Back at Shepherd Neame's.

I was back at Shepherd Neame's brewery last night for a CAMRA award ceremony. As once again I was driving I had limited drinking opportunity, which is a shame as free beer always tastes better and the 9.2% barley wine they'd made on the pilot plant seemed to be very popular.

The main even was held in the new visitor centre/museum where some interesting pictures caught my eye. It seems Shep's once had a particularly strict version of the reinheitsgebot as their advertising slogan.

And at one point were keen to promote the regular drinking of Belgian beer.

A trip to Shepherd Neame brewery

On Monday I went to the IBD SE AGM at the Shepherd Neame brewery. After the business part there was a talk on 'the Green Agenda' which, being sat on an uncomfortable chair, went on a bit longer than my arse was happy with. The chairman must have sensed the audience was getting restless as he ruled out anyone asking any questions after the talk and finally it was on to the networking.

As I was driving I couldn't really have a major networking session so I opted to go on a brewery tour whilst waiting for the buffet to arrive. Sheps wasn't quite what I was expecting. As they brew a number of lagers under license I thought it would be very modern so coming across a wooden mash tun built in 1914 was a surprise. It was still in use for making ales too, though for both the ales and the lagers they now have a PDX wort heater which "uses direct steam at supersonic speeds to atomize wort components stripping off volatiles and providing the necessary surface for the boiling reactions to take place", which I think counts as very modern.

Though I've never been a huge fan of Sheps I have drunk a lot of their beer in my time. When I was a Wetherspoons regular Spitfire was going for £1.29 a pint so it would have been rude not to. I have noticed more recently tastier short run beers from them like "4-4-2" which I suspect have come from the four barrel pilot plant I got to see on the trip round the brewery. I know for a fact the very drinkable Amber Ale I had that night was from the pilot plant because I was chatting to the bloke that brewed it. I don't think Shep's main brands will ever excite me, as I've a suspicion that "supersonic steam" doesn't make as good a beer as an old fashioned rolling boil does, but I hope they continue to make good use of the pilot plant.

Another pub crawl in the city

Due to a unfortunate circumstances beyond my control we had to cancel our latest trip to the lake district. On the plus side this did leave us with a work free Friday - an ideal opportunity to visit some of those city pubs that are annoyingly closed at the weekend. So we hooked up with our mate Dan and headed up to the big smoke. 

On the South bank there was some sort of art thing, looking like what you'd do if you wanted to play with lego but only had bricks. 

Normally the only sort of culture I come across is found in a petri dish so I felt quite highbrow and sophisticated for pausing briefly to look at it. Refined intellectual pursuits done with my throat was feeling a little dry so it was time to move on.

The lovely Lisa wanted to get a watch strap in Covent Garden so we went shopping before starting on the pub crawl. We passed the Coal Hole on the way though so were able to have a pre-pub crawl drink. I went for a pint of Timmy Taylor's. I can't get enough of it.

We then had the excitement of the Covent Garden watch shop but we soon reached the proper start: the Old Bank of England.  Dan hadn't been here for about ten years, the lovely Lisa and I slightly more recently. As ever I had a pint of Pride so for a bit of variety I took a picture of the ceiling instead of the usual view from the balcony. 

We got to a new pub for us next, the Olde Watling. The had a good range of cask beers on including a mild, a lager and a wheat beer. I went for the wheat beer but it wasn't very good. It took me a while to work out if I didn't like it because of the wheat beer flavours, or if it was just off. By the time I'd decided it was off I'd drunk nearly half a pint so thought it was a bit late to take it back. Never mind, there was plenty more beer waiting for me. 

Our next pub was my favourite of the trip, the Old Jamaica Wine House. This was a Shepherd Neame pub and they're not brewery I'm that keen on. The pub interior made up for it though being nicely sectioned off into cosy little looks and crannies. I had a pint of Master Brew but after I'd ordered I spied they had something on called 'City Slickers'. The barman was kind enough give me a taster after seeing me eye up the hand pump and it seemed better than the usual offerings of Shep's. Apparently it's brewed specially for only two pubs. I'm not sure if it's brewed on the  pilot plant or if it's a re-badging of something else but it was pleasantly pale and hoppy and I wished I'd ordered it. 

