Showing posts with label Cretan kafenions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cretan kafenions. Show all posts
Sunday, 2 September 2012
Cretan bulletin
Hello (yassas)
just a quick message from Crete. There is relatively little to report in terms of Cretan breweries, imagined or otherwise and unfortunately I haven't made it to Chania this time so no opportunity has been had to check if the Charma brand is still produced.
Brinks Rethimnian organic is available in restaurants in Rethymnon, but few bars stock it, except those charging a premium. I am staying in Plakias on the South coast and one of the contributory factors in choosing this destination was the availability of Craft beer from Athens. Mercifully, I have been able to find it. I'm not saying it would make the holiday experience much less enjoyable if it had not been on sale, but lets just say its a damned relief that it is available.
On the rocks bar in Plakias is still the place to go for Craft - they have the pilsner on draught (Euro 4.00) as well as their full bottled range for about 3 Euro, but otherwise its Draught Alfa or Mythos, between 3 and 4 Euro, and rebadge contract brewed German copies like Kaiser.
The only other notable news is the emergence of a schooner measure - the 500ml large measure is ambiguous enough but a Schooner at 400ml is a bit mean when its still 4 Euro a pop.
So that's all I have, can't wait to have a lovely pint of real ale in my hand - in the rain, soon
Wee Beefy
Monday, 21 May 2012
Shefield pub news and a far away festival.
Hello,
here is some info based on recent events, nights out and discoveries.
Dada
it seems the Da's have lost their minds completely and only gone and put on two guests from their allocation of four handpumps. Oakham Ales JHB, and the excellent Dark Star Pale Ale where the offerings to complement the Thornbridge Brock, and the thingemabob. James advises that Oakham Citra will be on soon as well - this is one of my favourite Oakham offerings, mores the shame that a sudden scarcity of funds means I may miss tasting it.
Wellington
Is continuing to offer excellent in house brewery beers and, on my last two visits, a guest from the excellent West Berkshire Brewery. Prices are also very competitive, especially for the Little Ale Cart beers, and they continue to provide at least one dark beer, so its well worth a visit.
Rutland Arms
Tonight was to be the night I wrote about the recent revelations about the Rutland, and the impact on the pub, its regulars, and its "community". My main point was going to focus firmly on the lack of any statement from the pub. Happily this situation has now changed.
As befits a pub which places itself firmly in the social media spectrum, a statement has been made on the Rutland's Facebook Wall (I haven't checked Twitter yet, although, being limited to 140 characters one assumes only a link to Facebook....) There may be a catch in that you have to "Like" them, (ironic!) but its there.
It was vital a statement was made to highlight the pub and pub company's stance concerning what had happened and the wider issue of "banter" and sexual harrassment at work. Whether you think they took too long over it, or even that it makes no difference, I personally think its a positive development. I read the story in three different papers and got conflicting details, (and really only one side) so clarification is beneficial, and ultimately something the regulars deserve.
Crucially, the Blue Bee Turned Out Mild and their excellent Red White and Blue were in impeccable form when I visited on Saturday, especially the latter. It starts with the beer ....
The Hop
The Hop continues to showcase covers bands and opens that little bit later on a weekend than some of the more traditional pubs nearby. They have also continued to stock a non-Ossett/Ossett acquired brewery guest real ale. On Saturday night the excellent Milestone Traditional Mild was on good form, and formed part of a decent range of pale and dark beers on offer.
And finally....
Far away festival
Years ago in days of yore this blog was rather "catchily" called Wee Beefy's unspoilt pubs and Cretan kafenions. This was very a reflection of my soft spot for Crete (there are some posts from there from 2010 in the post list) and regular visits to it.
Very slowly Crete is starting to make beer. Its own beer. Not Henninger or Carlsberg or Amstel brewed under license (and am not sure that is even still done in Crete itself, more likely the Greek mainland), but actual Cretan beer. Albeit even then the first brewery to be set up commercially in Crete, possibly since the inter war years or longer, was set up by an enterprising German, there are very very small signs of interest in beers brewed in Crete.
At present, to the best of my not very up to date knowledge, there are two breweries actually in Crete - Brinks Rethymnian, an organic brewery making unpasteurised bottled beer, and Charma, a brewery based in or around Chania producing a lager and a dark ale (Charma Black). Mythos, Alfa and the excellent Craft Brewery from Greece are also notable, more so Craft for its excellent Pilsner.
Its not an exaggeration to say that before these two Cretan brewers started and before Craft became available (albeit in small pockets, mainly on the South coast), beer in Crete was dismal. If you didn't like Amstel or Heineken it was useless. Mythos provided some respite, and Alfa is quite palatable, but it was only if you paid over the odds for export Guinness or found a bottle of Amstel Bock hiding at the back of a fridge or Supermarket shelf, that you could ever get anything darker to sup.
