Clint told Glenn that his background was as an IT director in the City. His relationship with the beer industry started when he was the juniors chairman at Watford Rugby Club. A first team player suggested running a beer festival in order to raise money. “Thankfully (through the club) I knew Craig Douglas who ran the amazing Bree Louise at Euston so he was able to offer advice,” he says. “Our festival would have 36 beers and 38 ciders.” Then in 2018, Clint’s brother, Des, suggested that they set up a micropub. “Des needed to take me to one so that I could understand the concept, but I was sold once I saw it.”
The brothers decided to set up in Hemel Hempstead as there weren’t any other real ale venues nearby. Prior to them taking over the pub, the space was a Jennings betting shop.
Spotlight On… new habits
Clint says the name “Monks Inn” comes from two separate places. “Firstly, it reminds me of what I want in a pub – a venue which focuses on beer and conversation (no music or slot machines). Secondly, I am from Durban and a local venue called “Monks Inn” was a rite of passage, of which I have many fond memories!”
While Clint loves what he and Des have created at Monks Inn, it’s a small space so he decided to get a warehouse. “This allows us to buy in bulk, but then we turned the warehouse into a pub too!” To help attract people, they set up a stage so that they could host bands. “We’re actually looking to open a third Monks Inn, but we’re just waiting to see how the current Covid-19 situation plays out.”
Spotlight On… taking the chants (sorry, not sorry…)
Clint puts Monks Inn’s success down to serving great beer and says, “we have created an inclusive venue that anyone (no matter your personal situation) can feel safe sitting around having a beer and a chat.” He says that he knows of romance blossoming for at least one same-sex couple at the pub.
Clint says, “I support brewers that graft away to all hours. I won’t deal with pompous brewers who overcharge.”
Glenn asked Clint how a regular customer would describe his pub. “Good product, good service and old school ethics.”
Clint says he loves all good beer, but if we were to ask him what would be his last beer before passing, “It would have to be a pint of mild, especially Rudgate Ruby Mild.”
The Monks Inn has stocked a range of Beerblefish beers, but Clint says Hoppy Pale Ale No.4 was the most popular so far. He says, “the customers are happy with the beer, but we would love to see more dynamic pump clips!” (Don’t worry, Clint, we’re already on the case!)
Clint says, “Dark beers are very popular with my customers. We are adventurous and like to try different beers.”
Glenn asked about the challenges facing the Monks Inn. “The obvious one is Covid-19. Whilst everyone is impacted to a certain degree, it had me on life-support for several weeks. Thankfully I’m on the mend and I’m working towards being superfit so that I can surf Jeffreys Bay!”
In conclusion, Clint has a simple message for everyone: “Support your local pubs! Support your local breweries!”
Many thanks to Clint for talking to Glenn, and we wish him a speedy continued recovery.
It’s harvest time for hops! We’ve known that the Lea Valley is a rich hopping ground for a long time and we’ve wanted to make a green hop beer with local hops for just as long – after all, our Limited Edition Hopped Gin is flavoured with self-seeded hops from Walthamstow, just the other side of the river from the Beerblefish Brewhouse.
However, we weren’t expecting the lovely surprise we got this week when we discovered that the wild (or at least self-seeded) hop plants growing up the gates to the industrial estate where we’re based had borne fruit, and was laden with beautiful cones ripe for the picking.
We had previously agreed with the landlord and the neighbouring industrial estate that we could pick and use any hops that grew – we’ve seen several hop plants in the neighbourhood over the four and a half years that we’ve been here, but none of them have ever produced cones before.
As with our gin hops, we have no definitive idea what variety these are – there are two plants and, from the hint of mint, we think one of them might be a Fuggles variety. The other has a slight lemony aroma, but that doesn’t narrow it down massively given the myriad citrusy hop varieties.
The hop plants are less than 50 metres from the brewery door, so we picked them and then ran them straight into the freezer to preserve all their hoppy goodness, ready for Michaela to brew them into a green hop beer. Keep an eye out for our green hop brew over the coming weeks!
My name is James Atherton and I grew up in Leeds. I moved to London via Manchester and Edinburgh and for the past ten years I’ve lived in Harringay, North London with my wife, Bethany, and our cat Ozric.
James and Ozzy the Cat
What made you decide to become a brewer and how did you get to where you are now?
I first started making beer at university when I realised that homebrewing was cheaper than even student bar prices. I moved around a bit after graduating from my Biochemistry and Computer Science degree, and it wasn’t until we moved into our current house ten years ago that I had the space to homebrew again.
