Welsh Beer Festival - Bricklayers Arms, Putney

This weekend, a festival of Welsh ales! My views on Welsh ales were recently expressed, when Tiny Rebel Brewery got a big thumbs up from me! 

Borrowed this photograph off their twitter page, so many thanks for that, and just a selection of what is available this weekend at the Bricklayers Arms in Waterman Street, Putney SW15 1DD.

Visit and enjoy, cheers! 

Part II - Return to the Bricklayers and saved by Naked Ladies again...

On the Monday, I walked into London, mainly along the Thames Path, my prime target being The Old Bell in Fleet Street, a very old haunt of mine from my youth...

The Old Bell was built in 1670 by Sir Christopher Wren to provide accommodation for, and to refresh the workers who were rebuilding the 'wedding cake tier' St Bride's Church, behind the pub, following its damage in the Great Fire of London in 1666. The lad behind the bar seemed to think the pub had been owned by Nicholsons since the 19th century, though I'd be surprised if it was a Nicholsons pub when I used to drink in here in my late teens and early 20s, when the only real ale it sold was Worthington E, an excellent ale of its time! The Old Bell has to be visited if in the area, and on this visit, I enjoyed drinking the Ilkley Mary Jane (3.5%), very pale, dry and bitter, all the way from West Yorkshire, and very refreshing after walking for 3 hours!   

I then had a bit of a wander around the City of London and crossed back to the south of the Thames via London Bridge, heading for Borough Market and The Rake, which I was a bit disappointed with this day, though I had a good chat with a QPR fan there, Donald, cheers! The 3 ales were Brains Farmer Walloon (4.5%), discussed in my previous blog; Great Orme Celtica, also 4.5%, a 'blonde' ale, which was quite bitter and pale, and wasn't too bad actually, very drinkable... But I was very disappointed with the Windsor & Eton Zinzan's Drop, a 4% "All Black Bitter", which had a strange aroma, dark with roasted barley, but, well, let's just say that the flavour wasn't to my taste...  

So a long walk back to Putney, and I felt a little disappointed with the day so far, so had to pop back into The Bricklayers Arms yet again, for my last ales before leaving London the next morning... Naked Ladies, eh? You just can't beat them, and they certainly came up trumps again, together with 2 other good Twickenham ales! Grandstand (3.8%) is a nice golden fruity bitter with a dry aftertaste; Spring Ale (4.4%) is the palest of the 3, nice and dry, and something else I meant to report, but cannot read my writing sadly; and the excellent Naked Ladies (4.4%) which continues to impress, a lovely pale golden bitter, a fruity flavour including peach, with a nice dry finish. All 3 were excellent ales from Twickenham Fine Ales, cheers! 

I will write more about The Old Bell at some time, in a blog or 2 I want to write about pubs of my youth, good and bad... Cheers again!!  

Part I - A long weekend, starting at The Bricklayers Arms...

Started on Friday at The Bricklayers Arms in Putney, sorry, but when I'm in SW15, I just have to go there, simples... 

Sara (may end with an 'h', in fact, probably does, apologies if I've spelt it incorrectly) behind the bar, which is quite usual, and very pleasant, and regular faces including John this side of the bar. A few ales were available from the Surrey brewer, Pilgrim, from whom I cannot remember having one of their ales before: Moild, a 3.8% dark mild, apparently they speak that way; Progress, a 4% copper coloured 'Best Bitter'; Surrey Pale Ale, a 3.7% pale ale, obviously, but lacking a wee bit of flavour and body; and Weald Ale, a 3.6% pale golden ale, slightly malty with a dry finish, not bad.    

Other ales at The Bricklayers included, from Wiltshire, Keystone Bedrock Bitter (3.6%), another pale bitter that ran off before I could sample it; also from Wiltshire, Plain Ales Inndulgence, which I'm sure I've had before, a 'ruby porter', 5.2% and a lovely deep red colour, with a roasted barley aroma and taste, very nice; and more local, Twickenham Grandstand, to be discussed in Part II of this blog...  

