3 Brothers Drinking Together in SW19 and 2 in TW10!

Well, the 3 of us hadn't met up together as a trio for some time, and we decided again to meet up on the edge of Wimbledon Village, by Wimbledon Common. There are quite a few decent pubs in the area, but we whittled the choice down to two, a few yards from each other. The Crooked Billet (website), 15 Crooked Billet SW19 4RQ, built in the early 18th century, became a pub in the 1850s, the name coming from the pub sign that was a crooked piece of wood broken from a tree apparently, but there are many theories! Anyway, the name of this small local part of Wimbledon Common, and the road, was taken from the name of the pub; so not a chicken or egg situation. It's a pub I have visited off and on for many years, but Rob arriving last let us choose...

So, we chose the very nearby Hand in Hand, 7 Crooked Billet SW19 4RQ (website), dating back to 1831 and originally a bakery, but was a family owned pub for a hundred years before Young's took it over in 1974. Indeed, a wee bit underage maybe 😉 I first drank Ruddles County there before Young's took it over, and Ruddles Brewery was still an independent brewery then. Nowadays, like The Crooked Billet, both pubs sell guest ales in addition to Young's.  

In addition to the ales in the photograph above, there were also Sambrook's Sidekick, a 3.4% session IPA and Adnams single hopped Mosaic Pale Ale (4.1%) on the other bar. However, from the 4 shown in the photograph above, I drank, from Wandsworth brewery Sambrook's (website), their Pumphouse, a 4.2% pale ale, named after the Pump House Gallery in Battersea Park. This is brewed with 3 British hops, Admiral, Goldings, and notably Ernest, which gives it a strong fruity American style pale ale aroma and taste; light, slightly spicy with apricot and citrus. It was pretty good actually, and despite giving the always excellent Proper Job consideration, I surprised myself and kept to the more locale Pumphouse throughout our visit, nice one.

The next day just Dan and I walked across Wimbledon Common and Richmond Park to the Roebuck, 130 Richmond Hill, Richmond TW10 6RN (website), arguably the pub with the best view in London; the view is protected by an Act of Parliament of 1902! The Roebuck was built in 1717, believed to be on the site of a much older pub, and was a regular drinking hole of Dan and I in the late 1970s and 1980s, and occasionally since. It was recently tastefully refurbished by new owners Greene King, and doesn't appear much altered, if at all, from our older visits.

I was pleased that it wasn't just Greene King ales on sale though, as we enjoyed an excellent couple of pints of the Oakham Ales (website) single-hopped 4.2% 'Session IPA' Citra. Their Citra is, as you would expect, zesty with a hint of citrus in the aroma and taste, very pale, and a great dry bitter finish. An ale I love, and have written about regularly (for example blog), and would include as a luxury item on a desert island discs theme, along with a cooling system. 😉 Oh yes, and we were very pleased with our choice of lunch here, their Sharing Platter, with a portion of chips that we didn't need as it was plenty enough, even for us 2 gluttons!

The view from outside the Roebuck is one that has been painted many times, for example by J.M.W. Turner, and, as I forgot to take a photograph on the day, I thought I would share a photograph of an oil painting of the view. However, this is by a less celebrated, though very local artist, James Isiah Lewis (1861-1934), and is at Orleans House Gallery (in a villa built in the 'Palladian' style in 1710), Orleans Road, Twickenham TW1 3BL (website).

And this view hasn't changed much at all either, cheers! 😁

Oh yes, afterwards we carried on walking eastwards along the Thames to The Ship at Mortlake, the ales were a bit boring sadly, not like on a previous visit (blog)!

April Whiskey of the Month

Distilled at Slane Castle in the Boyne Valley of County Meath, and a little west of Drogheda, Slane Irish Whiskey (website) is a 40.0% Triple Casked blended whiskey. This whiskey is created using just Irish Barley, some from their own fields, then fermented in traditional wooden washbacks, then triple distilled in copper stills. After distillation, the whiskey is divided into 3 different casks for maturation: Virgin Oak casks for 'oak and vanilla' flavours, Seasoned Tennessee Whiskey casks for 'caramel, plum, banana and butterscotch' flavours, and Oloroso Sherry casks for 'raisin and spice' flavours, therein taking on the different flavours from the casks. Once matured, although I can't discover the length of time it's matured for, so I'm presuming the casks are checked methodically for taste, whiskey from the 3 casks is blended.

