Joules' Slumbering Monk

4.5 % abv

What can I say but what a superb pint. Malty, creamy toffeeish and morish. Holiday beer of the week.



This beer is just what the doctor ordered for this time of year, refreshing but warming when the wind kicks up. Just lovely. 

More a Tit than a Hawk

Picture a city arranging an heritage week, knowing that it has a rich history from saxon and roman onwards. It prints a brochure for the week with locations and a bit of blurb.

One of these locations suddenly shuts with no warning for restoration, despite the fact they would have been very aware of this heritage week. How I know as a tourist this is the case is every local I have met in a pub has been complaining about this unannounced closure.

Now ok, this brewery do fantastic restorations of their pubs and should be congratulated for their work but timing here is wrong. For a short restoration to be done now.......that is poor form.

The pub is The Falcon and owned by Sam Smiths.....

Pied Bull - Chester

There will be pictures to this post once I'm back off holiday... Promise.

Anyways Chester is a lovely city with a lot of good pubs and the reason I am starting with this one is because they have their own microbrewery in the cellar, a one barrel brewery no less. Apart from their own beers they also have regular guest beers on our visits there was a couple from Hardknott, Phoenix and Adnams.

The pub's own beers hold up well to these guys beers, personal favourite of these beers so far is Red Bull which whilst hoppy had a lovely malty finish. Although my partners favourite was Sensia-bull which at below 4% abv was an apt name, this wasn't as hoppy as the other Pied Bull beers but for me lacked the full flavour that I loved in the Red Bull and Matator. Unfortunately Black Bull (you may note a theme with the beer names!) which is their porter won't be on until the winter months, shame but if there is no market for it beforehand it is understandable. Shame we won't be in Chester then as judging by their other beers it should be a cracker of a beer.

The pub itself is next to the Nicholsons in the town so easy to find and unlike the Nicholsons provides a busy but peaceful place to have a drink and food should you want, which we did with some very filling sandwiches and the husband wanting to go back for a steak later this week. The staff are friendly and do make you feel very welcome. It is very much a traditional looking place and just off the square by the Catherdral.

They also do rooms, so this could a pretty much perfect place for anyone wanting a place with great beer and food plus not too far to bed.

Fantastic place and if you are in Chester I highly recommend you visit!

Holiday Time!

Yay!

Not long until I leave the South of this fair isle and travel northwards. Apparently we are no longer travelling by cart once past Watford but by train and neither are we given whippets and flat caps to fit in.

Shame, I like whippets, very friendly dogs which seem to love pubs and crisps.

Those of you who know me on Twitter also know I have a new shiny phone which is apparently capable of blogging with some input from me. However to all those email suggesters that I need to add bumpt my postings with videos or crap information from dodgy sources I will not be taking advantage of you.

So I will be heading to sunny Chester and as luck would have it we are staying a stone's throw from some very nice places. I'm looking forward to trying a pint of Cheshire Cat which I'm hoping will give me a grin like said cat. :)

Now just to finish the last couple of days here.....

Personal Drinking Culture

Apparently drinking culture after work is changing within the banking circles at least with workshops on how to keep quiet in public places whilst having a drink.

However it is also true that the everyday drinking has changed around the country. In London and bigger towns I think this isn't as marked as bars and pubs seem to be busy most days here. But locally visit a pub during the week and apart from its regulars they are more empty than I remember on my first visits to pubs when I was younger and I'm not that old!

What I like about pubs is the fact it's not home where I have got numerous jobs to do, not at least revision but its still a comfortable and relaxing place. I can chat to the staff, other drinkers or even my partner if I wish or I can sit there with a book and a drink. Going back to those bankers I can't imagine anything worst than going for a drink with friends and be effectively gagged as topics of discussion are wholesale cut from the conversations.

If you can't relax with your colleagues and friends then why bother going out?

Now I know that my drinking culture is that a hermit but even I see that making people think twice before going out for a quick drink after work.

