An itinerary of old inns in London

The Book of Beer by Andrew Campbell contains some itineraries of pubs. No pub crawls for him! Though the book dates from 1956 I recognised the name of some of the pubs and a quick google later I found that for at least one of the itineraries all of the pubs were still trading.

So for the purposes of historical research I teamed up with Tim Holt, the editor of the Journal of the Brewery History Society, to investigate.

We met at The Ship Tavern near Holborn. I was slightly concerned to see it covered in scaffolding but fortunately the pub was still open. I must admit I didn't pay too much attention to the pub, the journey to London had dried out my throat a little and I was more interested in getting a refreshing drink. Wimbledon brewery's SW19 did the job we were soon ready to head for the next stop on our itinerary.

This was The Seven Stars, a cosy little pub with great character and great beer. I couldn't resist a pint of Harvey's Sussex Bitter, despite their support for the Small Brewers Duty Reform Coalition (Boo! Hiss!). The pub was decorated with old film posters, which there's probably a story behind but I don't know what it is.

I know we now live in ecumenical times and pubs need to expand what they offer, but I was still pleased to hear that they didn't serve tea. Particularly when the woman who'd ask for a cup got a half of bitter instead.

Ye Olde Cock Tavern was next, once owned by Truman's now owned by Greene King. This did not inspire me with a great deal of excitement about the beers. I rarely enjoy their IPA and the itinerary was too long for me to start drinking Abbot.

So I went for their Yardbird, which had a pleasant American hop flavour, until about half way down when the hops seemed muted and diacetyl came to the fore. Still, I'll give them 8/10 for effort.

Then it was on to Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, a Sam Smith's pub.

I'm not a huge fan of their Old Brewery Bitter, being served from wooden kilderkins it probably doesn't travel well. I've had a few good pints recently though so I gave it a go. It was thin but drinkable.

The pub is a warren of a place, with most of the seating in what look like an old cellar. It was totally rammed so we ended up perched on a small bench near the bogs. Not ideal really but needs must.

The Old Bell was the last on our itinerary and I was delighted to see they had Landlord on, another beer I can never resist.

We'd made good time with our research so Tim suggested we visit another pub.

The Jerusalem Tavern is St Peter's Brewery's only pub and I'd never been so I was keen to see it.

 

The lack of handpumps put me in a difficult position, the theological implications of which I'm still struggling with. Assuming it was a keg only establishment I had a pint of their porter served from the devil's drainpipe. To my horror I then spotted cask beer was advertised on the blackboard at the back, the taps from the barrel ends apparently serving beer as god intended.

Suckling at the devil's drainpipe is only a venial sin if no real ale is available, but surely to do so when it was is a mortal sin. Except in a Sam Smith's pub obviously. It was a genuine mistake on my part but would being ignorant be enough to save my immortal soul? My intentions were good but you know what the road to hell is paved with. I quickly said an act of contrition and three Hail Protzes to be on the safe side.

Then it was definitely time to be going, back home for a troubled night's sleep as I fretted about my error and its potential grave implications.

Remembrance of Things Past

When I was briefly back in Prague I got the answer to something I've been pondering for a while. Meeting some people at a brew pub by a monastery I wandered into the smoking bar first.

I guess that's the monastery

When I think back to how pubs used to be I miss the smell of fags. Ah, in those days pubs smelled like pubs, not of toilet cleaner, or farts, or nothing. But being in a bar full of smokers I didn't feel all nostalgical about how pubs should be, I just thought "god, this is minging". I may miss the smell, but it seems not the smoke.

Thanks to the helpful staff I soon found the people I was meeting and could get on with my networking. The food was great, and the beer was pleasant enough. Unfiltered, but also unfined so hazy, they even had an American style IPA for those that prefer their beer to taste of grapefruit. 

Waiter in an IPA top

British beer at its best

When I was last up North I had a very pleasant surprise when I got to the pub - the Black Sheep bitter was excellent. The mates I was staying with said there were two pubs close by, one a bit foody and one an old boozer. It was an easy choice to make so we were soon in the public bar of the Glendenning arms.

They only had two beers on, and I'd had a tip off the landlord drank Black Sheep bitter so I went for that. I've not previously thought much of Black Sheep's beers, finding them pleasant enough but a bit dull. This time though was a revelation. Despite the beer's modest strength (3.8% ABV) it was packed full of flavour, the tongue coating bitterness leaving me wanting more after each sip. Even the indignity of being served through a sparkler didn't have the usual adverse effect.


Not tasting of grapefruit it probably didn't count as craft beer but it was without doubt world class beer and I was happy to drink it all night.

