2020 – sifting through crumbs

When will it end?? Usually by the middle of October I tend to look back at the year and reflect on how things have gone and look ahead excitedly to what the soon to be New Year promises to bring. As most adults I would be telling myself and anyone in listening distance that the year has ‘gone by so quickly’. Not this year. 2020 has crawled along. A year like no other. A year that I will be glad to see the back of.

In Person Beer Tasting, Brewery Market, Twickenham

Apart from my usual New Year’s Day hangover, the year started out with a lot to look forward to. AleHunters was receiving bookings for our Belgian tours and London’s craft beer and pub bookings were looking strong. UK Brewery Tours were booked solid across every weekend. Beer tastings with our partners Brewery Market had been scheduled and in the diary. Judging invites from beer competitions in the UK and Europe were also stacking up. Boom! Bring it on!! Then everything stopped in March with SIBA’s National Independent Beer Awards being my last judging gig.

SIBA National Independent Beer Awards , Liverpool

Tours went onto hiatus. The UK then went into lockdown and pubs and taprooms closed. Work ended. BUT, being a half glass full type of guy and with the help of the glorious weather my focus turned inwards and projects that hadn’t previously reached the planning stage suddeny burst into life. The garden received a makeover, flowers, vegetables and fruit were planted (I take no credit for this, all my wife’s handiwork). Long-neglected decorating and handyman needs were taken care of. I even started a plan to get fit, either cycling or power-walking every day. And the weather was still glorious. And then I was notified that the London Beer Competition was to be judged remotely, my first involvement back in the world of beer for a couple of months! Beers were delivered to the house and through the course of a day 58 beers were sampled and graded. Thankfully thirsty friends and neighbours were on hand to mop up the leftovers! Things weren’t so bad.

London Beer Competition samples

Life continued. Volunteering to deliver food to the vulnerable became an almost daily task and one that was rewarding. All those books sitting in the bedroom were being picked up and read. And in preparation for our Belgian tours re-commencing I started to learn Dutch, not an easy task I must add but I have progressed past ‘I think you are a sheep’. And then my local beer group held a bottle share and we all got our heads around Zoom. Happy days indeed.

A Lotta Bottle bottle share

The success of our bottle shares inspired a series of online beer tastings with our friends at Brewery Market. Both public tastings and private group bookings have kept us pretty busy over the past three and a half months. And we have another one scheduled for next week. A series of beers sets including UK craft beer, US coastal IPAs, new European craft breweries and Belgian styles went down a storm. And then in September I was honoured to open and close the first virtual Great British Beer Festival, hosting a festival tasting set and a set of Golden Ales. Marvellous!

Online beer tastings via Zoom

And the beer judging carried on. And on. World Beer Awards heats took place remotely but also in virtual ‘tables’ at home. Followed quickly by another SIBA Digital Beer Award judging competition. Next was the WBA final rounds of judging in August and then September saw the International Beer Challenge take place over two weeks. All virtual, at home and expertly organised. Honestly, these events were faultless and it wouldn’t surprise me if some of them remain virtual. I guess what was missed, apart from the endless banter were the post-judging sessions in the pub. Almost always cask!

World Beer Awards final rounds

So apart from one private in-person beer tasting event in the middle of September, we have hosted everything online since March. Next month is European Beer Challenge – will it be in person or online? And this week we launched our group beer tasting concept. Groups can choose from three beer sets: a Curious Craft UK Beer Tasting; Belgian-Style Beer Explorer; and a lovingly curated Seasonal Beer Experience. All delivered to your home and hosted online.

Click on the link below to see more about what we’re up to.

• Link

So if I was to consider if there have been any positives the be taken from this interminable year – apart from our glut of home-grown courgettes and tomatoes of course – it would be technology enabling the hosting of online beer events, judging at beer competitions and catching up with mates over a beer. Even if this feels like sifting through the crumbs of crap to be honest…

New Career – in Beer

So, summer is over apparently. However, the sun has put his hat on again today and Kew is basking in glorious sunshine. A suitable time to look back at our summer fun.

