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! 🍻 

Happy Ēostre!

 

Happy Ēostre, or Easter, well, nearly there, and schoolchildren are on Easter holiday, but my first Easter ale of 2023, maybe my only one? Ēostre was the Pagan/Anglo-Saxon Goddess of Spring and Renewal, the festival celebrating her was 'Christianised' following Pope Gregory setting forth a mission in the late 6th century to convert Pagans to Christians, later superimposing Christian festivals onto Pagan festivals (thefield). 

Anyway, onto the ale itself, Kent (website) Ēostre (4.2%), an uber Citra ale really, hops that you like or don't, I do like them indeed! Citra is a hop from the USA, but with a complicated heritage, used by many brewers nowadays, but brought into Britain first by Oakham Brewery, and sometimes very difficult to get hold of because of its popularity. The hop's heritage includes Hallertau Mittelfruh, Tettnanger, Brewers Gold and East Kent Goldings (Hopslist). 

The ale certainly has a very fruity aroma and taste, primarily citrus, but with a hint of forest fruits too, very pale golden colour and clear, with a refreshing crisp dry bitter finish, I love it!

Cheers and Happy Easter! 

 

Spring Ale, a Chocolate Ale too, plus...

Well, last week heralded the beginning of Astronomical Spring (Met Office), and Stonehenge Ales (website) have again brewed their seasonal ale Sign of Spring (blog). As you can see above, this is a pale ale which they label a 'Premium Bitter' but it has a touch of green (food dye presumably) about it 😉 and it's a jolly good 4.6% pale dry bitter indeed! There's a general fruitiness, with a nice dry bitter, slightly nutty, finish, please can I have another? 👍

And then I had this totally different ale from Saltaire Brewery (website) up in Skipton, West Yorkshire... their 4.8% Triple Choc, an ale I last remember drinking in December 2019 (blog), and my opinion of it hasn't changed at all. With chocolate and a hint of liquorice in the aroma, it's proclaimed as an 'Indulgent Chocolate Stout' and who could argue with that, unless I wanted to suggest it's a porter, not a stout, but see my blog which discusses the difference between stouts and porters. So, whichever style we call it, Triple Choc is brewed with Fuggles hops, and is a very deep red colour, and very rich ale, tasting of chocolate indeed, but incredibly easy to drink, though I probably wouldn't drink too many pints in the same session 😉

And then a pale hoppy ale that isn't green. The Kent Brewery (website) 4.5% Loral, a single hopped very pale ale with a hint of citrus, not too overpowering for those who don't like citrus flavoured ales, slightly spicy and with a crackin' dry bitter finish, very refreshing. This is an ale that I have had quite recently too, before yesterday, but my notes were included in my last destroyed note book 😞 so I quickly included this ale in this blog, I would hate to mess up again 😏 Kent Brewery is my favourite local brewer, and they do brew very excellent ales of all styles. Anyway, to the Loral hop, which has forbears from the USA, that is Glacier and Nugget, and Tardif de Bourgogne from France (Yakima Valley Hops), billed as 'floral, herbal and citrus' but I didn't pick up the 'floral' myself, but a very decent ale indeed, cheers!

I enjoyed the above ales this week, imbibing at the Dolphin Inn, 11-12 Rock a Nore Road, Hastings, East Sussex TN34 3DW (website), until the next time, cheers! 😁

Hertog Jan: Grand Prestige

As I mentioned in a postscript to my review of The Beer Wench's Guide to Beer earlier this month (blog), I unwittingly destroyed my last 2 notebooks... Consequently, all of my notes concerning darker beers I have been drinking over the winter months are not available. However, I did notice that I still had the photograph above on my laptop, and I know that I did rather enjoy drinking that Dutch beer, and my blogs about Dutch beers don't exist yet, so...

The history of the Hertog Jan Brouwerij goes back to 1915, when 4 friends came together to build their own brewery at Arcen in the Netherlands (website). Their 10.0% Grand Prestige was first brewed in 1983, and has become the 'crown jewel' of the brewery and is usually laid down for years before drinking, allowing the beer to mature and develop. Grand Prestige is top fermented, thus an ale rather than a lager, using up to 4 different malts in the brewing process, and likened to a barley wine. I remember it being rich, but I'll use their own description of the beer here.

The colour is a deep reddish brown, full bodied and sweet at first taste, but drying out to bitterness in the mouth. Indeed, the "taste is a varying palette of roasted malt, a hint of caramel, spicy and full-bodied and in the aftertaste you can taste a pleasant bitterness with a touch of sweetness. The aroma is wonderfully fruity." (website) 

They recommend at least 2 years to allow the beer to develop, but they will store the beer for you for up to 6 years, "waiting for true enthusiasts who will enjoy the special taste of an aged Grand Prestige." I was given a 2 year old bottle by a friend, but didn't do the research, so I drank it (destroyed the notes!), although I'm not sure I could have lasted very long even with this information, as a previous blog from over 4 years ago may suggest. 😉

Maybe I'll get an older vintage one day, cheers! 

Pickled Quails' Eggs in a Pub!

