Mine's a Pint - Winter 2019

THE MAGAZINE FOR READING AND
MID BERKSHIRE BRANCH OF THE
CAMPAIGN FOR REAL ALE
IN THIS ISSUE...
PUB & BREWERY NEWS
GALA AWRDS EVENING
SMALL BEER
DOUBLE-BARRELLED BREWERY
THE PROMOTION
OF LAGER IN THE UK
& MORE...
FREE
ISSUE FIFTY TWO WINTER 2019

Branch Diary
All meetings and social events are relaxed and friendly. Nonmembers
are welcome to all events except branch meetings.
Please check the website before setting out in case of any
last-minute changes.
DECEMBER
Thursday 5th: (20:00) Pub of the Year judging, First
Thursday of the Month Social. Nags Head, 5 Russell Street,
Reading, RG1 7XD. We will move on c21:00 to Alehouse,
2 Broad Street, Reading, RG1 2BH to finish the night.
Saturday 7th: (13:00) Social, hosted by SWM CAMRA
branch, The Annual Windsor Xmas Pub Walk. swm.camra.
org.uk/viewnode.php?id=36068 Trains times from Reading
12:03, arrival Windsor & Eton Central 12:36. Return from
Windsor 17:59 or 18:59, arrival Reading 18:21 or 19:21
JANUARY 2020
Thursday 9th: (20:00) First Social of the Year. Zerodegrees
(upstairs), 9 Bridge Street, Reading, RG1 2LR. We have a
table booked for 19:00 so, if you wish to eat, you can use
our table upstairs. They will be serving their normal menu:
zerodegrees.co.uk/menu/?filter_venue=reading
Saturday 25th: Regional Pub Crawl in London. Based
around the Southwark / Borough area. Start (12:00) at the
Waterloo Tap, Sutton Walk, Lambeth, SE1 8RL.
FEBRUARY 2020
Thursday 6th: (20:00) Pub of the Year judging, First
Thursday of the Month Social. Fox & Hounds, 51
Gosbrook Road, Caversham, RG4 8BN. We will move on
c21:00 to the Greyfriar, 53 Greyfriars Road, Reading, RG1
1PA to finish the night.
Saturday 8th: (12:00) Start of the Ale Trail 2020. Greyfriar,
53 Greyfriars Road, Reading, RG1 1PA.
ADVANCE NOTICE
7th-10th May 2020: 26th Reading Beer & Cider Festival,
Christchurch Meadow, Caversham, RG4 8BY. See website
for volunteering. readingbeerfestival.org.uk
This is a guide only and Reading & Mid Berkshire CAMRA
cannot be held responsible for any loss due to the alteration
or cancellation of any of these events.
See www.readingcamra.org.uk for more details of events.
Mine’s A Pint
3
Contact Us
Useful contact details for this magazine,
CAMRA and other important things…
Mine’s a Pint Circulation: 3,000.
Outlets: Over 70 across the region.
Editor: Phil Gill
editor@readingcamra.org.uk
0771 455 0293
81 Addison Road, Reading, RG1 8EG
Magazine published on behalf of
Reading and Mid Berkshire CAMRA
by: Neil Richards MBE at Matelot
Marketing
01536 358670 / 07710 281381
n.richards@btinternet.com
Printed by CKN Print Ltd, 2 North
Portway Close, Round Spinney,
Northampton, NN3 8RQ
01604 645555
Reading & Mid Berkshire CAMRA
www.readingcamra.org.uk
Social Secretary: Chris Hinton
social@readingcamra.org.uk
Contact for all other branch matters:
Katrina Fletcher
contact@readingcamra.org.uk
0779 401 9437
Local Trading Standards
From time to time, drinkers receiving
poor standards of service or poor
quality products may wish to raise the
matter with Trading Standards. You
now need to do this through Citizens
Advice, an organisation which provides
free, confidential and impartial advice
on consumer issues.
To contact Citizens Advice Consumer
Service call 03454 04 05 06 or visit
www.citizensadvice.org.uk and click on
Consumer.
The next issue of Mine’s a Pint will
be published in early March, as long
as there’s a new Editor. Please feel
free to submit any copy or ideas by 1
February and you could see your name
in print!
The opinions expressed in Mine’s a Pint
are not necessarily those of the editor or
the Campaign for Real Ale. © Campaign
for Real Ale 2019.

From the Editor
Welcome to the latest issue of Mine’s a Pint.
After 13 years and over 50 issues I’m handing
over the reins to… well, I don’t know yet.
Maybe you?
It’s been tremendously satisfying for me and all
our contributors to be able to look back and
say “We did that”. Reading’s beer scene has
improved so much over the last decade and
a bit, and it’s been great fun to report on the
changes. I hope we’ve kept you entertained and
informed over the years, and that you continue
to enjoy reading the magazine.
Looking forward, I hope that a volunteer
comes forward to take the magazine and make
it even better. I’ll have that eager anticipation of
picking up the new issue and finding out what’s
inside. And I’ll be proud to have been a part of
it. I hope you will be too.
Here’s to real ale, and quality beer in all its
forms. Here’s to the Great British Pub. And
here’s to Mine’s a Pint and its loyal readers.
Thank you all, it’s been great!
Cheers!
Phil Gill
Editor, Mine’s a Pint
editor@readingcamra.org.uk
Contents
Branch Diary & Contacts: 3
From the Editor: 5
Pub News: 6 & 7
Gala Awards Evening: 9
Brewery News: 10 & 11
Small Beer: 12 & 13
Double-Barrelled Brewery: 15 - 19
Behind The Bar - The Retreat: 20
Beer Scoring: 22 & 23
The Promotion of
Lager in the UK: 25 - 27
Join CAMRA: 28 & 29
Mine’s A Pint
5