And as it happened I got to. Leaving the Old Jamaica we bumped into my favourite brother-in-law heading home after a head days work to the lovely meal my sister had cooked him. He didn't have time to join us, but he did recommend we alter our plans to include the Cock and Wookpack. This turned out to be another Shepherd Neame pub. Now normally one Shep's pub on a pub crawl could be considered a misfortune but two is carelessness. In this case though it was welcomed as it was the other pub serving City Slicker so I had a pint. 

It was food time next, so despite the warning that it would be full of wankers in suits we went on to The Counting House. Another Fuller's pub, it was time for more Pride and the pie platter. And chips. And nachos. I was stuffed but Dan still managed to minesweep some more nachos that had been abandoned on the table next door. Like in The Old Bank of England we ended up on the balcony, and the view of the bar looked much the same, so I stuck with my policy of taking photos of the ceiling. 

Despite eating all the pies, and in Dan's case anything else within a three metre radius, the beer was starting to catch up with us. We managed to waddle on to the Lamb Tavern a Young's pub. It's in the middle of Leadenhall market, which is certainly different.  

I had a pint of the ordinary which went down surprisingly well but we'd definitely had enough by then so it was time to go home.

There seemed a lot more walking than normal in this pub crawl and we were knackered by the time we got home. In fact even the power of pork didn't revive us fully the next day and we ended up staying in. I think we may be getting soft and need to do some more training. 

Free beer to be had!

In a first for Ed's beer site I can now offer the chance to win free beer. 

I've been contacted by the people promoting Spitfire ale asking if I'll run a competition based on their 'Bottle of Britain' campaign, the winner getting a free crate. 

Now you may be asking why I, a brewer working in Kent, will promote a rival Kent brewery. Simple, they've offered me free beer too and I can't say no to that. 

Watch the vid and answer this simple question: Which famous English landmark features in the Bottle of Britain film?

Email your answer to toby.young@the7thchamber.com and when I get back from the lakes in a week's time hopefully a winner will have a crate of beer winging its way to them and I'll have a crate waiting for me on the door step.

Pub crawl St James's and Mayfair

This pub crawl was a technological breakthrough being put together by the lovely Lisa on twitter. That'll get the tabloids going: people now using tweets to organise drinking binges!

Of course we didn't cause any trouble and were mainly interested in studying pub architecture. That we happened to down a pint or six over the evening was merely an added bonus. 

Once again we were planning to follow a route from London Pub Walks but stopped off for a beer before the planned start at the Feathers. The pub was nice enough, if a bit lacking in atmosphere. The had one of Nethergate breweries excellent 'Azza' beers on, this one being Azzaparrot, a lovely fruity malty beer.  I think we've now had Azzabadger, Azzaskunk and Azzaparrot. 



We then got to the 'official' start at the first of our Red Lions. The pub was packed out but we managed to find an empty room upstairs to install ourselves in. The light was off when we went in but due to our advanced technological capabilities we were able to flick the switch and turn them on.  St Austell Tribute was the beer here and it was as good as ever. 


Lights make rooms in pubs so much more accessible.


This Red Lion had a Red Lion

We were meant to go to the Golden Lion next but it was shut so so we moved on to anther Red Lion. This was a small Fuller's pub with a beautiful mirrored interior where we drank Pride until driven out by the stench of someone's fart. I preferred it when pubs smelt of tobacco so I've going to have a poll on this one: what do you prefer to smell in pubs - fags or farts?



We were getting peckish by now but the Coach and Horses wasn't serving food so after we'd guzzled our Adnam'sBroadside we went to Benito's Hat for a burrito. I assume Benito's hat fell off when his body was strung up upsidedown from a petrol station but quite why they named a restaurant after it I'm not sure. 



Next we briefly stopped the Bricklayer's Arms, where I picked up the interesting tit bit that apparently Sam Smith's have 415 pubs, double the usual estimate. They really are a strange company. The beer was all keg and who wants to go to a pub and drink keg  beer so we didn't even bother finishing our pint. 


They know their bricks in the Bricklayers Arms

The next pub was a Shepherd Neame house, the Bloomsbury Tavern.  We had Master Brew bitter which made a pleasant change from Spitfire. 

