Pre-Sequel: After the Beer Festival 2016

On the way back home from the 2016 CAMRA Beer Festival yesterday evening, we had our last pints (and shared a cheeseboard), before catching our train back to Hastings, at the Market Porter in Borough Market SE1, where I drank a pint of G2 Brewing (website) Vella, a 4.2% golden "blonde" bitter, not too bad, with a dry finish. Beforehand, we'd drank at a bar I personally prefer in the area, though with only 3 ales at a time, a more interesting selection usually, though, plus all sorts of cask and craft beers, where we had our penultimate pints...

ie The Rake (website), on the other side of Borough Market, which has a nice view of Southwark Cathedral, and which was where my great-great grandparents were married before it became a cathedral many moons ago! Here we'd all drank the 4.2% Crouch Vale (website) Yakima Gold (4.2% also), named after the Yakima Valley (which was named in turn after the Yakima Nation, whose reservation is on the east side of the Cascade Mountains), here is where the Amarillo hops used for this ale are grown. Indeed, 77% of all U.S. hops are grown in the Yakima Valley, and many grape vines too! I've had Yakima Gold in many different bars and never had anything but a great pint or three, samples of my notes say "fruity, quite bitter, excellent"; "refreshing and very pale, fruity bitter with peach aftertaste, very good"; "genuine pale bitter, lovely stuff indeed!"

Another wonderful thing about drinking here was that, despite my mate telling me I'd paid £1.05 a pint more than I had (!), and I apologise for anything I may have said detrimental following our many ales imbibed beforehand, we were served a quality ale by quality bar staff, in this instance, the very wonderful, patient, and beautiful Alex, at about 17.15 (09/08/16), please give her a pay rise (!); and I understand there is more than just the one Alex working here!

Anyway, more to come about the beer festival itself, very soon...

Best Beers II - Premium ales

I say "Premium Ales", but it's really ales between 4% and 5% in strength! Again pale ales and darker ones in my analysis, but starting with the darker ales this time.

Old Mill (website) of Snaith, West Yorkshire, who started up in 1983, brew some great ales, and I would have included their GBH (Great British Hopefuls), an excellent 4.2% bitter, but sadly it's only brewed every 4 years around the time of each Olympic Games. It is so good that I drank this only at a beer festival once I'd got the taste, ignoring other offerings, because it was that good. I first drank this back in 2000 AD, I do believe, and would happily drink it at any opportunity! 

Some great darker bitters are brewed more regularly, though, but not really to my taste, despite my being raised drinking London Pride and Youngs Special, both ales I continue to drink now and then, depending on where I am. However, Butcombe (website), a brewery established in 1978, and who moved to a 150 barrel brewery at Wrington in Somerset in 2005, brew the excellent Butcombe Bitter (4%) using Mendip spring water, and which I first tasted in the 1980s. This is a near perfectly balanced quaffing ale, tawny coloured with a dry refreshing bitterness, quality!

Hepworth (website) of Horsham, West Sussex, started brewing cask conditioned ales in 2003 and use locally sourced malt and hops for all their beers. Their 4.8% Classic Old Ale, does what it says on the label, it is an old ale, and it is a 'classic'! I suppose it is really a winter warmer, but it is a darn good ale, rich and flavoursome, with a lovely bitterness coming through at the finish. A very tasty dark old bitter indeed! 

All the ales already mentioned are very worthy of winning awards in all types of festivals, and in various categories, and have done! But I do have some humdingers to include with my paler choices, and Tiny Rebel (website) from Newport in Wales, have come onto the scene like a flash of lightning, brewing some crackin' ales at their 12 barrel plant since just 2012, winning numerous awards already!

Tiny Rebel's 4.6% Billabong is described as an 'Australian Pale Ale', and uses hops grown in Tasmania. I have seen numerous superlative reviews of this ale, "citrusy, bitter sweet, well-balanced, grapefruit aroma, lemon aroma" etc etc... My notes say it all, really, I believe this is an excellent pale bitter, with good body, and peach and grapefruit aroma and flavours, with a dry bitter finish. Say no more... 

I had to chose between 2 ales from Oakham Ales (website), either their superb 4.2% Citra, or the one in the photograph above, the 4.6% Bishops Farewell; though a very tough decision! One of my favourite breweries, as regular readers will be well aware, and the Bishops Farewell is a pale, fruity, hoppy ale with plenty of body and a lovely dry bitter finish. I'll even add the notes my brother sent to me when he drank this at the Swan & Rushes in Leicester, after I suggested he visit that pub whilst up there: "Pale, hoppy, fruity, smooth and slightly bitter", says it all, mostly!

From Salamander (website) in Bradford, West Yorkshire, founded at the end of the last century, and who expanded to a 40 barrel plant in 2004, comes a comparable ale to Oakham's contribution. Golden Salamander is a 4.5% golden bitter that uses Challenger and Styrian hops, and has a citrus aroma and taste, Salamander say it has an "assertive hop bitterness", and they ain't wrong! It is refreshing, fruity, and has a lovely dry bitter finish. Salamander are yet another excellent Yorkshire brewery, consistent, and their ales are always worth drinking, quality again...  

