London Beer A-Z: A is for…

January 25, 2012 by Paul Morris

I’ve been suffering from a lack of motivation lately (can’t I just drink the beer and not write about it?!). It’d probably help if I was better at thinking of appropriate subjects to write about, so I’m going to start a “London Beer A-Z”, which should take me through the year. At least in between posting the monthly events guides and pontificating about pubs, bars, beer festivals and pub crawls I’m far too fond of.

A is for… Avoiding Sport

Now I’m not death to sports in pubs, in fact I quite like watching the rugby when it’s on, but it can be a bit too much when all you want is good conversation with friends and then suddenly it’s drowned out by noise determined by whichever team just scored/missed/uttered racial epithets to other players. On top of that I’ve been in decent pubs and then had dickheads in football shirts take the piss or get aggressive towards me for no reason with the bar staff say nothing. Those big “Sky Sports Shown Here” banners may as well read “Antisocial Personality Disorders Anonymous”. So a friend asked me a few weeks ago about “pubs that don’t show sport” and it got me thinking that I need to draw up a list for my own benefit, and here it is.

Consider this post an antidote to matchpint.com, and consider it a work in progress – there are loads of good pubs that serve good beer that don’t do sport. I must know of plenty more than what’s below but when you try to think of all the good pubs in London your brain freezes. If you’ve got suggestions of places that do great beer and offer a sport-free environment then please let me know in the comments or just ping me on Twitter. And if there’s demand then who knows, maybe I’ll turn it round and “S” can be for “Sport”.

 

Central

The Rake, 14 Winchester Walk, Borough Market, SE1 9AG

Cask, 6 Charlwood Street, Pimlico, SW1V 2EE

Craft, 82 Leather Lane, Farringdon, EC1N 7TR

Ye Olde Mitre – 1 Ely Court, Farringdon, E1CN 6SJ (closed weekends)

Old Fountain – 3 Baldwin St, EC1V 9NU (near Old Street, closed weekends)

The Lamb – 94 Lambs Conduit Street, Holborn, WC1N 3LZ

The Harp, 47 Chandos Place, near Covent Garden, WC2N 4HS

Ship & Shovell – 2-3 Craven Passage (off the Strand), WC2N 5PH – A “Badger” brewery pub that’s partioned in two. The smaller partition is the one that doesn’t show sport and the one I think is more pleasant anyway

 

North

BrewDog Camden, 113 Bayham Street, Camden Town, NW10AG

The Bull, 13 North Hill, Highgate, London, N6 4AB

Prince of Wales, 53 Highgate High Street, Highgate, N6 5JX

Jolly Butchers, 204 Stoke Newington High Street, N16 7HU

Southampton Arms, 139 Highgate Road, Kentish Town, NW5 1LE

Holly Bush, 22 Holly Mount, Hampstead, NW3 6SG

 

East

Mason & Taylor, 51-55 Bethnal Green Rd, E1 6LA (near Shoreditch High Street station)

Palm Tree, 127 Grove Road, E3 5RP – a bit like stepping into a London version of Life On Mars

Pembury Tavern, 90 Amhurst Road, E8 1HJ (near Hackney Central/Downs stations)

Dove, 24-28 Broadway Market E8 4QJ

Tap East, Westfield Stratford City, E20 1EE – it’s going to be a ball ache during the Olympics though

 

South – South West London is by mine (and Tom’s) recollection heavily sport-fixated

Old Brewery, Royal Naval College, Greenwich, SE10 9LW

Greenwich Union, 56 Royal Hill, Greenwich, SE10 8RT

New Cross House, 316 New Cross Road, New Cross, SE14 6AF

White Horse, 1-3 Parson’s Green, SW6 4UL – big exception here, it shows sports downstairs and it gets rammed with rude Chelsea fans when they play at home. The key is to go upstairs which has a Diagon Alley thing going on because no one seems to notice it exists so it’s nearly always quiet. Getting table service will help with getting served quicker but may require you buying food (which you won’t regret)

The Alexandra, 33 Wimbledon Hill Road, Wimbledon, SW19 7NE – shows sport in the front bar but the rear bar/restaurant area is sport-free

White Hart, The Terrace, Riverside, Barnes, SW13 0NR - sport is shown out of the way upstairs so you can stay by the bar or enjoy the riverside view on the terrace.

 

West  

The Antelope, 22 Eaton Terrace, Kensington, SW1W 8EZ

The Queen’s Arms, 30 Queens Gate Mews, Kensington, SW7 5QL

The Champion, 1 Wellington Terrace, Kensington, W2 4LW

Duke of Sussex, 75 South Parade, Acton Green,  W4 5LF

Devonshire Arms, 126 Devonshire Road, Chiswick, W4 2JJ

Red Lion, 13 St Mary’s Road, Ealing, W5 5RA

 

February’s events guide should follow either Friday or Monday, and then later next week we have “B”, which is totally going to write itself – B is for Beer Festivals.

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London Beer Events – January 2012

January 1, 2012 by Paul Morris

You’d think I’d have noticed if this blog was offline for two weeks but… erm.. apparently not.

Anyway, 2011 was a great year for London beer. Craft, Tap East and BrewDog Camden opened up and several new London breweries came to prominance, not to mention the exciting new beers that came out from Kernel, Camden Town and Redemption. If that’s anything to go by we’re all going to be very spoilt in 2012.

As ever let me know if I’ve missed anything or you know of any late editions…

…such as some Burns Night events….

Update 2: Or these:

Friday 27th
IPA Festival – Euston Tap (Euston Station)
The Euston Tap is having an IPA festival as a sending off for both their manager Tony, and their cellar manager. A sad reason for a beer festival but given their good taste in IPAs it’s a good place to start pay day weekend.