Over the weekend I mostly watched rugby, but also, on the Saturday, I had a fair old West London walk to Barnes, Surrey bank of the Thames, and Chiswick and Hammersmith on the Middlesex side. Of course, when in W6! The Dove, by the Thames in Hammersmith is an excellent Fullers pub, great history and very close by Kelmscott House, the late 19th century residence of one of my heroes, William Morris; it would have been nice to share a few drinks with him and to discuss arts and crafts and politics. It's a Fullers pub I've been to many times, but Matt, the ex-manager now, has recently taken off to Africa with his wife, so awaiting a new manager. 

Of course, Fullers/Gales ales are sold here from their 4 handpumps. The ales are always in good condition here, and, should you find Fullers beers not to your taste, this is one of the Fullers houses you really should go to and try a pint of Fullers at before turning your head away from them. There was Gales HSB (4.8%); the excellent full-flavoured Fullers ESB (5.5%), one of my favourite darker ales; London Pride (4.1%), pretty much the Fullers beer that everyone has heard of, which, when sampled at somewhere that sells it quickly and knows how to look after their ale, like here, this is very good too; Chiswick Bitter, only 3.5%, and difficult to find, quite rare, in fact. Dry hopped and a lovely session bitter, incidentally, Chiswick was the favourite tipple of the local beer writer, Michael Jackson R.I.P. (not the singer and Fulham fan).  

Still in W6, I also visited the excellent The Duchess of Cambridge, on Goldhawk Road, near to Stamford Brook, and had a good chat with Simon, the landlord. The Duchess allows 50p reductions per pint on its real ales, most of which are usually served by gravity direct from casks behind the bar, to CAMRA members, thank you very much, also to teachers and NHS workers, and ticket holders for the nearby QPR Football Club on match days too, I do believe! I finished with a pint of the Windsor & Eton Conqueror Black IPA (5%), which I do believe I've discussed very recently, anyway, this is dark, yet hoppy, with a slight smokey flavour, and just £3.10 a pint with my discount, cheers Simon! 

Other ales included, from Wales, Brains Farmer Walloon (4.5%), a 'Saison' type version of a Belgian style, I got the Belgian, just, not bad... There were also 3 ales from the Nottinghamshire brewer, Milestone, 2 rugby directed, ie English Rose (4.5%), pale amber coloured and very nice, and Welsh Dragons (4%), paler with a slightly more malty flavour, not bad, and the darker Olde English Ale (4.9%). Sorry, but I forgot to make any other notes!

Cheers for now, look out for Part II! 

On the way... to Sheffield via London...

On the way to Sheffield, I had stayed the previous night at Dan the Routemeister's residence in Putney, ie with my brother and niece, and, before tea/dinner/supper (depending on your social or territorial grouping), we walked along the Surrey bank to Hammersmith Bridge, crossing to reach the excellent Fullers pub, The Dove, Upper Mall, W6 9TA.  

The Dove (website) was built in the early 18th century in rural, yes rural at that time, Hammersmith, overlooking the river; indeed, its balcony at the back of the pub is a pleasure to sit on, when not too busy, and warmer. On this day, however, we sat near the fire, which is in the main bar that you walk into when entering the pub. If you decide to go through the door to your right when you immediately enter The Dove, you will enter the "smallest bar room in Britain" (Guinness Book of Records) at 33 sq ft in area. If you had ignored the pub and walked further on, you would  have soon reached Kelmscott House, that was the home of William Morris and is now the site of the William Morris Society and museum (website). Indeed, The Dove has had an impressive number of historic and literary figures visiting over the centuries! 

