Beer Among Friends

Hamburg Heavy

2015-11-14T18:26:00.001+00:00

Delicious new wave beers in Hamburg from brewpubs brauhaus Joh.Albrecht's Messing (hazy helles) and Kupfer (malty dunkel) as well as interesting sprightly hazy Pilsner at Eugen Block's waterfront Bliockhaus

Bard beer

2015-11-08T22:36:00.001+00:00

Been drinking SUA Stratford upon Avon ale in Norman Knight pub Whichford! Great beer great pub

Canned cool?

2015-10-27T00:00:00.001+00:00

Doing what used to be unthinkable - other than at an Australian beach party - drinking a can of beer! In a pub!!! Bermondsey Brewer Fourpure's Session IPA! And it's delicious!! Not at all gassy - far less so than keg or bottle! Obviously needs to be poured if you don't want aluminium on your lips, but from a glass impossible to tell what container it came in! I would probably have guessed cask!

Maybe a bit too much old prejudice lingering there...

Anspach and Hopday latest

2015-10-25T22:40:00.001+00:00

Spent an hour or so this afternoon at my London local brewer Anspach&Hopday sampling some of Paul's new creations: a Kentucky Common, flavoursome US style bitter, Golden Rauchbeer, an adaptation of the golden bitter style flavoured with smoked German malt. Their Sunday trade now flourishing and Jack looking for a weekend bar manager. Civilised applicants only please.

Burning Sky

2015-10-24T17:39:00.001+01:00

Enjoying very fine glass of Burning Sky IPA (more a pale ale really at just 4.4% but all the more drinkable for that!) at the Bottle Shop (curiously mostly draft these days) in Druid Street SE1

Sea water?

2015-10-20T17:10:00.001+01:00

Definitely most quirky beer I have tasted this summer is Moustache brewed in Spain using purified sea water (don't ask

Why other than it's designed to go with oysters). Delicious semi sweet porter drunk in Ronda!

Lighthouse lights up Autumn

2015-10-19T17:02:00.001+01:00

Sitting over pint of excellent Adnams Lighthousw in equally excellent traditional London pub Shipwright's Arms on Tooley Street by London Bridge. Great old pub with wide range of real ales rather than trendy modern craft: Doom Bar, Deuchars IPA, Tribute, but it is the Adnams brew that really lights up the afternoon: blonde and full of flavour with gentle malt balanced out by a hoppy aftertaste that makes me think of late summer evenings. Perfect for early autumn!

Weissbier rules

2015-10-16T14:11:00.001+01:00

Been drinking Erdinger Weissbier (Weizen or wheat beer for you non-Bavarians) at local Wetherpoons of late. Great value at £3.19. They also do sweeter Tucher at a steeper £4.25 and stock branded glasses which is a great help as almost impossible to pour super-effervescent Weissbier into a standard glass. Try it, but if you do rinsing first makes it easier.

Gregory's girls (and boys)

2015-10-15T19:06:00.001+01:00

Enjoying a pint of Butcombe bitter at tastefully revamped Gregorian on Jamaica Road in Bermondsey. Pub allowed to go to pot by punch, now back up and running as a friendly local thanks to Antic Inns

Hook Norton

2015-10-13T20:15:00.001+01:00

Great new beers coming out of Oxfordshire Brewer hook Norton: loving Sweet Chariot by Pear Tree Inn barmaid...hoppy and refreshing. Also great new Zaubertrank a delicious spicy brew, enough to keep Britain in Europe

Se1 rules ok

2015-05-23T16:41:00.001+01:00

Great day enjoying peter jackson's innovative but traditional cask beers @southwarkbeer. Delicious and remarkably educated staff

A few Russian craft beers

2015-04-23T17:51:00.001+01:00

Just back from nostalgic trip to Moscow. Here are a few of the craft beers they didn't have 30 years agon

Moscow Nights

2015-04-18T18:06:00.001+01:00

Just spent wonderful four days in Moscow. Great to find 70s beer bar Zhiguli on Novy Arbat (formerly Prospekt Kalinina) still running as almost national heritage, but now with great unfiltered beer and Baikal vodka. Also went to Lavkalavka for amazing locally produced food and craft beers including Alexander Pokrishkin imperial stout at 12%. Barman's advice: "you like oil? This oil best" and he was right!

