Guinness Foreign Extra Stout - Nigerian style

As a kid, Draught Guinness was the first beer I really enjoyed. Even now, I occasionally reach for a pint of it, usually in places where there's nothing else to drink but cooking lager or keg bitter. Nevertheless, the nitrokeg Draught Guinness you'll find on just about every bar in Britain isn't a beer I'd waste any time writing about. It might look impressive in the glass, but it's a bland beer with a flat taste profile and a curious lack of any aroma. It simply isn't good beer. Thankfully, it isn't the only Guinness on offer.

You may be surprised to hear that fully 40% of sales of Guinness beers worldwide are of a much more interesting variety - Foreign Extra Stout. FES has been brewed using slightly different recipes and ingredients in a variety of countries across Asia, Africa and the Caribbean since the 1960s. There's also a version brewed at the Arthur Guinness mothership in Dublin. The real outlier in the group, and my favourite, is the Nigerian version.

Much as I love drinking and writing about the likes of Liefmans Goudenband and St Bernardus Abt 12, these beers are often very hard to track down. Obscure Belgian ales don't offer an easy route into quality beer for those more accustomed to fizzy yellow swill. Nigerian FES, however, is imported into the UK in relatively large quantities, and is widely available. As far as I am aware the same is not true in the USA, unfortunately.

The recipe for this 7.5% abv stout includes the use of sorghum, of which Nigeria is a major producer, in place of barley malt. This unusual ingredient produces the distinctive flavour and aroma which really sets it apart from it's Irish cousin. Although malt extract is also used, the end result is low in gluten, apparently making it safe (in small quantities) for sufferers of coeliac disease. In the glass, the beer doesn't have the unsettling, artificial appearance of Draught Guinness. It's a very dark brown (as opposed to black), and the head is a more pleasing dark beige (as opposed to white). The mouthfeel is also entirely different - much less smooth, but then much less bland. A complex mix of flavours offers up burnt coffee, blackcurrant, banana and sweet malt. The aroma really is striking and unusual, defying description (by me, anyway). The alcohol is certainly evident but not overpowering. If you pour it straight from the fridge and drink it slowly, allowing it to warm up in the glass gradually, I think you'll get the most from it.

Guinness Foreign Extra won't be everyone's cup of tea, but if you want to try a challenging beer that you can pick up easily on the way home from work, the Nigerian's your man.

Cheers.

Information:

1. Nigerian FES is currently on sale in larger Tesco branches, but you will also see it in convenience stores such as Costcutter. Off licenses in areas with large Afro-Caribbean communities are extremely likely to sell it. Expect to pay about £1.30 / £1.40 for a 33cl bottle. If you are having real problems finding it, I can give specific pointers in London, so leave a comment below and I will respond.
2. The Nigerian stuff is easily distinguishable from the Dublin version due to the red "imported" logo on the label (see photo). Often the two versions are sold side by side, so it's important to bear this in mind if you go hunting for it.

The Lord John Russell, Bloomsbury - Budvar Dark

The darker and more forbidding a beer, the more I like it. That's why, since developing an interest in good beer, I've been guzzling dark brews like they're going out of fashion - which in fact, they already have. There was a time when most beers were dark, and that applies to both bottom-fermenting beers (commonly, though sometimes incorrectly, known as "lagers") as well as top-fermenting ales.

The golden lagerbiers we take for granted today only date back to the mid-nineteenth century. In 1842, a Bavarian brewer in the Bohemian city of Plzeň coupled a new style of brewing sweeping Central Europe with a different type of malt, and produced the beer now appropriately known as Pilsner Urquell. Dark lagers gradually became very much a minority sport, though my own experience as a former resident of, and frequent visitor to, the Czech Republic is that the style is making something of a comeback in the post-Communist era.

What the Czechs call "černé pivo", and the Germans "schwarzbiers" or "dunkels", are among my personal favourite styles of beer. In London, you can try Budvar Dark at The Lord John Russell in Bloomsbury. The pub is happily situated on the same street as Budvar's London importers, and the enterprising landlord was the first in London to serve it. Be warned however, that Budvar's interpretation of the style is a very recent addition to their range and is far from the best of Bohemia's dark lagers. If in Prague, seek out the darks from Kozel and Krusovice if you want an introduction to the style, and move on to the fabulous Svatý Norbert Tmavé (pictured above left) at the tiny Klásterní Pivovar Strahov microbrewery for a stronger, and better, example.

The Lord John Russell is a simple, unassuming pub on Marchmont Street in Bloomsbury, very close to both Russell Square and Euston Road. It's open all day, seven days a week. Food is not the pub's focus, though they do roasts on a Sunday. The ales are profoundly unexciting (Courage, Wells Bombardier and occasionally cask John Smith's), so the Budvar light and dark are the only show in town here. The landlord isn't the cheeriest in London, but he and his staff are always on the ball. The LJR is definitely worth a visit, and is located near to a number of other good pubs.

Information:

1. The Lord John Russell is on 91 Marchmont Street, London, WC1N 1AL (Tel: 020 7388 0500) - see the location on a map here. Another good pub nearby is Mabel's Tavern (CAMRA's North London pub of the year 2006) which is reviewed by me here.
2. Budvar Dark was launched in Britain at the Great British Beer Festival in 2004. There's a good article by Roger Protz about the beer here, and Budvar's official website is here.
3. The Klásterní Pivovar Strahov in Prague has a website here. Their beer has improved since I first came across it a few years ago, and when I visited Prague last year their amber and dark beers were the best I tasted. The food there isn't half bad either, if you're so inclined. I will no doubt write up reviews of this and various other Prague pubs at some point - although if you are visiting and want any pointers feel free to email me.

The White Horse, Parson's Green - Old Ale Festival

The White Horse on Parson's Green is undoubtedly one of London's premier beer venues, even if it is in the suburbs. This weekend the pub held its 24th annual Old Ale Festival, a world-class event for the extreme beer fan. Words such as "light", "refreshing" and "sessionable" were notably absent from the tasting notes of folks who'd come from as far afield as the USA to be there.

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Even when they don't have a festival on, the pub's beer list is impressive, with some real gems such as Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier and St Bernardus Abt 12. The large, airy interior is clearly aimed at diners rather than a traditional pub crowd. The impressive mahogany bar dominates, and 15 handpumps are always a welcome sight. The outside area offers tempting summer barbecue options. Indeed, one brave fella in a white chef's uniform had been despatched even in January to cook up pricey burgers.

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As the day wore on - we were there from 1.30pm until just before 11 - the atmosphere got better and better. Beer experts and writers such as Chris "Podge" Pollard from England and Joris Pattyn from Belgium were present. Instead of serving all beers on the list simultaneously through the use of casks on stillage, only the fifteen handpumps were utilised, the other beers being held back. A good policy. Each time a cask was spent, a buzz of excitement spread as yet another powerful, interesting ale came on.

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From the beginning of the session two legendary beers, rarely seen outside of the Bass Museum in Burton, were on offer. No 1, a strong barley wine (10% abv) did not meet with approval from my drinking pal for the day, but I enjoyed the strong flavours of treacle, oak and dried fruits. The No.1 was perhaps a little too sweet, and the alcoholic burn a bit too intense for the early afternoon. The P2 Imperial Stout won plaudits from both of us however. The beer was typical of the style, strong (8% abv), dark, mature and moreish. The history of this beer couldn't be more romantic. Imperial stouts were a favoured tipple of the Russian court, and were exported by sea from England to St Petersburg for Royal consumption. If you'd like to try one, an accessible example in London is Yorkshire brewer Samuel Smith's interpretation.