Pub News
Arborfield
Plans have been submitted to knock down
the closed Bramshill Hunt in Arborfield and
replace it with a village shop. The pub had
been serving the community since the 19th
century but Greene King recently sold it due to
struggling business. The building is not listed or
designated an Asset of Community Value. The
shop would be designed to serve the housing
development on the old Arborfield Garrison.
Calcot
West Berkshire Council have turned down
planning permission to demolish Murdochs
on Bath Road, Calcot, and replace it with a
car park. The pub has been closed since 2013.
Housing plans for the site have been put on
hold due to Brexit worries. The ‘eyesore’ is
not allowed to be demolished until there is a
planning approval in place.
Caversham
The Prince Of Wales in Caversham reopened as
The Last Crumb at the beginning of October.
The Dodo Pub Company have transformed
the traditional Brakspear pub, moving the
bar and making a feature of an open kitchen.
The slightly canteen look pub now specialises
in burgers and pizza as well as breakfasts.
They have a happy hour session from 5 – 7pm
during the week which sees some ales at £3 a
pint. Food deals include Neapolitan pizza for
£5 from Tuesday – Friday lunchtime and a
selection of burgers for £5 on Mondays. The
pub has five handpumps and on a recent visit
the beers available were Brakspear’s Oxford
Gold, Arkell’s Moderation IPA and Animal’s
Hop Kitty; Doombar was off. There was also
a cider on the hand pump: Yellow Hammer
Carnival Cider from The Cotswold Cider Co.,
as well as a wide range of craft keg beers. The
pub is open from 9am – 11pm everyday and
serves food from 9am - 2.30pm and 6pm –
9.30pm Monday to Friday and from 9am –
3pm and 6pm - 9.30pm at the weekend.
Earley
The George, at Loddon Bridge has reopened
after a refurbishment. A recent visit found
only Doombar on and Loddon Hullabaloo
and Greene King IPA promised as coming
soon. They have food deals throughout the
week, including pies for £8 on Wednesdays, £9
rump steak on Thursday and Fish and Chips
for £8 on Friday. There are live music events
in December.
Knowl Hill
On a recent visit, The New Inn, Knowl Hill was
closed and all of the furniture had gone.
Reading
The Battle Inn on Oxford Road is now up for
sale for redevelopment into six one and two
bedroom flats.
CAMRA award winner The Nags Head, in
Russell Street has twelve hand pumps and eight
keg lines for craft beers. They have a selection
of twelve real ciders, many offered at room
temperature or chilled from the fridge. Regular
events include live music, quizzes and tap
takeovers. On Saturday 21 December there will
be a Christmas Carol evening with South Berks
Concert Band and mulled cider and festive
beers will be available.
Phantom Brewing Co has opened a tap room
alongside its new brewery, with Matt Crook
from Siren Craft joining as the Tap Room
Mine’s A Pint
6

Manager. The new Reading brewery is located
at Unit 3 Meadow Road, near Cardiff Road.
Initially the tap room is only going to be open
on Fridays and Saturdays, and opened just
before this magazine was published. They are
mainly focusing on hoppy pale ales and IPAs.
Save the date and get pickling! See the Behind
the Bar feature in this issue for more about
Brian and the pub.
The Back of Beyond, a Wetherspoons in Kings
Road, has had planning permission granted for
a garden extension. The already popular beer
garden by the river will be extended into the
current bottle bin and car park area.
The Lyndhurst in Queens Road reopened
under new management in the summer. On a
recent visit the beers available were Bath Ales’
Gem, Wye Valley’s HPA and West Berkshire
Brewery’s Good Old Boy. Curry night is on a
Thursday from 5pm – 9pm when a curry and
a pint is £9.99. The choice of curry changes
weekly but pints stay the same with a choice of
HPA, Orchard Pig or Heineken.
The Retreat in St John’s Street was recently
under threat with the tenancy becoming
available. Three local residents stepped in
to save the pub and have successfully done
so, with Brian Moignard staying on as the
landlord. The pub first opened in 1875 and is a
proper community pub focusing on real ale and
good atmosphere. They have regular live music.
On a recent visit the beers on were Harvey’s
Sussex Best, Marston’s 61 Deep, Sharps’
Cornish Coaster, Spitfire’s Gold, Theakston’s
Old Peculiar and Young’s Special. The pub will
be closed briefly in January due to a facilities
renovation. Following that, the famous Pickled
Onion Contest will be on 9 February 2020.
Mine’s A Pint
7
To complete the news from ‘The Village’, the
former Eldon Arms, on Eldon Terrace, has
now reopened as The Weather Station. On 20
September the pub’s doors were reopened by
Wild Weather Brewery, who also have a tap
room in Aldermaston. The owners expressed
that Reading had a very encouraging beer
scene but when looking for a premises they
wanted to take this a little further outside of the
town centre. The traditional interior has been
replaced with orange walls, high barrel tables
and stools. There are three hand pumps and
twenty keg lines. They have monthly tap take
overs which featured Brew York in November.
Although the majority of the beers are their
own they also have other brews available
which have included Reptile Dysfunction IPA
from Staggeringly Good, Raspberry Saison
Farmhouse Ale from Three Blind Mice, Life on
Marzen from Oxbrew and Amplified Imperial
Stay Puft Porter from Tiny Rebel Brewing Co
as well as cider from Tutts Clump. The pub is
open Tuesday – Thursday 3pm -11pm, Fri and
Saturday 12-12 and Sunday 12-9pm.
Shinfield
The Bell & Bottle in Shinfield has been taken
over by new managers Andrew and Ginny.
They have reopened the kitchen serving classic
pub food from 12 – 3pm and 5 – 7pm, seven
days a week, but times can vary so it is worth
phoning ahead.
Evelyn Harrison-Bullock

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Mine’s A Pint
8

Gala Awards Evening
the Reading & Mid Berkshire CAMRA branch
was honoured, with special awards presented
to Laurence Hansford, Dave McKerchar,
Phillip Gill and John Dearing.
Binghams picked up a number of awards on the
night. L-R holding certificates: Michelle Bingham,
Chris Bingham and Delia Allot. Accompanied by
Sue Thirlaway and James Moore of CAMRA.
The Reading & Mid Berkshire Campaign for
Real Ale (CAMRA) celebrated the best of the
region’s pubs, beers and volunteers at their
annual Gala Awards evening on 18 September
at the Castle Tap, Reading.
Reading CAMRA branch Chair, James Moore,
said:“The Gala Awards evening is a brilliant
opportunity for the local pub, beer and cider
community to get together and celebrate
the work they do in an industry that entails
long hours and hard work to bring the best
experience to the people of Reading. Having
both a local brewery and pub receiving national
recognition this year is fantastic and a real
testament to the range and quality of pubs and
brews produced locally.”
“I’m also especially proud that this year
we focused on our volunteers, with some
outstanding individuals being recognised for
their years of dedication.”
Quinten Taylor
This year’s gala awards had the following
themes:
• National awards
• Pub awards (Pub of the Year and other
specific pub awards)
• Celebrating a number of long-standing
branch volunteers
• Champion Beers of the Reading Beer
Festival 2019
Among the highlights:
The Nags Head in Reading celebrated another
Pub of the Year win (as well as making the last
16 nationally of CAMRA’s Pub of the Year
competition).
Seona MacKenzie, licensee of the Clifton Arms
in Caversham, received a special award for long
service (35 years).
Bingham’s Brewery basked in the glory of
winning Gold in the ‘Speciality Beer’ category
at the Great British Beer Festival, for their
Vanilla Stout.
Over 150 years of collective volunteering for
Mine’s A Pint
9

