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! 😁

5 Pubs Visited in London, 1 New to Me!

You'll realise by the gradually darkening photographs this visit was late afternoon/early evening, except for the last pub. First stop, The Albert, 52 Victoria Street SW1H 0NP (website), once a Taylor-Walker house, now Greene King. The pub is a Grade II listed building, built 1845-52, just over the other side of Victoria Street from the notorious Devil's Acre (Londonist), and originally called 'The Blue Coat Boy' until Artillery Brewery took it over, rebuilt it and named it The Albert in 1867 in honour of Queen Victoria's consort, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, following his death in 1861. Now I have to own up to not taking note of the beers we drank, obviously not great or I'd have taken notes, but I hadn't been in the pub for years, probably not this millennium, and it's a lovely old building that avoided bomb destruction luckily during World War 2!👌

These first 3 pubs are all close to St James's Park tube station, near where I worked many years ago, near the old Westminster Hospital, on the edge of the Devil's Acre! I only learnt about the Devil's Acre many years later when referenced in a novel, but I have investigated since. Next was a Nicholson's pub The Feathers, 18-20 Broadway SW1H 0BH (website), the pub being in existence since at least 1745, and rebuilt in 'the Flemish style' towards the end of the 19th century. This was the pub that I had never visited before, so new to me, and a it is a very fine building, both the exterior and interior, so I wasn't disappointed, nor by the ale...

I did drink an ale I haven't had for a while now, from Midlands brewery Purity Brewing Co (website), and their 4.2% Mad Goose Pale Ale, brewed with Pilgrim, Centennial, Chinook and Cascade hops, quintessential hops for an APA style beer! As you would expect, it's pale golden in colour, and look at those hops (!), it has a hint of citrus in the aroma, but much more citrus to the taste, with a nice clean, dry bitter finish, nice one! 👍

Then, literally around the corner and along a bit, another pub I haven't visited for years, still a Young's house, the Buckingham Arms, 62 Petty France SW1H 9EU (website). Originally licenced as the Black Horse in the 18th century, and also rebuilt towards the end of the 19th century and re-named the Buckingham in honour of the Duke of Buckingham in 1901. The pub used to have a second entrance which meant you could walk through the pub from end to end (confirmed by bar steward, so not a false memory), with a narrow bar to your side; the second entrance/exit was removed, presumably along with the interior refurbishment in 2009.

The usual 2 Young's ales were available, the Special and Ordinary, plus 4 guest ales, including 2 from Twickenham Brewery (website) including their very often sold in Young's houses, the 4.4% Naked Ladies, named after statues in York House Gardens in Twickenham. So I drank a pint of this hoppy, pale golden bitter, brewed with Herkules, Celeia and Chinook hops, it has a subtle citrus aroma, a slightly malty taste at the start, and with some citrus flavours coming through as the ale goes down, and a lovely refreshing dry bitter finish, another nice one! 👍

Then we jumped on a District Line train from St James's Park to Hammersmith and visited another Nicholson's pub, The Swan, 46 Hammersmith Broadway W6 0DZ (website). The Swan was re-built by the architect Frederick MIller in 'the Free Jacobean' style as a hotel in 1901 on the site of an old coaching inn, the 'Old Swan', the first and last stop to the west of London. It has an imposing exterior and breath taking interior, and is a Grade II listed building.

As usual for a Nicholson's pub there are half a dozen or so ales on offer, and we went for one from the East Anglian brewery Adnams (website), that was their Ghost Ship (4.5%). This is a pale sharp refreshing ale, brewed with Citra hops, consequently, as you would expect, it has a subtle citrus flavour and a nice refreshing dry bitter finish, and in my opinion Adnams best ale. 👍

I more recently visited (Saturday) The Victoria, 10a Strathearn Place, W2 2NH (website). This is a fine Grade II listed Fuller's pub (Fuller's website) built in the 1830s, named after Queen Victoria as it was opened on the same day as her accession to the throne, and she visited the pub after the opening of the rebuilt nearby Paddington Railway Station in 1854. Slight damage during World War 2, it has a grand exterior and wonderful interior, well worth visiting if nearby.

I didn't take a photograph, so this image is from Fuller's own website, but I did drink, and a few pints of only this, believe it or not, their 3.8% Oliver's Island. Brewed with Goldings, Hallertau Tradition, and Liberty hops, this is a pale golden session bitter, with gentle grapefruit and tropical fruit flavours, and a refreshing dry bitter finish, not bad Fuller's!

And we had something to eat here, sharing their "Hummus & spiced lamb to share with pine nuts, corianders & pomegranate, served with grilled flatbread" and it was pretty tasty, if the 'hummus' a wee bit thin, and they could have provided a few more flatbread pieces. 😉

Cheers folks! 👍

Inaugural UK Belgian Beer Week Now On!

