It’s 2 for £3 rotation time at Sainsbury’s, if my local branch is anything to go by. Quite a few I’d have been happy to stock up on, if the beer cupboard wasn’t already full-to-bursting:

• Badger Golden Champion
• Badger Golden Glory [
  • September 23, 2010
  • 11
  • Badger, Black Sheep, Fuller's Brewery, Hook Norton, Marston's, Sainsburys, St Peter's, Theakston's, Thwaite's

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Our local Sainsbury’s has rotated it’s standard 2 for £3 offering again.

Highlights of the current selection include:

• Bath Ales Barnstormer [
  • August 27, 2010
  • 6
  • Bath, Black Sheep, Daleside, Fuller's Brewery, Greene King, Hawkshead, Jennings, Marston's, Robinson's, Sainsburys, Tesco, Theakston's, Timothy Taylor's

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Jo and I spent the weekend just gone on a tourist jaunt to London. Which went something like this:

Saturday

Morning: Virgin Pendolino from Manchester Piccadilly, tube across town to base-camp: Fuller’s Mad Hatter, Blackfriars.

Afternoon: Quick stroll down to Borough Market. Alas, The Rake was hammered, hadn’t read Mark Dredge’s review of Brew Wharf yet, so passed that one by. Dodged a rain shower by nipping into The Wheatsheaf, situated in the cellars of the old Hop Exchange. Perfectly pleasant pint of Phoenix Arizona (I know, all the way to London to drink beer from up the road in Rochdale, eh? You can take us Northerners out of the North…)

Also wandered into Utobeer, brilliant little place (about the same size as Beer Ritz), cracking selection of fantastic beers (more on that in next New Arrivals post). They should open a branch in Manchester, definitely.

Evening: Train out to Bromley, visiting good friends Sam and Chris. Takeaway from Tamasha – ordered something that turned out to be rabbit in creamy, lightly-spiced sauce – accompanied by a couple of bottles of Westerham‘s Little Scotney Pale Ale – red-brown, deliciously malty – then a more-than generous measure of Laphroig Quarter Cask (cheers, Chris!) Got back about midnight, extremely full and happy but too late for the hotel bar. Never mind.

Sunday

Morning / Afternoon: Weekend Tourist Destination #1: Hampton Court Palace. Good few hours mooching through medieval / baroque palaces; peering into display cases, suitably impressed by the architecture, generally soaking up the culture. Almost tempted by King’s Table Ale at lunch’ but £3.50 for 4% bottled session bitter helped decide against (bit early in the day and hot weather to boot). Had ice-cream instead. Two scoops. Also almost temped by leather tankard; which smelled great, looked pretty nifty. Flipped the thing over, saw £40.00 price tag (£5 cheaper online, apparently). Sanity quickly restored.

(Also, I spotted this fella in the courtyard, perched on top of so-called “wine fountain”… but I reckon I know a happy ale-drinker when I see one:)

Evening: Train back to town, quick tube ride up to Covent Garden. Dropped in on The Porterhouse for steak dinner (served with mountain of straw chips and rather pleasant bernaise sauce). Few pints of probably the best stouts to be found in London (well, outside of Greenwich, that being Meantime territory, obviously). Jo went for Plain Porter, I sampled Oyster Stout, switched to the Wrasslers XXXX for number two, stuck with that for the duration. Thought about Brain Blasta (strong ale, 7% ABV or so), decided to remain coherent instead.

(Incidentally, the Porterhouse has the best interior decor in the world. If you’ve been there, you’ll know exactly what I mean: floor-to-ceiling cabinets filled with the most fascinating selection of bottled beers you’re likely to see in your life. Here’s a quick snapshot, which I hope I’ve been able to capture okay, given the suitable atmospheric conditions:

Love the place. Absolutely love it. They should also open a branch in Manchester, most definitely.)

Back to Mad Hatter for quick night-cap. Choice of several Fuller’s ales, went for London Pride (I fancied something with more bite than Seafarer’s Ale looked like it might deliver and I’d been disappointed by Chiswick bitter on a couple of occasions. The Pride was okay, but nothing special – honestly it really could’ve done with a sparkler to liven it up a bit, it was flat as the proverbial witch’s what-not – but perhaps I should have gone for the ESB. I’ll know better next time.)

