Hoppy New Beer!

And I drank a very good one yesterday, cheers!

More to come very soon... 😉

Merry Christmas!

CHEERS!

Combining Ale, the FILO, Pickled Onions & Charity!

OK, I own up that the main purpose of my visit yesterday to the First In Last Out, 14-15 High Street, Hastings TN34 3EY (website) wasn't just to drink real ales brewed in Hastings, indeed, close by and up the road actually, but because for a number of years now I have gladly taken advantage of the rather special spicy pickled onions (above) prepared and provided by Elina (once apprenticed to Paul; see older blog), and a wonderful puller of real ales too! Elina starts work on the onions well in advance of this holiday season, and all proceeds from the sale of the pickled onions go to the charity for homeless people in Hastings, Eastbourne and Bexhill, Warming Up The Homeless (website). So, not only have I contributed to that charity, I have excellent pickled onions to go with the cold meat, cheese and bubble & squeak that I shall be enjoying on Boxing/St Stephen's Day, quality, cheers Elina!

But, also, the beers... the 4 handpumps shown in the photograph above, plus a seasonal winter warmer that was a wee bit too sweet for me to drink more than a half of, quite pleasant, liquid Caramac came to mind, and with rum added to the cask, many thanks to Adam (whose back is in the image above) for serving it up. When I first arrived the first other customer I recognised was Eddie, who, coincidentally, I have seen a few times recently after not seeing each other for ages, great to chat, cheers Eddie! 

So my main drinks were two of the above ales, the easy to drink FILO Churches Pale Ale (4.2%), a refreshing session ale brewed with one of my favourite U.S. hops, Amarillo, and the stronger 4.8% FILO Gold,  brewed with another great hop from the USA, Cascade, their 'premium ale, nice and pale and golden, good stuff!

So, a pleasant afternoon was had, good ale, good company, and pickled onions to add to the mix, many thanks again to Elina for her time and patience, cheers! 

This blog was first written for my other blog, Steve on Hastings, and, by the way, here's a link to the FILO Brewery website.

A Gift from Scotland

Friends of mine, Mark and Maureen, often bring back beers for me when they go on holiday, eg when they went to Wales a couple of years ago (blog), and Devon earlier this year (blog). Well, they recently returned from touring around the Scottish Highlands and Islands, although Mark said he was a bit disappointed with the little choice on offer ale-wise, where there was mostly cream flow and keg beers available, but that's much of Scotland for you, sadly... 😕 

Anyway, this time they brought back a beer for me from a very decent Scottish brewery, Orkney (website), their 4.5% Orkney Gold, labelled a New World Pale Ale, thanks to the Amarillo, Cascade and Columbus hops used, from the USA; also Wheat Malt is used as well as the more usual pale malt, presumably Maris Otter. They suggest it is "spicy, fruity and hoppy" and I noted slightly citrus fruits in the aroma and taste, with a wee hint of forest fruits too, and refreshing with a nice bitter finish... Cheers Mark and Mo, and cheers to you too folks! 

Dheagh shlàinte!

A New Brewery in an Old Pub

The Ram Inn

My brother and I recently visited what used to be the old brewery tap for Youngs in Wandsworth, and now called The Ram Inn, 68 Wandsworth High Street, SW18 4LB (website), and now run by the Grumpy Pub Company, who also have 2 other previously Youngs pubs, ie The Pig & Whistle, 481 Merton Road, SW18 5LD, and The Old Sergeant, 104 Garratt Lane, SW18 4DJ, both of which I have visited many times over the years, being from Wandsworth originally...

As you can see in the photograph below, which shows their brewing kit inside the building,, this is also a 'brewpub' and the brewery is called Slybeast Brewing, named after a couple of dogs, it appears, the story is on their website.

So, the 3 beers of theirs I sampled, I have to review, being as that's my purpose in life these days. 😉 To the first ale, their 3.7% 'pale ale' Beam Engine, brewed with Marris Otter malt and Cascade hops from the U.S. of A., and described as 'a modern take on a classical English ale.' It's a pale golden beer, I certainly got the hops used in the taste, dries out in the finish, but a bit too sweet for me, not my favourite pale ale ever, sadly.

The second ale I tasted was the 4.5% Ram Street Special SW18, which I presumed would be their take on the Youngs Special, but no! Apparently brewed by someone who likes Belgian dubbel beers and consequently Belgian Crystal malt used and a 'more pronounced yeast profile' though English hops used, I believe. Again for me, Belgian wise I prefer their tripel beers, and not bitter enough for me, much too sweet.