Binghams
Binghams Brewery won overall Gold in the
Speciality Category of the Champion Beer of
Britain competition 2019 with their excellent
Vanilla Stout. In 2016 this superb beer was
judged Supreme Champion Beer of Britain.
The certificate for this achievement, plus two
certificates for the London and South East Area
round (in which Binghams Vanilla Stout was
judged Gold in the Speciality Category, and
Doodle Stout won Silver in the Stout Category),
were presented to the directors at the Reading
and Mid-Berks CAMRA Awards Evening on
18 September at the Castle Tap in Reading.
Binghams will be opening their Ruscombe
brewery for people to have a drink or two
next to the brewing vessels for the following
Saturdays (11:30am-4:30pm) in December:
7 th , 14 th and 21 st . They will have their awardwinning
beers available on draught and you
can have a seat and a chat while enjoying them!
The special for December will be The
Warmer, a dark winter ale. Think ‘dark
bitter’ rather than as dark as a stout or
porter! There will also be the return of
the excellent Xmas Cake
Stout in limited quantities
in December. V Old will return
as the monthly special in January
2020, a dark, malty, smooth old
ale.
The brewery is now running a
recycling scheme covering many
items not collected at the kerbside.
Just drop into the shop and deposit
items in the clearly marked bin
during opening hours: Monday to
Thursday 10 to 6, Friday 10 to 7
and Saturday 11 to 5. Items collected include
crisp packets and Pringles tubes; coffee pods;
biscuit, chocolate and sweet wrappers; bread
bags; spray trigger heads; pens and markers.
Please check the poster at the brewery for the
latest list.
Chiltern Brewery
Chiltern Brewery are celebrating their 40th
Anniversary year and the establishment of the
Brewery. To mark this momentous occasion
they are brewing a limited edition Anniversary
Sparkling Ale. The limited edition ale will be
matured and bottled
available for sale this
Christmas. They have
also returned the 300s
Old Ale (4.9% ABV)
to the draught line-up
and brought back Glad
Tidings, a 4.6% Winter
Stout, a 4.4% ABV
Salted Caramel Ale and three Imperial Stouts!
(Export Original, 9.5% - A carefully crafted
combination of roasted barley and Challenger
hops that results in a full-bodied and satisfyingly
rich Imperial Stout / Gingerbread, 8.5% - Full
of character and cheer, this uncompromising
dark beer boasts real root ginger balanced with
a delicate bitter-sweetness / Royal Vanilla, 8.0%
- Brand new for 2019, this Vanilla Imperial
Stout perfectly pairs the subtle sweetness of
vanilla with heartily roasted barley to produce
a thoroughly indulgent, and carefully balanced,
dark beer.)
Phantom Brewing Co &
Mortimer Brewing Company
News reaches us here at the Mine’s a Pint
newsdesk of not one but two new breweries
opening in the area!
Phantom Brewing Co has opened in Unit 3,
Meadow Road off Cardiff Road including a
tap room on site. The tap room will be open on
Fridays and Saturdays initially. Their main beer
focus will be on hoppy pale ales and IPAs. The
Mine’s A Pint
10

head brewer, Dane was previously the brewer
at Redcat Brewery in Winchester.
Mortimer Brewing Company has just got going
in Mortimer Common and at time of writing
the brewery was constructed and the first brews
were being produced - watch this space for
more or check out mortimerbrewing.co.uk
Siren Craft Brew
Siren’s favourite Grapefruit Sour IPA,
Pompelmocello (6% ABV), is back and it’s
joined by their gluten free session IPA, Futurist
(4.8% ABV). In Collaboration with
Kings & Daughters Brewery, Siren
have also recently released Oats on
Oats, a 7.2% ABV IPA. This beer
is packed full of oats, supporting
a
Nelson Sauvin, Citra, Mandarina
Bavaria and Hallertau Blanc hop
complement. Other recent beers are
Castilian Lemon Cheesecake, a
6.2% ABV Juicy Lemon Sour
IPA, Marginal Grains, a 5%
ABV American Wheat Beer
(using wild herbs), Escape
Artist, a 5.9% ABV IPA, Paper
Rock Scissors, a 8.5% ABV
Double IPA (brewed in collaboration
with Northern Monk), Feed the Fire, a 7.4%
ABV West Coast IPA, Big Red Machine, a
5.8% ABV Red IPA and Guava Script, a 4%
ABV Pink Guava Sour.
West Berkshire Brewery
Some new/seasonal beers
available from West Berkshire
for those who like dark beers
are Holly Cutter, a 4.5% ABV
Old Ale, Stay Grounded, a
10% ABV Mocha Imperial
Stout and Smoke on the
Porter, a 6% ABV Smoked
Porter.
James Moore
Stardust
New beers launched by Stardust are Helix, a
4.4% ABV autumnal modern
bitter. Chinook and Cascade
hops give this beer a piney
hop flavour while the crystal
and chocolate malts create a
warming malty body. Do you
like your hops? They have
also launched Nox, a 6.3%
ABV Pale. This unfined pale
packs the full range. 4 different
aromatic and fruity American
/ New Zealand hops are used to give the full
spectrum of hop flavour.
Mine’s A Pint
11

Small Beer
A round up of news and information
Your Name Here
Just in case you missed it … Mine’s a Pint needs
a new Editor.
It’s basically someone to oversee and manage the
production of each issue. Matelot Marketing
are our publishers and they provide design,
advertising, invoicing and printing services. We
have a distribution team who make sure that
the magazines get into the pubs. So the Editor’s
role is to be responsible for the words and
pictures in the magazine, and to coordinate the
editorial team.
It covers things like:
• Being the public contact point for the
magazine.
• Planning the content of each issue.
• Writing, or sourcing from others, the
content.
• Liaising with the publishers and uploading
content to them.
• Proof reading and signing off the magazine
for printing.
• Reporting to the branch on anything about
the magazine that they need to know.
If that sounds like you – or even if you’d like
to help out with part of it – please get in touch
with me (Phil Gill) for a chat. You can contact
me on editor@readingcamra.org.uk or on
07714 550293.
If no-one calls, this will be the last issue of
Mine’s a Pint, and that would make a lot of
people very sad.
Pub of the Year
Congratulations to the Bell at Aldworth, which
has been named in the final four for CAMRA’s
Pub of the Year contest. Just to be clear – that’s
the final four nationally and reflects what a
tremendous place the Bell is.
Owned by the same family for 130 years
and with a historic interior listed as being of
national importance by CAMRA, the Bell has
actually won the competition before, in 1990.
Its name refers to bells which were part of the
coat of arms of the traditional landowners.
The competition for the national title is strong:
The Swan With Two Necks in Pendleton,
near Clitheroe, Lancashire and the George
& Dragon in Hudswell, Richmond, North
Yorkshire, are also both former winners, while
the Red Lion in Preston (East Anglia) became
the first community-owned pub in Britain in
the 1980s. All of the pubs in the competition
are selected by CAMRA volunteers and judged
on their atmosphere, decor, welcome, service,
value for money, customer mix and quality of
beer – the national winner will be announced in
February 2020.
The Bell’s large open garden and excellent beer
attract walkers and drinkers from far and wide.
It’s well known for its hot soups and filled
rolls, ploughman’s platters and hot puddings.
A must-visit if you’re ever anywhere near West
Berkshire.
Update Your Contact Details
If you’d like to know what’s
going on in the branch and find
out about events that are coming
up, please go to the national
CAMRA website and make sure
Mine’s A Pint
12

