I Really Miss Young's

As I sit here early on a Friday evening sipping a pint of Wells' Bombardier I can't help but lament the loss of a variety of Young's (of London) beers on the shelves in my locality. Obviously, I like Bombardier. It is a wonderful, classic English bitter. But why does it make me think of Young's? Well...

We used to have a regular supply of bottled Young's Ram Rod, Winter Warmer, Dirty Dick's, and the fabulous bottle-conditioned Special London Ale. Today, however, only Double Chocolate Stout adorns the beer section of the local supermarkets and beer mega-marts. It all seemed to end sometime in 2007. I don't know if this is how it is in other locations in the US, but it certainly is here. So, what might have happened?

Merger! That's what. A little background. In 2004, Young's Brewery in London began a "review" of their brewing operations at the historic Ram Brewery in Wandsworth, South London. Humphrey Langridge first started brewing at the site in 1581 with Young's acquiring the brewery in 1831. After a 2 1/2 year period of review, the decision was made in May of 2006 to sell the Ram Brewery site as it was deemed too outdated and too cramped to warrant further improvement or expansion. In addition to this decision, Young's entered into a partnership with Charles Wells of Bedford creating Wells & Young's Brewing Company Limited. The brewing of Young's beers was then transferred to Wells' Eagle Brewery thus ending over 400 years of brewing at the historic site in London. Additionally, it left only Fullers as the only major sized quality beer producer in the city. The new firm is partitioned with Wells having a 60% stake and Young's the other 40%. Brewing of Young's beers has been transferred and seems to have been successful but it doesn't remove the sense of loss of the once great London brewery.

So, shortly after this merger I noticed a surge of Wells' Bombardier and Banana Bread beers on the shelves with the Young's beers disappearing literally over night. I do not know reason for this. International beer importing, distribution and sales in the US - and especially in Texas - is difficult and strange in its structure. I will never understand it. Even Guinness' Pub Draft cans were not allowed into Texas until the company created a special can for the Texas market. Antiquated prohibition-era nonsense but somehow still in place.

I can only hope that the scene will change back again one day. I'm thrilled that Bombardier showed up here and has stayed but, I really miss Young's beers.

Yours Aye!
Neil

China - A Real Beer Wasteland?

Last week I had the privilege to take my third business trip to mainland China. As like the last trip I flew to Shanghai and then on to Suzhou, about two hours by car inland from Shanghai. As with anywhere I travel, I always seek out the best beer I can find. Since I have a passion for British beer I always seek out the western pubs. I was only in Shanghai for one night so I had to make the most of it.

I dragged my work colleagues with me and after some unplanned wandering around due to having veered right when we should have stayed straight away, we gave up and went in to the first western looking pub we could find. I can't recall the name, unfortunately, but we ordered some appetizers and a round of Kilkenny, an Irish beer made by Guinness that is not available in the US. After asking for directions, we headed for the British Bulldog Pub, now just known as Bulldog, I believe. Guinness here for us and I swear even in China it is better tasting than in the US. I'm almost convinced it is watered down in the US. Although I didn't order any, I was very surprised to see bottled beer from Brooklyn Brewery, Rogue Ales and one other that I cannot recall. I am a big fan of beer from both of these breweries but not on this night.

It was then on to O'Malley's Irish Pub, one that I had visited on my last trip over and my favorite place to hang out. I discovered the place last time not really for the beer but because I was looking for a pub showing the rugby. The pub is run by a guy named Tam from Edinburgh and he turned me on to a great shop in Shanghai to get rugby tops very cheap. Here it was more Guinness for most of us, Carlsberg for some. For this trip, that was it. There is, incidentally, a bar across the road from O'Malley's that last trip was a brewpub called The Castle. It is now closed but it appears it is to reopen very soon as a Hofbrauhaus. Also, there are three locations of Paulaner Munchen owned restaurants with locally brewed bier. These are all worth a visit and the German food as well as the beer are great, almost like being in Munich.

I spent the work week in Suzhou, almost a veritable real beer wasteland. For most of the time it was Tsing Tao Chinese beer or, if we were lucky, Carlsberg. There are a few places that have other beers but not many and most are in a questionable area of the city. I won't mention these places but if you'd like to know just drop me an email. Instead, I'd like to mention the pub I adopted as my local, if you can call two visits in six days a local. The pub is quite a distance from where I was staying, hence, the infrequency of further visits. Anyway, the pub is called Garbo's (named for Greta Garbo, the beautiful and famous Hollywood actress who was born in Sweden) in the Suzhou Industrial Park. It is owned and ran by a very colorful and quite friendly guy from Sweden named Lars. It is also probably the only place in Suzhou to get a pint of Murphy's Irish Stout and it sure tasted good! Lars also keeps liquors you likely won't find anywhere else in the city. If you're ever in Suzhou, I'd highly recommend you seek out Garbo's and say "hello" to Lars for me. Suzhou also has a Hofbrauhaus but other than that there's little going from a western style pub/bar perspective. What surprises me most is that there are almost none anywhere near the major hotels - perhaps this is a business opportunity? Suzhou is in the midst of building a subway system that is due to open in 2011. This should be a real boon to this great city.

In closing, this post is a bit delayed for a couple of reasons. First, blogspot websites are blocked in China unless you can find a way through the firewall. I could have done this through my work VPN but this is against company SOP so I avoided it. Also, even though I'm not feeling the jetlag like I have on previous trips to Asia, I'm not yet 100% either so I've been dragging my feet. In summary, I really enjoyed the Guinness and the Murphy's and although I don't think Tsing Tao is necessarily a bad beer, I have a new appreciation for Carlsberg, but only due to the circumstances.

Yours Aye!
Neil