clown Room
- Las Vegas: Double Down Saloon
- Memphis: Mollie Fontaine Lounge
- Miami Beach: Mac’s Club Deuce
- New Orleans: The Club Ms. Mae’s
- New York: Mister H
- Portland: Gold Dust Meridian
- San Francisco: The Endup
- Tampa: The Hub
- Washington, DC: Jimmy Valentine’s
CHICAGO, July 18, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — For those who enjoy partying long after the sun’s gone down, Playboy’s August issue features a tour of America’s greatest late-night bars (issue on newsstands, online at www.playboydigital.com, and on i.Playboy.com now).
After Midnight, compiled by the editors of Playboy, provides a coast-to-coast glimpse at some of the most coveted late-night watering holes in the nation. For the adventurous souls in pursuit of the finest in late-night debauchery, look no further than these establishments when the others have already closed their doors. At these legendary spots, after-hours thrill seekers will have no problem catching live music, enjoying generous cocktails, hobnobbing with eclectic crowds, savoring scrumptious late-night eats, and in some cases, learning a bit of local history.
Brewdog’s Raspberries, Whiskey, & Lager
Brewdog Brewing just made Prototype 17 available online. The brewers took 77 lager, added fruit & some barrel aging.
Prototype 17 is a 4.9% lager aged in whisky casks with raspberries. This is a one time only beer, and once it is gone it is never coming back, so get your paws on this delicious summer beer whilst you have the chance!
SECRET KEG: Beer Geek Tuesday
Cypress Street is bringing you a VERY special keg for Beer Geek Tuesday on August 23rd. They had this to say…
You want it. You just don’t know it yet. Show up at 6 pm on this night and find out why.
Search for clues around the interwebs to reveal the hidden flavor of this draught gem.
Your clue…
Ripe Coffee. A place to gather sticks…
Keg taps @ 6pm 8/23
Any guesses?
Magic Hat Reviving Ravell
Magic Hat Brewing (Burlington, VT) is bringing back Ravell. Looks like the last time this beer surfaced was around 2008. Ravell is a porter brewed with vanilla beans. When released, this beer seasonally arrives in October.
An enormous play in one significant act, Ravell was a porter brewed with whole vanilla beans, once available when young William and father John deem it so.
Style: Porter
Hops: Apollo
Malts: Pale, Crystal, Chocolate
Yeast: English Ale
Vanilla Beans
Availability: 12oz/6pks. Draft. Oct-Jan, seasonally. (When brewed.)
5.8% ABV