you’ve added your email address and – crucially
– given us permission to use it to contact you.
This is especially important for anyone who’s
joined CAMRA in the last few months. There’s
now a need to give separate consent in order for
us to be able to mail you, and we’ve found that
a lot of people miss that bit. It’s getting silly
when we get, say, 10 new members in a month
but can only mail three of them.
Business Rates
CAMRA has welcomed a report from the
House of Commons Treasury Committee
on the Impact of Business Rates on Business.
Business Rates generated £31 billion of income
for the UK Government in 2018-19. Since
Business Rates were introduced in their current
form in 1990, the revenue they have generated
has outpaced inflation.
The committee said that Business Rates
are an important source of revenue but the
Government must explore alternatives to
address their negative impacts. CAMRA
National Chairman, Nik Antona commented:
“Pubs pay 2.8% of the Business Rates bill
but only account for 0.5% of total business
turnover. This is an overpayment of around
£500 million by the sector each year.
“The report highlights that Business Rates
do not fall upon all businesses equally and
they place a far greater cost on bricks and
mortar, than those that operate mainly online.
The crucial role that pubs play as the social
heart of many communities cannot be moved
online. That is why it is vital that the system is
drastically reformed or replaced.”
Ale Trail 2020
You’re probably reading this in the middle of
winter, with Christmas just around the corner.
But cast your mind forward just a few weeks …
the days are starting to get longer and you feel
a sudden desire for a trip out to the pub. It can
only mean one thing … the start of the 2020
Ale Trail!
Saturday 8 February is the date for your diary,
with the launch this time being held at the
Greyfriar. The Ale Trail now has a tried and
trusted format and this year is no exception,
with 24 pubs from across Reading and Mid
Berkshire chosen to provide a good mix of
types and locations. You may not like all of
them but you’re bound to find one that suits
you perfectly, and that joy of discovery is one
of the things that people love about the trail.
Pick up your booklet for just a pound at the
launch event or from selected other pubs. Join
the Reading Ale Trail Facebook group for
news, updates and chat. And start visiting those
pubs and collecting stickers – which one will be
your favourite?
CAMRA Members’ Weekend,
AGM and Conference
It’s time to pre-register
for the 2020 Members’
Weekend, AGM and
Conference, this time
being held in the
wonderful and historic
city of York.
This is your opportunity to influence CAMRA
policy, as well as a great opportunity to socialise,
meet friends old and new, and visit some great
pubs and breweries. For more details about the
organised trips, fringe activities, food and drink
offers and the AGM and Conference activities,
go to:
camra.org.uk/beer-festivals-events/membersweekend
The Gift of CAMRA
Stuck for Christmas ideas for the beer-lover in
your life? Why not give the gift of CAMRA?
Visit camra.org.uk/gift-membership or see
the advert in this issue for more details of the
membership packages available. Or check out
the selection available in the CAMRA shop at
shop1.camra.org.uk, including the Good Beer
Guide.
Mine’s A Pint
13

Get your tickets now!
winter.gbbf.org.uk
4-8 Feb 2020, Birmingham
The New Bingley Hall

Double-Barrelled Brewery
Barrelled’, said Luci and we then entered into a
big and enjoyable conversation about how her
and Mike were married and had travelled the
world to taste and try as many beers as they
could handle (disclaimer: they could handle
a lot). Their home-brewed and first beer to
feature at the beer festival was ‘Two Storey
Bungalow’, an American IPA. I checked that
beer into trusty Untappd and had really liked
it. I remember thinking that their enthusiasm
was infectious, so I was excited to see what lie
ahead.
I was recently looking back through some old
emails and exchanges around all things beer. I
found my old LocAle piece, for Mine’s a Pint,
from three years ago. I wrote about how lucky
we were to have an array of local taprooms
and breweries on our doorstep and in the
surrounding areas of Reading.
Little did I know in 2016, just how much things
would have developed in the few short years
since. In almost no time, we have seen Siren
Craft really push ahead into the consciousness
of people well outside of Berkshire. Elusive
Brewing are also heading for taproom land
with daily updates on their twitter feed now.
Wild Weather opened the Weather Station as its
flagship taproom a few weeks ago (previously
the Eldon Arms).
Binghams had a tap room open over the summer
as part of Emma’s Kitchen. West Berkshire has
an incredible setup over towards Newbury,
the only challenge being getting there. There’s
a new brewery and taproom heading over to
Meadow Road in Reading. And then, there
is the almost out of nowhere quick success of
Double-Barrelled Brewery.
I was working the key-keg stand at the Reading
Beer & Cider Festival, when I first met Luci
and Mike, the owners of the Reading-based
brewery. Luci had come over to scope out
whether their beer had been put on yet. ‘What’s
the name of the brewery?’ I asked. ‘It’s Double-
Luci and Mike are lovely. Warm, informed,
interested and interesting: they had been so
excited to see their brand new home-brewed
beers hit the key-keg stand in 2018, that I
distinctly remember thinking ‘I hope they do
well’, because I liked them so much.
In the months that followed, I heard more
and more about Double-Barrelled. My beer
aficionado friends mentioned them frequently.
Ken, a lovely chap I work with and a keen
member of the home brewing club, was
practically running out the door from work
when he heard that the Grumpy Goat had some
of their cans available (‘Red Jungle Fowl’ and
‘Parka’, both of which I loved and the latter of
which was also on draft at The Dairy). I was an
hour behind Ken, and then dragging my carrier
bag back into work too, full of the good stuff.
Everything, from the off, had felt so clean, so
well done, so organised, so well branded and
so well thought out. How had Luci and Mike
managed to build this in a mere 18 months?
And it’s not just that: it’s the breadth of the beer
varieties they have put out too.
I recently tried ‘Shark in my Roof’, a porter
that was incredibly boozy and on a par with
a De Struise ‘Pannepot.’ It blew my socks off.
There have been sour gose-style beers such
as ‘Pocket Money’, an American stout in
‘Wiffle Ball’, a sour Berliner weisse (which was
amazing) called ‘Summer Sessions: Peach’. And
Mine’s A Pint
15