The Dove has been a Fullers pub since 1845, serving good food as well as good ales, and you can't get much more locally sourced! You'll usually find their Chiswick Bitter (3.5%) and London Pride (4.1%) as regular ales, and the stronger and full-bodied ESB (5.5%) is often available too as one of the 2 guests, as it was this day; the fourth ale was the seasonal Jack Frost (4.5%). Dan hadn't tried the Chiswick before, so, as it is quite hard to find, even in Fullers pubs, we went for it; this having been the favourite ale of the famous beer writer, Michael Jackson, RIP. A lot of people may knock the Chiswick, and, if you've drunk something with lots of hops, or lots of flavour like ESB beforehand, you may find it lacks a bit. However, as the first drink of the day, and if you carry on drinking it, it is superb, consequently, Michael's love of the beer! A lovely bitterness comes through a nutty flavour, with a hoppy dry aftertaste, the result of, I believe, each cask being dry hopped before sealing, nice one!  

We then came back along the Middlesex bank and crossed Putney Bridge, and visited another excellent pub, The Bricklayers Arms, Waterman Street SW15 1DD, a freehouse, much visited and written about by me. The Bricklayers (website) is a regular CAMRA (and other) award winner, and has up to a dozen real ales on sale. I've gone on about this many times, as Dan reckons it's MY local in Putney, but they tend to bring in many ales from a specific brewery, this time from the local Twickenham Fine Ales, including the excellent Naked Ladies (4.4%), which I've written about quite a bit before, Redhead (4.1%), Sundancer (3.7%), and the seasonal Winter Cheer (4.4%). 

I drank the Sundancer first, pale and dry, with a nutty flavour coming through, and nice and bitter, yes, nice one. Then I finished off our pub drinking with a half of the Winter Cheer, a darker chestnut coloured ale, a bit thinner than I'd expected, nutty, with a hint of spices and a roasted malt finish, and quite bitter, not bad at all! 

We then wandered back to Dan's having luckily missed a shower, cheers!  

West London Thames Path walk, Naked Ladies, real fires and ale...

A visit to my brother, the Routemeister, will more often than not include a long walk, usually 12 to 20 miles long, and a few fine ales, and, now we're approaching Winter, real fires... So why should this visit be any different? The evening before the walk we popped into the Bricklayers Arms in Putney, and also following the walk, before me returning to the Junction to catch a train home.

The Bricklayers (site) is a fine pub that I've written about many times, and they appear to work on getting 5 to 10 ales from a microbrewer at a time, so you usually find at least 3 or 4 from the same brewer when you visit, among their dozen ales on offer, often, 2 or 3 from the last brewer they selected too. Their last brewer appeared to be Hobsons, from whom they had their 3.2% Mild, 3.6% Twisted Spire, a 'blond' beer with a slightly nutty flavour, and the very good Old Henry (5.2%), a "rich autumn ale". 

Their next brewer is the Kent brewer Goody, with many "good this and good that"; over the two visits I tried the very good Good Heavens, a 4.1% 'best bitter', tasted like a typical bitter from the South East, nice deep copper colour. My second one was Goodness Gracious Me, a 4.8% pale bitter with a nutty aroma that reminded me of the Belgian lambics in a way, with a slightly sour taste, pretty good stuff too, apparently, a green hopped ale. 

We also sampled Mulberry Duck Amber Sparkle, a 4.1% light malty dry bitter, and Wildflower, a darker 4% bitter; and Red Squirrel Conservation Bitter, a copper coloured sweetish fruity ale, at first taste, with a dry bitter aftertaste, not bad at all. 

Our lunchtime 'port of call' was the Waterman's Arms in Richmond, a wonderful Youngs house (site), kept to a high standard by the Irish landlord and lady, which we used to enjoy Thai food at quite regularly, before cutting back on our expenditure due to necessity. The usual Youngs ales here, always kept in great condition, Special and 'Ordinary' Bitter, and the seasonal Winter Warmer, but their 'guest ale' outstrips sales of the pub company's own ales, ie Twickenham Naked Ladies! 

