Wandsworth Council come up trumps!

Nice one Wandsworth Council... I have to admit to being a wee bit surprised, but where praise is due I'm happy to pass it on! 120 pubs and bars in the borough have been told they wil have to seek permission from the Council before they can change the use of the building or knock it down, as we have seen happen in recent years, this has been presented to the owners as Article 4 Directions (see website). 

Pubs include old favourites of mine, the Bricklayers Arms in Putney and The Falcon at Clapham Junction, and also 2 pubs I used to frequent that are not open at the moment, the White Lion in Putney and the Brewery Tap in Wandsworth, which has been closed for many years now sadly! 

Made my day, cheers!

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...

South East Sussex POTY again!

Congratulations, yet again, to Louisa at the Tower, London Road, St Leonards, Hastings, for winning the local CAMRA Pub of the Year again! I've made 2 trips there recently, just to make sure, of course, nothing to do with excellent ales at good value prices, oh no... Anyway, both trips 6 ales from handpumps, none more expensive than £3 a pint, can't be bad, and all in good nick too!

The ales are mostly from local brewers, her 2 regulars being the excellent, and Sussex brewed, Dark Star (website) Hophead (3.8% and £2.80/pint) and American Pale Ale (APA, 4.7% and £2.90/pint). Other local-ish ales were Gun (website) Scaramanga (3.9%) an extra pale refreshingly light bitter, Long Man (website) Copper Hop (4%), a more typical bitter which I have reported on a few times before and very good, and Pig & Porter (website) Skylarking (4%) a refreshing pale golden bitter hopped with Ella and Galaxy, so hints of exotic fruits.

And, from further afield, Derby brewer Shiny (website) Pail (4%) brewed with Ella and Cascade hops, pale and lovely and bitter, Yorkshire brewer Ilkley (website) Rombald (which was £3 a very fair pint and 4.6%) a hoppy 'American' amber ale brewed with Cascade, Chinook, Nugget and Columbus hops with a biscuit malt flavoured base, and, from even further afield in Scotland, Fyne Ales (website) Maverick (4.2%) a reddish copper coloured bitter brewed with Bramling Cross and Challenger hops, always good ales from Fyne Ales!

But, not only did the Tower win the POTY for ales, but for Ciders and Perry too, nice one! Ciders included Orchard Pig Explorer (4.5%), Biddenden Bushels (6%), a favourite of a Scottish mate Jeff, Westons Old Rosie (7.3%) and Old Badger (I think, can't read my own writing! 4%), and their Country Perry (4.5%), and priced between £3.10 and £3.40 a pint... I can remember paying 25p a pint at the old Cider Bar in Newton Abbot in my youth!

Oh yes, and ales shortly to come on, if not already available, include excellent ales from Oakham Ales (Endless Summer), Fyne Ales (Highlander), Downlands (IPA), and Franklins Citra, enjoy them if you see them, you lucky people!

More than an off licence with great beers!

I only recently discovered Borough Wines, Beers and Books, in Hastings Robertson Street (website), the only shop they have outside London, many thanks to Becky for advising me of its existence, though it has been there since last year! Many who know me will realise I have a close affinity, and familial ties, with Southwark, particularly with Borough Market and its environs.

They sell a great variety of beers, in bottles and in cans, from near and far, from East Sussex, London, across the UK actually, and from abroad, with a good selection of Belgian beers to help to quench my thirst for the odd Tripel or two...

They also have a fine selection of wines, and you can bring your own bottle to fill from red and white wine casks, or they can provide you with an empty resealable bottle that can be brought back and refilled whenever you wish. They also sell books! So you can buy something to read whilst you knock back a glass of wine, or quaff a glass of beer, what an excellent idea, something that could be extended to pubs, perhaps.

To the beers I tried...

2 pretty excellent beers were enjoyed, both in cans! First the 7.2% Beavertown Bloody 'Ell, a "blood orange IPA". Beavertown Brewery is based in North London (website), and their Bloody 'Ell was brewed to celebrate Halloween a few years ago; an IPA infused with blood red orange zest and juice, together with Magnum, Citra, Simcoe, and Amarillo hops, this has a powerhouse of flavours. From my tasting notes: "A very fruity aroma, plenty of body, citrus+++, dries out with a lovely bitter finish." What more can I say? Fabulous!! 

The second, rather more sedate 5.5% beer in a can was, Huddersfield in Yorkshire based, Magic Rock High Wire Grapefruit (website). This is a grapefruit infused version of their West Coast Pale Ale, High Wire, and includes a flavour inducing blend of 6 hops in the brew, Cascade, Chinook, Centennial, Citra, Colombus and Magnum! Consequently, plenty of flavour, back to my notes: "Grapefruit++, hint of mango and peach, with a lovely dry bitter finish. Has to one of my 5 for the Day!"

I'll be trying more beer from here, what a great start, cheers!

Free Beer! Who am I to refuse?

So, free beer, however, a lager, though a "new wave craft lager!" Well, my brother only had a voucher from Fullers Brewery (website) for a free beer at the excellent Salutation in King Street, Hammersmith, whereas I had a voucher for here, and at another local pub... So we had to have what we had to have, or pay for something else, so what did we drink, free 'n' all?

This was our free offering at the Salutation, Fullers Frontier (4.5%), and, as it was the hottest day so far this year, and we had been walking for quite a few hours up and down the River Thames Middlesex and Surrey towpaths, it was incredibly refreshing! It was certainly hoppier than your usual bog standard lagers, and I have to admit to quite enjoying the taste; £4.55 a pint for those who had to pay...