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Other beers we particularly enjoyed were barley wines Hog's Back A over T ("Aromas over Tongham", a quaffable beer with very strong toffee flavours) and Adnams Tally Ho (at 7% abv almost a session beer in this context). Both seem to turn up very regularly at beer festivals and both are worth a try.

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I could have predicted what the star of the festival would be for me. I was very pleased to see old favourite Dark Star Imperial Stout appear at about 7.30pm, and happily tucked into a couple of halves. I'd previously tried this 10.5% abv inky-black stout at The Wenlock Arms in Hoxton, and was hoping it would be available on the Saturday. I wasn't disappointed. The beer was truly fantastic, the powerful, malty body offering up plenty of autumn fruit and bitter chocolate. The sweetness was more than balanced by the earthy, roasted aromas and flavour. The Imperial Stout is dangerously drinkable considering its massive strength, and although it needs to be approached with caution do not miss out on any opportunity to try it. Another great brew from one of England's finest brewers.
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Tearing ourselves away from such a great event wasn't easy, but there's only so much head-bangingly strong ale you can drink. We didn't even touch the Belgian beers available on tap, but still felt we'd made the most of the 24th, but our first, Old Ale Festival at The White Horse. We'll be back next year.
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Information:

1. The White Horse is at 1-3 Parson's Green, London, SW6 4UL, Tel: 020 7736 2115 and has a very good website here which will tell you all you need to know.
2. The Bass Museum is part of the Coors Visitor Centre in Burton-Upon-Trent, Staffordshire, and has a website here.
3. Historic Samuel Smith's pubs in Central London that stock that brewery's Imperial Russian Stout include The Princess Louise (208-209 High Holborn, WC1V 7BW, Tel: 020 7405 8816) and Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese (145 Fleet Street, EC4A 2BU, Tel: 020 7353 6170). Most of their better pubs in Central London have bottles of it in the fridge, though you should ask to try it at room temperature to get the most out of it. At 7% abv it is modest in strength for the style and isn't the best example of an Imperial Stout, but I mention it because it is easy to find. If you haven't tried it before you should.
4. The beer list from the festival is reproduced below. We definitely got through those in bold and italics, though near the end unidenified glasses of menacing brown liquids were being shoved in my hand, so maybe there were more. You will see we didn't try any of the Belgian beers on tap. Personally I prefer to try these bottle conditioned, and therefore live, rather than from a keg.

UK:
Adnams Tally Ho 7.0%
Ballard's Wassail 6.0%
Bass Museum No 1 10.5%
Bass Museum P2 Imperial Stout 8.0%
Bass Museum Worthington White Shield 5.6%
Broughtons Old Jock 6.7%
Caledonian Santa's Little Helper 3.7%
Cottage Norman's Conquest 7.0%
Dark Star Dark Star Original 5.0%
Dark Star Imperial Stout 10.5%
Exmoor's Beast 6.6%
Fuller's Old Winter Ale 5.3%
Fuller's London Porter 5.4%
Gale's Winter Brew 4.2%
Harvey's Old Ale 3.6%
Hogs Back A Over T 9.0%
Lee's Harvest ale 11.5%
Lee's Moonraker 7.5%
Mauldon's Black Adder 5.3%
O' Hanlons Port Stout 4.8%
Oakham's Oblivion 5.7%
Orkney's Skull Splitter 8.5%
RCH's Old Slug Porter 4.5%
Reepham Velvet Sweet Stout 4.5%
Robinson's Old Tom 8.5%
Roosters Body Warmer 5.0%
Roosters Jaks 3.9%
Theakston's Old Peculier 5.7%
Thornbridge Jaipur 5.9%
Titanic Stout 4.5%
Uley's Old Spot 5.0%
Woodforde's Head Cracker 7.0%
Young's Winter Warmer 5.0%

Belgium:
Abbaye des rocs Speciale Noel 9.0%
Binchoise Special Noel 9.0%
Brigand Christmas 9.0%
Bush Noel 12.0%
Cantillon Lambiek 5.0%
Corsendonck Christmas 8.5%
Geants Saison Voisin 6.0%
Gouden Carolus Christmas 10.5%
Peter Lieven Bruin 6.5%
St Bernardus Tripple 6.7%
St Bernardus Prior 7.6%
St Bernardus Abt 12 10.5%
St Feuillien Noel 9.0%
Troubador Obscura 9.0%

St Albans - a pub crawl in CAMRA's home town - Part Two

[Continued - click here for Part One]

Whenever I'm in pubs with strong real ale affiliations, I keep an eye out for those free CAMRA magazines like The London Drinker. Usually they're full of angry articles about short measures and closures of pubs you've never heard of, but they're also a good way to find places that offer the more unusual ales favoured by the beerhunter. Sometimes they print write-ups of pub crawls, much like this one. It's always struck me that despite describing huge numbers of pubs visited and beers consumed in a single session, no mention is ever made of the kind of drunkenness that must result. Either those old CAMRA boys are immune to the effects of alcohol, or we aren't getting the whole story. Perhaps it's better we never find out. As hinted at in part one of this article, our St Albans pub crawl became less focussed as the day went on. The beginning of the downward spiral coincided neatly with our visit to the fifth pub of the day, and the arrival of fresh blood in the form of the three late joiners.

Pub 5 - The Boot

The Boot (4 The Market Place, AL3 5DG, Tel: 01727 857533) is dead in the centre of St Albans, in a centuries-old building which has served as a pub since 1719. Its position in the midst of the chains you'll see on every high street in Britain does serve to de-glamourise it somewhat, but there's no denying it's an impressive pub and well worth a pint or two. When we arrived, James and Sap, fresh from their trip to O'Neills, ordered lagers before we could implore them to do otherwise, despite a range of proper beers. Between us we tried pints of Harviestoun Bitter & Twisted (a very hoppy session bitter from Scotland), Youngs Special and the more unusual Pendle Witches' Brew, a sweet, strong (5.2% abv) amber ale which Wee Ross seemed to enjoy. The pub was louder and livelier than those we'd visited before, with locals already lining up at the bar for a night on the lash Booze Britain style. We didn't stay long, as what we hoped would be a highlight of the trip lay ahead.

Pub 6 - The Farriers Arms

Leaving The Boot and heading down Lower Dagnall Street, we passed two other pubs before hitting The Farriers Arms, the house in which the local CAMRA branch was founded on 20 November 1972. On my previous visit to St Albans I'd didn't make it here and was keen to take a look this time. CAMRA still has its offices in St Albans today, and you'd think the Farriers would be a monument to all that's good and welcoming about traditional pub culture. Not so. There are some that claim the official story is wrong, and that CAMRA was in fact founded in our next pub, The Lower Red Lion. Now that I've visited the Farriers, I want to believe the dissenters are right.

We entered the quiet pub and filed into a back room, just by the back door which leads to the outdoor toilets. The real fire was the only cheery thing in the whole place. The locals were transfixed by a rugby game shown on the TV in the corner, and we were initially ignored by the old barman. The decor was akin to what you'd expect from a lonely pensioner's home in the 1970s. If I had to say something good about this pub, I'd say the beer was perfectly well kept. The fact it tasted like dishwater was indubitably the brewer's fault, not the cellarman's. The pub is tied to McMullen's, Hertfordshire's major brewery, founded in 1827. They operate around 130 pubs, at least two of which are in Central London. I want to support breweries committed to real ale, I really do - but the "Winter Ale" offered up here just took the piss, and tasted little better than it. It was an amber ale with no discernible flavour, and no redeeming qualities whatsoever. The most puzzling aspect was what made it a "winter" beer, as most summer thirst-quenchers have more to them than this one. A poster on the wall advertising seasonal beers indicated the beer will only be available for a short time - so it's not all bad news. Misery in a glass. Other beers were Country Best and AK Bitter (in fact a light mild), also from McMullens. I've tried both before, and in my opinion they're both unappealling beers.