Thursday 26th – Sunday 29th
New World Ale Festival – The Duke of Wellington (Balls Pond Road, N1 4BL)
Celebrating new world hops and ales with a new world-style. I’m a fan of The Duke of Wellington. It’s got the charm of a (polished-up) old fashioned boozer but with modern food and a good rotating choice of beer. A nice pub for taking your time with beers, eating a great two (or one) course lunch and having a natter with friends.

Wednesday 25th
Burn’s Night Dinner – The Draft House (Tower Bridge, SE1 2UP)
Four courses with matching whisky from Bowmore/Glen Garioch and revolutionary new beers from Harviestoun (one of my favourite British breweries). If only I didn’t have a whisky-aversion…
Booking page

Friday 20th – Sunday 19th
Scottish Ale Week – The White Horse (Parson’s Green, SW6 4UL)
Wednesday 25th
Burn’s Night Dinner – The White Horse (Parson’s Green, SW6 4UL)
Not much up on their website apart from that they’ll be showcasing Scottish beers over their (extended) Scottish ale week, and that their Burn’s Night dinner will feature beer matching. They had a BrewDog beer and food matching at a previous Burn’s Night and I was really annoyed I missed out as it got rave reviews. I’m going to keep an eye on their website and their Twitter feed for more details. I’m not going to miss out again.
Website

Keep an eye on BrewDog Camden’s twitter feed as it’s inevitable they’ll be doing something special too.

Monday 9th – 19:30-22:30
Beer School – The Bull (Highgate, N6 4AB)
Last month The Bull’s beer school featured Christmas ales. This time it’s low and non-alcohol beers. Such a concept is lost on me but it should definitely be educational.
Facebook event page

Friday 13th – Sunday 15th
Brodie’s West End Beer Festival – The Old Coffee House, (Soho, W1F 9SF)
One of those rare moments that the West End gets a beer festival - 12 Brodie’s beers will be available, with 6 new beers in collaboration with Kernel, Redemption, Brew Wharf, Windsor & Eton, and others. Festival beers £2.99 a pint. This East London brewery might not be as big as Fuller’s or be held in as high esteem as Kernel but in my opinion the beers brewed there over the last couple of years have been consistently good and they’ve done some really great, imaginative brews (Elizabethan, anyone?). And if you can’t make it to the Old Coffee House for this then Brodie’s brewery tap in Leyton, the King William IV, usually has a large range of their beers on tap, and for a couple of quid a pint too.

Wednesday 18th – starting 6pm
Quality SE1 Pub Crawl – Various pubs around London Bridge – route yet to be announced
The rather inspiring theme for QSE1PC this month is “retox”. If you haven’t heard of QSE1PC before then check out my blog post about QSE1PCs past. No idea yet if there’ll be any Meet The Brewer events along the way but it’s always been brilliant fun even without those. As always you don’t need to turn up dead on 6pm, you can join the group at any of point along the way. “Like” the link below to get the details of the next crawl as soon as it’s posted.
QSE1PC Facebook page

Wednesday 18th – 19:00 – 23:00
Camden Town Brewery (Meet The Brewer) – The Draft House (Tower Bridge, SE1 2UP)
A bit gutting that this Meet The Brewer/food and beer matching is the same evening as QSE1PC as I’d really like to have gone to this but seeing as The Draft House is on the route I’m hoping there might be a tiny Meet The Brewer/Q&A for QSE1PCers. If not then fingers crossed there’ll be some treats waiting for us when we get there, or least plenty of Camden Town’s beers on tap. But if pub crawls aren’t your thing and you love great beer and amazing food then book for this.
Booking page

Tuesday 24th – 19:00 – 22:00
Extreme Grape vs Grain- The Draft House (Tower Bridge, SE1 2UP)
Higher ABV wines vs higher AVB beers. This time it’s the wines and beers of England. Ticket price (£35) includes four beers, four wines and a light meal.
Booking page

Thursday 26th – Saturday 28th
ʺHave we got beers for youʺ festival – The Hope (Carshalton, SM5 2PR)
Offering “fine examples of all British styles of beer”, The Hope has frequently held some enjoyable beer festivals I’ve attended in the past. On top of that they’re chattier on Twitter these days, and their overall beer range has shown a big improvement – they’ve gone from “old man ales” to more adventurous and interesting cask choices, as well as keg beers from Magic Rock and others. It might be out of the way for some people but it’s worth a visit, and the Young’s pub down the road does a cracking lunch too.

Categories: Upcoming Events • 1 Comment »

London Beer Events – December 2011

December 2, 2011 by Paul Morris

Hello from Bristol! Owing to a trip up north to Leeds and York last weekend (blog post to follow) and QSE1PC-ing this week I’ve not had the chance to write up this month’s beer events in London, and I’ve written it on the hop. As I was collating the events on the train here I figured it’d be a quiet month for beery goodness in London in December but thanks to new kids on the block The Bull and Craft, and some old favourites there’s quite a bit to keep you going until the New Year, and there looks to be plenty going on in January.

As ever, let me know either as a comment here or on Twitter if I’ve missed anything.

28th November – Sunday 18th December
The Moon Under Water’s Christmas Ale Festival – The Moon Under Water (28 Leicester Square)
I’m not entirely sure who in their right mind would want to go to a bar on Leicester Square over the Christmas period but Wetherspoons seem to think that holding a beer festival at one will encourage you to go. I’m assuming it’s just going to be a rotation of what Wetherspoons is calling their Christmas range, and as that itself was advertised further along in the CAMRA publication I got this from I’d say just go to your local ‘spoons if you want to try them.

