Career Change

Just a quick post this one, as I realise I haven't written anything in months! The reason for this is not just laziness, but more that I have a new job - as a BREWER!

Back in November I saw an job advert looking for a brewer at a 10 barrel brewery in Bristol. I'd been looking for a job in the brewing industry for a little while, so I knew that such jobs don't crop up all the time and especially so close to home. I decided to apply despite having no professional experience. I was confident that I knew the theory of brewing pretty well and that I could scale that up to a bigger operation. And I could demonstrate my ability to brew different styles to a pretty high standard, so I went for it!

Job application ready to go!

As you can see in the photo, I decided to submit some beers with my application. Mostly this was to show that I could brew good beer, but also to make my application stand out. If you are thinking of applying for a brewing job I would definitely recommend doing the same. I also took the application in myself and gave it directly to the head brewer. We had a little chat at the same time and I think he was impressed that I'd made an effort to go in person. It turned out that they were much more interested in finding someone with a passion for beer and brewing, than they were in qualifications and experience.

I've been working at the brewery now for almost two months now and I'm still really enjoying it. There's a steep learning curve involved and it's pretty stressful knowing that your mistakes could cost a whole batch of beer. The difference between that and homebrew is massive! But I've learned loads since I've been there. It's a pretty physical job too, so that's been quite a steep curve too - I still ache in the mornings! But everyday I always have a moment where I reflect on how much better it is that sitting behind a desk as a temp!

If you want to get a job brewing, then you need to be realistic about what the job actually involves. I spoke to quite a few brewers before I started work, and they all said it's 90% cleaning and carrying stuff about. I would broadly agree with that. But it is also creative, scientific, and you get to make beer! Plus, when you meet new people, it's great being able to say you're a brewer!

I'm not really going to talk a lot more about my job on here, as I want to keep the blog about homebrewing. People are often surprised that I can brew all week and still want to make homebrew at the weekends. But the freedom and flexibility you have as a homebrewer means you can brew a range of beers, with a range of ingredients and techniques, that just isn't practical in a larger brewery.

So I'll continue to brew in my kitchen and write about it on here. Hopefully you find it interesting and/or useful and we can all get better at the king of hobbies!

Beer Bars in Bristol

So following on from what I wrote about beer in Bristol, here's my opinions on a few of the dedicated craft beer places that's opened this year:

The Beer Emporium is a cellar bar on King Street that boasts a huge selection of bottled and canned beeralongside a wide range of beers on tap. Food is clearly going to be a feature here too. I took advantage of their pre-theatre deal and got two courses and a pint for £12. I would definitely recommend it as the food was great and at that price it’s a bargain! I’ve always managed to find an enjoyable pint here but they do tend to offer quite a few standard British bitters. Nothing wrong with that, but they do tend to taste very similar and I can’t help thinking there could be more exciting beers taking their place. The bar also suffers from a lack of atmosphere at times. The acoustics aren’t great and it doesn’t have the ‘comfortable’ feel that marks a great pub, but it is new and these things can take a little time to bed in. The staff are always friendly though, and being open till 2am every night, it’s one of the only late options for a decent pint.

Next door to the Beer Emporium is the Famous Royal Navy Volunteer. This is one of the oldest pubs in Bristol but had been shut for a few months. It re-opened at the end of the summer with a mission to present British only craft beers. I really like this place. The staff are great and know the beer they’re selling. It may sound obvious, but unlike other pubs in Bristol, the staff have clearly tasted the beers they sell and they’re happy to offer an opinion on them too. They’re also more than happy to let you try a few samples before you buy, which I think is vital for a place like this. The management have taken the decision to avoid pump clips

