This is the second installment in the Beer & Pencils series. Beer & Pencils is a post designed for curious, imbibing illustrators with discerning palettes. This installment features hearty UK brews. OK, call me a shite head, but there are just way too many excellent UK beers to choose from so I have to be very strict and limit them to only those I’d blog home about. Most serious beer drinkers know them anyway, but I’ll give it a toss.
Samuel Smith’s This is the yardstick brewery. No fooling around here. This is definitely not a brew for what our Governor calls “girlymen”. The real McCoy in every way! The Old Brewery at Tadcaster was founded in 1758 and is Yorkshire’s oldest brewery. Samuel Smith is one of the few remaining independent breweries in England. The rich Samuel Smith strain of yeast at The Old Brewery dates from the early 1900s. Hops are hand-weighed by the master hop blender, and the brewing water is drawn from a well sunk over 200 years ago. First introduced to the U.S. market in 1978 by Merchant du Vin, Samuel Smith beers quickly became the benchmark ales for the emerging craft beer movement. Absolutely nothing tastes like Sam’s. Each product is quintessential and singular. If you know the Edouard Manet painting, A Bar at the Follies-Bergere [1881-2], you know that a Sam’s sits on the bar [next to Bass Ale –the oldest trademark in existence BTW]. Check it out!
Tetley’s Pub Ale My favorite beer in a can. The hyperbole is all true. Brewed in Yorkshire, England, Tetley's has been England's best-kept secret since 1822. It is the perfect blend of barley, hops and water from deep below the Yorkshire Dales. Opening the can triggers the release of Nitrogen from a floating widget to ensure you get the same dense creamy head for the delicious smooth mellow, malty flavor like a real draught pull. It’s a beautiful pour, like a well-made Latte. Trust me on this one!
Green King Abbot Ale I survived harsh winters in Detroit with this libation [and did a lot of jobs with a pint handy]! The history of brewing in the Suffolk town of Bury St. Edmund’s can be traced back as far as 1068, just 20 years after William the Conqueror first stepped ashore in England. In that year the cerevisiarii [ale brewers] were chronicled in The Domesday Book as servants of the Abbot of the Great Abbey of St Edmundsbury: hence Abbot Ale, the name given to Greene King's premium cask beer. It was in 1799 that Greene King first began production of its exceptional ales and the brewery still draws water from the well sunk into the same chalk beds under Bury St Edmunds. Also a widget can.
MacAndrew’s Scotch Ale Absolutely the best label in the industry [well, there’s Pinkus Pils, but that’s German] with a taste to match. Not common. This beer is better known in the States as MacAndrews Stock Ale. In Scotland, this type of beer is called a Wee Heavy - a style similar to a barley wine but is usually maltier and darker. The rest of the world generally calls it Strong, or Scotch Ale. Also marketed by Merchant du Vin.
Boddington’s Pub Ale Boddingtons is originally from Manchester. It has been brewed for more than 200 years. The Strangeways Brewery was founded by two grain merchants, Thomas Caister and Thomas Fry, in 1778. Brewed in Manchester since 1778, Boddingtons contains 3.8% and 4.1% alcohol-by-volume in cask. In September 2004, InBev announced plans to close the Strangeways brewery and move production out of Manchester to Lancashire, South Wales and Glasgow. However, the brewing of Boddingtons cask ale was moved to Hydes Brewery in Moss Side, Manchester. Also widget can. Similar to Tetley’s and commonly found on tap.
Fuller’s London Pride They have this on tap at the Pelican Inn, a really fine, traditional English pub next to the ocean at Muir Beach out on the west coast of Marin County. FLP is very well balanced with just the right amount of caramel and bitter. Unusually good drinking. Fuller's beers have a unique record. Since CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) first held their Champion Beer of Britain competition, Fuller's have won the Beer of the Year award five times. Fuller’s beers have been best in class no less than nine times and ESB has been voted Best Strong Ale an unprecedented seven times making it something of a legend. London Pride is a smooth and astonishingly complex beer, which has a distinctive malty base complemented by a rich balance of well developed hop. At 4.1% a.b.v in cask (4.7% ABV in bottles) London Pride is an ideal “session-strength” premium ale. Its flavor has been likened by Stephen Cox, beer writer and former campaigns director at CAMRA, to 'the sensation of angels dancing on the tongue...'! No wonder I get cotton mouth!
Now, let’s get out and work so we can afford this shite!
Scarys’ Rule of Thumb: It doesn’t matter if you don't like it, just drink it, OK!
SIDEBAR
I love Half Sour Pickles. Pickles and beer, that’s my thing. Don’t forget, you’ve got to eat them while they’re green and crunchy [and hope that they stay down]!
Half Sour recipe from Tommy J’s Kitchen 1/3 tsp. whole coriander seeds 1/3 tsp. brown mustard seeds 1 or 2 whole allspice 1/3 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes 1/3 tsp. black pepper corns 1⁄4 tsp. dill seeds 1 – 2 Tbsp. dill weed 2 or 3 pieces broken dried bay leaf 4 – 6 cloves garlic 1⁄4 cup pickling salt 4 cups water 8 or 9 pickling cukes
First, buy some pickling salt. Look for salt that specifically says “pickling salt.” That’s because pickling salt is simply plain, pure salt. No iodine, no additives to ‘ensure free flow,’ no nothing. Just salt, sodium chloride, NaCl, that’s all. Even Kosher salt, these days, usually has additives (presumably Kosher additives, but still . . .). For a pickling brine of any kind, just plain salt is best.
This is a cold, fresh-pack approach to pickles. No heat, no boiling, no sterilization in the autoclave, or canning in a boiling water bath, no antisepsis of any kind other than normal kitchen cleanliness. In other words, against all the rules promulgated by the FDA and every other official food agency. So if you want to stay out of the hospital, be scrupulous in your cleaning.
The process itself is pretty simple. Dissolve the salt in the water. Grind up all the dry ingredients except the dill weed and the bay leaf in a mortar. Chop the garlic. Wash the cukes and pack them in the jar. Dump in all the dry stuff, all the garlic, and pour in the salt water to cover everything. Wait. Chill.
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