Thursday 1st – Sunday 4th
The Gunmaker’s Winter Beer Festival – The Gunmakers (13 Eyre Street Hill, Clerkenwell, EC1R 5ET)
13 cask ales at one of my favourite Clerkenwell pubs. It’s not normally open on weekends and if you pop along on Sunday you can have The Gunmaker’s first Sunday roast. And if you go then you definitely have to try the Windsor & Eton brewery Conqueror 1075. Commonly described as “turbo-Conqueror” this is the stronger version of their now (thankfully) wide available Conqueror black IPA.
Website

Monday 5th
Magic Rock/Dark Star Collaborative Beer Launch – The Cask (Charlwood St, Pimlico, SW1V 6EE)
This has already done the rounds in the north with a launch at The Grove in Huddersfield and I believe in Dark Star’s native Brighton, it comes to London on the 5th with a Meet The Brewer(s) at The Cask. I’m probably going to use it as a tenuous excuse to meet up with friends for pre-pre-Christmas drinks, and I encourage others to do the same.
Website

Tuesday 6th – Saturday 10th
Pig’s Ear Beer Festival (CAMRA run) – The Round Chapel (Powerscroft Road, Hackney, E5 0PU)
Back at the Round Chapel for the second year running. This year the festival has 200+ beers, with foreign beers and a cider bar. It’s £4 entry (£2 for CAMRA members). Last year this was going on during the Big Freeze and the large space of the Round Chapel (an interesting, and indeed round church) meant that it was fucking freezing. The forecast for next week isn’t going to be as dire but I encourage you wrap up warming – there’s bugger all heating inside so this is well recommended for that authentic Dickensian Christmas experience. Ten minute walk from either Hackney Central or Hackney Downs stations.
Website (I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry)*

Tuesday 12th
Beer School: Christmas Ales – The Bull (Highgate, N6 4AB)
A tutored tasting of British Christmas beers and ales. Tickets £15 – could make a good early Christmas present for someone.
Website

Wednesday 13th – 6pm
Camden Town Brewery beer launch – Craft (82 Leather Lane, Farringdon, EC1N 7TR)
This is the launch of the Gentleman’s Wit and the Bleeding Heart IPA. Two one-off brews Camden are showing at Craft on the 13th. They seem to be experimenting an awful lot lately and I hope they find a suitable replacement for the incredibly moreish Inner City Green which they’ve apparently stopped brewing *sadface*. Hopefully they’ll have some of their other beers on cask/keg too.

Tuesday 13th – 7:30pm
London Brewing Co/Steel City Brewing Collaborative Beer Launch – The Bull (Highgate, N6 4AB)
The launch of the collaborative beer with Sheffield’s own Steel City, who are an up-and-coming brewery whose beers need to make it down south more often (they’re really good. Get them where you find them). The Bull’s own Christmas ale is also being launched. Their pumpkin, cardamom and black pepper beer for Hallowe’en was outstanding.
Website

Thursday 15th – Monday 19th
The Bar Gants Hill Christmas Beer Festival – The Bar (Gants Hill, IG2 6JX)
Not many details on this in the CAMRA publication I got it from, but I keep meaning to check The Bar out as they commonly make these pages. Maybe this time? Maybe see you there?

Thursday 23rd – 5pm to midnight
Mighty Oak Christmas Ale Night – Leyton Orient Supporter’s Club (Matchroom Stadium, E10 5NF)
Might Oak’s “many” (really?) Christmas beers will be available. Free entry and a free mince pie. Might be nice for a winter warmer if you’re in the area.

*My local CAMRA branch should be brought before the Hague for crimes against web design.

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Quality SE1 Pub Crawl

November 29, 2011 by Paul Morris

Quality SE1 Pub Crawl
Next one: Christmas Extravaganza – Wednesday 30th November – starts 6pm (but can join any time later) 

Quality SE1 Pub Crawl, or QSE1PC (for those in the know) has been going since the summer, and I’m as surprised as anyone that I haven’t blogged about it before now.

The format started off relatively simple – you meet the group at the Market Porter and move on to four or five other pubs around London Bridge. If you’re into good beer then you’ve likely done something similar off your own back seeing as the area around Borough Market is a destination for beer lovers. Tom and I commonly start Saturdays with a mooch around Borough Market before a few halves in The Rake, or have Sunday lunch at the Dean Swift or the Draft House and head westwards for more as there’s no shortage of pubs and bars with good beer in SE1. In fact that’s a problem – if you’re only getting into beer or not familiar with the area you might not know where to start, and QSE1PC is a great way of meeting fellow (good) beer lovers and choosing the best of the best beer pubs in SE1.

The format and the organisation has changed recently, and whilst it’s always been really good it’s got even better. Jo from Platform has made a huge effort with this, along with Charlie from the Draft House and recent QSE1PCs have had Meet The Brewers along the way, so now it’s fun and informative. And if you’re a beer geek then you can have fanboy moments when you meet brewers from some awesome London breweries. Past QSE1PCs have seen brewers from Kernel, Innis & Gunn, Meantime, Sambrooks, Camden Town and Redchurch showcase their beers and make themselves available for questions along the way. On top of that Platform usually puts on a good range of bar snacks, and on that note I just want to say how much I love their food. I was a bit dismissive of Platform after the first QSE1PC but their quality bottled beer range has really grown since then and I’ve fallen in love with their food as well. In fact it’s a great place to eat before QSE1PC* or for Saturday lunch if you need to steel yourself for shopping at Borough Market (I speak from experience).

That said it’s not always been with hiccups. We’ve had a couple of disappointing venues – at one point Brew Wharf was totally rammed and didn’t have any decent beers on but that was remedied by spending more time at The Rake, which is always preferable. And when we stopped at The Woolpack they just had Bombardier and Young’s Bitter. Not only that but the Young’s Bitter was off, which was really poor form. I complained about it on Twitter and was unceremoniously unfollowed by The Woolpack Twitter account. A lesson in pisspoor customer service there but as there’s not a shortage of alternatives in SE1 I won’t miss it.

