FREE

Matters of taste
Saturday 11 June at 1pm. This is aimed at beer lovers who
want to understand how the ingredients that go into beer
affect the flavour. It will involve tasting five different beers.
By the end of this course, you will be able to recognise the
four primary flavours, demonstrate an understanding as to
how different ingredients affect a beer, list the four
characteristics that CAMRA uses when assessing a beer and
be able to describe a beer in your own words. At the end
of the course, you have the option of a certificate of
attendance or, after taking a quiz, a certificate of
competence. This course is being held at the Bohemia
(nearest tube: Woodside Park), home of the larger of the
two breweries owned by the London Brewing Company. It
will last between 2 1 ⁄2 and 3 hours. Book via
www.eventsbot.com/events/eb727680904.
The second course is aimed at people who want to join a
CAMRA tasting panel. This course will take place on
Saturday 23 July and is being hosted by the London Tasting
Panel. Most regions in CAMRA have their own tasting
panels and they are responsible for tasting all the beers that
are regularly brewed within their region and for submitting
the descriptions to CAMRA’s Good Beer Guide. Panels also
put forward beers to CAMRA’s Champion Beer of Britain
Competition.
But it’s not all hard work. The London Panel, like many
panels across the country, gets together a couple of times a
year to visit breweries and help standardise the scoring. You
can find details of some of the London trips at:
www.london.camra.org.uk/viewnode.php?id=1972.
All of the panel members are volunteers and to join, you
simply need to get trained. The training course on Saturday
23 July will be hosted, very kindly, by the Wimbledon
Brewery (nearest tube: Colliers Wood). The course will give
trainees an opportunity to taste a range of their beers. It
will start at noon and last for around 4 1 ⁄2 to 5 hours and will
cover where the flavours in beer come from, both good ones
and bad, the different British beer styles and how to
describe and judge beer.
At the end of the training, you can either join a
panel by submitting tasting cards (online), and achieve a
certificate of competence, or you can decide it is not for
you and get a certificate of attendance. Book via
www.eventsbot.com/events/eb337680662.
Christine Cryne
THE HENRY READER
A new real ale destination in Crouch End under the
management of the former team at the Charles Dickens
6 Real
Ales,
Cider and
Craft Beer
Live sport
from
Sky and
BT
Open times: Monday-Saturday 12 noon to midnight. Sunday 12 noon-10.30pm
22 Topsfield Parade, Tottenham Lane, Crouch End, Hornsey N8 8PT
Tel: 020 8341 4471
44