A few years later, I heard about UBREW, a homebrewing club that allowed me to brew on shared equipment in Bermondsey on a scale that wouldn’t be possible in our cellar. Friends and family told me that these beers were good and that I should consider setting up commercially. I had intended to do so on a commercial kit that UBREW were installing, but in the end we managed to get our current space in Edmonton before that came to fruition. Our kit came from a defunct brewery in Suffolk and we did our first brew in our own premises in October 2016.
Since then, the brewery has continued to grow – we hired our first staff in June 2018 and I was thrilled to welcome our new brewer, Michaela, in August this year.
What’s been the most challenging thing about establishing your brewing career?
This interview and overcoming intense apathy. Seriously, working out what I was doing it for. The whole point of setting up a brewery was that I enjoyed creating and brewing beers and I’m not hugely incentivised by making massive profits. I need to eat, of course, but money was never the driving force behind the brewery. That’s why, in 2017, Bethany and I decided to refocus the brewery as a social enterprise, concentrating on how we could make it do good in the world.
At the time, my cousin was trying to find a civilian job after a career in the army, so we decided to see if we could help people in a similar situation by hiring people coming out of the armed forces who were interested in a career in brewing; one of our first employees was ex-Royal Artillery. My professional background is in IT, so I also decided to give time and, when possible, money to charities that provide IT education.
The first ever commercial pint of Beerblefish Bloodletter
What’s the best beer you’ve ever drunk and why?
There’s absolutely no way I can narrow this down to one beer, so here’s a selection of my favourites:
Ohana Kumquat IPA – this is a perfectly-balanced beer with an amazing body and carbonation and it was totally unexpected. The best beer on a three week tour of Southern California breweries.
Rodenbach Grand Cru – just amazing. A balance of sour and malt and subtle hop, mixed fermentation flavours…it just has everything.
Cantillon 2013 Lou Pepe Kriek – easily the best kriek I’ve ever tasted. Subtle, soft, sour and the aftertaste was not like any other fruit sour because there were no edges to it.
Beerblefish Bloodletter II aged 18 months – this was the forerunner to our 1892 IPA. It was good when it was first in the bottle, but slightly harsh on the bitterness; having mellowed for 18 months, it took on a slight hint of sour balanced with rounded bitterness and a strong malt profile – it drank like a 4% beer when it was actually 7.2%!
Westvleteren 12 – heaven in a glass. Sweet but not cloyingly so, velvety, soft, great with food – the best beer you can have with monastic paté.
Iron Fist Velvet Glove – this is the best stout I’ve had anywhere in the world. It does exactly what it says on the tin – it caresses you with a velvet glove then knocks you out with an Iron Fist.
And what about the best beer you’ve brewed?
A toss-up between 1892 IPA and 1820 Porter. I love the mixed fermentation character. Traditional British ale flavours are paired with the slight sour berry flavours from the brettanomyces, plus there’s a twist of modern hops on the aroma.
And the worst?
The first ever homebrew done in the cellar of our current house. It was horrific. I bittered with Columbus hops and the flavour hops were Cascade. It had a pale slightly golden colour, poured and looked great, crisp white head, nice carbonation out of the keg. It tasted of burnt, bitter onion peel or overcooked garlic. Disgusting. I’d used too much Columbus, there was far too much bitterness and, as I later discovered, I hate Columbus hops with a fiery passion. If they’re in a beer, I can now detect them at about 18 inches from my face and it is the work of Satan in hop form.
If you were only allowed to keep one beer style forever, what would it be?
Flanders red. Because it’s amazing.
Other than the obvious two (Covid and Brexit), what do you think are the biggest challenges facing the independent brewing industry right now?
Even though you said I couldn’t have Brexit, I’m still going to say Brexit as the biggest challenge. AI singularity or asteroid strike are next. After that, the Small Brewers’ Duty Relief Coalition. They want to penalise small brewers by pulling up the ladder that allowed them to get to where they are. While I don’t think that Small Brewers’ Relief on duty is perfect and I understand that the current cliff-edge in the taper system is unhelpful, the solution is not to make smaller breweries pay more duty while larger breweries pay less.
What are you most looking forward to for the future of Beerblefish?
Eventually moving the brewery to somewhere with enough space that we don’t have to stack the staff on top of the fermenters. Also, to one day have all 10 of our fermenters in operation (currently we’re at seven). This interview being over. Oh, and all the lovely beers we’ve got coming up – we’ll be doing a batch of our Viking Ale with Kveik yeast soon and, after a very successful pilot, we’ll be brewing a larger batch of our new gingery bitter, Gingerbeerble. And finally, I’m excited about tasting our hundredth brew, which is a Flanders red that we brewed this week in collaboration with our friends at Pope’s Yard Brewery.
Which Beerblefish beer is your favourite at the moment?
As we head into Autumn, it’s either our new Gingerbeerble or our fresh batch of lovely Cashmere. I also enjoyed the mini casks of our small batch Belgian Porter over the summer.