This time the route starts at 6pm at The Royal Oak near Borough station, which is a proper old fashioned Harveys boozer and an amazing Sunday lunch venue. Past QSE1PC experience indicates everyone will be there until 7pm or so, so there’s no need to rush to get there for 6pm, and you can always join us elsewhere on the way later on- just tweet with the #QSE1PC hashtag and someone will let you the plan. Second on the route is Simon The Tanner, which is a relatively new one for me but they’ve got a good range of beers on – both cask and bottled – and the food looked good when we saw people eating at the last QSE1PC. And the Redemption brewery will be there! And for an added bonus their beers will be £2 a pint for QSE1PCers. After that it’s on to QSE1PC stalwart the Draft House, and thence to Platform. It should be a very good night indeed, and if you can’t make it to this one no doubt there’ll be plenty in the New Year.

*you’ll need it. Otherwise the hangover the next day will be merciless. I know this from experience. Strategic rehydrating with bottled water throughout the night is also recommended. Of course you could take it easy, but with the beers on offer you’ll find it a chore, trust me.

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Marco Pierre White’s Steak and Alehouse

November 17, 2011 by Paul Morris

Last night I visited Marco Pierre White’s Steak and Alehouse near Spitalfields Market along with a couple of co-workers. Having reconnoitered the website beforehand I had high hopes for the food but was a bit worried about the beer. There was a wine list and a cocktail list but no mention of beer anywhere. But it’s an alehouse and Marco Pierre White has his own cask ale brand, so it’ll be all right on the night, right?

Alas, no. It was self evident what kind of place it was going to be as soon as you step in. I was sort of expecting high-end restaurant meets gastropub but it was certainly the former and none of the latter. As we were given menus beer was relegated to a tiny section at the top of the food menu – of course wine and cocktails still got their own menus. You could buy a priceless London Pride, Bombardier, Spitfire or Pedigree. And the only dark beer represented was Guinness. Given the lack of handpumps or draught taps it was clearly going to be bottles only. A quick scan around the room and it was readily apparent that everyone else was drinking wine. I was tempted to test their knowledge by feigning ignorance and ask the server which beer would have gone best with which dish but I suspected I’d just get blank stares and embarrassed excuses so we went for Black Sheep, which was the best of the bottled offerings (and showing a bit of northern solidarity).

That said the food redeemed all (well, almost). We went for the set menu. The guys went for steak and as I felt like being different I went for smoked haddock and colcannon. As a starter I had kipper pâté and melba toast and considering both courses were £12.50 courtesy of a lastminute.com offer it was fantastically good value – good portions and delicious. Of course with these things it’s the drinks that sting you. Whilst you may pay about £1.70 for these beers in a supermarket here they were £5.95. Not completely unexpected, and I would have expected a similar mark-up on the wine but, hey.

I suppose that as it’s very wine-led establishment they don’t feel the need to make an effort with beer but I think that if they’re going to call the place an “alehouse” they need to up their game a bit. Seeing as Michelin starred restaurant Chez Bruce in Wandsworth has beers from the Kernel Brewery it’s not as if it’s going to be a great effort for MPW’s Steak and Alehouse to diverge from what they can get in their local Tesco (and hey, maybe that’s where they get them from. There’s one round the corner, after all). Perhaps they should look at Hawksmoor for inspiration, as even their website mentions they offer Meantime and Kernel beers.

So whether it’s a misguided concept or whether they just can’t be arsed I wouldn’t rely on the beer offerings there. But the quality of the food has persuaded me to make a return visit. Just don’t expect me to deviate from the wine.

Categories: Beer & Food!, Restaurants • 4 Comments »

London’s Beer Events – November 2011

October 26, 2011 by Paul Morris

Hopefully by the time you’re reading this the Wandsworth Hallowe’en beer festival is still going on, and Hallowe’en weekend itself, one of the best times of the year for beer festivals is fast approaching. In which case you might want to check out my post covering October’s events. Otherwise there’s still plenty to look forward to in November. Try and get your fill of beer festivals by the end of November though, as with the exception of east London’s Pig’s Ear festival December and January are like a beer lover’s lent for events in London.

If anyone knows of anything going on that’s not here let me know via the comments or Twitter and I’ll update the page. Likewise if any pubs or bars announce anything new in the meantime I’ll update it below.

Events announced after this article was posted:

Monday 7th November
American Beer and Food Matching – The Old Brewery (Old Naval College, Greenwich)
Details of this and upcoming food and beer matchings here, and full menu here. £50pp, which is steep but when you look at the beers that go with it and the quality of the food it definitely looks worth it if you’ve got it to spend.

Thursday 3rd to Sunday 6th
Egham Beer Festival (CAMRA) –  Egham United Services Club (Egham, Surrey, TW20 9PE)
I regret not including this first time round because I’ve just seen the beer list and it’s got more than a few beers I’d like to try from new London breweries such as Moncada in West London, Botanist in Kew, as well as the London Brewer’s Alliance IPA and Camden’s Showboat. (yes, strictly not London but it may be do-able for some. Unfortunately there are engineering works going on so it’s not easy for me to get there but you might have more luck)
Website 

Tuesday 29th November
Extreme Grape vs Grain- Draft House (Tower Bridge, SE1 2UP)
High ABV wine vs high AVB beers. This is the first in a series from Charlie McVeigh, founder of the Draft House chain and The Wine Chap Tom Harrow. First up is four West Coast US wines vs four West Coast US beers. Tickets are available here for £35, which includes a light dinner. “Vitally, each session will also include poetry (haiku or limerick) and arm-wrestling competition with drinkable prizes.” Sounds like the perfect remedy against the drawing in of the nights.

