There is such a thing as Italian Real Ale!

An Italian friend of ours spent three months in England earlier this year on an exchange. She arrived hating beer (being from Italy, that's not all that surprising; look what shit they get served up. Plus, they have wine, which goes better with pasta ;-) ). She was open-minded enough to attend a few beer festivals with us, however, and seemed to be developing a taste for the less hoppy (and less lagery) real ales by the time she left. Imagine our pride when we received the following emailed report on the state of craft beer in her home town in Italy!

I looked forward to tell you that the craft beer bar eventually reopened, Birra Cerqua.

The venue is very small, so it gets crowded quickly, but there's space outside as well. The atmosphere is relaxed. The guys who work there are very friendly and easy-going, even too much perhaps late in the night! They invited us to attend I don't know which phase of brewing yesterday, but eventually we didn't go. Next time.

Bier Baron, Washington DC

On Monday night we visited the Bier Baron in Washington DC, which is a homely cellar bar beneath the Baron Hotel (on 22nd NW between P & Q). It's a nice, grungy, English-style pub, with lots of niches and corners to make it feel more private—although it's a pretty large venue—wooden chairs and age scarred tables, uneven floor and mismatched chairs. In some ways it's more like a club, with id checked at the door and regular music and other events (there's a burleque night lined up next month, which I think I'm more glad than sorry to be missing), but on a regular night it's pleasant, not too noisy, with good service and, most importantly, hundred of bottled beers on offer. (A small selection of draft ales too, as usual I think all from keg.)

Kingston Beer Festival, May 2013

We attended the Kingston Beer and Cider Festival on May 18th, for the Saturday afternoon session. We ended up not staying very late, because they were running out of beers very quickly, and the food had already gone by 18:00 and we were hungry. This was a pretty small festival, held in the Kingston working men's club, and it had that feel to it: a very large venue but a very small bar, not terribly comfortable, although it had the virtue of not being too crowded even as peak time. The first three members of staff we encountered on entering each made insulting or patronizing comments to women, which was a sadly old-fashioned approach to a beer festival (especially given the fairly large numbers of women present at this one). Otherwise it was friendly, if small, disorganized and with abysmally poor food supply.

Reading Beer Festival, May 2013

We attended the opening night of the Reading Beerfest, Thursday May 2nd. Despite having lived in Reading for almost a decade once upon a time, I'd never been to this legendary festival before, and wasn't expecting it to be so spectacular. Unlike most of the beer festivals we've attended recently, the Reading event was held in a large marquee in the King's Meadow field, with outdoor seating areas as well as the huge bars inside. On scale, as well as in range and supply of real ales, this festival rivals even the GBBF, and certainly stands head and shoulders over any of other the local festivals we've attended. The atmosphere was relaxed, lively, and friendly, never becoming unpleasantly crowded despite the huge number of people attending. There was a range of entertainment and food, including several outside food tents, again immeasurably superior to the canteen food or burger vans offered by smaller festivals. And the beer range was astounding: hundreds of LocAles made up over half the length of the main tent, with national beers continuing onto the overflow bar around the corner (along with country wines, ciders and perries, and international bottled beers).

New England & E Coast tasting notes

On a recent trip to New England and the Sprawl (Boston -> Providence -> New York -> Washington DC) I made notes on a few ales I tasted, and in some cases the venues I tasted them in. Notes below are in roughly chronological order, and include state (or country) of origin, so that I can label the beers from the same state I was in as #LocAle).

Bottled beers at house party in Providence (at which a wonderful spinach pie was also served):

Lagunitas Rich Copper Ale (CA): a light smoky copper color, with thin frothy head and a constant stream of bubbles; this pint had a very gentle, sweet, slightly maritime smell to it. The taste is very bright, bitterly metallic, but a bit sweet and lambic too; it tastes a lot stronger that its 6.5%. There are quite coarse charcoal and hop notes on the swallow. As it warmed up, the smell of sap and green leaf got stronger and nicer. Should have taken it out of the fridge half an hour ago.

Four London Beerfests

Since the last regular posts on this blog, we have visited four London beer festivals, and usually posted our micro-tasting notes on Twitter (with the hashtag #RealAle). I'll comment here mostly on the venues and the ambiance of the festivals overall, with comments only on the most memorable ales.

Twickenham Beer Festival, October 19th, 2012

Our annual pilgrimage to the Twickenham Beer Festival continues. The venue is spartan and very crowded, with almost no seating available for the more sedate drinker. Food was pretty embarrassing—sub-canteen level swill served on paper plates. They could really do better. Beer range was good, with over 50 real ales on tap (although not all at once) and a cider stall in the foyer, although ciders and perries were not listed in the programme, so it was a bit more hit and miss. There's a large stage in York House, and our companions pointed out that a bit of local live music at some point in the evening would not have been a bad idea.

The Moulin Brewery

Moulin is not, perhaps, a place name that springs immediately to mind in the context of beer. In fact, this small village in the shadow of Mount Ben Vrackie, near Pitlochry in Perthshire, is home to one of Scotland’s first microbreweries. The Moulin Brewery’s main market for its four beers is the village pub, the Moulin Inn, although they are to be found in other nearby hostelries too and, in bottled form, also further afield. So while Moulin itself may be off the beaten track for some, it would not surprise me if Moulin beers popped up in well stocked off licences in Edinburgh or Glasgow.

William IV, Leyton

The latest leg on our tour of De Moor's Top 25 London bars takes us to the William IV, on High Road Leyton. After a bracing walk (the pub is a good 20 minutes from the nearest London Underground station), we found the pub to be unassuming and quiet on a Thursday evening. Kitted out like a old-fashioned local, but with an unusually large floor space and a huge bar running the whole length of the building, there were bare tables, mismatched chairs and threadbare carpet. (And a bar billiards table, which we didn't play but the mere sight of took me back to an earlier generation!)