Monday

Morning / Afternoon: Dropped suddenly-rather-heavy bags (again: next New Arrivals piece…) at Euston Left Luggage. Wandered round to Euston Square, jumped back on tube, headed down to Weekend Tourist Destination #2: Tower of London. Before joining heaving throng of tourists, headed across London bridge to Butler’s Wharf in search of food. Passed site of Anchor Brewhouse; original Courage brewery, converted to apartment block (inevitably). (There was a plaque on the wall, which I duly snapped; click for a larger, more readable version:)

Next: The Tower. Apparently 2,400,000 visitors a year. Most seemed to turned up on same day as us. Can’t blame them, weather was lovely, but queue for Crown Jewels (“royal bling” as Yeoman Warder Tour Guide put it) was quite ridiculous, likewise queue for ‘Torture in the Tower’ exhibition. Skipped those; did the medieval bits, checked out display of Royal Arms and Armour (well worth a look if you’re a bit of a medieval military buff, although the £17.00 Tower entry ticket might be understandably off-putting), stuck our heads around gift shop door, checked out tourist tat. Once again, King’s Table Ale and leather tankard both called. Once again, their allure was easily resisted.

Evening: En-route back to Euston, Jo suggested stopping at that Gunmaker’s place that I keep going on about (I was only too happy to oblige). Wandered in, eyes drawn magnetically to chalk-board menu. Curses! Food plans foiled: kitchen not open until 18.30 (apparently they allow their chef time to rest, the mad, compassionate fools). Have to get back to Euston for 20.00 train (reserved single tickets, no choice). Too close to risk it.

Consolatory pint of Woodforde’s Wherry – a pleasant golden session beer with light, hoppy profile – then, half-way through pint of Kelham Island Pale Rider – stronger, slightly darker, much more pronounced hop-bite – legendary landlord Jeff appears from upper rooms, proceeds to win uber-Landlord Award. (He did this by catching sight of us out of the corner of his eye, stopping in mid-stride with an impressive double-take and then proceeding to remember not only the last time he spoke to me – which was just over a year ago – but also my name – which, to a bear of very little brain and even less useful memory like me, is pretty darn impressive, I can tell you. I introduced Jo, we chatted for a bit and then Jeff headed off to entertain his regulars, leaving us feeling thoroughly welcome and absolutely determined to head on back there the next time we’re in town. We’ll make damn sure we’re there when the kitchen is open, too.)

Definitely needed food before two-hour train journey home. Aforementioned regular helpfully suggested The Bree Louise. Bloody good idea. Back on the tube, off again at Euston Square, round corner to Bree Louise. Ordered 2x New Yorker chicken (fried breast fillet covered in bacon and cheese, pile of chips, just the ticket) washed down with utterly underwhelming pint of gravity-dispensed Nethergate Umbel Magna (I’ve had both gravity beers at the Bree Louise and Umbel Magna elsewhere and they’ve both been much better, but so it goes…) followed by pint of Rebellion Mild – smooth, nutty, dark, quite pleasant – for the road.

Train. Taxi. Home. Bed. Pretty much exhausted, but extremely happy.

(We’re already planning our next London jaunt: Brew Wharf, The Rake, Utobeer again, definitely The Gunmaker’s, definitely The Porterhouse, maybe a trip over to Greenwich… oh, and perhaps some more tourist stuff as well. But no leather tankards for me. Not at £40 bloody quid a pop…)

Nipped in to the local Sainsbury’s last night to do the weekly shop and noticed that they’ve rotated their selection of 3 for £5 bottled ales. Potential highlights this time around include:

• Bath Ales Barnstormer [Bath Ales Golden Hare
• Fuller’s Bengal Lancer [Adnams Broadside
• Young’s Special London Ale
• St Austell Tribute
• Erdinger Weißbräu

You can also get a quid off a 750ml bottle of either Leffe Brun or Leffe Blonde (making them £2.69 apiece in our local) and they’ve got promotional four-packs of Old Speckled Hen for £4 a go.

Just in time for the World Cup kicking off tonight…

I see to have been on a bit of an IPA kick recently and last night, inspired by a tweet from @reluctantscoop, I started yesterday evening off with a bottle of Fullers Bengal Lancer IPA. This is a beer I’d tired before at the Doric Arch, London Euston; on draught but sans-sparkler. The bottled version (which was bottle conditioned but very low on sediment) poured a sparkling golden amber with a big frothy head, although that soon disappeared. Flavour-wise it was all about the hop-bitterness on the nose and then the same again on the after-taste, but in the middle there was a lot of warm, malty flavour to get to grips with. Very well balanced, very refreshing and it compared well to the draught version. A very nice drop indeed and available at the moment in Sainsbury’s, if our local branch is anything to go by.