Thursday 3rd – Friday 4th
Winter Real Ale Festival –  Leyton Orient Supporters Club (Leyton, E10 5NF)
30 winter ales, ciders and perries. Membership to the club not required.

Friday 4th – Saturday 5th
Norwegian Beer Festival -  The Cask (Pimlico, SW1V 6EE)
Showcasing Norwegian beers by outstanding Nordic breweries such as Nøgne, haandbryggeriet and Ægir. I’m a big fan of Nøgne so I’m really looking forward to this.

Wednesday 9th – 4pm
Tapping Party – Tap East (Great Eastern Market, Westfield Stratford City)
Brand new east London brew pub is celebrating the tapping of their very first beer. No idea if the party starts at 4pm or whether that’s when the tapping is but you can always turn up later in the evening. You won’t be short of great beers to try.

Thursday 10th – Sunday 13th
The North Star Beer Festival – The North Star (Leytonstone,  E11 3AR)
20 local and national ales. I’ve not been to this pub before but it’s got a lot of fans over at Beer In The Evening so I might pay it a visit during this festival.

Thursday 17th – Saturday 19th
Watford Beer Festival (CAMRA) –  West Herts Sports Club (Park Avenue, WD18 7HP)
Over 80 beers, perries and ciders. £2.50 admission, free with a CAMRA card. 10 minute walk from Watford station.
Website 

Tuesday 22nd – Saturday 26th
Rochford Beer Festival (CAMRA) –  Freight House (Rochford, SS4 1BU)
Yes, not in London but right next to Rochford station with plenty of trains to/from Central London until after the festival closes. With 210 ales, ciders and perries and a rather good foreign beer bar we generally make a Friday pilgrimage there every year.
Website 

Wednesday 23rd – 27th
Winter Beer Festival – Pembury Tavern (Hackney, E8 1JH)
If anything like previous festivals then they’ll have about 45 beers on. No more details present yet.
Website

Friday 25th – Tuesday 29th
Old Ale Festival – White Horse (Parson’s Green, SW6 4UL)
60 beers showcasing historic styles such as barley wine, milds, stouts, porters, old ales, strong ales and winter warmers. I always miss the White Horse’s Old Ale festival, and this year is no exception, I’ve banished myself to Leeds that weekend to visit family. Arse. Still, I can always call in on the Tuesday and see what’s left.
Website

Friday 25th – Saturday 26th
Heathrow Beer Festival (CAMRA) – Concorde Club (Crane Lodge Road, TW5 9PQ)
Over 35 real ales, ciders and perries. I won’t lie to you, this one has never appealed because it’s in the arse end of nowhere, at least with regards to public transport. Go to the White Horse instead and make me jealous. Or maybe Craft.
Website

Wednesday 30th - starting 6pm (but free to join later/along the route)
Quality SE1 Pub Crawl – Various pubs around London Bridge
It’s the Christmas special! The next blog post here will be a review of QSE1PC shenanigans past so if you haven’t been to one before then call back early next week and read what you’re missing. No doubt this one will stay in the same format as the last two with Meet The Brewers at various pubs along the route but even if that’s not the case it’ll still be brilliant fun and you should come anyway.
Facebook page

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Can an English vineyard brew a good beer?

October 24, 2011 by Paul Morris

I’ve seen a vineyard in Kent that makes cider, and a vineyard in Surrey that lets a brewery on-site, but I’ve not seen an English wine producer try their hand at beer before…

Last week three new beers under the brand “Curious” appeared in my local Waitrose, made by the Chapel Down Winery. Now I’ve said here before I’m not into posting beer reviews or doing beer tastings. I’m not “TV’s Oz Clarke”, there are beer blogs out there that do it far better than I ever could, and I’m sure you don’t want to hear me pontificating about flavour profiles and “mouthfeel” and such. Besides, I’m much more expressive about beer. Beer for me is an emotional thing. I know what I like and I want more of it. Preferably now. But I’m curious about Curious – can a beer brewed by Britain’s arguably best vineyard be any good?

The first up is the Curious Brew lager. This is the one which made me think “I have to try these out”: made with East Anglian malt, saaz and cascade hops it’s re-fermented with Champagne yeast, which sounds really intriguing. Of the three I was expecting to like this the least – whilst it sounds good on the label we all know those labels are written by marketing drones and seldom reflect what’s going on in the bottle. But this lager doesn’t hold back on the flavours at all. You can taste the hops, it’s got a pleasant dry carbonation from the Champagne yeast and there’s nothing in here I don’t like. In fact I’d go as far as saying that this is a stunning beer and goes down far too easily. It might not last long, which is just as well as I’m keen to try the next one.

The second beer is the Curious IPA. According to the tasting notes I should be tasting blackcurrent spiciness and a citrus finish from the hops. The label says “intensely hopped” and for an English beer it is, but it doesn’t stand up to the likes of BrewDog’s Punk IPA or many IPAs from across the pond. The flavours are a bit of a mess to be honest. If you’re going to go overboard with the hops you have to get the balance right, and this one hasn’t managed it. There’s no citrus finish, just a linger pine-y spiciness from being punched in the mouth with unbalanced hopping.

The final beer is the Curious Porter, which I’ve now just read on the tasting notes is bottled conditioned (unlike the other two). Let’s pretend it wasn’t stored laying down in the fridge, I won’t tell if you don’t. This beer is made with four varieties of malts and it’s matured with oak . It’s chocolatey, well balanced, and the oak only just comes through, which suits it well. It’s a good porter but it’s not a great one. The label encourages you to try it with Chapel Down sparkling wine for the “perfect Black Velvet”. And I just Googled “black velvet”. And I want. I want now.

