The event runs from Thursday evening til Sunday — but the best day to go is definitely the Friday. There were over 40 ales, 10 ciders and other drinks for the drivers.

We will be there on 19th March 2010 – come along.

1. noon – Lord Moon of the Mall
2. 1pm – Moon Under Water
3. 2pm – Montague Pyke
4. 3pm – Shakespeares Head
5. 3:30pm – Penderels Oak
6. 4pm – Knights Templar
7. 5pm – Sir John Oldcastle
8. 6pm – Green Man
9. 7pm – Crosse Keys
10. 8pm – Liberty Bounds
11. 9pm – Goodmans Yard
12. 10pm – Hamilton Hall

So if you’re late – be at any pub at the time specified and you’ll find us.

Please come along. It’ll be fun – and not too heavy.

There will be 10 to 12 pubs. The route is still under discussion but the definite start is Lord Moon of the Mall in Whitehall.  If you are coming, please say so.

We plan to have a nice, sensible, day on the ale, leaving the monopoly board to those who love lager.

See you soon

It is yet to be decided on the format but currently the choice seems to be between the traditional and well known monopoly board challenge and an alternative idea of visiting all the central London Wetherspoon’s pubs (currently over 20 are ear-marked).

The first could present ale issues as many London pubs don’t have good ale. The second would allow us to explore the range of ales in many Wetherspoons on one given day.

The logistics of the event are to be finalised but the date is set.

By the way, if ever there was a time to go to a Wetherspoons it is now. The have an ale festival on at the moment and Brad is very impressed with the standard so far. I’ll be there at the weekend.

See ya.

The great thing about this pub is you get pewter tankard if you get there early enough. On the offside you can taste the pewter so a glass is a better choice.

They have lovely pork pies too.

If you’re well off you can even stay in one of their rooms – but that’ll cost you over a hundred quid.

I love this pub. You will too.

The interior is very standard with exposed wooden floorboards and there’s mostly only standing room. Being in the City, it gets packed on Thursday and Friday nights.

Having enjoyed quite a few bottled ales from the St. Peter’s brewery, I thought that we’d try their only pub – The Jerusalem Tavern. The building dates back to 1720, was a clock shop, and has been cleverly restored so that you wouldn’t know you were in 21st century if it wasn’t for the patrons. The ales they sell were in great condition – as you’d expect. We tried: Cream Stout, Ruby Red ale and the Organic Best Bitter. The cream stout was lovely but a definite one-pinter as it’s such full flavour, the Ruby red ale was my favourite. Prices were a bit high @ £3.10 per pint, but probably the going rate for the nicer pubs in Farringdon. 

We managed to get a table (as you can see from the picture), but the pub did get very busy outside at around 6pm to the point where it might put me off. I would highly recommend this pub for it’s ambience and the excellent rare ales on offer.

You have to treat the bottles with care because of the live yeast sediment. I bought:

• Alburgh Bitter
• Chestnut
• Dark Oak
• Porter

So far, we’ve only had the Alburgh Bitter which is going down pretty well. It’s an outstanding ale (considering that it’s from a bottle and draught always wins). It’s a golden, dry, slightly spicy taste with a hint of grapefruit.