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.

Well's Eagle IPA

Well's Eagle IPA (cask 3.6% abv) is another ordinary bitter marketed incorrectly as an IPA to create interest in the beer. The beer itself is nothing extrodinary, but is a decent pint none the less. I enjoyed this one during a Sunday lunch at "The Roebuck" a gastropub in Chiswick, W4 and it complimented the pork roast I was eating nicely!

From the website which i have linked to below, I get the impression that Eagle IPA is a brand as much as an individual beer as you can get the beer in bottle, can, cask or nitrokeg and each of these offers a different abv (ie the can has an abv of 5% and the cask is 3.6%).

Anyhow this is a beer that you should check out if you see it on cask at the pub, but I wouldnt make any special effort to search it out.

Website:http://www.eaglebitter.co.uk/

Beer Heaven

My little flat is like a beer oasis at the moment. After recent deliveries from Beer Ventures, Beer Merchants, a fistful of beers from Whole Foods in Kensington and some samples sent to me by Nicky who works takes care of PR for Marston's, Innis and Gunn and a few other breweries - my flat is pretty rammed with various bottles of good beer. So many in fact that I am going to be dropping a few 'ticks' in here and there to keep you guys on your toes! Make no mistake about it, these will not be beer reviews and there will be no intellectualizing.

Anyhow at some stage I usually post about my Friday night's beer activities. Maybe not this week. Well actually nothing really exciting happened. I had two pints of Abbot Ale at the Clock Tower on Leather Lane during my lunch hour, a pint of poorly conditioned Deuchar's IPA followed by a pint of Bombardier at the Roebuck in Chiswick and then a bottle of Peroni Gran Reserva over dinner. As I said, not particularly exciting.

Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to find the time to tell you about Saturday's boozing which was a little more interesting! Also, the picture at the top is a bottle of Meantime Raspberry. Even though I am a big fan of Meantime beers in general, this beer was utter shit. Avoid at all costs.