Travels With Nate

Nearly everywhere I look I see advocates of good beer talking about “converting” non-beer drinkers… from other blogs, to nationally recognised beer campaigns, to the drinks menus in Brewdog bars that suggest what beer to drink instead of their wines & spirits. Conversion in this sense is an evil word as it’s all about changing people’s ideas and perceptions, much like Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons who knock on your door while you’re kicking back eating a fry-up on a Saturday morning… people telling you that everything you know is wrong and that you’re somewhat inferior if you don’t believe. That’s what “Conversion” sounds like to me. It doesn’t sound like a gentle nudge saying “hey, why not try this beer? You might like it”, conversion sounds like you’re judgementally forcing someone to do something because it’s what you like and believe in even if they are quite happy doing what they enjoy. “Conversion” doesn’t convey a welcoming sense of community, in fact it d...

On Sunday some friends and I decided to travel down to Oval Space in Hackney for London Craft Beer Festival. As I mentioned in my preview blog, it’s a festival whereby all of the beer is included in admission price as well as the breweries serving their own beer (or at least someone who knows about beer. Probably). We got to the venue and collected our glass, bottle caps (third pint tokens) and program before heading up to the room of doom. The Venue: It was a small but comfortable venue with a decked area where food was, as well as a balcony area overlooking the old gas terminals. There were breweries all around the room and a stage in the middle for the performers. Across the road there was also another venue that they were using to promote holidays in Flanders. We sampled some delicious cheese and whitebait. The Food: I would have liked to see some more reasonably priced food. There was a stand selling hot dogs in burger baps for £6.50 which seemed like a ri...

The other Sunday Emily and I were on our way back to her house in Gorleston, from mine in Norwich and we were hungry. Not regular hungry but superhuman hungry. We decided to go the long way back instead of the straight route down the A47 so we could find a pub to go to for lunch. After passing several that didn’t look too appealing, I said to Emily to turn down towards Chedgrave/Loddon way as I recall going through there once and noticing several pubs. We decided to stop at the first one we saw, The White Horse, as it had a rustic look yet there was also something modern about it. It turned out to be a good decision. We parked up and walked past the pub’s own bowls green and past the families who were just finishing up lunch, with the kids running around and screaming because obviously the sugar in dessert and the copious amounts of coca cola was too much for them to handle. We walked into the pub and up to the bar – there were a few hand pumps with Young’s Bitter, Ti...