St George's Beerfest, Old Mitre

Ye Olde Mitre, near Chancery Lane (which we visited a couple years ago as part of the 25 London pubs tour), held a St George's Day beer festival this week, serving up at least half a dozen patriotically themed ales for the occasion. By the time we attended on Thursday night, there were only three beers left, but we dutifully tried them all. (Unfortunately, a table for four in the already-crowded upstairs bar had been booked for a party of 30+ city shirts, so after our beers we moved on to a more pleasant environment.)

Everards, Ascalon: a dark amber/fruity brown ale, which was pretty much odorless (although the smell of burning bread from the cheese toasties which are the Mitre's only food offering made it pretty hard to smell anything). On the tip of the tongue it was watery, almost bready, and only slightly more smoky and malty in the mouth; maybe a hint of overripe fruit (apple or pine rather than citrus). Then it was woody, yeasty, maybe almost a hint of mushroom earthiness and loam in the swallow. The aftertaste barely lingered, but maybe held a little spice, liquorice and soy. Overall this was more interesting than the insipid first taste suggested, but still meh. (**/5)

Ye Olde Mitre, Holborn

Our latest visit to a Top 25 Pub in London took us to Ye Olde Mitre in Holborn: a small pub tucked away just off Hatton Gardens. Despite being relatively hidden it gets pretty rammed after work with suited city workers, although the crowds do tend to thin out as the evenings wear on. One of the ways the staff cope with the potential mayhem at the bar is to provide table service to the upstairs room where we were sitting. Not a bad idea considering the steep staircase which isn't a natural friend to lubricated people carrying a bunch of pints.

But of course we weren't here for the cosy atmosphere, cheese toasties and picked eggs but the beer. We have to admit to letting ourselves down a bit in terms of taking extensive tasting notes but we did enjoy the Fuller's Seafarers and Darkstar Original, not to mention the Adnam's Broadside. One member of our party was more conscientious than the rest of us so I'll hand you over to his notes...