Sneak's Blog

June 2004

29th - Sussex, Sneak learns, is it the place to live according to What's Brewing. For Harvey's took two of the three gold medal in this year's Beauty of the Hops brewing awards, and Sneak's favourite brewery Dark Star the third. Not only that 1648 (who haven't been brewing a year yet) scooped a bronze. "Well done to the brewers" Sneak says, make sure you keep it up!

26th - Sneak was in a certain Tarring pub this evening. Supping the delights of the Summer Lightening when another beer caught his eye. At a pound a pint! What could be wrong with it Sneak wondered? It was an excellent malty brew from Batemans, the problem was its name - PortuGoal and considering everything that had happended in the last week Sneak was supprised it hadn't been taken off completely.

25th - Sneak has been wondering if it isn't Monty's fault all this London Pride getting into pubs? Monty publicises it so gratuitously it is not a surprise it is appearing everywhere. But then perhaps Sneak is being over generous.

24th - It's the end of Euro 2004 (well for England anyway) so Sneak has been catching up on his Zappa collection. Our Frank was a well known singer but was also a beer drinker (bet you didn't know that) and was quoted once as saying "You can't be a really country unless you have a beer and an airline. It helps if you have some kind of football team, but at the very least you need a beer". Sneak's sentiments exactly.

19th - Sneak has heard from a couple of contacts in the last day. Not one but two cycle crawls have occurred. The first to Rustington, with what Sneak is calling the 'Pride Tour' took place. While some of the beers sampled were good (the Richmond Bar for example was regarded as worth going back to) others including a previous winner of the POTY were not. All was not lost though and the final port of call was the Windmill, which had 4 real ales on offer including 2 Arundel, Courage Best and Dark Star Best. Undaunted, but a tad relieved by the absence of London Pride, our intrepid explorer had the Dark Star Best which, at 13.6C, was very drinkable. The second tour took in Shoreham and our friendly reporter found more of that ubiquitous London Pride on offer at the Airport Bar (doh!) and something called Whitbread Green Label at £1.30 at the Royal Coach. Needless to say our cyclists peddled onwards to the delights of Worthing!

15th - Sneak has been 'pouring' over some articles from Germany recently. Did you know that Germany's thirst for beer is drying up but one small brewer on the Polish border has added seaweed and minerals to the traditional drink in the hope of luring back drinkers with the promise of longevity. The Neuzeller Kloster Brewery has taken that theory and thrown in a sprig or two of seaweed to create what it calls "Anti-Aging-Bier" - a dark brew with a bitter aftertaste but not a hint of fishiness. However, they have a cropper with the agriculture bodies charged with enforcing the purity law, which states the term can be used only for drinks made with four ingredients -- barley, hops, yeast and water. "We have 5,000 beer brands in Germany so you really can't say that those four ingredients don't provide for a wide range of beers," said Erich Dederichs, of the German Beer Brewers Association .

6th - A little trip over to East Preston was on the cards today. Well Sneak managed to get as far as the Fletchers and then home. The beer was far better than before ... used to be freezing. Now a reasonable temperature and in good condition.

5th - Sneak visited the Vine (again) to check the quality of the ale. Its a hard job but someone has to do it!

3rd - Sneak was nightly disappointed to hear that he had missed the mighty Dark Star brewery trip organised by the Selden Arms. However, Sneak's sources are wide and information has filtered back. One 'attendee' reported finding out less than ten minutes before the trip was to start and dropped nearly everything to attend. The trip was only marred by an incident with a hose pipe. The 'intrepid' explorers returned safe and sound but Tom was late for work!

1st - Sneak has had some recommendations, from a source, for pubs to go to with excellent real ale. The Cornerstone, the Ship and Crown and the Cock and Bull are all reported as been excellent establishments - the problem is that they are all in St. Peter Port - Guernsey. If your there check them out.

Email the local branch for more information.