One of the perks of my job is that people send me beer. They hope for a kind word or a tasting note they can use on back labels.
If I like the beer, I am happy to oblige. But the most important aspect of this two-way beer service is that I keep in touch with many of the dramatic things happening in the world of brewing.
A few weeks ago I went to a seminar at the Thornbridge Brewery in Derbyshire on oak-aged beers. The event was organised by the British Guild of Beer Writers to emphasise the importance of the growing number of brewers who are maturing beer in oak casks originally used for whisky.
Oak casks
The stage was set in 2003 when Dougal Sharp, a brewer with Caledonian in Edinburgh, launched Innis & Gunn Oak Aged Beer. Dougal made a beer in the conventional manner but then matured it for 77 days in oak casks bought from the American Bourbon industry.
The oak used to make Bourbon casks is lightly toasted and gives a rich vanilla and butterscotch note to the finished beer.
The phenomenal success of Innis & Gunn in both British and overseas markets has encouraged other brewers to follow Dougal's path. Two further Scottish brewers are maturing beer in Tullibardine and Islay casks.
Thornbridge has experimented with putting its St Petersburg Stout and barley wine in whisky casks, while Fuller's in London has matured its 1845 strong ale in both Jim Beam and Glenmorangie casks.
Bottle-conditioned beer
Many brewers are now swelling the ranks of producers of bottle-conditioned beer. This is beer that contains live yeast and will age, mature and develop under glass.
Last week I received two examples of the style from a large regional brewer and a micro.
Shepherd Neame's 1698 celebrates the birth of the brewery in the 17th century. The 6.5% beer won a silver award in the Best Drink category of the Taste of Britain Awards organised by The Daily Telegraph and Sainsbury's.
The second beer is Umbel Magna from Nethergate on the Essex/Suffolk border.
Nethergate has always specialised in cask beer but changes in the beer market have encouraged the company to invest in a bottling line.
Umbel Magna, 5% abv, is based on a genuine 18th-century London recipe for porter that used ground coriander seeds alongside malts and hops. The end result is a beer with a distinctive spicy aroma and taste.
Poor packaging
Packaged beers should not be dismissed as beverages for the off-trade. In last week's MA, Andrew Jefford asked why beer is not considered to be a "fine" drink, as wine is.
The same issue recorded a catastrophic fall in on-trade beer sales this year as a result of the wet summer and the impact of the smoking ban.
Andrew made the point that few people know how beer is made and the ingredients used in its production. He also complained about poor packaging for beer that fails to give it the necessary appeal to consumers, whereas wine often comes in handsome bottles with well-designed labels.
In other words, we have to make beer important. The days are long gone when a host could open his doors and the punters would pour in and despatch a few hogsheads before closing time.
Special beers
The bottled beer market is growing at 10% a year. It should not be dismissed as an off-trade sector, of no interest to pubs.
Bottled versions should be promoted as special beer, fine beers, and ideal companions for pub dining tables.
I've just received a new version of Innis & Gunn. It comes not in a small 330ml bottle but an imposing 750ml one. It should pass all Andrew Jefford's demands: the bottle is attractive, the label is well designed, the beer inside tempting.
Even those pubs that run to no more than a cheese ploughman's can make that simple dish more appealing by serving it with a special beer. For pubs with more extensive menus there is now a range of excellent bottled beers to accompany starters, main courses and desserts.
We have to strain every sinew to get people back into pubs. The new breed of bottled beers can come to the rescue.
For more Protz visit www.beer-pages.com.