The dismal, depressing atmosphere in the Farriers created an uneasy feeling amongst the lads which was in danger of bringing us right down to earth after a series of great pubs. We left, leaving behind us nine pints of barely touched dishwater, under the watchful eye of a manager who suddenly perked up at the prospect that the outsiders were no more. You'd have to put me in a cage and roll it through the door to get me back in that pub. And even then I'd rather survive by sucking moisture from the carpet than touch the Winter Ale again.

Pub 7 - The Lower Red Lion

The trauma of the last pub caused me to forget we were soon to be joined by a tenth member of the team. Doctor Gibbles had been on a course in London during the day, but had promised to catch up with the crawl. He bundled out of his cab wearing the kind of 3/4 length shorts you'd expect to see in an American teen movie, not outside the Lower Red on a cold January evening. An elaborate wind-up had borne fruit, as he'd fallen for the line that everyone was going to wear shorts for the whole crawl. Suffice to say, he looked a complete tit. The dead hand of the Farriers was lifted and we entered St Albans' most famous pub ready for the next beer.

The Lower Red Lion (36 Fishpool Street, AL3 4RX, Tel: 01727 855669) isn't somewhere you should miss off a tour to St Albans. As you can see from the photo, it's situated in a gorgeous house in what must be the finest street in the city, right by Verulamium Park and overshadowed by the abbey itself. The pub has a large garden in which beer festivals are held in warmer months, resembling as much a residential back garden as anything you'd normally see attached to a boozer. The pub also offers rooms, doubtless a good option. The interior is split into two rooms, separated by a compact double-sided bar offering a choice of eight real ales (mostly from micros and small independents), a real cider and Czech Budvar on tap. On our visit they seemed to be suffering from a glut of Christmas beers, something the barman acknowledged as he reeled of a list of ridiculously named and obscure seasonal brews. I passed up on the Highgate Throbbin' Robin and tucked into a pint of Christmas Cheers from Highwood, a farm brewery in Lincolnshire. I wish I could tell you what each of the rest of the lads had, but frankly I have no idea - things were really getting hazy at this point. The beer was heavily spiced and certainly hit the spot for me. There was a hint of whisky or brandy in this rich, dark ale, along with a fair whack of chocolate. Although not terribly well integrated, there was a lot of powerful flavour for a beer of only 4.5% abv. The regular "house" beer at the Lower Red is Oakham JHB, though due to the landlord's involvement in the microbrewery across town at The Farmers Boy (see part one of this article and below) you will often see Alehouse beers here.

Appropriately for a pub so devoted to drinking, and one so busy of an evening, the Lower Red only does food at lunchtimes. As a result we had to cut our visit short and move on somewhere else - we were about 8 pints in now, and it was time to soak up the beer.

Pub 8 - The Six Bells

Neatly avoiding another McMullen's pub on the way, we continued down Fishpool Street for some way, crossing a bridge over the River Ver to be presented with a lane even more rural than what came before it. Two lovely looking old pubs sat almost side by side here, The Rose and Crown and The Six Bells (16-18 St. Michaels Street, AL3 4SH, Tel: 01727 856945). We chose the latter and managed to find a couple of tables to push together in a side room set apart from the packed main bar. Food was fairly expensive but was just what we were looking for - burgers and chips all round. Beers were unexciting, as this was another pub only offering session bitters. I chose Caledonian Deuchars IPA again, and washed down my meal with a perfectly pleasant pint. The other cask ales were Adnams Bitter and Greene King IPA. While we waited, Dave decided to get darts from behind the bar, despite that fact a middle aged couple were sitting directly below the board. The manager actually had to come over and ask him if we wouldn't mind cutting it out - with a perfectly straight face he told her he didn't see what the problem was. The arrows were confiscated just as the food arrived.

At this point we'd made our way across the length of central St Albans, taking in all six pubs we'd planned to visit along with two extras. A long walk, punctuated with a group wave at diners in the plush St Michael's Manor hotel on Fishpool Street, took us back to the Market Place. Here pandemonium broke out as one individual who will remain unnamed (he drives a Renault Clio) said he wanted to go somewhere like Chicago Rock Cafe, apparently his plan all along. He was duly told to eff off, and a decision was taken to head back to the Farmers Boy for the benefit of those who hadn't been on the crawl at the beginning. Half way down the London Road the moaning grew more intense, and we ducked into a fairly charmless looking pub for a quick pitstop.

Pub 9 - The Beehive

To be honest, if we'd known just how close we were to The Farmers Boy, we wouldn't have bothered with The Beehive (Keyfield Terrace, AL1 1QL, Tel: 01727 811127). Don't bother including this one if you do your own St Albans crawl - aside from a decent quizzer and big screen sport, it has little going for it. Housed in a mock-tudor 20th century detatched building, this place has only marginally more charm than the All Bar One on Leicester Square. Real ale was available in the form of Adnams Bitter and Wells Bombardier, but in this town you have to do a lot more than serve an acceptable pint. It was time to end the night on a high.

Pub 10 - The Farmers Boy (again)

Entering the Farmers for the second time in the day, we were greeted with open arms by the owners who immediately served up perfect pints of Farmers Joy (see part one of this article for a review of this great beer, brewed on the premises). The atmosphere was completely different to earlier, as you'd expect, it now being 10 in the evening. Good music and a great mix of happy people enjoying a friendly, relaxed atmosphere. Hats off to the landlord for tolerating our drunken hoonery, as the sambucas were dished up and everyone got a second wind for the last couple of hours of drinking. The Farmers Boy has a 2am license, and I was told they do stay open that late if people are up for it. The pub was certainly still going strong when we rushed to get the last train after midnight. One of the lads foolishly sloped off early, and had a nasty shock when he fell asleep on the train home and ended up being woken by a guard in London Bridge - that'll learn you, you grumpy sod.

St Albans lived up to its reputation once again - a good old boozy town for those who like proper beer and traditional, historic pubs.

Cheers to all the lads who made it, and here's to the Brighton crawl next month.

Information:

1. The London Drinker is an A5, colour magazine available free of charge in real ale pubs. Its distribution area covers the whole city. It is published on behalf of all the London branches of CAMRA. The London Drinker is also the name of the branch's annual beer festival, which this year will be held between 28 and 30 March (details are in the beer festivals section to the left).
2. McMullen's Brewery is in Hertford and has a website here. There's a good article about the brewery here by Roger Protz. McMullen's two London pubs are The Nag's Head right by Covent Garden tube (10 James Street, London, WC2E 8BT, Tel: 020 7836 4678), and The Spice of Life in Soho (37-39 Romilly Street, Cambridge Circus, London, W1V 5TP, Tel: 0207 437 7013). If you like their beers, good luck to you - I'm afraid I don't.
3. The Lower Red Lion has a homepage here. The pub's next beer festival is to be held between 30 March and 1 April, but they haven't got details on their website yet. It should be a good opportunity to try a variety of beers from the Alehouse Brewery at the Farmers Boy.

