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!

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!

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! 

Back to the Bricklayers in Putney...

Back to the Bricklayers, and why not, if in the area, it's got to be done, and it's not a hard job.

Fulham were player Arsenal later in the early evening, apparently, plastic 'beakers' are used for the beer match days for Fulham, not the best drinking vessel, but, as I was there just after 12.00, I managed to have my beer in a proper straight glass. I was only going to have one pint, but felt I should have another too (drank Downton's Quadhop, a pale, dry, hoppy bitter with a hint of a slightly nutty flavour. Very good!

Also, met a young Australian family, new to West London, so had a bit of a chat about pubs and real ale with them. Enjoyable time, loved the craic!