Singing Boys Brewing Blog
Beer Sensory Class
by Jim Vondracek on 02/19/12
Two weeks ago, I attended a Beer Sensory Class taught by Marty Nachel. Tasting beer, evaluating it and then talking about that evaluation is something that can be learned and practiced. While this can lead to other classes, more training, beer judge certification, etc., I found it valuable just for enhancing my enjoyment of craft beer. The more you know . . .
Marty is an author, certified cicerone (similar to a wine sommelier), and good beer advocate. You can learn more about his interests and classes at http://www.ale-conner.com/ and http://www.beerexam.com/ Recently, the second edition of his book Beer for Dummies was released.
This is Dominick and Bill, rows of cups in front of them. The pedagogy for the class was to take a neutral beer base, like a typical American light lager, taste it alone, then taste it repeatedly with different innoculations of common or standard flaws or off-flavors. Reptition was key, to try to build sensory memory (like muscle memory in athletics).
Colleen and Tony are puzzling over some of the handouts and materials Marty gave us, to help make sense of the flavors we were perceiving. One of the aspects that makes beer tasting challenging is that we don't all perceive flavors the same way or to the same degree.
In some ways, it was hard work requiring a lot of concentration. We all spent a fair amount of time going back and forth, as Mario is doing above, between what our noses and tongues were telling us and the very helpful resource sheets that Marty gave us. The flavors we focused on were:
- Acetaldehyde - a green apple aroma and flavor, which might be caused by an incomplete or stalled fermentation or contamination
- Diacetyl - artificial butter, butterscotch or toffee, sometimes perceived as a slickness, which might be caused by contamination or be a byproduct of fermentation; if its a product of fermentation, the yeast will 'clean up' after themselves, if given enough time and the proper environment
- DMS - a sweet, canned or creamed corn aroma and flavor, a compound that comes from the barley (particularly pilsen malt) that can be boiled off; also can be caused by too long a time to cool the wort or contamination
- Esters - fruity flavors and aromas, sometimes these are not a flaw, depending upon the style, caused by stressed yeast working in a less than optimal environment
- Oxidized - cardboard, paper, or sherry aromas and flavors, caused by exposure to oxygen post-fermentation
- Sour/Acidic - tartness in aroma and flavor, due to microbial infection or contamination
While it was hard work, we also had fun. By the end, when we had tasted, re-tasted, failed, succeed and failed again to identify the flavors, things got a little silly.
We tasted, we listened to Marty, we discussed (as Scott is doing above), and tasted some more. All for the purpose to trying to develop some flavor memory so that we could identify the six flavor compounds listed above. I found at the end of the evening that I could identify acetaldehyde, oxidation and diacytel pretty well. Even after a couple of hours of work, though, I still struggled with identifying DMS.
This class was for members of a club Nancy and I belong to, the Brewers of South Suburbia (BOSS). Above is a member of the club, Amie, who ended the evening by being able to correctly identify all six flavors. Recently, she's also medaled at a beer competition, and won the club's bbq sauce and chili contests.
Winter, Wind and Wine: Our Excursion on the Lake Michigan Shore Wine Trail
by Jim Vondracek on 01/29/12
We're not quite empty-nesters yet, but with one child away at college and the other at that adorable age where he wants nothing to do with us, we find ourselves with a little bit of space - space to go on dates, out for dinner, or other close-by excursions. On a sunny, cold and blustery winter Saturday, we hopped in the car and drove 1 1/2 hours to southwest Michigan to visit the Lake Michigan Shore Wine Trail.
We stopped first at the Warren Dunes State Park - I took the boys camping and to the beach there a couple of times when they were small, but it is a completely different experience in winter. Stark and wild - the waves smashed into the shore and the wind tore through us. It reminded me of a quote from John Muir: "In God's wildness lies the hope of the world."
Our first stop was lunch at Tabor Hills Winery and Restaurant. It is a beautiful dining room, with a gorgeous view of the rolling vineyards in their winter desolation. It wasn't busy at this time of year; we had reservations but didn't need them. We both enjoyed an unusual Caesar salad with grilled artichokes and their soup du jour, that they called Potato and Ham, but also included bacon, cheddar cheese, and a garlic crouton. Very rich but perfect for a cold winter's day.