In a surprise but welcome development, I can report that this year Crete will hold its first beer festival. It runs from the 13th to the 22nd of July, and is taking place in Platanias, a touristy area outside one of the major cities, Chania. There is a link here but the details are almost all as above, and the link to the exhibition centre, if you translate it, is really for advertisers, sponsors, or, I dunno, brewers?
The logo's on the Exhibition centre advert mysteriously mention neither of the two Cretan breweries so this could all be a cynical exercise in appealing to the more, how shall we say, beer loving nations that swarm to the island every year, but we'll have to see. There is also one which seems to say "I'm Backing The Pub" which despite its apparent Englishness I think I have seen before on a beer mat in Chania.
If I hear anything else I'll let you know, but if you happen to find yourself on the island in the second week of July, I would recommend a visit, if nothing else to find out what Troegs Craft brewers decide to sell, and how popular the Smithwicks and Macfarland brands turn out...
More news and stuff soon.
Wee Beefy
here is some info based on recent events, nights out and discoveries.
Dada
it seems the Da's have lost their minds completely and only gone and put on two guests from their allocation of four handpumps. Oakham Ales JHB, and the excellent Dark Star Pale Ale where the offerings to complement the Thornbridge Brock, and the thingemabob. James advises that Oakham Citra will be on soon as well - this is one of my favourite Oakham offerings, mores the shame that a sudden scarcity of funds means I may miss tasting it.
Wellington
Is continuing to offer excellent in house brewery beers and, on my last two visits, a guest from the excellent West Berkshire Brewery. Prices are also very competitive, especially for the Little Ale Cart beers, and they continue to provide at least one dark beer, so its well worth a visit.
Rutland Arms
Tonight was to be the night I wrote about the recent revelations about the Rutland, and the impact on the pub, its regulars, and its "community". My main point was going to focus firmly on the lack of any statement from the pub. Happily this situation has now changed.
As befits a pub which places itself firmly in the social media spectrum, a statement has been made on the Rutland's Facebook Wall (I haven't checked Twitter yet, although, being limited to 140 characters one assumes only a link to Facebook....) There may be a catch in that you have to "Like" them, (ironic!) but its there.
It was vital a statement was made to highlight the pub and pub company's stance concerning what had happened and the wider issue of "banter" and sexual harrassment at work. Whether you think they took too long over it, or even that it makes no difference, I personally think its a positive development. I read the story in three different papers and got conflicting details, (and really only one side) so clarification is beneficial, and ultimately something the regulars deserve.
Crucially, the Blue Bee Turned Out Mild and their excellent Red White and Blue were in impeccable form when I visited on Saturday, especially the latter. It starts with the beer ....
The Hop
The Hop continues to showcase covers bands and opens that little bit later on a weekend than some of the more traditional pubs nearby. They have also continued to stock a non-Ossett/Ossett acquired brewery guest real ale. On Saturday night the excellent Milestone Traditional Mild was on good form, and formed part of a decent range of pale and dark beers on offer.
And finally....
Far away festival
Years ago in days of yore this blog was rather "catchily" called Wee Beefy's unspoilt pubs and Cretan kafenions. This was very a reflection of my soft spot for Crete (there are some posts from there from 2010 in the post list) and regular visits to it.
Very slowly Crete is starting to make beer. Its own beer. Not Henninger or Carlsberg or Amstel brewed under license (and am not sure that is even still done in Crete itself, more likely the Greek mainland), but actual Cretan beer. Albeit even then the first brewery to be set up commercially in Crete, possibly since the inter war years or longer, was set up by an enterprising German, there are very very small signs of interest in beers brewed in Crete.
At present, to the best of my not very up to date knowledge, there are two breweries actually in Crete - Brinks Rethymnian, an organic brewery making unpasteurised bottled beer, and Charma, a brewery based in or around Chania producing a lager and a dark ale (Charma Black). Mythos, Alfa and the excellent Craft Brewery from Greece are also notable, more so Craft for its excellent Pilsner.
Its not an exaggeration to say that before these two Cretan brewers started and before Craft became available (albeit in small pockets, mainly on the South coast), beer in Crete was dismal. If you didn't like Amstel or Heineken it was useless. Mythos provided some respite, and Alfa is quite palatable, but it was only if you paid over the odds for export Guinness or found a bottle of Amstel Bock hiding at the back of a fridge or Supermarket shelf, that you could ever get anything darker to sup.
