The Nags Head

The Nags Head in Glebe is one of only a handful of venues in Australia that offer cask conditioned beer and even then it's only for one night a month. For the month of November that day happened to be last Friday.
They had two beers on offer, or which I only bothered with one. they had a Pilsner (Pictured) and a Ginger Beer. Hardly what I was hoping for! Come on, you need to at least have a bitter on, and a porter is what was secretly hoping was on offer. The beers are brewed by Matt Donelan who owns and brews for the St Peter's Brewery in well St. Peter's.

The Pilsner itself was a nice beer but a little bit too fruity for a Pilsner. It was also fairly cloudy which is also way out of style. To be honest, if this was submitted in a comp it would probably be judged as an Australian Sparkling Ale. It shared a fair bit of similarity with Coopers Sparkling Ale. Anyhow it was good to catch up with the lads and have a handpulled beer again. It's been a whole 4 months since I last had one. I might brew an ale similar to this as a session beer over Xmas. It suits the Australian climate a lot better than the 4% brown session bitters which everyone in the UK blog world seem to be taking for granted right now. I'm thinking 100% Joe White Pilsner malt hopped to 20 IBU's with one of the new Australian varieties (possibly Galaxy?) and fermented out with S05. Should be nice. I will chronicle such an event.

St Germain and the 'JT'

We have been having a series of all day departmental meetings at work recently. To celebrate the conclusion of these we let off some steam at St Germain pseudo French restaurant near Farringdon Station. Now these sorts of venues are the ones I aim to avoid - usually at all costs. As it was an all expenses paid affair, it would have been rude not to attend.

The beer list included the usual Belgian suspects - no surprises there. An inclusion that I had not seen before however was Vedett (5.2%abv). This beer is brewed by the masters that also produce Duvel and it comes in a similar style bottle. This is where the similarities to Duvel end. The beer is thin and dry and really, really bland in the Dortmunder export style. It tastes exactly the same as Carlton Cold - hardly a complement. Best avoided.

To refresh my taste buds and actually deliver something worthy, I scanned the beer menu. CAMRA activists would be most disappointed at the lager dominated selection with Chimey, Duvel and Hoegaarden rounding out a token ale selection.

I made a bold decision and ordered Brooklyn Lager (5.2% abv) for my team members. This beer is a nice Vienna style lager that I could easily spend a long time raving and waffling on about, so I won't. I will recommend that everyone tries this beer, even if you are a CAMRA activist. Once upon a time you could source it in Tesco, but those days are gone and you need to refine your search a little now, but it's still out there.

The food was ok, but hardly worth raving about, I also had some wine which I found rather one dimensional. I won't rant about that too much either.

After dinner a few of us went around the corner for a few more pints at The Jerusalem Tavern. In general this is a nice little pub, but I am continually finding it more and more over-rated and the beer going progressively downhill. I had two pints of the St Peter's: Organic Best Bitter and Ruby Red Ale. Both were rather uninspiring and not well kept. The Organic Best Bitter was a fresh cask and it was flat as a tack and about 15 degrees - way too warm. What happened to cellar temperature?

I am not going to head back to the 'JT' any more, there seem to be better options in the area and I can afford to be fussy. Also, I question how they get their beer up from the cellar? Do they have an electric pump moving it? I am obviously amused by thinking about these simple things.

At least I had some people to drink with though, much more exciting than my previous Friday night!

http://www.vedett.com/

http://www.brooklynbrewery.com/

Friday night booziness

My Friday nights usually involve a beer with the lads after work and then quickly home to take the Missus out for dinner. Last Friday night was supposed to be no different, but it saw me getting pretty smashed at home by myself before going to dinner. A sad thing I know, but I dealt with it.
The story starts with me salivating at my desk at 4.30pm hanging to get down to the pub for some more of the Tetley's Dark Mild which I had sampled over lunch time. I had a slight problem though - the office had cleared out and I would have to drink alone. Usually not a problem as I know several regulars at a few of the pubs around the office, but since having a borderline argument with one such twat over my lunchtime pint I retreated home collecting a few bottles from Waitrose on the way. Once home, I contacted the Missus to see how long she will be whilst I poured myself a pint of St Peter's IPA.
"I am playing winglady for Tracy*" was the reply from the other end of my mobile, "she has met a really hot guy and I'm facilitating. I am having one more drink."
Fair enough I thought, Tracy is a nice enough 30 something spinster who deserves to be happy too. So I booted up my PC and happily watched episode 6 of "Oz and James" on BBC iPlayer. I had to pause my viewing twice; once to visit the dunny, the second time to get another beer. It seemed as good a time as any to crack the bottle of Cooper's Vintage Ale 2007 reserve that I picked up in Whole Foods a couple of weeks ago. This beer was good. Actually very good, and it was nice to taste a beer brewed with Australian water. It's the terroir I tell myself while absorbing Oz Clark's attempts to intellectualize beer while James May tries to pass whitty criticisms. The iplayer viewing ends and it is time for another beer. They were going down rather easy. First the 5.5% IPA followed by the 7.5% Australian strong ale - a Fuller's ESB was exactly what I needed. There was nothing interesting on the TV so I watched the second episode of "Ross Kemp: Return to Afghanistan." I check my watch, still no sign of the missus. It's pushing 8.30 now so I give her a call - she is on the tube will be home in 20 minutes. Great I scheme, rubbing my hands together like an evil villain - plenty of time to drink that bottle of Budvar dark I have stashed in the vegetable crisper.
By the time the missus arrived home I was starting to feel a little tipsy, and she was not in much better condition. I decided a curry would be the cure, so we trotted out to my favourite London restaurant: "The Raj of India" - home of the best Kingfisher this side of Favisham. By the time we left the restaurant I was pretty pissed, but boy did I have fun even if I was drinking alone for most of the evening. I'll let you know if Tracy ended up pulling when more info comes to hand - it is probably more interesting than my Friday night was, but I thought I would share anyway.