At each winery we visited, there is a tasting room with a bar or two and helpful staff ready to assist. Each charges a tasting fee, which usually got you five tastings. At two of the wineries, the fee also included a glass - I love that!
At Tabor Hill, our favorites were their Dry Reisling and a semi-dry white wine called Traminette. I was unfamiliar with the Traminette varietal - throughout our wine trail excursion, I found that the unfamiliar (to me) varietals, those not typically grown in California, were the ones that made the best impression. I suspect it has to do with the vineyard owners growing varietals that work best for this unique grape growing climate and region, rather than trying to imitate what works elsewhere. The Traminette has a Gewurztraminer character to it, but softer and rounder, I thought. A very enjoyable wine to sip on its own or with appetizers.
Next we visited the Round Barn Winery, which is actually a winery, distillery, and brewery. Its round barn is indeed picturesque - the owner bought the barn and shipped it to his vineyard from Indiana. Our favorite wine at Round Barn was a blended dry white wine they call Vineyard Tears. It is an Alsacian style wine, but includes varietals in the blend that you wouldn't find in Alsace - Chardonnay and Pinot Gris. A very enjoyable dinner wine.
We also tried Round Barn's vodka, which is made from grapes. I'd never tasted a grape vodka before, it was very clean and thought maybe I could detect a hint of grape in the aroma. We also enjoyed the beers they make at Round Barn, including their Oak Aged IPA. They grow hops at Round Barn, too, that they use in their beers. They said that they invite homebrewers to come out and pick hops after they have harvested what they will use that year.
A short drive away is Domaine Berrian Cellars. The driveway to the tasting room is through some vineyards. We were surprised to learn that all the wineries we visited use their own, estate-grown grapes or grapes that are grown locally - within 5 miles, according to one of the servers.
Two varietals we tried at Berrian that we enjoyed were the Lemberger, a rich red wine grape from Germany, and the Viognier, a less-common Rhone Valley white wine grape. We also enjoyed their Crown of Cab, a Bordeux-style blend that is aged for two years in oak.
Our server at Berrian told us that in the summer and especially the autumn, the experience is quite different than ours visiting in the winter. The crowds are more massive, the servers are working faster and with less convivial chat. At Berrian, there is an outdoor deck overlooking some vineyards that is popular with visitors, she told us.
Finally, across the road from Berrian, we visited Lemon Creek Winery. In addition to grapes, Lemon Creek grows fruit which is available seasonally - raspberrys, plums, blueberries, peaches, nectarines, apricots, cherries, and apples. During our time in the tasting room, we met three of their dogs - it was charming and a great way to end our tour of the wine trail.
At Lemon Creek, we also enjoyed two new-to-us varietals. One was the Seyval Blanc, which is used in their Northern Lights late harvest wine. The other was a dry German varietal called Kerner, which had a smoky undertone to it and that I imagine will compliment spicy food well.
All and all, it was a lovely getaway for two not-yet-empty-nesters. Not too far for a day trip, we left home at 9:30ish and were back by 4:30 - which seemed to be just the right length of time. There are other wineries, which we'll go back to visit another time - it would have been a waste for us to do more tasting that day, our palettes were done.
Here's a link to a pdf brochure about the trail, which we found helpful. If you have any questions or suggestions, please leave a comment!
Brewery Ommegang: Water Supply In Danger
by Jim Vondracek on 01/15/12
Fracking and Gas Drilling Threaten Brewery's Water
On a blog I subscribe to - Beer Activist - I read an interesting post about Brewery Ommegang, a well-respected New York brewery that makes Belgian style beers. The brewery, in a court brief, is opposing a lawsuit brought by the gas industry against the town of Middlefield. The town bans gas drilling and the lawsuit seeks to overturn the ban.
The brewery is specifically concerned with the practice of hydrofracking: "Its Masterbrewer and Quality Control Chemist agree that even if Brewery Ommegang wished to do so, it could not remove many of the toxic chemicals used in hydrofracking, should they be released into the brewery's water supply."
