Beer Viking » Places

It’s Official – London Has a Thriving 21st Century Beer Scene!

Doc D — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 08:38:41 +0000

Yes, in case you’ve been living under a rock London has a dynamic, innovative and world class modern beer scene. The emergence of the London Brewers Alliance and their inaugural showcase event held last Friday night is more proof that London should be on every beer enthusiasts schedule. During the Friday festivities we tasted the following brews:

Ha’penny Brewing Co., Ruby Red, silky mild with hints of cinnamon. Brewrank:15/20
London Brewers Alliance Porter ~ 5% special one off brewed as a collaboration by all the brewers. Nice, hoppy. Brewrank: 17/20
Kernal IPA, Citra hops. Another great one from our favorite nano brewery. Brewrank: 16/20
Redemption Pale Ale, solid. Brewrank: 14/20
Windsor & Eton Brewery Best Bitter, smooth malty. Brewrank: 14/20
Brew Wharf Fire from the top of a monkey’s head, hoppy madness. Brewrank: 14/20
Camden Town Brewery Pale Ale. Brewrank:14/20

It is good to see both Fuller’s (the grand daddy of London brewing) and Meantime (the big innovator) supporting the LDN Brewers Alliance. The only reason we didn’t drink any of their brews on Friday is we have a cellar full of the stuff… Overall the Showcase event was a solid 7 out 10. Next time we hope to see an event guide of some sort and a food selection. Maybe even an entire week of events – are we going to see a London Beer Week in 2011?!

Here’s a good video by the London Brewers:

And here is the current list of all 13 London brewers that are either brewpubs, micros and local/family/regional brewers (sorry no bud or mass produce crud!):

Brew Wharf – brewpub
Brodie’s Beers – micro & brewpub
Camden Town Brewery – micro
The Florence – brewpub in Herne Hill
Fuller’s – regional, family run
Ha’penny Brewing Co. – micro
The Kernel Brewery – nano, look for the bottles at places like the Rake
Meantime Brewing Co. – regional, the innovator
Redemption Brewery – micro
Sambrooks Brewery – micro
Twickenham Fine Ales – micro/medium
Windsor & Eton Brewery – micro
ZeroDegrees (Blackheath) – brewpub

Who will be number 14?

In the meantime here is our first mini guide to other places to experience London’s Great Beer Scene… Including festivals, beer bars, food& beer events etc.

CAMRA Festivals:

GBBF (the mac daddy every August) – http://gbbf.camra.org.uk/home
Other CAMRA events (something every month) – http://www.camra.org.uk/page.aspx?o=festivalseventsawards

Local & Independant Festivals (check Twitter, Ratebeer and other social outlets as well):

Wandsworth Common Beer Festivals (March & October) – http://wandsworthbeerfestival.eventbrite.com/
White Horse, in May look for 40/40 and July the American Beer Fest – http://www.whitehorsesw6.com/news-events.php

Great Beer Pubs/Bars that also do meet the brewer and other events:

Cask Pub & Kitchen, Victoria/Pimlico – http://www.caskpubandkitchen.com/
The Rake, Borough Market – can’t find the webiste?
Draft House/Westbridge – http://www.drafthouse.co.uk/
Lowlander, Covent Garden – http://www.lowlander.com/
Greenwich Union (Meantime’s flagship pub!) – http://www.greenwichunion.com/

Top Beer Stores:

Real Ale in Twickenham/Richmond – http://www.realale.com/
Utobeer at Borough Market only Thu/Fri/Sat (they need to update the website and join the 2st century) – http://www.utobeer.co.uk/

Brewery Tours

Fuller’s – not to be missed – http://www.fullers.co.uk/rte.asp?id=9
Sambrooks - http://www.sambrooksbrewery.co.uk/brewery.html
Plus I am sure Meantime an others all do tours if you ask…

London is also a great town for pub crawls – one of these days we will publish some suggestions but check any good beer guide. Happy drinking…

Update: below is a low quality (yes, its from a mobile phone) photo stream from the event.





www.flickr.com








mediaviking's London Brewers Showcase photoset

Ales By Mail Tasting No 1 with Beerviking [Video]

Doc D — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 20:24:12 +0000

CAMRA Beer Magazine Summer '10 Review – Ales By Mail Tasting No 1 with Beerviking

The back story short version. Every issues of Beer the quarterly magazine of CAMRA has selection of bottled beers reviewed. We got an adavnce case and did our own tasting of sorts. In two parts pretty raw edit here… just the mash. We know these are a bit long and we need to ferment them next time… We are still learning and playing with the video format. We used the Ratebeer out of 50 and the Beerviking rating scales.

Part 1 – Video:

Tryst Brewery's "Blathan" 4.0%; score 35/50

Pen-lon Cottage Brewery's "Torwen" Dark Fruit Beer 4.5%; score 32/50

Mort Subite Oude Kriek 6.5%* (we actually taste the younger 4.5% un aged version in the video); score 38/50

Part 2 Video:

Atlantic Breweries "Discovery Golden Pale Ale" with Lime, Chili and Ginger 5.5%; score 31/50

Meantime Brewing Co's "Raspberry Grand Cru" 6.5%; score 37.5/50

Winner is the Belgian Mort Subite Oude Kriek.