Finally we ended up at the Coal Hole, where the Timothy Taylor's Landlord was on excellent form.



By this point we'd studied enough pub architecture for one evening so headed home.

 

Pub crawl in Belgravia

As we're currently between the two alcoholic onslaughts of Christmas and New Year me and the lovely Lisa have taken to getting out into the country for healthy walks.

Well, we did for two days then we decided to get into the city for a not so healthy pub crawl. Normally when planning a pub crawl the lovely Lisa will after doing all the necessary research print out a google map with all the details. Not being at work we were lacking in office facilities so based the crawl on one in London Pub Walks. The Belgravia pub walk, having seven pubs in 1.7 miles seemed to have just the right ratio of drinking to walking. 

First up was Horse and Groom, a Shepherd Neame pub.



Like other Shepherd Neame pubs it had a functional bare boarded look to it, but it got us out of the rain, and more importantly on to our first beer. Not that the beer was up to much, I had a Kent's Best which was a bit yeasty and Lisa had a Master Brew which had a harsh bitterness to it. 

We moved swiftly on to the next stop, The Grenadier.



This is a free house with a lot of character, various military gizmos adorning the pub. The log fire was cordoned off in the dining area though which was a bit annoying as we were still pretty soggy from the long wet walk to the station. I had a Rydale Winter's Tale, which was dark but a bit boring, and Lisa had Roosters Polar Beer, which was pale but with a whiff of wet dog about it. 

Next up was the Nag's Head. This seemed quite appropriate as we were wandering around old cobbled mews. 



This was a cracking pub, with a fine selection of hats behind the bar, and caricatures of famous visitors. We also got to sit by the fire which I thoroughly approved of. They had a couple of Adnam's beers on but we tried the Purity Pure Gold, having been previously impressed by their bottled beers. Sadly we didn't think much of this one, as it was a bit too lagery for our taste.  

After that we went to the Star Tavern, a pub we've wanted to go to for some time. It's been in every edition of the Good Beer Guide so it was really time we got round to ticking it.



It's owned by Fuller's so it was Pride for the lovely Lisa while I threw caution to the wind and had an ESB. Very good they were too, if a bit on the cold side. The bogs were very impressive, with gleaming copper pipes, but I thought it best to not start taking pictures in the toilet so you'll have to take my word for it.

We squeezed into the Antelope next, another Fuller's pub which was surprisingly busy. Pints of Pride were swiftly dispatched but we were really in need of some food by now and they didn't seem to be serving. 

We were saved by the Duke of Wellington, something which doesn't happen often nowadays, what with him being dead since 1852.



Chips and pork products washed down with Spitfire soon had us raring to go again and it was on to the Fox and Hounds. We had Young's Winter Warmer in here, and it was on excellent form, like liquid liquorish. 

We called in at a Sam Smith's pub The Cardinal after that. It doesn't have the character of a lot of Sam Smith's pubs and their draught beers aren't anything to write home about, or write on the internet about for that matter, so we didn't stay for long.

We decided we had time for one more so we staggered on to The Buckingham Arms. This has also been in every edition of the Good Beer Guide. It's a funny old world isn't it? You wait ages to go to a pub that's been in every edition and then two come along at once. The Winter Warmer in here wasn't a patch on what it was in the Fox and Hounds but barman's facial hair more than made up for any disappointment. He looked like a teenage Terry Thomas, with a magnificent handlebar moustache that any man would be proud to sport. Well, apart from me because I don't want to look like a twat the lovely Lisa says it would tickle, but the rest of you should get to it. 

At this point our meticulous note taking had descended into making brass rubbings of the old coins that made up the table surface so it was time to call it a day.  

Saturday down the pub

Ended up at the Rowbarge pub last night.I've not been too keen on this pub in the past as it's a bit too much focussed on the restaurant side and bar service was often very slow. But it is handy for where I live so I've so we ended up there last night anyway. Beers on draught were Spitfire and London Pride. I have drunk a few pints of Spitfire in my time, particularly when it was the cheapo beer at my local Weatherspoons, but with Pride as the alternative it didn't get a look last night. The Pride was well kept and the service speedy so itwent down all too easily, though it was a bit on the steep side at £3.05 a pint.