Screw you guys,I'm in England (part 2)

[spog]

G,day all following on from LagerBombs topic from his visit here earlier in the year now it's my turn.
So after an arse numbing 13hrs on a plane from Singapore,we lobbed at our digs in London. (Earls Court).
Within 5 mins walk is a Marks and Spencer store for supermarket beers.
As well as 3 pubs serving cask ales.
The one pub I have been into (so far) is a Gryphon Brewery pub (Fullers).
I tried 2ales (a couple pints of each,just to be sure),
The first was a London Pride,then the Bengal Lancer which was the better of the two.
There is a small range of beers to choose from which are made for Marks and Spencer,I grabbed 3 x 500 ml bottles of Staffordshire IPA for £6.00 .
Dunno the ingredients as its not listed on the bottle but its a decent drop.
It's made by Marstons Brewery from Burton on Trent with a 5.5% abv.
Several others to be had so I will give em all a go,a couple of them are,a Cascade smash with M,O.
And another which has been oak barrell aged for 6 yrs......costs £ 16.00 a bottle 750 ml? .
I had a good chat with the barman at the pub and asked all about those amazing beer engines ( grovel,grovel), will try my best where ever I go to score one.
On a side note I see its 30 degrees in my home town but a nippy 5 degrees here,no probs the pubs are heated. .
Off to see some sights now so please enjoy your work today ( cheeky f@&$er you all say).

Cheers...spog...

 

[spog]

A pitiful day today regarding beer as the dreaded jet lag has caught up with me.
Tried 2 ales today the first a Smithsons/ Smithtons ? Irish ale,don't rate it,a bland flavourless fizzy drink.
The second from a bottle.
A Shepherd Neame ,Christmas ale strong Kent ale 7% abv,an amber ale with a " fruity nose with spicey festive hops".
Works for me ,it's a good drop.
Oops just opened a 3rd beer,so better give you all the rundown.
,this is also from Shepherd Neame (apparently England's oldest brewer 1698 in Faversham Kent ).
This is labelled as Master Brew Kentish Ale,The Local Hero.
It has "a profusion of pungent Kentish hops infusing its mouthwatering base of crystal malts". Amber coloured,4.0% abv.
All info comes from the label,so no responsiblity is taken,but this is a nice brew.


Okay kids,uncle spog is tired has had a few brews and going to go to bed now,so stay tuned for more of his touring and tasting.
I sincerely hope you all had a good day at work ( pigs fkn arse) while he wanders around not giving a stuff.
Cheers...spog....

 

[dago001]

Good stuff spog. Apart from when we were travelling on the train, we didnt drink one beer from a bottle. All the beers that we tried were from pubs.
Keep trying with the beer engine, although, the chances of picking one up in London are remote. However, the quite a few pubs closing down so you might be lucky.
Keep on with the updates, I will enjoy reading them.
Cheers
LB

 

[Bribie G]

I'd second LB's suggestions about the pub beer. Bottled beer is not a huge tradition in the UK, most take home swill is in the half litre or 440ml cans and apart from maybe Bass, Worthington White Shield and Guinness, bottles were never as prevalent as in Australia. Slight resurgence in recent years with craft and premium beers appearing in bottles, however.

As you'll note, pub beers fall into a number of distinct categories:

Real ale from the beer engine
Smooth versions of the real ales - nitro kegged and chilled, to appeal to a younger market who don't wear cardigans or have leather patches on their elbows, although Real Ale is catching on there.

Lager, generally bland 4% crap but some outstanding 5% ers if you can find them - e.g. Pilsner Urquell or some of the Germans

I'd guess the old plain CO2 pressurised filtered pasteurised keg beers are extinct by now.

Happy drinking.

 

[anthonyUK]

I'll be in the Rake at Borough Market this afternoon (London Bridge tube is nearby).
They have a good selection of cask and keg.
Check their Twitter feed for the daily update - https://twitter.com/Rakebar

 

[spog]

Good stuff spog. Apart from when we were travelling on the train, we didnt drink one beer from a bottle. All the beers that we tried were from pubs.
Keep trying with the beer engine, although, the chances of picking one up in London are remote. However, the quite a few pubs closing down so you might be lucky.
Keep on with the updates, I will enjoy reading them.
Cheers
LB

LB,I lucked out on the beer engine from the pub down the road but am not giving up. Cheers..spog...

