Happy Valentines Folks

It is that time of year when I am grateful not to be young teenager anymore, hoping that the red enveloped card would come though the letterflap from that spotty boy who fancied. It never did, thankfully as I saw one of teenager crushes recently and *shudder* ewww.

Nowadays having a husband helps to guarantee I get a card, at least I will if he realises the mistake that early morning twitter comment is! But it was his comment that possibly a tweet would make up for no card made me think....

No it wouldn't but any one of these beers would:

• Southern Tier Mokah Imperial Stout
• Southern Tier Java Imperial Stout
• Rogue Choclate Stout
• Brewdog Tokyo
• Brewdog Lost Dog
• Chris from Stones Stout
• Goose Island Bourbon County (original or the coffee)
• Goose Island Nightstalker
• Daleside Morocco Ale
• Moor Old Freddy
• Moorhouses Black Cat
• Any gorgeously dark beer

Just as a subtle hint;

Look it! Empty! Please Fill With Gorgeous Beer!!!

Ridgeway's Bad King John

6% Abv

This was the winner of the Sainsbury's beer hunt last year, for a little while they sold in almost all their stores a cracking range of more unusual beers. The winner was to be kept on after the hunt had been voted on. Sadly despite the sales being quite vigorous it didn't persuade the supermarkets to provide more choice in their ranges.

I enjoyed the beer, it has a lovely bitter fruity taste but it's let down by the weakness of the flavour, compared with Fuller's London Porter the taste just didn't last long. It also has a remarkable water like mouth feel for a beer of its strength, it just didn't really grab me. Those are the downsides to it, but the taste is pleasant just not particularly powerful.

Its well worth a shot, if you fancy something a bit darker to drink. It's more a mild to my mind than an ale though.

Marks And Spencer's London Porter

5.5% Abv

As those who follow my very very rare tweets, some may know that finally my local Marks & Sparks now stocks some of the more unusual beers they get brewed by various breweries up and down the country. I love stouts and porters so I really wanted to try some of these beers, so I picked up a few bottles one lunchtime, taking advantage of the 6 for 5 offer that is currently running.

I really enjoyed this beer, actually I found it better than Meantime's usual porter. Each sip yielded a different hint to the porterly chocolate and malty main taste. From marmite hint, to Cadburys flake, though to caramel and then to truffle (by which I mean the type pigs hunt for), it was a real joy of a bottle to drink. The smokyness definately comes though in spades on its last patter across your tongue.

This is one of those beers which with each sip, you look at it and think "that's a cracking beer" or more often in my case "wow".

Only downside is that Meantime have also brewed for M&S is Greenwich Hospital Porter, which isn't being sold at my local M&S. :(

Brewdog Camden

One lazy conversation on a Sunday morning on how we always say if we have a spare weekend we will go to x place but never do meant, that instead of heading straight home, we headed out to Camden to try the only Brewdog bar in London.

My husband in his youth was a goth and thus spent many a weekend in Camden and it's shops and markets, this in mind he spent a good twenty minutes bemoaning the amount of standard chain shops and lack of atmosphere it now has. I can see his point, I last came here three years ago and to my eyes it is becoming rather bland.

Thankfully the Brewdog bar wasn't bland, many bloggers have mentioned the industrial feel..etc.. to the bar so I need not do so myself. We arrived just as the bar staff were re-writing the beer lists on the wall, nice to see a changing beer list from the previous evening's tweet to the next day's beers.

First beers were Blitz, a hoppy bitter which was only 2.8% and more flavoursome than some 5%ers we have tried, only critism from me would be if they can brew such a great lower abv beer then what was the excuse with Nanny State other than to brew an undrinkable beer? The other was Riptide 8% which was highly enjoyable stout but not as good as my second beer which was Chris from Stone's Stout 10.2% and blooming gorgeous!

We sampled our way though a fair number of the beers on offer, all of which were brilliant in their own rights, some we preferred to others and so on. Food at the bar is good but the pizzas and cheese & meat platters are better than the burgers. Sorry guys, but chips or wedges would be a welcome addition for us too especially for sharing amongst friends.

Brewdog have got a brilliant bar on their hands here, pricing just couldn't be faulted either. We got to try some beers that we had our eyes on without taking out a mortage with their pricing measures working on price per size. The staff are certainly some of the most friendly folks I have met behind a bar in a long time. Their suggestions for other beers were spot on, I got to try Lost Dog (fantastic suggestion by the barman) for £4.50 and the Stone's Stout was £2.50 both for a 1/3 pint. Getting to try the beers first before buying without needing to ask was lovely too.


