Kernel Bottle Shop
My birthday is in January, just long enough after the excesses of Christmas to usually be able to convince people to celebrate it with me. A couple of years ago an intrepid group of us attempted to pub-crawl from Brewdog Shoreditch to Brewdog Camden, taking in various craft beer pubs along the way. It was a fun way to spend an afternoon, although starting on a 16.5% Triple IPA may have been a tactical misstep in retrospect.
I had heard tell of the Bermondsey Beer Mile a number of times since Crawldog so it seemed like the perfect sequel. Some minor logistics and a 39th birthday later, #birberbeer was born.
##The Beer Mile
Bermondsey Beer Mile consists of seven breweries across six brewery taps, plus a bonus bar/bottle shop, distributed unevenly and inconveniently over roughly a mile of railway arches and industrial estates. It takes in three of the bigger names in London Craft Brewing, and some to watch out for in the future.
###Kernel
Kernel Beer Menu
Rather appropriately, Kernel is where this all started; the first brewery to open in the area (and one of the best in London) is smack in the middle of the Mile. Remember I said ‘inconveniently’ earlier? Saturday is the only day all the Taps are open, but Kernel closes at 2pm so you really need to start here to ensure you get to all of them in an afternoon.
Five of us met here at 12:30 and it was already packed. We favoured the Table Beer and London Sour cherry (at 3.4 and 3% respectively they make a good starting point as well as being tasty), and the flinty, moreish Saison (I’m a recent convert to Saison beers, and they seem to be in fashion in South London currently). There are numerous food establishments nearby, with which we utterly failed to get involved.
###Fourpure
Once we managed to get a seat, I could have stayed in Kernel for some time, but we were on a schedule so after picking up a straggler we headed to the bottom of the Mile, to Fourpure.
I once heard Fourpure’s beers described as ‘consensual’ and I find it apt. They produce well-crafted, if unchallenging, takes on your usual core beer styles. They favour cans over bottles and the clarity of their beer is seemingly very important to them (we were firmly warned when we chose beers that hadn’t been centrifuged). Our party split between the Brunel Brown Mild and the Southern Latitude USPA — which were both excellent — after having been warned off the Belgian Dark beer that had originally turned our heads The brewery is spacious, with room for a ping-pong table and also serves beer snacks (I got the last scotch egg).
We picked up another straggler here and then headed over to…
###Partizan
Partizan
Partizan is the stop on the Mile I was most excited about. All their small-batch, variously-hopped IPAs that I have tried have been amazing, and they do interesting things with other beer styles too.
The brewery tap is the smallest, and most outside, of all the stops on the Mile. The tiny indoors is decorated with distinctive Partizan artwork and the beer list is adventurous and eclectic. We variously plumped for the incredible Lemongrass Saison, the 10% Albatross Barley Wine and the Atomium, an interesting Belgian Pale Ale hybrid.
By the time we finished at Partizan we were cold, and hungry. So while two of our number headed off to family commitments the remainder investigated the delights of Bermondsey’s fast food selection. If you try the Mile, I would recommend you remember to eat from the nice-looking places around Kernel.
Brew By NUmbers
Brew By Numbers was the most crowded of the stops on the Mile, which necessitated further al fresco drinking in amongst the stacks of pallets out front. BBNo’s Saisons and Pale Ales come very highly recommended, but my head was turned by the first Cask Ale on a beer menu so far - the 16|03 Red Ale ‘Tap Coffee’. This turned out to be a mistake; the ale had a strange gritty texture as if it contained actual coffee grounds, and whilst not actively unpleasant, it wasn’t a patch on the excellent 01|10 Classic Saison. Second lesson of the day learnt - if something specific is recommended, have that actual thing, not a totally different thing.
Southwark Brewing Beer Menu
Impending closing time dictated that we had to jump ahead to the end of the Mile, to Southwark Brewing (See? Inconvenient!). Southwark is the newest of the breweries on the Mile and the only one specialising in Real Ale. It’s also the most family-friendly, serving coffee, milk (we were joined by 3-year old Dylan) and wine (his Mum came too) alongside their core range of cask ales.
As it was late in the day several of the barrels were on their way out, which meant I couldn’t try the Five Hop and had to go for the London Pale Ale. The LPA was fine, and a better choice than the Gold which was bottom-of-the-barrel and was described as ‘sock-like’.
###Anspach & Hobday | Bullfinch
The Shared A&H - Bullfinch Brewery Tap
The final (by virtue of it being the last to close) Brewery Tap on the Mile is the premises shared by Anspach & Hobday and Bullfinch. I had no previous experience of either of these breweries and I have to say they were both a real find.
I have been enjoying Dark IPAs a lot recently, and given that I had sensibly stayed below 6% up to this point I opted for the 7% Notorious, a rich malty beast hopped up to the eyeballs with New Zealand hops. The others got involved with the RyPA, which was my second choice, and the Rascal “Session Ale”.
