Bank Holiday

I am back at work now after spending the bank holiday weekend in a lazy fashion. Luckily it is ticker Tuesday and I can fill you in on what I have been up too. On Friday evening I managed to get down the Roebuck in Chiswick for pint of Adnam's bitter (which was a little plain) and a pint of Erdinger. I decided to go for the proper real keg as I have yet to have a decent pint of ale there on cask. After this I enjoyed an awesome ribeye steak down the road at The High Street Brasserie. I am going to rave about this steak for a bit as it was pretty awesome. Probably over 400 grams worth with the marrowed bone still attached. I enjoyed it rare as all good steak must be enjoyed! (BTW I washed this down with two pints of Staropramen) I am a little bit ashamed with the after dinner activities which saw me drinking pints of Foster's lager in Belushi's at Hammersmith - a circus of a venue with maybe just a smidge more class than a Walkabout, but not much more. The Fosters was cold and refreshing though and certainly suited to the warm evening.

Saturday evening I nicked down the Parr's Head for a Thai feed and had an excellent pint of Hancocks HB, which tastes pretty similar to Fuller's London Pride (I had the two back to back and I couldn't discern between the two). After dinner I managed to crack open a bottle of T.E.A from the Hog's Back brewery. It was a little disappointing, but it did have a nice solid yeast cake which fell into my glass during pouring. The positive of the solidarity was that I could remove it easily with a spoon!

Sunday was another lazy day and I managed to read a whole book from cover to cover. I didn't end up drinking any beer at all, but did enjoy half of a very nice bottle of Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc at Gordon Ramsey's Boxwood Cafe. I highly recommend the Veal and Fois Gras burger which really is something special. The crispy pigs trotter entree I had was a little bit too oily and the gingerbread cheesecake I had for desert were a little bit disappointing but overall it's a good place to go for a meal if you are interested in eating in overpriced restaurants (as I am!).

I managed to get one beer in yesterday (Monday) which was freebie sent to me by Nicky who does PR for Marston's. This was Wychwood Beewyched (5% abv) which is a honey laced ale that has a soft honey aroma and avoids the excessive dryness that most braggot (beer brewed with honey) suffers from. I actually enjoyed this beer and would probably drink it again if I was forced to!

So maybe I didn't really get the most drinking out of the long weekendas I could have, but I needed a break and there is more to life than beer - OK well not much more.

Tim vs the Goliath

Now, I have not been fantasising about starring in biblical stories - but I have been drinking Wychwoods Goliath (4.2% abv). In typical Wychwood fashion the beer is covered with Dungeons and Dragons/Harry Potter/Lord of the Rings type imagery that gives real ale geeks a negative stereotype and the beer itself is rather bland. But then what would I know? I don't work in marketing and my mates in the trade say that Hobgoblin sells rather well. Goliath is not necessarily a bad beer though, it's more like your boring second cousin who you only see at Christmas - it would never really concern you if you never saw them again. A tall order? The only thing big about the beer is the Goliath sized 660mL bottle! Really if you have had the misfortune of buying a bottle of Goliath, I think it would be honest to say that you won't make the same mistake again....... http://www.wychwood.co.uk/

Duchy Originals Organic Ale

A unusually warm mid Autumn day saw myself and my wife out for a stroll and some lunch along the Thames path between Hammersmith and Putney. Intending to grab some lunch we decided to pull into "The Crabtree" which is basically a gastro pub which prides itself upon calling itself, a "bar and fine dining hall". Any pub that goes into the 'above' gastro game should be offering 'above' pub level meals and 'above' pub level service. Upon going to the bar to order some potato wedges and a nachos (hardly fine dining), I was told there would be at least an hour wait on food. Now this is a pub that is trying to pass itself off as a restaurant. How would a restaurant go if it told its diners that they had to wait at least an hour for basic food? Its inexcusable - and lack of available staff or its unexpectedly busy is not an excuse. To all gastro Owners out there that suffer from this "PULL YOUR SOCKS UP". Anyhow, I managed to order a beer and a glass of wine for the Mrs.