I only yesterday found out that an inaugural Belgian Beer Week (24th February to 1st March Beer Today website) had been arranged in cooperation with Visit Flanders (website), I apologise for my tardiness! Knowing that Oliver at The Jolly Fisherman in Hastings (blog) stocks Belgian beers, I wandered along there in the late afternoon. So what Belgian beer did I drink?

As you can see from the image above, I drank the St Bernadus ABT 12 (10.0%), Brouwerij St Bernadus (website) being another excellent Belgian brewery situated in Watou, Flanders. This beer is a very dark deep coloured red Quadrupel, with a slightly malty/fruity aroma, a wee bit sweet with a dry slightly bitter finish, and tasting of dark plum and damson fruits, another Christmas Pudding of a beer as many Quadrupels tend to be, very rich and rewarding to drink!

There are still a few of the organised events left to visit, lucky you if you are in either vicinity 😉 they are today (28th February) Duvel Moortgat at Den Engel Bar & Restaurant in Leek, and Kasteel at Bundobust in Manchester. Tomorrow (1st March) Duvel Moortgat again, at the Neepsend Craft Beer Festival in Sheffield (beertoday).

If you go to either enjoy yourselves, and feel free to leave a comment with a review of your visit, or nip in somewhere else and buy some Belgian beer, or buy some from an off licence or supermarket, I'll likely head to Morrisons for some Westmalle Tripel (blog), love it! Cheers 👍

A Whiskey for the Road...

I have already written about my February 'Whiskey of the Month' (blog), but a few days ago I had a whiskey, or two, 'for the road' at The Jolly Fisherman in Hastings (blog), and thought it worth sharing; apologies if I'm going on about whiskey nearly as much as ale these days, but I'm enjoying them in my dotage! 😉

Anyway, this second February whiskey was again from Dublin distillery Teeling, who I wrote about back in December (blog), when I had a bottle of their 46.0% Small Batch. This time it was their Single Malt whiskey, also 46.0%, with a deep Chardonnay white wine colour, and matured in a combination of American Oak, Ruby Port, Caravelos White Port, Madeira and Bourbon casks, which add to the complexity of this whiskey!

The Single Malt has an aroma of grapes at first, then forest fruits and spices. It is nicely mellow to drink, with subtle hints of sherry and spices in the flavour. A very smooth luxurious Irish whiskey, with plenty of warmth, a slightly bitter-sweet butterscotch at the finish, and indeed, yet another very easy to drink whiskey, slainte! 👍

Tower Pub, Hastings, Real Ale Festival This Weekend!

The Tower, up on the corner of London Road and Tower Road, Bohemia TN37 6NB (Hastings & St Leonards), is holding its annual Real Ale Festival this weekend (facebook), from Friday the 21st to Sunday the 23rd of February 2025; 11am to 11pm Friday and Saturday, 11am to 10pm Sunday... oh yes, and real ciders will be available too! Some of what will be available below:

ENJOY, CHEERS!

February Whiskey of the Month!

Well, the Christmas cards have been taken down from the bookcase, and we reach the February Whiskey of the Month, The Busker, distilled at Royal Oak Distillery in County Carlow, Ireland (website). They produce 3 types of whiskey for their Single Collection, a Single Malt, a Single Pot Still, and the Single Grain, which is my February Whiskey of the Month.

The Busker Single Grain is a 44.3% whiskey presented in an attractive heavy squarish bottle (image above), and is distilled in a column still, not a more traditional pot still, resulting in a lighter whiskey. Indeed, this is a very easy to drink light straw coloured whiskey that has aged in Bourbon casks from the USA, and then in Sicilian Marsala casks. This smooth and light whiskey is quite sweet to start off, with hints of vanilla, honey and dried fruits to taste, with a warm glowing slightly tart alcohol finish, very reasonably priced, and pretty decent indeed!

And you know you've had a whiskey of 44.3%, slainte! 👍

Westmalle Christmas Gift: Delayed Review, Sorry!

Trappist beers are brewed by Trappist monks within the walls of a Trappist monastery, this one founded in 1794, becoming an abbey in 1836, and Westmalle beers, brewed at the Brouwerij der Trappisten van Westmalle (brewing since 1836 - website), are up there amongst the best beers of Belgium. Although the monks no longer brew the beers themselves, they are still in overall charge of the brewery, ensuring tradition is upkept, and pure ingredients used, their own water, 100% barley malt, hops, and yeast from their own culture. All these are bottle-conditioned.

I had never tasted the just 4.8% Westmalle Extra before, but this light golden blonde is based on the ale recipe first brewed by the monks for their own consumption in 1836. OK, not as pronounced a flavour and impact as the double the strength Tripel described below, which means it is a bit more of a 'supping' beer. But it is recognisably a Westmalle beer, with a Westmalle aroma, and hints of banana and pineapple in the taste, very nice!

The penultimate beer I drank was the 7.0% Dubbel, a dark deep red colour, first brewed nearly 100 years ago in 1926. This has a rich dried dark fruit aroma, and at first tastes slightly sour, then sweet, with malt and dark fruits, but dries out with a slightly bitter finish, very decent.