A trip to the North Pole

We had a pub crawl research trip around Islington the other week. We started at the Craft Beer Co., which unlike most craft beer bars has the benefit of being a pub.

Though the definition of craft beer is a thing of great controversy amongst beer nerds on this side of the Atlantic, craft beer bars are much easier to define: places with a good range of beers where scotch eggs cost a fiver. Because of this we'd come prepared:

50p each seems much more reasonable 

The Craft Beer Co. had a good range of beer but they were a bit on the warm side so we soon went the short walk to the Hundred Crows Rising for a delicious drop of Old Dairy.

It was time to get trekking after that, and we were able to satisfy our new found love of canals on the way to our next stop.

It was an excellent looking old gin palace called The Island Queen that we were heading to.

It was Landlord for me here, but we could only stop for one as our goal was to reach the North Pole and that takes some serious trekking. OK, not that serious really as it was another pub we'd definitely reached a North London post code and that was quite North enough for us. This was where we had the best beer, look they had all three colours:

Yellow, brown and black: what a selection!

Saltaire Triple Chocoholic was probably the pick of the bunch. Having reached the North Pole things could only really go down from there. We didn't booze with our meal at the Guanabana, nice milkshake mind but the food wasn't quite what we'd hoped for, and then it was just a swifty before the train at the Coal Hole, which didn't set the Thames on fire.

The Ballad of Reading Ale

On Saturday we had a research trip to Reading, something I've been meaning to do for some time. We started at The Ale House, a pub which lived up to its name with plenty of hand pumps. It's a small place, but we managed to find some seats in a cosy little alcove and settled in with pints of Mr Chubb's Lunchtime Bitter, an old favourite. We were waiting for another friend here so we had time for two. The lovely Lisa stuck with Mr Chubb, but as I used to work with Mr Bingham I moved on to his Twyford Tipple, which rather surprisingly had a touch of the Harvey's about it.

Zerodegrees was the next stop, it's part of a small chain of brewpubs. Though having said that it's more a bar than a pub and had loud beepy music playing so it wasn't to my taste. The beer's are some sort of CAMRA kosher keg but my hazy pale ale was fine and the smoked beer and wheat beer seemed to go down well too.

For some strange reason above the urinals they have pictures of women mocking  your manhood, not sure what that's all about.

It was time for a pie after that so we called in at Sweeney and Todd's, a restaurant with four beers on hand pump which mightily impressed me, even if the beer range was on the unexciting side. The food was very reasonably priced too.

Ready for more research after dinner I was delighted to discover another protestant sect as we waddled towards the last pub. This lot were homophobic Anglicans. I've never looked into C of E splits before but I've now got a whole new series of schisms to read up on. 

Our last stop was the Nag's Head, which had an impressive 12 cask beers on.

 
I spied Gadd's Old School Mild, which made the choice easy. Surprisingly hoppy for a dark mild I still enjoyed it even if I didn't get what was Old School about it. The pub was one big room with bare floor boards, which isn't really to my taste but I wasn't fussy by this stage of the proceedings. All that was left after that was to wend our way home, with refreshment from the M&S at the station sustaining us for the train journey.

A pub walk from Gomshall

Back in the Summer (you may remember fell it on a bank holiday this year) the lovely Lisa and I went on a pub walk around Gomshall. 

We were following another route in CAMRA's South East Pub Walks. We already had a bit of a thirst on by the time we'd got to the walk's start at Gomshall Station. The first pub we came to on the route was The Abinger Hatch. It wasn't an 'official' stop but we thought but we thought a quick off piste stop was in order. Our deviation did us no good though as it looked like a restaurant and we weren't taken with the beers so left without getting anything.

This meant we had to press on to Holmbury St Mary but it was worth the wait. The Kings Head was a proper pub, which was having its own beer festival and a barbecue. We sat in the garden enjoying a well earned pint.

The next leg involved navigating through a forest, which is something I've yet to master. The path we ended up on took us close enough to where we wanted to be though, so only a slight adjustment was needed to get us to our next stop, the Hurtwood Inn in Peaslake. This place was big, packed, and serving a couple of beers I'm boycotting. Fortunately the excellent Surrey Hills Shere Drop was on so we were able to have some righteous refreshment.

Then we were into the home straight and a late burst of speed allowed us to get in another pint between us of Shere Drop at the Compasses Inn.

We were so pushed for time I didn't even complain about the unsightly Northern head. Some quick guzzling and a dash to the station got us there in time for the train, which was just as well as the next one wasn't for two hours. Another great route from a CAMRA pub walk guide successfully completed.

Easter on ice

As the cold weather has dragged on and on we decided to see if we could actually get to enjoy it over Easter. So the muckle big boots were taken down from the loft where I thought they'd be staying until December, and the ice axes were taken out from under the bed where I thought they'd be staying until the zombie apocalypse.