Duchy Originals Organic Ale is an interesting beer to say the least. The beer itself is nice, an amber ale/ESB that gets the style right and ticks all the boxes, no complaints there. What is interesting is the source of organic ingredients.

A bit of background on Duchy's Originals:

Duchy Originals was started in 1990 to market the produce of the Prince of Wales all-organic farm at Highgrove. The concept of the farm was to prove (or not) the commercial viability of organic farming and if successful, to encourage others to follow suit. As if proving the profitability of organic foods were not enough, as if employing 100’s of people directly and indirectly as well as seasonal workers were not enough, the company also gives away all it’s profits to charity (the Prince of Wales charity incidentally). To date, this sum comes to millions from the 70+ products in their range. This ale is the first alcohol based product they have produced. To show how deeply the Prince and his achievements are embraced by the Organic community, the Soil association has made him their patron. Moving stuff indeed, I wondered if he offsets/deducts his donations to charity against his genuinely profit generating interests, but that's besides the point!

So the malt used in brewing comes from HRH's property, but who brews it? Prior to the brewing of this organic ale, the organic barley from Prince Charles' estate was used to make Wychwood Circle Master. This was brewed by on contract Brakspear's of Henley until they closed in Autumn 2002. After the acquisition of Brakspear's by Wychwood, and the emergence of the Duchy originals brand, HRH decided to commission Wychwood to brew Duchy Originals Organic Ale and the results in the beer you are reading about today. My only beef has more to do with the Crabtree than the beer itself. My pint was served in a plastic pint glass rather than a proper glass one. Sure the crabtree has a large beer garden, but it was hardly busy and it was even less likely to get broken. I hate drinking out of plastic and basically its unacceptable - once again the Crabtree need to get their act together. Anyway I am starting to rant. The bottom line HRH's beer is as good as his ears are big, and the Crabtree is as good as a fart in an elevator.

Linky

Brakspears Bitter

Last Friday it was raining and miserable and the guys from the office wanted to sneak a quick pint into our lunch hour. Normally we would head to The Mitre or The Clock Tower, but a couple of the guys wanted to go slightly further afield (a whole block further) and check out The Gunmakers.

I quickly obliged and opted for a pint of Brakspears bitter (3.4%), which Jeff (the manager) had put on the night before. The beer is fresh and earthy tasting with a hint of sulpher on the nose(fuggles hops?) and is really the ideal session bitter or lunchtime quaffer. In fact, in contrast to my normal Friday afternoon I was super productive!

The Brakspear Brewery produced fine ales from 1711 till 2002. The Wychwood Brewery bought the brand and moved production to Oxfordshire where they continue to brew the beers with the traditional double drop method which distinguishes the Brakspears beers from many others.

Hobgoblin

Seeking my regular Friday evening Thai food fix, I headed around to my local "The Old Parr's Head" in desperate need of some Pad Thai. The usual Ale suspect here is Pride, and its usually not kept well either. This doesn't worry me much as they have an excellent continental lager selection, as well as Guinness, Leffe and Hoegaarden to round out the ales. The first thing I noticed as I walked through the door was my Irish mate behind the bar, grinning from ear to ear. He had been waiting three days for me to come in so he could show me his latest addition to the bar - Hobgolblin (5.2% abv) from the Wychwood Brewery. He was even excited to show me the branded pint glasses! The Hobgoblin was in excellent condition as was the London Pride, and I suspect that they have started keeping the beer under CO2 (a big CAMRA no no, but really a sensible move) via a cask aspirator.

Hobgoblin is described as a Ruby beer, although it broadly falls into the style of Extra Special Bitter or ESB. It is similar to Fuller's ESB or Neame's Bishop's Finger in style and went down a treat. I think its reassuring that the quality of this beer has not gone downhill since Wychwood was acquired ultimately by Marston's last year. http://www.hobgoblinbeer.com/