The George Inn Ale

My posting has been a little sporadic lately as I am currently traveling with work. This means that I am pretty busy and don't get to blog much, but it also means that I get try some interesting beers. Anyhow as I left off, my mate Jay was in London over the weekend and I managed to take him out and show him around London. For whatever reason, sexuality or otherwise - Jay doesn't drink beer. So it was my mission to get him onto some of the local delicacies including the real ale. We ended up in Borough Markets after lunch on Friday afternoon and headed for the Market Porter. As usual it was packed, and unusual it did not have any interesting beers on. Jay is also a keen watcher of the TV series The Thirsty Traveler and knew there was a pub around the market which was featured on the show. A quick google on my trusty Nokia N95 and we were around the corner in The Georges Inn, a quaint 16th century coaching inn hidden away down a mews. This pub is a Greene King tied house and had the usual IPA, Abbot, Speckled Hen combo with one notable addition a house ale (4% abv). The beer tastes just like the IPA, but with maybe a slight caramel edge - overall not an ideal beer to introduce Jay to real ale.

For those interested, we then met up with Chris and his enormous head at the Jerusalem Tavern. I figured its decent enough (although not really my favourite in the area) and is not frequented by my boss or his mates. Jay had a pint of Mild and three pints of the Fruit (St Peters), I had a pint of Mild, a Golden and two Best Bitters. We then moved down to The Castle for a pint of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Anyhow, Jay spend the whole night, and half of Saturday driving the porcelain bus. He could not even keep water down. My wife was not impressed!

In other interesting news - Clerkenwell Shitter Deux Beers (on Hatton Wall) which I had blogged about previously, has been refurbed and is now an upmarket traditional pub. It is named the Hat and Tun which is a clever play on words. I am yet to check it out, but it received a favourable review in one of London's free commuter rags.