if that wasn’t enough, there has been an array
of IPAs: ‘Basic Needs’, ‘Three Storey Bungalow’
(a personal favourite), and ‘Yelling at Clouds’,
amongst many others still on my wish list. Luci
and Mike have been working and grafting all
year.
I saw the photos appear online for the opening
of their tap-room and brewery, and I was in
awe at how amazing it looked. Reading has
never seen anything quite like it, so near town,
and so easy to get to. It took me a few months
to finally get down there (the perils of a retail
job) but it was very much worth the wait.
For an industrial unit, it is a warm and
welcoming place (and considerably more warm
now the lovely heating unit has arrived). There
is attention to detail. Luci, Mike and the team
want you to have a good time: do you need
another table, or some additional benches for
your group? If you do, they are on the case. The
team Luci and Mike have built around them are
polite, friendly and want to talk beer with you.
On Friday 8 th and Saturday 9 th of November
2019, Double-Barrelled celebrated their first
birthday, and in true spirit, they threw a ticketed
party, which took very little time to sell out.
There has been a huge amount of work over the
past three years, to get to this point. They have
employees now who they feel responsible for.
They want to brew more often. They want their
beer to reach further out places. They know
they should partake in more beer festivals but
can’t be in 20 places at once. It’s going to be
a gradual and steady focus on expansion and
conscientious movement towards perfecting
their healthy and ambitious beer line up.
In classic surprise style, Double-Barrelled
presented a new birthday beer at their party:
the Absolute Unit. Presumably, a tribute to
Adam Kozary’s viral tweet for the Museum
of English Rural Life, of a rather large Ram.
And, the beer is indeed a unit: it’s several units
in fact. ‘Absolute Unit’ is an 11.5% triple IPA
which I can’t wait to get my hands on at some
point in the near future.
I have been lucky enough to ask Luci and Mike
some questions about their wonderful brewery
and business. I know just how busy they have
been over the past few weeks. As I type this now,
they have just celebrated their aforementioned
anniversary, AND they picked up the Pride of
Reading award for best entrepreneurs, which is
thoroughly well deserved. Back when I was first
thinking about LocAle beer and breweries, I did
say that for me the most important thing a local
business could do was be itself, be involved in
the community and support other like-minded
souls in their midst. Double-Barrelled have
done this consistently.
Double-Barrelled attend the beer festivals in the
town, they invite local independent food traders
to cook at their brewery on the weekends, they
love nothing more than a pint down their local
in Caversham. Luci and Mike have embraced
social media. Become so well-connected across
Twitter and that level of good will becomes
a mirror: you get back what you give out.
When they have had a tough day (I’m yet to
meet people from a brewery that haven’t), the
good will from the town has been there. When
they were packed across weekends they never
expected to be, nobody loved them any less.
There’s an honesty, sincerity and openness to
learn in Luci and Mike, that tells you they are
giving it their very best. They have the support
of Reading and far beyond.
I hope you all find the following Q&A with
Luci (with Mike’s input, too!) interesting, and
an insight into where their energy and focus is
right now.
Mine’s A Pint
16

It’s your first birthday party next week, how
does that make you feel?
Incredibly excited, contemplative and focused
on the future. We spent a long time planning
our first year, and in many ways and at many
times we didn’t think we’d make it to this point.
It has flown by (but also not, at the same time!),
but now we’ve done it. Now, we have to really
focus on the future and work out where we go
from here.
What’s on the agenda for the next few months?
We have recently hired a new Sales Manager,
a part-time Taproom Supervisor and an Office
Manager, so we have grown a lot quicker than
we expected to this year. We just need to keep
driving forward, expanding sales to pubs, bars,
restaurants and bottle shops both in Berkshire
but also further afield. We are looking to do
more events and street food at our taproom,
especially after having installed a new heater,
which opens the opportunity for people to
come in winter a bit more, which is great.
How’s the canning machine coming along?
Great thanks! Hiring a brewer with canning
experience this year, has been an incredible
asset. The line was manufactured in the UK
too, which helps with any teething issues. We
now plan to put everything we brew into can
or bottle for some of the specials, which will
help improve the availability of our beers to
take away from the taproom, as well as getting
further afield into bars and bottle shops.
Your first year felt very organised from an
outside perspective, the level of work that’s
gone in is clear for all to see. How have you
done it?
Thank you! There was just over three years
of planning and an epic amount of research.
Also, whilst Mike and I weren’t in the brewing
industry when we established the idea, our jobs
did have transferable skills. Mike had been
working as a logistics consultant, and I was
working as a Brand Manager for a food and
beverage company. I think this, combined with
the brewery specific research, have helped us
have the foresight of what we might need in
both the future and how to be as professional
as possible in our approach.
Having said that, behind the scenes, it’s been
a heck of a lot of fighting fires and a real
rollercoaster and there are countless things that
we would have done differently already if we
were to do it all again. We just don’t post the
bad days so much on social media!
You spent a year travelling the world trying
beers before you set up Double-Barrelled. What
were the beers that really stood out to you?
Some of the barrel-aged imperial stouts that we
tried in America were some of our favourites.
And, some of the more interesting sours.
Different countries are, of course, known for
different things: in Germany we loved the
Rauchbier but that sort of thing doesn’t sell
huge amounts in the UK, well not from a new
brewery anyway! Once we are more established
and can take risks on our beer a bit more, we’d
love to do more experimentation, and increase
our focus on barrel-ageing.
Mine’s A Pint
17
When did you decide to start up the brewery?
It was a few months after our wedding. We had
done our first “Double-Barrelled” beer together
as our wedding favour, and whilst we were
going back to work the idea of a brewery just
kept on playing around in our heads. We did
a “how to start a craft brewery course” up in
Newcastle, as much desk research as possible,
and we talked to our friends and family and
then decided to make the leap. We were told
countless times that we’d regret it more if we
didn’t at least try.