Naked Ladies is pretty much a local ale, certainly much more local than Bedford brewed Youngs these days, and pretty damn excellent too! I'm sure it used to be called "3 Naked Ladies", and surely the pump clip included the image of 3 naked ladies on it (all very tasteful of course), but now just the one on the pumclip, despite the plural in the name; maybe a modern day Mary Whitehouse complained or something? Anyway, this is a 4.4% pale bitter, very nice and bitter too, cheers!  

We then walked up to Richmond Park, leaving the Thames Path, crossed the Park, and then crossed Wimbledon Common to visit one of two Youngs pubs, we gave the Hand in Hand a miss, mostly because last time we visited the Crooked Billet (fire therein above), situated in Crooked Billet, Wimbledon Common (site), a few doors down from the Hand in Hand, they had the Naked Ladies too, and we wanted to carry out a  taste comparison. 

Anyway, no Naked Ladies this time, sadly, but the usual Youngs Bitter, Special and Winter Warmer, Wells Bombardier, and Courage Directors, all brewed by Wells these days, of course. We had a pint each of the Special, and it was in very good condition, a nice pint indeed, which it still can be, many thanks, but not as good as the Naked Ladies, oh well...  

Cheers!

Returning via the White Horse and Bricklayers Arms, and more...

When we left Earls Court, our initial target was to walk down to the White Horse on Parsons Green, which the Pubmeister, Mark, had never visited before. Obviously, I felt obliged to aid his learning experience, and it is a mighty fine pub, so we headed southwards, however, on the North End Road, we had to make a logistical stop, OK, had to use a loo, so we stopped in a pub, that I shan't tell you any more about, as I'd hate for anyone to think I was recommending it, which I wouldn't. What we did have was London Pride without any pride or life in it, oh well, at least we felt more comfortable, if aggrieved, when we continued our walk to the White Horse.  

Here, we were served by the excellent Michelle, who went out of her way to find out some important information for me.  Anyway, we sat outside at the front, under one of the umbrellas provided, drinking our choice from the White Horse. This was an interesting beer from another 2011 founded micro, the London Brewing Company, called Zingibier (5.4%), a ginger flavoured beer, very fresh and bitter too; now, we had had a few by now, but I can read my notes easily, so still intelligent analysis, and I drew a smiley face next to my notes, noting that plenty of ginger flavour "but still a beer". There you go, we liked it, and the Pubmeister liked the pub too! We now were heading further south (slightly west of south actually) to Putney...

The Bricklayers Arms in Waterman Street is, what I like to think of, as my Putney 'local', even though it's my brother, Dan the Routemeister, who actually lives near it, though he only comes here when I visit him. So, I surprised Dan when I telephoned him from the White Horse to say we were in the area, would he fancy meeting up? Consequently, we met the Routemeister at the Bricklayers.  Here, from the 12 ales available, we tried two of them, the Aylesbury Pure Gold (3.8%), a pale golden session bitter, pretty good, and the stronger Vale Brewery Gravitas (4.8%), a 'fresh' pale bitter, dry and bitter, but without as much flavour as I'd expected for its strength. Anyway, Mark found this to be his favourite of the pubs, indeed, he's since repeated a couple of times how much he liked it, so that's a "nice one" to the Bricklayers!  

We caught the 337 bus from Putney to Clapham Junction, where we were catching our train back to Hastings, and had a final London drink of the day at the Falcon, on the corner of St Johns Hill and Falcon Road, a Victorian Nicholsons pub, carefully preserved, with 20 or so ales, and the longest continuous bar in the country, so say the Guinness Book of Records. The Pubmeister was impressed by the building and its interior too, and we tried 2 of their ales. Both were pretty interesting, Itchen Valley Belgarum (3.9%) was described on the pump clip as having a "twist of honey & elderflower" flavour; I didn't really pick up the elderflower, yep, it was pale and hoppy, and a bit sweet, not bad, but... The second beer was Box Valley Brewery Funnel Blower (4.5%) a "dark vanilla porter", though I picked up a chocolate malt flavour rather than vanilla, the aroma being more vanilla; very nice too! 