Order this case here on Ales By Mail.

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American Beer Festival 2010 at the White Horse, SW6 in West London

Doc D — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 10:28:46 +0000

We know it shouldn't be a surprise but awesome to hear that the White Horse in West London will be doing their excellent American Beer Festival over 2nd-4th July. We'll be doing our usual and opening affairs on the Friday afternoon.

Based on our time there in 2008 and 2009, we can totally recommend this festival as a must-visit if you love American Beer and can get to London. Scratch that, if you love Beer in general and can get to London.

Here's some pictures from the American Beer Festival in 2009.

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The Question? A friend has a few spare hours in Zurich where can he get good beer?

Doc D — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 09:31:42 +0000

Simple… In the main train station in Zurich is Brasserie Federal with 200+ Swiss bottled beers and a few on tap.

Brasserie Federal

Bahnhofplatz 15, 8001 Zürich, Schweiz

Map: http://maps.google.com/places/ch/z%C3%BCrich/bahnhofplatz/15/-brasserie-federal?hl=en

Need to look for beers from:

Les bières Trois Dames (the IPA is 15/20 and the La Fraîcheur is 17/20!)

Brasserie des Franches Montagnes

Also worth trying one of the hemp beers which they still brew in Switzerland. Wild stuff.

And if he has more time try to find this brewpub Das Restaurant Steinfels (which I haven't been to yet but looks intersting): http://www.steinfels-zuerich.ch/

Full ratebeer Swiss list: http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/country/switzerland/191/

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Beer Festival: 40 Ales from 40 Miles at the White Horse

Doc D — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 18:05:58 +0000

Tomorrow lunchtime, BeerViking will be raiding the White Horse 40 Ales from 40 Miles Beer Festival. It will be running all weekend but if you can make it down it would be great to meet you.

Previous years has seen this key London beer fan pub source it’s beers for this festival from a 25 mile radius but by going a little bit further they can now include Dark Star. Some of the other breweries who will have beer there this weekend are: Fuller’s, Meantime, Sambrook’s, Twickenham and Brodie’s to breweries further afield like Rebellion in Marlow Bottom, Ha’Penny Brewing in Ilford, Surrey Hills in Guildford or Buntingford in Royston. Pencil & Spoon also tipped us that new nano-brewery Kernel will have some beers there.

Regardless if you come or not, stay tuned for field reports (apologies in advance if the Hunter decides to show up and jack the proceedings) and also make sure this May Bank Holiday weekend you drink good beer – taking a turn of phrase from our friend Steve Leighton – Life is too short for bad beer.

The White Horse (or Sloaney Poney giving it it’s proper name) is located on Parsons Green, SW6 in West London (it also used to be one of the BeerViking crew local’s for 10 years). Here is a map to help you find it:

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Wandsworth Common Beer Festival: The Myths & Legends Ladder

Doc D — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:29:38 +0000

This year at the 2nd Annual Wandsworth Common Beer Festival we are promoting two innovations to the beer festival format. First we take the bold move of listing them all in order of strength. As opposed to alphabetically or by brewery. They range from 3% in 0.1% increments all the way up to 10%. Second we are promoting a series of BEER LADDERS that we will publish over the coming weeks (or suggest your own). These alternative lists (or Ladders) that will give you access to beers of similar strength, colour, style or a theme. A bunch of these ‘ladders’ will be official ones printed up and available at the festival. Others are being posted up and we encourage people to post other ladders, suggestions and commets.

The Myths & Legends Ladder (BeerViking unofficial Ladder No1 ):

Minotaur Mild 3.3% – Milton Cambridge: Red/brown with defined roasted malt nose leading to sweet finish
Napolean’s Retreat 3.9% – Allgates Wigan, Lancashire: A deep golden copper colour. Worth trying
Battleaxe 4.2% – Rudgate Brewery Tockwith, North Yorkshire: More complex than the gravity initially suggests. Gentle bitterness leads to a fruity finish.
Naked Ladies 4.4% – Twichenham Fine Ales Twickenham, London (OFFICIAL GLASS SPONSOR): Hopped with both First Gold and Styrian
Yankee Pale Ale 5.0% – Allgates Brewery of Wigan, Lancashire: American style pale ale with specially imported yeast from USA. Cascade, Chinook and Galena hops combine with the low colour extract of Mari otter malt to give a light colour. Crisp and dry another MUST TRY!
Captain Smith 5.2% - Titanic. Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire. Red/brown colour. Full bodied. Good strong finish. A truly excellent beer celebrating the captain who famously went down with his ship.
Lotus IPA 5.7% – Ilkley Ilkley, West Yorkshire. (NEW BREWERY): Only started in 2009. A golden coloured IPA with hoppy, lemon and citrus aromas.
Skullsplitter 8.5% – Orkney. Quoyloo, Orkney Isles: Intense velvet nose with hints of apple, prune & plum. Hoppy but balanced with silky malt & fruity spices. Long dry finish.
Thomas Sykes 10%!!!!- Burton Bridge. Burton on Trent…. The one to finish on. What is so surprising AND dangerous is that it drinks really well without being overly sweet or cloying. Careful…you may want another.
Go home now Or maybe finish off with a Dark Ruby Mild (or insert this at No 8, moving Skull to 9 and Skyes to 10)… Sarah Hughes Sedgely, West Midlands 6.0% Dark Ruby Mild A festival favourite and rightly so. Now brewing at enlarged brewhouse to supply the free trade and festival demand. One of Britains best beers. Do not leave without trying. Dark and complex.

