Well done, CAMRA
I've never had a guest that sold so easily. Yesterday, I put on a new beer: Triple fff's Alton's Pride. Even on a sleepy Tuesday afternoon - never a busy session - we sold the best part of a firkin, with the beer running out in the evening. The reason? It's the reigning Champion Beer of Britain, and a deserving winner at that. It was chosen by CAMRA folks in a blind tasting at 2008's Great British Beer Festival at Earl's Court.
Alton's Pride is wonderfully flavoursome for a humble bitter of just 3.8% abv. It's got a tremendously satisfying bite, yet it's also terribly moreish. One pint leads to another all too easily. Through the day I must have had at least half a dozen jars myself, yet I feel bloody brilliant today. That's the best thing about British brewing - great session beers.
Triple fff brewery has an inexcusably shit website. It's so bad, I almost didn't link to it. The brewery is based in Alton, Hampshire. It's a small market town. If it's like any of the other market towns I've visited, it'll be haunted by bored toughs on a Saturday night and will be home to a really, really shit kebab van.
34 comments:
" The Secret of Triple fff's success, is to always use the finest Maris Otter Barley."
Really? Is that all there is to it? Other breweries must be kicking themselves at their stupidity.
And they're randomly using commas, which never endears. Alton's Pride is a great beer, but with presentation like that I can't see them building on their GBBF success in the longer term.
If you can order some of their Pressed Rat and Warthog mild I recommend you try it - superb stuff.
Alton is basically some houses along either side of the A31 with the odd industrial estate thrown in for good measure. The most notable feature is just round the corner from the brewery and is the station for the Watercress Line steam railway.
I'm familiar with FFF. The brewer, Graham Trott endorses Nottingham Dry Yeast. I imagine Alton's Pride is fermented with Nottingham, which is funny. There are people who claim you can't brew English Ales with a neutral ale strain like Nottingham. Another neutral ale strain is California Ale(WLP-001) Yeast, or Safale-05. This strain WAS NOT CREATED in California or the US! It originated from the old Ballantine Brewery(who got it from England) and was given to Sierra Nevada when they started up. It's a true, top cropping, ale yeast. My point is not all English beers have to be fruity with yeast character. This is obvious when breweries win awards for beers fermented with a neutral ale yeast. But the know-it-all's know better, don't they?
A beer review? Well I never. Ho. Anyway, I will search that one out if it is around anywhere.
I really wanted Altons Pride. Went to Alton's Community Centre a number of times to listen to bands. Only on two separate occasions to be given off pints of Alton's Pride. Apparently they aren't that proud of it.
I finally got to drink it at a beer festival a couple of weeks ago. Really not worth the effort. I think after all that I had too much to expect.
Ho-hum.
Mark, to be fair I don't think many (if any) beers justify some sort of quest to find them* ... and if you set out on one you'll almost certainly be disappointed.
* I reserve the right to go back on this if I'm writing an article about a beer and
Jeffery:
Franconian beers?
Talking about brands (as we were in the last post), did you really just think you could slip a rebrand past us without anyone noticing?
This is as bad as when they renamed coco pops to choco krispies
Change it back! Now!
Chap, that was a holiday! And to be honest I felt there was too much beer on that trip... I was knackered by the end of it.
Vaux Pops, get knotted! It stays as it is! I only ever had a nickname to disguise my activities from the bosses at work. Now that I have my own business I have no-one to answer too, least of all you!
Buggeration, I was hoping to get a try of Alton's Pride when we come in later today.
I guess we'll just have to try different beer instead.
I've never been that taken with Alton Pride (or Alton in fact). Maybe I need to see it in a decent pub that keeps it properly.
"Now that I have my own business I have no-one to answer too, least of all you!"
As one of the loyal readers of your blog, I would say you do have to answer to me - and your other readers!
Unless you don't give a fig whether your readership is zero or 10,000 - in which case, plough on dear Jeffrey, regardless of what your readers think...
This reminds me of the bit in I'm Alan Partridge where the nutter says "it's fans like us that make people like you what you are", and Alan responds "I don't actually agree with that". Vaux Pops, I don't agree with you.
Out of interest, why does the name change wind you up the wrong way? I just think that as I express opinions on other people's businesses and products - and lots of people read those opinions - I should do so under my own name. I take issue with those who sound off but don't accept any responsibility for what they say. Of course that's just my opinion.
Hang on a sec... The brewery's called "Triple fff", right?
Surely it'd be more space-efficient just to write "fffffffff".
PS. I wasn't aware they'd changed the name of Coco Pops to Choco Krispies. I'm sad to hear that. As a kid I had a big soft toy of Coco Monkey I won in a competition. It was one of my favourite things.