St Albans - a pub crawl in CAMRA's home town - Part One

I had my first taster of St Albans' great pub culture last year. I went up in September with two pals for the Hertfordshire CAMRA beer festival, and it was a great day. It was in St Albans that the oldest branch of the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), probably the most succesful consumer group in history, was founded in 1972 by disgruntled drinkers determined to save Britain's cask ale heritage for future generations. With tales of legendary pubs steeped in history as well as good beer, it wasn't too difficult to get a group of lads together for a day of dedicated research into the city's finest.

You'd think that the night before a gruelling pub crawl would be spent doing something other than getting battered. Sadly that message didn't get through to some of the lads who had signed up for St Albans. Consequently, only six of the expected nine attendees made it to the station at 1pm as planned. Cans of Gales HSB were doled out for the 20 minute train journey to St Albans City. Although this was intended to be a serious and civilsed crawl of traditional real ale pubs, there are some lads' traditions you can't set aside - tinnies on the train is one of them. The HSB was considerably more welcome than the particularly pungent egg sandwich Jon (the one that drives the Clio) greedily tucked into as soon as we pulled out of King's Cross.

Pub 1 - The Farmers Boy

The crawl had been planned with the intention that we'd visit six pubs, starting with The Farmers Boy (134 London Road, AL1 1PQ, Tel: 01727 766702). The pub is also home to the Alehouse Brewery, the only place in St Albans where beer is still produced commercially. The pub is less than ten minutes walk from the station in an area blessed with good pubs, so makes a good start for any crawl. The new signage (a simple "TFB" logo as opposed to a more decorative sign) has drawn some criticism from the CAMRA crowd, and is a bold statement in a town so attached to its traditional pubs. Come on people - it's only a bloody sign and you shouldn't get too upset when it's outside a pub as good as this. The landlord and (frankly beautiful) landlady were very welcoming and gave Dryz, our one lager drinker, an appropriate amount of grief when he ordered fizzy yellow swill. He politely declined the kind offer of a lemonade top and a parasol. The pub inside is modern and comfortable, the seating in the bay windows making for a very nice perch.

Beers on offer were Timothy Taylor Landlord, Brakspear Bitter and two of Alehouse's own brews. The first of these, Yorkshire Bitter, was passed over by all of us in favour of Farmer's Joy, a 4.5% abv old ale. A very dark beer with a persistent white head, this one grabbed us all. Normally I don't like very malty beers, but the striking citrus flavours and hop presence balanced it perfectly. It's very easy drinking, yet very satisfying. Farmers Joy is a real discovery - a fantastic start for the crawl. Dave claimed to be tasting bananas in there, which drew some funny looks. It was difficult not to order a second pint, but we had a long crawl ahead of us, and it was time to move on. We didn't know then that we'd be back later, the plan being to end the session at another pub, The Lower Red Lion.

Pub 2 - The Garibaldi

Passing by the attractive looking Hare and Hounds and The White Hart Tap, we headed down an attractive back street with a fine view of the cathedral rising above the small houses at the end. The next stop was The Garibaldi (61 Albert Street, AL1 1RT, Tel: 01727 855046), a Fullers pub - one of only a handful in this part of the world. It's a perfectly pleasant local, dominated by the large island bar and blessed with a friendly canine resident.

The normal range of Fullers beers (minus a seasonal) were on, plus one guest, the lacklustre Freeminer Bitter. A shame that the pub goes to all the effort of having five real ales on, yet apart from one golden ale (Fullers Discovery), all are bitters. A real pet hate of mine. The day's papers were available at the bar, prompting discussion of the whole Celebrity Big Brother Jade / Shilpa thing. This set up something of a theme for a day in which the bullying of certain team members increased exponentially with each pint downed. Unexcited by the prospect of another in this charming but unremarkable place, we bailed out across the street and entered the grounds of The White Lion via the back garden gate.

Pub 3 - The White Lion

The White Lion (91 Sopwell Lane, AL1 1RN, Tel: 01727 850540, website) must be a great pub in summer, as the garden is huge. Doubtless they can and do host wicked barbecues. The interior is equally enjoyable, divided into two very different bars. The larger area is smarter and more suitable for dining, but as we were here purely for the beer we made for "the den" at the front of the pub. A very cosy room adorned with the kind of comforting, horse brass nonsense I like to see. The bar itself has an unusual and amusing relic - a plastic Watneys Red Barrel pump, now dispensing Carlsberg where once it spewed out something even worse. Red Barrel is a justifiably maligned beer from the 60s and 70s, nowadays symbolic of the times when most breweries were bent on eradicating real ale and tried to foist piss like this on to the public. Apparently it was the first keg bitter inflicted on drinkers, so we've got Watneys to thank for the likes of John Smiths Creamflow which still clutter up bars today. In a pub run by a man so devoted to real ale, the Red Barrel is especially ironic. The landlord used to run the Lower Red Lion, which was pencilled in a the last stop on our real ale trail.

Five ales were offered in the White Lion when we visited, though none of them were particularly exciting. Considering its formidable reputation as the best pub for real ale in the town, I was hoping to see something like a mild, a porter or a stout. I was disappointed, but the pub itself more than made up for this. The fit barmaid didn't do any harm either. Two of us chose Exmoor Gold, which wasn't particularly nice - a strange metallic taste dominated. Lagerboy Dryz had agreed to try an ale in this pub, and unfortunately he had this one, giving him the perfect opportunity to go back to the Fosters and Carling for the rest of the day. Two of us, including me, had Adnams Old. This is the third time I have had this beer now, and continue to be nonplussed - much as I love their advertising, I'm afraid Adnams just isn't a brewery I rate anymore. Unusually for him, my pal Jon (the one with the Renault Clio) came out on top. His Coach Horse Dick Turpin was in perfect condition, and the caramel and buttery flavours briefly cheered the miserable bastard up.

As we left I was surprised to see a print of The Westoe Netty, a painting by Bob Olley, a local artist from my home town in the North East. Essentially a picture of several men pissing in a defaced public toilet, seeing it down here in St Albans tickled me enormously but left the others bemused. It also hangs on the staircase in my gaff and rarely draws compliments, I must admit.

Pub 4 - The Goat

So far the crawl had gone entirely to plan, and it was definitely time for something to go tits up. We'd quite forgotten that the three stragglers who hadn't made the 1pm rendezvous were en route from London, and would need to be directed to where we were. Entering a pub which wasn't on the itinerary and which was also a mobile phone reception blackspot was in retrospect a bit of a mistake. However, Chadders spied through the window of The Goat (37 Sopwell Lane, AL1 1RN, Tel: 01727 833934) an unoccupied bar billiards table in surprisingly opulent surroundings. It was beginning to get cold and dark outside already, so we scuttled into this large, (slightly faux-) traditional house in search of a decent pint of ale. Shepherd Neame Spitfire, Adnams Bitter and Caledonian Deuchars IPA were on offer. My pints of Deuchars were perfectly pleasant, but at this stage I was ready to move on to something more susbstantial and wasn't thrilled to see yet another row of session bitters. The Goat isn't a bad pub by any means, but not one I'd include on a crawl unless, like us, you've got the bar billiards bug.