Twickenham (website), guess where they're based, consistently brew excellent ales too. They started off with a 10 barrel plant in 2004, expanding into larger premises and a 25 barrel plant in 2012. I first drank their 4.4% Naked Ladies well before trying it at the Crooked Billet, on the edge of Wimbledon Common, in March 2012, when I first made notes. It was excellent, and I have continued to drink it whenever, and wherever, I see it on the bar. My last couple of pints were tasted very recently at the Watermans Arms in Richmond, in the photograph above. Both of these pubs are Youngs pubs, by the way, which says a lot, but I have enjoyed my Naked Ladies at various freehouses too, eg the Bricklayers in Putney.

The name of the ale is inspired by the statues of water nymphs in York House Gardens in Twickenham, and the Naked Ladies is well-reported by me, obviously (love it!). This is an excellent pale golden bitter, very hoppy (using Pilgrim, Celeia and Chinook hops), citrus and peach aroma and flavours, with a light 'biscuit' malt about it, and a dry refreshing bitter finish. I'll repeat what I first said about it over 2 years ago, "Naked Ladies, you just can't beat them, continues to impress..."   

So! How is it that the Naked Ladies was pipped at the post, and it was just by a 'short-head', by a beer from Essex? I'm still scratching my head really, I was sure the Twickenham ale would be victorious in this category, but no... I kept looking at my copious notes and compared the two, and was surprised how Crouch Vale came into the reckoning right at the finishing post. Crouch Vale came into existence in 1981, moving to larger premises in 2006, and I have had quite a few very decent ales from them over the years; probably been drinking their ales for nearly 20 years now.

Anyway, the champion in this category is their 4.2% Yakima Gold, named after the Yakima Valley (named in turn after the Yakima Nation, whose reservation is on the east side of the Cascade Mountains), where the Amarillo hops used for this ale are grown. Indeed, 77% of all U.S. hops are grown in the Yakima Valley, and many grape vines too! I've had Yakima Gold in many different pubs/club and never had anything but a great pint or three, samples of my notes say "fruity, quite bitter, excellent"; "refreshing and very pale, fruity bitter with peach aftertaste, very good"; "genuine pale bitter, lovely stuff indeed!"

So, congratulations to the runner-up in this category have to be made (though all the ales mentioned are excellent!), I love the Naked Ladies, but the 'Gold Medal' goes to Crouch Vale Brewery and their Yakima Gold, cheers!   

Something old, something new...

But nowt borrowed or blue, I think...

First, at the Albatross Club (RAFA) in Bexhill on Sea, the reigning local and regional CAMRA Club of the Year, where I had a, now becoming, old favourite, Crouch Vale, and you get very few poor ales from this Essex brewery, Yakima Gold (4.2%), pale, dry and bitter, and not one of the particularly fruity pale bitters on the market, this is a genuine pale bitter, lovely stuff indeed! The Albatross also, on my last visit, had 3 other local ales I have reported on before: Rother Valley RWB, a 4.4% "ruby wheat beer"; Isfield Toad in the Ale (4.8%), a medium coloured ale that was a typical hue of bitters in the past; plus the wonderful Dark Star Revelation (5.7%), though, surprisingly, I did not try that here, preferring to stay on the Yakima Gold, which says a lot about that ale, and not just to do with strength! 

However, Dark Star Revelation, and American Pale Ale (APA, 4.7%) have both been enjoyed by me at the recent addition to the CAMRA Good Beer Guide, The Tower in London Road, Hastings St Leonards, another fine purveyor of my favourite type of ales. The APA was dry, grapefruity, bitter and lovely, actually, and the Revelation was, as ever, packed with hops, Liberty, Centennial, Citra and Cascade, excellent! 

Also available has been fellow East Sussex brewer 1648 Signature (the signature being Cromwell's), a very pale 4.4% bitter with a slight biscuity malt in the flavour. In addition, of course, the ubiquitous Cornish brewer Sharp's Doom Bar (4%), why is it everywhere? Something to do with their sponsoring televised football, I do believe... The beer? Well, it's a medium coloured bitter, which most people will say, including the Cornish, by the way, that it doesn't taste like it used to (though my theory is that we're now spoilt by so many very hoppy ales being brewed, that our tastebuds have been altered significantly, consequently causing false memories). Oh yes, and the Dark Star collaboration with the West Yorkshire Saltaire Brewery, Bock (5.6%) was soon to come on, surprisingly a darker ale than one would expect from these two excellent brewers of pale and hoppy ales!

Meanwhile, back at the reigning local CAMRA Pub of the Year, the Dolphin, at Rock-a-Nore, Hastings 'old town', and a few new ales for me. This, the Salisbury Sarum IPA (4.3%), a very pale dry bitter, with a surprising hint of smoked malt in the aftertaste; the local Kings Poacher's Moon (4.1%), their 'flagship' best bitter; and all the way from the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, Bespoke The King's Shilling (4.2%), a dark brown ale with a nutty flavour. In addition, the Dolphin's 3 regular ales are Harveys Sussex Best (4%), Youngs Special (4.5%) and the crackin' Dark Star Hophead (3.8%), all well reported on before.