In a surprise but welcome development, I can report that this year Crete will hold its first beer festival. It runs from the 13th to the 22nd of July, and is taking place in Platanias, a touristy area outside one of the major cities, Chania. There is a link here but the details are almost all as above, and the link to the exhibition centre, if you translate it, is really for advertisers, sponsors, or, I dunno, brewers?
The logo's on the Exhibition centre advert mysteriously mention neither of the two Cretan breweries so this could all be a cynical exercise in appealing to the more, how shall we say, beer loving nations that swarm to the island every year, but we'll have to see. There is also one which seems to say "I'm Backing The Pub" which despite its apparent Englishness I think I have seen before on a beer mat in Chania.
If I hear anything else I'll let you know, but if you happen to find yourself on the island in the second week of July, I would recommend a visit, if nothing else to find out what Troegs Craft brewers decide to sell, and how popular the Smithwicks and Macfarland brands turn out...
More news and stuff soon.
Wee Beefy
Friday, 6 January 2012
Ringing in the changes (a little bit late)
Now then,
this is really just a bit of confirmation of a little change I have made.
Not a rash drunken new years resolution to stop drinking or similar untenable nonsense, nor a self indulgent proclamation to "change the world " or other pie in the sky targets. No, I just thought I should change my blog name.
You see, back in the naive (never liked that spelling!) innocent days of 2009 I was smarting from a lack of success or indeed desire to carry on with my Cretan travels blog - forgetting the password 15 times then changing email address seemed an insurmountable obstacle to overcome, so I gave up and created a new blog.
I intended to celebrate my passion for unspoilt British pubs, whilst simultaneously writing about my interest in and love of Cretan kafenions, the venerable Kriti coffee houses. These were stoic, unchanging, bastions of tradition who's charm and sadly rapid decline so perfectly mirrored that of the traditional hostelries I loved to get back to when I returned to dear old Yorkshire. (note: the below picture depicts the Seymour Arms, Witham Friary, in, erm, Somerset, but hey you get the idea....)
But things change. Firstly, I find myself writing mainly about pubs in Sheffield and those on my travels in the UK. The very nature of the industry means that, sadly, not all in fact very few, are unspoilt these days. I also write about the charms and foibles of real ale, but that is sidestepped in my original title, and there is no hint of the bottled beer reviews I am testing the water with. Not only that, but I haven't been to Crete for two years, and even when I did in 2009 and 2010, I didn't write up or even photograph a kafenion.
So, as an acknowledgement of the above, from now on this blog will be Wee Beefy's beer and pub blog, reflective of my search for and experiences of beer, in pubs, bars or containers, and the pubs themselves, my first choice place to consume beer in.
I hope you will understand and support me under my new name. Don't forget of course, the URL has not changed, so no need to worry about finding your way back. Here's to the future.
Cheers!
Wee Beefy.
this is really just a bit of confirmation of a little change I have made.
Not a rash drunken new years resolution to stop drinking or similar untenable nonsense, nor a self indulgent proclamation to "change the world " or other pie in the sky targets. No, I just thought I should change my blog name.
You see, back in the naive (never liked that spelling!) innocent days of 2009 I was smarting from a lack of success or indeed desire to carry on with my Cretan travels blog - forgetting the password 15 times then changing email address seemed an insurmountable obstacle to overcome, so I gave up and created a new blog.
I intended to celebrate my passion for unspoilt British pubs, whilst simultaneously writing about my interest in and love of Cretan kafenions, the venerable Kriti coffee houses. These were stoic, unchanging, bastions of tradition who's charm and sadly rapid decline so perfectly mirrored that of the traditional hostelries I loved to get back to when I returned to dear old Yorkshire. (note: the below picture depicts the Seymour Arms, Witham Friary, in, erm, Somerset, but hey you get the idea....)
But things change. Firstly, I find myself writing mainly about pubs in Sheffield and those on my travels in the UK. The very nature of the industry means that, sadly, not all in fact very few, are unspoilt these days. I also write about the charms and foibles of real ale, but that is sidestepped in my original title, and there is no hint of the bottled beer reviews I am testing the water with. Not only that, but I haven't been to Crete for two years, and even when I did in 2009 and 2010, I didn't write up or even photograph a kafenion.
So, as an acknowledgement of the above, from now on this blog will be Wee Beefy's beer and pub blog, reflective of my search for and experiences of beer, in pubs, bars or containers, and the pubs themselves, my first choice place to consume beer in.
I hope you will understand and support me under my new name. Don't forget of course, the URL has not changed, so no need to worry about finding your way back. Here's to the future.
Cheers!
Wee Beefy.
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