A pub is for life not just for Christmas
London and local
Salopian Shropshire Gold
By The Horns Hopadelic
St Peters Cream Stout*
Sambrooks Candlemaker
BrewDog Simcoe IPA
Bristol Beer Factory Daydreaming
Double Barrelled Layers*
Vault City Blackcurrant Choc Chip Waffle*
Renegade Maggs Mild
Flowerpots Perridge Pale
Gipsy Hill Bandit
Marble Manchester Bitter*
Vocation Chop & Change*
Cellar Head Ernest
Brew York S'more Tonkoko*
Ben's Mosaic
Milestone Sun Of A Beach
Elusive Carve & Yams*
New Bristol Duvet Vous*
The Manchester Bitter is pure class and the Elusive seasonal Carve & Yams is excellent but I'm going with Vocation Chop & Change. right up my taste street, in The Alfred
"Everybody's got to believe in something. I believe I'll have another beer."
-W.C.Fields
London only:
Allsopp’s - Pale Ale **½
Brew by Numbers - No:11 *½
Dark Star - APA **½
Dark Star - Green Hop **½
Dark Star - Hophead **½
Dark Star - Revelation **
ELB - Pale **
Elgood’s - Blackberry Porter **½
Five Points - Best **½
Five Points - Green Hop **¾
Front Row Brewing - Split **
Hammerton - N1 *¾
Mad Squirrel - London Porter **¾
Moor - Illumination **
Moor - Resonance **
Oakham - Citra **½
Oakham - Green Devil **¾
Pig & Porter - Blackbird **
Portobello - Stiff Lip **
Portobello - Westway Pale *
Redwillow - Feckless **¾
St. Austell - Proper Job ** ½
St. Austell - Tribute **½
Siren - Broken Dream ***¼
Siren - Memento **
Southwark Brewing - Bankside Blonde *½
Thornbridge - Jaipur **¾
Thornbridge - Lord Marples *½
Young’s - Special **
BOTW goes to Brodie’s - Bethnal Green IPA ***½ at The Old Coffee House.
Kent:
Cellar Head:Green Hop Bullion-Red Rye IPA 5.2%abv..The Rye element was not plainly described, or I may well have tried an Oatmeal Pale Ale.However,this was a dark ruby oily summer pudding of a beer,hopped with Bullion from Hukins' Hops, just up the road.My BOTW.
Next week,the village Guy Fawkes celebration, so I'm expecting dubious beer out of plastic glasses.
"At that moment I would have given a kingdom, not for champagne or hock and soda, or hot coffee but for a glass of beer" Marquess Curzon of Kedlestone, Viceroy of India.
The return of a couple of old favourites at the Wellington in Sheffield this week: both from Neepsend brewery: Melilae, a 4.6% American hopped brown ale, a sort of brown IPA perhaps; and Piter, an imperial breakfast stout at 8% abv. On previous occasions I've had the Piter as it comes, but I've had a taster before of a raspberry liqueur version (a crazy idea that worked on some level - perhaps the raspberry flavour helps to take some of the bitterness out of the chocolate malt - the effect was not unlike a Quality Street chocolate) and a couple of halves on Christmas Eve and Boxing Day last year, when it was an almond liqueur that had been added to the cask. On Monday it was a bottle of brandy that had been added, and although I was given a taster and was tempted, I decided to just go with the Melilae.
But something told me I should go back the next day, and this time I had Melilae with a Piter chaser. On Wednesday it was a half of Piter on my way back from the Kelham Island Tavern, and on Thursday a pint of Piter was my only beer of the day.
It's not often, if at all, that I call at the same pub four days in a row, and to drink the same beer four days in a row too (counting the taster) is similarly unprecedented. If it hadn't been for the Piter, I reckon the Melilae would have been a contender for my Beer of the Week, and in other weeks it might have romped home.
But this week, it just has to be Neepsend Piter (Brandy version) 8%.
Come On You Hatters!
Theakstons Old Peculier - either six or seven pints in the Red Lion at Blakey Ridge (going off my bank transactions!). And then stayed over to sleep it off
Very quiet couple of months and just these on cask this week:
Oakham Bishops Farewell*
Hop Back Summer Lightening*
Both good but to avoid repetition BOTW goes to Marble Cubbio Damage from a can. Magnificent.
"Beer is food." Morse, Colin Dexter
Another quiet week.
Chin Chin - Dualism.
Fernandes - Malt Shovel Mild.*
Horbury - Hop Assailant.
Revolutions - Clash Porter.
Fernandes - Great Northern.*
Fernandes - Mr Brian.
BOTW is an old favourite, appropriately taken in Luis Bar @ Fernandes.
'And where he supped the past lived still. And where he sipped the glass brimmed full' John Barleycorn, Carol Ann Duffy.
Just the one!
I've invested in a alcohol blood level detector to give myself peace of mind. It should be acknowledged that these are absolutely no use when in the middle of a session, but when on the "downslope" and drying out are pretty useful. Tested them when not driving and they give interesting readings, as an analyst.