Cheers for now! 

Natural Phenomena and Latin Nature...

As you're reading this, I take it you know about how 'natural' real ales are; unless other natural substances are added, eg spices, herbs and fruit, ales are brewed using just 4 natural ingredients. First, malted grain is used to provide sugars to ferment, as well as provide flavour, this is usually barley, but can include other grain, eg wheat and oats, and un-malted roasted barley can be used for flavour, particularly for stouts. The second ingredient is water, called 'liquor' by brewers, hot liquor is used when converting the starch in malt to more simple sugar, stimulated by enzymes in the malt; this liquid, now termed 'wort', is boiled in the kettle or 'copper'. At different times during the boil, the third ingredient, hops, are added for preservation, but also to add flavour and bitterness. The final natural additive is yeast, which converts the sugars in the cooled solution into alcohol. OK, it's a wee bit more complicated than that, but that's the basic art of brewing...      

So, with all the potential flavours and types of ales, why is it that we have preferences for one over another? People who know me well, or who have read a few of these blogs, will know I prefer pale bitters, the more pale, dry and bitter, the better. I can love ales that are just bitter, or some that have fruity flavours added by hops, eg typical of many hops coming from the USA, like Citra, Cascade or Amarillo, which provide citrus-like flavours. But, I also can enjoy good ales of all types, eg winter warmers, stouts and porters, but I'm not really into beers that are just 'malty', or lack hops, though others happily enjoy such ales, that I find boring or too malty. Such is life when considering real ales, there really is something to suit most people's tastes, or to go with different types of food, very similar to wines, but with even more variety. 

Now, I do like Dark Star's paler and hoppy ales, indeed I like ultra hoppy ales brewed elsewhere, eg by Steel City, Oakham, Crouch Vale, Saltaire, I could go on... However, there is a 'new kid on the block', well, not that new, as he had been brewing at Dark Star for a while previously, and had devised the recipe for Hophead, a pale hoppy bitter I first tasted in Sheffield many years ago. Indeed, I have already commented on Burning Sky's 3.5% Plateau "Pale Ale" previously, which I even prefer to Hophead! Burning Sky also brew a stronger ale regularly too, the 5.6% Aurora, and what a lovely ale I savoured at The Tower, London Road, Hastings St Leonards very recently, after searching it out for quite a while now. The Aurora is subtitled "Strong Pale Ale",, which belies the flavours and substance of the ale: this has grapefruit aroma smacking you across the cheeks as it wafts up your nostrils, it's tastes fruity, it has loadsa body, it finishes off dry, it is very delicious indeed!   

But it's not just Dark Star and Burning Sky ales offered down in East Sussex, many more hoppy ales are provided from near and afar. At The Tower I have also enjoyed drinking Wild Cat, from The Fat Cat brewery attached to the Norwich version of a Fat Cat very recently. This is a 5% bitter subtitled "An ultra-pale hop monster", though not as 'ultra hoppy' as Steel City, and not too much aroma, this is still a very good dry pale bitter, nice and easy to drink, and liked by me very much! There has been all manner of other lovely ales at The Tower recently too, of course from Dark Star, eg Hophead and American Pale Ale, the Burning Sky Plateau again, and now an apparently regular beer from Hastings Brewery, their No5 Hop Forward Pale Ale. Excellent stuff, reported on many times, cheers Louisa!  

But we are blessed with other very good providers of lovely ales in East Sussex too. For example, from the First in Last Out (FILO), High Street, Hastings 'old town', who do not only provide 5 of their very own brews from 7 or 8 regular and seasonal beers, eg FILO Gold "Premium Ale" (4.8%), Churches "Pale Ale" (4.2%), the very good session bitter Crofters "Best Bitter" (3.8%), and the excellent full-flavoured and full-bodied Cardinal "Sussex Porter" (4.6%), but guest ales too. Sadly, for me, they've run out of their, far too easily, very drinkable seasonal Our Auld Ale (6.5%), reported on before, but are considering brewing this again before next Christmas. I don't want to wish my life away, so I shall be patient, but I'm looking forward to it again Tony... 

As I said, they don't only provide their own crackin' ales, they also provide a couple of guest ales from other breweries too, in recent times, for example, the Oakleaf Brewery's Quercus Folium (4%), which we accurately translated in the bar, from the latin, as "Oakleaf". The Oakleaf Oakleaf, or Quercus Folium is what I call a 'traditional' bitter colour, ie, how I remember bitters from when I first started drinking, and before I experienced a 'pale' bitter, even 'pale ales' in those days were a darker colour than they are favoured to be now! This had a slight caramel flavour, with a nice bitter aftertaste. More recently, they had the Essex-based Crouch Vale Yakima Gold (4.2%), which I have recently commented on when I drank it at the Dolphin, together with a note on it's Native American name. Indeed, it is still a refreshing pale bitter with a fruity grapefruit and peach aftertaste, very nice again, cheers Mike and Adam!       

Meanwhile, further down in the 'old town' of Hastings, opposite the fishing beach and huts, is the Dolphin, Rock-a-Nore, the reigning local CAMRA Pub of the Year. As ever, the 3 regular ales are Dark Star Hophead, Harveys Sussex Best, and Young's Special, all reported on previously numerous times. They also provide 3 guest ales, rumoured to be increasing by one to a total of 7 ales overall later this year, variety indeed! 