What inspires you when it comes to creating
beer?
We have lots of sources of inspiration.
Sometimes it’s trying to replicate a certain
flavour in a beer without using additives,
like our rhubarb and custard gose. That beer
actually uses a Jamie Oliver stewed rhubarb
recipe as inspiration. Sometimes it’s more to
showcase the character of a hop that we have
access to, like the super pineapple notes in Bru-
1. We have a weekly discussion about the styles
of beer that we want to create, what’s available
seasonally, and then we plan that in.
How important has social media been for you?
Social media has been really, really key to
be honest. It’s quite a lot of work to manage
it properly, but as long as you are authentic,
engaging and the information you are sharing is
relevant to the audience, people seem interested
enough to engage with it, which is great. We
have just launched a new one specific to the
DB taproom on Instagram to help improve the
frequency of messages specific about what’s
going on there. We hope that will be more
relevant to our local audience verses the things
we are doing nationally with Double-Barrelled
as a whole.
I remember your beers featuring on CAMRA’s
first ever key-keg stand at the 2018 Reading
Beer & Cider Festival and you both being so
excited to see your beers going on. Has that
buzz changed at all?
When those beers were on in Reading we were
still in our garage, so now I think the biggest
change is we are just a bit more knackered
haha! The buzz doesn’t die: it just changes. You
find yourself constantly ticking off “firsts”: the
same buzz that we had for Reading, we got
when our beers were listed for the first time at
the GBBF in London this year. When people
ask us to be involved in their festivals, it’s a
great feeling: there are over 2,500 breweries in
the UK right now, so you could very easily not
choose us.
A year from now, what would you have liked
to achieve?
We are still at that stage where I will say, “to
still be in business”. To stay alive, we need to
keep on growing, and to do that we need to
keep on getting Double-Barrelled beers in to
more people’s hands. I hope we will have added
more fermenters to our brewery and maybe an
additional team member or two. That would
be great.
What beer trends do you see currently or are
you thinking about for the future?
There’s a definite resurgence of lower ABV and
no-alcohol beers done well. There’s always
going to be a trend for hazy juicy IPAs, but
maybe the West Coast bitterness will pop back
more. Overall, I think because there’s so many
breweries now and the market will change
with things like Brexit, a focus on quality,
inventiveness and consistency will be key.
In the space of a few years, Reading (and the
nearer surrounding areas) has been fortunate
with several excellent and local breweries
nearby. What do you think has driven this love
for beer and breweries?
I think when people start to taste good locally
made beer, it’s exciting and people become
hugely passionate about it, loving to sing the
praises of their local brewer, for example. And,
they don’t tend to switch back to mass market
stuff when they can avoid it. I actually think
that, in Reading, the CAMRA Beer Festival has
had a lot to answer for: it’s a great showcase of
beer that attracts a wider audience of people
than just CAMRA members or avid beer
drinkers, because it’s also a great day out in its
own right.
Mine’s A Pint
18

Who are the other brewers you find yourself in
touch with and speaking to the most?
I think I have almost weekly chats with Miranda
from Duration Brewing who are setting up an
amazing farmhouse brewery in Norfolk. Whilst
her brewery project is far more ambitious and
elaborate than ours, we have a mutual respect
of our individual challenges and are learning
together. It’s really useful to have an ally, and
especially great to have a female one in this
traditionally male dominated environment.
Our local breweries have all been incredibly
supportive of our journey. The beer industry is
unusual in that as long as people respect what
you are doing and you are authentic in how you
do it, you aren’t seen as competition. We are all
in this together, all realise how much hard work
it is behind the scenes, and in the end we are
just trying to make good beer and have a good
time whilst doing it.
and Leeds and increasing our distribution into
London.
Aside from your own, what’s been your
favourite local beer of the past year?
I’ve really enjoyed the new stuff that’s being
coming out of Loddon #NotVeryLoddon. It’s
great to see a traditional brewery doing some
interesting things and moving with the changing
market, while allowing their new brewer Jake
to influence what they are brewing. But you
are right, we have such a huge amount of great
breweries locally and I think Siren has really led
the way in that regard. They set the bar high,
so if you want to succeed, you have to try and
at least match them, otherwise people will just
(rightly) buy Siren beers instead!
Zoë Andrews
What was the best bit of advice you were given
when setting out on this journey?
Certainly, from most of the brewers we spoke
to, the never give up attitude. It’s incredibly
hard work, and it’s very easy to lose focus of
the goals when the going gets tough. It’s quite a
mental strain running your own manufacturing
business, and very easy to get bogged down in
the negatives. Alongside that, my parents used
to run their own business, so my Dad is full of
pearls of business wisdom, my favourite being
“turnover is vanity, profit is sanity”. He calls
me every Monday without fail to see how sales
are doing and is probably Double-Barrelled’s
biggest fan, despite being 82. He knocks a bit
of commercial sense back into me at times.
He is a great inspiration for me as he started
a successful business from absolutely nothing,
just a single product he’d invented.
Where can we expect to be able to buy your
beer next?
Locally, we are just about to start selling to
a new beer bar in Marlow called the Crafty
Taproom which is great. Sadly, around Reading
there aren’t an abundance of places that have
non-tied keg lines but we are always looking
for new opportunities. Our next big focus is
working with a distributor into Manchester
Mine’s A Pint
19

Behind The Bar
The Retreat
A publican telling it in their own words. This
time: Brian Moignard of the Retreat.
photo credit: getreading
Someone said to me recently that there are three
things that make a great pub: the location, the
locals and the landlord. Bringing those three
together effectively is never as easy as it first
looks. But, get it right and it feels great.
If you wanted to get financially rich quick,
you wouldn’t run a pub. But to be rich in
satisfaction, The Retreat works for me.
It’s no secret that The Retreat has seen its
ups and downs. Recently, the tenancy was
available again. The great news is that three
local residents, David Gray, Di Whitaker and
Mark Birmingham, worked together to secure
the tenancy and to save The Retreat from an
uncertain future. I’m thrilled to continue as the
resident Landlord of The Retreat.
The Retreat is a proper back street boozer.
It first opened its doors in 1875. It’s the last
surviving mid-terrace pub in Reading. It has no
piped music; no pool table; and it’s not a food
pub, although we do have a range of bar snacks
including traditional pickled eggs.
Real ale is the central tenet of what we do. We
have six cask ales that change frequently based
on feedback and new ideas. Also, we have
selected keg beers and a long list of bottled
beers and ciders. We were listed in CAMRA’s
first Good Beer Guide in 1975, on numerous
years since and once again we have the honour
of being listed in the 2020 edition. Preserving
the traditionally valued
things about The
Retreat is of paramount
importance to me.
I strongly believe that
events help bring the
community, the locals,
together. As well as high
quality music we host a
range of other events: A
monthly quiz; Bloody Mary Contest; Cribbage
tournament; Meet Your Neighbours; The
Village Easter Ale & Music Festival; and the
famous Pickled Onion Contest.
We have got a bit modern in one area: we now
actively use our website, www.theretreat.pub,
Facebook and Twitter to keep people informed
as to what is happening and available at our
quirky and unique pub. The most popular posts
always seem to be about real ale and our live
music events. Ultimately though, the marketing
that works best for a pub like ours is good oldfashioned
word of mouth. It’s always hard to
tell why new faces appear at the bar, but it has
been a pleasure recently to see lots of new faces
as well as our regulars.
Now I have the support and help of local tenants
who share a passion for a Village community
that is thriving. We’ve really brought together
the location, the locals and the landlord… and
of course the beers.
We are looking forward to seeing you all soon,
please check out the website for opening times.
Cheers everybody,
Brian
Brian Moignard
The Retreat, 8 St John’s Street, Reading. RG1 4EH
www.theretreat.pub
Mine’s A Pint
20

