Beer Review: Vale Gravitas

Name: Gravitas

ABV: 4.8%

Brewery: Vale

Style: Golden Ale

Location: Brill, Buckinghamshire

Aroma: Notes of honey, grapefruit and lemons, with a whisp of grassy hops thrown in.

Colour: Golden yellow like a rapeseed field, with a one finger ivory coloured head.

Taste: Rather refreshing, a dry bitterness accomapnied with a biscuity malt. Conterpointed by a hoppy element that adds a bittersweet touch, along with notes of summer fruits and a gentle spicy aftertaste. Smooth and creamy in mouthfeel.

Verdict: A rather pleasant and easy drinking beer, all the more remakable given its strength. Balanced and pleasantly hoppy, though its malt backbone is a bit lacking in flavour which lets the side down. The bitterness is noticeable, while the hops make up for much of the flavour profile going on here.

Rating: 6/10

The 3rd Dulwich Beer Festival

On a oppresively and unseaonably hot afternoon in late May, myself and a friend headed down to the Dulwich Beer Festival, now in its 3rd year it is one of the newest festivals on the scene, first established by the good folk of South East London CAMRA in 2024. Each year since its inception they have held the festival at the Dulwich Hamlet FC stadium on Champion Hill which has been going strong in various guises since 1912. The festival has gradually increased in size over the years, with now over 50 cask ales available, along with the obligatory cider and perry bar, and the curious inclusion of a mead stall. Many of the beers at the festival were locally sourced from London breweries, which is hardly suprising as the likes of Portobello and Southwark breweries are the main sponsors. We arrived shortly after 1:30pm, and the venue was abuzz with activity, filled to the rafters with punters mingling in every corner. It was the final day of the three day festival, yet the organisers were struggling to cope with demand, and there was less than 20 cask ales left, even at this stage in the day. Whilst I browsed through the brochure, I disovered to my surprise that the organisers managed to acquire some additional beers not mentioned in the catalogue, and unfortunately they were not able to update the printed brochures in time. Although this instance frequently occurs in beer festivals up and down the land, the barman serving me could have been a little less brusque when informing me about the late changes to the program. 

For my first libation of the day, I went for some Harcourt Red (4.8%) a red ale from Brockley Brewery, which is incredibly just over 3 miles from the venue. It was distinctly fruity yet equally bittersweet, with bags of roasted malt suggesting a rich and varied malt bill, while notes of caramel gave it an underlying sweetness reminsicent of toffee apples. This was cut through by the grassy hops in the background which dovetailed with the other flavours to create a pleasing experience. Although blood red in colour, it felt more like a premium bitter in its setup. I've sampled this beer on several occasions in the past and it has never let me down, as usual it delivered in quality and would be a hard act to follow. Alas, I narrowly missed out on some Hedgerow Pale (4.5%) - Portobello, although I was graciously offered on the house the yeasty dregs from the bottom of the barrel, it was a gloriously medley of hops and fruit salad, where sweetness led to a intensely bitter aftertase, it was such a shame I couldn't have more. With the supply of pale ales fast drying up under the intense sun, I quicky snapped up some Ernest Single Hop (5%), a pale ale from Southwark Brewing Co., located in the northern fringes of the borough. It was a case of buyers remorse, as the Ernest hops struggled to impart their flavours, whilst the malty backbone lacked any punch making it oddly sessionable given its strength. While there were some citrussy grassy elements out in the heather, it lacked body and substance, while the aftertaste left a bland taste in my mouth. This was not helped by the temperature of the barrel, as the beer was served warm which made it hard to appreciate the flavours. I found this to be the case for a number of available beers upon sampling, clearly the cooling system was breaking down under the strain of the heat. By now the heat was rising, and we were beginning to wilt under the glare of the Sun. The dark ales by now few and far between, so I went for some London Porter (5%) - Kernel, I've been aware of this beer for quite a while now yet I've never managed to sample it. A throwback to the classic London porters of yesteryear, this is a beer packed with history as it is based on a 1896 recipe from Whitbread; sticking to tradition the brewers used a large proportion of brown malt blended with black malt and East Kent Goldings for additional flavours, making this beer a truly authentic Victorian porter. I was met with a rich and complex roster of roasted malt, with elements of coffee, dried fruits and dark chocolate giving off to a lingering bitterness, while a whisp of charcoal gave it a smokey undercurrent and a rousing finale. The mouthfeel was medium bodied, verging on the creamy, which intensified the flavours with every sip making it thoroughly moreish. It is easy to see which this beer is so highly lauded, judging from the high level of craft that goes into the brewing process. For the final beer of the day, I sampled some Saxon Strong (6.5%) - Mighty Oak, oddly the only non London beer I sourced that afternoon. A barley wine on the lower reaches of the scale, the heat from the barrel killed off any chance to appreciate its depth of flavour. I could detect some profound bitter notes coming from the hops, dovetailed by a underlying caramel like sweetness from the malt. Yet I was unable to appreciate the background hints of dark berries, toffee and wood as mentioned in the program blurb, as the intensity of the heat made the beer increasingly inedible and hard to drink. In the end I had to waste some of it, which is something I thought I never had to resort to. By this time the combination of starchy chips and a succesion of warm beers was starting to pay havoc with my digestive system and I had to call time gentleman please on my trip before it took its toll any further, we left the venue after a measly 90 minutes.  

