11th December and London SE1.

Started off early last Tuesday, 11th, walking along the Thames Path from Putney to Tower Bridge and a new pub for us both, Simon the Tanner, which is situated near the Tower Bridge end of Long Lane, and pleased we were to have made it at last, just after opening, so it was empty... 

 

This is another great find for me, yet another lovely pub near my Victorian paternal forebears' south east London homes, the interior is nice and simple, bare floorboards, and wooden tables to seat fifty or so.  Of course, the real cider and 3 real ales served from handpumps was my main quest and delight. 

 

The cider was Crazy Goat Lilley's Cider (6.8%), actually a cider and perry blend, and the 3 ales were O'Hanlon's Port Stout (4.8%), Saltaire Bavarian Black (4.9%), and Titanic White Star, which we both drank.  I have to own up, I love Titanic ales, and the 4.8% White Star is no exception, a full-bodied pale ale, a peachy aroma, but more of a dry bitter grapefruit flavour, and beer flavour, of course, loved it! 

 

We then ventured back to Borough Market, and decided to go to The Rake this time, which was serving up Summer Wine Brewery (SWB) Mokko Milk Stout (6%), Coniston No 9, an 8.5% barley wine, and Roosters YPA (Yorkshire Pale Ale), a 4.1% pale and hoppy, yet smooth drinking ale. I also had a bit of a debate about pubs in West Yorkshire with a fellow customer, which I won, of course, though I did later check on one of my assertions with the Teameister up int' Haworth, who confirmed my belief.

 

We then walked back westwards and, coincidentally, a BBC film crew we had seen in the Bricklayers on the Monday were this day filming on the south bank opposite the Houses of Parliament.  I guessed they must have been covering the following days mass lobby of Parliament in connection with the extortionate beer tax, which seemed a reasonable reason to be interviewing someone in the Bricklayers, and the exact same half a dozen people filming opposite the home to democracy in the UK... but no! I later found out that the person doing all the talking is an Oxford professor, and they were filming a programme to come out on BBC about Oliver Cromwell, oh well... 

Cheers! 

Gardeners Arms, final Lewes pub 22 February.

OK, past the church of Thomas-a-Becket, near to Harveys, is The Gardeners Arms, another pub selling the ubiquitous Sussex Best, and also 5 guest ales, and a regularly changing cider, on my visit, Lilley's Crazy Goat (6.8%), a blended perry and cider!

As well as trying the cider/perry, I drank an ale from the Liverpool Craft Beer Company (never heard of them before, so had to give it a go), made with a new Zealand hop and called Tane Mahuta, it was a good 'golden' beer and quite bitter to finish.

Other guest ales included Nethergate Old Growler, Bank Top Jean Lafitte, and Harveys Sussex XXXX Old Ale and Kiss. I was assured the number of Harveys ales on sale was just chance, what was ready to serve, definitely not a Harveys tied house!

You will see the food menu above, not really a foodie pub, but a pickled egg with Peri Peri spicey flakes was shared with me for a treat by Russ the 'beer tester', cheers! In addition to the excellent company of Russ, I also enjoyed the company of many others here, including 'Mouse' and Lisa, the landlady. I felt quite at home, but had to leave sadly, but I shall return...

All in all, a great day was had in Lewes, thank you to all those who helped me to enjoy the day, CHEERS!