TAG | England
In Wetherspoons over the holiday period, and one of the guest beers available was the rather excellent Jennings Snecklifter: with a message on the pump clip.
The message said something about the fact that, because of the recent floods, Jennings beer is being brewed ‘by other breweries’ (other breweries from Marston’s), and that 10p of every pint is going straight into the Cumbrian floods appeal.
Visiting their website, they’ve a special section about the flooding: and the efforts to bring the brewery back online.
Congratulations should go to the Marston’s Group to be doing something sensible for the local economy; and to Wetherspoon’s for stocking it. Hopefully it’ll be popular.
Pop into this bar in San Francisco, and you’re in for a treat.
The place started in 1948, and has a peculiarly French feel to it. With awful portraits on the wall (one claims it’s Patrick Swayze, but the only way of telling is to read the sign saying who it is below), it’s certainly a sight to see.
As I walked in, the sight that greeted me from the upstairs balcony were two feet. Whoever it was up there (who, listening to the bar-tenders chatting to themselves, had imbibed a fair amount of Absinthe), had decided to relax a little.
The amusing signs are all over the bar. Some parts are dedicated to people who used to drink there – the John Wilkes Memorial Booth is above the bar to the right; a large portrait of the original owner – Henri Lenior, a stern-looking french man, in a beret. The signs are classy and amusing – even, somehow, the one typeset in MS Comic Sans. No, really.
The gas-lamp chandelier above the bar, and the art-deco mirror, will give you plenty to look at when you choose your beer; however, the range on tap isn’t quite as exciting as the decor, sadly. Here’s what was on tap when I visited the other day…
Anchor Steam (San Francisco, California, USA)
Widmer Hefeweizen (Portland, Oregon, USA)
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (Chico, California, USA)
Pilsner Urquell (Pilsen, Czech Republic)
Budweiser (St Louis, Missouri, USA)
Stella Artois (Leuven, Belgium)
Amstel Light (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Bass (Burton, UK)
Guinness (Dublin, Ireland)
The Great British Beer Festival is on at the moment in Earl’s Court; and I visited on Wednesday afternoon and evening – on a very hot and muggy day. Here’s what I had… all thirds of pints (and from about 3.30pm till 10.30pm, so I certainly wasn’t drinking fast!)
Vortex IPA (7.4%)
Fort George Brewery, Astoria, Oregon
I should have probably spotted the “IPA” and not “APA”, which is why I was disappointed with this first beer. Fruity aroma, I wrote, but almost unpleasantly bitter – not an enjoyable drink. It quickly sold out, which is concerning!
Fine Raisin Beer (5.1%)
Cain’s, Liverpool
An amber beer which I’ve only ever had at the GBBF, and ensure I have every single visit. It’s splendidly lovely – creamy, fruity, with a tiny little nod to a dark raisin taste. Excellent stuff.
Liverbird Ale (4.3%)
Cain’s, Liverpool
A light beer, made with American hops. Light, bitter, citrussy, thirst-quenching.
Wandle Ale (3.8%)
Sambrook’s, Battersea, London
As splendid as I remember it – a wonderful, fruity, citrussy, splendid beer. I only wish this was on tap near me; sadly, I’ve never seen it. (Excitingly, it was on the Wetherspoon’s “Bar Nouveau” stand, which bodes well).
A drop of Nelson’s Blood (3.6%)
Farmer’s, Essex
Nothing too special – amber, full flavoured, but a bit dull. But a nice name. But a bit dull. Nice name though. But dull. Name good. Beer dull.
An APA from Italy
(sadly, the programme doesn’t recall it, and neither do I)
I’ve never been impressed with Italian beers, but this was a good American Pale Ale, and I enjoyed it.
Lia Fail (4.7%)
Inveralmond, Perthshire
Frankly, bought because its name was funny (hello @llia). A nice, amber, beer – though not particularly special; typically less sweet, as Scottish beer generally is.
West Fest Ale (3.8%)
Malvern Hills, Worcestershire
Light, blond ale: the favourite of @agrumbri who was there in the evening and stuck with this all night. Very nice beer, and not too strong either.
Twisted Spire (3.6%)
Hobsons, Shropshire
Not quite as nice as the West Fest Ale, but fairly similar. A nice, non-heavy, end to the evening.