Can't wait to head up there again.

McMullen Brewery's Firefly

4% ABV

First post of the new year, currently sitting in my favourite local with a couple of pints of the new seasonal from the local brewery. Like pretty much all of McMullens beers this comes as a very attractive pint with a full fluffy white head.

It is a lovely light golden brown bitter, quite fruity flowery tang on the first sip. It remains a lovely looking pint to the last drop as well. Looks do count in my world whether it is a oily stout which has just a thin lace around the glass to the last or a bitter with a fluffy head, these details count towards my enjoyment of a beer.

Firefly for me is a refreshing bitter, light and thirst quenching with a pleasantly fruity favour which doesn't overwhelm the beer. However it does have a weird smell, fruity sour which is no reflection on the taste of the beer, the same brewery did Beerberry last year as a seasonal which was an awful fruit beer and that had this smell too. A minor bad point for a lovely light session beer.

It is very easy drinking and when I was on my first pint without knowledge of it's ABV and I would probably put this at 3.2, and I was proven wrong at 4%.

Ah well I need to improve my beer-fu this year.

The Draft House - Northcote

Thanks to the new shiny pub guide book I was given we decided to try out this one which neither myself or my partner actually knew about. Usually when we are in the area we head to the Falcon near Clapham Junction station for a drink, fantastic pub with well kept and regularly changing beers. But the temptation of a different bottle range of beers plus American & Belgium beers on tap proved quite a draw for us to wander further up Northcote Road than we would normally.

According to the blurb in the book The Draft House opened back in 2009, it is one of a small chain of three bars. It is a small place, if you know the Harp in Charing Cross then think along those lines but without the upstairs part. Luckily we arrived early enough on Saturday evening to bag a table in the window and after adjusting the curtain so cut out the cold December wind when the door opened it was a snug warm seat.

The staff are friendly and knowledgeable on their beer range and also will point out prices to you so you don’t get a surprise when you come to pay. The bottle range is good although small; it doesn’t have anything particularly unusual or rare. Well, not if you are used to hunting out the weird and unusual from the Rake or Cask. I tried Left Hand’s Milk Stout which was a lovely sweet beer whilst my partner tried a Ginger Tom which was good although I couldn’t tell the difference between it and Fentiman’s Ginger Beer which is one of the ingredients to this beer. The milk stout was a new style for me and I enjoyed it, Left Hand beers are really worth trying if you see them.

The beers on cask and keg do tend towards the pale, IPA and lagerly beers with a couple of porters. All are very well kept; indeed the selection seemed to sell very well as the place soon became packed with lots of people after varying beers. Sadly the only dark beers on the bar were Porterhouse’s Plain Porter, which I found to be bland; by bland I mean it was exactly like Guinness and Meantime’s London which is ok, better than the other but still not one I would willingly go for. But given at least they had two dark beers on its better than what a lot of other pubs do.

We didn’t eat here but the food from the kitchen did smell gorgeous, this is definitely a place I would come back to for a drink with friends or with my husband for a quiet drink and chat.

The pub guide did us proud for this trip and I have talked (badgered) the husband to trying a few trips out to other parts of London in search of the others held within this book. It’s a doable task to tick off all the pubs held in this book I am sure!

The Draft House
94 Northcote Road
Clapham
SW11 6QW

London's Best Pubs

By Peter Haydon &Tim Hampson

As a surprise pressie I received a copy of this book from my husband this weekend. Strangely despite my drinking habits and enjoyment of pubs I don't buy beer or pub guides although I do have a copy of the Good Beer Guide on my iPad but again that was the other half loading it on before giving me the thing. However it is a very very good book to get a bit of history of the pub you are currently sitting in or thinking of getting to. The maps that head each section are clear and useful, which should make the process of finding some of them easier.

For each pub there are a couple of pictures, a brief mention of typical beers served and it's history. No critical remarks on beer quality though, one of the pubs mentioned I know from trying it a couple of times that it serves beer in appalling state knowing that people head to it because it is a historic pub not for a drink. Local office workers drink wine rather than beers so why bother keeping the beer in a good state is the attitude. Oh well.

If you are beer drinker and you know London you may differ in opinion to the writers on the best pubs in each area, I was surprised that the Falcon near Clapham Junction wasn't there for example but we all have our own favourites in places. Good book, not pocket sized but definitely handbag sized.