Hype vs. hop

The sagacious Boak and Bailey have prompted a number of conversations of late concerning breweries which attract what may be considered an undue amount of attention compared to those stalwarts of British brewing who turn out well-made, palatable beers without having the plaudits of commentators bestowed upon them.

I was led to reflect on this discussion after having tasted three beers back-to-back recently, namely Buxton's Jacob's Ladder, Celt Experience's Silures, and Oakham's Citra

Whilst all three of these breweries arguably fall into the former category, Oakham also falls into the latter, which is... confusing.

Tasting the three beers reminded me of what's probably most important to me in a beer: balance.

That's not to say that 'extreme' beers can't be balanced; they most certainly can, as experiencing Knee Deep's Simtra, Bear Republic's Fastback Racer X3, and Russian River's Pliny the Younger earlier this year ably demonstrated.

Any beer, regardless of its style, can possess balance. The ceaseless quest for novelty in contemporary brewing can overlook this.

Oakham's Citra? That's a balanced beer.

Otter Bright (4.3% ABV)

"Henty Arms guest beer, May 2011," it says here.

The Henty was a better pub back in the day.

A certain pallor hangs over the place now; all the pints have a tang of sadness, bitter or no.

Circumstances change; life events take their course. I suspect it will never be as it was.

South Island Pale Ale (3.5% ABV)

Yapton Beerex 2011

85

Skagway Brewing Company (7th & Broadway, Skagway AL)

The Skagway Brewing Company hadn't been open for very long when we arrived in late August of this year, and they were having trouble keeping a selection of their excellent house-brewed beers on tap on account of the fact that boatloads of thirsty buggers like us kept turning up and drinking it all.

The bar is a pleasant room, almost square, perhaps a little too uniform, but the bar is long and attractive, and the dark wood fixtures and fittings are very appealing. We definitely tried their own Chilkoot Train pale ale and a number of other Alaskan micro-brews that they also stock in the mutual support of similar enterprises elsewhere in the state. The beer was so good that we did conspire to get through rather a lot of it. There was food of some sort, but I'd be hard pressed to say what it was with any degree of precision. A Cuban sandwich sounds familiar, which I seem to recall coming with roast vegetables. Maybe that's just a phantasm of my novel-addled brain (I'm 42K in, in case you're interested). L. may or may not have had a veggie burger. Or a tuna melt? Yes, I think that was it.

Most of the snaps we took on the way back to the boat seem to have a head lopped off here, a foot removed there. Call it the Procrustean School of photography. We also seem to have done a lot of standing in the middle of the road and gurning, and whilst there isn't a great deal of traffic on the Skagway roads, it's not inconceivable that we may have precipitated a toot or two.

I have a very fine black T-shirt sporting the brewery logo you'll have seen on their webpage in commemoration of our visit, which I am most fond of.

That is all. Thank you.