You can read a news article about this at http://thedailystar.com/localnews/x1267472742/Ommegang-Fracking-may-force-us-to-leave
Beer Activist is an interesting blog. Here's what the author, Chris O'Brien, says about himself:
Beer Activist is the blog of Chris O'Brien, author of Fermenting Revolution: How to Drink Beer and Save the World (New Society Publishers, 2006). The blog is dedicated to my two favorite things: drinking beer and saving the world.
By day, I am the Director of Sustainability at American University. I have also worked as Director of the Responsible Purchasing Network at the Center for a New American Dream, and Managing Director of the Co-op America Business Network and the Fair Trade Federation.
I've traveled much of the world researching local brewing traditions, including the four corners of Africa, and did a short stint as a quasi-professional brewer at the Zululand Brewing Company in Eshowe, South Africa. My beer writing appears in places like American Brewer, Mid-Atlantic Brewing News, Zymurgy and New Brewer.
I am part owner and a board director of Seven Bridges, which is a brick and mortar store in Santa Cruz, CA and an online retailer (www.breworganic.com) of organic brewing supplies, and organic/fair trade home coffee roasting supplies.
I speak at conferences, festivals, beer tastings and other events involving beer, books and saving the world. I’m available to speak at your event. Just email me: beeractivist [at] gmail.com.
Guest Blog: Richard Rossi
by Jim Vondracek on 01/15/12
Lessons Learned By A First Time Home Brewer
When my sister-in-law bought me a home beer making kit for Christmas I was elated. I love to cook and what's not to love about beer, so this was the perfect gift. Little did I realize how much more I would learn than simple beer brewing.
The kit came with all the required tools including fermentors, buckets, a hydrometer, tubing, bottle brush, and a few simple recipes. Ingredients were not included but I'd seen a small beer supply store in town so I figured I was all set.
It takes a lot to get me into a store to buy anything. But then I'd never been in a beer supply store. Remember that feeling you had when you were a kid, the one you got when you visited the local candy store? Tootsie Rolls and licorice sticks were now hops and barley packets and I was in first time beer maker's heaven. Sure, the ingredients were pricey, but I figured I could give some of the beer to clients as gifts, thereby finding a tax write off. Does my tax software include a place for beer supplies on my schedule C? More on that topic later...
After following the recipe with the utmost care and bottled the contents in some expensive Grolsch style flip bottles (after all, this was my first baby), it came time to taste my new home brew. The anticipation was killing me.
Not as much as the undrinkable swill I'd created, however. But I'd followed the recipe to the "T". The temperatures were right. I was so careful. What went wrong? I'd lost the baby and I was distraught. I would never brew again. A few months later I had the good fortune to run into a seasoned beer maker who had been creating great, custom home brews for some time. I relayed the above story to him casually mentioning afterward that the supplier I'd used had gone out of business only a month or two after I'd had my first home brewing mishap. He let out a sigh and I knew then that I'd missed something obvious.
My mistakes were numerous. Firstly, I used city treated water that had been chlorinated and I didn't know to filter the water. But that was insignificant compared to other errors.
It was this fellow's feeling that the hops, yeast, etc. may have been on the store shelf well past it's "good till" age when I'd purchased it.
If you're a beginning beer maker, please note my mistakes. The most important decision you may make is selecting a beer ingredient supplier. Choose a reputable, established company or store with a quick turn-around time. Get recommendations from friends. Fresh ingredients are essential.
Choose a knowledgable supplier. If you don't know anyone who can give you a recommendation, make sure that the vendor you choose takes time with you and answers your questions fully and to your complete satisfaction. If he loves beer brewing he'll be happy to discuss it, thoroughly and at great length. If he doesn't, get out of there asap.
My biggest lesson? Check with your accountant before writing off your beer brewing activities. I gave away several bottles before I'd tried it (big mistake!) and probably lost a client as a result. While that hurt, it wasn't nearly as painful as the tax audit that would soon follow.