Guest ales recently have included, from near and far, from Swindon, Arkell's Moonlight, a 4.5% dark golden bitter, with a slight caramel flavour and nice bitter aftertaste; from the newish local venture Brighton Bier, Underdog, a 4.2% bitter with a nutty aftertaste, a bit like the flavour of the inside of a hazelnut, and very nice indeed; and from Scotland, Cairngorm Trade Winds, a 4.3% pale, slightly sweet bitter. In addition, also from the West Country, the excellent Salopian Hop Twister, a 4.5% pale dry bitter, with a hint of citrus and grapefruit aroma, cheers Mark!  

Finally, for this blog, I have recently visited The Albatross Club (RAFA) a couple of times, the local CAMRA Club of the Year, where you need to be signed in by a member; CAMRA members being very welcome. It's a good 10 mile walk (round trip) for me along the coast to Bexhill-on-Sea, a wee bit tiring in the strong winds and rain recently, but it had to be done! The welcome here is always very friendly, and the 4 ales on offer are regularly changing, so do not expect to drink the same ale 2 trips running, unless you visit daily, but even then... What has been available recently? 

I loved it, of course, the 3.5% Burning Sky Plateau, with a grapefruit aroma, grapefruit in the taste, pale, dry and bitter, delicious! Other local ales have included Rother Valley Exit (5.7%) and Isfield Flapjack (5.3%). Also, a collaboration between the local Dark Star Brewery and Yorkshire based Saltaire Brewery, Bock, a dark 'rusty' brown coloured 5.6% bitter with full body and roasted flavour. From much further afield have come Just a Minute Time Tunnel, a 4.1% dark golden bitter, and Summer Wine Espresso (4.8%), you can guess what flavour that has, and Zenith, a 4% pale refreshing dry bitter, very nice too. Also, from the dependable Essex brewer again, Crouch Vale Amarillo, a 5% pale hoppy ale, grapefruit flavour, dry and bitter, it hit the spot, cheers Geoff, another nice one! 

Cheers folks!!      

Central Sheffield; Some crackin' ales, Part I...

I arrived in Sheffield after a decent enough journey, despite the rain, and OK, most of these photographs were taken the next day, but it was dark and wet, and a mobile phone isn't too good at taking night-time photographs, at least mine isn't... 

  

Started off with food, not a bad idea, meeting up with my good friend and ex-colleague, Debra, at Mama's and Leonie's, my favourite restaurant in the whole wide world! It's a great place to eat, where you can either book an upstairs table, take a risk to find an ad hoc table downstairs, or sit at the bar and watch your food being prepared, and chat to staff, when they're not too busy, that is...

Most of the staff stay here for years, an excellent sign, and it was great to chat to Debs, of course, but also to their Head Chef, John, and  the second John, and other chefs I know, plus with the lasses who, though not all working this one shift, obviously, I still saw a few, including ones I've known for more than 15 years, the lovely Josie and Tracey, who is to become a mother to a second child. The food is excellent too, me eating my usual Warm Chicken and Bacon Salad, which is heaped into a big dish and takes a while to finish! If in Sheffield, this is the place to eat; situated between the Crucible and the Winter Gardens.

Next, I was meeting up with Will at the Bath Hotel behind the old Glossop Road baths. This used to be run by the ebullient Brian, who has since leased out the bar to Thornbridge Brewery, who have taken over a few pubs in Sheffield. This used to be Will's local, but not being enamoured by ales flavoured with American hops, unlike me, he has been put out by the change, life. Indeed, I hardly recognised anyone there! 

So, 6 ales served by handpump, including 3 guest ales and 3 of their own. The 3 Thornbridge ales were Black Harry, a 3.9% deep dark red coloured ale, with a very roasted malt flavour and a nutty aftertaste at £2.70 a pint; Hopton, a 4.3% pale bitter, though a bit thin, with a hint of roasted malt in the flavour at £2.90; and the 4.8% Jaywick, an 'American Pale Ale' at £3.10 a pint, which was my favourite of these, not a surprise, with a fruity aroma and peach flavour coming through. Also, if you drink here before 7pm, you get a 10% discount if a card carrying CAMRA member, sadly, it was just too late in the evening to take advantage of that deal. 

We briefly popped into the Red Deer, just off Glossop Road, which appears to now be a student pub, though there have always been many students in here, just even more now... very busy and very loud (I am getting older, tsk...). This used to be run by another reyt miserable old git, but now has a 5% discount for card carrying CAMRA members, so not so bad, though we didn't notice until we were already drinking. Anyway, from their array of ales, we both chose well known ales, which suggests it is a pubco pub, though I cannot be bothered to confirm that. Will drank Moorhouse's Pride of Pendle (4.1%) and I enjoyed the Yorkshire brewer, Copper Dragon's Golden Pippin (3.9%), another favourite brewer of mine! 