 

[spog]

I'll be in the Rake at Borough Market this afternoon (London Bridge tube is nearby).
They have a good selection of cask and keg.
Check their Twitter feed for the daily update - https://twitter.com/Rakebar

Anthony UK, thanks for the info you posted we are going to the London Bridge area in the next couple of days so I will strongly suggest that we all duck in for a pint or few while the women do whatever ? I think my misses will make me pay some way or how. . Cheers...spog...

 

[spog]

Okay,I was in Cardiff y,day but sadly only had time for 1 pint (busy racing around with the missus and mother in law tracing her family history etc).
But that 1 pint was a Brains SA. And I give it the thumbs up,I can't now remember the details about it but very nice indeed.
On the train back to London I had a can of St Austell,Tribute Cornish Pale ale 4.2% abv.
From the blurb on the can.
Colour: Pale Amber.
Aroma: Orange zest,tropical fruit.
Taste: Fresh orange,grapefruit.
Malt: Maris Otter,Cornish Gold.
Hops: Willamette,Fuggles,Styrian.
I got I slight after taste of honey when drinking it and I don't mind this beer ( ale) at all.
At the moment am drinking a Nottinghamshire single hop variety ( smash as we call it) Cascade pale ale 5% abv supermarket brew.
"This pale ale is made using Maris Otter pale ale malt and Cascade hops,an American variety named after the rugged Cascade mountains inOregon state.
It was created by splicing the English Fuggles hop with a Russian hop to create a delicious new aroma.
Ita a half decent session beer to me.
Found a bootle shop very close by that has a large choice of bottled beers from around the world so in the absence of a good cask ale such as Anthony UK suggested I will sample a few of them,one I noticed is called Bloody *******,TaDa it's got my name on it
Cheers...spog.....

 

[anthonyUK]

I had a couple of decent cask ales yesterday. Salopian Shropshire gold and Oracle from the same brewery. Both fairly pale and good, fresh hop aroma whilst maintaining a manageable 3.8% ish.

I hope you find something you like if you get a chance to pop in.

 

[spog]

I had a couple of decent cask ales yesterday. Salopian Shropshire gold and Oracle from the same brewery. Both fairly pale and good, fresh hop aroma whilst maintaining a manageable 3.8% ish.
I hope you find something you like if you get a chance to pop in.

Just told the missus about the pub so I will be trying the 2 you just mentioned for sure,thanks.my brother inlaw has just flown in and is keen to go as we'll ( a bloke always needs a backup). Cheers. spog...

 

[anthonyUK]

Sorry mate but their casks change daily. The Shropshire finished and was replaced by Oracle but I'm sure they'll be something to suit your taste.
They don't appear to tweeting their range at the moment as often as normal

 

[spog]

Well finally I am back on deck after have some issues with my I pad ,so I sat myself down to continue with this topic only to find that I have lost all the notes I have been making on the beers I have been eagerly consuming so I could rub all your noses in it.( no guess who is laughing at whom now!)
So,I didn't get to the Rake to sample more cask ales as Anthony U K suggested,time etc were against me . Bugger it!.
To tell you all the truth I thought that the popularity and many posts here about cask ales was just another fad/ craze,how wrong I was !
I am a convert. I thoroughly enjoyed them and now understand the " culture".
I tried many different brews,some regular,some seasonal but having lost my notes I have no references .
I also failed in my search in scoring a beer engine. Bugger again.
So then inti France,many different beers to find/ sample.all listed below from memory. Though maybe not french?
Abbaye-Mont St Jean, a Blonde beer about 5% abv . Not a bad drop.
Buckler, I wouldn't wash my socks in this.
Bierre De Abbay, not bad another " Blonde " beer about. 6% abv .
While in France (Paris)I was having trouble asking the locals for " craft " beers,they couldn't understand what I was on about then my sister inlaw mentioned she saw a small stall in the Xmas markets around the corner selling beer.
Well I was out of the apartment like a shot!
There I found a Xmas beer from Brasserie Entre 2 Mondes.
And La Rouget De Lisle ,Noel beer.
Well I landed in clover with these 2 brews, Fan Bloody tastic,I couldn't get enough of them the fella selling them ended up giving me freebees as I was buying a few each day but the language barrier made it impossible to ask for details.
Next onto Munich, drinking various Pauliner brews and Augustiner brews , I liked them all.
Lobbed into Salzburg ,Austria this arvo and had 2 pints of Zipfer, a nice brew no doubt.
Am drinking a DieWeisse Hell as I am typing this and it's another nice drop
Next out of the fridge will be a Augustiner Marzen 4.6% abv .
Most of the beers I have been paying about $2.00 /$3.00 each for 500 ml bottles and similar for a 500 ml glass at the bar.
There are so many amazing beer steins to be had in this region it is mind boggling,I saw an absolutely stunning one in Munich,it stood about a metre tall and could be had for the paultry sum of € 1950.00.!
So as a consolation I have been keeping my bottle caps and when I get back to Oz I will glue small craft magnets in them and bung em on my beer fridge and be content.