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About this guest blogger: Richard Rossi is a blogger, writer,and illustrator from North Carolina circa New Jersey. He writes about his many mistakes in sports and life and can be found here. Don't drink and blog. It just isn't worth it.
Hand Etching a Beer Chalice
by Jim Vondracek on 01/08/12
I tried my hand at etching a beer chalice, using a "Tre Kronor" Swedish theme, which translates to "Three Crowns". Its a national emblem in Sweden and very common there. Nancy's family is Swedish and Danish, we spent six weeks there in 2010, and we enjoy celebrating all things Scandinavian.
The materials needed are a clean glass, glass etching paste (available at Hobby Lobby locally), some rubber-ish etching stencil blanks (also available at Hobby Lobby), a small paint brush, and an exacto knife.
I found a crown design I liked online and printed it out. Then used the exacto knife to cut out the design on the blank stencils, as well as some straight lines and bars. Arranged them on the glass (the blank stencils stick to the glass) and brushed on the etching paste heavily. Let it sit for five minutes and rinsed off with water.
You can see I employed reverse etching - where the design is not etched, but rather the area around the design. The chalices are made by Libbey and I bought a box of four for $10 at Bed, Bath and Beyond.
Back to Garage Brewing - a Winter Solstice Cream Stout
by Jim Vondracek on 01/01/12
With winter upon us, it is back to "Garage Brewing". Brewing can be broken into three parts: 1) brew day (mashing and boiling), 2) fermentation, and 3) packaging (bottling or kegging). Numbers 2 and 3 are done in our basement brewery, but the brew day is another matter. In nice weather, it can be very pleasant to brew outdoors, but at this time of year we need some protection from the elements so it's back to the garage we go. You can see from the picture below that we leave the garage door open, as we are using a propane stove and don't want to die.
On Saturday, we brewed up a batch of Sweet or Cream Stout. Hugh was home on winter break from the university, so he helped. Here he is, sitting by the mash tun, enjoying a cup of Italian roast coffee. And yes, that bicycle in the background is pink. I got it for my wife, but she doesn't want it anymore, so next spring, our friend Celeste will be tooling around Oak Lawn on it. Keep an eye out for her.
I love cream stouts. I like them to be balanced - roastiness offset by sweetness, bitterness offset by maltiness. Our 5.5 gallon batch included 8 lbs of pale malt, 1 lb of wheat malt, 1 lb of caramel malt (60 L), 0.75 lbs of chocolate malt, and 0.5 lbs of roasted barley. Mashed at 158 F, batch sparged, boiled with 0.75 ounces of Bravo leaf hops and 0.5 lbs each of lactose sugars and maltodextrine for 60 minutes. Chilled and added Windsor yeast, which will accentuate the maltiness and sweetness of this stout. Here's a photo of it fermenting away at 60 degrees F in its carboy 24 hours later.
For many, stout is associated with Guinness. But, there is a whole world of stouts out there beyond Guinness, a mass-produced, light bodied black ale that has become synonymous with Irish beer. Here's a brief introduction to stout styles http://beer.about.com/od/sto2/p/LaymansStout.htm
And here's a link to the BJCP style guidelines for Cream Stout http://www.bjcp.org/2008styles/style13.php#1b In the deepest dark days of winter, come on over and share a pint with us!
5 Rabbit Cerveceria, Contract Brewing, and The Beeronaut
by Jim Vondracek on 12/15/11
Chicago is blessed with a great group of local breweries and the number seems to be growing monthly. One of those breweries, 5 Rabbit Cerveceria, presents an interesting case study that I found very informative. The three men who founded 5 Rabbit decided not to open their own brewery right away, but rather to 'contract brew' with an existing brewery, Argus. Both 5 Rabbit and Argus have grown, and 5 Rabbit needs to go in a new direction now, on the path to eventually building their own brewery. That path, though, is not a straight line. It makes for a very interesting story.