July saw the family Davies head back Stateside to see Wifey’s Mum and Dad and assorted siblings, nieces and nephews. This presented me with an ideal opportunity to re-acquaint myself with the US craft beer scene and I managed to fit in 6 breweries while we were there.

Hellbender Brewing Company

Those breweries were Mad Fox, Falls Church Vermont, Hellbender and 3 Stars Washington DC, Denizens Maryland, Earth Bread Philadelphia and Eastern Shore St Michaels Chesapeake Bay. A real mix bag of beers ranging from excellent saisons and golden ales to some mediocre versions of classic European styles. However, everyone I encountered was charm personified and it was a real pleasure to meet brewers and fellow beer enthusiasts from across the pond.

Eastern Shore Brewing

Back in the UK we had the Great British Beer Festival to enjoy. I was scheduled to work one of the day shifts there but some late bookings at the pub meant that couldn’t be spared. However, I managed to get over to Olympia for Trade Day to catch up with some friends from Wales over a pint or 2 of Brains. I arrived after work at about 6pm yet my friends had been at the festival all day so were a little worse for wear! Pointing them in the direction of the tube, I headed over to last year’s Champion Beer of Britain, Tiny Rebel of Newport. I love the ice cream van!

Tiny Rebel ice cream van

It would have been rude not to have headed over to the Fuller’s bar so off I went to catch up with a pretty large group of work colleagues – all of who also looked as though they had been there all day! The beer was gratis which was a bonus and after a couple of pints of excellent London Pride, we all trooped off to the Fuller’s pub across the road, The Hand and Flower. Another free tab so I grabbed a pint of the collaboration with Yeastie Boys, Double Summer along with a couple of Kona’s beers.

Fuller’s bar GBBF 2016

One night after work I heard that the Express Tavern, Kew Bridge was holding a blind tasting of Wadworth’s beers. Now, as a lad my friends and I used to hunt down the legendary Wadworth 6X when one of us had their parents’ car for the night so it was a must-do. The beers tasted blind were 6X, Swordfish, Horizon and Bishops Tipple. Apparently I won a night for 2 in one of Wadworth’s pubs. I’ve yet to see evidence of this prize though…

Wadworth blind beer tasting

The same evening I headed over to Real Ale in Twickenham where Todd Nicholson, chief of New Zealand Craft Beer Collective was giving a tasting of the new and exciting Kiwi beers that have hit the London market recently. It was great to catch up with Todd following our meeting at the Collective’s 1st anniversary a few months ago at Hop Burns & Black in East Dulwich. Todd had brought with him Guannamatta by Yeastie Boys, Tuatara’s APA, 8 Wired’s Wild Feijoa, plus another one of Yeastie’s their I Am Extra Pale Ale. Also on the growler was the wonderful 3 Boys Bogan by London’s Gypsy Hill. A truly top night.

New Zealand Beer Collective, Real Ale Twickenham

Our summer wound up with Wifey’s birthday which we celebrated in typical style. Party in the Tap on the Line and then off to Belgium the next morning for 3 days in beautiful Brugge. A lovely time helped by warm, sunny weather. Old haunts and old friends were visited while new haunts were explored. We spent a lovely afternoon cycling the old canals to Damme and then on to Hoecke where we found a great pub with an amazing list. Good food got a look in when we weren’t catching up with friends at the many bars that we now know so well. We even spent a lovely couple of hours on the roof terrace of a fellow beer head, Ed Waller who I met via a Facebook Belgian beer forum. And, yes we did visit another brewery, the recently opened Bourgogne de Flandres and I would recommend a visit if you are in town.

Heaven, ‘t Terastje Brugge

We bid Brugge a sad farewell – we are always unhappy to leave – but comforted in the thought that it wouldn’t be long before we are back enjoying draft Straffe at ‘t Terastje, or trying to ignore Tom’s microphone waving at Volkscafe St-Jakobs. Until then…

Beautiful Brugge

So now Autumn is with us and the slow slog to winter begins….. Oh, did I tell you that I applied for a new role at Fuller’s? Well I got the job but more news about that next time.

Beer menu, Hotel Welkom, Hoecke