Putney & Tooting for Wimbledon!

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! 😉

Fun Time in Putney and a wee bit more...

And this wasn't done in one day, honest, but on Thursday and Friday, I'm a wee bit sensible 😉 Anyway, I started off at The Rocket, Putney Wharf, Brewhouse Lane SW15 2JQ (website), which you may have noticed is a 'spoons, and a pretty decent 'spoons too, with a nice view (see further down, my final photograph). Brewhouse Lane is so called because of Martin the Brewer, who is reported to have been brewing here in the 14th century, and it is believed that brewing still continued there into the 18th century (Layers of London).

I had unlimited coffee there and Eggs Benedict with Mushrooms, before drinking an ale, which was from Nottingham brewery Magpie (website), their 5.2% 'British IPA' Jay IPA. As you'd expect, brewed with British hops, but I can't find out which hops, anyway, hints of citrus and a slightly sour taste with a dry bitter finish. I noticed a hint of maltiness and tasted honey too, a bit too sweet for me, but happy to finish my pint, thank you very much.

OK, not directly Putney related, but The Rocket had been the second 'spoons I'd visited in 8 days, the previous week my brother and I had been to The Picture Playhouse, 36-38 Western Road, Bexhill-on-Sea TN40 1DY (website). Here we drank from Yorkshire brewery Roosters (website), who have brewed clear vegan ales for years now, it can be done, their 4.7% Twenty Four Seven 24/7, pale golden and brewed with Amarillo and Simcoe hops from the USA and Nelson Sauvin hops from New Zealand, providing a big citrus aroma and taste, and drying out to a very nice dry bitter finish, I liked this a lot, and costing just £2.50 a pint with my CAMRA member discount!

Back to Putney, and on Thursday I visited somewhere I've been meaning to enter for some time now, Ghost Whale, 134 Upper Richmond Road SW15 2SP (website), and they have premises in Brixton too. This is a bottle shop that also sells 8 keg 'craft' beers, and where you can imbibe on the premises too, which I did! I spent a while here, enjoying pleasant discourse with staff member Ray (from L.A.), who went to the same university college in Roehampton/Southfields as my brother, although quite a few years in-between their studies.

I began by drinking (and not pints here, I must add, but halves and two-thirds) Hertfordshire brewery Baron (website) Fuzz, a 4.2% Pale beer, brewed with Mosaic and Strata hops. OK, the beers I drank here were not clear, so Fuzz looked a little fuzzy too, but it was very fruity, citrus and forest fruits. Actually a clean refreshing finish, not bad at all.

The beers in the bottles pictured above were delivered whilst I was there, I didn't manage to sample any of them before I left, but I have reviewed Westmalle Tripel before, more than once (eg blog), I also took home 3 beers, see further down. But I did have a beer from East London brewery Howling Hops (website), their 6.6% NEIPA (New England IPA) Cabin Fever, thus brewed with Azacca, Topaz and Centennial hops, and consequently very pronounced citrus and tropical fruit, cloudy, so quite thick, but easily knocked back, not bad at all.

My final drink on the premises was from North London brewery Pressure Drop (website), their 8.5% DIPA (Double IPA, thus more malt for strength and plentiful hops) called Monstrous Unnatural Thing, brewed with Idaho-7 and Mosaic hops. This was very rich and thick, like fruit juice to look at, and with a tropical fruit flavour burst! It had a very decent flavour indeed, I liked it, but I couldn't have drunk a pint. Oh yes, and whilst I was there, Max of Wimbledon Brewery turned up, we chatted and he advised that he was then off to the Bricklayer's Arms where their ales were on tap, and where I was to visit on my second day (below).

On Friday I actually started off north of Putney Bridge, close to Putney Bridge Station, at a 17th century pub, The Eight Bells, 89 Fulham High Street SW6 3JS (facebook), which had 4 cask ales, including one from West London brewer Portobello (website) and two from South West London brewery Sambrook's (website), very local both. I had the 4.2% Sambrook's Pumphouse, brewed with British Admiral and Goldings hops, and late hopped with New Zealand Wakatua hops, to give this traditional English IPA a fruity twist. Pale golden, quite bitter, with a very dry finish, which I liked, pretty good.

I then crossed the bridge, and still close to the Thames on the south side (Surrey side), west of Putney Bridge and Max's parting shot the day before, to The Bricklayer's Arms, 32 Waterman Street SW15 1DD (facebook), which has certainly returned to form under the guidance of the new landlord Chris, not to mention tasteful refurbishment and new loos, great stuff! 12 handpumps, one for cider, and on my visit there was a choice between 9 different cask conditioned ales 👍including two I had a pint of each, from South West London brewery Wimbledon (website).

First, Wimbledon Best Bitter (4.3%), a traditional style best bitter, brewed with English Fuggles and Goldings hops, it does what it says on the label, I noted 'pretty good' and I would happily drink it all day. Then I had a pint of the Wimbledon Quartermaine (5.8%), an 'English IPA' brewed with Fuggles, Goldings, Admiral and Target hops, a bit sweet for me at first taste, but drying out to bitterness at the finish, not bad, but I noted that I should have had a half. 😉

I also drank 2 pints of ale here from one of my favourite brewers, Kentish brewery Kent (website), I'll try something from somewhere different on my next visit, but I had to... They were brewed by Kent after all! First, their 3.7% Session Pale, which again does what it says on the label, it is a light session pale ale, hint of citrus, very refreshing with a dry bitter finish, and very easy to drink, I could drink this all day. 👌 My final drink here was the Kent Kent Golding Bitter (4.1%), brewed with Golding and Fuggles hops, and a traditional 'ordinary' or 'session' bitter indeed, and I'll not get tired of saying it, but you know what you are going to get by reading the label, hint of malt and hint of citrus, but, well it's a very good bitter indeed, cheers! 

So, to the 3 beers I took away with me in a tote bag from Ghost Whale, a bag that my niece was very happy to adopt, two pale ales and a very dark one from Belgium. First, from Beak Brewery of Lewes in Sussex (website) and their 6.0% Parade IPA, brewed with Citra, Mosaic and Idaho-7 hops, so you would expect a big fruity flavour, and you wouldn't be disappointed! A pale golden beer, hazy, and fruity aroma and taste, a bit too thick for me, but not bad.

Then, from Windsor based brewery Two Flints (website) Vista, a 5.5% West Coast Pale Ale, brewed with Simcoe and Talus hops from the USA and British grown Olicana hops, and apparently a small amount of wheat added to the malt... This produced a very tasty pale golden beer, plenty of fruit in the aroma and taste with a lovely dry bitter finish, I did like this! 👍

My final beer, and from Belgium, was from Kasteel Brouwerij Vanhonsebrouck (website) and their Barista Chocolate Quad (11.0%), similar to a porter in style, with chocolate, coffee and a hint of liquorice in the aroma and more chocolate to the taste. A deep dark red, creamy, with plenty of body as you would expect from the strength and style, my niece wasn't impressed, but then she doesn't like beer much, but a good ale to finish a session with, cheers! 😁

Before I go, and this was my view from The Rocket (at the top of this blog), with Putney Bridge clearly in the picture if looking to the west (above), and with the historic St Mary's Church virtually next door to the pub (just out of shot), south of and just to the east of the bridge, to the left of the photograph. St Mary's Church was where the Putney Debates of 1647 were held by Parliamentarians during the English Civil War (Putney Debates) with the goal of deciding what a new 'democratic' commonwealth should look like...

Cheers folks! 🍻