I had another voucher for The Dove, down by the river, still in Hammersmith, a pub I love for its history, ambience, and for sentimental reasons, memories of friendships with previous staff members and others. However, Fullers have whacked up the prices here, OK for tourists, with a weak £sterling, and, it would seem, many wealthier local people (Hammersmith and its environs has gone up-market price-wise, beyond my means now, sadly), so I rarely visit now, but great to take advantage of the free voucher, cheers! Same lager, but £5.05 a pint, 50p more expensive (and a half would be marked up to £2.60, I guess, scandalous!), and, as my brother didn't have a voucher, I shared the cost with him of his pint, I'm nothing if not fair...  

I was also recently fortunate to meet up with the local rep for the Salzburg brewery, Stiegl-Brauwelt (website), who gave me a bottle of their Stiegl Bier (4.9%), a very decent lager, nice flavour, I remember (I have to own up, I've lost my tasting notes, sorry, but I did enjoy drinking it!). This is on draught at my local, the Dolphin Inn, Rock-a-Nore Road, Hastings, at the moment, at £4.10 a pint, better than London prices! But, remember, Mark, the landlord there, tends to change round the 3 crafty kegs/lagers he sells, but I'd be surprised if it doesn't return once sold out. 

Anyway, a change for me, but cheers for the free beers!

July: and Bitter May!

I'll start by saying, sorry this is so late, but I really wanted to celebrate CAMRA's annual Mild May Month, or whatever it's called, but saw not a drop of Mild! So, I thought I'd mention what I consider were the better bitters I quaffed during May...

The first is a wonderful golden amber bitter from Franklins Brewing Company of East Sussex (website), their 5.5% North Shore IPA. Regular readers will be aware I love my dry hoppy, citrus and fruit flavoured bitters, and the drier and more bitter the better, and this hasn't let me down whenever I've tasted it, great stuff! It is a single hopped ale, with the New Zealand hop, Rakau, and a more in-depth citrus fruit flavour, with hints of peach and apricot, and a great dry aftertaste, excellent.

The second ale to be considered, from Raw Brewing Company of Derbyshire (website), their 4.5% Nid Welsh, a collaboration with The Pigeon Fishers, also of Derbyshire (website), and The Waen Brewery (website) and Hopcraft Brewing (website), both of Wales. Called a "Red IPA" in the literature, but more of a bronze colour, with a strong fruity aroma, and mango in the flavour, dries out with plenty of bitterness, the dry hopping doesn't hurt, I'd imagine. I noted "very good" in my tasting notes, which means what it says!

Next, from Navigation Brewery of Nottingham (website), their 5.5% Apus American IPA, named after the 'Bird of Paradise'. Lager malts and American hops are used, providing for an extremely refreshing lovely citrus hoppy bitter, very nice indeed.

And, what can I say?!? 2 more excellent ales sitting side by side, and from 2 of my favourite breweries... From the Scottish Fyne Ales (website), their consistently excellent 4.5% Avalanche, brewed from Maris Otter Pale and Wheat malts, and with Cascade and Liberty hops, a great combination. A pale straw colour, and this has citrus running up your nose as soon as you reach for the glass, dries out into a lovely bitterness, you couldn't ask for better, but...

Along comes this tribute to Joe Strummer and the Clash, from my old employer in Sheffield, Kelham Island Brewery (website), a 5.3% delight of an ale, London Calling... A deep amber colour, and a very dry bitter, and I mean very dry, using 4 English hops, Phoenix, Bramling Cross, East Kent Goldings, and a regularly used hop by the brewery in my time there, First Gold. I loved this, cheers!

News: Mild May, Brewery Update, and Doris R.I.P.

OK, this shows how little I have written lately, but, do not fear, I shall become much more prolific again very soon, I promise... But CAMRA's Mild May Month passed me by, I didn't see a single mild down here, and didn't travel during May either, so I've decided I shall write my next blog about May, a month of ales, but mostly pale hoppy ones! 

The interesting brewery news, in my opinion, because 165 year-old St Austell Brewery used to be my local brewery when I was working at St Lawrence's Hospital in Bodmin, is their takeover of the much younger West Country brewer, 21 year-old Bath Ales. 

St Austell, having recently boasted an increase in annual turnover, selling 28.8 million pints of beer in the last accountable year, and a 7.6% increase in operating profit, are obviously looking to extend their beer range and increase their pub estate. The deal includes the Bath Ales brewery, with their founder, Roger Jones, reported to be continuing to play a key role, and their 11 pubs, to add to St Austell's 167 pub estate. Interesting times in the West Country! 

The Red Lion in Snargate I have written about quite a few times, a listed pub, a virtual museum, that continues to exist in a remote village on the edge of Romney Marsh, and reportedly with a population of just 112, although you wouldn't believe it when visiting the pub, where all that is obvious is the pub, a farm next door, and a Norman church opposite, St Dunstan, built circa 1200. This pub has been in the family of the husband of Doris Jemison for over 100 years, and she continued to run the pub, together with their daughter, Kate...

Sadly, Doris (to the right in this old photograph of mine) passed away, aged 87, and the Red Lion stayed closed for over a month until reopening recently with her daughter Kate (behind the bar in the photograph) at the helm. Our condolences to Kate, family and friends, and best wishes for the future. I need to make a visit soon...

Doris R.I.P.