LAGER FRENZY!

Ale, lager, whatever – as long as its a good read

Posted on May 25, 2009 by Andrew

This may be a blog about lager, but that doesn’t mean I can’t write about anything else if there’s a tiny excuse for it. Take for example the trend towards lighter, clearer and filtered beers that first started appearing at the end of the 19th century from Burton in the UK, in particular. This trend was also seen in continental Europe in lager (dark and Vienna) and the rise of Pilsner as the dominant type.

The king of these pale ales was India Pale Ale – a beer that is veiled by as much myth and mystery as porter. I’m looking forward to a new book about IPA from Pete Brown, who has written two fine beer books: Man Walks into a Pub and Three Sheets to Wind.

The new book, Hops and Glory has been two years in the making and Pete promises some interesting revelations about the history of IPA. Looking forward to it.

I took Pete around Copenhagen on a beer tour led by Danish journalist Allan Mylius Thomsen when he was researching Three Sheets to the Wind . The idea was that I’d do the translating (it was in Danish), but it was such an interesting tour I did more listening than translating!

Posted in Ale, Lager | Tagged Books | Comments Off

Filling the holes in a lager timeline

Posted on May 22, 2009 by Andrew

If you’re knee-deep in a new project, there’s nothing quite as exciting as getting beyond the ‘standard’ sources and finding a little gem of information that you’ve not seen before. In my pursuit of all things lager I’ve dug into most of the sources that I’ve got closest to me – generally in Danish and about Carlsberg.

The newly arrived 50th anniversary book

Most Carlsberg information stops at around 1906 with the joining of the two Carlsberg breweries and starts again in 1970 with the adding of Tuborg to the company. As I’m not so interested in Carlsberg as a company but more in how it broke into the British and other international markets, this can be a bit frustrating because a lot of good stuff lies between these dates.

However, just arrived is the two-volume edition of the 50th anniversary of the Carlsberg Foundation from 1926 and I can already see that there’s a lot of great information that I’ve not come across before.

So far, I’ve just dipped into the foreword and discovered that in 1906, the newly co-operating Carlsberg breweries (the father’s and the son’s) decided to rationalise their portfolio so there was just one type of each beer. And to focus sales on Pilsner – now there’s a fateful decision.

Posted in Brewing history, Lager | Tagged Carlsberg, Sources | Comments Off

Pull the other one

Posted on May 22, 2009 by Andrew

Step change for Bombardier – Brands news – Ale – Morning Advertiser

Does ale have anything to learn from lager?

Wells & Young’s is today unveiling a new handpull design for its Bombardier brand, which takes its inspiration from lager fonts.

The brewer has spent a year on the project, investing a seven-figure sum in a bid to lure in new, younger drinkers to the cask-ale category, marketing director Chris Lewis revealed.

The new £500 font has been designed to make a key feature of the handpull and has cask beer emblazoned down both sides. It also has an illuminated badge and takes up less room on a bar than a standard handpull — the company says four of the new handpulls will fit in the same space as three of the traditional design.

“This is the boldest thing anyone has done in cask beer for the last 30 years,” Lewis told the Morning Advertiser. “Prominence on bars and illuminated fonts have been important step changes in the marketing of beer,” he said. “Yet in the cask-beer industry we have let other categories such as lager have it too easy by not shouting our presence on the bar in the same way.”