With more than 450 ales, ciders and foreign beers, even if none of these sound to your taste, you might like some you’d find; and join CAMRA when you get there, too – it’s good for the soul.
“Come to my birthday party,” said a friend, “we’re going somewhere in Bristol which does really really nice cocktails.”
My heart sank. Anywhere that does really really nice cocktails, invariably (in my experience) thinks that a choice of beer is a choice between a Becks and a Tiger. Boring, boring, beer.
So imagine my delight when reaching The Rummer Hotel in Bristol, I flicked to the back of the cocktail menu to discover… the beer menu (that’s a Word doc).
And what a beer menu indeed. I sampled an Anchor Steam Beer; an odd lager called Curious Brew Brut (made with champagne yeast); and a delicious slow-drinking Station Porter made in Gloucester – I could also have chosen proper decent German smoke-beer, Cooper’s Green, or even Nigerian Guinness (which isn’t brewed with barley, but uses sourgum and maize instead).
What a joy to discover a place that understands that a huge choice of whisky might be interesting to a whisky drinker; a huge choice of cocktails might be interesting to a cocktail drinker; and a huge choice of beers might be interesting to a beer drinker. Top marks go to The Rummer Hotel. I shall return. Probably. At some point.
I was late. I’d done the Journey Planner Run – visit the TfL Journey Planner, tap in my journey to find out when to leave, and discovered I was due to leave ten minutes ago.
I ran onto the train at Victoria, clutching my printed Google Map. I’d run. I was out of breath. “James, isn’t it?”, said Rob from Qype, who was standing next to me, grinning. “You’ve got the same printout that I’ve got”, he said, flourishing his. Time to relax. I was still going to be late: but this was the man who ran the website through which I’d had my invitation. They weren’t going to start without him, surely.
And they didn’t.
Walking into a pretty anonymous industrial estate building in Battersea, we were welcomed by the rather splendid words “Welcome to our brewery”.
Sambrook’s Brewery hasn’t been brewing for long: in fact, it only started in November last year. The brewery has three rooms – a small tasting room (coupling as reception), the hot room (where they brew the beer), and the cold room (where they let it settle, and then stick it into bottles).
First, the tour. We learned how beer was made – in rather more detail than a standard tour. For example, we discussed the additives put in the water to soften it, and the isinglass used to make it clear. Mmm, sturgeon swimbladders.
We were given floor malt to eat (it’s really yummy, and reminded me of Shreddies). We were given hops to sniff – proper leaves of the hop flowers, not unpleasant pellets. These people are brewing beer properly. We went to see how they ship it out – in their own barrels, it turns out, all carefully branded. And then we got to taste some.
Wandle Ale – named after a nearby river – is delicious. Clear, light, not too strong (3.8%), but beautifully hoppy. And so splendidly fresh-tasting. A great session ale, and one that I’d have been quite happy to drink all evening.
At a time when breweries are abandoning London (Young’s closed their Ram Brewery in 2006; Pitfield Brewery leaving the East End for Essex), it’s great to see a brand new one. And when their beer tastes as good as this, it’s even better.
(There are more pictures here.)
In Suffolk over Christmas, and a chance to try some of the new Adnams beers from Southwold – notably, two seasonal beers of theirs. Seasonal winter beers ordinarily appear to mean high ABV, but this isn’t apparently how Adnams think – there again, Adnams appear to think pretty differently to most beer companies, having recently produced their own carbon-neutral brews and covering the top of their distribution centre in grass.
Trying both from the bottles – and both rather too warm, it should be said…
Adnams Gunhill was a dark, very malty, and rather sweet beer, at only 4%. They call it a ‘dark, ruby ale’; however, I found it rather overpoweringly malty for my taste. I wasn’t too impressed.
So, it was a good job that Adnams Lighthouse came to the rescue. They call this a pale ale, though it’s almost as dark as the Gunhill, which came as a surprise. The taste, however, is a very hoppy pale ale – a really splendid pint, this, and I’d not mind trying it again at a more sensible temperature. It tasted surprisingly close to the american pale ales I like – but at just 3.4%, this is a session beer and a thirst quencher. What I don’t really understand is the thinking behind releasing it as a seasonal ale at this time of year – to me, this would make an excellent summer drink.
Both Gunhill and Lighthouse are in East Anglian Tesco and Co-op stores. Hopefully they’ll make it a little further west, too.
