Covent Garden Pubs 3!

Further to my two recent Covent Garden blogs (blog) and (blog), again, a pub crawl from Charing Cross to Tottenham Court Road tube station, and we again started at The Harp, 47 Chandos Place WC2N 4HS (website) as, quite frankly, we're always served excellent ale there, and this visit was no different. One of my favourite breweries Oakham Ales of Peterborough fame (website), and their single hop session ale Citra (4.2%). Unsurprisingly, brewed with Citra hops (hopslist), the first British brewery to use this hop after discovering it in the USA back in 2009, meaning a zesty, grapefruit tasting APA, refreshing and excellent as always, cheers! 😁

And again, we turned left out of The Harp, then left up Bedfordbury, walked to the end and turned right, this time passing both The White Swan and The Round House, and turned left onto Garrick Street, following this up to the 6 exit junction, taking the second on the left, Cranbourn Street, up to Charing Cross Road where our next pub was. That was The Porcupine, 48 Charing Cross Road WC2H 0BS, by Leicester Square tube station (website). An inn/pub has been on this site since 1725, when the original address was 1 Castle Street, before Charing Cross Road was built in the 1870s, the pub was then rebuilt in 1880. 

Here we drank a pale ale, a collaboration between Farnham in Surrey based Hogs Back Brewery (website) and Battersea in London based Mondo Brewing Company (website), their 3.8% Juliet, which was brewed to celebrate International Women's Day (website). Brewed with Cascade (hopslist), Citra (hopslist) and Hallertau Blanc (hopslist) hops, and, as you'd expect, very light and fruity, with hints of grapefruit, gooseberries, and forest fruits. Not as much punch as our earlier pint, but not bad at all. 👌

We then turned right out of The Porcupine, and immediately right again down Great Newport Street, back to the junction and taking the second on the left, Long Acre, continuing to the third left, Neal Street, where towards the end, at the junction with Shelton Street, is the Crown & Anchor, 22 Neal Street WC2H 9PS (website). A pub has been on this site since at least 1811, when Combe & Co Brewery, which was situated across the road since 1787, had the pub. The brewery merged with Watney & Co and Reid's Brewery Co in 1898, and became Watney, Combe, Reid & Co. The current Grade II Listed building was constructed in 1904.

Here we drank, from East London brewery Five Points Brewing (website), their 4.0% XPA, an American Pale Ale style ale, brewed with Citra (hopslist), Galaxy (hopslist) and Sabro (Hop Breeding Co) hops. This produces a pale beer with plenty of citrus and forest fruits, particularly grapefruit, bitter with a refreshing dry finish, quite excellent too! 👍

From the Crown & Anchor we turned left onto Shelton Street, along to Endell Street, where we turned left again and up on the left we reached The Cross Keys, 31 Endell Street WC2H 9EB (Covent Garden website). This is a Grade II Listed building, constructed in 1848, which I visited 14 years ago when it was one of 3 Brodie's pubs (sadly Brodie's no longer exists), including The Old Coffee House in nearby Soho and their taphouse the King William IV in Leyton (website), and you could also get their ales regularly at the King Charles I near King's Cross (website).

They had 2 cask ales, both from Lewes in East Sussex brewery Harvey's (website), and I had a couple of pints of their 4.0% Sussex Best, brewed with 4 'local' English hops. I should have enquired when we visited the brewery back in December 2019 (blog), but the hops regularly used appear to be generally accepted as Fuggle (hopslist), Kent Golding (hopslist), Progress (hopslist) and Bramling Cross (hopslist). It's a traditional style amber bitter, slightly malty with a hint of nuts in the taste, very easy to drink, to my taste not bitter enough, but pretty reliable. 👌

We then followed Endell Street down to its end and reached the corner pub at High Holborn, Craft Beer Company, 168 High Holborn WC1V 7AA (website), which I wrote about in my first Covent Garden blog. However, we didn't have enough time for a pint there, so we crossed the road, and walked down Dyott Street opposite to New Oxford Street, where we turned left up to the junction with Tottenham Court Road and the tube station. 

I trust you've had enough about Covent Garden for now, cheers folks! 😉

London Circular Walk: Tower & London Bridges

You could start this circular pub walk at either of the bridges, but I've started this blog at Tower Bridge because my favourite drink of the day was imbibed here, twice. 😉 So, behind Tower Bridge Road in a small back street is The Dean Swift, 10 Gainsford Street SE1 2NE (website), open from 12.00 noon every day of the week, until 23.00, excepting Sundays, when it closes at 22.30. The pub was built in the 1850s, and was originally called The Bricklayer's Arms, but was renamed for the Irish satirical writer and cleric, Jonathan Swift, who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin in 1713, hence Dean Swift, although I can find no connection to Swift locally or to the pub. And I've still not been able to finish reading Gulliver's Travels, ever!