We visited the University Arms, that used to be a staff social club at the university, but is now a public house, primarily to chat with the manager and partner, Tom and Brigitte, so I was surprised a wee bit to find out they are no longer here, but they now have a pub that I will mention in my next Sheffield blog. It was quite busy, not so noisy though, so we could talk quite easily. We drank Welbeck Abbey Red Feather, an OK 3.9% bitter (well, that's how I made the note) and the reliable Crouch Vale Brand X, a 4.5% lovely pale fruity bitter with grapefruit aroma and flavour. 

Our penultimate ale house for the night was The Hop, Devonshire Green, a relatively new pub (used to be a wee supermarket, there's irony for you) run by Ossett Brewery, where I first drank in on my last visit to Sheffield, and which was very noisy with music this time. It's big and spread out, with a much younger clientele at this time of a Friday night. Anyway, there was an array of Ossett's own ales, as you'd expect, plus a few guest ales. The Ossett ale I tried was the Big Red, a venture away from their majority paler ales, 4% and a well-balanced maltier ale than I usually enjoy. 

I also had to try the Steel City Unholy Trinity, a 6.66% (and if you believe they can be that accurate, you're very naive) very dark beer, with chocolate and coffee in the taste, and very tasty, I have to admit. Indeed, I've never had an ale from the lads who brew under the moniker, Steel City Brewing, that I've disliked; they do like using hops!  

Our final destination of the evening was another pub with loud music, and mostly younger customers than us, though we do like to mix with the youth of Sheffield to maintain our own youthful outlook! The Old House in Division Street, sells its ales at a reduced price in the late afternoon/early evening, but, of course, we were much too late for that again; so we missed out on 3 deals in total that night... Anyway, I cannot remember what Will drank, but I had another decent Yorkshire brewery, Salamander's Piper's Son (4%), pale, and not quite so bitterly hopped as I usually like, but I seemed to enjoy drinking it...

Anyway, that's it for now, but more to come in Part II, cheers!

HOPS! Crackin' ales from Sussex and much further afield...

Where to start, and apologies for being away this last week, but so much more for me to publish over the coming days... So, to start with, here is a photograph of Adam, from the FILO Brewing Company based at the Old Town Brewery in Hastings, and of the First In Last Out Pub (FILO), High Street, Hastings 'old' town, wearing a Beermeister polo shirt, nice one! As are their ales... 

OK, this isn't one of the FILO ales, but I have mainly been drinking their own wonderfully flavoursome Our Auld Ale (6.5%), see earlier blog, since it first was served at the FILO pub, of course, as a seasonal beer, it won't be around for much longer, so hurry up if you want to drink it! However, there has appeared to be an influx of  ales into South East Sussex from the ever reliable Lincolnshire brewer, Oldershaw, including two I have had at the FILO. Oldershaw Great Expectations (4.2%) is a very good bitter, pale and hoppy with a dry aftertaste, and Newton's Drop (4.1%) is another reliable pale bitter all the way from Lincolnshire. The FILO also has a regularly changing Belgian beer on draught, at the moment it is the rather too easy to drink 5.7% Palm Dobbel, which means "dice" or "gamble" in English.  

Moving on to the ales depicted in my previous near-blog and the Dolphin, opposite the fishermens' huts and beach, 'old' town too. Like at the FILO, I have had an Oldershaw ale here too, among the many ales available over a few visits, ie Oldershaw Old Boy, a 4.8% copper coloured dry ale with a malty and bitter aftertaste. Also available on that visit, Crouch Vale Yakima Gold (named after the valley where hops are grown, apparently, and from a native American name/word), a 4.2% refreshing and very pale, fruity bitter, with a peach flavoured aftertaste, very good. 

Another visit since, provided the ales featured in the previous blog's photograph and the one above, including the Yorkshire brewery, Saltaire's Blackberry Cascade, suspiciously named as if blackberry fruit and cascade hops were used in the brewing process ;-) A pale amber coloured, lovely dry bitter with a hint of grapefruit and bramble flavours, very nice indeed... In addition, 2 ales from reyt further up north than Yorkshire, ie Orkney St Magnus, a 5.2% slightly malty darkish amber bitter, and the 4.8% Orkney IPA, a pale dry bitter with a hint of maltiness, good body and a malty biscuity aftertaste.     

Further along the coast westwards in Bexhill-on-Sea, at the RAFA club, The Albatross Club, where, in addition to the local brewer, Rother Valley Level Best (4%) and Copper Ale (4.1%), there was, from Lancashire, OSB Absent IPA, a 5.5% deep coloured amber bitter, very good and with a dry aftertaste. There was also, and me drinking a dark ale yet again, as you can see from the photograph immediately above, the Manchester brewer, Privateer Dark Revenge, a 4.5% very dark bitter, with an oatmeal head, and a hint of liquorice and a fruity aroma, nice one.

Time now to look at my regular luvverly pale hoppy ale provider, the Tower, London Road, upper St Leonards/Bohemia, Hastings. 4 ales on offer usually provide at least 2 Dark Star ales, with American Pale Ale (APA, 4.7%) as its regular ale, as people will no doubt be aware by now... BUT! There's a 'new kid in town', another Sussex brewery producing ales with loadsa hops, ie Burning Sky! Not really all that new though, as the brewer there used to work at Dark Star, and was the originator of the Hophead recipe, and many of their other excellent ales... Burning Sky Plateau 'Pale Ale' is a 3.5% pale hoppy ale, very bitter, and with a grapefruit aroma and taste which takes the Michael out of the strength, I love it! 

