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london pubs

New Pubs and Old Favourites #3: The Bricklayers Arms, Putney

We can’t quite call the Bricklayers in Putney an old favourite because we only made it there once, about a decade ago.

On that occasion, we were delighted to find a pub in London with beer from Timothy Taylor. Not just the then ubiquitous Landlord but the full range – Golden Best, Ram Tam, dark mild, and more.

But then we moved to Cornwall, and while we were away, the pub changed, losing its unique selling point and becoming just another London pub with a ‘great range of real ale’. People stopped talking about the Bricklayers, and we forgot it existed.

Then before Christmas, the buzz began again: Taylor’s was back at the Brickie.

We went out of our way to visit in the week between Christmas and the new year, despite Google’s insistence that the pub was closed on Fridays. As we approached along the quiet backstreet we felt reassured: the lights were on, figures were moving behind the frosted glass.

Bricklayers pub exterior.

Not many figures, though: we walked into an almost empty pub, and the people at the bar were into the last inches of their pints, making their long goodbyes.

It’s an exciting sight, a line of pumps with Taylor’s clips, especially when rarities such as the porter are there alongside the big names.

There’s been a little controversy about this brewery lately. Depending who you listen to, it’s either overlooked and underappreciated, or over-hyped and newly trendy, but we like the beer and have liked it for almost as long as we’ve been paying attention.

This time, there were some hits and misses. Landlord was off – a tribute to the power of the brand, we suppose – and the dark mild was simply muddy. Knowle Spring was sadly bland. The porter we’d been so keen to try seemed like a squirt of cheap cola.

But Ram Tam! Oh, Ram Tam. Another best mild, we think, and though people keep telling us it’s just Landlord with caramel… It doesn’t taste like Landlord with caramel. Perhaps we’re mugs being fooled by the optics, perceiving flavours that aren’t there, but we are perceiving them, so who cares.

A mother and father with moody teenage son arrived, made small talk, and agreed to try a mix of Golden Best and dark mild that the local CAMRA crawl had apparently enjoyed on its sweep through.

A regular arrived, concealing his drunkenness expertly until he’d been served, and then staring dumbfounded at a pint he didn’t really want. “I tell you what, I’ll have a whisky,” he said, but didn’t get one.

The fire flickered.

The boards creaked.

Faces appeared against the frosted glass, scattered into pink points, features scrunched in consideration. To come in from the cold, or walk on? They walked on.

13 replies on “New Pubs and Old Favourites #3: The Bricklayers Arms, Putney”

It’s not just my ancient taste buds that find Timothy Taylor’s beers disappointing nowadays then. The only beer you liked was the one with added caramel…

I have to give this another try. I heard so much great about this place, and when I first visited 4 or 5 years ago, it was dismal. Empty, with only two casks on tap, and a selection of Continental lagers. I like lager, but I had specifically come for the cask ales, and to find a poor selection of whatever (can’t remember, but nothing I couldn’t get at my local so say London Pride and Doombar), it was a sad affair.

But if things have turned around, maybe worth another trip.

I went in the Friday before Christmas, they had all 7 on – the landlord was out of this world.

A full range of Taylors Beers in London does sound good. It’s even unusual where I live which is just 5 miles from the brewery. In fact I can only think of the Woolly Sheep in Skipton that has their whole range.

I had the Porter last year at the Falcon in Littondale and thought it was a good addition to their range.

I was told the Ram Tam is Landlord with molasses added (as opposed to caramel), but I guess that’s much the same thing.

Sure I’ve seen the full range in the Town Hall Tavern in the centre of Leeds?
Or is my memory playing tricks?

I think you might be right Fred. No doubt the Boltmakers in Keighley also has a full range. Just making the point that whilst many pubs take one or two Taylors beers, its a lot more unusual to see the complete gamut.

We also tried that very unscientific test, and it tasted ‘dark’. And there’s two of us, so we win.

Ram Tam is Landlord with some caramel and block invert sugar but both are added prior to fermentation so still impart additional flavours and residual sweetness that’s not lost in what used to be a very enthusiastic secondary fermentation.

Haven’t had the porter, but I have found the craft-y(?) sub-range (with the diamond-shaped clips) to be rather unimpressive generally. I’m a big fan of Landlord, Golden Best and Ram Tam, though, and Boltmaker is one of my favourite session beers anywhere. God knows when (if) I’ll be in Putney, but if the opportunity arises I’ll seek this place out!

When I first moved to the Midlands and encountered Marston’s Merry Monk, I thought it was the closest thing I had drunk to Ram Tam. I always imagined it as Pedigree having caramel added…

Actually been drinking some rather similar dark ales in Latvia this weekend – rather surprising, actually.

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