Because of railway strikes, I travelled to London on Friday and back again on Sunday, so that I could attend a football match on Saturday, had to, see near the bottom. So I stayed at my brother's home, and Friday saw me in Putney, first off at Ghost Whale, 134 Upper Richmond Road SW15 2SP (website), a bottle shop and bar that also sells 8 keg 'craft' beers. I enjoyed pleasant discourse again with staff member Ray, from L.A., who I mentioned before (blog).
I returned again, a wee bit damp on Saturday, and I hadn't written many notes this weekend past, and I deleted some photographs I had meant to help jog my memory, oops, but on Friday I did imbibe the Belgian Abbey ale from St Bernardus (website) ABT 12 (10.0%), simple reason explained below next photograph. ABT 12 is a quadruple style ale (to do with strength), it was a deep dark red/brown/rust colour, a slight perfume to the aroma and taste, sweeter than I usually drink, with caramel and a hint of chocolate in the taste, but dried out slightly at the finish, had to be done, and not bad at all, but one shouldn't drink too many! 😉
Oh yes, and I did write notes of the first beer I drank on Friday, which was from Devon brewer Utopian Brewing Limited (website), their Bohemian British Lager (4.2%). It's brewed as a pilsner style, and, quite frankly, it does what it says on the tin, although I had it from the tap, it's a light crisp fruity lager, simples... See, I do drink lager sometimes!
So why the Belgian beer, and this Belgian beer photographed above from the Brown Dog in Florida? Well, it was Stacey of The Brown Dog, 215 St Joe Plaza Drive, Palm Coast, Florida, USA, FL 32164 (website), who reminded me by posting on their facebook page that Friday was the Belgian National Day national holiday (website), only a coincidence that I was online whilst at the Ghost Whale! Anyway, so I decided to have a Belgian beer to celebrate, top photograph, and Stacey sent the immediately above photograph back whilst I was still there on Friday, nice one! I have written about the excellent Gulden Draak a year ago (blog), and also Stacey contributed a guest blog about The Brown Dog a year ago too, cheers!
I then visited The Bricklayer's Arms, 32 Waterman Street SW15 1DD (facebook), which has 12 handpumps, 11 for ales and one for cider, and they do have quite a few ales from West Yorkshire based brewery Timothy Taylor's (website), although I prefer to drink their beers when I'm in West Yorkshire, notably at The Fleece Inn in Haworth (website). On the Friday I had a couple of ales, one from the South East London based Original Small Beer brewery (website), who specialise in lower alcohol strength beers, their 2.3% Organic IPA. It was a wee bit fruity, hint of orange, quite dry, slightly sour, I noted 'not bad' but I didn't have another.
No, I then went for a very different more traditional bitter from North London brewery Redemption (website), their 4.6% Urban Dusk. It had a deep dark chestnut colour, apparently with Bramling Cross hops to add a dark fruity taste (hopslist), but my notes say 'It looks like a bitter, it tastes like a bitter, and by golly it is a bitter' also 'very good' 😊
And I returned here on Saturday too, when I drank the East London based Five Points Brewing (website) Railway Porter (4.8%), which was very good indeed. Brewed using Goldings hops which give sweetness and spice (British Hop Association), and all things nice 😉 but the darker and roasted malts influence the taste more, as you would expect. It was rich and dark, had plenty of body, and with hints of chocolate and coffee in the taste, it was very good.👍And I shan't go on about whether it should be called a porter or a stout, because I've discussed that many times before, eg blog, but, as a friend pointed out, calling it a stout would betray the name Railway Porter, but maybe it edged more towards a porter anyway... 😏
I walked a few miles to Tooting earlier on Saturday, and had to take this photograph as it reminds me of Wolfy Smith, "Power to the People!" (youtube), you maybe have to be of a certain age to understand why. ✊ OK comrades (oops!), when the programme was on tv I went out with a lass for 2 years, who lived behind nearby Amen Corner (there's another link to popular culture of the past), which is just down the road from the Broadway, and we called ourselves the Tooting Popular Front as a laugh, so it did really exist and wasn't just made up by the writers. 😁
Anyway, back to pre-match drinking, which started at a pub I hadn't visited for many years, The Castle, 38 Tooting High Street SW17 0RG (website), where I followed in the 3 young women pictured in front of me (it's a busy pavement, it was the least busy photograph I managed to take!). It's certainly moved on to be a very foody pub, although haven't many?!? But it did have the England women's football match on television, and Cornish brewery St Austell (website) Proper Job (4.5% in cask), which I have written about many times, eg blog. I must admit that I was a little disappointed, although this is one ale that is better, and stronger, in its bottle-conditioned version (5.5% & blog), and drinking it in a pub just reminds me...
The Tooting pub I had originally planned to visit before the match was The Selkirk, 60 Selkirk Road SW17 0ES (website), which looks a fair size from the outside, but with added on bits, 'tis very big inside! I chose this pub because I had never been in it before, it's on a side street just off the High Street, but I saw it online, and I lived in Selkirkshire when I worked up in the Borders for a couple of years in the late 1980s, 'twas fate! Roomy inside, though with a few divisions, so not just one cavernous room, very friendly bar staff, also chatted to other customers, and a few other football fans, so it wasn't just the rain that kept me inside longer than planned.
Only one cask ale, and one draught cider, the ale was Timothy Taylor's Landlord, and, as I said above, I prefer to drink their beers up int' north, but I had a pint, and Landlord is what Landlord is, a decent enough bitter, gentle with the hops. But they did have quite a few crafty kegs on too, so I had a pint of Greenwich based (S.E. London and of Greenwich Meridian fame) Meantime Brewing (website) fizzy Anytime IPA (4.7%). Unsurprisingly, an American style IPA (APA), brewed with Cascade (hopslist), Centennial (hopslist), Ekuanot (Yakima Valley Hops, I believe also known as Equinox - hopslist) and Mosaic hops (hopslist), producing a light pale bitter, with tropical and citrus fruits in the taste. Now, I own up that I didn't take any notes, my apologies, but I was too busy having a life and chatting... 😁
And, I just had to have another drink before I left, because one of the bar staff said she loved these half-pint glasses (and their pint glasses too), and because the rain was coming down quite seriously outside the pub! And this is a lined-glass, in fact there is a wee bit over the measure here, although it didn't look like more than half a pint, but it was, cheers! So, from North London based Beavertown Brewery (website) Neck Oil (4.3%), who own up to using an enormous variety of hops in this session APA, although maybe not all at once (?!?), including Columbus (hopslist), Centennial (hopslist), Simcoe (hopslist), Amarillo (hopslist), Galaxy (hopslist), Vic Secret (hopslist) and Mosaic (hopslist)! As you could imagine, no doubt, this ensures a cornucopia of flavours, a wee bit too cold and fizzy for me, but very drinkable indeed!
And the reason behind my visit to London for the weekend? It was to go to a pre-season friendly match at AFC Wimbledon's new ground in Plough Lane SW17 0NR (website), and I have a bit of history going to the old Plough Lane ground when they were in the Southern League, and why drink in Tooting beforehand? 'tis far enough away from the ground to not be overcrowded on match days, and near enough to walk to in about 15 minutes. As you can see above, the proof of my attendance, and I got there quite early still, and the ground was still nearly empty, but the attendance was 5,138 for a pre-season friendly, and that's a fair turn-out for a friendly. 👌
Postscript. I bought a couple of 500ml bottles of the very tasty St Austell Proper Job (5.5%) this morning, cheers m'dears! 😉
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