All aboard for a taste of beer
The proof of the old saying that England is a nation peopled by eccentrics is on display in the Staffordshire town of Stone. It stages an annual food and drink festival in October and I was invited by James Gillespie to conduct a tutored beer tasting this year. James runs the specialist Touchstone Wines shop in Stone. There's the first example of eccentricity: a wine man with an interest in beer. It gets better - or weirder.
The beer tasting was held at Stone railway station. It sounds an odd venue. How can you conduct a beer event while people are pouring off trains and heading home on Friday night?
The answer is simple. Trains no longer stop at Stone. It's a beautiful station with three Dutch gables and tall chimneys. I had to get off my train at Stafford, which then continued to Liverpool via Stone station.
How easy and pleasant it would have been to step off the train at Stone and walk straight into the venue for my event. But that would be too easy in the modern, eccentric and privatised world of British railways.
The reason why trains don't stop at Stone is that Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Pendolino trains are too long for the platform. A simple solution would be to saw the end off the trains. Better still, saw the end off Sir Richard Branson. While we await this happy outcome, Stone's commuters must alight at Stafford and make their way home by car or bus, adding to the emission of greenhouse gases.
Nevertheless, the station is put to good use. Many local events are staged there and to keep the place in good order it employs a resident caretaker called Greg.
As James and I carried boxes of beer into the station, Greg hailed us from an upstairs window. James explained the nature of our event and Greg told us he was a keen home brewer.
Like a bizarre all-male version of Romeo and Juliet, with me in the car park and Greg calling down from his garret, he told me he had tried full-mash brewing but modern home-brew kits were so good he preferred to use them.
"But I only serve the beer by handpump," he sternly told me. "I won't use pressure barrels and gas." A fine fellow and a splendid example of a man with ideas above his station.
Once James and I finished setting up, Greg had ambled down with a pint of home-brew. It was Yorkshire bitter, he said. The colour was a bright copper-red and the beer was crystal clear. I said it tasted fine but a tad too malty for me.
"We'll be tasting Taylor's Landlord later," I said. "It will be an interesting comparison - that's a really hoppy Yorkshire bitter."
Greg wrinkled his face. "Taylor's Landlord?" he said. "Not sure I've heard of that." Is it conceivable that a dedicated home brewer who serves his beer in the approved Camra fashion without applied gas has never heard of or even supped Taylor's Landlord? Sadly, he declined our invitation to join the tasting and said he would "attend to his duties" upstairs.
The evening went well. The audience was appreciative and knowledgeable. We tasted three lagers - Mahou from Spain, Gösser from Austria and Budweiser Budvar from the Czech Republic - followed by Weihenstephan wheat beer from Germany, the aforementioned Taylor's Landlord, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale from California, Orval monastic beer from Belgium and the amazing Meantime Porter from London, brewed with no less than seven different malts.
The audience included a delightful couple, Irene and Marcus - true English eccentrics. They help James in his wine shop and used such connoisseur phrases as "length" when discussing the beers. But they are also keen Camra members and are dedicated users of the Good Beer Guide. We finished at 10 o'clock. Greg was back downstairs again, walking his dog. I would have invited him in for a last taste of Landlord but the Keighley ale was in a bottle and Greg would not have approved.
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