The opening hours were sufficient for us to be able to also tackle the A&H offerings. I decided to stick to the theme that had served me so well up to that point and went for the Galaxy Saison, which prompted much discussion over the elusive childhood sweet of which it was reminiscent. We settled on Rhubarb & Custard, although I’m really not sure that’s right. The IPA and the Pale were also good, but I am clearly now a man for all Saisons.
We had planned to head to the Bottle Shop once the breweries were done, but they had closed sooner than advertised.
The Bermondsey Beer Mile is well worth the trip if you’re in any way interested in Craft Beer, Brewing, or standing outside. I’d probably recommend not going in the middle of January unless you have a particular birthday-related reason to do so.
The Walk Home
In hindsight, 2014’s list seems weirdly incomplete; there were numerous second releases by previous favourites (Parquet Courts, Broken Bells, Shabazz Palaces) which didn’t quite live up to expectations, and a few solid more-of-the-sames from dependable stalwarts (Mark Lanegan, Sharon Jones) . Also, I appear to have stopped paying attention to new music in about August, and subsequently missed several new releases (Shellac, Cloud Nothings, Blood Red Shoes) so we have a few glaring omissions in the list. But here goes, as usual in no order:
Warpaint - Warpaint
The first album I bought this year, I believe. 2010’s ‘The Fool’ has remained a constant companion, so much so I was surprised it’s been that long since it came out. ‘Warpaint’ is slightly less ethereal and shoegazey than its predecessor, more synthy and loopy.
Hour of the Dawn - La Sera
I was extremely excited for this album. It was preceded by ‘Losing To The Dark’ - without a doubt my Song Of The Year, and contender for Top Ten Perfect Guitar Pop Songs Ever. The album would always struggle to deliver on the promise of that single, and it doesn’t manage to, but there’s plenty to like here.
Do To The Beast - The Afghan Whigs
Of course it’s on the list. The Best Band In The World release their first album in 15 years, and I am officially old. Any doubt that this is a bona-fide Whigs record, Rick McCollum’s absence notwithstanding, is dispelled by the opening two-chord swagger of ‘Parked Outside’. ‘It Kills’ might be the best song Dulli has written since ‘My Curse’, and ‘Algiers’ is accidentally the theme to True Detective. So good it broke my card CD player.
Are We There - Sharon Van Etten
Less exposed than 2012’s ‘Tramp’, both figuratively and sonically, ‘Are We There’ sees a more confident, or at least less vulnerable, Van Etten backed by a wall of horns, strings and pedal steel guitars. One of the more thoughtfully assembled albums I can recall in recent years, ‘Afraid Of Nothing’ and ‘Every Time The Sun Comes Up’ bookend a journey through quietly seething relationships.
July - Marissa Nadler
I came to this beautiful album late in the year, thanks to the Drowned in Sound Best of 2014 list. Picks up where the last Sharon Van Etten album left off, with a hint of Jeff Buckley in there. Gorgeous, played to death in three weeks and immediately in my list.
I Never Learn - Lykke Li
I Never Learn is as distinct from the Nick Cave/Gallon Drunk-esque filth of Wounded Rhymes as that album was from the twisted pop of Youth Novels. By turns, this has bombast (‘No Rest For The Wicked’), vulnerability (‘Love Me Like I’m Not Made Of Stone’), and lighter-in-the-air anthemic balladry (‘Never Going To Love Again’).
Honourable mentions and surprising omissions
Yawn Zen - MNDSGN
Run The Jewels 2 - Run The Jewels
Dead - Youngfathers
Hum - Hookworms
This Branch is open for your comments and your own lists. Also - how are people discovering music lately? I’m thinking about changing things up in the New Year, so taking recommendations.
UPDATE 31/12/15: Turns out Branch shut down earlier this year. Will try to rescue comments for this year when I get a minute
Tasty…
I’ve been meaning to try pickling some onions at Christmas for a few years now, but kept forgetting to do it early enough. Last year, I apparently decided to send future me a present in the form of a reminder to get my act together. This happened to pop up in October around the same time as I was experimenting with my cold-smoker, and so the idea for Smoked Pickled Onions was born.
I combined a couple of recipes to get a consensus over pickling method, as I wanted something straightforward and traditional - the twist to this is the smoking of the onions, rather than any pickling cleverness.
Ingredients
- 1kg small onions
- 1l White wine vinegar
- 400g sugar
- Sea salt (flakes, preferably)
- any combination of mixed peppercorns, cloves, chili flakes, star anise or mustard seeds
- a red chili
Equipment
- A cold-smoke generator
- Oak dust
- cardboard box, barbecue with lid, or other chamber for smoking
- pickle jars
Remove the loose, dry skin from around the onions. Place in a bowl or large pan and cover with boiling water. Once the water is cooled, peel the onions under the water. Cover the peeled onions in salt flakes, wrap in a tea towel, and leave overnight.
The next day, rinse the salt from the onions and dry them thoroughly on kitchen paper. Arrange on a wire rack in your preferred smoking chamber and cold-smoke for 4-6 hours.
While the onions smoke, sterilise your jars by boiling them in a large pan and drying them in a low oven. Let them cool.