Plus ca change in Bermondsey

2015-02-19T18:13:00.001+00:00

Sad to see grand old Corinthian in Jamaica Road in Bermondsey close, but welcome back to former St James' Tavern, now The St James of Bermondsey revamped and doing great local craft beers at very reasonable prices!

Marbella lost marbles

2014-09-09T15:41:00.001+01:00

Discovering some wicked Soanish craft beer in Marbella, notably Rosita. Varieties include d'ivori @4.5pct, original 5pct, and the literally mind numbing bomba @17 pct. siesta incluida

Scotland the Brave

2014-09-05T22:33:00.001+01:00

Just had a pint of Jarrl from Fyneales in Argyllshire. Fresh hoppy tasty. Nice. Wondered whimsically if it had anything to do with Jarlaberg cheese! It does, obliquely. Jarl is old Norse word for 'earl'. Even the breweries working on the Scandinavia connection. Will they make it real come September 18???

Hootananny

2014-08-20T18:44:00.001+01:00

At Hootananny for a pint before Imverness literary festival gig. Great food. Proper Scottish from the Cullen skink to the lamb stovies. Decent beer. Music later. Secondhand tables, candles, vermillion walls, nice staff. Could be in Berlin! YES signs in lampposts outside. Scotland doesn't need the imperialist euro phobic English tie. It could and should be a European nation in its own right!!

Sourhwark star

2014-01-21T16:56:00.001+00:00

Enjoying a quiet afternoon pint in Sourhwark Tavern, great beer, good food, proper opening hours! A traditional local well adapted of new world order

Lazy Saturday afternoon

2014-01-04T17:12:00.001+00:00

Saturday afternoon in SE1. Lunch at @marrakechse1 in Ropewalk, maltby street market, few beers at Kernel brewery, London Sour and delicious porter, finale of saison at Brewing by Numbers. Is Lonfon SE1 best place in world for new beer?

Fly the flag, Bonnie Scotland

2013-09-20T23:09:00.001+01:00

Drinking a few pints of Saltaire blonde in @deanswiftse1 . Come on SNP. Great beer. ScotlNd the brave!

swamped sheaf

2013-09-17T16:19:00.001+01:00

never seen a pub makeover as poor as that of former Wheatsheaf, renamed stupiudly sheaf, on Southwark street se1. got rid of old long tables, candles and cosy nooks. pale wood, high tables and crap beer. suicide note!! by contrast rival Wheatsheaf round the corner newly revamped by Youngs looks ancient and much loved!

it's Beer, not Coffee!

2013-08-21T14:52:00.001+01:00

Sitting in London West End'S best secret - which really shouldn't be a secret - the Old Coffee House on Beak Street off Regent Street, enjoying their new sample 3x1/3 tasters of excellent East End brewer Brodies ales. Had a Citra, Jamaican Stout and Kiwi from the cask hand pumps. Now following up with a Hoxton Special, Sunshine Pale ale and Raspberry London Sour. Heather behind the bar couldn't be friendlier! Amazing to see how once almost extinct Berliner Weisse being imitated so successfully in London!

lost on the moor

2013-07-17T22:30:00.001+01:00

pint of moor revival in dean swift, shad Thames!! excellent beer! been drinking their Raw and Norhop recently. these lads can't put a foot wrong.

draft novelty

2013-07-03T16:52:00.001+01:00

back to London after two glorious weeks in morocco, where we even enjoyed decent beer and some great wine (watch this space). now off to opening party for new @drafthouseuk pub at tower hill

Star Struck

2013-06-05T12:52:00.001+01:00

Been drinking some very

nice hoppy summer beers from Dark Star at my two favourite London pubs, the Dean Swift in Shad Thames near Tower Bridge and The Rake by Southwark cathedral near London Bridge.

but not for the next couple of weeks she this blog will be idle while I soak up some Moroccan sunshine. Beer there I fear Heineken-dominated so literally not much to write home about. back mid-June!