Editor, author and international beer smuggler. From l to r: Larry Nelson, editor of Brewers’ Guardian, Jeff Pickthall, beer blogger and smuggler, and me
This seems a little trivial now in light of this morning’s news, but my book finally launched on Thursday night.
It was even better than I’d hoped – a fantastic party that made me feel very humble. Lots of IPA was consumed. Loads of my mates came. Loads of beer writers and bloggers came. Neil Morrissey and Richard Fox came.
Beer blokes from off the telly.
The secretary of the All-Party Parliamentary Beer Group came.
Robert Humphreys of the Parliamentary Beer group – no, he’s NOT asking for a copy on expenses!
And Billy and Declan came.
Mrs Pete Brown’s Beer Blog with Declan (l) and Billy (r, with crutch after kickboxing accident. He was kicking some boxes and hurt his foot.)
More about Billy and Dec later, but if you read Three Sheets to the Wind and thought I’d made them up, or exaggerated them, I didn’t. They came from Galway to get drunk at my party.
Thanks to everyone who came. Thanks to the people from Pan Macmillan for organising it and ALWAYS doing more for me and my books than they should by rights.
And thanks so much to Brew Wharf, which is where we held the party. Since it opened, Brew Wharf, part of Vinopolis, never quite succeeded in being the beery mecca it so obviously should be. It’s a great space, but it’s just round the corner from the Market Porter and the Rake, two of London’s best beer pubs, and has never given the impression that it celebrates beer as much as you think it should – the fact that they had more wines than beers on their drinks list – in a place called Brew Wharf – kind of said it all.
But all that is now changing. I was contacted a few months ago by Ben, the new manager, who is passionate about beer and was very keen to build new links with the beery world. They’ve expanded the beer range (now more beers than wines!) guest bottles change, there’s a microbrewery on site which produces very palatable session beers, and I’m not sure if there’s any left after my party, but Meantime IPA was on draft along with a number of other great beers. If you’ve visited before and left unimpressed, it’s time to give Brew Wharf another chance. If you’ve never been before, now’s the time to go! It was the perfect venue for my party.
PB: You forgot to mention the hot crisps I've had some bar snacks in my time but the hot crisps were special 🙂
Congrats on the launch, and hope you sell shitloads.
Brew Wharf is, alas, a 4 year story of betrayal of beer. How many staff went to York for 5 days to learn brewing? How long was that plant mothballed since the place opened? How many pints of beer of their own have they sold? And how much of it was good enough that you wouldn't go 'meh' when you tried it?
Lovely place, lovely food, and it was there before the Rake, so had an open goal for good international beer, but they priced it wrong, they sold it down and even the enthusiasts (the guy Iain from Vinopolis who was in charge in the early days) couldn't sort it out. I wish the new guy the best…
How on earth did you manage to get an international jetsetter like Larry Nelson along? 😉
They definitely need to improve their marketing for the Brew Wharf. From the Vinopolis website, there's only a 2 paragraph blurb about the place (well hidden mind you) which talks as much about the floor tiles as the beer.
And what's up with their main site that you linked to? "From cherry to wheat"…what sort of beer range is that??
Whoever is writing their website content OBVIOUSLY AND PAINFULLY comes from an architectural background, since there's a repeating theme of discussing the building architecture as a main part of the pub itself.
If they really want to reach out to the beer world, they really need to polish up their web image as a starting point. I can only guess what the internals look like, but happily I'll find out when I come over in July!
Great night, thanks. Enjoying the book. Particularly empathise with your experience of travel by narrow boat. Cheers, Steve
Congratulations on what was, by all accounts, a great night. Sorry I couldn't make it myself – I really wanted to but didn't have the staff to man the fort in my absence. Hopefully you'll be around on Thursday night and we can have a chat then.
PS. In response to BLTP, the hot crisps at Bir + Fud in Rome are amazing and I doubt anything can top them…
I only just got the 'kick boxing' joke.
Jeffery : If I'd schelped all the way to the eternal city for a beer I'd hop I'd get a bit more to eat than some crisps (hot or cold)! 🙂
BTW there is no latin word for beer!
It was a good evening. I have to say that I haven't had a hangover like that for a long time! It was probably the crisps. I can't have been the FREE Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, White Shield, and Meantime IPA, obviously. It MIGHT have been the BrewDog Hardcore IPA in the Rake afterwards.
Brew Wharf is a great space. They seem to be nearly there with the beer. Lets hope they get it right.
And the book is great. Well researched, well written and very funny. Good job.