Well, I did visit London, which is up North to me, plus some ales from much further North than London reviewed here. Anyway, I included a visit to the Eagle Ale House, off Northcote Road, and close to the Junction; I never thought it would happen to me and a girl from Clapham, you know the one! This is a decent ale house, though seems to have less of the pale and hoppy ales I prefer. On this visit, they did have a golden ale from Hackney Brewery, H3 (4%); Clarence & Fredericks Best Bitter (4.1%); Woodforde's Wherry (3.8%); and I thought I should try the resurrected Truman's Swift (3.9%), another 'golden' ale, with quite a rich flavour, plenty of body for a lower gravity ale, and nice and bitter. They now have their own new brewery in the East End, and I'd love to have one of their glasses! Anway, more about them @ their website, and good luck to them too.
I also visited my 'local' in Putney, the Bricklayers Arms, which had apparently been drunk dry by Fulham and Villa fans over the weekend! Anyway, they did have 4 Twickenham ales on sale, sadly, just ran out of Naked Ladies too (I'm sure it used to be called 3 Naked Ladies, the landlady said they certainly had changed their pumpclips, and had a similar opinion to me, though others present didn't agree, oh well). Anyway, Twickenham ales they did have were Grandstand, a 3.5% session beer; Redhead, a 4.1% "red ale", believe it or not; a very nice 3.7% pale and hoppy "golden" ale, Sundancer; and a 4.4% winter ale, Winter Cheer, a not too bad darkish bitter with a mellow maltiness and dry aftertaste.
I have to mention the Tiny Rebel ale (which is from way up North) Hank (4%), reported on before, and still very good, but this time drunk at the First In Last Out, High Street, Hastings 'old town', nice one, cheers! Of course, the FILO also sells 4 or 5 of their own ales, also well worth trying, of course, but they had the Tiny Rebel on, so...
Back to the Dolphin, Rock-a-Nore, Hastings, and this time I did manage to have a pint of the excellent pale and hoppy Oakham Bishops Farewell (4.6%), see my recent blog about pale ales that mentioned Oakham too, I do believe. In addition to their regulars, Hophead, Sussex Best and Youngs Special, they also had Ilkley (see, from Yorkshire) Rye N' Dry (5%), a deep copper coloured bitter with a roasted malt flavour, and the more local Franklins Pudding Stout (4.2%), a bit sweet with a hint of coffee and smoky malt flavour, not bad either.
At the Tower, London Road, Hastings (upper) St Leonards/Bohemia, a number of crackin' ales, including from Dark Star, of course, have been enjoyed recently. They have had Hastings 'Handmade' number 11, their Black IPA, which I've also had at the Albatross Club in Bexhill on Sea, and more to be reported on soon with a blog just about 'Black' IPAs, which sounds like an oxymoron, and also the very good Hopback Citra (4%), which has a very citrusy aroma, hint of malt in the flavour, more than usual in such a hoppy ale, and a dry aftertaste.
Since then I have enjoyed the great array of ales in the photograph above, with the 'session' ale being the 4.7% Dark Star APA, still just £2.60 a pint! First, I drank the new local Sussex brewery 360 Degrees (website) Pacific Pale #49, a 4.9% pale and hoppy dry bitter, a very good new ale indeed, and at £2.80 a pint, nice one, ta. Also, had a couple of pints of Thornbridge Jaipur, well you have to, don't you, when you can get this 5.9% Derbyshire ale for just £3.10 a pint? It was the best Jaipur I've tasted for a long time too, it appears more bitter and dryer than it used to be, what I always preferred about their Kipling, pale, dry and bitter; could be a good side effect of an accountant getting the grist reduced, so it is fermented out further to reach the strength... it's a thought? Oh! And Dark Star Critical Mass, which I have never had before. The reducing of the strength from 10% to the more manageable 7.4% was lamented by locals, but a darker roasted malt flavoured bitter (£3.20 a pint, usually up to £5 a pint elsewhere!), very good too.
And Louisa the landlady serving me on this visit too, cheers, and many thanks Lou!
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