Having started off highly-hopped I thought I’d carry on in the same spirit and decided to crack open a bottle of M&S Staffordshire IPA. This one is brewed by Marstons (according to ratebeer it’s an alias one called ‘India Export’) and was first sold as part of M&S’s ale range re-vamp last year. Most of the notes I scribbled seem to focus on how it fared in comparison with the Bengal Lancer and although it’s still a pleasant drop it really wasn’t as impressive: paler in colour, thinner in mouth-feel, slightly sharper on the hop after-taste, but generally just not as satisfying as the Lancer, and definitely not as good as Marstons own Old Empire IPA. In fact, I’d be tempted (again) to question whether it really qualifies as a full IPA, with only 5.5% ABV and much less going for it in the flavour stakes than the style usually promises.

As I was in full hop-head mode by this stage of the evening, I carried on the theme with a BrewDog Punk IPA. This was one of the first big-hop IPAs I tried back when Blogobeer started back in 2008 and I stand by the tasting notes I posted then: big hops, “positively Saharan” dryness but very well balanced, with a rich mouth-feel and extremely drinkable as a result. It’s one of my regular favourite and I think I’ve had at least a couple of bottles of Punk IPA in the beer cupboard ever since I first tried it. Lovely stuff.

Then, to round the evening off, I delved deep into the special stash section of said beer cupboard and brought forth a bottle of De Struise-Mikkeller Ratebeer Special; a “double IIPA of 130 IBU”. This was part of a De Struise / Mikkeller / De Molen mixed case that I got from beermerhcants.com last spring. There were two bottles of this one in the case and I drank one of them quite young and I remember it being pretty much all about the bitterness. The beer I tried last night was a completely different beast though. It poured a dark amber with a thick, frothy head and a slightly sweet, biscuity aroma and another year of conditioning in the bottle has produced a much, much richer, mellower, smoother flavour-profile. The big hops were still powerfully present, but they were wonderfully tempered and kept in balance by a newly-developed dark, toffee richness and a pungent red wine character with floral, herbal, grapefruit-citrus highlights. Absolutely fantastic stuff and I was very sorry when I finished the glass; no more of this one left in the beer cupboard and I’m unlikely to see another one anytime soon…

So, of the four IPAs on show here, the Struise-Mikkeller was far and away the best but let’s face it, this one was always going to have an unfair advantage. Taking the rare Belgian/Danish brew one out of the picture, I’d have to stick with the Punk as a regular favourite, but I have to say the Bengal Lancer was quite close behind and I’ll definitely be stocking up on that one for the summer. The M&S Staffordshire IPA was okay and I wouldn’t pass up on another bottle if someone offered me one, but I don’t think it can really hold its own against the huge range of fine IPAs (or “IPA-style” beers) on the market today.

Brewery: Fuller’s
Location: London, England
ABV: 5.4%
Version: Draught
Source: The Doric Arch, London

This Tuesday I didn’t really have time for a Bree Louise detour on the way back to Euston station, so I decided to try the Doric Arch (Head of Steam) instead. I hadn’t realised that the place was actually there until that morning, when I left Euston on foot for a change and happened to wander past. A sign in the window boasted that Fuller’s London Porter was available on keg and as this is a beer I’ve been wanting to sample for quite some time now I happily called in on the way back in the evening.

I was very glad I did. London Porter poured a lovely dark ebony brown with ruby highlights and a decent head. The first taste was full of liquorice and dried berry fruits, with a freshly ground coffee and fruit cake following on. There was a hint of smoke in there as well and a dollop of treacle for good measure. It was rich, sweet, smooth and went down extremely nicely indeed. If I’d left more time before the train I’d have sunk another one, definitely (although they had Kelham Island Pale Rider on offer as well, so I was sorely tempted to try that one instead). I have a sneaky suspicion that I’ll be back before too long, though.

My new mission is to get hold of some Fuller’s London Porter in bottles. Partly for comparison purposes, partly because I quite fancy trying the London Porter stew recipe on their website. Hey, Sainsbury’s Head Beer Buyer! How about it?