... and what Dark Star ales has Louisa been providing at the Tower recently? Of course the APA and Hophead (3.8%), but also a variation on the Hophead, ie using the same grist, same strength, but with flavours and bitterness coming from different hops, Simcoe and Ahtanum, and with a pale green coloured pump clip. Believe it or not, I prefer this to the usual Hophead, which I've detected as a wee bit more malty flavoured lately, or is that just my taste buds forever evolving? Version 2, whatever you want to call it, is pale, bitter and dry, of course, and even more fruity than the original, with bitter orange peel and not so much the grapefruit, excellent Louisa, ta... and I haven't even mentioned the excellent 5.7% revelation that is Revelation, which I have written so much about before, spoilt for choice!

More to come soon, first from Sheffield, and my visit to the self proclaimed "Beer Capital of the World", cheers! 

5 Favourite (some old favourite) pubs in London...

So, not all the pubs I drank in on this visit to London, but all have had a few pounds sterling spent in them by me over the years...

The Harp, in between Charing Cross and Covent Garden, is an excellent pub to start off at, certainly when it's not too busy, and it does get very busy; this fact supported by them selling 9 real ales, and one of them, the Hophead, leaves 2 of their handpumps at the rate of a Barrel a day, ie 36 gallons+! Their 3 regular ales are Harveys Sussex Best, and two Dark Star ales, all have been reported on many times, Hophead (3.8%) and American Pale Ale (APA, 4.7%), both the Dark Star ales selling at £3.45 a pint, that ain't a bad price for a central London pub. 

Oh yes, and 6 guest ales, that included Sambrook's Junction (4.5%), and there is always an ale from the Battersea brewery, Sambrook's, regularly on sale here too; Crouch Vale Brewers Gold (4%) and Blackwater Mild (3.7%); Palmers Dorset Gold (4.5%) and Best Bitter (4.2%); and the West London brewer, Weird Beard's collaboration with BrewDog Kentish Town Beard, a 5.2% "American Wheat Ale", pale, a bit cloudy, hint of tangy orange, dry and quite bitter, liked it!        

My previous blog deals with most of the (new) pubs I drank in on this particular London visit, so a bit of time walking included in my day. Anyhow, although I didn't go into The Old Bell, Fleet Street, which was built by Christopher Wren for the builders who worked on St Bride's church, that is situated in a wee alley behind the pub, anyway, I had to photograph it. This was a regular lunchtime haunt when I worked opposite the Old Bailey in my youth, in the days when people still imbibed copious amounts of alcohol during work lunch breaks. This is now a Nicholson's pub, and credit has to be given to that pubco for taking over and preserving some excellent ale houses, and providing decent ales and food too. 

In my day, as far as I remember, there was only one real ale in here, the excellent Worthington E on draught; not one of the poor keg beers that proliferated at the time, but a genuine real cask conditioned ale. I know that people have conjectured over the years whether this was just re-badged Bass, but it most definitely was, and still is a different ale entirely, with its own recipe, and now brewed at, I believe, the old Bass Museum brewery in Burton; now owned by Coors, there's a surprise! I wish I'd gone in for a drink, but I was restricted for time on the day, so a potential target for the future.    

Not far away is another Nicholson's pub, and one I have reported on not too long ago, The Blackfriar, an Art Nouveau masterpiece built at the beginning of the 20th century, but with a hostelry on the site for over 400 years. I've written about this before, on here, and on facebook, and shall no doubt visit again sometime soon, maybe when I go to The Old Bell, and I have happy memories of using this pub as a quiet wee place to visit with female friends, though not so quiet these days... 

I crossed Blackfriars Bridge to the South bank of the Thames and turned left/east towards Borough Market. As can be seen above, it was starting to get dark; in this photograph is The Rake to the right, with the market behind, and Southwark Cathedral in the background, where a forebear of mine was married (when it was still a Parish Church, pre-promotion). I popped into The Rake, but the 3 ales on sale were either not interesting to me (2 of them), or too strong, the other being about 14% or something! So I wandered through the market to... 

The Market Porter, which I could have published a darkened photograph of, but I haven't, as it was my last ale before I visited the new Mansion House in Kennington (see previous blog), and a photograph of a dark ale here, just to prove I don't only drink pale hoppy ales! Many ales available as ever, including ales from Triple fff, Peerless, and Coastal Brewery, but this was my choice: Leeds Ale Mary, a very pleasant 4.5% dark ale with a hint of liquorice in the flavour. From there to Kennington, and my first bus of the day, and already written about...

Cheers!   

4 new pubs in London...

Well, not quite all new pubs, though one of them is, but all new to me, and the first 3 I hadn't been to before are all in CAMRA's Good Beer Guide 2014, so a promising day was ahead... 

