I’ve been living out of a suitcase the past few days with little time to reflect between pints of English Ale.  I’m presently waiting in Heathrow at infamous Terminal 5 for our flight to Glasgow.  I pause for a moment of coffee, croissant and reflect on our recent visit with David and Louise Bruce.  For veterans of the beer revolution both in the UK and U.S.A. in the 1980’srecall that they helped kick off the American brewpub revolution (see “The Brewpub that started a world revolution,” in my book Microbrewed Adventures, HarperCollins, 2006).  David and Louise live west of London, but David frequents London often while managing as CEO a group of pub/restaurants called Capital Pubs.   Back in 1981 or thereabouts he reestablished the first brewpubs in London with the Goose and Firkin and Fox and Firkin.   This was at a time of  The Campaign for Real Ale’s backlash at the “keg beers” which defined the direction which many British brewers thought they were heading.

            Needless to say brewpubs became popular in the London area, kicked off interest in other parts of the UK and in 1982 at the American Homebrewers Association Conference in Boulder, Colorado David gave an inspiring presentation about what he was up to.  This resulted in the concept of “brewpubs” taking hold in the U.S.A. shortly thereafter.  

            Now we live in a different world, yet brewpubs remain an important vanguard for presenting innovative beers a quality food.

            I enjoyed a few pints of real ale in London on our first day of arrival and a few pints at a local inn in the countryside.   Both the Bruce’s and my wife and I shared stories of our 25+ year parallel beer journeys.   And when there’s beer involved we discussed the state of the world from the perspective of pints of bitter.

What’s in my glass?

Good real ale is an art to find.   Not all is kept in good condition and served properly.  I was fortunate to be accompanying David who has standards I can trust.   Great stuff I tried, every pint different, though I seemed to settle into Adnams Bitter.  Why?   Because I’m attracted to hop character both bitter, flavor and aroma and while Adnams was nowhere near American levels, there was a subtle enough level that I enjoyed my pints, while yearning for more hop aromatics.

            My favorite so far was a bottle of Badger Champion Golden Ale, a “premium strong ale with a light fruity flavor” at 5% a.b.v.  The label explained the “elder flower” aroma, which I attributed hopefully to hops.  Though the aroma was also reminiscent of jasmine.   Quite well balanced and hoppy.    Brewed by Hall & Wood house in Dorsett.