So of these the lager is the one I’ll be buying on a regular basis, for when I just want to grab a beer for while I’m cooking dinner. The porter is good but it’s not something I’ll go out of my way to buy again, not when Waitrose sells Fuller’s London Porter, which in my opinion is superior and comes in a 500ml bottle. The IPA was a bit of a disappointment but I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt and try it again some time. All these beers were sold in 330ml bottles, which works for the lager but less so for the IPA and the porter. But given these beers are made by Chapel Down I think they make a good invitation for wine drinkers to try beer.

And to answer the title of this blog post – yeah but no but… Whilst I like the lager a lot and the porter is good I’ve just done some more research after I’ve written the above and it seems the beers are a collaboration with the Hepworth brewery. So argue about the semantics of this yourself.

Curious beers on the Chapel Down website

In other news my renewed CAMRA card arrived today. I still support their message, sort of, even though their message is getting increasingly batshit, elitist and off-target. That said I haven’t forgiven them for their chairman’s insults of all beer bloggers (I mean seriously, “bloggerati”? Persecution complex much?). But rest assure, there’ll be a point where they’ll piss me off enough to actually make the effort to bother cancelling my membership. Until then I’ll let it roll on in laziness. And maybe raise them a toast with every pint/half pint of tasty, tasty dead keg beer I drink.

Categories: Beers, Breweries • 1 Comment »

Tap East

October 19, 2011 by Paul Morris

Westfield Stratford City. When it was first announced as an EastEnder I was looking forward to it as it meant not slouching into the West End to do some shopping. But the reality hasn’t exactly met expectations. Much as you used to say to defend my native Leeds – “it’s got a Harvey Nicks!”, the only recourse when queried about going to to Stratford City is to feebly protest “but it’s got a John Lewis!”

Once you’ve pushed through the barely moving herd of brainless shoppers shuffling through like extras from The Walking Dead, made your way past Greggs, the size of which indicates the clientele they’re expecting here, Subway, McDonalds, you get to the Great Eastern Market, the real reason for coming here. Amongst the boutique food vendors (and more about them later) sits Tap East.

Tap East is a rather unimposing bar when you approach it from the mall, and on opening day I struggled to find it, not helped by incomplete maps of the centre. Although once you actually turn into the bar itself it’s quite striking and definitely makes an impression. Since the permanent bar has been installed that’s the thing that draws your immediate attention. It fits rather snugly in the corner at a right angle but when you take stock of how many hand pumps and draught taps are on, not to mention the snacks you realise it’s quite epic.

Once the place really gets going I understand the full cask offering will be 6 hand pumps and 10 on draught. At the minute they’re offering 5 cask vs 8 keg, which is still a really great selection for any London bar, and you can check their Twitter or Facebook feeds for regular updates on what’s on. The bottle selection is also immense, you won’t be bored with the choice here. On my first two visits the staff were overeager to help me choose something but that didn’t deter from the visit. On the contrary, I’ve really been impressed with the customer service on the three occasions I’ve visited.

The rest of the bar is filled with high block tables, stools and sofas. It’s rather… eclectically decorated. But it really suits the place. It terms of style it sort of looks like the other pseudo-identikit places in the Great Eastern Market with the dark wood panelling, but they’ve definitely managed to make it an individual with it’s own personality. When it’s busy, as it has been every time I’ve visited, it feels quite small, but when you look at it from the outside you realise how big it actually is. Certainly compared to The Rake, which is where Tap East has it’s origins. The project is the progeny of Utobeer/Rake owners Mike and Richard; Glyn from The Rake; and Eddie from Utobeer, who’s the pub’s master brewer.

And that’s the feather in this place’s cap, it’s a brewpub. When I went on Friday the new brewing equipment had been put in. And it’s sexy as hell. And everyone loves big brewing kit, even those who don’t love beer because no matter how hi-tech brewing has become these days brewing equipment still looks steampunk. And steampunk rocks. The first beer won’t be ready for a few more weeks yet but they’ve already announced that their tapping party is on Wednesday 9th November at 4pm. No idea what the first beer will be yet but I bet it’s going to be good.

It does bar snacks but the food choices around it are great. There were free food samples for the opening party from it’s neighbours. The tapas place next door gets a special mention for it’s chorizo, which I bought more of on the way home. And of course there’s the no shortage of alternatives elsewhere in the centre.

The only downsides are the location, seeing as it’s not exactly zone 1, and paradoxically, in spite of that it gets quite busy too. But it seems to get a transient crowd, and if you’re there for more than one it’s easy enough to get a table from a group who was just passing through.

Tap East is open Monday-Saturday 11am-11pm and Sunday 12pm-10pm.
The closest station is Stratford International DLR station, which is right outside Tap East. Or you can take HS1 if you’re lazy like me and wanted to head back into town without walking through the centre again.

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This post represents a desire to finish one of the two things I’ve been wanting to get written up for weeks. Watch out for one on the Quality SE1 Pub Crawl towards the weekend. Once I’ve recovered from tomorrow’s.

NB: Photo nicked from Glyn’s blog. I took a few on a couple of visits but they look like shit because I can’t take a photo on a camera phone for toffee.

Categories: Bars • 4 Comments »

London Beer Events – October 2011

October 17, 2011 by Paul Morris

Happy London Beer Flood Day! That’s not the reason I’m posting though, I finally got off my lazy arse at the weekend and collated beer events in London over the next couple of months. Unfortunately I didn’t get round to writing them up as I came down with an unfortunate case of bine flu on Sunday (™ Melissa Cole). Bine flu is like wine flu, except with hop bines (see, she’s a clever one). And in this case it was the East London breweries beer festival at The Alma that did it for me. And then five 6%+ beers from Utobeer afterwards. So. Worth. It.