So, what is it like to drink? Well, it's a nice deep yellow colour with a pleasantly sweet caramel, vanilla and cinnamon aroma. Strangely not as sweet as I thought it would be to taste, but certainly I noted butterscotch, vanilla, dried fruits and sherry flavours. A smooth, surprisingly dry finish, and pretty damned easy to drink, slainte! 👍

From Euston to Fleet Street.

We again started at The Marquis Cornwallis, 31 Marchmont Street WC1N 1AP (website) for our first pint, where we met Ian this time, down from Sheffield. Although they had the excellent Thornbridge Jaipur this time, we decided it was a wee bit early to start off with, it being 5.9%, so we started off with, from Herefordshire, the Wye Valley Brewery (website) HPA (Hereford Pale Ale, 4.0%). HPA is brewed with locally grown Target (hopslist) and Celeia (hopslist), originally from Slovenia, hops, which gives the ale its citrus aroma and flavour. Very easy to drink, we had 2 pints each, and 'tis very good indeed. However, we were 'targeting' (excuse the pun) Fleet Street as our destination, at Ian's request, so walked via...

A couple of pubs, including the Grade II Listed The Lamb, 94 Lamb's Conduit Street WC1N 3LZ (website), a pub well known for, amongst other things, it's 'snob screens' around the bar, which are featured when you go onto the website, and a pub I hadn't visited for many years! Primarily a Young's pub (website), but I drank, from Cornwall, the St Austell Brewery (website) Proper Job (4.5%), the brainchild of Roger Ryman, who sadly passed away 5 years ago R.I.P. (blog), when he joined and transformed the brewery as Head Brewer in 1999.

Proper Job is brewed with Willamette (hopslist), Cascade (hopslist) and Chinook (hopslist) hops, all from the USA. Willamette was developed from the English Fuggle hop in the late 1960s, indeed, was bred to replace Fuggle for growth in the USA! Cascade hops were originally developed from the 1950s, when English Fuggle and Russian Serebrianka hops were cross-pollinated, and named after the Cascade mountain range in the West of the country, they were released in 1972, and now represent about 10% of all hops grown in the USA. Chinook hops, which began life in 1985, were developed from Petham Golding hops. Proper Job is a pale straw coloured ale, citrus fruit aroma and taste, with a dry bitter finish, and very refreshing when quaffed during warm summer days, refreshing anytime really, nice one! 👍

Next we visited the first of two Samuel Smith's Brewery of North Yorkshire (website) pubs, the Grade II Listed Cittie of Yorke, 22 High Holborn WC1V 6BN (facebook); 'Sam Smiths' with an eccentric owner, and everything for sale is theirs, including crisps, spirits, wines, whatever, and they don't like mobile phones! This was a new pub for me, it has an almost monastic feel with its wooden panelling, stained windows, and small panelled booths to sit in, very cosy, though we stood at the bar. 😉 At this, and at the last pub, we drank Samuel Smith's Old Brewery Bitter, a 4.0% traditional Yorkshire bitter. A darkish amber colour, malty flavour, quite creamy, easy to drink, not enough hops for me though, but it will always be the same methinks. 😏

Ian's request was to visit the final pub as he'd never visited before, and I hadn't visited for a few years myself, so to the historic Grade II Listed, again Samuel Smith's owned, Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, 145 Fleet Street EC4A 2BP (website); the entrance is down a narrow alley off Fleet Street leading to Wine Office Court. It was rebuilt the year after the Great Fire of London of 1666, and is a warren of nooks and crannies, well worth wandering round with a glass in hand.

Cheers m'dears! 😁

Ewe's Milk Cheese and Wine, Yes Indeed!