We Are Mystery Shoppers

Boak and Bailey did a great post on how to deal with negative reviews, if you haven’t seen it, go and look.

Now for the side of why people shouldn’t expect the same from any blogger compared to a reviewer from my perspective.

I have on more than one occasion, seen and overheard conversations from professional reviewers in restaurants, pop-ups, bars (mainly cocktail places which are trendy at the moment) and pubs whereby they introduce themselves and sit back for their drinks and food. Now I personally believe that reviews should be fair and true, so they should go in as a mystery shop would and try out the place as a normal customer not as a reviewer.

Same for product reviews of make-up. Now, any make-up brand that spends money on advertising in a magazine will also get ‘free’ advertising in the form of a review within said magazine or one of its sisters. It is in the interests of the magazine company not to upset the applecart so I have always seen these reviews as biased. Whereas a blogger who has brought the product out of their own money is more likely to report honestly on the product, its good side, bad side and importantly whether they will be buying it again. This is why I prefer blogs, so far I have not heard one blogger go into a place and state who they are before being served even one drink, so their review will not be based on any different treatment that a reviewer may get.

As much as I can see why there has been a lot of controversy over various blog posts over the years, I think that one thing is noted, that blog posts on services or products are important. Personally myself I prefer reading a few bloggers view point on a place before going. Why? Because in general they aren’t paid to go and review it so therefore bias is avoided as per the problem above.

But and it is a big but, I read a few blog posts on a place and not just one because everyone’s opinion is subjective. And yes, I have been to places with bad blog reviews and wrote positive ones about them or just not gone back if they are bad.

If a restaurant gets a bad review from AA Gill, that doesn’t spell the end of that restaurant necessarily, likewise a good review doesn’t spell automatic success. Same with blog reviews, just because out of all the fantastic reviews there are one or two bad ones it doesn’t mean a downturn in trade, to me and other sensible folks it just means that one or two folk don’t like it.

Bloggers are the mystery shoppers of the world, we don’t look different from anyone else,

We don’t want anyone to know necessarily we are bloggers,

All we want to go somewhere are try something new, whether it’s a new beer, new pub/restaurant, new lipstick or whether that new beermat works on the table or not!

Holborn Whippet

Ever feel like the last one to the party?

That’s how I feel about the Whippet; I must be the last beer blogger in the area to turn up at its doors.

Everyone that is anyone in the beer blogger world seems to have turned up and written about this little bar/pub in London, except me until now.

Set in the lovely Sicilian Avenue just a tiny 1 minute from Holborn tube sits this lovely place. Now, I have to admit it is not the first time we have tried to drink here, first time we daftly headed up on a Sunday only to find it shut…darn. This Saturday just gone though we struck it right and wandered towards it in the blistering hot sunshine seeking refreshment and shade to see it’s doors open with people happily sitting outside with pints.

We turned up probably half an hour after opening if I’m honest and despite this the bar lady (or manager as we found out later) was super efficient and soon had us sitting down with our first halves. As everyone else has said the beers are mainly local breweries which are nice to see, London Fields, Kernel and Redemption providing the beery hit we were after.

Sadly I only had a small serving of Kernel as it ran out before the half pint measure was poured but the staff here know their trade and let me have the three quarters of the glass free, as in her words, ‘It’s too nice to waste’. It was in perfect condition and gorgeous, shame it was spent otherwise I would have loved another. The other beers we tried were all in good condition regardless of whether they were keg or cask, only problem for the staff was the liveliness of some of the beers on such a hot day.

We did have lunch at the Whippet, the menu is small but well thought out, we both plumped for the Bloomsbury Burger and very nice they were too. In fact I would say a rival for Bryon’s tempting treats too especially with the beer on offer.

This is truly a jewel in the beer crown for London, great staff, lovely beer, good food and a lovely location. I really do recommend this place and it is also pocket friendly, especially if you are used to beer prices in some locations.

Website: http://holbornwhippet.com/