I know how good the Hornbeam Swift Swallow was. I had a couple of pints of it the day before you visited the famous Baum and another couple a few hours after you left.
However, one of my favourite dark beers of all time was also on the bar and also on top form.
BOTW is Acorn Old Moor Porter.
A pub is for life not just for Christmas
Had a very enjoyable session in The Harp,Chandos Place ,WC2 and on a warm Friday evening the Dark Star Hophead was a worthy BOTW although special mention should go to the Paradise Weiss.Back in boating mode this week with plans the check out the drinking scene in Kidsgrove ,Stoke and Stone .Titanic Ales to the fore and hopefully no icebergs on the Trent and Mersey canal.
Very little for me to choose from this week (Couple of pints of Youngs ordinary, a cloudy pint of Harveys), so a clear winner for me would be the pint of Larkins Best Bitter that I enjoyed at the Royal Oak in Tunbridge Wells yesterday.
A bit behind schedule but the Plain Innocence at the legendary Nags Head Reading yesterday was excellent. However BOTW has to be ARBOR ALES Transpacific Pale Ale sampled at the Seven Stars on Friday. Arbor Ales seem to get better and better with every brew.
http://www.arborales.co.uk/joomla/in...d=47&Itemid=53
Seem to have drunk a huge amount this week, including a lot of bad canned stuff at a fiftieth. However,some good stuff as well:
Bob's 'Yakima'
Great Heck 'Heckstra Gold'
Amber Ales 'Blonde'
Derby Brewery 'Old Intentional'
Great Heck 'Golden Bull'
Blue Monkey 'Original'
Titanic 'Ale Over'
Naylors 'Black and Tan'
WharfeBank 'Slinger's Gold'
Acorn 'Barnsley Bitter'
Timothy Taylor 'Landlord'
Elland 'Midsummer Night's Porter'
Fernandes 'Hawklord'
Fernandes 'Lucifer'
Greene King / Westgate 'Back of the Net'
The Luclfer and Heckstra Gold deserve an honorable mention but the clear winner and my BOTW: Elland 'Midsummer Night's Porter'
'And where he supped the past lived still. And where he sipped the glass brimmed full' John Barleycorn, Carol Ann Duffy.
Didnt manage to get out after Friday so BOTW is Accorn Scorcher
Theres a Man with a Mullet going Mad with a Mallet in Millets !
On Friday I was introduced to Brooklyn Lager and have to admit to being surprised at how good it tasted. I have had better beers this week, but this one gets it purely on the surprise factor of a tasty lager!
I was in a pub at the weekend where none of the ales were available due to a technical fault in the cellar so I ended up having a pint of Carling - it was sooo good (but I'm not having that as BotW!).
Over a week that has included 2 beer fests, I have managed to get through 3 WJ Kings beers - IPA, Glorius Victorius and Green Bullet, Lymestone Stonecutter, Arundel Beer Miles, Pilgrim Vest Alia, Lodden Flight Of Fancy, Slaters Premium, Osset Big Red, Castle Rock Harvest Pale, Westerham Challenger, Wantsum Hengist, Gadds Dr Sunshine & She Sells Sea Shells, Westerham British Bulldog, Grafton Summer Bliss, Blindman's Golden Arrow & 3 Sheets To The Wind, Milk Street The Usual, Cottage Captain Jack, Shepherd Neame 4-4-2, Wibblers Hoppy Helper, Buntingford Polar Star, Shalford Hyde Bitter, Greene King Sun Dance & Tolly Cobbold Phoenix & St Austell Tribute as well as a few Bombardiers and an Adnams. I would mention that many of them were just halves! Beer of the Week out of that lot? Quite honestly there weren't many I didn't enjoy but for some reason my notes have a little asterisk next to the Gadds She Sells Sea Shells at the King George V in Brompton so it will be that one even though it is lost now as to why I picked it out.