The drive to Langdale was particularly grim so bottle caps were popped as soon as we got to the hut. We still needed to stretch our legs though so a hike to the Sticklebarn was in order. It's now run by the National Trust and the beer range seemed a bit duller than before. A couple of Molson Coor's cask beers were amongst those on offer, so I tried the Worthington's Winter Shield, which turned out to be an unexciting amber ale. Despite having blown a million quid on the brewhouse and hired a rock star brewer I still get the feeling that Molson Coors are a bit clueless about what to do with Worthington's. Still, there is a lot of potential so we can only hope.

The hills were hard work as both the snow, and myself, were mostly soft. One of these days I'll get back to regular training.

The lovely Lisa dicing with death on a cornice

After a day wandering over the Pikes a pint of Old Peculier in the ODG did wonders for easing the pain in my weary legs.

The beer of the weekend though was when we found Stringers No.2 Stout in the Wainwright after heading over Side Pike and Lingmoor Fell the next day.

You can't beat a good cask beer

Only 4% ABV but full bodied and full of flavour so we stayed for a couple.Then it was back to the hut to toast crumpets in front of the fire.

Purple Moose seen in the wild

I was delighted to see Purple Moose on the bar when I stopped off at the Ty Gwyn Inn on the way to Llanberis pass. Last time I called in they only had Doom Bar. I went straight for the Dark Side of the Moose (4.6% ABV) and it was a delicious dark delight. So after some rapid guzzling and an even more rapid swap of driving duties I went and got another one.

The pub also had real crisps, none of that fizzy keg crisp rubbish.

 The weekend had started well, and it stayed that way.

It was cold enough to get an easy Winter climb in on Parsley Fern Gully on the Friday, my enjoyment enhanced by my American born climbing partner's attempts at Welsh.

In mountains the Welsh word for valley "cwm" crops up quite a lot. The Welsh pronounce it something like "coom", but my friend pronounced it exactly like "quim". I didn't correct her of course, as it was far too entertaining.

On Saturday we trekked up Banana Gully, over Y Garn and dropped down on the other side to the Vaynol Arms.

I wasn't overly taken with where our journey was due to end. The Vaynol is a Robinson's pub and I'm not fond of their beers. I mentioned this to the barmaid as I peered along the five hand pumps and she replied "yes, a lot of people say that". The pump clips listed the hops used so I plumped for Dizzy Blond (3.8% ABV) as it was made with Amarillo, a great hop. And whilst I wouldn't go as far as saying the beer was great, it was certainly pleasant, which is a real step up for Robinsons as far as I'm concerned.

Having had pints of Purple Moose, and pleasant beer from Robinsons it seems things are looking up in Wales.

Grape vs. Grain food pairing night

Keen as I always am to continue my professional development I went to an IBD meeting on Monday. And dedicated beer buff that she is the lovely Lisa came to. The event did happen to be held in a brewpub and included a six course meal which may have influenced her decision.

It was held at The Bull in Highgate, which has a good selection of beers, draught and keg, though as the scotch eggs were reasonably priced it's definitely a pub not a craft beer bar. 

We started with a quick tour of the 2.5 barrel brewery.

The brew house is at one side of the kitchen with the fermenting vessels in the cellar. After the tour we tried one of The Bull's beers in both it's cask and (key) keg form. The kegged version had a bit more aroma but an unpleasant harsh taste that wasn't present in the version served as god intended.

The main even was in an upstairs dining room, where we had a qualified beer sommelier batting for the home team and a press ganged stand in plugging the wine. Both did a great job, though keeping track of the votes got a bit messy as the evening went on.

This was the menu:

Brewers Grain Smoked Salmon, citrus creme fraiche
Beer: Blanche de Namur
Wine: Viognier, Domaine des Terres Rousses

Foie Gras Terrine, sour berries, toast
Beer: Cantillon Rose de Gambrinus
Wine: Syrah Rose, VdeP d'Oc

Smoked Wild Mushroom
Beer: Schlenkerla Rauchbier
Wine: Gruner Veltliner, Weingut Geyerhog

Braised Ox Cheek, celeriac mash, braising jus
Beer: Adnams Broadside
Wine: Malbec, Urban Uco

Apple Pie, vanilla chantilly
Beer: Innis and Gunn Original
Wine: Chablis,  Domaine des Temps Perdus

Black Bomber Cheddar
Beer: Sierra Nevada Torpedo
Wine: Mount Beautiful Pinot Noir


I'm not really one for food and drink pairing, as I prefer to get my dinner in early and then get to the pub, not waste time lingering over food. And there's no real point me going thought my votes as it was beer every time. I very rarely drink wine so it just tastes like wine to me, but as I regularly drink beer I can pick up the subtleties and notice the grapefruit, spice, coffee, liquorish, etc. Others with more rounded palates were more even handed in their voting though, with the final result being a 4:2 win for beer. Wine clearly won the vote for the terrine, and either the ox cheek or the cheese (I not sure which one though but both were close), the rest going to beer.