If you could brew any beer in any style, with no restrictions on price or quantity of ingredients, what would it be?
It would be an 8.6% version of 1892 IPA, aged for 18 months in a wooden foeder; I’d split the batch 50/50 and age half of it on cherries for 6 months and then blend it back with a fresh batch before bottling.
So, there you have it: all about James. Thanks, James, for doing this interview.
The answer to this age-old quandary depends on a number of factors, including what type of beer it is, how good the beer is, and what the ambient temperature is where you’re going to drink it, but I think we can all agree that “2C” is never the correct temperature unless you’ve just run a marathon in a desert or something! However, one thing to remember above all is that the “right” temperature to drink a particular beer at is the one at which you enjoy it the most. If you prefer drinking your favourite beer at four degrees Celsius even though the brewery recommends 12 degrees Celsius, then go for it, it’s your choice – but it’s probably wise to at least consider the recommendation before dismissing it out of hand.
Note that we’re looking at serving temperature here, not storage temperature – that’s a whole different topic that’s become a talking point recently, and we might cover it in the near future – but in the meantime, let’s look at how cold (or warm) your beer should be when you take that first sip.
There has long been a friendly rivalry across the Atlantic Ocean between the Americans on the one hand, who tend to drink their beer cold and can’t understand why the British drink “warm” beer, and the Brits on the other hand, who assume that American beer is best served cold because it means you don’t have to taste it.
Now, both of these points of view are based on an outdated impression of each nation’s beer culture and don’t take into account either the cross-pollination of styles and techniques that has happened in the last thirty years or so or the massive boom in independent and craft breweries in the USA that has seen a bit of a shift away from macro-produced light lager towards a varied range of interesting and tasty styles.
Traditional British (cask) beer is typically designed to be at its best when served at “cellar temperature” – around 12-13 degrees Celsius (about 55 degrees Fahrenheit). Older British pubs were built with cellars that would be at around that temperature and, when they were built, there wouldn’t have been much that a publican could have done about the temperature. It would have varied a bit with the weather, but it would have been assumed that beers would generally be served from a cask sitting in a cellar at 12 degrees Celsius.
As refrigeration was invented and then became accessible to ordinary folk, the possibilities for beer expanded until we developed some unofficial rules for the temperature at which beer should be served. Generally, lighter (in colour) beers should be served colder than darker ones, weaker beers should be served colder than stronger ones and lagers should be served colder than other beers. There are exceptions to every rule, of course, including the golden rule above – drink it at the temperature you like it.
There are different schools of thought on just how cold the coldest-drinking beers should be served. Our view at Beerblefish is that four degrees is the absolute lowest temperature a beer should be served at, and that should be reserved for macro lagers that have little to no hop flavour. A tasty lager or a very pale ale should be a little warmer than that – maybe five to six degrees – and then other types of beer should get a little warmer from there.
The problem with serving beer very cold is that it inhibits the release of carbon dioxide (i.e. you don’t get as many bubbles rising to the surface and popping), and it’s the carbon dioxide that helps the aroma of the beer to escape into your nose as you go to take a sip. Aroma makes up a huge part of our beer drinking experience, so if we lose that part, it impacts our enjoyment of the beer as a whole. On the other hand, it can be difficult to regulate the pressure of a well-carbonated beer if it’s too warm – if it’s on draft, it will fob, and a bottle is likely to gush out like a Champagne fountain. So, that leaves us needing to find the happy medium between these two perils.
At Beerblefish we recommend that our Heritage Ales are served at British cellar temperature (12 degrees Celsius) – they are based on nineteenth century recipes, so the British pub cellar is their natural habitat. If it’s a very warm day, we might put a bottle of 1853 ESB or 1892 IPA in the fridge for a short while before drinking, but we’d rarely chill our 1820 Porter even when the sun’s shining.
Our contemporary beers have more varied needs. Our stouts and milds, particularly the imperial varieties, and Edmonton Best Bitter should also be at cellar temperature – as should Beerblefish’s new baby, Gingerbeerble – but many of our paler beers need a bit of chilling. We recommend that our Hoppy Pale Ale series, Cashmere Brut IPA and Pan Galactic Pale Ale should be served at around five to six degrees Celsius. That’s probably a little warmer than your fridge, so either don’t put them in for too long, or make sure you take your time in pouring them and finding your snacks to go with them! And don’t forget that your hands will warm up the glass, so there might be no harm in slightly over-chilling.
At the end of the day, we all have our preferences for beer temperature – some of those are based on expectation from our beer cultural experiences, and others just because we like something a certain way, but we at Beerblefish believe it’s important to keep an open mind when drinking beer because we might just learn or try something new one day that massively enhances our beer-drinking experience!
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