Three games of billiards passed the time nicely, with some very random play on the last shot from Jon causing boundless joy. For those that don't know, when only only one ball is left on the table at the end of a game of bar billiards, all players take turns at a set piece shot. The aim is to bounce the ball off the cushion and get it into into either the 100 or 200 holes in the middle of the table. The stakes are high, as in trying to pot that ball you're liable to knock over the black skittle and wipe out all of your score. Jon decided to tackle this tricky shot by simply ignoring the cushion, the holes, and the black skittle, powering the ball to the top of the table where it bounced on to the floor. Well done, mate. Needless to say, he and his pal Dave the long armed goon didn't manage to pull a last-gasp victory out of the bag.

Emerging from the Goat into the late afternoon darkness, my phone suddenly came to life. I had voicemails from Posh Alec, who had searched pubs across St Albans for the last hour trying to find us, and James and Sap who had arrived separately and decided to retire to the civilised surroundings of O'Neills until they could contact me. It was then that it dawned on me that perhaps we weren't all exactly on the same page in terms of what kind of place one visits on a "real ale pub crawl". The heathens were directed to the Boot on the Market Place where six became nine, the pints continued to flow, and the next, lairier stage of the crawl began.

[Continued in Part Two - click here]

Information:

1. Thameslink trains to St Albans from London are operated by First Capital Connect, and run from London Bridge and King's Cross among other stations. The fastest trains only take 20 minutes to reach the city's main station. A cheap day return is currently £9.
2. Alehouse Brewery opened in September 2006, using the same premises at the back of the Farmers Boy that the Verulam Brewery had occupied since 1997. It is the only commercial brewery in St Albans. It has a website here, but it is under construction and may have been abandoned. Alehouse brews are sold at the Farmers Boy and also the Lower Red Lion (which will be reviewed in part two). I've also seen them on at the Wenlock Arms (26, Wenlock Rd, London, N1 7TA , Tel: 020 7608 3406). At the St Albans beer festival last year they produced a milk stout, an unusual style, called Milk & Alcohol especially for the event, which I tried and enjoyed. This is a very promising microbrewery and it deserves to flourish.

Wells & Young's Take Courage

There was big news in the British brewing world this week, as Scottish & Newcastle agreed to dispose of 83% of its interest in the old Courage brands to Wells & Young's Brewing Co. The purchasers intend to revitalise the brand, which they see as a "sleeping giant", neglected of late by lager-focussed S&N in favour of fizzy yellow swill like Fosters and Kronenbourg.

Courage was originally a London brewing company founded in the late eighteenth century, which went through a series of mergers and buy outs starting in the 1950s, finally ending up in the grubby hands of S&N in 1995. Until the early 1980s, Courage beers were brewed at the Anchor Brewery near Tower Bridge (see the article on Brewing in London). Most recently they've been produced at the John Smith's Brewery in Tadcaster, part of S&N's evil empire. Consequently, the beers labelled as Courage today have little connection to those of the past. The flagship brands are Courage Best and Courage Directors. I have nothing good to say about either beer - if I walk in a pub and Courage is all that's on offer, I leave. They are just the kind of dull, insipid bitters which put people off drinking real ale, giving the impression that there's just no fun to be had.

As you probably know, Wells & Young's is the joint brewing venture which was formed last year when Youngs left Wandsworth to team up with Bedford brewer Charles Wells. The two pub estates remained separate, but across London Wells' Bombardier has turned up on draught in Young's pubs. This has sometimes been at the expense of a seasonal offering, meaning that interesting beers like Winter Warmer have been absent, and instead fairly standard bitters are all that's on offer. This situation can only get worse now that Courage will be available to landlords. I don't want to walk into a Young's pub and be offered a monotonous choice of Young's Bitter, Wells Bombardier and Courage Best - as far as I'm concerned, that's no choice at all. There's more to real ale than session bitter.

The Jerusalem Tavern, Clerkenwell - St Peter's Cream Stout

There can't be many cities in the world that can beat London for beer and pubs. The Jerusalem Tavern is one of our finest and a local for me. Clerkenwell couldn't be a better setting for a boozer that seeks to connect us with our history. I pride myself on getting around the best pubs in this city, but sometimes I think I needn't bother - I've got the Jerusalem on my doorstep.
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Walking into the pub for the first time, you'd be forgiven for thinking you'd entered a building that hadn't changed since Dr. Johnson's day. In fact, the interior, convincing as it is, only dates back to the 1990s. It's St Peter's Brewery's London pub, and you can rely on seeing a variety of beer styles every time you visit. They're committed to traditional English ale, but the pub attracts a crowd as varied as you can imagine. I love it. I love it even more since my mate Dave (pictured behind the bar) started working here. If you live in London, get yourself to the Jerusalem and enjoy a pint.

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St Peter's Cream Stout was on tonight and it was absolute magic. The cask went on in the early afternoon and I bagged the last half of it at closing time - that's 72 pints served in a day, a measure of the Cream Stout's popularity with regulars.

The beer is a powerful (6.5% abv), earthy brew. There's a perfect balance between the roast bitterness you want in a stout and the creamy, chocolate sweetness promised by the name. A fine example of the brewers' art, and probably St Peter's finest. There are two more casks in the cellar (I've seen them with my own eyes), so get down there in the next couple of days - it doesn't turn up very often. It's available in the bottle all year round, but really there's no comparison between a cold-filtered, lifeless beer and the perfect cask-conditioned ale they were serving up last night.

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Information:

1. The Jerusalem Tavern is at 55 Britton Street, Clerkenwell, London, EC1M 5UQ (Tel: 020 7490 4281). Note that the pub is closed on weekends.
2. St Peter's Brewery in Bungay, Suffolk has a website here. St Peter's Hall dates back to the 13th century. I haven't visited yet, but hope to do so soon.

UPDATE: Since writing this post many months ago, I've had the opportunity to visit St Peter's Hall and Brewery. You can read more and view the photos here.

The Land of Liberty, Peace & Plenty - Winter Ale Festival

Having a mate who owns a Renault Clio is rarely a cause for celebration. Nonetheless, when that mate offers to drive you to any random country pub you care to mention, it has its consolations. Journo Jon is staying with me at the moment, and as a non-driver I intend to take full advantage of his Jersey-registered, ten year-old, girly motor. I'd heard that the impressively-named Land of Liberty, Peace & Plenty in Heronsgate, Hertfordshire was having a winter ale festival. Moreover the pub's website told us it was only half a mile from Junction 17 on the M25, which would avoid heart-stopping driving on narrow lanes for someone whose limited driving skills have frequently led to incidents such as bursting into tears at the wheel.

Sure enough, getting to the pub was a doddle, so it wasn't long before we were sidling up to the bar, welcomed by a gratifying list of fine, dark ales. There were only a few people around when we arrived at around 2.30, though these included a friendly CAMRA type bearing more than a passing resemblance to the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The interior of this late Georgian pub combines being cosy and traditional with a light and airy feeling. There's an open fire at one end of the pub, though sadly this wasn't lit when we visited. As with all the best real ale pubs, pump clips from previous guest beers adorn the walls. Alongside these were shelves lined with a large collection of bottled, vintage special brews, commemorating events such as the coronation and (doomed) royal weddings. These seem to turn up quite often on Ebay at prices ranging from daft to outrageous, making the collection all the more impressive. Food was hearty and enjoyable, a good selection of easy pub grub that certainly hit the spot for us. Of course, the pub's focus is real ale, but it was good to see Kaltenburg Hell and Budvar on tap, two excellent lagers, and a few truly unusual Belgian bottles in the fridge. Gill and Martin, the couple who run the place were around, very nice folks in a low-key kind of way. They seem to have grand plans for the place, but sensibly are taking things one step at a time. I wish them the very best of luck.