When matching drinks with food we were told the drink can cut though the food's flavour, complement it or contrast with it. The Cantillon lambic certainly cut through the terrine, though I think it was actually meant to complement the berries. The rauchbier went well with the smoked mushrooms, oddly though as after the mushroom it tasted more like normal beer; and the vanilla flavour of Innis and Gunn went well with the pie and vanilla cream. I guess these two were complementing. I didn't really notice any contrasting going on but spotting three things out of six courses isn't bad going for me. I'd also add the possibility that pairing can be crap as alternating swigs and mouthfuls of the Broadside and ox cheek didn't do anything for either, though maybe if the beer hadn't been too cold it would have gone better.

Despite being a wine philistine and not being one for beer and food pairing I did enjoy this event, maybe it's time for me to give The Brewmaster's Table another go.

A South East pub walk

As we didn't get away for the bank holiday weekend we decided to get some walking in nearer to home. We (mostly) used a route from CAMRA's South East Pub Walks. The first pub stop is in Puttenham, home of Surrey's last hop ground and which gave me a chance to see how the hops were getting on as harvest time approaches.

We started at Wanborough station which had the added bonus that the foot paths took us across fields. First we went through wheat but soon we got to a superior cereal which pleased me. Walking through a barley field on the way to a hop field as part of a pub walk has a certain beery completeness to it.

Among the fields of barley

The Fuggles were looking on fine form.

The Good Intent was as good as last time with the added bonus that I wasn't driving. We only had a pint though as we had a long way to cover.

They had quite a selection at the bar but when Landlord is on I find it hard to resist. So I didn't.

Our next stop was the Harrow in Compton.

Sadly the Tribute was warm which was not ideal. I even had the finish the lovely Lisa's pint for her. Our route then took us past some huge houses and along a river to the last scheduled stop, The Star in Godalming. They had a good selection but again the beer was a bit warm.

We got the train back to Woking for food, calling in at The Sovs. It has an enlightened attitude to taking back poor quality beer.

Not that I needed to take anything back. I had a Hawkshead Windermere Pale, a beer that seems very popular with my fellow internet beer nerds. It was a good example of the ever so fashionable pale and tastes of American hops style of beer.

After eating it was time to crawl on to The Crown.

More Tribute in here, and it was a much nicer pint than it had beer at the Harrow. Then it was time for home.

I enjoyed out first outing from the SE Pub Walks book, and unlike some of the routes in the London Pub Walks book which have about eight pubs per mile, we had to earn our beer, which is no bad thing.

The Cricketers, Pirbright

Taking advantage of it being Summer this weekend the lovely Lisa and I set off on a cycle ride down the Basingstoke canal.

 Obviously we didn't want to go too far, as by all accounts allegedly Basingstoke is a shit hole, so we detoured to Pirbright in search of some refreshment. There were a few pubs to chose from but as The Cricketers still has a big sign advertising Ind Coope Burton Ale I steered us in that direction.

I haven't been to this pub in many years having been barred in my youth. It was no fault of my own you understand, being a mass barring brought about by one of my friends making clear her exact thoughts about the woman behind the bar that had refused to serve her tap water.

Sadly Burton wasn't on, but the Pride was in good form which was some compensation. The landlord was friendly, and we liked this pub so may have to get on the bikes more often.

A strawberry-pink china mug

After the excitement of seeing the hop growers booths at Blissimore Hall Acre it was on to Devon and the beer festival in Branscombe. There were over 30 beers on at the Fountain Head Inn, each listed on a board and orders taken only by number, Chinese takeaway style.

This didn't make it ideal for remembering what beers you'd had but I think it's fair to say it was lots.

The next day we took a stroll along the cliff and followed the handy signs:

After a couple of something re-badged from Greene King in Beer we moved on to the Mason's Arms, now a St Austell pub. I can remember what I had there as it was the delicious Proper Job (4.5% ABV). The high spot though has be when we wandered on for more at the Fountain Head, and it doesn't involve beer at all.

Already fortified on arrival it was time to see if they'd let me use a strawberry-pink china mug. The barman was a bit of a miserablist who made it clear they were for display purpose only, but I did get to play with one.

 
So here I am pretending to drink out of George Orwell's favoured drinking vessel. I can see why he liked them, it must hold a quart.