The Beeronaut,Mark McDermott (logo and photo above), wrote a really interesting blog about this, including an interview with 5 Rabbit brewmaster, Randy Mosher. It's a worthwhile read, informative and interesting - http://www.chicagonow.com/the-beeronaut/2011/12/5-rabbit-brewmaster-on-changing-their-contract-brewing-partner/
Mark is a member of a club I belong to, B.O.S.S. (Brewers of South Suburbia) and is a great chronicler of all the best beer events that happen in and around Chicago. Take a few moments to poke around his blog - it's fantastic. You can also read Mark at Examiner http://www.examiner.com/craft-beer-in-chicago/mark-mcdermott
5 Rabbit makes Latin American influenced beers. Read more about them on their website here http://5rabbitbrewery.com/ There's a fascinating video here http://www.thebeergoddess.com/blog/item/526-5-rabbit-brewerys-basement-beer from Erin Peters (The Beer Goddess) where the 5 Rabbit founders explain the unusual roots and goals of 5 Rabbit and show you the basement homebrewery that Randy Mosher built and that they use as a laboratory to develop their beers, before sending them to their contracted production brewery.
There is a connection here to my handmade beer making - Randy Mosher (pictured above) wrote a book called Radical Brewing, which is by far my favorite brewing book. I've read many brewing books -after I'm done, I almost always give them to someone else. Not Radical Brewing, I've kept it and refer to it often. I like the way Randy thinks.
What's Goes Into Your Beer?
by Jim Vondracek on 11/20/11
Yesterday, a gray autumnal morning, I brewed up the current iteration of our house Pale Ale. This is an American-style pale ale, a refreshing and hoppy adaptation of the English Pale Ale, made with New World ingredients. I've had some non-brewers ask me about the ingredients that go into beer - I hope this brief article will be helpful to non-brewers or beginning brewers. Lets use the recipe for our American Pale Ale to introduce you to the ingredients that go into your beer.
Water +/- 9 gallons
This might seem obvious, but water is a key ingredient of beer. Historically, some of the flavor profile of regional beers developed because of the unique characteristics of the local water. For example, the waters around Burton-on-Trent in England led substantially to the character of many British ales, including the ESB. The Burton waters contain a high proportion of dissolved salts, due to the gypsum in the surrounding hills.
The water in Oak Lawn comes from Chicago, which tests pretty good for brewing. Some very serious homebrewers start with reverse osmosis water and build it up with mineral additions. Because our water is generally considered good for beer, I only add potassium metabisulfite to drive off the chloramines that are added to the drinking water. Chloramines serve a similar purpose to chlorine and will adversely affect beer.
Malted Grains - 9 lbs Pale Ale, 1 lb Wheat, 1 lb Munich, 0.75 lb Caramel 60L
Malted grains provide the sugars needed to make beer, as well as coloring and flavors. Malted barley is the most common grain in beer - all of the malts used in this recipes are barley except for 1 lb of wheat malt. Malt is germinated grain that has been dried in a 'malting' process. The grains are made to germinate by soaking in water, then the germination process is stopped by drying in hot air. Malting develops the enzymes needed to convert the grain's starches to sugars. Want to know more? Follow this link to the Maltsters Association of Great Britain.
In this recipe, Pale Ale malt is the base malt - it is made from two-row barley. I add a pound of wheat malt because it will help with the formation and retention of the finished beer's head. Munich malt is kilned at a higher temperature than the Pale Ale malt and adds a malty, sweet character to the beer as well as a reddish-amber color. Caramel malt also adds sweetness and color, as well as body and mouthfeel to the finished beer.
All of my grains today except for the Caramel were malted by Gambrinus Malting, which has the distinction of being the smallest malting house in North America. The malthouse originally belonged to the Schlossquell Brewery in Heidelberg, Germany. In 1992, it was dismantled and reassembled in Armstrong, British Colombia, Canada. The malthouse produces approximately 6,200 US tons of malt each year.
For what its worth, I use certified organic malts and hops. Follow this link for a brief summary on why.
Hops - 1/2 oz Bravo (60), 1 oz Ivanhoe (20), 1 oz Centennial (10), 1 oz Cascade (5), 1 oz Cascade (dry hopped)
Hops add bitterness to beer, balancing the malt and sweetness. They also add flavor and aroma. The hops I used for our Pale Ale are all American varieties, which tend to give a brighter, more citrus flavor and aroma than European varieties. The numbers following the hop name indicate how long I boiled the hops.