While the festival was clearly popular, it was a miserable experience made worse by the hot weather. There was a poor selection of beers, made worse by the lack of a delayed barrel release policy, which I thought the organisers would have got the hang of by now in their third year of running. For the beers that were left, the cooling system was breaking down to such a degree that many of the beers were served warm, making it hard to appreciate the flavours and equally hard to digest. The choice of venue was also poor, while there was plenty of seating in the stands, there was only a sprinkling of picnic tables by the bar which quicky filled up, so on the whole it inaccesible to the less mobile. This wasn't helped by the one bar layout within a narrow area which quickly led to overcrowding as the admission numbers intensified. If this festival is to continue long into the future, a change of venue is strongly advised, as this stadium is clearly not the right setting to hold a beer festival as it grows in size. On the whole it was a complete shambles from start to finish, this festival is not worth ticking off on the ol' bucket list, you'd be better off down the pub instead. 

Beer Review: St. Austell Big Job

Name: Big Job

ABV: 7.2%

Brewery: St. Austell

Style: DIPA

Location: St. Austell, Cornwall

Aroma: A heap of pungent tropical fruit assaults the senses, followed by a medley of grassy hops that quickly dominate the proceedings. There are elements of pine, and fruit drops thrown, with a whisp of white rum that is vaguely intoxicating, and speaks of its high strength. 

Colour: Golden with a one finger ivory coloured head. 

Flavour: A dry bitterness is immedietely noticeable, followed by a rush of flavours that leads into a battleground of tropical fruits such as mangos, paypaya, lychess and guava, contested by a potent citrussy elements that draws the tastebuds collections. After the initial assault, there is a chewy, almost caramel like flavour to the malt, a syrupiness remiscient of marmalade, whilst the aftertaste is exceedingly hoppy and warming.

Verdict: Intense flavours pummel the senses, bold and punchy, its leaves a lingering effect long after each sip. The brewer's craft has been placed over overdrive here, yet the flavours are well balanced, rather than tacky, everything from the malt to the hop elements is proportianlised and works well together. This is one beast of a beer. 

