Supremacist Champion Beer of Britain

I expect this pumpclip has been created in all innocence but a bit of googling is a worthwhile precaution before naming a beer ..... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Patriot_Party

Bank Top Brewery - "Old Slapper"

This one from Bank Top Brewery just looks like they just don't care anymore. The cartoon girl isn't even that old and their other beer names are fairly random too.

Wylam Brewery - "South Gosforth Magic"

Wylam's South Gosforth Magic.

Rock and Hops

Much like good beer in restaurants, an article about beer in the Guardian is sadly a rare thing, so kudos to Dave Simpson (one of their music writers) for this round up of Rock music themed beer names/labels. 

The list includes Revolutions brewery from Leeds whose every beer is rock themed. Special reissue beers tie in with notable rock anniversaries.

The other thing of note is that several of them relate to The Fall which is ironic firstly because Mark E Smith probably loathes your classic stereotypical Camra member real ale aficionado more than Half Man Half Biscuit do, and secondly because M.E.S. is your typical 50 something who started drinking lager in the seventies. Holsten for preference, if memory serves.

Update: Also appears in paper version of G2 as a nice two-page spread.

The White Shield Conundrum*

It was a nice surprise that for my recent birthday I got a rather good selection of beer from various friends and family. A most welcome mixture of old favourites and new exotics. I look forward to drinking them and sharing them over the next few weeks. In the selection nestling next to chocolate porters from the states and best bitters from just down the road were some bottles of Worthington's White Shield.

Now let me say from the start I LOVE White shield and will happily say it’s one of the world’s great beers. I came to it a bit late and my views may be swayed by my first pint being in the brewery tap, but if at any time someone suggests a bottle I am more than happy. I love its dry complex balanced taste, its look and appearance, I love its history and the whole Burton home of brewing thing. I’ve met the team who make it and they are wonderful knowledgeable people, who should be more widely known/praised for their skill and for a word I rarely use genius. In short I like White shield I just wish it had a better label.

Now let’s be clear it’s not rotten like some we highlight here, it’s just undersells one of the world’s best beers. It's like a great lp in a rotten sleeve, a beautiful flower in a stained milk bottle, it's like picasso said "a great painting deserves a great frame, a poor one needs one".

It comes down for me to the lopsided "clip arty" shield it just looks sort of cheap and throw away. A beer like White Shield in part trades of its heritage and there’s nothing wrong with that especially if you helped preserve a whole style of beer and are linked back to its origins (even if by a circuitous route) and of course even famous brands like Guinness and Coke which appear to stay the same change subtly every few years.Quirky edgy labels are good for new beers that need to make their mark but they often don't wear well and WWS doesn't need to shout about its worth. I think something along the lines of the older style slightly ornate design could be in order perhaps with a larger less quirky shield but keeping the shield bottle caps they’re good. Anyway it’s been far too long since I had a bottle (all of 2 days) so keep up the great beer folks just tweak the label a touch.

*Robert Ludlum’s poorest ever selling title set in the beer offs of North Staffs...

WharfeBank Brewery

WharfeBank Brewery, Carry Me Home.

While we face the menace of the neo-prohibitionists wouldn't it be a good idea not to further evoke their collective wrath by evoking drunken excess?

Pre-empting the criticism that this suggestion is a concession to the neo-pros, I'd just like to say: this is a shite pumpclip whichever way you look at it..

Thanks to Chris Mansfield for the spot.

Stop me and buy one......

Went to Leeds beer festival in Pudsey on Friday, it was really good, nice and friendly, not too crowded (lots of seats hallelujah!) decent scran and of course excellent beer. Not sure if it’s a regular feature but they had an emphasis on Milds which was interesting and refreshing. Like I say a really good festival cheers to all who organised it.

Parked outside however was this marvellous vehicle, Mr Frothy’s beer van. A converted 1970’s Fiat Ice cream. It’s from the people who run North Bar and is available to hire I think.

It has the sort of savvy and fun missing from many of the breweries we feature on here ,having a bit of fun with beers image but in a cool way.

Not sure how much it cost but would ace for events in the summer comes with pumps etc. Shame they don’t tour the streets of Yorkshire on hot summer evenings, dispensing cool draughts of Belgian loveliness.

Here’s a set of pics .