Anyway, I’m not late with this post, as you can see below the best is yet to come. The usual deal applies here, I’ve posted as much information as I’ve managed to find and if there isn’t any then it’s simply because the pub/bar/venue hasn’t been bothered to post anything online or in the London Drinker magazine, etc. I have November’s events all ready but I’ll post those separately as there’s absolutely loads going on at the end of the month. As usual if you know of anything I’ve missed leave a comment or tweet me (@lordofmisrule).

From now-31st October
Oktoberfest - Willoughby Arms (Kingston, KT2 6LN)
10th-17th is their Locale festival, with beers sourced from local breweries; 18th-24th beers will have a nautical theme; 25th-31st beers is their annual Hallowe’en beer festival. Having been to the latter it’s worth doing, but perhaps only if you’re in South West London.

Wednesday 19th October
Quality SE1 Pub Crawl - incorporating a Meet The Brewer with Meantime Brewery en route
Featuring a slightly different route this time with some slight deviation towards Bermondsey St – the ports of call will be The Dean Swift (meeting there from 6pm), The Draft House, Simon The Tanner, The Woolpack and finishing at Platform. Always great fun, although you may want to take it easy, otherwise you will regret it Thursday morning (I speak from experience). The burgers at The Dean Swift are some of the best in London, and as seeing the group doesn’t move on until just before 7pm you may want to consider grabbing one there (or something else from their awesome menu).
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Wednesday 19th – Sunday 23rd October
The Bricklayer’s Arms Cider Festival - The Bricklayer’s Arms (Putney, SW15 1DD)
Not beer but we’re a fan of real cider here on Beer Street so this gets a mention. 12 real ciders and 3 perries offered. And of course we’re counting down the days until the Euston Cider Tap opens up opposite the Euston Tap.
Website

Thursday 20th – Saturday 22nd October
Harvest Ale Festival - The Hope (Carshalton, SM5 2PR)
A nice old fashioned boozer with friendly staff in Carshalton. Not much info on this but I’ve attended a few of their festivals and they’ve always got a good choice on the racking.

Saturday 22nd October
London Brewers Alliance Showcase - Brew Wharf (18:30-22:30)
A showcase of 20 London brewers and their new collaborative IPA. Tickets are £20 and give you 7 half pint tokens for beer from the brewers’ stands and one half pint token for the collaborative IPA. Tickets are available via the Vinopolis website (see link below for more details). I missed out last year (double booked) and unfortunately I have the same dilemma because it’s at the same time is the next entry. Erk.
Website

Saturday 22nd October
Meet The Brewer: Mikkeller - The Cask (Pimlico, SW1V 6EE) (5pm)
Both The Cask and new sister pub Craft have been offering a wide range of Mikkel Borg Bjergsø’s beers for some time but now you have the opportunity to meet the man himself. The event starts from 5pm but will be guaranteed to be jam-packed so get there early.
Website

Thursday 27th – Saturday 29th October
Wandsworth Hallowe’en Beer Festival - Royal Victoria Patriotic Building (Wandsworth, SW18 3SX)
Now a permanent fixture on the London beer scene the twice-yearly Wandsworth Common Beer Festival is more popular than ever, and all the more reason to turn up to the Thursday or Friday sessions as the beer starts running out by Saturday afternoon. There’ll be 90 different beers from regional and national micro-breweries, with a focus on darker, more seasonal beers. As an added bonus Melissa Cole will be offering a tutored beer tasting and book signing (£10 per ticket).
Website

Thursday 27th – Saturday 29th October
Twickenham Beer & Cider Festival -York House (Richmond Rd, TW1 3AA)
CAMRA run annual beer festival with 65 beers and an emphasis on local micro-breweries.
Website

Thursday 27th – Monday 31st October
Autumn Real Ale Festival – The Bar (Gants Hill, IG2 6JX)
Unfortunately not much information online and I still haven’t been there yet, but I may aim to nip in over the weekend and report back. I’ve read several positive reviews of The Bar so perhaps worth a visit if you’re around Gants Hill.

Friday 28th – Sunday 30th October
October Beer Festival – The Fox (Hanwell, W7 2PJ)
Again, not much known but I like The Fox. It has a good range of beers whenever I’ve been in and the food is cheap and cheerful.

Friday 28th – Monday 31st October
The Royal Oak Beer Festival – The Royal Oak (Crawley, RH10 4JT)
Again, not much information, just that there’s a beer festival on that weekend (you’d think seeing as there’s loads going on that weekend that pubs would put up a beer list or however many beers they’ll have on online or something. The lack of information doesn’t make me want to go all the way to Crawley when there are closer alternatives with a potentially better beer range. But that’s maybe the point</rant>)
Website

Sunday 31st October – 7:30pm
Hallowe’en Pumpkin Beer Night – The Bull (Highgate, N6 4AB)
Fledgling brewpub The Bull is unveiling their new black pepper & cardamom pumpkin beer, served in small individual pumpkins at your table. Probably the best way of celebrating Hallowe’en in London I’d say.
Website

Edited to add (because it’ll sell out fast):
Monday 7th November
Beer and Food Matching with Garrett Oliver – 7pm
Brooklyn Brewery’s Master Brewer will be presenting a three course beer and food matching banquet. Tickets cost £25 and are available via the link below. The menu is yet to be finalised but based on the awesomeness of the Draft House’s previous MTB events and Garrett’s beers we’ve got our tickets already.
Website

Categories: Festivals, Upcoming Events • No Comments »

Blind Tasting: Black IPAs

June 15, 2011 by Thomas McCarthy-Ward

Having been to a blind tasting of Belgian wheat beers at the Rake a few months ago, I thought it’d be fun to do a blind tasting of my own. I decided to go for black IPAs because (a) they are “in” at the moment so it’d be interesting to compare them and (b) they’re superficially quite similar.

