Greene King IPA wins silver award

In article , Dave Hillam writes

That's the understatement of the decade! The gods were so displeased that the heavens opened a few minutes later.

None. Their bar is halfway down the Grand Hall, facing the CAMRA bookshop.

I heard a number of comments that GK IPA is very good in its heartland where it is presumably delivered directly from the brewery. It is poor where it has to go through wholesalers and distribution depots. So one must assume that the cask for CBOB consideration came directly from Bury.

Whatever the reaction to the award, I can forgive almost anything to a brewery that produces Strong Suffolk.

Rose & Crown - Bury St Edmunds Rising Sun - Bury St Edmunds The Albion - Thetford

Regards A Non-Entity

What I object to is that we're promoting a beer which misuses the term IPA. It would have got nowhere in a class of true IPAs. CBOB would be an ideal vehicle to ensure the style was revived in the UK.

Mark Enderby

In message , machaon writes

GK IPA would have to taste like a real IPA though... so no big surprise no-one noticed it!

The real question is probably why the cellarman failed to spot a beer not true to its spec and yank it from the judging. Blind tasting by itself cannot detect unusual samples of a beer, however that's achieved.

Of course it is possible the beer has improved (stop laughing), its happened before. When Burton Ale won champion beer it was derided in a similar way yet it actually had turned into a great beer and stayed that way for a few years. Like I said... stop laughing (OK, just don't laugh so hard;)

Roy Bailey wrote in uk.food+drink.real-ale on Thu, 5 Aug 2004 07:35:41

As it was just hearsay, I was trying not to over-dramatise.

Yep, quite unobtrusive, the location certainly wouldn't add anything to a grand conspiracy/advance fix theory.

Yes, I'd concur with this; though I've never lived in East Anglia, I've spent quite a bit of time and beer money there, and can recall having had some pretty good pints of IPA in the past.

Dave

Mark Enderby wrote in uk.food+drink.real-ale on Fri, 6 Aug 2004

I rather enjoyed the Marstons Old Empire, which I presume is the style you're talking about?

Dave

The 2 key characteristics are strength and hoppiness. Both enabled the beer to withstand the voyage to India. Old Empire seems to be a reasonable stab at the style - though I tend to prefer the American take on the style (come back Brendan Dobbin !). Of course things are getting worse with Cains rebranding their 3.5% IPA as the authentic article !

Cheers

OT

When I was at Manchester University I used to drink the "dangerously drinkable" Dobbin's ESB at the also late lamented King's Arms in Chorlton on Medlock.

Here's a nostalgic link:

Brian

I've been back there tonight. Everybody now accepts the story as true, but the level of anger is amazing. One bloke claimed to have written to the CAMRA membership secretary cancelling his membership, and has cancelled his direct debit. Of course, Oxford is an area of particular GK hostility following the takeover of Morlands and Morrels - it's pretty much a GK desert.

There are two explanations doing the rounds:

1. The ringer argument - GK supplied a special brew (nothing like normal IPA ) to GBBF for tasting.

Personally I support the second theory, but still don't understand what's been going on.

Best regards, Paul

-- Paul Sherwin Consulting

I sat in the bath tonight and read the blurb on the back of the Old Speckled Hen bottle. "280 years of independent brewing tradition", it says, and then gives an address in St Albans!

Oh, not really; there's plenty of GK houses in the city. They were, of course, much better when they were Morrells.

Sorry August, I didn't make that clear. I meant that *all* the pubs in Oxford are now GK, with a few notable exceptions. It now seems possible that even the famous Turf Tavern (Laurel) has been bought by GK.

Just as well they brew the best bitter in Britain then :-)

Paul

-- Paul Sherwin Consulting

snipped-for-privacy@paulsherwin.co.uk (Paul Sherwin) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news.individual.net:

That's appalling! When did this happen? When I was in Oxford last year, I saw GK trucks all over the place, but I managed to pick lots of pubs that didn't serve any of it.

In fact, I didn't even taste it until I came home to Boston and tried some Abbot Ale. Bleh.

Say it ain't so! Pam

Well, it ain't so, but it's getting that way. Quite a few of the well known touristy pubs in central Oxford aren't GK (Turf Tavern, White Horse, Bear, Lamb & Flag, Eagle & Child) but elsewhere it's GK, GK, GK. 10 years ago there was no GK in Oxford, then they opened the Old School House in Gloucester Green. The real invasion started when they bought Morlands brewery in Abingdon and closed it, then they bought most of the Morrels pubs. They even bought some ex Marstons pubs which had been taken over by Wolverhampton & Dudley (Banks's) and no longer fitted their business plan.

The Turf may go to GK because the Laurel Pub Company (which owns the ex Whitbread Hogshead chain) is concentrating on high street kiddie pubs and is disposing of pubs which don't fit this model.

Best regards, Paul

-- Paul Sherwin Consulting

If ever there was a pub that could work well as a free house it's the Turf. Can't the local camra buy it? It could turn a good profit I'd have thought.

In message , mym wrote

What makes you think that a local branch of CAMRA has more that 1000 GBP to spend?

It could turn a good enough profit to fund a loan I'd have thought. I'm sure the local camra has enough members who could put in some capital too.

Hmm, you've obviously never met anybody from Oxford City branch :-) Quite apart from the several million quid required to buy it, it's extremely difficult to persuade pubcos to sell individual pubs to 'unconventional' purchasers.

GK are unlikely to run the Turf as a straight IPA/Abbot outlet even if they do buy it. They own an ex-Morrells alehouse, the Bookbinder's Arms in Jericho, and while the beer range isn't what it was there is still a reasonable selection of guests as well as GK free trade specials like Triumph.

One possibility would be for the college which presumably owns the Turf freehold (New College?) to manage it directly. St. Johns have done this with the Lamb & Flag, and the pub is much improved as a result.

Best regards, Paul

-- Paul Sherwin Consulting

And they'ce also recently bought the Eagle & Child, on the other side of St Giles.

In article , Paul Sherwin writes

I believe that the Turf is owned by Hertford College.