The Session 15 - Where It All Began

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8992879.post-9293881165740478482008-05-01T11:02:00.003+01:002008-05-02T02:26:52.596+01:00The Session 15 - Where It All Began<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.electriclandlord.co.uk/uploaded_images/session-logo-sm-742314.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://www.electriclandlord.co.uk/uploaded_images/session-logo-sm-742307.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a> <style type="text/css">!-- @page { size: 21cm 29.7cm; margin: 2cm } P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm } --> </style> This month's instalment of <a href="http://www.brookstonbeerbulletin.com/the-sessions">The Session</a>, hosted by <a href="http://boakandbailey.com/">Boak & Bailey</a>, is themed around how did it all begin. That is, how did one get interested in decent beer. I'm really pleased that Boak & Bailey chose this theme as it has given me an opportunity to revisit my beery past, and to trawl through my memory to figure out where and when it all began. It's a long, drawn out story but working through it has been very enjoyable for me. It has brought back many good memories, some of them quite surprising. So even if you don't find this article interesting, I certainly enjoyed writing it! <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.electriclandlord.co.uk/uploaded_images/beerlabels.com-02243-719077.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://www.electriclandlord.co.uk/uploaded_images/beerlabels.com-02243-719059.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>My first exposure to regular drinking (as opposed to the odd glass of dodgy Bulgarian Riesling with Sunday lunch at my grandparents') was in the late 80s. Not a good time to be starting drinking. Like many a British teenager I started drinking in pubs before I was old enough to do so (shock horror!). I've always been a big lad, and this meant it was easy enough for me to get served in pubs from the age of about 16 onwards. Also like many teenagers, my first forays into the world of booze did not lead me to quality beer. I recall rum & blackcurrant and McEwans lager! Strangely, I also recall Youngers No. 3 and pints of “mixed” - half bitter, half mild – in some of the less salubrious pubs of Huddersfield town centre (I'm sure <a href="http://www.aswiftone.blogspot.com/">A Swift One</a> will be able to guess which ones!). Anyway, I sort of muddled through my late teenage years with the only exposure to decent beer being pints of Tetley Bitter at the local bowling club (that's<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowls"> crown green bowls</a> for you foreign types). I will always remember the taste and more importantly texture of that beer, which owed a lot to being served through a tight sparkler and with the use of an Autovac system. Now I'm not trying to re-open the sparkler debate, but that beer has certainly left its mark on me. However, at the time I would certainly not have considered myself to be a real ale drinker – dodgy lager formed a significant part of my consumption (which, to be fair, was not all that copious).After much pondering and reminiscing I think I can trace back the development of my interest in good beer to one place and one beer. Sure, there were plenty of other places and beers along the way, but none played such a big part as the establishment and the beer I'm going to discuss here. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.electriclandlord.co.uk/uploaded_images/crescent-703577.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://www.electriclandlord.co.uk/uploaded_images/crescent-703573.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>The place was <a href="http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/47/4740/Crescent/Salford">The Crescent</a> pub in Salford, and the beer was <a href="http://www.joseph-holt.com/ourbeers.asp">Holt's Bitter</a>. I was first introduced to The Crescent some time during my first year at university in <a href="http://www.salford.ac.uk/">Salford</a>, Greater Manchester. This would be either late 1988 or early 1989. It was (and still is, I believe) a fairly scruffy pub but with a wide range of real ales. My memory is somewhat hazy (I wonder why?!) but I seem to recall there being about 6 real ales on handpump at any one time. One of them was always Holt's Bitter from the local brewery, and they often also served the Mild from the same brewery. The other beers rotated fairly frequently – <a href="http://www.croptonbrewery.com/product.asp?P_ID=411">Cropton's Two Pints</a> stick in my mind for some reason, as does Moorhouses's Pendle Witches Brew. At first I didn't drink in The Crescent all that regularly - I lived a fair distance away and so could only get down there during the college day, and it was a bit of a trek to get there of an evening. However, over my 4 years at university my visits increased in frequency. During my final year I moved onto the university campus, in theory so that I could focus more on my studies but I'm sure it was no coincidence that it meant I would be living a mere 10 minutes walk from The Crescent! During that year I became a pretty much permanent fixture in the Crescent of an evening and I built up a really good relationship with some of the regulars there. They were all real ale drinkers and they encouraged the growth of my interest in decent beer. I remember a railway trip to the superb <a href="http://www.buffetbar.freewebspace.com/">station buffet at Stalybridge</a> – surely the only reason in the world to go to Stalybridge?! Although I drank my way through most of the guest ales, I kept returning to my beloved Holt's Bitter. I'm sure that part of the reason for this is the price – when I left Salford in 1992 the bitter was still 89p per pint and to a poor student like me that was important! But more than that, Holt's Bitter was a proper bitter. A proper Northern bitter, to be precise. Low gravity (less than 4% if I remember rightly) but as bitter as hell. “Uncompromisingly bitter” as it was described at the time. Pure, fresh and uncompromising – this is what excited me about real ale then, and it still does now. I left university in 1992 and moved to London, where my interest in beer went from strength to strength. I joined <a href="http://www.camra.org.uk/">CAMRA</a> and started going to beer festivals on a regular basis. A few years later I was helping to run a <a href="http://www.questors.org.uk/grapevine">real ale bar</a> in my spare time and helping to organise beer festivals. Then I fled the country (OK, emigrated) last year and now I'm involved in the quality beer scene here in New Zealand – a member of <a href="http://www.soba.org.nz/">SOBA</a>, a homebrewer and an advocate of quality beer wherever I can. It's a long way from The Crescent twenty years ago, but it has been a most excellent journey.Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08122623789276155279noreply@blogger.com