Ale watch

The missus has a share in Brewdog. Feels slightly more mainstream since its expansion, but agree its getting a good distribution into fridges. So much option, so much competition, just a shame our hands are tied for so long.

Wonder if there are any clubs who've been brave and gone with independents and local brewers in their ground?

Was at the Oval the other week and they've really upped their game the last couple of seasons. Prior to that it used to be carling pretty much only Think greene king may have infiltrated a little, but they have a range of craft casks if you can get in the pavilion and a couple of individual stalls for a bit of variety from local surrey brewers.

 

Surely you mean Tennent's Super?!

 

On the one hand I think you're probably right, though Brewdog is getting pretty mainstream these days.

 

Traditional bitters bottle quite badly in my experience and take to cans even worse. However, the high hop content IPA's seem to survive the canning process fine, and have a shelf life of a year or so.

 

I think £4 a pint is pretty reasonable! Local craft in St Petersburg is around £2.50 to £3, but is often served in a 0.4 glass. Not that I'm fundamentally against it as it means you can sample more before you drop, without switching to a half pint, which is very unsatisfying!

 

Maybe mainstream as far as distribution goes, but from a flavour profile point of view nothing mainstream about that.
Pity they don't use more UK grown hops though but I have to say they certainly pack in some very interesting flavours.

 

To an extent. But it's still a niche market

It's it really become mainstream because they've cornered the market and have fairly aggressive expansion. Policy

 

Got to agree ...bottling and canning never suits trad ales unless they're in the 5% plus ABV bracket, even Taylor's Landlord is distinctly average bottled.

 

Their expansion policy is pretty aggresive I agree. But people wouldn't buy it if it wasn't a good quality product. People tend to buy Coors and Carling when there's no alternative. Whether there would be enough demand to justify stocking Brewdog at Oakwell- I really don't know. Quite possibly not.

 

At the minute there is no demand as they don't offer it. They won't know until they try.

 

The best supermarket bottled ale IMHO is Adnam's Ghost Ship - 4.2% but quite highly hopped. Yorkshire Square Ale also tastes pretty good out of a bottle, though it's well over 5% from what I remember.

 

At our cricket club we can't sell cask ale as we're only open at weekends and it doesn't last long enough. Maybe the same principle applies at Oakwell?

In any event, like it or not lager is far more popular so that's what we sell. We do have real ale in bottles but unless a real ale person turns up we don't sell much of it.

 

Are they allowed to stock cans inside the ground Paul, or plastic bottles only?

 

Interestingly, was in Bristol week before season started and did a beer tour. Met the brewers at a company called Moor and they said they actually prefer cans and modern packaging means they can do some fermentation in the can (they do love their hops!). They've grown quite well in 10 years and seen them around a bit in London.

I can't speak for rest of the country, but craft beer is certainly booming in London and South West. Always an option for a pint of gas, but good to see bartenders knowing product and encouraging people to try others. Independents have been growing market share rapidly and why the likes of Meantime, Sharps and Camden Hells were all acquired by the big boys. Sadly, there products are a poor reflection of what they were like previously. What they did to Doom Bar could be classed as criminal.

 

Are you using cask breathers in Redfearns? If not I would consider it . They extend the shelf life and allow cask ales to be kept in good nick in all but the lowest volume places .

 

Ah. Ffs.

Thanks for clearing that up though.

 

It's still a niche market though

People. By carling because. It's familiar