Shortly before the onions are done, dissolve the sugar in the vinegar over a low heat, and add your peppercorns and whatnot. Pack the smoked onions nice and tight into the jars along with a red chili pepper (sliced lengthways) and pour over the warm vinegar.
Store the jars in a dark, cool place for eight weeks or so. (This batch I just did was down for nine weeks and the onions retained a good crunch).
A big pile of rusty chain, at the Black Country Museum
Recent months have seen some significant updates to 3 of my most-used apps - Drafts, Launch Center Pro and IFTTT. The updates have made them more powerful, and less dependent on hacky steps to chain them together, but the available documentation on the web is a bit confusing. As it took me a while to get my head around, I thought it was worth summarising here.
For the uninitiated, Drafts is an app for quickly capturing text, then doing something with it, usually by invoking another app. Launch Center Pro is speed-dial for apps, allowing you to set up actions that you can launch with a single tap. IFTTT (If This Then That) is a web service that chains together web services, allowing an action in one to trigger a related action in another; the app enables further integration with iOS.
Drafts and LCP use a standard called x-callback-url to communicate with other apps, and there’s much overlap between what they can accomplish, but this same standard can also be used to chain them together to create really powerful workflows. Add to this the recently added Launch Center Pro channel on IFTTT, and there’s a world of possibilities, if you can figure out how to make them work.
Let’s take a simple example. I use a Google Spreadsheet to keep track of my expenses, and I want a simple way to insert the date, the amount, and a brief description in that spreadsheet, without having to faff with a spreadsheet app on my phone. I’d ideally like to use Drafts for this, because that’s where I capture everything else.
IFTTT has a Google Drive channel, with an ‘append to spreadsheet’ action, but there’s no way to trigger this from Drafts. However, I can trigger it from Launch Center Pro. I create an IFTTT recipe, and set it to be triggered by LCP. It asks me to define a name for the trigger - I’ll use “LogExpenses”.
Creating the Trigger
I then choose the Google Drive ‘Append to spreadsheet’ action, pick the name and location of the spreadsheet I want to update, and define how I update it. Here I am passing the date triggered, and two values from Launch Center Pro which will be my value and description (you can pass up to 10). The three pipes delimit the spreadsheet cells.
Creating the Action
Now, this is the clever bit. Thanks to the x-callback-url implementation in Drafts and LCP, we can trigger this IFTTT recipe directly from Drafts, without messing with LCP at all.
I create a new Log Expenses Drafts Action, with a ‘URL’ action step, and type the following URL:
launch://x-callback-url/ifttt/trigger?name=LogExpenses&value1=[line|1]&value2=[line|2]&x-success=drafts4%3ABreaking this down:
launch:// - The URL for Launch Center Pro
x-callback-url/ - Tells LCP that we’re using this standard, so to expect an x-something parameter later
ifttt/ - Tells LCP we’re using IFTTT
trigger?name=LogExpenses - Tells LCP to use the Trigger “LogExpenses” that we defined in IFTTT
&value1=[line|1] - Use the first line in Drafts as Value 1 in the IFTTT trigger
&value2=[line|2] - Use the second line in Drafts as Value 2 in the IFTTT trigger
&x-success=drafts4%3A - use the x-call-back-url standard to return control to Drafts (the %3A is a colon - for some reason this has to be URL encoded)
Now, when I want to log an expense, I open Drafts and type something like:
Train ticket
62
I then invoke the Log Expenses action, which momentarily activates LCP, then drops me back into Drafts. A few moments later, I get a notification from IFTTT that my spreadsheet has been updated.
The fact that the trigger doesn’t need to be created in the LCP app doesn’t appear to be documented anywhere, and it allows for an impressive amount of flexibility and reusability. For example, one could set up a single generic IFTTT recipe, which updates different spreadsheets depending on what is passed in the Drafts action.
I finally got around to completing Music On Plastic, the photo series that I started last December when I wanted a hero image for my Albums of 2013 post. I shot three-quarters of it within a few weeks of each other, but it’s taken me forever to get round to doing the CD - I suppose I don’t really have as much affection for CDs as I do for vinyl, tapes, and even my early iPods, so it just felt like something I’d be doing to finish the set. However, I’m pretty pleased with the way that these turned out.
I’m toying with the idea of getting a few of these printed nicely. Do let me know via Twitter if that’s something that would be of interest…
Our summer holiday this year was in Croatia, just south of Dubrovnic. We had terrible weather - on one afternoon we had the equivalent of three months’ rain. We got stranded in a bar, which would have been fine, except the bar then flooded and they stopped serving for fear of electrocuting themselves.
In an attempt to escape the (apparently very localised) weather, we took a boat trip to the Elafiti islands which included, for lunch, a choice of ‘Delicious Sandwich’ or ‘Fish Picnic’. Most people went for Fish Picnic. It was delicious; I can’t speak for the sandwich.
If you ever go to a seaside resort in England, they make a point of telling you not to feed the seagulls because they’re vicious scavengers who will nick your icecream and peck out your toddler’s eyes. The chef on the boat took great delight in casting the remains of our picnics into the sea, attracting these flocks of hungry gulls.