If you read this blog with anything approaching the sort of fervour that I've long hoped to inspire, it won't come as any surprise to you that I love brown beer. Ordinary brown beer. Full-on, unreconstructed brown beer. The sort of nutty, full-flavoured brown beer that inspired a generation of American brewers into making something other than wet, yellow air. Admittedly, by using the ingredients that were local to them, they failed in creating ordinary brown beer, and instead created a the sort of global lupulin arms race that finds its illogical conclusion in beer like Mikkeller's 1000 IBU - beers that so miss the point of what beer should be that it's hard to even guess where they came from.Thankfully, Truman's Runner Ale (4%abv) is the sort of ordinary brown beer that knows where it's come from. Runner Ale is a beer that wears its colours firmly on its sleeve, and that colour is brown. But the thing is, it's easy to equate brown with boring, and Runner is anything but. It's the sort of full-bodied, bitter, nutty, dry beer that beer was built on. Not the sort of floppy-haired beer that relies on pilsner malt and precocious, evanescent new world hops with names like Ahtanum and El Dorado. No, good, solid traditional hops - Fuggles, Goldings, Styrian Goldings - and lots of chunky dark malt give Runner the sort of uncompromising taste that made British beer great.
Reading that back, that sounds like it's meant to be a ironic and take the piss out of such an unreconstructed classic style of ale, but it isn't mean to be. It's meant to evoke admiration for the unchanging nature of such a great ale. To deride this would be like deriding a sculptor for working with his hands and being covered in dust at the end of the day - sometimes you need to look beyond the facade and examine the meaning of something, rather than just judge what the appearance implies.
Truman's Runner Ale is a huge, hulking, giant of a beer, not caring for fashion or fripperies, self-assured and swaggering into the room with the sort of cocksure confidence that is born of genuinely not giving a toss about what anybody thinks, and is all the greater for it.
And the eagle on the label would make a great tattoo.
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It's time you did a full on spoof posting Zak. Good one.
ReplyDeleteOr is it? FIIK!
ReplyDeleteTandleman - I felt the same when you were rhapsodising about a peak 'soulless drinking experience' with a bottle of Kernel Black IPA :P. For the record, I really liked Runner Ale, in the same way that I like Old Hooky, XXXB and so on. I think it's a great, traditional beer that a lot of The Crafterati won't like. It's existence doesn't reduce my ability to enjoy anything by BrewDog, Moor, Buxton, Ilkley, Kernel, Summer Wine, Elland, etc etc, but for some reason, people take trad beers like this as an affront. I'm still genuinely unsure why.
ReplyDeleteWell, we are keeping them guessing I suppose and that's good for blogging. I always remind people, my main drinking is of Lees boring brown bitter, so I walk the walk on BBB. Usually my concerns about BBB are more choice related than beer related. It applies in my Lees pub too.
ReplyDeleteAnd the Kernal 'was' good. And Match of the Day isn't soulless. (-;
Right off for a walk now before it pisses down.
You've mentioned Old Hooky twice in as many weeks Zak, and it's making me thirsty. I thought the runner was good too, but not sure how 'summery' it was, which was part of the proposition.
ReplyDeleteMar, the beer is the old version, not the new "summer" one
ReplyDeleteMark - as Anon says, Runner is the original, and the recipe is adapted 'for summer drinking' as Summer Runner. Funnily enough, I just received a press release for it this morning.
ReplyDeleteI must seek it out next time in London.
ReplyDeleteBGBW AGM prolly.
ReplyDeleteI assume I skim read the words and got confused about that recipe change thing. So Summer Runner will be separately branded then, and will be an adapted version of Runner for the summer.
ReplyDeleteNothing wrong with well brewed brown beers. My local brewer, Brimstage, has just launched an excellent traditional brown bitter using Fuggles and Goldings. It will have the Hop Heads choking on their grapefruit-nosed pints.
ReplyDeleteZak, don't know if you knew but there's at least one American brewery making the old Truman's brews. I was completely flawed when I had this. Since I've been nagging Evin to brew a Courage duplicate. I hope we get more of these old styles back. The mild collaberation brew with Redemption is exactly the sort as well as the 1856 stout. It's looking very good for historic beer at the moment.
ReplyDeleteThomas - I didn't know that, that's interesting news. I'm not sure Evin is the right person to ask for a Courage duplicate though!
ReplyDeleteThomas, a couple of North American breweries have used Truman recipes I supplied: Pretty Things and Brasserie Artisanale Albion.
ReplyDeleteI've loads of old Courage recipes, if anyone's interested.
Oh and Truman Runner. The beer called that was actually a Porter, not a Bitter.