and instead have a board on the wall with all their beers listed. The idea being that blank taps mean you aren’t swayed by logos, just by the beer itself. Nice idea I think and it also means groups of people don’t cluster around the bar looking at the pump clips and blocking access for everyone else while one person orders. The prices aren’t cheap, but the beers are reliably good, with some craft lagers and a range of ciders too. I’ve heard a number of complaints that some beers aren’t served in pints, only 2/3 or less, the implication being that you can’t afford a full pint or it’s too strong and you can’t handle it! Personally, I think this is just people being over sensitive and picking holes in what they see as a poncey craft beer scene. I think it’s more likely that the price point for these beers is high and so the pub doesn’t want such high prices on their board, which seems understandable. The seating is good, but at the front of the pub (near the windows) seems a little formal and not all that inviting, however there are sofas and armchairs at the back of the pub so some potential for winter drinking there. The restaurant side of the pub has opened now, but I’ve not eaten there yet so I won’t offer an opinion on that.

Now over to Stokes Croft and the Crofter Rights - new tenants of the building previously known as The Croft. I was sad to see the old Croft disappear as it had been a staple venue for the Bristol music scene for many years. This has all now changed following some fairly major renovations by the new tenants. The place is now one large room with the bar at the back and the toilets down a spiral staircase in the cellar. The ceiling has been removed at the back to give a double height about the bar and the stone walls have been exposed. There is also a very weird staged seating area facing the bar, which appears to conceal an office underneath!

I went to the opening night of this place and it was far from ready. It has been tidied up since then, but it still doesn't look entirely finished. No doubt this wasn't helped by the council suspending their license for a fortnight after they discovered the extent of the renovations. It seems they'd neglected to apply for planning permission and the building was Grade II listed! Oops!
Still, the place does look pretty good now, if a little idiosyncratic. All the taps come out of a blackboard backing up the bar, so the beers are written in chalk around the taps. This looks good, but isn't always that easy to read! As you may have guessed, this place is at the 'hipster' end of the market and you can't help thinking they've sacrificed function for form in some aspects. But they do get some good beers in and it's not overly expensive either. There's a youngish crowd, some good music being played and it's not a bad place to spend an evening.

So, there's my thoughts on a few of the places in Bristol. Although I'm hugely positive about the beer scene in Bristol, and I think that all these places serve great beer, I've tried to be honest about my experiences there. I've highlighted the negative aspects that I found, as well as the positive, but I still think that all these places represent some of the best pubs/bars in Bristol and are all worth a visit if you're after a good pint.

Craft Beer in Bristol

On the walk to work this morning my mind wandered to Bristol and its relationship with craft beer. So I thought I might write something on here about it too. For a long time Bristol had just a smattering of pubs serving decent beer. Most of these were limited to serving ‘real ale’ and didn’t really stray much further than that. There have been a couple of attempts at bars selling Belgian beers, but they’ve not lasted all that long. In the last couple of years, though, the beer scene in Bristol has exploded. In the last year alone at least four new craft beer bars have been opened (plus Brew Dog), with at least one more opening by Christmas. But the relationship with craft beer extends beyond these dedicated establishments, and I think that's what sets Bristol apart from other cities. Craft beer has crept into the mainstream here and in quite a subtle way. 

Previous food and drink trends have made their way into the mainstream, but have been used in such a clunky way as to strip them of all 'cool' and integrity. Street food is a prime example, with so many places jumping on the band wagon and inviting people in to try their new street food menus! It became totally detached from it's roots that the term 'street food' seems almost like a parody now. So far the term 'craft beer' has avoided this in Bristol. Sure, some pubs will advertise their craft beer, but mostly distributors have just done a good job of convincing pubs to stock some more interesting beers alongside their normal offering. So it's not unusual to see bottles of Goose Island or Sierra Nevada in the fridge behind a bar as well as beers from the numerous local breweries too. Having said this, it's not uncommon to have to point out to staff where the bottles are that you're trying to order. But I like to think that this little routine is just something they do to make people feel special!

I have no doubt at all though, that this interest in beer in Bristol is helped enormously by the number of breweries around here. Back in the day, brewing in Bristol was dominated by the massive Courage brewery across the river from Castle Park, which itself grew out of the Georges Brewery. This led to something of a domination in terms of what beer was available, with a few notable exceptions such as Smiles. Both these big breweries have now gone the way of all things and have been turned into flats and offices.