Just remember, it's the 1500 beer lovers a day who make your blog important - not the content.
Don't get me wrong - the content attracted them here. But if you piss them off, they'll go elsewhere. And suddenly your blog - and you - become far less influential.
Unless, of course, you're writing it purely for yourself and really don't care whether anyone reads.
But somehow I don't get that vibe.
All I've done is change the name. If that makes you want to stop reading, then fine. On yer bike matey! It's not like I've change the subject matter.
My decision to do so reflects the changes I've made in my life since I started writing this. I guess people who've been loyal readers have - albeit each in a small way - been part of what's given me the impetus to do so.
I'm new around here so all this malarkey about name-changing is lost on me.
I like this blog very much - it brings back memories of great boozers that I enjoyed when I lived and worked in the capital.
And as someone who ran a pub in Ireland for a few years it's good to hear how things are going for someone in the trade.
But as he's the one doing the blog I suppose Jeffrey can call it whatever the fffuck he wants.
Where did 'stonch' come from?
I see that at some point you also subtly removed the credo which at one time sat proudly to the side of the page, and was then relegated to the bottom...
Maybe he's pissed off because he's had 1,000 "Stonch's Beer Blog" polarfleeces made up?
They DID change the name to Choco Krispies.
Then the public complained. Just like I'm doing now.
And they changed it back.
Why'd I prefer Stonch?
Stonch sounds like a good guy to listen to about beer.
Jeffrey doesn't.
Irrational?
Of course.
Hey the name change makes sense to me. I'm not a long time reader so I was still trying to work out if Stonch and Jeffery were one and the same or two different people who work at the same pub.
Wow. I am shocked. I was sure it was spelled Geoffrey. I am so out of here.
Also, I much prefer the previous name, but understand your reasons for wanting to update it.
I obtained two barrels of Alton's Pride just before christmas. The first was extremely mediocre, and the second barrel I had to send back. I did speak to an extremely plesant and polite man, who informed me that I would have to telephone somebody else the following day. I tried phoning the brewery every day for the next week, but nobody ever answered.
I gave up.
Alan. Amusing comment. Made me laugh.
Oh, hang on a sec - no, it 'so' didn't.
You lot are the first batch who'd be bleating if Goblin Trots Ale changed its name to Hotgoblins. So don't come mocking at me, please.
The Vaux.
Jeffrey, a beer is rarely worth chasing down just to try. Occasionally however everyone is bleating about how great a beer is and it's worth trying to find. I should point out that never did I make a specific trip to try Alton's Pride but would probably have chosen one of the local pubs over the others if they had it.
Sometimes you just need to try what everyone thinks is amazing. Hence drinking Alton's Pride, Jaipur IPA and TTL.
However it is worth tracking down a beer you've had and thought was fantastic. Not everyone had the good fortune to be a Landlord with some say in the guest ale, more's the pity.
Alton used to be famous for pale ales, back in the day - its water is supposed to be simil;ar to that of Burton. Both Watney's (the former Crowley's brewery IIRC) and Courage had breweries in the town through until the 1960s orm so. When Harp (urgh) arrived in the UK a new brewery was built at Alton to supply the south of England with pale weak lager, which is still there today, though now run by AB InBev, one of the big "unknown" breweries of Britain, like the third brewery in Tadcaster (the one that isn't called Smith) and the Royal brewery in Manchester.
Alton used to be famous for pale ales, back in the day - its water is supposed to be simil;ar to that of Burton. Both Watney's (the former Crowley's brewery IIRC) and Courage had breweries in the town through until the 1960s orm so. When Harp (urgh) arrived in the UK a new brewery was built at Alton to supply the south of England with pale weak lager, which is still there today, though now run by AB InBev, one of the big "unknown" breweries of Britain, like the third brewery in Tadcaster (the one that isn't called Smith) and the Royal brewery in Manchester.
I thought Coors owned the Alton lagerworks these days? I seem to recall that UK Grolsch is currently made there, along with other more gruesome products
Can't speak for the kebab trade, but I doubt Alton gets the louts when Aldershot and Basingstoke are close at hand. Alton is a great little town with a really wide mix of pubs (several in the Beer Guide)and a heavy concentration of quality country pubs on it's doorsteps. The fff bewert tap is the star, of course.
I went to Alton Saturday just gone to start the Real Ale Train (RAT). Had a great time and the ales were all locals from Surrey Hills and Oakleaf breweries.
The atmosphere was friendly and the steam train goes up and down the line for 3 hours.
There was even a spontaneous group sing-a-long of Sting's 'Englishman in New York' on the bridge as everyone left for some reason. Bizzare....
Well worth a visit and the ale changes each week:
http://www.watercressline.co.uk/rat.htm
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