The best 'til last, and my favourite regularly available Belgian ale, Westmalle Tripel (image immediately above), which I have written about many times before (eg blog). The Tripel, is a 9.5% golden beer, with a subtle fruitiness and quite dry and bitter finish, quite frankly, excellent! There are a number of bars in Brussels where I would always drink this, the waiting staff in the magnificent Le Cirio in Brussels, by la Bourse, always taking care not to disturb the sediment, but leaving the bottle for people to add the sediment if they so wished. Indeed, the owner of the bar closest to where my brother used to live always called me "Monsieur Westmalle", but that bar, sadly, is no longer open, the owner having retired.

You will appreciate just how much I loved this Christmas present brought back from Belgium by my brother, he knows what I like, the beer and the glass, cheers Dan! 👍

2 New Pubs for me in London.

In you go Paul! 😁 Indeed, handily opening at 10.00 at weekends, I was introduced to The Marquis Cornwallis, 31 Marchmont Street WC1N 1AP (website) for our first pint. A wee bit upset that we had recently missed their having the excellent Thornbridge Jaipur there 😣 and giving a miss to the pointless Doom Bar that was on one of the handpumps, we went for the reasonably consistent Timothy Taylor's (website) Landlord (4.3%). Landlord is a pale-ish amber Bitter, brewed with WGV/Goldings, Savinjski Goldings and Fuggles hops, producing a slightly fruity citrus flavour. It's a pretty easy to drink bitter... sad about the Jaipur not being on!

Having been joined by B at the Cornwallis, and Paul having something to eat there, we next moved on further along the road to the Lord John Russell, 91-93 Marchmont Street WC1N 1AL (facebook); opens at 12.00 weekends, at 11.30 weekdays. This is a pretty decently priced pub considering where it is, and had a couple of Sambrook's ales, and crafty keg beers too (website), the brewery now being situated inside the old Young's Ram Brewery complex in central Wandsworth. Good as their beers are, and Paul appeared to enjoy a few pints of their 4.2% Pumphouse pale ale, I have drunk their ales before, but there was something new for me...

I can't remember ever drinking an ale from The Exeter Brewery (website), and certainly never this ale, and I did used to live in Exeter too, so I had to try their Lighterman (3.5%). This was a very pleasant amber session ale, brewed with Goldings hops, and basically does what it says on the label, a traditional bitter, light and easy to drink, if you like bitter beers. I do 👍

So there you have it, 2 new pubs for me in central London, the first named after an 18th century British General and the other (better value/cheaper) after a 19th century British Prime Minister.

Cheers folks! 🍺

New Year Whisky!

My first thought for Old Year's Night is to head north to Edinburgh, rather than have an Irish whiskey, so to Johnnie Walker (website) it was, and their 40.0% Black Label. This is a blended whisky of single malt and grain whiskies that is aged in sherry casks for 12 years before bottling. Many years ago, during a visit to my brother when he lived full-time in Brussels, we tried to find seats at a favourite bar there La Terrasse (website), which I talked about last year (blog), however, it was packed! So we went to another nearby bar, many years ago that is, where, in addition to drinking whichever Belgian beer we were drinking (circa 25 years ago, sorry I don't remember which beer 😉), a young lad was trying to get people to sample 3 different types of Johnnie Walker whisky, I'm guessing Red, Black and Green Labels. Anyway, my brother doesn't drink whisky, so I had double helpings, and I think the lad was just happy someone was accepting drinks from him. 😁 I remember enjoying myself...

Now, despite reviewers these days suggesting that Diageo owning Johnnie Walker has led to it being less of a whisky, adding colour and blandness, I was still impressed at being able to buy a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black Label for just £22, so I went for it. And I'm not a tightwad, it's just difficult to buy a decent variety of whisky/whiskey where I live (most of my more interesting whiskey drinking is of whiskies bought online), there's my defence!

So what did I think of it? I found it a wee bit sweet, with butterscotch a dominant flavour, and hints of vanilla, dried fruits, spices, and smokiness too. The colour is deep golden, apparently colouring is added, as well as the ageing in cask process. Quite frankly, I found this a very easy to drink whisky, and at the price decent value,  but it won't win any awards from me, slainte!

Happy New Year... again! 👌

New Year Dark Beer Festival in Hastings!

Indeed, from today to Sunday (3rd-5th January 2025), The Jolly Fisherman, 3 East Beach Street, Hastings TN34 3AR is holding a Dark Beer Festival (facebook): Opening at 13.00 today, and 12.00 Sat/Sunday. 

There will be a large choice of styles amongst the cask and keg beers available, includes:

Stouts and Porters

Others from abroad, GB Belgian style

Mild Ales and not so strong

Whichever day you visit, enjoy this Dark Beer Festival and weekend, cheers!