The Bravo hops were our basic bittering hop - by boiling it for 60 minutes, it will add bittering and not much flavor or aroma to the beer. The Ivanhoe, an older American variety that has recently begun to be cultivated more widely again, was boiled for 20 minutes and is considered a flavoring hop. The Centennial and Cascade are related hops, strongly citrus, and will add to the beer's aroma.
When the beer is finished fermenting, I will add another ounce of our homegrown Cascade hops in a process that is called 'dry hopping'. The Cascade hops will soak in the finished beer for 5-7 days, to add even more fresh hop aroma to the beer.
Yeast - Edinburgh Strain
Yeast turn our grain and hop soup (called wort) into beer. It is a living organism, technically classified as fungi, which eats the sugars in the wort, converting them to alcohol and carbon dioxide. While 'wild' yeasts are all over the place, brewing yeast (saccharomyces cerevisia) is the variety brewers use to make ale.
It is critical to brewing good beer to add or pitch enough viable yeast cells and to be sure that those cells are healthy and vital. Then, its important to give the yeast cells an environment that is well suited for them. For example, I am controling the temperature at which our Pale Ale is fermenting, at around 62 degrees Fahrenheit.
There are many strains of yeast available - I use the Edinburgh (Scottish) strain for many of our beers, including the Pale Ale, because it offers a 'clean' flavor profile if fermented at lower temps and a more estery profile at slightly higher temps, and accentuates malt flavors without suppressing hop flavor and bitterness. I use yeast produce by White Labs and you can take a look at all the strains available from White Labs by following this link.
That's it - the basic ingredients that go into making beer. Many ingredients may be used in beer recipes, but using our Pale Ale as a model gives you a good introduction to what goes into the beer in your glass. Cheers, Salud and Skal!
Easy-Peasy Labels for Homebrewers at Labeley.com
by Jim Vondracek on 11/12/11
A few weeks ago, Ana from www.labeley.com asked if I would try their label-making site for homebrewers and write a review. Below is my first attempt, on my first visit to the site, which took me less than ten minutes. Its not a stunning piece of art, but it looks fine and was exceptionally easy to make.
Now, having used the program once, I'm certain I could make this same label in less than three minutes.
You'll notice its not a Singing Boys Brewing label - I made this label for a collaborative brew we did in September. I wrote about that here. Its an amber ale and ready to drink now.
Labeley.com is a very easy to use program, nothing to download onto your computer (except the finished label) and a great resource for those who don't use Photoshop or Gimp. Even for those of us who do muddle through Photoshop, its an interesting alternative, because of how fast and simple it is to use.
Labeley comes with lots of option, templates, and graphic elements that you can use for your labels.
One thing that especially interests me about the program is the capacity to upload your own images. That makes its very customizable - for example, a brewer could create their own logo in photoshop, save it as a jpeg, and then use it in a series of labels made on Labeley.
There's a nice gallery of labels that have already been made, to give you some inspiration. For the homebrewer who doesn't want to spend tons of time creating labels, www.labeley.com is a very helpful tool.
George Orwell Writes About Pubs
by Jim Vondracek on 10/24/11
The Moon Under Water
by George Orwell
Evening Standard, 9 February 1946
My favourite public-house, the Moon Under Water, is only two minutes from a bus stop, but it is on a side-street, and drunks and rowdies never seem to find their way there, even on Saturday nights.
Its clientele, though fairly large, consists mostly of "regulars" who occupy the same chair every evening and go there for conversation as much as for the beer.
If you are asked why you favour a particular public-house, it would seem natural to put the beer first, but the thing that most appeals to me about the Moon Under Water is what people call its "atmosphere."
To begin with, its whole architecture and fittings are uncompromisingly Victorian. It has no glass-topped tables or other modern miseries, and, on the other hand, no sham roof-beams, ingle-nooks or plastic panels masquerading as oak. The grained woodwork, the ornamental mirrors behind the bar, the cast-iron fireplaces, the florid ceiling stained dark yellow by tobacco-smoke, the stuffed bull's head over the mantelpiece - everything has the solid, comfortable ugliness of the nineteenth century.