After drinking elsewhere (the Harp, more of soon), I wandered down to The Edgar Wallace, Essex Street, in the Temple area. This is a good looking building and has a lovely comfortable feel to the interior, though the downstairs bar area is smaller than I'd imagined before entering, there is also an upstairs area (tables and seating) that would feel as comfortable as being at home when dining here! 8 real ales on sale, which come from the Enterprise standard list, sadly, so not too many micro ales. Anyway, 2 regulars, their 'own' Edgar's Pale Ale (3.5%) brewed by Nethergate, so presumably their own IPA, an OK bitter, but a bit thin, and the rather good Crouch Vale Brewers Gold (4%). The other ales you wouldn't be surprised by...

My next visit was to The Castle, in between Fetter and Chancery Lanes, and a 'Red Car' pub, a small pubco that appears to have a background in Redcar; certainly the landlord here comes from up there. A more varied selection of ales here, though, coincidentally, their 'own' ale was brewed by Nethergate! That is, Red Car Best Bitter (3.9%); this time, presumably Growler Bitter. A nice Victorian pub, with a very pleasant Kiwi behind the bar, Lauren, who is going home to New Zealand in a months time, though may be back, no problem, as her parents are both Brits. Other ales included London Pride; Abbey Ales Bellringer (4.2%); Dixon's Hoppy Daze (4.2%), brewed by Riverside brewery; Spitting Feathers Farmhouse Ale (3.6%); and Atomic Brewery's Dark Matter (4.1%) and Strike, a 3.7% quite sour pale bitter, not bad. Missing you already Lauren... 

My third 'new' pub was just up from Smithfield Market, the Old Red Cow, another run by someone from up int' North, so much so that they didn't take the tight sparkler off when I asked them to whilst pouring my ale! The barstaff were friendly enough, though, and 4 ales on sale, at a quite high price, mostly over £4, and some 'craft' beers on at over a fiver; this isn't a cheap pub to visit. There were 2 pale bitters, Windsor & Eton Windsor Knot (4%) and West Berkshire Full Circle (4.5%), Signature Brew Bad Carols (5%), and Alchemy Five Sisters, a 4.3% 'red' ale with plenty of roasted malt flavour. The prices and tight sparklers mean I shan't be returning too soon... 

My final new pub, is a new pub called The Mansion House, near to Kennington tube station, round the corner from where I used to live, and opposite the church I first got married in! It was dark by now, so the photograph taken with my mobile phone of the outside is pretty poor, but it's a new building as well, so not that exciting, lots of glass, you can guess. This is the fourth Oakham Brewery bar, as far as I can tell, and, like the others, (the Bartons Arms in Birmingham is the other I've visited before), all seem to sell Eastern food, an 'oriental' restaurant being incorporated here (site). I also met up with 3 members of the Musicians Union NEC, so intelligent conversation was enjoyed too, as well as the beers of course!

Sadly, though, I needed to catch a bus back to Clapham Junction from outside the nearby Imperial War Museum, and from there to catch my late-ish train home, so I could only have a couple of ales. As you'd expect, there were all the regular Oakham ales, spoilt for choice really: JHB, Inferno and Bishops Farewell, but Citra only in bottles, and a real cider of their own. They did, though, have a rather lovely 6% ale brewed with Citra hops, Green Devil IPA, pale, dry, fruity aroma and taste, grapefruit++, plenty of body, and pretty damn good! They also had a guest ale from Blue Monkey Brewery, another 'Black' IPA, which I shall one day be dedicating a blog to, Bonobo (5.3%), as with other black IPAs, dark, tasting lighter than you'd expect, though, of course, not anymore now I'm used to them. A bit too easy to drink...

Cheers!

CAMRA Great British Beer Festival

The Pubmeister, Mark, and I visited the Trade session of this years CAMRA Beer Festival at Olympia in London yesterday, previously held at Earls Court, where I've visited a few times with the Robbos, ie Kieran, and either Graham or Kath, my brother the Routemeister, and various combinations of other friends.  From the information I have, Earls Court is going to become a massive housing, shops, cinema, whatever project, similar to the Battersea Power Station plan. 

Anyway, as you'd expect, there were a few ales, and other styles of beer too from across the world, and ciders and perry, and not a few I've already had much experience of drinking; I was surprised not to see more ales I didn't know, but your Wells, Fullers, Harveys etc don't seem to want to bring in many surprises, experimentation being left to the smaller brewers, no change there!  I had a couple of beers I've had before, eg Butcombe Bitter (4%), a good bitter I used to serve when I worked in the Boringdon Arms in Devon, it does what it says on the label really. Also, Gadds She Sells Sea Shells (4.7%), which I've drunk at the Tower in Hastings, still very good, a dry paler bitter, my personal like, as ever. 

Obviously I couldn't try everything, but I did try the Slaters Citrus (4.8%), not quite what I expected from Slaters, whose 'ordinary' Bitter is one of my favourite session beers. This was more like a 'real lager' described by them as a "Pilsner" style, with Hallertau hops used; slightly malty, hint of lemon in the aroma and taste and a dry finish, it was actually very good! Also, Crouch Vale Citra (3.9%), pale and hoppy, not bad, and Goachers Silver Star (4.2%), a very pale and bitter ale, a wee bit 'sour', not unlike a lambic, I liked it. 