A little different from me, but this story begins with a visit I made to a sheep farmer with my brother over 20 years ago, as my brother was writing about Ewe's Milk Cheese made from a rare Belgian breed of sheep for The Bulletin, an English language magazine based in Brussels (website). I shall get straight to the point, we visited Peter at the Bergerie d'Acremont (website) in the Ardennes (above), and there's a whole load of anecdotal stuff for another day, but we were treated to an array of excellent varying stages of maturation ewe's/sheep's milk cheeses, including a wonderful flavoursome hard cheese and a softer brie-like cheese, some of which I bought from his stall at a market in Leuven on my next visit to Belgium. It was mature, the rest of the people on my train home must have wondered where the aroma was coming from! 😉

Back to here and now, and me buying 4 of the 5 ewe's milk cheeses available on my last visit to Penbuckles in Hastings (website), bottom image. You'll realise I do like ewe's milk cheeses, but I shall begin with a brief reflection on the wine I bought to accompany my cheese tasting, and it went very well with the cheeses indeed! From Italy's Biscardo winery near Verona (website), their 13.5% Neropasso, made from partially dried Corvina, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes, a deep ruby red wine with a cherry and plum fruity aroma and taste, slightly spicy, smooth and rich, and so easy to drink accompanying the cheese, recommended! 👍

So, to the cheeses, starting with bottom left in my photograph with the reddish border. the Sussex Ewe, which I think is made by High Weald Dairy (website), apologies if I'm wrong, I'll check and correct on my next visit to Penbuckles. Wherever it comes from it's really nice and tasty, a harder cheese with a slightly nutty flavour that brought a little chill to my cheeks, nice one!

Going anticlockwise in the photograph, so bottom right, is the Wigmore, from Village Maid of Berkshire I do believe (website), a brie-like softer cheese, creamy with a very mild slightly sweet taste, VERY easy to eat! 😁

So, to the last 2 cheeses starting with, in the top right of the 4 cheeses, from the more local The Traditional Cheese Dairy at Waldron in East Sussex (website) and their Lord of the Hundreds. A harder ewe's milk cheese, with a slightly nutty taste, quite strong and flavoursome, and again that chill to the cheeks I get from a more mature cheese, I really liked this! 😁

My final cheese, top left in the photograph, was from Devon and the Ticklemore Cheese Company (website), and their Beenleigh Blue. This blue cheese is lighter and sweeter than most blue cheeses I've tasted, but certainly has plenty of flavour, a little creamy, and yet again I got that nice wee chill in my cheeks, nice one! An overall pleasant 'tasting' thankyou. 👍

It's a hard job, but someone has to do it! 😉 

The Blue Anchor Inn and Spingo Ales!

I've even lived in Cornwall, so I am ashamed to admit that I never visited The Blue Anchor Inn, 50 Coinagehall Street, Helston, Cornwall TR13 8EL, with it's own brewery and Spingo Ales (website). Beginning its life as a resting place for monks at the beginning of the 15th century, or earlier, this Grade II Listed granite building with a thatched roof, the photograph above is borrowed from their website, many thanks, gradually became a tavern during that century, brewing its own ales. The brewery now used was built just behind the pub in the 18th century, and the Spingo ales they brew are brewed with water drawn from their own well.

So how did I come upon these 3 bottles? With thanks to friends who drink in my local actually, cheers to Brian and Sheila! 👍 I shall start off, as I did when drinking them, with the weakest of the 3, the Spingo Middle Ale (5.0%), and I shall use their description as, for all 3 of them the descriptions are close to how I would describe them, then I shall add my tuppence worth. From them: "Smooth, Reddish Malty & Lightly Hopped." 

My notes, and the photograph above, suggest a deep red colour. You will notice that all 3 of these beers are darker beers and, although I'm a bit of a pale dry bitter hophead, I can enjoy a good beer whatever the style, and I liked these. Certainly lightly hopped, I tasted dark fruits, slightly sweet to begin with, but with a dry slightly bitter finish and 'tasty' say my notes!

Next was the Spingo Special Ale (6.6%) "Smooth Strong Refined, Dark Reddish & Well Hopped." I noted it was a very dark reddish colour, with a reddish brown head, big body and certainly noticed the hops in this one. The aroma reminded me of a dark fruit cake at Christmas, without the almonds, but the flavour included dark plum and damson, with a hint of cherry, quite rich and a nice dry bitter finish, luxurious and pretty damn good!

