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Adnam’s East Green and the Crown pub, Victoria Park

The Crown pub, Victoria Park, as photographed by EwanM
The Crown pub, Victoria Park, as photographed by EwanM

On one of our random wanderings round East London, we stopped off at the Crown Pub, next to Victoria Park. I gather this has been through a few incarnations, and is now part of the Geronimo Inns chain. It’s gastro-y, with a lounge bit downstairs and a dining room upstairs.

Top marks for the feng shui — despite the cowskins and bare floors, they do manage to make it feel cosy (good lighting, darkish walls and a cleverly placed book case).

They had Adnam’s East Green on tap, which claims to be carbon neutral. We haven’t heard lots of enthusiastic reviews about this beer, so we weren’t expecting much. We were pleasantly surprised. It had an orangey, spicy aroma, like a Belgian wit beer, which was how it tasted too. The Adnam’s website makes no references to use of spices, but I’m blowed if I can work out how they got that flavour without them. Refreshing and different, and worth trying even if you don’t want to save the planet.

They also had Pride and Doombar on tap, in reasonable condition. In bottles, the usual selection of dull world lagers, but they also had Anchor Steam.

We liked this place, as it was genuinely relaxing and cosy — too many wannabe modern pubs just don’t manage to pull this off. We didn’t try the food, although it’s supposed to be good. Worth a visit if you’re in the area, and a great spot for a Sunday afternoon pint after a stroll through the park.

Boak (via text)

Notes

1. The Crown is at 223 Grove Road, E3, next to Victoria Park, and is equidistant from Bethnal Green and Mile End tubes. Beer in the Evening review here.

2. Adnam’s have achieved carbon neutrality through a mixture of genuine reductions in carbon emissions and by offsetting the rest. We’re not that convinced by offsetting, but it’s interesting to see a brewery quantify the carbon emissions created by brewing and attempt to do something about it.

3. Geronimo Inns also own the Phoenix in Victoria, which is rubbish, and The Betjemen Arms in King’s Cross St Pancras, where we haven’t yet been. So I don’t know what belonging to this chain is supposed to mean in terms of quality.

Once again, we find ourselves indebted to EwanM at Flickr for the picture. He appears to be on a mission to photograph every London pub and put up his pictures under a Creative Commons license. Thanks, Ewan!

12 replies on “Adnam’s East Green and the Crown pub, Victoria Park”

Are you sure it was East Green?
Doesn’t sound like the East Green I know and hate!
Perhaps they changed the recipe to add some flavour after the adverse publicity?

I’m one of the guys from Geronimo so thanks for your kind words about the Crown – delighted to show you the Betjeman and get your feedback on the Phoenix in Victoria

Hi there

I brew at Adnams so thanks for the nice review on East Green. The spicy notes in the beer come from the hop we use in it. It’s called Boadicea.
We did make a change to the beer about 4 weeks ago. We found that the hop character wasn’t staying so we have changed the way we add the late hops. Basically we make a hop tea and add that to the beer after it’s been fermented. Anyone who hasn’t tried it recently do give it another go, hopefully you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Fergus — thanks for dropping in.

That’s a fascinating nugget of info. We might well try that technique with one of our own beers. Is is frustrating for you when you taste an Adnams beer in a pub and it’s not up-to-scratch because of something that’s happened in the handling or serving? It would drive me insane.

Ed — hello! The Lord Palmerston in Holloway one of yours too, isn’t it? We’ve got friends who live nearby and have always found that a very cheerful, friendly place with pretty decent beer. I’ve never been to the Phoenix, but I daresay Boak will be happy to give some specific feedback.

not had it on tap, but found the bottled version a little average – although I thought that it’d go down well on a hot day. Top marks for the carbon neutrality though…

Thanks for your kind words. I am indeed trying to get photos of all London’s pub, if not quite drink in all of them… though I’d certainly be willing to try the Crown. I’ve been in a few other Geronimos, and they’re generally pretty decent.

Welcome Ewan! I’m quite glad for the sake of your health that you haven’t drunk in all the pubs you’ve photographed!

Ed – two problems with the Phoenix. One is that it doesn’t do crowds very well (Something about the layout?) — I know all pubs in that area get very busy on a Friday night but it seemed to take a lot longer to get served there than other places. Secondly all the ale was stale when I visited (back in June / July I think) — kudos for having Meantime Raspberry in bottles though.

Hi Bailey

It is extremly frustrating when you’ve tasted a batch of beer that you think is great and then find it in trade and it’s not right. We just try and brew the beer as best we can. East Green isn’t meant to be a huge beer, just something you can enjoy, hopefully with a bit more charaacter than your average pale beer, I know it won’t appeal to everyone but that’s one of the great things about beer, the diversity.

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