However, my favourite of the session was the Oakham Citra (4.2%), which I drank before trying the Crouch Vale version, which was unfair to Crouch Vale really, because the Oakham Citra was packed with aroma and flavour, and body. Oakham brew some excellent ales, and this is no exception, pale and bitter packed with fruit, most obviously grapefruit, but maybe peach too, loved it, cheers to Oakham! 

I had to add this photograph again of the XT XPA, which, sadly, wasn't on at this beer festival, but of which I have a great memory (see an earlier blog when I had this at the Bricklayers Arms in Putney). Anyway, I mention them because my previous experience was positive and I met a couple of people who work for XT yesterday, including Hannah, with whom I had an interesting conversation, and I feel like the brewery deserves a bit more exposure, so their website is at www.xtbrewing.com. 

Oh... there was a great selection of food styles too, and many thanks to Harveys for the tickets!

My next blog will deal with the pubs we visited after leaving the festival, where we met our first Londoner, ie my brother, at the Bricklayers Arms in Putney, after my meeting up with a few old contacts from Sheffield at the festival, and our meeting a few people from Sussex too. I even spotted Dawn from Norwich (Bear brewing, Ketts Tavern, The Rose), but she passed so quickly, and I was stuffing a steak sandwich, so I missed the opportunity to chat with her... 

Cheers for now!  

More excellent ales...

OK, ales recently enjoyed in two Hastings pubs, the Dolphin, at Rock a Nore in the 'old town', and the Tower, London Road, St Leonards... First, probably my favourite of the bunch...

I've had some excellent ales very recently, including the Saltaire Challenger Special (5.2%), an ale from this excellent Yorkshire brewery, which obviously uses the challenger hop in the process. It is has a deep red colour, has good body with fruity flavours, and you'd be hard pressed to guess it was such a dark beer if you drank it 'blind'.  Sorry if I overuse the word in this blog, but it is excellent!

Another dark beer, a wee bit darker than the Challenger Special, and this time from a Scottish brewery, The Orkney Brewery's Dark Island (4.6%). Nice again, but a bit more like a stout in flavour, at least how I always think of a stout, with the roasted malty flavour I'd expect in a stout.  Carry on...

Thanks to Maz for modelling this pump clip of the Stonehenge Great Bustard, a 4.8% amber ale that I really had to mention as their ales are consistently so good, and I have an anecdote this particular one lends a hand to share... I was at a football match up North with many mates, and a son of one (son of Teapot Dave, that is), purposefully ensuring I didn't swear in front of him, I shouted out "BUSTARD!" instead of another word at one highly charged moment, the little bustard told his dad I said the other word! Can't win, not so exciting, but always happy to share ;-)  

OK, to the ales at the Tower, and you'll be unlikely to be surpised I'm about to mention a very good Dark Star ale, or two, served up here, as there are usually 2 or 3 being served at this pub always! Todays newby for me was the 6% Victorian Ruby Mild, a crackin' dark beer, and I also had the much paler 4.8% Sunburst, mentioned before; this brewery doesn't seem able to do much wrong! 

Finally, for now, Sara was serving up Crouch Vale Apollo (4.3%), labelled "intensely hoppy", and not wrong! Nice and pale, bitter, fruity with body, grapefruit up yer nose and dry grapefruit flavours, loved it! OK, this was my favourite pale ale of the bunch, excellent...

Cheers!

Monday 9th July 2012 - Crossing the border (into Kent)

We ventured across the border into Kent, and virtually straight away you come to 'Danger' areas (firing ranges) near Dungeness... However, we continued further east to Folkestone, which we promptly left walking back eastwards to the start of the Military Canal at Hythe, where we then walked northwards and reached the 2000 year old Roman fort, wall, and port, HQ of the Roman fleet in England, Thomas a Beckett's home and castle, and these 4 giraffes!

We carried on to Burmarsh and visited our first hostelry of the day, the Shepherd & Crook, a lovely old 16th century pub, restored in the 18th century, with a high beamed ceiling, plastered walls and cricket paraphernalia and photographs adorning the walls.

There was Weston's Organic Cider, Adnams Southwold and Naylor's Black & Jan being served from the bar. We drank the Black & Jan, a very good 4.4% porter, a crackin' pint.  We also made friends with the 12 year old pub dog, Jess, a grey collie cross, sadly, I forgot to take a photograph of her :-(

We then ventured further, saw many Norman churches, for some reason, walked a few miles southwards along the coast, then came back inland to New Romney, where we enjoyed the ale and convivial company at the 18th century Cinque Ports Arms.

There are 4 ever-changing ales at the Cinque Ports, today were Wadworths Red, White & Brew, Landlord, Whitstable Brewery's Fathersham Creek (3.8%, pale-ish biscuity tasting bitter, that the Routemeister enjoyed) and Crouch Vale Yakima Gold, that I rather enjoyed! The Yakima Gold was 4.2%, fruity, quite bitter, even a little bit 'sour' maybe, but excellent, in fact.

We then returned to Hastings by the 101/100 bus, having visited 2 excellent pubs today... cheers!