They sell Black IPA in M&S now: whither the dream?

They sell Black IPA in M&S now: whither the dream?

I haven’t blogged on beer for a bit now and when I wandered into a pub the other day [see below] to find the Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn saying ‘every pub door in England opens for Keith’ it reminded me that perhaps I should.

2013 in the UK beer world might be characterised as more a year of consolidation than of exciting developments. That’s not to say that there haven’t been developments.

It’s good to see that there are around 50 London breweries now [new ones are still opening, one or two like Brupond have shut] but it’s becoming clearer that there are some that are brewing very good beer or moving that way, some who are brewing OK-ish beer and a few that well….

But when M&S start selling a Meantime brewed black IPA nationally in their stores it is surely time to recognise that the world is moving on. Arguably black IPA is the beer style that characterised the changes in the beer world. Firstly because it was often a stunning drink that hadn’t really been around before in quite that form and secondly because not everyone even agreed it was a legitimate beer style.  Both highly drinkable and slightly subversive then.

As Pete Brown and others have flagged about the US beer market craft has become main stream.

Well it has in parts of London [not in Tottenham btw…]any way and in some parts of some other UK cities. Certainly Camden beers core range is fairly easy to find on draught and Kernel bottles are also quite common place. That represents good progress for good beer.

Boak and Bailey have argued that while 2013 might well have been the year, style wise, of Saison perhaps the next big thing will be Kvass. I’ve sampled an entire bottle of Beavertown Kvass not least because I felt someone on the left should try the only UK beer to be named after Stalin, possibly ever. It was most pleasant but not a style I would go out of my way to drink.

There are plenty of capable brewers out there experimenting with beer styles so we’ll see what 2014 brings. For me Pressure Drop’s Wu Gang Chops the Tree was a really interesting [low-ish strength] beer and I am also enjoying the range of new beers Celt are producing [higher strengths].

The brewing trade itself remains in something of a mess. The Chancellor tells us that British capitalism is recovering a bit but until and unless that translates into wages that won’t help pubs or those who drink in them. Further if recovery means interest rate rises that will probably finish off some zombie companies.

I met Jeremy Corbyn [who btw is not a drinker] at the Alma pub in Newington Green as Enterprise Inns [debts of several billion] were evicting a long standing and successful publican who was running the pub at a profit. As a union officer I know that pretty much every dispute has at least two sides but the idea is to sort it out not to press the self destruct button as Enterprise did on that day. It was as desperate an occasion as I’ve attended since I last represented someone at a dismissal meeting [sadly these are quite frequent in Coalition Britain]

Overall we are still struggling with too many pubs that sell excellent beer who feel that is probably enough and don’t worry too much about things like seats and toilets, let alone food. If 2014 sees even just a few pubs that sell a good range of craft beer, decent food [but not in preference to the beer]and allow me to ponder over whatever obscure marxist tract I am currently researching in peace with a comfortable seat and perhaps even a table I will be if not happy, slightly less grumpy.