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...

Another trip to London & Two Excellent Ales

A crackin' weekend in London with my brother, the Routemeister, and about 35 miles walked. The first round trip being to Richmond and obviously including our favourite pub there, the Watermans Arms (website), where we had...

OK, I know I always drink this, when they do sell Youngs ales, being a Youngs pub, but also another Twickenham (website) ale this day, their 3.8% Grandstand Bitter, but we had to drink the Naked Ladies again: 4.4% of pale, dry, bitter, hoppy delight, packed with flavours from Pilgrim, Celeia and Chinook hops, excellent!  

On our walk back to Dan's we decided to visit the Halfway House (website), near Barnes, walked past it a few times, but never been in! Really friendly place, great music venue, and beer in good form, sadly though, I forgot to make a note of what we drank, and my brother can't remember either, but it was certainly Scottish, from Edinburgh, I believe. I seem to remember 3 ales were on the bar (handpumps), maybe London Pride and Doom Bar the other two, anyway, a 'tick' pub...  

Our second round trip was to Borough Market/London Bridge/Southwark Cathedral (where a set of our great-great-grandparents were married). Oh yes, and to The Rake (website) of course, where I drank the also excellent...  

Oakham Ales (website) are another of my favourite brewers, and we were very lucky to find that, in addition to their Citra, oft tried and quality, they had this unique "Limited Edition" The Racketeer (5%). Oakham describe it as "Full on citrusy golden beer with powerful New Zealand hops dominating throughout." I wrote in my notes, thankfully written this time, as a 'tick' ale: "pale golden bitter, citrus aroma, citrus flavours, tangerine and grapefruit" - I liked it a lot!

I should also say they had a third beer on, as usual, this one from West London brewer, Dragonfly (website), their 4.3% "London Stout" Dark Matter. Anyway, a good chat with the two staff members, and another customer who used to run a bar in Putney, the excellent The Racketeer being imbibed, and a walk back to Dan's in prospect, meant I didn't try the stout, sorry... Cheers anyway!   

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!!