My daunting date at the Drifty

To state the obvious, pubs need customers to survive. It’s not enough to open the doors and hope people will pack the bar. Publicans need strong magnets these days to draw drinkers in.

I’m just back from an exhilarating beer event at a pub in Cornwall, the Driftwood Spars at Trevaunance Cove. It’s in a stunning location, with the Atlantic Ocean pounding on the rock-strewn beach a few yards away. The place is busy in the summer but the ‘Drifty’, an old miners’, fishermen’s and smugglers’ inn, needs trade all year round.

Owner Louise Treseder faces stiff competition for business. Trevaunance Cove is part of the town of St Agnes, which has several other pubs, hotels and restaurants. So the Drifty has to stand out from the crowd. Treseder runs live music, food and beer events and is aided by the fact that the pub has its own microbrewery that produces a range of house beers, including Lou’s Brew and Alfie’s Revenge.

In January 2012, Treseder had booked me for a beer tasting and talk, not knowing that in that very week she and her brewer, Peter Martin, would win the Champion Winter Beer Of Britain award from CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale). It gave the event traction, to use the modern jargon, and I was invited back this month for a repeat event.

Repeat with a difference. Treseder wanted to ring the changes and make this a special evening with special beers. When I arrived at the pub, I was confronted by a range of Cornish beers that were new to me and in some cases had been specially brewed for the occasion.

Daunting experience​
This was a daunting experience, as I’d never heard of, let alone tasted, some of the beers. Luckily, help was at hand as several of the brewers were present and able to talk about how they’d brewed their beers and the surprising and unusual ingredients that had gone into some.

Dark Collaboration is a 5% ABV porter that was the result of Peter Martin working with Roger Ryman, his opposite number at Cornwall’s family-owned St Austell Brewery. The beer was brewed with conventional chocolate and crystal malts to give it colour and flavour but there was an unmistakable smoky/woody note on the aroma and palate.

This was achieved by using malt from Bamberg in northern Bavaria, a town famous for its smoked beers. The smoky character is the result of curing and gently roasting malt over fires fuelled by beechwood logs. The result was a beer that was both ancient and modern, as it’s thought the first porters brewed in the early 18th century would have had a similar smoky character as brown malts were cured over wood fires.

The Rebel Brewery from Penryn, Cornwall, produced Whisky Brew, which had a pale gold colour and an aroma so rich in peat and iodine I thought I was drinking Laphroaig malt whisky. Unlike a number of brewers who age beer in whisky casks, the 7.5% ABV beer’s whisky notes were the result of using peated malt bought from Scotland. Honey was added to boost flavour and the beer was finally filtered through oak chips. The end result was another beer with a smoky character and luscious honey notes.

Stuart Howe, at Sharp’s Brewery in Rock, Cornwall, is an innovative brewer with a passion for Belgian beer. His Connoisseurs range includes several that make a deep bow in the direction of the Low Countries, and his 7.5% ABV Dubbel Coffee was no exception.

The beer is brewed with pale, caramalt and crystal malts, some roasted grain and Northern Brewer hops, the brew finally marinated over freshly-ground Fazenda Das Almas coffee beans and dry hopped with Centennial. For an authentic rich Belgian note, the yeast culture comes from Abbaye Rochefort, one of the six Trappist monasteries in Belgium that still make beer.

For those who prefer a simpler beer we had Lamorna Gold from Penzance Brewing Co. The brewer described his 6% ABV beer as “golden, crisp and refreshing”. And, we all agreed, it had a powerful aroma of elderflowers, the result of hops, malts and fermentation. The evening, interspersed with Cornish folk songs from the St Agnes Singers and generous servings of pasties, proved beer is a wonderfully complex and fascinating beverage.

That was the Friday and Treseder hadn’t finished. The following night she’d arranged a talk by Jean-Marie Rock, brewer at another Belgian Trappist brewery, Orval. Rock’s trip had been fixed by Stuart Howe: the Rock brewery welcomes Monsieur Rock, a nice touch.

And after Rock’s talk, Treseder had arranged a satellite link with Ken Grossman, founder of Sierra Nevada Brewing Co in California, to discuss his beers and answer questions.

The weekend was a remarkable success and proved that beer, chat, live music and good pub grub can still pack ’em in.