So we caught the train back to Hastings, and managed to get back to Mark's pub, the Dolphin at Rock a Nore, in time to catch a bit of the 'Irish' music and I drank the Dark Star Red Shift (5.5%), which I've already reported about, ie it has a dark ruby colour with a blackcurrant aroma, plenty of body, very nice. The Pubmeister had a half of the Salopian Oracle (4%), another nice pale, dry and bitter ale. So we ended the day still drinking excellent ale... 

Though my day wasn't quite over as I decided to walk along the beach back to my flat, it was a lovely clear sky, and I wanted to see if I could spot any meteorites, as the previous night had been widely reported that many sightings of 'shooting stars' or whatever, I'm not sure of the physics, had been made. This was coming close to midnight now, and there were quite a number of fishing boats out to sea, I could see their lights. I may have seen a meteorite or two, I certainly made out a bit of activity in the sky, but my most interesting find was 2 badgers foraging in a bin near the beach (I forgot to change my mobile phone camera to 'night' so was unable to capture a photograph). Anyway, I hadn't seen a live badger since I lived in Devon a few years ago, and now 2 turn up at once... 

That's it for now, cheers!

2 Riverside pubs. Back to London and the Thames, again...

Back to London, turning up at Clapham Junction, on Friday 21st June. Gave the Youngs pub, The Waterfront, a miss, poor quality overpriced beer, but the Routemeister, my brother Dan, insisted we visit the Wetherspoons pub by Putney Bridge, the Rocket.  This is situated by the historic St Marys church, on the South bank, and seems to have a decent clientele, not what you'd usually expect; indeed, a very interesting couple of fellow clients shared interesting discourse about the merits of limes over lemons with G&T. Anyway, we had a very good pint of Youngs Special (4.5%) each for just £2.29 this time, giving the Youngs pub next door a miss, and I got the 50p reduction for being a CAMRA member, so just £1.79 a pint!

We then crossed Putney Bridge and walked to the Dove at Hammersmith, a great riverside pub, and, where, thanks to Matt the manager, though he assured me it was just a stock email from Fullers themselves that issued the invitation to me to enjoy a free pint of London Pride (4.1%).  Anyway, Pride was enjoyed, by the Routemeister, actually, I enjoyed the more bitter seasonal ale from Fullers, Wild River (4.5%).  There were also Fullers ESB and Summer Ale available. 

We then crossed Hammersmith Bridge and returned to Putney via the South bank, cheers!

Richmond, Surrey (Wednesday 15th May 2013)

What to do, what's the weather going to be like? We'd decided to make our 'country walk' tomorrow, so Wednesday was to be our River Thames wander, which turned out to be a much longer walk than tomorrow's, this day, only about 22 miles...

From Dan's in Putney, we walked westwards along the River Thames to Kingston, a few miles, indeed... then up to Kingston Gate and into Richmond Park, on to the Pen Ponds in the centre of the Park, and out to Richmond Gate and a short way down the hill to the famous view above.  

We could have gone into the Roebuck at the top of the hill, another good pub, but decided to wander down the hill and visit one we hadn't been to for quite a few years, The Victoria Inn, Richmond Hill, which used to be a rather too smokey pub in the 'old days', as it is a small one-bar building, though with a garden out the back, and now a Punch Taverns' house. 3 ales here; 2 regulars, Sharps Doom Bar (4%) and Youngs Bitter, or 'Ordinary' (3.7%), and the guest on this day, Thwaites Wainright, a 4.5% golden ale, not bad, and the pub has improved in the smoke-free atmosphere, nice sights out of the window, and bragging a warm landlady, Denise, inside, cheers m'dear!

We then dropped down the hill to the river again, and visited one of our favourites, the Waterman's Arm's, a Youngs' pub, that now outsells it's always well-kept Special (4.5%) and Ordinary (3.7%) with the regular guest here, Twickenham Three Naked Ladies (4.4%); I do like this beer!  The Irish landlord, a regular conversationalist, was away, we believed, but didn't ask, however, we missed his chat and updates.  We then headed back to Putney...

