Robert Lloyd - a Sir Gar Blog of random news . . . and some Clecs!

The All Party Parliamentary Beer Group presented its award for the "Beer Sommelier of the Year" to Sophie Atherton at the Annual Beer Awards dinner held in Westminster. Commenting on the Award, Andrew Griffiths MP, Chairman of the Group, said "The Beer Academy launched its Sommelier qualification less than two years ago and already forty aficionados have achieved this ultimate beer qualification. They are doing a great job bringing beer to life to people who may have forgotten just how diverse and versatile our national drink can be. "I am delighted that the Beer Group's Beer Sommelier of the Year award is awarded to Sophie Atherton, who has been tireless in her mission to bring the beer message to the widest possible audience; whether it be in her articles for the Guardian, via her beer blog a "FemAle View" or being interviewed for Radio 4. Sophie says that her ambition is to encourage others to love the best drink in the world as much as she does h...

Leading Welsh brewer Simon Buckley has welcomed the Parliamentary debate calling on the Government to review its 'damaging' policy of the ‘beer duty escalator’. The debate will be on Thursday, November 1, and has been called by the Backbench Business Committee in response to the ‘Stop the Beer Duty Escalator’ e-petition ( www.camra.org.uk/saveyourpint ) which currently stands at more than 104,000 signatures. The escalator increases beer duty by 2% above inflation automatically every year and is making pub-going unaffordable. As a result, the pub industry is struggling and pubs are closing at an alarming rate of 12 every week in the UK. Mr Buckley, chief executive of the Llandeilo-based Evan-Evans brewery, said: “Enough is enough. The pub is widely recognised as one of the hubs of local community life. The Government must do more to support the pub industry. The beer escalator is damaging the pub and beer business." Carmarthen East and Dinefwr MP Jonathon Edwards plans to ...

West Wales brewing entrepreneur Simon Buckley has joined the Steering Committee of the UK’s All-Party Parliamentary Beer Group.  The group represents the views of the brewing and pub industry and lobbies MPs in Westminster on behalf of the industry. The group is made up of brewers of all sizes and includes the major pub groups. Mr Buckley, chief executive of the Evan-Evans brewery group in Llandeilo, said: “It is a great honour to be invited to join this unique group and to be able to have the opportunity to help develop drinks industry strategy and to get the message to our elected representatives. “There has never been a more important time for us to work as ‘one’ within the industry, and to correct many of the misrepresentations about what we do and the associated problems that go with an industry that is over-taxed and being driven out of business. “We are a caring group of employers who employ many tens of thousands in the UK and we must not forget that the Great British B...

Splendid evening last night at the Parliamentary Beer Group annual awards dinner in Westminster. Heading home now with, ssshhh, a bit of a headache!

Splendid evening last night at the All-Party Parliamentary Beer Group awards dinner staged at One Great George Street just around the corner from Westminster. This is what we drank (tasting notes cribbed from the menu). . . With the starter (Brown shrimps in clarified butter)- Black Isle Organic Wheat Beer (5% abv) Courtesy of Black Isle Brewery, Munlochy, Ross-shire, Scotland A semi-cloudy Belgian style wheat beer brewed with orange and coriander. Either pour carefully to leave the yeast in the bottom of the bottle, or swirl the last drop around the base and pour onto the head of the beer. Naturally fermented for a second time in the bottle, in a similar way to the production of Champagne. This results in a light sediment of yeast in the bottom of the bottle. It is full of Vitamin B. Roger Protz notes - The colour of this bottle-conditioned beer is a very pale yellow/gold that pours hazy, with a thin white head. On the nose it is very fresh in style, with a clean citrus aroma, some gr...