Of course, the most important thing for me was the beer - and I wasn't to be disappointed. A great selection (click on the image to the right for a look). Every beer was in perfect condition, and many were served straight from the cask, requiring a lot of good natured cellar runs for the barman. We both started with a pint each of the Weltons Horsham Hogspudding, a gorgeous winter beer flavoured with nutmeg and molasses. Next came Arran Fireside, a relatively thin old ale from Scotland, geed up with a bit of a ginger, but merely a staging post for the bigger and better beers to come. At this point it was time for Jon to move on to the diet coke (sorry, pal) and for me to enjoy the stars of the show. The first of these was Triple fff "I Can't Remember", a strong stout (6.8% abv) from a brewery in Hampshire, offered up lots of dry, fruity flavour, along with that pleasantly earthy flavour I like in a real stout. This is just the kind of beer I go to festivals for. I finished off with the legendary Dark Star Critical Mass. I'd never tried this 7.8% abv seasonal from the Sussex brewer before, but my experience with their other beers is such that expectations were high. In the glass this was dark brown, with a gently bubbling light brown head. Flavours were dark chocolate, treacle and lots of spicy joyfulness. It's got that lovely mouth feel you'd expect from such a beer, and leaves you with a lovely warm feeling inside. A masterpiece.

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Afterwards, with me half cut, Jon was itching to hoon around the Chilterns in his embarrassing car for some reason. We took stopped at The Nag's Head in Great Missenden (pictured right), an historic pub which sadly has now succumbed to the country dining pub racket. A kindly Canadian ex-Navy man, a regular for many years, showed us where they'd ripped out the original bar, replacing it with a tiny area devoted to drinkers at the back of the pub. The locals and the barmaid were very friendly, and the bitter on offer from the local Rebellion brewery in Marlow was a solid pint, so it wasn't all so bad.

The day predictably finished with us getting lost, and less predictably ending up in Aylesbury. There we pulled over at local real ale ghetto, The Hop Pole Inn. I imagine this place might be a haunt of mine if I lived in Aylesbury, with its ten hand pumps, all sporting unusual beers from microbreweries across the country.

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A great day, and a good warm-up for next week's St Albans pub crawl.

Information:

1. The Land of Liberty, Peace & Plenty has a very useful website here with all the details you'll need. The pub, CAMRA's Hertfordshire pub of the year, is definitely worth visiting. It'll doubtless be even better in summer, as they have a large beer garden out back with plenty of picnic tables.
2. The Dark Star Brewing Company (founded 1994) is one of my favourite English brewers, and I will be writing about them and their flagship Brighton pub, The Evening Star (55-56, Surrey St, Brighton, East Sussex, BN1 3PB, Tel: 01273 328931), soon. They have a website here.
3. The Nag's Head is on the London Road, Little Kingshill, Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, HP16 0DG (Tel: 01494 862945).
4. The Hop Pole Inn (83 Bicester Road, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, HP19 9AZ, Tel: 01296 482129) is tied to Vale Brewery (website here). They seem to do a good line in selling cask beer directly to the public for parties and out-and-out beer monsters.

St Albans pub crawl

On Saturday 20th January, I'll be making a pilgrimage to St Albans in Herts with a crew of beer guzzling Londoners, some of whom haven't visited the city before. The aim is the visit the best pubs in the city, of which there are many. Our last visit was in late September, timed to coincide with the local beer festival, held at the Arena. This time no distraction stands in the way of what promises to be a truly epic pub journey. The crawl will be written up as soon as the worst of the hangover is over.

If all goes to plan, the day will be built around an early trip to The Farmer's Boy (home to the Verulam Brewery) and an extended session at The Lower Red Lion, with an hour or two on the bar billiards table in The White Swan thrown in for good measure. Magic.

Could anyone with any pub suggestions please leave a comment below with details. Cheers

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[You can read about the crawl here]

St Bernardus Abt 12

Much as I prefer to reflect more on my barfly habits than any serious appreciation of quality beer, I really want to tell you about a Belgian ale I've been enjoying recently.

Anyone who haunts RateBeer or Beeradvocate - American websites for the beer-loving equivalent of a trainspotter - will tell you that the elusive Westvleteren Abt 12 is The Best Beer in The World. Brewed in one of the seven official trappist breweries, this dark 10.2% abv ale is certainly a fine splash. Even in the best beer cafes in Belgium you'll be lucky to find a bottle, as the monks of St. Sixtus don't export it beyond the grounds of the abbey itself. The only official way to buy a case is to make a reservation by telephone, stating your car licence plate number, and pick up your order from the brewery. On Ebay, people trade cases of this stuff for hundreds of dollars - perhaps no guarantee of quality, but certainly indicative of its iconic status. Some of the beer turns up in specialist outlets in Belgium, and I have once found a bottle of Westvleteren in a pub in London (email me if you'd like to know where). A friend also brought back a couple of bottles from a recent trip to Flanders, and was kind enough to spread the joy. Without a doubt a fantastic beer. However, unless you are a dedicated beer hunter who strikes gold, you may never get to try it - but consolation is coming, so read on.

In 1946, the monks in Westleteren decided to stop devoting so much of their precious time to brewing, and entered into a license agreement with a nearby brewery in the town of Watou, Flanders, who were then able to turn out beers bearing the St. Sixtus name. This agreement remained in place until 1992, when production in Westvleteren itself was stepped up. Undeterred, the small, second-hand Watou brewery continued to churn out the same beers it had always done under the name "St Bernardus", complete with an endearing merrily monastic logo (pictured top left). Westvleteren claim they are using the same recipes they did before granting the license to St Bernardus in 1946 - but allegedly the yeast strain remained in Watou. As a commerical brewery, St Bernardus aren't so coy about exports and as a result you can find their flagship beer, also called "Abt 12", in quality bars across Belgium and online in the UK.

I am not a fan of "tasting notes" for beer. If you want to find out what a beer tastes like, try it yourself. You don't need me getting all Jilly Goolden on you. However, I will tell you that St Bernardus Abt 12 is a fantastic, bottle-fermented ale and is one of the best beers I have ever tasted. It is dark brown in colour, and a gentle pour will produce a gorgeous off-white head and an inviting aroma. A variety of flavours, with a fair whack of fruit, blend together perfectly to produce a harmonious and satisfying experience that will make you wish you had a cellar full of it. It might not be an official trappist ale, but for me it is difficult to beat - personally, I prefer it to the Westvleteren. In fact, I want to open my last bottle now. Time to get the next order in, then.

Information:

1. The brewery at the Abbey of St. Sixtus of Westvleteren, Flanders, Belgium is on the web here.
2. The St Bernardus brewery in Watou has a hompage here.
3. You can order St Bernardus Abt 12, and other beers from the Watou brewery, from Speciality Beer Merchants in the UK.

P.S. The next post will be about pubs rather than obscure Belgian beers, so if this one has sent you to sleep, don't worry.

Beer in season - Shepherd Neame Original Porter

Often the output from the larger British breweries does little to inspire the extreme beer fan. Seasonal specials can be a completely different story - particularly in winter, when the key players showcase winter ales, perfect for days when it's dark outside long before you can even think of leaving work. Pubs tied to specific breweries are the best place to find them. Personally I'm a fan of dark and forbidding brews at any time of year, so look forward to the winter beers coming on.