 

Tomorrow, and into the deep excesses of Surrey (honest!) cheers!

Clapham Junction to Putney (Tuesday 14th May 2013)

Not written for a while, because of no access to a pc or laptop, so a few will be published over next few days, starting with my arriving in London to visit the Routemeister...

We first visited this new Young's bar, really, can't be called a pub, which is a shame when taking into account the brewer's history.  The Waterfront, what can I say? It's very 'modern', when I thought 'modern' was out of date now, much glass, as you can see from the photograph. A selection of the usual Youngs ales on, Special, Ordinary and Waggle Dance, of which we had a pint of Special each.  Quite frankly, the barmaid had no idea how to pull a pint, and had to be asked twice to top up the shortfall, the beer wasn't 'off', but it was a bit sad, lacked the usual flavour, was tired... Not that I'm suggesting it was near the end of a cask that must have been on for ages, or that the bar may have a cellar a fair way away from the pump, so a long line, nor that they hadn't sold any yet on that day, just that... I shan't be returning in a hurry. 

 

Anyway, that evening we visited the Bricklayers Arms in Putney, a different kettle of fish entirely!

Alway a great selection of ales here, on the day, dominated by dark beers; a couple of Old Dairy ales, Red Top (3.8%) and Gold Top (4.3%), a few others, plus 4 from Plain Ales Brewery in the West Country. We tried 2 of the Plain Ales, missing out the Mild Not Meek (5.4%) and Inndulgence, a 5.2% "Ruby Porter", Dan just drank the 4.2% "Ruby Best Bitter" that was Inntrigue, which I felt was a bit thin, after which I drank the 4.8% Inncognito, which was very nice, indeed, much more body, a bit chocolatey, with a hint of liquorice. Good stuff...

More to come shortly, cheers!    

London 6th - 8th March 2013

I arrived at Clapham Junction on the 6th, and departed from Clapham Junction on the 8th, as you can see, a bit wet then, so a trip to The Northcote, Northcote Road, now it's a nice safe pub to visit, and not just for me, but a very woman friendly environment, together with a wide range of customers, young and old, as well as my age, in the middle a bit, haha, and, of course, male and female.  I was served a pint of the ale shown below by the delightful Ruby, who has been present on a previous visit too, and she asked me to mention their having a young Brazilian lad working behind the bar too, presumably, for my female readership?

So, apart from the obvious, other ales included Youngs Bitter (3.7% and called 'Ordinary' by us older Youngs drinkers, or someone like me who worked in a Youngs' pub in my yoof, when their ales were still brewed in Wandsworth) and Sharps Doom Bar (4%). I'm sure I must have drunk this before, anyway, I tried a pint of the Adnams Ghost Ship, a 4.5% reasonably pale coloured bitter, though not quite the "ghostly pale ale" the brewery describes it as, but a decent bitter nonetheless; and, of course, a pint of the local Sambrook's Junction, a 4.5% medium coloured bitter, what I always think of as a typical London bitter colour, I'm sure you know what I mean, and it tastes like a typical London bitter, very nice too, cheers! 

Previously, my brother, The Routemeister, had met me in The Candlemaker, Battersea High Street, on the 6th, where Kathryn appeared shortly after our arrival (I think that's how to spell her name, sorry if I'm wrong, K) and we were served by a very friendly Antipodean, Holly, who also has family links to South East Sussex. We each had a pint of the Sambrook's Pale Ale, a nice pale and hoppy 4.2% bitter from the local brewer.  They also had available the same brewery's Wandle, a 3.8% session bitter, Kings IPA (5.2%), which I'd have loved to try, but a bit strong for the middle of the day, and their own brewery, Laine's Best Bitter (4.1% and reported on before).  