In winter there is generally a good fire burning in at least two of the bars, and the Victorian lay-out of the place gives one plenty of elbow-room. There are a public bar, a saloon bar, a ladies' bar, a bottle-and-jug for those who are too bashful to buy their supper beer publicly, and, upstairs, a dining-room.
Games are only played in the public, so that in the other bars you can walk about without constantly ducking to avoid flying darts.
In the Moon Under Water it is always quiet enough to talk. The house possesses neither a radio nor a piano, and even on Christmas Eve and such occasions the singing that happens is of a decorous kind.
The barmaids know most of their customers by name, and take a personal interest in everyone. They are all middle-aged women - two of them have their hair dyed in quite surprising shades - and they call everyone "dear," irrespective of age or sex. ("Dear," not "Ducky": pubs where the barmaid calls you "ducky" always have a disagreeable raffish atmosphere.)
Unlike most pubs, the Moon Under Water sells tobacco as well as cigarettes, and it also sells aspirins and stamps, and is obliging about letting you use the telephone.
You cannot get dinner at the Moon Under Water, but there is always the snack counter where you can get liver-sausage sandwiches, mussels (a speciality of the house), cheese, pickles and those large biscuits with caraway seeds in them which only seem to exist in public-houses.
Upstairs, six days a week, you can get a good, solid lunch - for example, a cut off the joint, two vegetables and boiled jam roll - for about three shillings.
The special pleasure of this lunch is that you can have draught stout with it. I doubt whether as many as 10 per cent of London pubs serve draught stout, but the Moon Under Water is one of them. It is a soft, creamy sort of stout, and it goes better in a pewter pot.
They are particular about their drinking vessels at the Moon Under Water, and never, for example, make the mistake of serving a pint of beer in a handleless glass. Apart from glass and pewter mugs, they have some of those pleasant strawberry-pink china ones which are now seldom seen in London. China mugs went out about 30 years ago, because most people like their drink to be transparent, but in my opinion beer tastes better out of china.
The great surprise of the Moon Under Water is its garden. You go through a narrow passage leading out of the saloon, and find yourself in a fairly large garden with plane trees, under which there are little green tables with iron chairs round them. Up at one end of the garden there are swings and a chute for the children.
On summer evenings there are family parties, and you sit under the plane trees having beer or draught cider to the tune of delighted squeals from children going down the chute. The prams with the younger children are parked near the gate.
Many as are the virtues of the Moon Under Water, I think that the garden is its best feature, because it allows whole families to go there instead of Mum having to stay at home and mind the baby while Dad goes out alone.
And though, strictly speaking, they are only allowed in the garden, the children tend to seep into the pub and even to fetch drinks for their parents. This, I believe, is against the law, but it is a law that deserves to be broken, for it is the puritanical nonsense of excluding children - and therefore, to some extent, women - from pubs that has turned these places into mere boozing-shops instead of the family gathering-places that they ought to be.
The Moon Under Water is my ideal of what a pub should be - at any rate, in the London area. (The qualities one expects of a country pub are slightly different.)
But now is the time to reveal something which the discerning and disillusioned reader will probably have guessed already. There is no such place as the Moon Under Water.
That is to say, there may well be a pub of that name, but I don't know of it, nor do I know any pub with just that combination of qualities.
I know pubs where the beer is good but you can't get meals, others where you can get meals but which are noisy and crowded, and others which are quiet but where the beer is generally sour. As for gardens, offhand I can only think of three London pubs that possess them.
But, to be fair, I do know of a few pubs that almost come up to the Moon Under Water. I have mentioned above ten qualities that the perfect pub should have and I know one pub that has eight of them. Even there, however, there is no draught stout, and no china mugs.
And if anyone knows of a pub that has draught stout, open fires, cheap meals, a garden, motherly barmaids and no radio, I should be glad to hear of it, even though its name were something as prosaic as the Red Lion or the Railway Arms.