This year Shepherd Neame's Original Porter has been a favourite of mine. I haven't seen it in any free houses so a thirst for this has led me to spend more time in Sheps' tied houses - no bad thing. The beer, available each year from December through to February, doesn't tend to receive much critical acclaim from the Americans who dominate beer rating websites. However, its availability in properly managed Central London pubs means it deserves at least as much attention as rarer examples of the style. I haven't had anything but a perfectly conditioned pint of this - probably due in part to the fact porters and stouts tend to be easier to keep (with a longer life once the cask is tapped), and partly because of the quality pubs I have been enjoying it in. It may not smack you in the face like many porters, but its slightly thinner body and subtle roast bitterness make it a beer you can actually have a session with. The alcohol content at 4.8% abv is about right for this too. In the glass, it's almost black with a rocky head and certainly looks inviting.

Shepherd Neame own and manage a number of boozers in London, part of a larger estate of 373 pubs, mainly in the brewery's home county of Kent. If you wanted to visit a few, and were starting in the City, in the vicinity Bank station, you could try The Cock and Woolpack (6, Finch Lane, London, EC3V 3NA). This pub sells itself as "a local in the City", and seems to live up to that for a hardcore of suited boozing stalwarts. A far more interesting place is The Old Doctor Butler's Head (pictured right, 12-24 Masons Avenue, London, EC2V 5BT), tucked away in an alley off Coleman Street near Moorgate. Despite being hidden like the Batcave, the pub is often packed and seems to be a focus for a proper drinking culture which thankfully still lives on in the City. Next door there's a chrome and glass Corney & Barrow wine bar, which makes this historic pub, dating back to the 17th century, look all the better in comparison. The complete collection of WWII Spitfire ads which caused a minor uproar in recent years have been framed and line the wall on the way down to the gents, if you like that kind of thing.

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If you leave the City and head west to Smithfield Market, The Bishop's Finger (pictured right, 9-10 West Smithfield, Barbican, London, EC1A 9JR) is a busy pub, often standing room only. The upstairs room is pleasant but is invariably booked out for a private function. I have heard this was SN's first London pub, and was a mecca for CAMRA types in the 1970s, when real ale was a rarity. It may have had a bit more character once but now isn't a comfortable place, though perfectly adequate for one if you're on a pub crawl (which we are).

If you move up to the north west and into to Bloomsbury, a favourite drinking area of mine, you can find The Rugby Tavern (19, Great James St, London, WC1N 3ES). Inside, although the framed pubfillers on the wall do refer to the sport of the same name, you can rest assured this isn't full of egg chasing fools. Staff are friendly, the interior is traditional and comfortable, and the place gets pleasantly busy at peak times. In summer (or indeed all year round if you've got your beer coat on) there's plenty of room on the pavement outside, although you won't see much of the world go by on this quiet corner, despite being right in the centre of London.
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The final pub on my own personal Shepherd Neame trail is Mabel's Tavern (9 Mabeldon Place, London, WC1H 9AZ). This supposedly haunted (yeah, whatever) pub was North London CAMRA's pub of the year for 2006. CAMRA members have their own views on good pubs which don't always match mine - they give Wetherspoons outlets far too much credence (most of them are day centres, not pubs) - but this is a decent pub. Unlike all the others on this trail, it is open at weekends and is handily positioned for Euston and King's Cross. Its fairly big so finding a seat is rarely a problem (though read on). On Saturday afternoon we spent a few hours in Mabel's, though in the early evening quiet drinking was suddenly ruled out when the Socialist Worker party annual conference in the town hall next door turned out. The place filled up with hundreds of wannabe Citizen Smiths. If you ever find yourself in that situation, learn from my mistakes and don't try and humour them. Thankfully the Original Porter was on top form, if not the conversation.

The article above may well leave you wondering why on earth someone would want to pub crawl from Bank to King's Cross. I haven't quite figured that one out myself, to be honest.

Cheers.

Information:

Shepherd Neame of Faversham, Kent, is Britain's oldest brewer, having celebrated its third centenary in 1998. They have a fairly extensive pub estate in London. Details are on their website here. Their standard beers are Spitfire, Master Brew and Kent's Best, none of which excite me in the least. Bishop's Finger (5% abv) is the ESB (extra special bitter) of the range, and is worth a try if you see it.

Brewing in London

The closure of Young's Ram Brewery in Wandsworth in October last year gave Meantime of Greenwich the opportunity to announce they were London's number two brewer. Sadly, this says as much about the sorry state of London brewing than it does for Meantime's impressive progress in its seven years on the scene. Alhough larger than a conventional microbrewery, Meantime aren't considered a regional, and probably don't aim to be, concentrating on exports to the US and producing own-brand beers for Sainsburys. Consequently, Fullers of Chiswick stand alone as London's only major brewer. Apart from a couple of small and unremarkable brewpub outfits in the West End and one in Blackheath, I'm not aware of anywhere else in the whole of London where beer is produced commercially. Please let me know if there is somewhere I've not come across. In case you were wondering, the Budweiser chemical factory in Mortlake simply doesn't count.

More bad news came earlier in 2006 the Pitfield microbrewery closed after more than two decades in Hoxton. Now relocated to just outside of Colchester, the brewing operation has resumed production, and the renowned beer shop survives as an online retailer. Pitfield's closure was doubly sad - they had not only revived the brewing tradition of East London, but were also producing interesting recreations of historic beers, representing another link to the past which has now been broken. I have had only one beer in this range, bottle-conditioned 1824 Mild - a heart wearming brew at 6.5% abv. In 1998 Michael Jackson (clearly taking a break from moonwalking) listed Pitfield in an article for the Independent in which he asked "who says small breweries cannot compete?" Maybe they can, Michael, but not in the heart of London.

When breweries close, the buildings they leave behind serve as reminders of London's lost brewing heritage. Every day I pass two former breweries when I walk to work. The first is the Cannon Brewery on St John Street. Much of the original building remains, though grafted on to the side is the steel and glass "Brewhouse Yard" complex of flats, with design studios and a Tesco Metro at street level. At the very edge of the City, the impressive red brick complex once home to Whitbread & Co. is now a suite of conference spaces. Staff in top hats and frock coats hover around the entrance, and I doubt much beer will be consumed at any of the functions that will take place there today.

Other closed breweries you may have noticed around central London include the Truman Brewery on Brick Lane, now given over to office space. You can still drink in the forecourt, used by Vibe Bar in summer as a beer garden. It has its appeal on an evening in summer, but you won't get a pint of anything vaguely decent, and you'll be lucky to get served before the onset of winter. On Whitechapel Road, the old Albion Brewery is still in pretty good shape from the outside, but inside is given over to a development of fairly pokey (though no doubt sold as "luxury") flats.

The remarkable complex of buildings at Shad Thames on the southern side of Tower Bridge housed, among other things, the Anchor Brewery from 1787 to 1982, operated by Courage at the end. No prizes for guessing what those evocative buildings now conceal - the kind of flat the aspirational might have dreamed of owning in the early 90s, along with a smattering of All Bar Ones and Pizza Expresses to keep them fed and watered. As is often the way, the old brewery tap is still a pub - The Anchor Brewhouse, now owned and operated by Sam Smith's (cheap beer, but little cheer). In the same way, that great pub, The Wenlock Arms, is the old tap for the brewery of the same name (closed in 1962 and now demolised). Indeed, it was part of the deal between Young's and Wandsworth Council that the Ram Brewery's tap would remain open, also housing a heritage centre, with the ancient beam engines on display. It still seems to be closed, so perhaps this part of the plan didn't come to fruition.