Finally, we had a drink at The Bricklayer's Arms in Putney, where there were still many ales on from their 'Yorkshire Beer Festival', too many to mention now, but have a look at their website (site) for more information. We had a pint each of Great Heck Brewing Dispensible, a 4.5% pale beer, we were a little disappointed with, as, frankly, it needed more hops. Also, I was a wee bit upset I'd missed the Kelham Island Pale Rider, though I was to drink their Easy Rider at my local, the Dolphin, in Hastings, less than a week later (both ales I have brewed when I worked for Kelham Island). 

 

Cheers!

Congratulations to the Dolphin in Hastings for...

Congratulations to the Dolphin in Hastings for winning the local CAMRA Branch Pub of the Year for South East Sussex!

I shall very soon be blogging about pubs in London from my visit last week, and in WEST Sussex too, cheers for now!

10th and 11th December - Bricklayers Arms, Putney

2 drinking shifts for me earlier this week at The Bricklayers Arms in Putney (website) whose landlady collected an award, on the 14th, as a finalist of 'Headway Campaigner of the Year', warm congratulations to Becky!   

Anyway, the Monday was spent in the company of my brother, the Routemeister, but solo on Tuesday whilst he was running an errand for my niece.  The Monday was virtually a Yorkshire beer festival, with ales from Ilkley Gold (3.9%) and Best (4%), the Gold is a nice pale bitter; my brother tried the Acorn Barnsley Gold (4.3%), having drunk many Acorn beers in the past and having worked with their head brewer (not sure if he still works there, though), I gave this a miss purely because I know their ales, and they are very good; Wold Top Bitter (3.7%), a nice traditional bitter, and the excellent Wold Gold, 4.8% of full-bodied golden bitter, very nice.

 

Amongst the other ales, there were also 2 from Bath, the 3.7% Spa and 4.1% Gem, and Downton Chocolate Orange Delight (5.8%), which I was hoping to drink the following day, but missed out on, that's life and ale drinking at 'London's Permanent Beer Festival', aka the Bricklayers Arms, my Putney 'local'. Oh yes, and yet another real fire for me...  

On the 11th, I returned early evening, missed the Downton choccy one, but tried the very good Bowman Quiver, a 4.5% pale bitter ale and the equally very good, but very different, Vale Brewery Black Swan, described as a 'dark smooth rich mild', certainly plenty of body for a 3.9% mild and very drinkable!  There were also, from Vale Brewery, Red Kite (4%), a 'chestnut red malty bitter' and the 3.4% Brill Amber, and many other ales on their 12 handpumps, including another Yorkshire ale, Clarks Twister (4.2%) from Wakefield.

 

2 enjoyable sessions... Cheers!

1st November - The Bricklayers Arms, Putney

A trip to London, mostly to help out my brother, but we managed to slip in a crackin' couple of pints at his/my new Putney local, The Bricklayers. 

As I've no doubt said before, The Bricklayers has 12 ales and a cider served from handpump; incidentally, there were ciders and perries left from the small cider festival held here at the weekend, and a spare handpump, so just the 11 ales to chose from and loadsa cider, 'just'.  I'll mention Potton Brewery in Bedfordshire, because they had 4 of their ales on, and I've never had an ale from there before, hadn't even heard of them actually: Penny Bitter (4%), Potton Gold Bitter (4.1%), The Village Bike (4.3%), and Shannon IPA (3.6%). Of course, there were quite a few other ales on, so we had to try a couple...

 

... and these were the 2 we drank, not because they were next to each other, so easy to photograph, that's just a coincidence, but because I felt they were the obvious choices for my tastebuds, and the Routemeister went along with my advice. We started with Moorhouse's Blond Witch, a 4.5% pale golden ale, with a hint of malted biscuit at first, and a dry aftertaste, very tasty!

 

We then tried an ale from a microbrewery very close to where I live in East Sussex, Franklin's CITRA IPA, a 5.5% pale bitter with plenty of body and a fruity aroma, I noted 'peachy', certainly a more subtle fruity taste too, and a lovely dry finish, loved it, cheers!