This former Truman's pub, now a freehouse, has 20 'craft' beers available, including 2 cask ales and a variety of crafty keg styles. The cask ales were from Sussex brewery Burning Sky and their Plateau (3.5%), an excellent pale ale with hops from New Zealand and the USA (website), and the ale I drank 2 pints of (2 visits, first and fourth), from East London brewery Five Points Brewing (website), their 4.0% XPA, an American Pale Ale style, brewed with Citra (hopslist), Galaxy (hopslist) and Sabro (Hop Breeding Co) hops. This produces a pale beer with plenty of citrus and forest fruits, particularly grapefruit, bitter with a refreshing dry finish, excellent!

This was actually our last pub before heading across London from London Bridge tube station, thus why I drank the cider, as I wasn't sure the 3 ales available would be able to compete with the XPA I'd just drunk, and I had had an extra pint than Paul, so just a half for me. 😏 So, The Raven (website), 218 Tower Bridge Road SE1 4PR (The Dean Swift is virtually around the back of it), which was built on the ramp leading up to Tower Bridge around 1900, and was previously an Adnams pub called The Bridge House, changing its name to The Raven in honour of the Ravens of the Tower of London in 2019, and there's a stuffed raven at one end of the bar! 

And indeed, I had a half pint of a cider from the award winning Sandford Orchards in Devon (website), from their 'Vintage' cider collection they've been developing since 2017, and launched in 2021, the 8.4% The General, named after Sandford's Ten Thousand Gallon Oak Vat built in the 19th century, and now used for ageing their ciders! A little sweet to start, juicy with nectarine and apple flavours, but slight tannin and sourness to the finish, pretty good!

Simon The Tanner, 231 Long Lane SE1 4PR (website), named after a biblical character, Simon of Joppa, and situated in an area where tanning leather used to be prolific (Southwark News), note nearby Tanner Street too; opens at 16.00 Monday to Thursday, and at 12.00 noon Friday to Sunday. The pub dates back to the 18th century, in 1780 being called Simon of Joppa the Tanner, and it has even been a Shepheard Neame pub since, but it is now now a freehouse.

The only cask ale they had was from Reading brewery Siren Craft Brew (website), their 3.8% Memento, brewed with English hops, not divulged, and dry-hopped with U.S. Cascade hops (hopslist), presumably what makes it a 'modern best bitter.' I have to admit that I didn't really notice the Cascade in the taste, I just thought that it was a pretty basic 'best bitter.'

First and last pub, maybe, and if you've read this all the way through you should get the gist. The Shipwrights Arms, 88 Tooley Street SE1 2TF (website), is a Victorian pub with a wonderful exterior and interior, inside there is a classic central island bar and a tiled mural of shipwrights at work among its features. There was an older pub on the site previously by 1792, the Ship Wright Arms, and it was re-built in 1884, slightly changing the name. They have the handpumps for up to 6 cask ales, but only had 4 different ales when we met up there. 

We both drank the Cornish brewers Sharp's (website) Solar Wave, a 4.6% 'Hazy IPA' brewed with hops from the USA, but the hops are not specified (the pumpclip was askew, by the way, the image is not because of me). Hazy, as they say, not too thick though, and with plenty of tropical fruit flavours, not bad. Sadly for me, what I was interested in drinking was the 4.0% Southwark London Pale Ale, but it was only put on just as we were leaving, life, eh?!? 😒

I admit that my record here looks weird as I arrived in London early, and checked on the pubs and took photographs as I had an hour to spare before meeting up, hence the extra pint too. 🍺 But the order here is a circular rout, wherever you start, and The Shipwrights Arms is just along from London Bridge Station entrance, so the best place to start and/or finish, I suggest.

Of course, we passed other pubs too, but time was short, and we wanted to stay sober!

My favourite of the pubs we visited was The Dean Swift, mostly because the 2 ales available were much more to my taste, and on my first visit I chatted with the manager, who is very knowledgeable about his beers, the locale and its pubs. I was a wee bit disappointed with Simon The Tanner, which was the only one of these pubs I'd visited before, and written about a couple of times, on my previous visits it was a little bit rougher around the edges with interesting stuff on the walls, see my older blog, it's a bit more polished now, and sadly there was only 1 ale available this time. The Raven was a bit noisy for me, but they were setting up for karaoke later in the evening, pleasant enough though, and all the pubs had friendly bar staff. As I pointed out, The Shipwright's Arms is closest to the station, very friendly bar staff, but take note that you are provided plastic 'glasses' to drink from if sitting outside, we stayed by the bar and were served in eccentric glass glasses. 😁 Anyway folks, cheers for now, and until the next time! 🍺

A few beers in London...

