Oakham Ales Bishops Farewell

After leaving The Bridge House, we decided to ditch the Maida Vale and Canalside walk and head around past Sheldon Square, through Paddington to The Victoria. From there we could pick up the around Hyde Park walk. Anyhow we made it to The Victoria no dramas. The beer festival was still running and the most sensible option seemed to be Bishop's Farewell (4.6% abv) from Oakham Ales. Two Oakham beers in two days!

Anyhow the Bishop's Farewell was in very good condition. It's a pale fruity bitter with spicy hop character and was smashed down quite rapidly. At this stage we considered dumping the pub crawl and heading out to the Guy Fawkes display at Alexander Palace - which was supposed to have a German Beer Festival going on. A quick call on my handy to Rich (who was there) and the idea was off. The beer festival was a few trestle tables and a keg of Paulaner which is kind of lame. And it was pissing down raining. We decided to move on and try and find The Archery Tavern the next stop on our crawl, but after a good 15 minutes of searching we discovered that it had closed down and a pretentious French restaurant now stands in its skeleton. Faced with a serious thirst and with the gates at Hyde Park being locked, we decided to cut crawls again and head towards Edgeware Rd and pick up the Marylebone walk. A ten minute walk saw us in The Wargrave Arms - a dive of a Young's pub. We had a pint of ordinary there. Then headed to a BYO Persian restaurant just around the corner for a recharge. A couple of pint bottles of Budvar sorted us out with our special bread, hummus and lamb koftis with rice. This place got pretty busy as we went to leave and some ethnic looking guy tried to pick a fight with me as I was walking out. Luckily for the other guy, Chris noticed what was happening and pulled me away and said that beer was more important - which it was! We walked down a street a bit to the next pub from the book - The Windsor Castle. A quick look around this odd pub and we walked out again. It is full of collectibles and was patronised by weird looking locals - not my bag to drink with a bunch of stamp collectors. We powered on through to the next pub which was The Beehive. This place was a little scary too, although I managed to have a pint of past its best TT Landlord. There were a bunch of soccer lads drinking Fosters at the bar - and a Polish girl behind the bar who was making me feel increasingly more uncomfortable by giving me the seductive eye. We walked on to the next pub which the name of escapes me - it had been converted into a Gastro anyway so we gave it a miss. Powering through the rest of the walk the rest of the pubs had either closed down or were closed for the night. Slightly disappointing, but I guess that life!

Oakham website

Jennings Sneck Lifter 2

When I first covered Sneck Lifter (5.1% abv) way back in April, I found the beer to be slightly unremarkable in bottled form. I could not relate my own tasting experience with others that I had found online (ok, this is true to a point, but I was probably not as serious in my posting back then as nobody read my blog!). Anyhow, whilst I was in ticker mode down at The Victoria last Wednesday night I managed to quaff a pint fresh from the cask. What can I say, it's like a totally different beer...... The first thing I would like to point out is that I have been quite harsh on Jenning's beers that I have had previously - and I have carried this through to commenting on others blogs as well. I think this stems from the fact that the brand is owned by Marston's and I think that the bottled beers are brewed under licence rather than up in Cumbria.

The cask version however is full of flavour. I am going to be bold here and suggest that the real deal (i.e. casks) are brewed in Cumbria and not in Burton-on-Trent. The beer is complex and has a strong smokey coffee flavour which works really well.

Anyhow, once again if you would like to find out more, just check out the website.

For what its worth, I went on and continued to drink Trade Winds till we got kicked out at closing time.

Moorhouse Premium Bitter

Tied house beer festivals bring out the worst in beer geeks like me. I can't be satiated when I am onto a good thing - I always have to keep digging. I can understand how people become hardcore tickers, and browsing through the archives of my blog sometimes make me feel like a ticker! I think I will mix the format of this blog up come the new year, but for now it stays. It was my new years resolution after all.

Anyhow, it was Rich's shout and after harassing Dillon (The Ray Quinn look-a-like who runs The Victoria) we settled on two pints of Moorhouse Premium Bitter (3.7% abv). The beer is a amber coloured session quaffer and is smooth with a hoppy flavour. think John Smiths with a malty smoothness and a hoppy aftertaste and you will be close to the mark. Not a remarkable, but very drinkable and probably better than similar beers such as Brakspear Bitter. Well it doesn't have that sulphery smell that the Brakspear Bitter has.

Moorhouse has been brewing since 1865 and has been owned by such legends as Thomas Fawcett (the maltster). More history can be found on the website.

Cairngorm Trade Winds

We caught the tube around from Farringdon to Paddington and and quickly hiked passed the tourist trap pubs near Praed St and down to one of my favourite Fuller's tied houses - The Victoria. For those of you who have not been there, do yourself a favour and check it out.

We were hoping top catch the London Porter but instead landed ourselves in the middle of a month long guest beer festival which was occupying all but the London Pride pump.

We asked the young South African, Ray Quinn look-a-like landlord Dillon which beer he recommended, he replied he doesn't like ale. After ripping into him for five minutes about his favoured Castle lager, we finally ordered Cairngorm Trade Winds (4.2% abv) a delicious summer blonde ale which is hopped with perle and seasoned with elderflower. This combo results in a strong citrus flavour which works really well. The overall impression is like a clean wheat like APA - without the cascade bite. An awesome beer that I really like, and I am sure you will too.

Website

Chiswick Bitter 2

While at the Victoria recently introducing my dad to the wonders of Fullers ESB, I also sampled some of their well kept Chiswick Bitter. I won't harp on too much today as I have described this one before. Chiswick bitter is a full flavoured session ale, hopped with locally sourced East Kent Golding hops. I can't believe that this is only 3.5% abv!

Fullers ESB 2

Fullers ESB is a top class ale. It's famous for its awesome taste and even for its yeast strain (White labs WLP002 for all you brewers, Wyeast also have it as 1962). I had the pleasure of introducing my Dad who is a hardcore VB or Guinness man to the delights of ESB recently at one of my favourite pubs in London - The Victoria, W2.

Fuller's launched ESB in 1971 as a winter replacement for Old Burton Extra and added it to the regular lineup due to its great success and an overwhelming demand. the beer is quite strong for a draught beer, weighing in at an impressive 5,5% abv, but then this malt monster needs a high gravity to balance the level of bitterness and flavour. The beer is one of the most awarded brews in history, winning its first CAMRA gong in 1978 and pretty much every other mantle possible since. I am going to make a confession that I actually prefer the bottled version of the beer as its slightly more carbonated, but the pint they serve at the Victoria has me guessing again.

The volume of ale they dispense over the bar at The Victoria has to be seen to believed. I don't think the beer remains in the cellar long enough to spoil and the bar staff are friendly and encouraging in the ways of the ale! the food there is pretty good too! definitely check out The Victoria if you are around Paddington way, and have a pint of ESB for me. You can read my previous ESB inspired ramblings here. You can also find some Fuller's ticker like tasting notes at their website here.