Categories
buying beer london

Army and Navy beer shop is back!

A while back, we reported the sad news that one of London’s few specialist beer outlets had closed.

Now it’s back.

The Army and Navy beer and wine shop in House of Fraser on Victoria Street, Westminster, London, reopened about a week ago, on the second floor. It’s a bit smaller than before, but it’s nice to see it back.

Categories
breweries london pubs

Harvey's porter at the Royal Oak

royaloakpub.jpgIt’s hardly an original observation, but we have to say that the Royal Oak on Tabard Street in Borough is a great pub, with wonderful beer.

It’s an old-skool pub, with some amazing beards on display, but there were also some youngsters, and even a party of very jolly Spaniards in a corner who were enjoying pints of Best and shepherds pie.

The beers are all good — Sussex Best is a classic, the mild is absurdly drinkable at 3% and the Armada tastes like a weak (but not dumbed-down) IPA. In fact, one of the wonderful things about Harvey’s is their ability to deliver astounding beer in session-able doses.

The star of the show was the porter, the strongest of the offerings at 4.8%. Michael Jackson described the taste as “toasty, faintly anise-like”. It had stacks going on — waves of roastiness and dark fruits, with a very unctuous body and great aftertaste. I think I might even prefer it to Fullers*.

The Royal Oak is on Tabard Street, near Borough station, or a short walk from London Bridge.

*Which, incidentally, you can get on tap at the Euston Flyer. Don’t know if Fullers have responded to my prayers and started doing it all year round, or whether it’s just left over from the autumn, but it’s marvelous!

Picture by da mad pixelist at Flickr, under a Creative Commons license.

Categories
Beer history breweries london

Old Combe Brewery — again

Michael D dropped by and commented on this post about the Old Combe brewery on Long Acre in London. He’s provided some interesting family history and pointed out some useful links:

[My] great great grandfather Frank Wilson worked at Combe, as did his father William Wilson. On the census records they are listed as “practical brewers”.

The family lived in Long Acre and then King Street just round the corner. Very convenient.

There is a bit more on the buildings on the camden website http://mycamden.camden.gov.uk/gdw/T/ListedBuildingDetail?LbNo=10200&xsl=ListedBuildingDetail.xsl.

There is an old picture of the brewery workers in Castle St at http://www.photolondon.org.uk/mol/mol_bool.htm

And an interesting story about the history of Combe’s at http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=22171 , including a reference to very down to earth Royal Brewhouse Dinner in 1807.

But he also has a question:

If anyone has more detail on Combe’s, would appreciate. There’s not much in The Story of Watneys.

Anyone…?

Categories
Beer history london

A Day at a London Brewery

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In the early 1840s, George Dodd trolled around all kinds of different British industrial establishments, writing up his adventures for the Penny Magazine.

I bought a copy of Penny Magazine No. 577 today. It includes “A Day at a London Brewery”, the brewery in question being Barclay’s in Southwark.

I was going to scan it, but instead, I’ll link to Google Books, where there’s a perfectly good scan of Days at the Factories, the 1843 anthology containing all of Dodd’s factory memoirs.

Of particular note:

“The distinction between ale and beer is well known by the taste, but it is not easily described in words: ale is of a great specific gravity, lighter coloured, more transparent, and less bitter than porter.”

Eh? 

Picture credit:

Days at the Factories Or, the Manufacturing Industry of Great Britain Described, and Illustrated by Numerous Engravings of Machines and Processes. Series I.- London By George Dodd

Categories
design london pubs

Dimple Glasses

dimple.jpgIn yesterday’s post, what I didn’t mention was that the Old Monk is serving its real ale in old fashioned handled dimple glasses. I gather that a couple of would-be trendy pubs in the Islington area have started to do the same thing.

This is an interesting affectation which seems designed to appeal simultaneously to the old school beer fan and the retro-ironic hipster. I suspect we’re going to see a lot more of it about.

I gather the reason for their demise was that they were relatively expensive to make, prone to breaking, and hard to stack. Those arguments hardly hold up now that fans of German wheat beers or Belgian obscurities are getting their favourite tipples served in ever-more elaborately shaped and printed glasses, some of them a foot tall, others as delicate as egg shells.

Mild in particular tastes a little bit nicer out of a dimple — well, it does to me, anyway, because that’s how my grandad used to drink it. Let’s hope that by May, when every decent pub in the land will have a mild on, the dimple has made its triumphant comeback everywhere.

Picture from h-e-d.co.uk, who also sell dimples if you fancy a few to use at home.

Bailey