Pub crawl around Euston

Feeling the need of some excitement in the big smoke the lovely Lisa plotted our latest research trip starting at the new specialist beer bar in Euston.

The Euston Tap proudly calls itself a craft beer house, though the board outside went even further and said it served craft ales and beers.

I've wasted enough of my time waffling on about how 'craft beer' doesn't really mean anything so what they mean by 'craft ales and beers' I've really no idea but you'll be glad to hear I'm going to leave it there.
On entering the pub I was surprised to see how much space the bar takes up as it's only a small place and there isn't much room downstairs. Behind the bar is a copper panel with lots of taps coming out of it. I think it's meant to look like an old brewery underback but one of my friends was convinced it was modeled on a urinal.

The upper floor has some very small toilets but a surprisingly large amount of seating space. But enough about the pub I was here for the beer. They had eight cask beers on, their names displayed on a blackboard to the left. A few of them were from Brewdog but I've haven't been impressed by their beers when I've had them on cask. There was also Thornbridge Wild Swan but I'm not taken with that one either. I then spied Marble Pint so plumped for that. When it arrived I remembered I'd had it not so long ago and it wasn't really to my taste. A pale beer with a huge amount of hops I find it low in drinkability despite its modest strength. I moved on to stout next to even out my beer balance. I started on the Dark Star, which was a bit astringent and then went on to Adnam's which went down more smoothly. The lovely Lisa was quite taken with the other stout on offer which was we think from the Bristol Beer Factory.

Dan and Simon had arrived and had a pint by this point so we were ready for the short stroll to our next stop the Doric Arch. The beer range here was more to my taste: Fuller's Bengal Lances, Timmy Taylor's Landlord and Kelham Island Pale Rider were all clamoring for me to drink them. But the guy behind the bar recommended Springhead Sweet lips so after a taster I went for that one. It was good and hoppy but balanced enough to be drinkable.

The last time I'd been this pub, which is in what looks like an office block attached to the station, I'd though it had all the ambiance of a waiting room. This time we managed to sit in a little alcove and I was more than happy. I don't ask for much: a good beer, a good seat and good company will do me.

There was still more research to be done though so I couldn't sit back and enjoy myself, it was time for the Bree Louise. This was just round the other side of Euston so we were soon there.

Unfortunately for us the pub was packed with people watching rugby on two telly screens. There seemed to be loads of beers on, many on stillage behind the bar but if there was a list of the beers I didn't seen it.
They had a weird pricing structure, that at first looked like a discount for CAMRA members but when you examined the prices was more surcharge for non-CAMRA members.

The beers didn't seem in ideal condition, and some beer even had to be abandoned so I won't pass judgement on them.

We moved swiftly on to a Mexican restaurant Lisa had factored into the pub crawl for some much needed sustenance.

At this point the careful planning was put to one side and we used psychogeography to chose the next pub The Crown and Anchor. I'm not sure what Guy Debord would have thought but we liked it.

I got quite excited when I saw the handpumps as they had White Shield on draught. I'd never seen it on draught before and the gossip is that it actually tastes good again. Sadly it was cloudy so it got sent back. Further research is necessary.

I ended up having a pint of keg Sierra Nevada. Presumably this is 'craft keg'. It was pleasant enough but too cold.

And after that it was time to pour ourselves home.

Straight outta Compton

No, not that Compton. I mean the village near Guildford. After Saturday turned into a hungover washout the lovely Lisa and I decided we needed to go for a healthy walk on Sunday. We wandered through graveyards, fields and woods and must have gone well over two miles before we came to the first pub, the Withies Inn. 

It turned out to be the poshest pub I've ever been in. As it was a nice day most people were outside and waiters wearing waistcoats were scurrying round attending to them. I feared for the health of my wallet when we hit the bar but at £3.10 for a very nice pint of Adnams bitter it could have been worse. 

We also headed outside where the unusual umbrellas on some of the tables caught my eye. Looking closer I saw what was strange about them: they were advertising champagne.

This Compton was a bit different from the one NWA were singing about. 

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.

 

Pedirodg

Last night I tried out a drink I've been meaning to have for some time: Pedirodg.

First take a bottle of Marston's Pedigree.



Then take a bottle of Owd Rodger.



Find a big glass and pour them in.



Bingo! The Pedirodg.