The third beer was the 4.5% 4 FOOT 2 London Porter, named after the old railway that used to run nearby 200 years ago, and which ran on a track gauge of 4' 2" unsurprisingly. They describe the aroma and taste as 'Biscuit, Caramel, Chocolate and Toast'  but I got a big hit of liquorice and a hint of coffee too. Dark, as you'd expect, apparently unfined, so good for vegans, and easy to get away with for such a dark beer. I wrote 'not bad' as it wasn't bad at all, I could drink this regularly, but maybe not too many pints in one go 😉

Next door, therefore also on the old Ram Brewery site, is the Sambrooks Brewery, which I wrote a blog about a while ago before the pandemic disrupted things, and their Taproom, somewhere I shall have to visit on another day, cheers! 

Peterborough and Oakham Ales Postscript...

Indeed, further to my last blog about my recent visit to Peterborough, which included visiting 2 of the 4 Oakham Ales hostelries run by their sister company, The Oaka Group; I always thought that the Bartons Arms in Birmingham was one of their pubs, which I've visited a few times and written about before (blog), but Helen at Oakham has informed me that it is 'leased' out, shame. However, I have visited the Mansion House in Kennington a few times. eg blog, and their fourth business is actually the East Restaurant on the upper deck of Charters in Peterborough (blog).

Anyway, the postscript is that, although I was too sensible to drink the 6% Oakham Green Devil whilst in Peterborough, I had a couple of pints yesterday at my local, the Dolphin Inn in Hastings, a pub that I have written about before, obviously, eg blog. Anyway! Green Devil is the "big brother" of the 'session ale' at 4.2% Oakham Citra, also a few more hops used, not just significantly stronger, but 'doubled hopped' and twice 'World Champion' ale (website).

They describe the taste on the Green Devil pump clip as being "powerful, tropical fruit" and it certainly has a deeper more full taste than Citra, but I detect some grapefruit as well as tropical fruit flavours, we're all different. Indeed, it's an excellent pale golden bitter, with Wheat Malt used, as well as the usual Maris Otter, my notes say plenty of body, dry finish, and very good!

Looking forward to my next pint shortly, cheers! 

Peterborough - A New City (for me) Visited...

A trip to Peterborough and dreams of Oakham Ales (website, and more later), base of one of my 2 favourite breweries, real ale bars, and maybe a point or three at football, fingers crossed... I had been looking forward to this day for ages! My first port of call was the Bumble Inn (website), close by the railway station at 46 Westgate, PE1 1RE, which opens at 12.00.

At the Bumble Inn I met three friendly Peterborough lads, 2 brothers and a son/nephew, who each had their own pub in their gardens, I kid you not, I was shown photographs... dead impressive and useful during the lockdowns no doubt! Anyway, this micropub sells 5 ever-changing real ales, 2 of which were from that excellent Yorkshire brewery, from Huddersfield, Mallinsons (website), and they, apparently, as I didn't partake, sell home-made pork pies, 'jumbo' sausage rolls and/or scotch eggs; 'pop-up' food events held on the third Thursday of the month.

I had a pint each of the 2 Mallinsons ales, both pale and hoppy, both 4.0%, their Denimes Denimes, and, my favourite of the two, the single hopped Kohatu (New Zealand hops), quite bitter with a dry crisp finish, not bad at all. As we decided, I press-ganged them really, I went along with the lads to my next port of call, the Oakham bar on a barge, Charters (website).

Charters Bar was packed, as was the bankside area next to it, which provides a huge outside area which must have been very useful during the first phase of returning to 'normal' last year. As usual at a bar near a football ground on match day, it emptied out between 2.30 and 3.00 pm, but not before we shared a few pints each, me of the excellent Oakham Citra (4.2%), a wonderful session pale bitter, like me, pale, dry and bitter, great company. Great ale at just £3 a pint ('special' regular deals), and 5 friends of mine (including my ex-wife) turned up here just before 2.30 (Noel and Ian in the photograph above, just as we were leaving to go to the ground).

After the match, sadly an upsetting last 10 minutes for me, but not for my new mates from Peterborough I imagine, 5 of us met up at The (Oakham) Brewery Tap (website), which is just a few minutes walk from the railway station in Westgate...

Here I drank, again at a bargain price, 2 or 3 pints of Oakham Inferno (4.0%), brewed with Sterling, Amarillo, Centennial, Cascade and Chinook hops, those who know me well will appreciate I approve of brewers using these hops from the USA 😉 - And again, great ale, again, pale, dry, refreshing and bitter, great company, and another decently priced ale too, thank you very much Oakham! The journey home was a wee bit rowdy, but not due to me guv...

And, just because I didn't take a photograph of a beer I was drinking, here's one I took earlier, last week at the Dolphin Inn in Hastings (website), my local, cheers!