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)!

2 Brewery's Ales during Visit London Visit & USA link too!

This was actually the second ale I drank over the last few days from a brewery I'd never drank a beer from before. I'm discussing it first because I preferred it, it was significantly stronger, and it cost less! 👍 This ale was from a quite new brewery with a great history too, thanks to the American lad who has been the creator of Forest Road Brewing Company (website) with not a little help from family, friends and others; see Pete Brown's blog The Road to Forest Road, which I shall give a very brief summary of, but the whole blog is well worth the read.

Pete started out brewing at home with brewkits in a flat in Queens, New York, in 2008. He then moved to Denver in 2010 and worked behind a bar for 6 months before convincing Eric Erman of Wynkoop Brewing Company (website) to help them brew once a week. In 2012 he sold his car and moved across the Atlantic, then getting experience working for London Fields Brewery, which has since been bought out with a joint purchase by the Carlsberg Group and Brooklyn Brewery. 8 months later he moved to Camden Town Brewery (website), which was taken over by AB InBev in 2015; and whilst there Pete completed 2 brewing diplomas at the University of Westminster. That year he decided to set up his own brewery.

Pete moved into a house in Forest Road, East London, where he convinced his housemates to start up a brewery, and the first brew devised was Work a 'malty low bitter IPA' 60 litres brewed in the garden. They became a 'cuckoo' brewery, including using the facilities of a Belgian brewery, then Forest Road Brewing Company was formed in 2016. Again, read Pete's blog for more detail, I cannot do justice to the story here, but in 2019 they ended up buying a 4-vessel brewkit from Russian River Brewing in California (website), shipping it through the Panama Canal and across the Atlantic Ocean to London in 2020! They now have a brewery and taproom in South Bermondsey (2020/21 - website) as well as the taproom in Hackney (since 2016 - website), and I haven't even mentioned the money raising, and tactics used during the pandemic!

To the ale... I recently wrote about the 'C' hops and American beers (eg blog and blog), well, the Forest Road Work India Pale Ale (5.4%), the brewery's 'flagship' ale, has Cascade, Centennial, Chinook and Columbus hops in the brew. This is a pale amber brew with hints of malt and citrus and tropical fruits in the taste, quite subtle, with a bitter aftertaste, not bad at all, and costing a relatively cheap £5.20 a pint in a well known London pub...

We drank this in an old favourite pub that we hadn't visited for quite a while, but glad we did on Friday! The Market Porter (above - website), 9 Stoney Street SE1 9AA, which is positioned opposite Borough Market (website), a wholesale fruit and veg market early doors and a popular trendy market for various cuisine later in the day. A pub has been on the site for at least 400 years, previously called the Harrow until the 1890s, and has sold food and drink early doors to market porters knocking off from their jobs, now between 6.00 and 9.00 am, when it closes until lunchtime. Great interior, we enjoyed the non-intrusive music too, and well worth a visit!

The other ale from a brewery I'd never drank a beer from before was from Wimbledon Brewery (website), which is situated in nearby Colliers Wood, on the site of Merton Priory, where beer was brewed throughout the Middle Ages, until the priory was demolished in 1538, thanks to Henry VIII. The logo of the brewery includes a phoenix emerging from an image of the tower of the former Wimbledon Brewery that was destroyed by fire in 1889, nice touch. The latest Wimbledon Brewery was set up in 2015 with a 30 Brewers Barrel plant.

The ale we drank here was the Wimbledon Brewery SW19 (4.0%), a Blonde Summer Ale, brewed with Waimea, Rakau and Cascade hops grown in New Zealand and English Fuggle and Goldings hops. For those who don't know, SW19 is the postcode for Wimbledon. The SW19 Blonde Ale has quite a pale colour, with a subtle malt and citrus flavour, very easy to drink, but didn't leave too much of an impression on me; costing £5.65 a pint didn't help!

Oh yes, where was here? Well, drinking in Wimbledon probably influenced the price, that is, at The Crooked Billet (website), 15 Crooked Billet SW19 4RQ. The Crooked Billet was built in the early 18th century, becoming a pub in the 1850s, the name coming from the pub sign that was a crooked piece of wood broken from a tree, I think, but there are many interpretations! Anyway, apparently, 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, as also is the nearby Hand in Hand (website), where I first drank Ruddles County whilst Ruddles Brewery was still an independent brewery, many years ago...

Anyway, bye for now folks, and cheers!