Black IPAs have been gaining popularity in the UK and are very much in vogue at the moment. The first black IPA I can remember trying was Brewdog’s Bashah but since then there’s been an explosion of black IPAs available, e.g.  Saltaire’s “Cascadian Black”, Dark Star/Thornbridge’s “Thornstar”, The Kernel’s various ones, Windsor and Eton’s stunning “Conqueror”, Brew Wharf’s “Military Intelligence”, Summer Wine “Nerotype”, the list goes on. I ended up choosing on the basis of what I could buy in bottles the week before. Beers were brought from a combination of Utobeer and Drink of Fulham, plus one from my personal stash. I was surprised to be unable to find Conqueror – it’s a regular favourite of ours and I would’ve been intrigued to see how it performed under blind conditions.

The concept was I’d buy some black IPAs, pour them into glasses labelled A, B, C, etc. and serve them to Paul. He’d drink them down to the same level and make notes on them, then I’d go out the room and he’d swap the labels around then I’d drink them and make notes (hence it being important that I pick a style where they all look the same!) This way it was a double-blind tasting for Paul (as he didn’t even know what the beers were) I also had the cunning plan to include a non-black IPA and dye it black with food dye to compare (Flying Dog Snake Dog, if you’re interested) but when I tried this with a small sample, the food dye made it taste disgusting so I abandoned that plan. Below are the compiled results for the four beers we ended up tasting.

Beer 1: Thornbridge “Raven”, 6.6%

Raven is one of the first Black IPA’s I can remember trying, I’ve had it many times in pubs and always enjoyed it but never had it bottled before.

Paul and I both gave it 4.5/5 for appearence, it poured jet black with a thick, lasting head. Sadly the beer didn’t live up to it’s appearance - we both gave it a 2/5 for aroma, Paul said the aroma was weaker than expected , I detected a hint of grapefruit in the nose but mainly it smelled burnt. As far as the taste went, Paul gave it 5/10 and found it too fizzy. As I was drinking it later, the fizz had calmed down. I had liquorice and very muted citrus flavours, but then that burntness again, and a rather unpleasant minerally finish, I gave it 6/10. Overall score: 60%

I was surprised by how low we rated this beer, possibly a bad bottle? However I know that it had only been delivered to the shop I got it from the day before my purchase so don’t think it was an *old* bottle..

Beer 2: Brewdog “Abstrakt AB:06″, 11.2%


I’m a big fan of Brewdog’s “Abstrakt” series and due to an odd pricing structure (or possibly a miss-print that they then honoured), I have rather a lot of AB:06. I wasted the first bottle I tried by opening it “too late” in the evening (i.e. after too many other beers) so was eager to see how it stood up to blind scrutiny.

The beer pours deep ruby brown with a thin cream head, Paul and I both gave it a four for appearance. Despite not knowing what beers were in the tasting, as soon as his nose was in the glass Paul asked whether it was Abstrakt – there’s an obvious alcohol hit on the nose from it’s much higher ABV, Paul gave the aroma a 3/5, I gave it a 4/5, noting toffee and dark fruit as well as the booze. Paul said the flavour was boozy, spicy, and fruity, like a good christmas cake, I had pudding, and maybe a hint of pine on the finish. It had a lingering bitterness that was not umpleasant but might not be ideal with food. We both gave it 8/10 for flavour. Overall score: 78%

It may have been a bit unfair to include this in the tasting as all the other beers were 6-7%. Next time I do a tasting, I’ll ensure that no beer is a very different ABV from all the others, but fair or unfair, this is a very tasty beer!

Beer 3: St. Austell “Proper Black”, 6%

Proper Black is the black IPA counterpart to St. Austell’s highly popular Proper Job IPA. Paul had tried this beer before and not really rated it highly, but this was an entirely new beer for me.

It pours almost black, deep red with a cream head which earned a 4/5 from both of us. Paul though the nose was weak but slightly biscuity and gave it 1.5/5, I thought it was a bit weak too but found hints of tobacco and pine (mmm) and also a slight vegetal smell (less mmm…), I gave it a 3/5. We both agreed that of the beers we tasted, this would be the best for drinking pints of – it had that elusive property of “sessionability” – dangerous in a 6% beer! (Jaipur and Dark Star 6-Hop are also guilty of unwise drinkability!) Flavours included the tobacco and pine from the nose, but thankfully the off vegetal note was absent from the taste. The finish was pleasantly, unaggressively bitter. Paul gave the flavour a 6, I gave it a 7. Overall score: 64%

I really liked this – it’s one of the less powerfully-flavoured of the black IPAs I’ve had but not every beer needs to be a hammer to the palette!

 

Beer 4: The Kernel “IPA Black FASM Tate”, 6%


The Kernel is a stunning new brewery under a railway arch in Southwark. It’s made several black IPAs, this one is a little weaker than the others they’ve brewed which range from 6.8 to 7.2%. I hadn’t previously tried this beer.

This one pours the most obviously different of the four, it’s a lot paler, coming out dark hazy brown with a tan head, Paul gave the appearence 3/5 and I gave it 2.5. The aroma is powerful with piney hops and some black pepper – we gave it a four. It drinks with the expected big hop flavours: pine, grapefruit, spices, pepper… and has an aggressive and lingering bitterness (but not unpleasant). Paul detected a minerally off flavour but I couldn’t taste that. We both gave it 8. Overall score: 74%

I think their normal black IPA (7.2%) is even better than this, but am really glad to have tried this one too

So that was the first blind-tasting I’ve done, and I learned a lot from it. We’re not professionals and our flavour and aroma descriptions are woefully inadequate and maybe totally erroneous, but it did make us pay attention to beers, in some cases beers we thought we already knew well, and appreciate them more. I’m definitely going to do more tastings, hopefully better organised and with more carefully thought through ratings!

In the mean time, drink some black IPAs!

Categories: Beers • 1 Comment »

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