Three Bullet Tuesday

Tuesday 6 December, 2016

• Celebrating success: last week saw the British Guild of Beer Writers Awards in London – you can find the full list of winners here. Pete Brown was recognised with the top award taking home the Michael Jackson Gold Tankard for Beer Writer of the Year. Podcast guests Mark Dredge and Jonny Garrett were award winners and you can hear my interviews with them on the website. Both of a fascinating insight into what it takes to do what they do. Awards are a big way the industry celebrates success. It’s important to remember that every award ceremony usually has a nomination or entry process, criteria to assess the nominations and will likely will involve the subjective views of (hopefully well qualified) judges in determining the winners. Some will say there are too many awards in beer, others not enough, or that the process outlined above is not robust enough, judges are qualified or are too subjective or the people organising the awards have less than pure intentions. Nevertheless, given the success of the industry, the effort and energy people put into their craft, there is much to celebrate and we should and are right to celebrate the success of others, through awards or otherwise. Thanks to Matt Curtis for reminding me of this.

• Odell IPA: I stumbled across Odell IPA on the taps at the Big Easy in Canary Wharf last week. For those unfamiliar, the Big Easy position themselves as an American-style BBQ eatery complete with an extensive drinks list and bar adorned with oversized tap handles, like the ones you find state-side. The beer poured a lovely orange / amber colour with a slightly hazy appearance and a nice thick 1-inch head. It smelt and tasted spectacular. I’ve drank more IPA this year than in any other year and the standard and availability IPAs being produced in the UK is on the up. This however was a reminder that the US still sets the benchmark for this style. For now.

• Wylam Brewery: is this the most amazing brewery building in the UK? Pictures from The Beer O’Clock Show #CrimboCrawl re-enforced this view. It looks like the most incredible site although I can only comment based on second hand information as sadly I’ve not been there in person. In trying to find out more about the details of it I stumbled across their website, and little else. According to their website:

“Our new home at the Palace of Art in Exhibition Park is the last remaining building from the 1929 North East Exhibition. The Exhibition was an ambitious project built to celebrate and encourage Craft, Art and Industry at the start of the Great Depression. Having remained almost derelict for nearly a decade the building has now sprung back to life as a fully operational working Brewery.”

Surely there is a lot more to the story than this? If there are any stories, posts, podcasts or otherwise about the why, the how, the what and the when of Wylam and the Palace of Art I would love to hear it!

BushCraftBeer Podcast Episode 1 – Mark Dredge

Welcome to the BushCraftBeer podcast.

This is episode 1, where I sit down and chat with one of the hottest young beer writers in the country, Mark Dredge.

Before that I wanted to tell you a little more about me and what to expect from this podcast.

My name is Michael Lally, I’m 35 and I’m an Australian who has lived in London for the past 10 years. I’m also a craft beer enthusiast who has been following the scene for a while now and after much procrastination finally started blogging about beer in December 2015.

I’m also a podcast addict. The podcasts I enjoy the most are long form conversation. I find they give you a more intimate insight into the person and their story. Which in our soundbite, click-bait culture is something I find refreshingly different.

So why the name BushCraft?

BushCraft is about thriving in the natural environment, and the acquisition of the skills and knowledge to do so. It was a term popularised by the Bush Tucker Man himself, Les Hiddins who was a big deal when I was a kid growing up in Australia.

My blog, and this podcast is really about that, but with a beery twist. I am interested discovering the people behind the craft beer industry, one of the fastest growing and most exciting in the country, to sit down with them and understand their story, their perspective and what it is about their skills and experience that sees them survive and thrive in the craft beer world.

Enough about me.

Lets talk about my first conversation. Mark was very articulate – much more than me – and with good reason. As a writer, he’s classically trained. His undergrad was in media arts with a focus on screenwriting which he followed up with a masters in creative writing.

He started blogging way back in 2008 and fully committed to it. And since then he’s never looked back. He’s won awards from the British Guild of Beer Writers and written 4 books, including one set to launch in April of this year. And he’s also in training for upcoming the London Marathon. A man of many talents.

If you’re an aspiring beer blogger, like myself, or an aspiring writer this is a fascinating insight.

Hope you enjoy my chat with Mark Dredge.