Back in the Groove

Last Friday night I managed to get back to the pub. Yes, someone give me some tickets to put on the wall - its exciting news. The Parr's Head had Summer Lightning on as its guest beer. It tasted like DMS and had traces of acetaldehyde as well. I don't think I have ever had this beer and enjoyed it. It's rubbish and overrated. My yellow curry from their Thai kitchen was nice though and more than excused the lacklustre pint. In future I will remember just to stick to the Pride!

On Saturday afternoon I met up with my mate Rich who has moved down to sarf-London. We hit up the Alma and the Ship which are both Young's pubs in Wandsworth. Both pubs were really busy with crowds spilling over onto the streets, and the Young's Ordinary was in fine condition (@ both venues). I even had one pint served in a dimpled mug which is pretty rare in London. I obviously didn't look like I was going to bop someone over the head with it!

Anyhow I broke the drought and hit up a couple of pubs. It was fun, although I didn't have a bender. One of those is on the horizon though.

On other beer related news there is a CAMRA beer festival creeping up that I might go to. The Ealing beer 'fest is the only one of these soul less nerdfests that I actually go to. It's held outside and there is plenty of room to get away from the hardcore beer nerds and CAMRA degenerates. Not sure which day I will go to yet, but I will forewarn everyone which day I am going. If only so CAMRA types can avoid me! A full report of the piss up will follow in due course.

Dim Sims

It's about time that I mentioned the greatest culinary marval of all time - the humble Dim Sim.

What's a Dim Sim I hear you ask? Wikipedia describes a Dim Sim as;

"a Chinese-inspired meat dumpling-style snack food popular in Australia. The dish normally consists of a large ball of pork or other meat, cabbage and flavourings, encased in a wrapper similar to that of a more traditional dumpling"

Up until recently they had been rather difficult, if not impossible to track down here in the UK. Jumbuck's Pies on Shepherds Bush Green have started stocking these Australian delicacies and I felt the urge to get a few down my neck after work last Friday evening. They well and truly hit the spot and I will be sure to get back there again in the future for another round.

Anyhow, every culinary masterpiece needs a beer to accompany it, and on this occasion I had a bottle of Brakspear Oxford Gold - which is a golden coloured organic bitter. The slight crystal malt character in the beer played well with the caramalization of the cabbage in the Dim Sim and the bitterness and carbonation scrubbed out the grease just nicely. The Dim Sims were really just a prelude to the Thai extravaganza that awaited me later that evening at the Old Parr's Head where I feasted on Yellow Curry Chicken and Mee Goreng. I should mention that I had a pint of Hop Back Summer Lightning with my dinner, but it really is not that exciting a beer. I think Friday truly is my gastronomic day of the week. Only four more working days to go!

Summer Lightning

It seems to be the beer of the moment, Summer Lightning (5% abv) from the Hop Back Brewery seems to have saturated all the pubs in Clerkenwell of late. I have enjoyed a pint at The Mitre (with sparkler attached), The Gunmakers and also as a real ale in a bottle variant at home.

The beer is a pale, dry ale which tastes like a bitter but looks like a lager.

Out of the three pints I had, all of them tasted completely different! The best and most tasty pint was from The Mitre, I don't know why, but it was really fresh. They do sell a large volume so it may just be an age thing. The pint's I grabbed from the Gunmakers were nice, but were showing some cardboard tastes, which stem from oxidation. Maybe this is due to The Gunmakers location, I doubt they get the turnover of beer that The Mitre gets and it may have been a couple of days old or towards the end of the barrel. Finally the bottle I had tasted the worst. It was pretty astringent and had the taste of cooked corn, a sure fire sign of DMS.

Summer Lightning is an interesting beer, but what i have found most interesting is the change in character and taste between pubs and also between cask and bottle. The beer is considered a trend setter in the real ale community being the first true summer ale and is considered to be one of the most awarded beers in England. Website

Edit: 08/09/08

I think I may have been a bit hard on The Gunmakers. After having a quick pint in the packed pub on Friday afternoon, I witnessed a healthy turnover of ale (although the Mitre probably does turn over more - which was my original point). As it stands, I much prefer The Gunmakers to The Mitre for a number of reasons and I have yet to have a bad pint there. I just found the Summer Lightning to have a slight oxidation (it was till nice and far from stale). In all fairness, this is could also be due to a number of factors prior to the beer arriving at the pub in the first place.