22nd and 24th October - The Bricklayers Arms, Putney

OK, I stayed near the Thames in Putney this week, hence, I had to revisit The Bricklayers Arms at least twice, first on Monday, with the lovely Annet behind the bar again, and the regular lad this side of the bar, John (we're becoming near-drinking buddies now), and quite a few other gentlemen this side of the bar too, of course.

I tried 3 of the ales today, Oakleaf's 3.9% pale blonde bitter Some Are Drinking, a decent summer ale, though it's now the Autumn, a refreshing ale; Cairngorm's Trade Winds, a 4.3% dry, pale bitter, described as being a "Citrus, Wheat and Elderflower", though I didn't get these flavours myself too much, but enjoyed it; and Triple fff Brewery's Jabberwocky, a 5% 'black IPA', a very dark bitter with hints of licquorice, very enjoyable, see, I don't just drink pale bitters! Also, many other ales, of course, give it a visit, though I shall mention a few from my next visit... 

OK, I returned on the Wednesday, sadly, no Annet, but hey! John was in his usual position this side of the bar, and Alan AKA 'Jock the Postie', this side of the bar.  There were some of the ales on from Monday still, eg Rudgate Battleaxe (4.2%) and Broughton Exciseman's 80/- (4.6%), and two new ales I drank. These were Plain Ales Innocence, a refreshing golden bitter, and my favourite of the week, Milk Street Brewery Beer 5%; now, I was a little confused over the name from the pump clip, but I checked up on the brewery's website, and that's what the name appears to be, says what it is on the pump clip, 5%, described as a 'bitter sweet' ale, personally, I describe it as an excellent bitter, that starts with a brief hint of sweetness at first, then a dry and bitter aftertaste, pretty damn good!

As I had other responsibilities that day, I could not take advantage of the Cider and Perry Festival, with 9 ciders and 3 perries, and I do like a proper perry as they aren't that common, but should you be in the area this weekend, get there, I would, have a perry for me please. See the website for more information.

Cheers!

Friday 7th September 2012 Bricklayers Arms, Putney

We concentrated more on helping my bro, the 'Routemeister', to move to Putney today, but we did make lunchtime and evening visits to his new 'local', though he reckons it's more MY new Putney local, The Bricklayers Arms, a regular London CAMRA Pub of the Year...

 

Lunchtime was very quiet, as you can see from this photograph from where we were sitting in the 'garden'. No food here, but they were happy to accept us bringing our own sandwiches from Waitrose in Putney High Street. There are 12 ales served from handpumps here and a real cider.

 

We only tried 3 of the ales available today, the Sunny Republic Beach Blonde at 3.7%, a sweetish fruity ale (website at Sunny Republic); Plain Ales Inn the Sun, a 4.6% 'blonde bitter' (website at Plain Ales), the Routemeister's favourite lunchtime drink today, an easy to drink 'fruity' pale ale; and my preference, though I had a try at the three of them, the Art Brew Bouncy, 5.2% of in your face hops, 5 hops actually, pale, dry, bitter, loved it! Website at Art Brew...

When we returned in the evening, I continued drinking the Bouncy, why not, it's pretty good?!? The Routemeister, ie my bro, Dan, started with the Inn the Sun, but couldn't resist drinking the Bouncy before we left. Great day drinking Bouncy, oh yes, and a a bit knackered with all the lifting, so slept well...

Zzzzz....

The Eight Bells, Putney Bridge

Stephen H's next posting following QPR's 6-0 drubbing by Fulham on 2nd October:

We ended up drinking in the Eight Bells, Putney, prior to the drubbing at Fulham. Not sure how far we actually walked to The Eight Bells but, by the time we arrived, I was so thirsty I had to have five pints to rehydrate. Lovely old pub where you can get a decent pint of London Pride (ed's note, they also sell Sharp's Doom Bar). The atmosphere was really good with a selection of Fulham, Chelsea and QPR fans all drinking in harmony. See attached pictures.