But in the present day, however, brewing in the Bristol area is continued by the many local breweries. There are established breweries such as Bath Ales, Butcombe and (a bit more recently) Bristol Beer Factory - which has recently upsized its brewhouse to 30 barrels. Alongside these bigger breweries are the smaller craft breweries like GWB, Dawkins, Arbor Ales, Towles Fine Ales, Wild Beer and newcomers Rocket Science, and The New Bristol Brewery.

All of this commercial brewing is of course backed up by the strong homebrewing scene in Bristol. Currently home to two homebrew clubs, Bristol is building a real community of enthusiastic and very knowledgeable brewers. This all means that there are more customers for good beer in the pubs, and more people who value a pint on its flavour rather than its price.

If anyone doesn't know Bristol all that well, or who fancies a day out, you could do much worse than a day in Bristol. I'm biased of course, but this is a great city which now has great beer to go with it!

What is Craft Beer?

There’s been a lot of discussion on the internet around a definition for what is Craft Beer and what is a Craft Brewer. So I thought I’d give my penneth worth too!

This is a discussion that’s been rumbling on for a while. In essence the small craft breweries want to hold on to the notion of “Craft”, while the big multi-national breweries want to cash in on it. As an immediate thought you would link ‘Craft’ to size, with only small breweries qualifying. This immediately hits a snag that some small breweries are producing rubbish beer and “craft” is supposed to be linked with quality. It also hits the problem that when good breweries grow, their beer suddenly cannot be called craft beer, despite no difference in the product or process involved.

A good discussion of the issues can be found on the Brew Dog blog HERE. Their post addresses some of the issues and problems, so I don’t think it is worth repeating them all here.The comments are worth reading though as it's a good discussion of what matters to people about this.

Personally, I think the “Craft” moniker should be indicative of an approach to brewing. A Craft brewery should seek to brew the best beer they can and approach their recipes with that in mind. Unfortunately, this is difficult to quantify, evidence and regulate. There is talk of outlawing the use of some adjuncts, such as rice, which are used to reduce the cost of the brew by industrial brewers. But these can be legitimately used in craft brewing too, and I think the last thing we need to do is stifle creativity with a modern day Rheinheitsgehbot. Again, the impact of these ingredients on a brew, and whether or not it is a craft brew, comes down to the intentions of the brewer.

Ownership of breweries is another area that has been explored as a way of classifying which breweries are “Craft”.  Brew Dog suggests no greater than 20% of a company can be owned by a large industrial brewery before it stops being Craft, but this leads back to the argument about brewery size. Just because one of the big-bad-breweries comes in and buys 40% of Kernel, does that mean that their beer becomes a different product? I’m not so sure, though I recognise the danger.

I think the key to the debate lies in what we want “Craft” to stand for, and for me that is quality. Craft beer is a quality product that is made using the brewer’s skill, experience and judgement. When I read “craft beer” on a bottle or can, I want that to indicate a high quality product that is made with a high degree of human input. I don’t think craft beer can be made in an automated process because the craft elements of skill, experience and judgement, are not present. I do agree with the Brew Dog proposal that all ingredients should be listed on the packaging, so any unnecessary adjuncts and fillers are clearly shown, however there are plenty of mass-market beers which can quote their ingredients as barley, hops, water and yeast just like a craft brewer would.

Ultimately, I’m not too worried about which beers “craft beer” is applied to because I suspect that it has more to do with marketing than anything else. What I believe matters is producing a great product and educating consumers. If the idea of craft beer as a product created by craftspeople with skill, experience and judgement, and on a smaller scale, is something that appeals to your consumer then you need to get out there and tell them that’s what your product is! Engagement with consumers is key in this; let them visit your brewery and see how you work; let them know what you are doing through social media and let them feel part of the process; and allow them to compare that to the big industrial brewers. That is how you hold onto the term craft: you educate people, make them care, give them the information to make decisions, and let your intelligent consumers judge for themselves.