Finally the Spingo Extra Special (7.4%) "Smooth Strong Refined, Dark Ruby With Rich Fruit Cake Flavours." Just how dark can you go with a deep dark Ruby Red?!? It had a more brown head though, and there was me waffling about Dark Fruitcake, and they've said it themselves for this one. Well, yes, strong with plenty of body, and I got the big rich dark fruits again in the aroma and taste. Basically, it's the Special with bells on, indeed you know you've had a beer! Again, a wee bit sweet and fruity with a nice dry bitter finish, oh dear it's all gone, cheers! 

I do need to revisit Cornwall, 'tis on my bucket list. 😁

International Orval Day

Abbaye Notre-Dame d'Orval

The 23rd of March 2025 was this year's International Orval Day. Why have an Orval day? Well, as often is the case, strangely for a specific Belgian beer though, the celebratory day originated in the USA in 2015 with the US importer of Orval, Merchant du Vin, holding an Orval promotion in a store in Ohio, calling  it "Orval Day." Because of the success of the promotion, the importer organised a national Orval Day the following year, which has developed into an International Orval Day since, held in March very year (hopculture).

The Abbey at Orval is a relatively new abbey, rebuilt by 1948 by the sites of earlier abbeys, the remains of the previous abbey which was burnt down by French revolutionary troops in the late 18th century, remain adjacent. The name Orval comes from a legend that Countess Matilde of Tuscany lost her wedding ring when it fell into a well, she prayed, and it was returned to her by a trout with the ring in its mouth, she proclaimed, "Truly this is a Val d'Or!" - Valley of Gold, and she established a monastery there in gratitude. The photograph above is from the VisitArdenne website, to which I extend my thanks, oh yes, and the Ardennes is going to feature a wee bit in another blog I have planned to share very soon. 😉

So, yesterday I visited the The Jolly Fisherman in Hastings (blog), because I happened to know that Oliver there sells Orval, consequently logical to me. 😁 Orval is a trappist ale brewed in the Brasserie d'Orval at the Abbaye Notre-Dame d'Orval, the brewery was founded in 1931 during the rebuilding of the abbey. Lay persons carry out the work in the abbey's brewery; the abbey also being known for it's cheese, the production of which I believe monks carry out.

Orval is a 6.2% ale, ostensibly, as there are more than one fermentation processes in it's development, including being bottle conditioned, so no bottled beer is exactly the same! And unique among Belgian beers, it is dry-hopped, thanks to the early influence of a brewer who had worked in England. Indeed, the hops used are Kent Styrian Golding (hopslist) and German Hallertau-Hersbruck (hopslist); I believe their first head brewer was German.

The colour is more golden than my photograph above shows, but with an orange hue, I think including some of the yeast at the bottom of the bottle was influential in the image, so a wee bit cloudy. The beer is dry and slightly tart with a bitter finish, and has a subtle spicy/fruity aroma. My taste has changed since I first drank Orval when I used to visit my brother in Brussels 20-30 years ago, and at the time this was my immediate panic buy when I entered a bar, always with numerous beers on it's beer menu. I did go off it a bit after tasting Westmalle Tripel, for example, but drinking it again, I really enjoyed it, cheers to Orval Day! 😁

Looking back at Ashley Routson's book (blog), she states that Orval is "arguably the best beer on the planet." I may argue with that myself, but she's right that it's pretty damn good, cheers!

St Patrick's Day/March Whiskey of the Month!

Appropriate for March, and Paddy's Night on the 17th of March, I bought a bottle of Drumshanbo, a 43.0% Single Pot Still Irish Whiskey from the Shed Distillery in County Leitrim (website). As usual for Irish whiskey this was triple distilled, the Drumshanbo being distilled from malted and un-malted Irish Barley, and a small amount of Irish Barra Oats to add creaminess, then aged in only once used Kentucky Bourbon and Oloroso Sherry casks.

As you'd expect, a deep golden colour, with a big butterscotch flavour, cinnamon and black pepper spiciness, vanilla, Christmas Cake dried fruit, and toffee aroma. To taste, I still got the big butterscotch flavour with hints of creamy vanilla and sherry fruitiness, finishing off with a quite smooth, refreshing and gentle, and warm dryness, very nice, slainte! 👍💚

Oh yes, and it comes in a very strong cardboard presentation box with luxurious golden interior, a wee bit challenging to break down for the recycling sack, Hoppy St Patrick's Day! 😁