This is a combination I heard about when chatting to someone who used to work for Marston's. I'd said that I didn't think British brewers did strong beers too well as they always tended to get syrupy as they got stronger. He said the practice at Marston's was to mix Pedigree and Owd Rodger to make the Pedirodg.

I have to say it was better than either of the beers individually. The Pedigree was pretty bland apart from the sulphurousness of the Burton snatch and the Owd Rodger was too sweet and syrupy. When mixed together they made a strong dark beer of 6.3% ABV that certainly did the trick when drunk in litre at a time.

I wasn't actually as good as similar strength dark beers like Adnam's Broadside or Greene King Strong Suffolk but it was interesting all the same.

Next I need to try the London Pride and Golden Pride mix that I heard about from someone at Fullers ...

Beers in Borough and beyond

On Saturday I went back up to London to meet a mate, and of course get in some beers whilst I was there.


Borough Market

I cunningly arranged it so the first stop would be Borough Market so I could get some supplies from Utobeer. They have a large selection but it's not the most user friendly place. Their website is pretty hopeless so you can't plan what you want in advance, and most of the beers don't have prices on so you don't know how much you're spending until you get to the till. Back when Safeway's was the place to shop for exciting beers I once ended up buying two bottles of Dogfish head world wide stout at £7 because the price wasn't on display. OK, I had to have that beer but I'd probably only have bought one bottle if I'd known how much it cost! I ended up buying five bottles from Utobeer and it cost about £12.50, so around £2.50 a bottle. Pricey, particularly as they were 330ml bottles, but acceptable for a beer nerd like myself. They probably wouldn't let them sell anything cheaper in borough market anyway. Despite the name you don't get people shouting "bananas a pahnd a pahnd" here, it's all luxury food stalls.


The Market Porter

Whilst I'd been at Utobeer the lovely Lisa and my mates had gone straight to the Market Porter, a large pub with a large beer range. Lisa had made an excellent choice and got me a pint of Acorn Brewery's Quantum. This was a pale hoppy beer which went down a treat. We decided to stay for another here and off went Dan with an order for more of the same. I was a bit miffed when I went to help him carry the beers back to see that Thornbrige's Lord Marples was on. Thornbridge are an exciting brewery and I hadn't tried this one before. The beer gods were with me though as the Quantum must have reached the end of the barrel as it had gone very murky. It was swiftly sent back and I got to have a Lord Marples, a brown bitter tasting of chocolate malt, after all.

We had a slight detour before the next pub as from where we'd been in the Market Porter we could see a cheese shop where free samples were being given away. The free samples worked too as Dan bought twenty quids worth of cheese.

Next pub was the George, a lovely looking historic coaching inn. Sadly the beers were Greene King so we didn't stay for long. I had a 4% George Inn ale which tasted pretty like most other Greene King ales. I've a strong suspicion that Greene King high gravity brew, making a strong beer for later dilution, as they have a selection of very similar tasting beers across a range of strengths.


The George Inn

After that we went to another favourite of ours: the Blackfriar. We were passed by a weird pedal powered bus on the way there. 


A weird pedal powered bus

To my regret I didn't go for the Timothy Taylor's Landlord (it was my downfall last time) but had a rather boring Sharp's Doombar. The excellent meat platter soon took my mind off the dull beer though and before long it was time to move on again.


Lisa getting the beers in in the Blackfriar

Despite the excellent research the lovely Lisa had done in selecting pubs we decided to use psychogeography to find the next one and just have a wander. We passed some gates decorated with what looked like English nationalist sheep with halos. It's beyond my understanding.


Englands St Sheep?

Soon after it seemed the beer gods were still smiling (or was it St Sheep?) as we found ourselves outside the Devereux. This is a pub Lisa had selected for our last weekday pub crawl but we never managed to get that far. It's normally shut at the weekend but the beer gods had obviously decreed that a party would be held there on Saturday so it was open when we arrived. The beer range was a bit dull so I had an Adnam's Broadside. It's a was a bit strong for this stage of the evening really but it's a lovely dark beer with plenty of hops and I couldn't resist. The  pub was nice too, with wonky glass in the windows to match our wonky brains. 


Wonky windows

Things start getting a little hazy after that. We went to somewhere to get some food but it was full so we went somewhere else where we had some Spanish food and San Miguel. Neither were particularly memorable which is probably for the best. Then it was time to stagger back and pour ourselves home.


Somewhere else

The hangover was particularly stinking this morning, I blame it on the lager.