OK, not strictly about beer, although I did imbibe a couple of good pints whilst in the pub, and, regarding this photograph, the jar above had already been relieved of a few eggs by the time I took the photograph at home later. However, I couldn't resist the pickled quails' eggs that were on sale yesterday from the bar of the Albion, Marine Parade/George Street, Hastings TN34 3AG (website), a pub I've written about before (eg blog), they're wee and they're very tasty! And many thanks to Claire for her generosity, cheers m'dear! 👍

The Albion's not just a great place for ale, pies and pasties in Hastings Old Town. 😉

Just £5 for a tastefully packaged and well-packed jar, I'll be back, cheers!

'The Beer Wench's Guide to Beer' Review

I first mentioned Ashley Routson, self-proclaimed (I'm not being sexist) Beer Wench, and her 'guide' 7 months ago (blog) because of her invention of IPA Day, that was first celebrated back in 2011. I said I would order a copy of her book The Beer Wench's Guide to Beer: An Unpretentious Guide to Craft Beer, which, as you can see above, I have in my possession.

I did mean to write a review of this book a while ago, but, well, I do get mixed up with other stuff too, including my other blog (Steve on Hastings), a wee bit of work here and there, visiting friends and family, not to forget following football and failing at playing in minigolf competitions, anyway, I didn't write the review before. So I've re-read The Beer Wench's Guide to Beer and can confirm that it certainly is An Unpretentious Guide to Craft Beer. The book was first published back in 2015, but I've not seen anything written by her for a few years. She was originally from the wine trade, I do believe, but her experience in tasting follows through to her beer journey very well.

Although it's subtitle is An Unpretentious Guide to Craft Beer, it is a well-written guide indeed, a slim (256 pages) but very informative softback publication. Ms Routson explains how she became interested in beers and its different styles and where they come from, her Eureka! moment when she discovered IPAs and Centennial hops, and Belgian beers. Early on I discovered why beers should be in green or brown bottles, and I own up that I didn't know beforehand how UV light effects beer in the bottle, and she goes on to explain and discuss the different styles of beer, the difference between lagers and ales, providing examples of each style to try. Because this is a book from across the Atlantic, many of those beers aren't available in Britain, but for obvious European styles, European beers are mentioned, as you would expect.

So, among many others including beers brewed in the USA, for English ales she includes beers from Meantime Brewery, Fuller's and Wychwood; for lagers she includes Pilsner Urquell, Spaten Premium Lager and Radeberger Pilsner; for Belgian beers she picks Westmalle Tripel (readers and friends will be aware this is my favourite Belgian beer) and the uniquely (for Trappist beers) dry-hopped Orval, her favourite, "arguably the best beer on the planet" she enthuses!

In my early days visiting Belgium, in the 1990s, I used to always panic when entering a bar and looked at their beer menus with numerous beers included, and immediately plumped for Orval as first beer of choice. But my favourite, as I state above, is Westmalle Tripel, although I'm happy to drink all others, purely for research purposes, of course; even drinking Stella in Belgium, it is certainly better than what you get over here, actually, a bit like drinking Guinness in Ireland! 

The Guide goes into the brewing process and the 4 essential ingredients of beer, that are malted barley, hops (above image of Hukins hopfield), water and yeast (yes, other ingredients are sometimes used too, but they're what's needed). She explains mashing, the wort, boiling, cooling and fermenting, and even mentions how some brewers Burtonize the water used, that is certain minerals are added to help try and replicate the water found in Burton upon Trent; something we used to do when I worked at Kelham Island Brewery 20 years ago.

She also adds a chapter about respecting beer and how to serve beer, the best glasses to use for each style, and tasting and evaluating beers. The later chapters include how to pair different beer styles with different foods, using beer in cooking, and suggests recipes and beer cocktails (!). In conclusion, Ms Routson certainly provides a more than unpretentious guide, this book is an easily read 'guide' and packed with easily digestible information. It would be good to be in touch with her sometime to swap information and discuss how brewing, craft beers and cask ales have developed in more recent years, oh well, likely not to be, cheers!

Postscript:

I always seem to be apologising for not writing many blogs, but, as my brother would say, I am a wee bit of a bampot... My last 2 notebooks have both been in the back pocket of trousers that were placed in the washing machine and I have lost notes going back months 😒

I must try and do better, stay safe folks!

London Pubs and an apology...

Apologies because I haven't written for a while, which is a combination of IT problems, other responsibilities and, let's face it, I'm notoriously in the pub! 😉 Well, I do have plenty to say and have been hoarding topics to write about since last year, and a mate posted this link to me on facebook, cheers Rod, which prompted me to pull myself together and write this easy blog! 

It's easy because I don't really have to say much this time, if you haven't looked at the link, it's to a website called Londonist, and article called Real Ale Trail: Where To Drink The Best Cask Beer In London. There is a lot there new to me, I can't visit the 40,000-ish pubs and bars in the country obviously, for which I again apologise, though I do try, but that article is pretty good and informative. I have previously visited and written about some of the pubs, for example, The Harp (above photograph, and blog from my older blog) and the Cask Pub & Kitchen (older blog), and the breweries, for example Sambrook's Brewery (blog), and I will try harder...

Anyway, expect more soon... ish, cheers! 🍺