Well that's it for now,mind you am looking forward to getting back to an aussie summer it has been around 6 degrees most of the trip.
Cheers...spog...

 

[dicko]

Envious spog...very envious

 

[dago001]

Shame about the beer engine spog. When we went, we went with an open mind as far as beer goes. I was really keen to try the traditional english ales, rather than the craft brews, thinking that hoppy APAs and IPAs can be had anywhere. So we mainly drank Bitters, Milds, Porters and Stouts. We immersed ourselves in the pub culture and loved every bit of it. Oh, and we loved the beers as well.
I hope you enjoy the rest of your trip and keep reporting about the beers.
Cheers
LB

 

[spog]

The view from our apartment this morning

 

[hsb]

I'll be in the Rake at Borough Market this afternoon (London Bridge tube is nearby).
They have a good selection of cask and keg.
Check their Twitter feed for the daily update - https://twitter.com/Rakebar

I was there in July, love the area, I was amazed that Borough Market has turned into a full-on highbrow foodie scene, including The Rake (which was cool, as was the market.)

Spent many many mornings getting tanked on Bitter in the Market Porter and the Globe - open at 6am for early starters.

Bit late now, but hope you made it to the George Inn - serving real ale (and using the same barmats) for 300 years - just over the road down a little sideroad off Borough High Street.
http://gkpubs.co.uk/pubs-in-london/the-george-inn-pub/

 

[spog]

I was there in July, love the area, I was amazed that Borough Market has turned into a full-on highbrow foodie scene, including The Rake (which was cool, as was the market.)

Spent many many mornings getting tanked on Bitter in the Market Porter and the Globe - open at 6am for early starters.

Bit late now, but hope you made it to the George Inn - serving real ale (and using the same barmats) for 300 years - just over the road down a little sideroad off Borough High Street.
http://gkpubs.co.uk/pubs-in-london/the-george-inn-pub/

You lucky bugger,I was really pissed off that I missed such golden opportunities being in the " cask ale capital of the world" .
Being a now convert,but missing out also means that I am lucky to have sampled the cask ales that I have,so that makes me happy.
While also being in England and Europe with family and tasting beers that I honestly did not ever think I would have the chance to so I am again happy. " if you see a chance take it ."
We visited the Neuschwanstein castle in the Bavarian Alps, a Lager beer on offer had a picture or the castle on the label , in a swing top bottle ( Grolsh style) ,and a nice drop to bootI had 2while on the tour and as you are allowed to drink on the trains I grabbed 2 for the ride back to Munich ( 2 hours) ,rinsed one out intending to keep it as a brew cave momento but half way between Munich and Salzburg I realised I left it behind....Ahh shit!.
Well ,on top of the usual rubber neck tours my brother inlaw and self are doing the Augustiner Brewery tour,or maybe just prop the bar up some time in the next 5 days.
Gotta watch the tourist traps in regards to beer steins the prices for the same steins vary upto $10.00 Oz but travelling on a budget you have to be careful.
With the time we have here in Salzburg I am taking notes and will hopefully make a good choice.
" This is my mission,and I have accepted it".
Cheers....spog....

 

[spog]

 

[spog]

Oops,I screwed up,the pics are repeats ,but taken through a shop window as it is a national holiday here today and not much is open.

 

[spog]