I’ve been rather lazy on the beer blogging front since getting back from Tenerife at the end of October, I know. That goes double for beerblogosphere link-harvesting, but I’ve finally pulled my finger out and pulled the latest batch of links-of-interest together. But this first post-holiday round-up of beer-related blog-posts is going to be a bit of a monster so why not crack open a bottle of your favourite ale while you settle in for a skim-read?

Oh, incidentally, the big buzz while I was away was obviously all around the launch of Brewdog’s Equity For Punks share scheme, but I’m hoping to round that one up in a separate post as there’s a tonne of material to digest and I think it rather deserves a stand-alone.

Right then, without further ado…

(more…)

Brewery: Fuller’s
Location: London, England
ABV: 3.5%
Version: Draught
Source: The Red Lion, Duke of York St, London

After our company conference last week, which was held at BAFTA HQ in Piccadilly, a gang of us trooped round the corner to the Red Lion on Duke of York St for a swift half on the way to the after-conference meal. Perusing the selection of all-Fuller’s pumps, I opted for a pint of Chiswick Bitter on the grounds that I’d never tried it before.

And I’ll never try it again, I can promise you. It was bodiless, headless and tasted of little more than vaguely hop-flavoured water. I can only guess that Fuller’s must have done terrible things to the recipe since this stuff won the Great British Beer Festival Beer of the Year award back in 1989. Either that or the staff at The Red Lion are in need of urgent beer-care training.

I should have stuck to the London Pride or ESB. I’ll know better next time.

Brewery: Fuller’s
Location: London, England
ABV: 4.1% (Pride) / 5.9% (ESB)
Version: Draft (Pride) / Bottled (ESB)
Source: The Harrow, London

I spent yesterday down in London for work-related reasons and booked a later-than-usual return train to Manchester in order to go out for a couple of after-work beers with a few of m’colleagues. Remembering that there’s been a fair amount of buzz about Fuller’s London Porter I asked if there was a Fuller’s house within easy walking distance and was told by m’colleague Darren that yes, indeed, there was. Excellent! Or so I assumed…

The pub in question turned out to be The Harrow. Not a bad place, on first inspection – a proper drinking establishment that didn’t stink of chips and wasn’t belting out annoyingly loud music. But alas, a quick enquiry at the bar revealed that no, they weren’t serving the London Porter. They just had the three pumps of London Pride, all lined up in a row (which suggested something of a lack of lateral thinking, if you ask me) and either Organic Honey Dew (a bit too sweet for my palate) or ESB in bottles.

What the heck, I thought, and opted for a pint of the London Pride. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either. A faintly nutty bitter with a nice blend of malt and hop notes, it was drinkable and not unpleasant (unlike the pint of Greene King Fireside that I’d tried at the St Bride’s Tavern at lunchtime, which was just rank – it must have been a bad pint). It just seemed to be a bit on the thin and watery side for my liking, with almost no head, just a few lonely bubbles floating around on the top. But then maybe that’s how the regulars prefer it?

Anyhow, for my second drink I opted for a bottle of ESB, which I’ve sampled and enjoyed before. I wasn’t disappointed with it this time, either. A more enticing aroma, a richer, stronger flavour, a superior mouthfeel; all-in-in-all a much more interesting and tasty beer than the Pride in just about every way. Although at 5.9% abv perhaps it was a good job I had to head off for my return train once I’d finished the glass.

So, The Harrow: nice pub, shame about the lack of London Porter. Maybe next time, eh?

Incidentally, I’d managed to score a First Class ticket back up to Manchester and the complimentary drinks trolley was offering a bitter… Fuller’s London Pride. Served from a 300ml can into a plastic tumbler, it didn’t actually taste all that different to the draft version. Oh, except that it had a better head. Hmmmm.

Brewery: Fuller’s (Fuller, Smith & Turner)
Location: London, England
ABV: 6.3%
Version: 500ml bottle
Source: Sainsbury’s

Fuller’s first produced this strong ale for their 150th anniversary, back in 1995 and it seems to have been a firm favourite of their range ever since, winning the CAMRA Champion Bottle Conditioned Beer of Britain award along the way.

And it was an entirely deserved one, if you ask me. Pouring a clear ruby red with a thick bubbly head, 1845 gives off an enticing scent of spicy fruit cake as it wallows in the glass. The 100-day maturation process results in a rich, smooth beer of strong character as well as strong alcohol content: coffee, toffee and chocolate flavours are most prominent. Great mouth-feel as well; almost chewy.

Definitely one to try, definitely one to savour. I’ll be looking out for 1845 again.