Proper Job
I've been told that St Austell Proper Job is a great beer. I say I've been told because I've never tasted it myself. Ever since I first heard it was a winner (I think it was ATJ who raved about it one time I met him), I've been keen to sample a splash, but each time I've seen the pump clip I've been thwarted. Either it's run out, or has poured like cloudy soup in some dodgy boozer. Of course, I could have picked up a bottle from the supermarket, but that'd be pointless - we all know that bottled ales are a poor substitute for the real thing.
Well, my time has come, because there's a firkin conditioning in my cellar now. I've just tapped it, so it should be ready by Monday lunchtime when we open for the week.
St Austell is a regional brewery in Cornwall.
18 comments:
Proper Job is one of those rare instances where the bottle is way better, in my experience. More body, and more hop aroma and flavour. The cask version is nice, but hardly the same beer.
Proper Job is a fine cask beer, never had the bottled version. Still not checked out your boozer, maybe I'll get there monday!
I think I'm with Bailey on this one. I had Proper Job on cask the other day at Cove in Covent Garden and although it was very enjoyable, I didn't think it really compared to the bottled version. I thought the cask version was a touch watery with fairly subtle hops, whereas the bottled version packed much more of an IPA-like punch. I'm at law school in Holborn so maybe I'll pop over to Clerkenwell some time this week to see if I just tried a bad cask.
This calls for me to get a bottle of the stuff and try it alongside the cask. Of course, I won't do that, because I can't be bothered to track one down, but it would be interesting, wouldn't it?
PS. Tom, if you're at law school in BPP, I went there too when I did my LPC. Didn't like it to be honest.
The bottled stuff is stronger, 5.5 I think, both are good to my mind, will be having a pint of the cask in an hour at Woods, my loca where it’s good; I seem to remember Roger Ryman saying that he used BridgePort IPA as his model when he first designed the beer.
If you're expecting it to be "powerfully hopped" I think you might be disappointed. Average in my opinion, certainly compared with some of the beers micros are brewing in the North West.
Ben
Liverpool
Ben, when you next leave a comment, click "Name/URL" and enter your name in the box that appears. That way you don't have to come up as "Anonymous".
PS. I've heard this chat about beers in the North West being better than those from elsewhere, but I'm not convinced. There are good microbreweries everywhere.
I'm doing the LPC at BPP and it's pretty dreary. I'm not living in London at the moment and I've been meaning to pop over to The Gunmakers during a lunchbreak, but I always find that Civil Litigation saps all the life out of me and I can't do the marathon walk to Clerkenwell. Maybe this week...
well the three pints I had in my local were excellent, plenty of tropical fruit on the nose, a good zesty mouthfeel that woke me up after spending two hours being buffeting by strong winds watching my lad playing rugby.
Yep, love the stuff - its actually the beer that got me into drinking ale several years back, just wish a few more places in London sold the stuff... In fact I think Ive only ever found it when Ive visited the west country - its been sold out by the thursday at the GBBF for the last two years as well!! Doh!
Tom, you'll be pleased to hear that Clerkenwell is not a marathon walk from BPP - in fact it's about five mins away. To get to The Gunmakers, just turn right at the top of Red Lion St, and after no more than five minutes brisk walk you'll be at the top of Eyre Street Hill a hundred yards from our front door.
Central London is deceptive - no-one seems to realise how close together places really are.
not as close as central Paris though, used to walk everywhere there.
Was in Cambridge last week and found a couple of pubs doing it. In first pub it was splendid, even stayed for another when I was supposed to be off somewhere else. Second pub was passable, but I think it was the first pint pulled for a while (got a mate who refuses to take the first pint pulled, and he may well have a point!!)
Jeff, looking forward to your thoughts on the Proper Job.I totally agree that there are great micros in all parts of the Isles. I just wish sometimes it could be a bit easier obtaining some of their casks.
Hopefully no longer anonymous!
weecelt, the first pint pulled in a pub you aren't sure about is always a gamble.
Jeff, I was at UCL for three years and still my knowledge of London geography is atrocious. This week, if you see somebody looking lost stumble through the door, order a Proper Job and then sit down with several lever arch files you'll know it's me. ;-)
In my opinion (and I'm a gravy and chips hating Southerner), the north-west is hard to beat as a British brewing region. The range of beers available in that part of the world - and the quality of what's on offer - easily surpasses that found in London, and whilst there are some fine breweries in Suffolk, Sussex, Devon and Cornwall and elsewhere in the south, a good Manchester pub (of which there are many)will generally have far more to offer than the overwhelming majority of pubs in the Capital - or the south for that matter.
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