Contents
p5
Sally Toms experiences a touch of seasonal cynicism.
Well it’s 2008, and the new year has brought with it its usual dose of guilt and financial hardship. I for one am sick to death of people telling me to ‘kick-start’ the new year with detox, diet and e...
By Sally Toms in the section
From the Editor
p10
A selection of letters and postings from our forum www.beers-of-the-world.com/forum
The best letter or internet posting in each issue wins a London Pride Rugby shirt & a London Pride coffee mug.
Letters
Part time experts
Dear Editor, With reference the article in the current issue...
By Sally Toms in the section
The Beer Forum
p12
Two Irish archaeologists say that beer, not bread, civilised the savage beast, writes Tim Hampson
So what came first beer or bread?
Most ancient historians will have you believe that it was farming and breadmaking that tamed our nomadic ancestors and turned hunter gatherers into people who lived ...
By Sally Toms in the section
News Analysis
p15
This year is a crucial one for Ringwood Brewery in Hampshire, marking the start of a new era. Dominic Roskrow reports
Is the glass half full or on its way to being threequarters empty?
If ever there was an example of cold wet post- Christmas reality it came in the shape of the British broadsheet business pages in ea...
By Dominic Roskrow in the section
Brewery Focus
p18
Just what do they get up to all day? We sent Glynn Davis to find out.
The popular perception of brewing is of a rather leisurely pursuit interspersed with regular visits to the tasting room, but the job of a brewer is in reality a tough one that differs widely between b...
By Glynn Davis in the section
Beer Production
p21
The Works in Sowerby Bridge, West Yorkshire, combines quality beer with a contemporary and lively atmosphere writes Richard Jones.
While the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) Good Beer Guide is an indispensable companion for myself and, I suspect, most other United Kingdom based beer lovers, the outlets selected for inclusion are una...
By Richard Jones in the section
Spotlight
p22
The oldest inhabited house in Scotland also operates as a brewery. Adrian Tierney-Jones went to Traquair.
We all love a loser. The Welsh have Owain Glyndwr and his doomed revolt, the English Eddie the Eagle and the national football team, while the Scots keen over Bonnie Prince Charlie. At Traquair House ...
By Adrian Tierney-Jones in the section
Micro Brewery
p24
Charles D cook explores Belgium, the ultimate destination for any beer fan.
Belgium is often known as The Beer Country, and not without good reason.
This small country produces what might seem a bewildering array of different beers and beer styles to the casual visitor. Howe...
By Charles D Cook in the section
International Focus
p29
Julie Ihle visits White Cliffs, an organic brewer whipping up a storm Down Under.
In a land best known for sheep and strangulated vowels, when you see a sign for ‘Real Ale – 1000 litres Ahead,’ you know you are in for a treat.
White Cliffs Brewery in New Zealand’s bucolic North Is...
By Julie Ihle in the section
International Focus
p30
It has been suggested that there was room in BOTW for a little more technical stuff. So pay attention, here comes the science bit: Daniel Cooper reports on the use of sugar in brewing.
Yeast ferments sugar to produce alcohol – that is the basic biochemical process that our ancestors harnessed to produce our favourite alcoholic beverage. But there’s much more to it than that...
The ...
By Derek Cooper in the section
Beer Production
p34
The world’s best bartenders poured, informed andsmiled for the judges. Alastair Gilmour reports on an unusual competition.
The world high jump record has been shattered by a young Swede wearing a smart suit.
The previous 2.45 metre leap by Cuban athlete Javier Sotomayor, which has resisted all-comers since 1993, was well...
By Alastair Gilmour in the section
Spotlight
p36
Nigel Huddleston visits Zatec, a brewery dedicated to reviving the Czech brewing tradition.
There are scars down the copper kettles in the brewhouse at the Czech Republic’s Zatec brewery. The lines mark where the kettles were welded back together at the end of the Second World War, having be...
By Nigel Huddleston in the section
International Brewery
p40
Ben McFarland samples some of Sweden's finest beer and food combinations.
If the “bork-bork-borking,” cabbage-shooting, moose-smearing and chicken-chucking chef from The Muppets is your sole experience of Swedish cuisine then, well, you should stop being so flipping childis...
By Ben McFarland in the section
Beer and Food
p43
DORSET APPLE CAKE WITH
BADGER BLANDFORD FLY
A contemporary twist on an age-old classic. Serve on its own or with a crème
anglaise flavoured with Blandford Fly. Serves 6-8
INGREDIENTS
225g self raising...
By Sally Toms in the section
Beer and Food
p44
Each issue we feature some of beer’s stranger and funnier stories as well as all sorts of other nonsense.
Toast tribute
A brewer and eccentric Antipodean artist has paid a personal tribute to the late great Michael Jackson using the underrated medium of toast.
Maurice Bennett, beer lover and small brewe...
By Sally Toms in the section
Beer Matters
p47
There's a lot of very good beer produced between Berwick upon Tweed and Middlesbrough, writes Alastair Gilmour.
The stripes of one of its perpetually-underperforming football clubs are black and white; the geography is hilly and flat; the weather can be hot and cold in the same day – the North East of England i...
By Alastair Gilmour in the section
Regional Focus
p52
Traditional coopers are slowly becoming a thing of the past. Roger Protz looks at the role of the cask in beer making today.
onathan Manby is the final chip off the old block. He is a journeyman cooper at Theakston’s brewery in Yorkshire, the last man to serve his apprenticeship and fashion wooden beer casks. The ancient sk...
By Roger Protz in the section
Beer history
p56
Roger Protz gets to the bottom of extra special bitter, or ESB for short.
One beer can define a style. In the mid-19th century, a golden lager beer from Pilsen not only revolutionised brewing on a world scale but gave its name to a style: pilsner or pils for short. In Brita...
By Roger Protz in the section
Beer styles
p56
1.ARKELL’S KINGSDOWN ALE (5.2% Arkell’s, founded in 1843, is a sturdy independent, family-owned brewery in Swindon whose success in the 19th century was fuelled by the town becoming an important hub o...
By Roger Protz in the section
Beer styles
p58
Des de Moor visits the City Beer Store in sunny San Francisco.
San Francisco is a vibrant and cosmopolitan place with a reputation for both alternative lifestyles and fine food and drink. And a major tourist destination located in the heart of the one of the worl...
By Des de Moor in the section
Spotlight
p59
Intrepid beer hunter Zak Avery explores the city so good they named it twice.
It is said that no-one really comes from New York; it’s a city built on a perpetual influx of people who simply don’t want to be anywhere else, or have nowhere else to go. This cliché of the melting p...
By Zak Avery in the section
Beer Journeys
p64
Ye Olde Cider Bar
Stepping into Ye Olde Cider Bar is like taking a trip back in time. Outside, the main road is crammed with speeding traffic and all the nonsense of high street Britain, inside it’s ...
By Sally Toms in the section
Cider space
p74
We chat to Alastair Hook, founder, owner and brewer of Meantime Brewing in Greenwich, London.
How did you first get involved in beer?
The call to a life in beer materialised with a typically wild and wonderful escape from childhood. I drank my first pint of beer at the age of 13, Theakston’s ...
By Sally Toms in the section
Last Shout