As our farmers
know all too well:
no pain, no grain.
They say nothing worth having comes
easy. Unfortunately for our farmers
that’s true of the barley we use to brew
our beers. We use a classic variety
called Golden Promise, grown to our
own unique specification. The biscuity,
golden malt it produces is the perfect
partner to our natural spring water,
and is vital to Landlord’s depth and
delicate balance of flavour. It’s also a type
of barley that’s notoriously hard to
grow, and our exacting specification
makes it even more difficult. Which
makes it a costly ingredient and a
real challenge even for experienced
farmers. Luckily we can offer some
liquid therapy.
All for that taste of Taylor’s
Mine’s A Pint
21

Beer Scoring
Have you ever wondered how pubs get into the
Good Beer Guide? It’s all down to beer scoring.
Unlike those guides where paid individuals
submit reviews, Good Beer Guide (GBG)
entries are compiled from beer scores submitted
by CAMRA members. Every single CAMRA
member has the opportunity to contribute to
the GBG, by submitting quality scores for the
beers they’ve drunk.
Beer scoring is a vital tool of CAMRA’s ongoing
campaign for good beer and good pubs. There
are over 150 pubs in our branch so we need
members from across the region to help us
gather information about them year-round.
The scores are on an 11 point scale (0-5, by
half-mark):
0 = No cask ale available.
1 = Beer that is anything from barely drinkable
to drinkable with considerable resentment.
Includes beer taken back as being poor and not
taken off sale.
2 = Competently kept; drinkable but doesn’t
inspire in any way. Below what is expected for
the GBG.
3 = Good beer in good form. A GBG user (i.e.
you!) would not be disappointed with it. You
may seek out the beer again in the same session.
4 = Very good: Excellent beer in excellent
condition. Exceeds expectations.
5 = Probably the best beer you are likely to find.
A seasoned drinker will award this score very
rarely.
Mine’s A Pint
22
So how do you submit your scores? The easiest
way is to log onto CAMRA’s WhatPub.com. If
you have difficulty logging in, there’s help on
the screen. In fact, there’s plenty of help for all
steps in getting your pub scores entered!
Some people do find beer scoring confusing and
are unsure as to the ‘right’ way to record a beer
score. But you don’t need to be particularly
knowledgeable about every beer you might
come across! The great thing about real ale is
the diversity of tastes. Here are a few things to
take note of when evaluating an ale:
1. Look: Assess the colour, clarity and the
foam of the pint. Golden ales should
appear bright and clear while darker
beers, such as stouts and porters, possess
a richer colour and often a thick, creamy
head. Some modern beer styles like New
England IPA are purposely cloudy – even
murky – but traditional real ales are
almost always served clear. As a general
rule of thumb it’s best to base your view
on whether it looks appealing. If it’s got
bits in it, or looks very flat (no head) it’s
no good.
2. Smell: Smell is an important part of the
drinking experience. Take a short sniff
of your drink to assess the aroma. If
it’s immediately repulsive – smelling of
vinegar or chemicals – then it’s a fair bet
that the pint you have is poor.
3. Taste: Take a sip and let it flow around
your mouth before swallowing. Beers
can reflect many taste sensations. The
intensity of the flavours and the finish
(the aftertaste) make up the whole taste.
Give your taste buds a few seconds to
register all the differing sensations. Has
the publican kept the beer well enough to
allow the flavour to come through fully?

4. Mouthfeel: How does it ‘feel’ in the
mouth? Most well-kept ales will have a
light carbonation and feel ‘alive’. Well,
they are! They should be served at cellar
temperature – that means cool, not cold.
Ales that are warm or flat are definitely
not good. ‘Flat’ beers can often indicate
that the beer has hit the end of the cask
(imagine the dregs left in a bottle of cola
that’s been open a few hours) – this is
a natural part of the cycle and a good
publican will be happy to check if you
suspect an ale is at ‘bottom’ and replace it
with a fresh pint from elsewhere.
What happens next? All the scores recorded
for our local pubs are collated and entered into
a master spreadsheet. At the end of the year,
those pubs which have scored 80% or above
scores of 3+ and have been ‘visited’ at least
20 times (exceptions are occasionally made
for our more rural pubs) are presented to the
GBG selection meeting. This is part of a general
branch meeting so any CAMRA member can
attend. Usually, the top 10 or so are waved
through blind; if they’re this good on the beer
quality, they must go in. The rest are then
opened up to a general debate to the floor, from
which follows a vote to decide the remaining
places. Surveys are taken, entries are submitted
to CAMRA HQ and then they appear in the
following GBG. Simple.
So, your view does count. Judging the best
pubs in Britain is something you are uniquely
placed to do. Please take the time to beer score
and make your contribution to the Good Beer
Guide!
Adapted from an article by Quinten Taylor and
James Moore
Mine’s A Pint
23

The Promotion
of Lager in the UK
Part 3. Paul Dabrowski concludes his series about lager advertising, bringing the
story right up to date.
The final twenty years of the last century saw
some of the funniest TV and cinema adverts
ever made with one, for Carling, from the
first half of the earlier decade, which had a
commentary by the legendary ‘whispering’ Ted
Lowe, being particularly amusing. It featured
the larger-than-life snooker referee, Len Ganley,
being accidentally injured in his crotch by a
miscued shot played by ex-world champion
John Spencer. Recovering the miscreant cue
ball, he then calmly crushed it to a powder in
just the one hand onto the green baize of the
table, all whilst glaring at his attacker. Terry
Griffiths, the opposing player and another
ex-world champion, then remarked, ‘I bet he
drinks Carling Black Label’, with his adversary
responding, ‘You ask him!’
Two more adverts, again for Carling and based
on the Dambusters theme, were of particular
note as well. In a direct parody of the 1955
film with that title, one from 1990 featured a
German sentry who, having spotted the onset
of the raid, had to improvise as a goalkeeper
to fend off a succession of the Barnes Wallisdesigned
bombs. Having been launched from
a Mosquito plane, the bombs bounced off
the water towards the dam headwall, before
being prevented from exploding on impact by
a series of spectacular ‘saves’! One of the pilots,
portrayed by comic Stephen Frost (a stalwart of
the Carling oeuvre), then ripped off his oxygen
mask to utter to Mark Arden, his co-pilot, the
immortal product strapline.
Three years later, the second involved an
English tourist, who, having spotted a posse of
German guests heading towards the pool area,
immediately threw a rolled towel down from
his hotel balcony to reserve a prime sunbathing
spot for himself. This made a number of
bounces on the surface of the swimming
pool before unfurling itself perfectly onto a
poolside lounger, fully revealing its Union Jack
design, only for the Germans, now rushing
to appropriate that same sunbed (and others)
for themselves, to arrive just too late! Another
Teutonic onlooker provided the inevitable
product endorsement as a cutaway midway
through the proceedings with the protagonist,
now enjoying a glass of the lager on ‘his’
lounger, repeating the George Formby line,
‘Turned out nice again’!
During 1989, there had also been the then very
much innovative sequence where a squirrel
successfully negotiated a seemingly improbable
obstacle course, accompanied by the ‘Mission
Impossible’ TV series theme, to finally take
some nuts from a bird feeder but was, here,
witnessed by two owls, one of which delivers
Mine’s A Pint
25