* Name changed to protect the innocent!

St Peters IPA

The last of my 6 Nations Rugby - St Peters Bonanza! The India Pale Ale (5.5% abv) surely was one IPA that actually fits into the IPA style category! The beer was a nice golden colour with intense bitterness which left my hop starved mouth in a pucker. This beer actually reminded me of somne of my initial home brewing attempts where I 'overdid' the hops a little. I poured the 500ml bottle into my favourite pint glass. The aroma is a very nice pilsener smell spiked with spicy green hops. The flavor is curiously muted from what my expectations from the aroma. It is smooth if you get a good mouthful of head otherwise it’s a bit harsh. It is quite hoppy, just short of an IPA. The flavor is earthy and solid. There is a minute sweetness that adds a bit of class to the otherwise mainly hoppy brew. This beer is medium-bodied but thicker than most beers in the medium colored spectrum. I could go on all day..........ahhh

St Peters Organic Best Bitter

St Peters trying to jump into the trendy organic crowd?? St Peters Organic Best Bitter (4.5% abv) is slightly stronger and more malt driven than the regular Best Bitter. The bitterness does seem to be a little less harsh in this organic variety. But on a whole a very similar tasting beer. I cantreally comment any more than that. I certainly wouldnt pay any extra for this beer for being Organic though. In absence of anything sensible to add, I am going to profess that St Peters Organic Best Bitter is the best organic beer that I have tasted!

St Peters Ruby Red Ale

The second selection from St Peters! Ruby Red Ale (3.7% abv) is a deep red coloured American Style Amber Ale which I think is hopped with Cascade, and more than likely contains Weyermann CaraAroma in the grain bill. Yes I am a beer nerd! Normally beers in this style are hopped with more of a spicy hop such as Willamette rather than a citrusy/piney one, but it seems to work well in this case and I am surprised that more brewers are not making beers in this style. Needless to say, there was nothing left in the pint glass by the time Wales kicked off against France!

St Peters Best Bitter

After spending some time in the St Peters house "The Jeruselum Tavern", my curiousity has been raised in regards to their beers. Whilst on a shopping trip to Waitrose looking for some beers to drink during an afternoon of 6 Nations rugby i stumbled across a selection box containing 4 St Peters Beers. the first cab of the rank, whilst watching the England vs Ireland game (in which England won) was the Best Bitter 3.7% abv. This beer was sensational and probably my favourite of the selection. Whilst all of these St Peters bottled beers taste a little rough around the edges, the Best Bitter was suited to this the most. A nice level of bittering was present through out and just the slightest 'nutty' taste is there as well. A good beer that would have been even more enjoyable if Ireland had won the Rugby!

St Peters Mild

Last night saw me take a quick treck around the Farringdon and Clerkenwell area after work. Knowing that Stonch and his posse will be at the London Drinker Beer Festival up at King's cross, I decided to hit up his local: The Jeruselum Tavern.

Some of you guys may recall that I have been here previously and enjoyed the lovely cream stout. Last night this was unavailable so I opted for their lovely Mild Ale. The Mild ale was fresh, with moderate bitterness and a nice malty taste. I was surprised at just how malty this beer was for such a low gravity. What was most remarkable about the beer though was the environment in which it was enjoyed. The Jerusleum Tavern is a small quirky kind of boozer that is generally always standing room only, and then not much of that! The crowd is generally office types from the surrounding area, but you dont generally get the full on cashed up toff/city boy crowd due to the mid town location. The beers here come directly from the small firkins behind the bar or from bottles. i did notice some euro lagers on tap but with the ale selection being so good, Who really cares?? One more point to notw was the bar staff were efficient and friendly even when the bar was packed. An added bonus was that the bar man admitted he sometimes stops by and reads my blog. Nice one, and cheers mate. TCB

St Peters Cream Stout

Last Friday evening my mate Rich and I embarked on a quick pub-crawl around the Smithfield’s market area. Our first stop was the Jerusalem, a shop front that has been turned into a St Peters brewery tied house that is quite popular on a Friday evening. The beer here is served from small Firkins from behind the bar so you get the beer literally straight from the barrel. We decided that we would keep in with the winter season and opted for the St Peters Cream Stout which is delicious stout with strong chocolate and coffee notes. Surprisingly this stout didn’t whack a strong alcoholic taste considering its 6.5% abv. I highly recommend trying this beer draught, and I assume that it is just as good in the bottled variety. I am also looking forward to getting back to the Jerusalem tavern on a less busy night so I can have a yarn with the locals.