I suppose rates, rents and lack of room to expand mean producing beer in the capital simply isn't economical. The old brewery buildings that are dotted across London (I have only mentioned a few above) might be here to stay, preserving at least the bricks and mortar - but it would be nice to drink something brewed on my own doorstep for a change.

Information:

1. Meantime Brewing's website is here. The brewery was launched in 2000 by Alastair Hook. The main outlets for its beers are its own pub, The Greenwich Union (56, Royal Hill, Greenwich, London, SE10 8RT, Tel: 020 8692 6258), which I like, and the restaurant / bar Brew Wharf (1 Stoney Street, London, SE1 9AA , Tel: 020 7378 6601), which I don't. You will also see their bottled beers in a few upmarket restaurants and bars across London. Among other things, they brew Sainsbury's Taste the Difference range, which includes some creditable beers such as a Vienna-style amber lager and a Franconian-style dark lager.
2. Fullers of Chiswick (website here) is a truly great brewery. I like most of their beers, particularly the bottle-conditioned 1845. Fullers pubs are dotted around London, my current favourite being small and understated Artillery Arms on Bunhill Row, London, EC1Y 8ND (Tel: 020 7253 4683).
3. The brewpub operations in the West End I referred to are Bunker (41 Earlham Street, WC2H 9LD, Tel: 020 7240 0606) and Mash (19-21 Great Portland Street, London, W1W 8QB, Tel: 020 7637 5555). Both are very much bars as opposed to pubs, and I don't find them particularly welcoming places. In Blackheath, Zero Degrees brews its own beer at Montpelier Vale, Blackheath Village, London, SE3 0TJ (Tel: 020 8852 5619). I have yet to visit.
4. Pitfield Beers (including the historic range I mentioned above) are still in production up in Essex, and can be ordered direct from the Pitfield Beer Shop online - see here. The Duke of Cambridge at 30 St Peter's Street, Islington, N1 8JT (Tel: 020 7359 3066) is a reliable outlet for Pitfield's Shoreditch Stout and other draught beers, but hang on to your wallet and watch out for the braying organic food freaks in there.
5. Young's Brewery Tap is at 68 Wandsworth High Street, London, SW18 4LB (Tel: 020 8870 2894). As stated above, it doesn't seem to have re-opened yet - hopefully it will soon (it seems it's gone for good - see update below).

UPDATE:

Chris O pointed out that I forgot to include Battersea Brewery - sorry about that, and thanks to Chris for his comment. I have tried their Power Station Porter before and was impressed, so I can make no excuses. Battersea Brewery was founded in late 2001 and is very much a London brewery, based down in SW11. Their website is here. It seems that in addition to the aforementioned porter, they also brew a bitter (often available on draught at The Hole in The Wall, 5 Mepham Street, SE1 8SQ) and a pale amber ale.

John Bratley brought to my attention to the recently-opened Horseshoe (28 Heath Street, Hampstead, London, NW3 6TE). The owner runs a very small brewing operation in an ex-Wetherspoons up in Hampstead. This pub/restaurant outfit brews a bitter and one other beer for sale on the premises. Reviews seem mixed but I will give it a try when next in the area. John also pointed out that Brew Wharf in Borough also brew their own beers, as well as serving those from Meantime. Thanks John.

UPDATE (9/2/07):

I received an email yesterday from Young's stating that The Brewery Tap is now closed for good. A shame.

The first beer of the year - Liefmans Goudenband - The Crown Tavern, Clerkenwell

The first beer of the year for me was a bottle of Liefmans Goudenband at The Crown Tavern, Clerkenwell.

On New Year's Eve, after emptying the fridge at home of what beer remained from the Christmas stash, we moved on here, just for a couple and to meet up with other stragglers. Several (well, two) shit dinner parties (ok, just one) had been rejected in favour of a vague plan to see the fireworks down by the river and drink good beer in decent pubs. Mercifully, the fireworks bit was forgotten about when the rain set in, and a full evening at The Crown's improvised party quickly became Plan B. As usual there was a nice mix of folks, great beer selection, decent music.

About the pub: The Crown is, for me, one of the best pubs in Clerkenwell. A year ago I wouldn't have said that. The pub has an upstairs room which once hosted music hall performances. It's reputed to be the location of a meeting between Lenin and Stalin in 1905, when the former was editing Iskra from 37a Clerkenwell Green a few doors down and the latter was in town to suck up to some party elders. There's loads of seating outside on Clerkenwell Green, once home to the market where Dickens imagined Fagin and the Artful Dodger teaching Oliver Twist to pick a pocket or two. However, when I first started using the place, arsey, ropey service and an ever-declining beer selection meant it didn't live up to its potential.

Then, during 2006, the place closed for a couple of weeks. From the outside it remained identical, and changes to the interior were mostly imperceptible. Period features, such as they are, remained in place. A couple of fridges moved up to eye level, I think some of the faux-vintage, mismatched furniture was replaced with other faux-vintage, mismatched furniture. What changed for the better was the staff - a good set of people who didn't seem to hate each other's guts and understood that queuing for a drink longer than it takes Ronnie Corbett to tell a joke is only acceptable to students and teenagers. Crucially, the beer selection changed for the better - lots of truly unusual bottled stuff (Liefmans Goudenband, Cantillon Gueze, Herold Black Lager, an extensive range of trappists), an extra hand pull (though they still only seem to serve Timothy Taylor Landlord and Adnams Bitter) and the likes of Franziskaner Weissbeer and Maredsous Blonde on tap. I don't know why they needed to close for a fortnight to give some staff the bum's rush and put on some new beers, but the change was welcome and now I'm all over the place.

About the beer: Liefmans Goudenband is a current favourite. It's a Flemish brown ale that is fantasically drinkable but pretty dangerous at 8% ABV. The bottle conditioning allows the beer to mature and evolve if laid down in a cellar. The same brewery is perhaps more famous for its fruit beers, and in particular their Kriekbier, which is quite possibly Belgium's finest. Unusually, Liefmans base their fruity offerings not on a lambic or witbier base, but instead on a mature brown ale. This base beer is sold as Goudenband. On Christmas Day I was more than happy to tuck into two 75cl bottles, laid down in the brewery's cellars since 1998. The trademark paper wrapping around the bottle was appropriately soiled and 8 years worth of accumulated sediment required some careful pouring. Having tried the beer at various ages, it seems to peak at about five years old, although it'd be interesting to see what happens to this complex and satisfying ale after decades in the bottle. Maybe if I could stop myself from drinking one for more than about 15 seconds I'd find out.

Interestingly, this beautiful brewery in Oudenaarde, East Flanders was, from the mid-70s to the mid-80s, owned by solid (but rather less glamorous) Sunderland brewer Vaux. Interesting for me, at least, because I used to work in a Vaux pub back in the old country. In 1999, Vaux closed its brewing operations and became Swallow Group plc, concentrating on its hotel business of the same name. After more than a century of swelling the beer bellies of miserable Mackems - and jovial Geordies who were too pissed to realise they were drinking beer from Sunderland - a vital part of Wearside's history is gone.

I haven't visited the Liefmans Brewery in Oudenaarde yet, but it's on the list.

Cheers.

Information:

1. The Crown Tavern is at 43 Clerkenwell Green, London, EC1R 0EG (Tel: 020 7253 4973). It's open seven days a week, closing at 12pm on school nights and 1pm on Friday and Saturday.
2. Liefmans Goudenband can be purchased online from Speciality Beer Merchants - here's a link. Happy to give them a plug - they're the best online beer seller I've ordered from.