the – by then – familiar Carling catchphrase to
the other. However, it would be churlish as well
as an injustice to reference just the handful of
advertising campaigns specifically mentioned
above because many for the other fake, ersatz,
keg lagers – Heineken’s in particular – were
equally inventive, witty and unforgettable.
They had to be – it was just a shame about the
product!
After all, the first lager specifically intended
to be a mass market product was Budweiser,
launched in the USA in 1876. It followed one
entrepreneur, Anheuser, who, having made
a fortune in soap manufacturing, became
involved with the brewing industry in the
1850s. His partner, Busch, joined later through
marriage. But, the American habit of calling
beer “suds” still persists; not helped, perhaps,
by Anheuser-Busch’s use of 30% rice – a
frowned-upon adjunct – in the mash!
Budweiser became associated in the UK with
some execrable advertising campaigns in
the late 20th century, mainly those featuring
talking frogs built around the conjoined
word “whassup?”! The company’s notoriety,
however, has been primarily fostered by a
zeal for litigation over trademark rights to the
‘Budweiser’ name against the genuine Czech
pilsner brewer, Budejovicky Pivovar, who has
marketed their main product as Budweiser
Budvar ever since 1895, wherever in the world
the two beers have sought to co-exist.
Meanwhile, most of the former bierkellers,
which had started out as ‘show bars’ – in reality,
cabaret-nightclub-restaurant hybrids, rather
than ‘pubs’ as such – had evolved into generic
clubs or music venues instead. It is only latterly,
in the present century, that establishments
such as the Bierhaus, Reading, the Bierkeller
at the Fernandes Brewery Tap, Wakefield
(housed in former maltings), Katzenjammers,
The Borough, and the (albeit currently closed)
Munich Cricket Club, St. James’ Park, to name
but a few, have begun to restore more of a
semblance of authenticity to what had become
very much a faux-German experience.
Amazingly, in
2017, Hofmeister –
the lager which had
become a byword
for bad beer in
the 1980s – was
even relaunched
with a new recipe
and had then won
a global drinks
competition! Revived as a premium bottled
brew for the ‘craft’ ale age, it was now described
as an authentic “Helles”, and won best lager of
that year at the International Wine and Spirits
competition, cementing its return after a 13-
year absence from the market.
Equally, the installation of tanks within bars
to condition and dispense lager, as has been
traditional in the Czech Republic in particular
and in Slovakia, to some extent too, has been a
very welcome development as well. In London,
an initial installation at The White Horse in
Parson’s Green in 2013 was for the dispensing
of Pilsner Urquell.
That same year (before it lost its independence
to SAB Miller and then to Asahi), Meantime
introduced similar tanks into certain Young’s
pubs. Innis & Gunn then opened a brewery
taproom almost adjacent to Edinburgh’s Usher
Hall in 2015 which they supplemented by
other similar bars and kitchens in Glasgow,
St. Andrews and Dundee, all of which were
equipped with a number of such maturing
vessels.
Mine’s A Pint
26

The Edinburgh premises have also been
adorned with extensive exterior advertising –
albeit far less permanent than that affixed over
a century previously to The Howard Arms in
Carlisle – for its own tank lager ‘brewed with
naked golden oats’. Even an Edinburgh ‘black’
cab had been adorned as an all-over advert
for this beer! In 2016, Albert’s Schloss became
Manchester’s first ‘tankovna’ or tank pub,
and, as with other tank similar Pilsner Urquell
outlets, receiving fresh deliveries of the lager
twice a week in temperature-controlled trucks
direct from Pilsen cellars!
Also in Manchester, The Oast House in
Spinningfields was the first Budweiser Budvar
tank beer site outside the capital, while
Cottonopolis chose Krusovice for their tank
beer, becoming the first stockist in that city. The
Viking in Manchester offered tank Budvar too
whilst The Hare and Hounds in Brighton had
put its money on Staropramen. Overall, in 2019,
Plzensky Prazdroj, the producer of the famous
Pilsner Urquell lager, had established 15 tank
pubs around Britain, Krusovice boasted seven
and Staropramen and Budejovicky Budvar had
five each.
And, notable amongst a crop of many other
such bars, in late-2018, a former Oxford city
centre pub, The Plough Inn had reopened with
XT Brewing of Long Crendon its main supplier,
for both cask and keykeg. The reinvigorated
hostelry benefitted from the installation of
copper tanks behind the bar to which the
‘green’ beer – their ‘craft’ lager, Eisbar, launched
in 2017 – was delivered and conditioned. Then,
in early 2019, The Walter Parsons’ Corn Stores
in Reading also reopened with tanks installed
for Meantime lager too!
Mapping these emerging ‘tankovnas’
throughout the world reveals that the UK
definitely comes out atop the pile confirming
that the trend of drinking fresh, unpasteurised,
beer from copper tanks seems to be definitely
here to stay!
But, in 1983, CAMRA did not even consider
that Ind Coope’s Gold Cross lager (also
marketed under the Allsopp’s banner but
which received hardly any media promotion
under either branding) was a real ale at all,
despite it being served through handpumps,
as it apparently utilised CO 2
somewhere in its
dispense system (probably no more than blanket
pressure or gas-assisted handpulls along with
‘sparklers’). So, is it not somewhat strange that
many of those newer ‘craft’ lagers and others
not served from tanks seem to have CAMRA’s
tacit approval? The 2017 purge of mainstream
lagers from being stocked in supermarkets may
have proven to have been a pyrrhic victory
as it has paved the way, in late 2018, for a
collaboration between the innovative but, at
that time, all-keg, ‘craft’ brewer, BrewDog, and
Tesco-owned wholesaler, Brooker, in producing
‘Lost Lager’ for sale exclusively through the
latter’s parent company’s superstores and that
brewery’s increasing number of town centre
outlets.
Paul Dabrowski
With acknowledgements to Boak & Bailey;
Michael Jackson, New World Guide to Beer, and
various CAMRA publications.
CAMAL (The Campaign for Authentic Lager)
may be of interest. Please visit www.camal.org.uk
for more details.
Mine’s A Pint
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Mine’s A Pint
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