I visited The Bricklayer's Arms, 32 Waterman Street SW15 1DD (facebook) a couple of months ago when I was in Putney (blog), and again last week, and confirm that it has certainly returned to form under the guidance of the new landlord Chris, nice one! 12 handpumps, one for cider, and on our latest visit there was a choice between 11 different cask conditioned ales.

We started with the 'East London Brewed' Five Points (website) XPA (4.0%), brewed with Citra and Galaxy hops. I wrote about the Citra hop just yesterday (blog), a hop from the USA with a complex lineage, including Hallertau Mittelfruh, Tettnanger, Brewers Gold and East Kent Golding, and providing 'citrus, grapefruit, lime, and tropical fruits' flavours (hopslist). The Galaxy hop is from Australia, descended from the German hop Perle, producing 'citrus, peach and passionfruit' in the aroma and taste (hopslist). This is a very pale bitter, I since noticed that wheat malt is used in addition to extra pale malt, hints of citrus indeed, but very subtle fruit flavours, a very refreshing and easy to drink session ale, with a nice dry bitter finish.

My brother stayed on the XPA, having just a half (he assured me there were a couple of bottles of Westmalle Tripel at home to enjoy in his garden later!), but I had another pint before we left the pub, this time of the Five Points Best (4.1%), which pretty much does what it says on the label. Brewed with Fuggles hops, a very traditional hop from Kent, named after a Mr Richard Fuggle in 1875, and a very English hop indeed (hopslist), although has been grown around the world, and is also in the lineage of many hops from the USA, eg a parent to Cascade and Willamette. An amber colour, and I also noticed later that wheat malt is used for this as well as darker malts, obviously a favourite of the Five Points brewers. A traditional best bitter with hints of biscuit and the required bitter finish, I've nothing to add, 'tis a nice best bitter. 👌

The next day we visited The Market Porter, 9 Stoney Street SE1 9AA (website), by Borough Market, near London Bridge, which opens between 06.00 and 09.00 weekdays (market licence), before closing for 2 hours and then reopening 11.00 to 23.00; opens at 12.00 at the weekend... We were there on Thursday, but didn't get there until after noon. 😁 Mostly, because we were going to see a matinee performance of The Comedy of Errors at Shakespeare's Globe theatre (website). More of in my alter ego's blog, but to the ale...

We drank the York based Brew York (website) Make It Columbus (4.6%), a single hopped APA style bitter. The Columbus hop (USA) was 'originally bred by Chuck Zimmerman as part of a USDA* breeding programme' in the 1970s, with a herby citrus aroma and flavour (hopslist). Brew York appear to love using the Columbus hop, and so we came to drink this ale of theirs. Very pale golden, certainly a hint of citrus in the flavour, dry and bitter, and very decent! 👍

Cheers m'dears! 

 * United States Department of Agriculture

A Beautiful Walk, and 3 Pubs in/near Lewes, or not!

Well, we were out yesterday, ducking political news, and it should have been a pint in the Trevor Arms, which backs onto Glynde railways station, but it has recently closed we were disappointed to discover, and it looks like that is it, a no-hoper, sadly... so I didn't photograph it! However, we were undertaking a 15/16 mile circular walk from Lewes, so we moved on to the next hostelry, meanwhile, here's a photograph I did take yesterday, from up on the South Downs Way.

Our packed lunch was to be eaten out in the countryside anyway, but we wanted a pint, so the next nearest pub on our route was the 15th century Ram Inn (website) at Firle. In their atmospheric wood panelled bar we did enjoy ale from the very local brewer (Mark Tranter, previously of Dark Star, website), Burning Sky's Plateau (3.5% and £3.80 a pint), despite the low strength, this in no way lacks flavour and body, it is very pale with a lovely refreshing grapefruit aroma and taste, a dry bitter aftertaste and is packed with hops, quality... and a result! They have a real cider too, 2 guest ales, and their regular is Harveys Sussex Best Bitter (4%) at £2.60 a pint, a very decent price for Harveys, who aren't afraid of charging the earth!

We then continued, and completed our circular walk (more of on my other blog), finishing off with a couple of pints each at the Lewes Arms (website) before catching a train home. Now, the Lewes Arms is a Fullers' pub, but, similar to the Fullers' pubs in Brighton they serve a mixture of Fullers and Gales beers, and always have a few guest ales available too, plus the very local Harveys Sussex Best (4%) as a regular. I had one of the guest ales, the East London brewer Five Points (website) Five Points Pale (4.4% and over £4 a pint, this is Lewes!). Brewed with 2 American hops, Amarillo and Citra, you can guess what you're going to get, an ale packed with flavours, with strong citrus aroma and flavours, and this golden ale had plenty of body too, and was quite sharp and bitter... I loved it! 

Expect another visit to Lewes from me soon, I've got the taste 😋