I mention that there was lots of space in the bar both because it was nice to be able to find a quiet corner to drink in, and because despite the quiet evening, the bar seemed to be understaffed. In fact they had to close the kitchen half an hour early (after we asked about the last food orders only 40 minutes before), so sadly we're not able to review the food available (although the menu looked nice).

The Market Porter (Borough)

Last week, right after shopping at Utobeer (review), we went to the nearby pub The Market Porter, another one on our Top 25 list.

The place looks well kept from the outside, but is fairly plain inside, with game machines and all. There's a restaurant upstairs that we didn't visit;  though, judging from the photos on the pub's website, it look considerably nicer than the downstairs area.

I've been here on a weekend market day and the pub's immediate proximity to it makes it a very busy place. This time we went on a week day, just after the market's closing time. The pub was considerably less busy, though the nice sunny evening meant that a lot of people gathered drinking outside. The staff at the bar was probably still set to "busy market day" mode, served us a bit dismissively and insisted on giving us plastic cups even though we had a table inside (got our glasses after some discussion).

Utobeer (Borough Market)

This evening, on our way to the Market Porter (which RV will post about later), we popped into the Utobeer stall in Borough Market to pick up some bottled beers for a more detailed tasting (which we'll no doubt post here some time). Strangely, this little shop is listed in Des de Moor's book as one of the Top 25 Bars in London: although I've seen pubs with bigger selections (The Cask in Pimlico, for example), and certainly shops with wider and more interesting real ale offerings (Real Ale in Richmond, for one).

Mild Month of May

As May is Mild Month, and as I just happened to find myself in the Bree Louise last night (and as I've been enjoying St Peter's Dark Mild in a bottle a lot recently), I decided to spend the evening sampling the various milds they have on offer.

Great Oakley, Welland Valley Mild: my first pint of the evening was this rather thick, dark ale with reddish-brown hints when held up to the light, and a light frothy head, that had a warm, treacly, slightly over-ripe aroma. Dipping in my tongue gave me a taste of sweet, smoky hickory and a little sappiness, then a swill offered more fruity bitterness, and the swallow was coarse and sooty, with a bitter aftertaste of some dark vegetable, maybe kale or ladies fingers. On the whole this was rather more bitter and intense than I expected (or wanted) in a mild, but I'd give it a thumbs up as a fine old porter.

Southampton Arms, Highgate

In the ongoing adventures of the Top 25 London Pubs explorers, our intrepid team trekked north to the Southampton Arms in Highgate. An unassuming venue from the outside (the pub name is almost invisible in faded and flaking paint, the slogan "ALE CIDER MEAT" catching the eye), it's also basic and a little shabby inside. Rickety wooden tables and uncomfortable seats crammed into a small floor space before the bar on the long wall, some space outside which was closed off mid-evening (presumably out of respect for the neighbours), and the "smoking area" on the sidewalk out front which allows fumes into the pub.

The beer selection is great (more on which below). We weren't expecting to eat here, as it's not that sort of pub; if I had any interest in various cold cuts kept beside the bar, I might have been put off by the bartender chopping the meat, handling it with his bare hands and popping occasional morsels into his mouth as he did so. The pub rather proudly announces that they don't take credit cards, they don't have a telephone, and don't make bookings; this is billed as refreshing simplicity, but is really just poor customer service. The bar staff are similarly lackadaisical in attitude—serving locals out of turn and generally paying very little attention (I waited a couple of minutes at the bar at one point while three (count 'em) bar staff chatted among themselves or with regulars and made no attempt to serve anybody). The men's toilets deserve a special mention: situated outside, the privy is ventilated (read "open to the elements and bloody freezing") rather than cleaned.

Dog and Bell, Deptford

This week's visit to a de Moor Top 25 Pub brought us to the Dog and Bell on Prince Street in Deptford. Although only a five minute walk from the train station, this pub is squirreled away at the far side of a quiet estate, and it's hard to imagine you'd happen upon it by chance. But what a chance it would be if you did!

On a Thursday night it was quiet in the Dog and Bell, unlike many of the over-hyped pubs in de Moor's list; a cluster of regulars chatting around the bar and a couple of small groups at distant tables. We found a quiet corner and we undisturbed all night. Music was playing unobtrusively, and at one point a football match came on the television, but neither caused us to have to raise our voices.

There were three guest real ales on tap, on which more below, in addition to the LocAle-labelled Fullers taps. The barstaff were polite and helpful; we ordered a bowl of fries which were very good quality for pub grub: cooked in relatively fresh oil, served hot and brought promptly to the table. We didn't try anything from the rather traditional pub menu, but by that evidence it's probably pretty decent. All in all a very pleasant evening; as out of my way as the Dog and Bell is, I'm pretty likely to go there again some time.

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...

The Crosse Keys - City of London

For our latest visit to a Top 25 Pub in London we went to The Crosse Keys, in the City. This is a Wetherspoon pub and, like some other Wetherspoons in the City, it's in a converted old bank. The Crosse Keys is massive, with tall ceilings, soberly decorated walls, columns and balconies. If you're looking for a "homey" pub, well this is not the place for you. In terms of service and quality of food, it is very similar to most Wetherspoons; not great, but it'll do. Also, lots of space doesn't mean that finding a seat will be easy. 'spoons are generally busy, but this one has a special attraction: an impressive selection of real ale, starting at up to 20 different types early in the evening. We had the chance to try a few.