Rating: 8/10

The Prestel Factor

CAMRA’s website is nearly three decades old, yet years before the Internet became a reality, CAMRA was already making baby steps towards the world wide web. A decade before the introduction of the Internet, there was already a similar ‘web’ based system doing the rounds called Prestel, commercially launched nationwide in September 1979 by Post Office Telecommunications (BT Group PLC), a division of the Post Office, it was markedly the world’s first public viewdata service. Prestel was the brainchild of Samuel Fedida (head of the Computer Applications Research Division), who hit upon the idea following the failure of the data-intensive Picturephone system of developing a viewdata service that used simple text and images which required only a low bandwidth. He originally envisioned for the Post Office to play an active editorial role, but management sought to encourage other organisations to generate content instead.  Similar to the Internet, Prestel offered a wide variety of content, ranging from the stock market, central government departments, national and local news, sports, travel, horoscopes and consumer motorist advice. A number of major organisations established their own dedicated IPs like British Rail, RAC, Sealink and Reuters, retailers including WHSmith and Currys, as well as charities like Save the Children. Users could access Prestel using an adapted television set, via a keypad or dedicated keyboard, while home computers users could also adapt their sets using an acoustic modem. Initially, most people viewed Prestel as an expensive gimmick aimed towards business, this changed in 1981 when BT reduced the quarterly subscription fee for home users to £5, along with the prices of equipment. Unlike the Teletext system, it was fully interactive and unlimited in size, the service expanded its capabilities with the launch of Mailbox the same year, which enabled instant messaging between different terminals, and in time users could also do online shopping, home banking, book holidays and tele-software, tropes that were later synonymous with the Internet. 

Less than two years after Prestel became available nationwide, in April 1981 Hertfordshire became the first county in the country (outside of the central terminals in London) to launch its own localised Prestel service. It was known as HERTS288 (also its front-page number), which was set up by a consortium comprising of the County council and several district councils to provide a community information service. Initially seven district councils signed up to the scheme, but this was later expanded. At the touch of a button users could find information on educational and recreational facilities, local businesses also brought space for advertising pages, the first to buy space was the National Reprographic Centre for Information based in Bayford. In late 1982, HERTS288 approached CAMRA about setting up an electronic guide for Hertfordshire’s top real ale pubs. CAMRA went along with the idea and subsequently established a Prestel page that would centre around Hertfordshire’s top 100 pubs with the entries taken from the 1983 edition of Real Draught Beer in Hertfordshire. The pubs were arranged by town and grouped by district, some pubs (and breweries) had full information pages which consisted of an address, a brief description of the venue and beers currently available, like The Barley Mow pub in St. Albans and Victoria Brewery based in Ware, who were among several businesses that purchased pages of advertising respectively. After several months of development, the service was launched at a joint meeting of four district CAMRA branches on 19th April 1983. Along with a Top 100 pubs page, the site also offered a news section detailing upcoming beer festivals and other local events, while a Pick of Pubs feature provided an interactive element for users, it was envisioned that users could vote their approval and disapproval of a pub by filling in a response frame (form) by including the pub name and rating out of 10, quality of beer, quality of food, general impression and service, along with additional comments. The information was then sent to Dave Burns who was the editor of the service, markedly if they received more than three detrimental reviews for a pub, CAMRA would send an official round to the pub in question to assess its continued suitability in the guide, if it failed to reach expectations then the pub would be removed from the top 100. This particular feature was demonstrated in an episode of Food & Drink broadcast on 5^th May 1983, a rare use of computer technology in a program that normally showcased the UK’s culinary and beverage industry. 

 

Over the next few months, there were sporadic mentions of CAMRA’s Prestel service in the press, from a report in the Hertford Mercury and Reformer to several brief mentions in issues of the Hertfordshire Newsletter, the branch magazine for CAMRA in Hertfordshire at the time, its final mention appeared in Issue No.68 published in December 1983, as part of a year-long retrospective of highlights. Despite the fact that Prestel service was available to users nationwide, it appeared that CAMRA’s Prestel platform only appealed to a small local audience and no other branches outside Hertfordshire adopted the scheme. This was reflective in the slow uptake of subscribers of Prestel, around the time of CAMRA’s launch on Prestel, there were only 18,000 subscribers, 2500 of them business. Home users were put off by the high prices, a monochrome Prestel television set cost £650, more than triple the cost of a conventional colour TV at the time. Although the number of subscribers increased later that decade, so did the subscription fees, and by the early 90’s the service was gradually wound down due to financial issues before being discontinued in 1994, just as the Internet was in ascendance. While CAMRA’s brief flutter with Prestel was merely viewed as a blip at the time, it was a window into an interactive future that would expand the organisation’s reach. In November 1996, CAMRA’s website launched on the fledgling Internet, succeeding where their dalliance with Prestel failed a decade earlier; it ushered in a new era that would revolutionise the organisation.