You can get Beer Festival tickets here (pre register for a chance to win free beer) and full Beer & Cider list is here.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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The 2010 Battersea Beer Festival – a short review

Doc D — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 10:09:26 +0000

The 2010 edition of the Battersea Beer Festival in London (Feb ) was another solid event. A great selection of UK craft beer and reasonable International stand of mainly Belgian and German beers. However, I didn't find a single American beer on site – buy maybe I missed something.

I was down on the landlord and brewer day which was cool as I ran into Downton's head brewer and the landlord of La Gothique (home of the Wandsworth Common Beer Festival held at the end of March – you can pre-book tickets HERE!).

Here's what I sampled on the day:

Westerham Grasshopper Bitter 3.8% – 15/20, solid session bitter nice hop aroma, smooth (btw – one of favourite brewers in the UK!)
Kelda Gole 4% – 14/20, nice goledn dry bitter
Bazens Pacific Biiter – 13/14, drinkable
Bowman Quiver 4.5% – 14/20 really nice earthy bite and hoppy finish
Downton IPA 6.8% – only 12/20 needs work, other beer from this brewer much better
Also, got a few tasty beer from the international stand to take home (pls see photo)

My overall view is that the Battersea rates a 7 out of 10 for beer festivals. For my taste its a bit 'old school' and cramped in terms of space. Not a criticism but just my impression. There's also a lack of woman and the food is mediocre at best. At leasts its easy to get to being only a 10 minute walk from Clapham Junction. I will most likely go back next year…

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West Coast Raid – day 2: Anchor Brewery Tour, photos/intro

Doc D — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 13:35:20 +0000

So, day two and I managed get a couple of places on a tour of Anchor Brewering Co. My buddy Joe who is a retired naval officer was happy to join me. Trust me this was an awesome tour, its free, the leder was very good and the beer tasting room amazing!

They are best know for the flagship Anchor Steam beer and Fritz Maytag who saved the brewery in the 1960's and is arguably the 'godfather' of craft brewing in Northern California. He still is the brewmaster and comes in 4-5 days a week!

This is a beautiful brewery. With views of the San Francisco. The brewing mash tun and coppers came from Germany. The building is an old coffee roasting factory. The tour was great. They brew a lot of beer with a pretty small scale operation. Don't miss this if you get the chance… I will be back to update this post when I have some more time.

For now here are some photos and map below! Enjoy.

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West Coast Raid – day 1: Rogue Ale Embassy, SF

Doc D — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 08:14:14 +0000

Right, so I am here alone in on a boring old biz trip and suffering from some serious jet lag. Oh but lucky for me my old buddy Pat shows up to show me a great meal of Japanese noodles and then its time to raid the Rogue Ale Public House in SF, CA… And what do we find? 42 taps. 39 of awesome craft beers. 1 of bud, 1 of Guinness and 1 of root beer – that's ok with the BV crew.

What did we drink:

Rogue American Amber Ale – fuck'n rocks @brewrank 16 (on tap! – the bottle version you can get in Europe, btw)
Firestone Double Barrel – a hoppy light ale @brewrank14
Eugene Triple Jump Pale – another hoppy light pale ale @brewrank14
Rogue Mogul Madness – a DARK hoppy winter ale at 8%abv – wow!!!! @brewrank 17

This pub is insane for craft brew! Very laid back. Great space and prefect location. Here's a map:

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My advice is if you are ever in SF, CA and have time go here (ever just 1 hour). Otherwise you will be sad and we migth call you a loser.

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Altes Tramdepot brewpub, Bern Switzerland – this place rocks!

Doc D — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 09:59:19 +0000

We had 45 mins free before leaving Bern (unfortunately it was a biz trip not a beer raid). Just enough time to sample a couple of great beers at the local Altes Tramdepot brewpub. As brewpub goes this place rated a @pubrank 18!Located next to the bear pits with a great view across to the Bern old town. We had the Helles which was @brewrank 16 (our of 20) and the Marzen was a 15/20. Both very tasty. It was brew day and the copper kettles looked sweet.. Some day we will come back and spend more time here. So, if you are ever in Bern, Switzerland and have even just 45 minutes to spare be sure to seek out the Altes Tramdepot – its only a 6 mins bus ride or 20 min walk from the main train station. Map and a few photos included.

Here's a map:

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