Categories
london pubs real ale

The Bree Louise, at last

breelouise

The Bree Louise near Euston Station is in the Good Beer Guide and well-loved by the local CAMRA branch. Beer bloggers, on the whole, haven’t been impressed — here’s what Tandleman, Jeff, Ally and The Beer Nut had to say.

We popped in on a Friday night and wondered if perhaps the management had taken the online slaggings-off to heart. It was full, with plenty of  ‘normal’ after work types chatting outside or munching on pies. There were some students, some academics and some tourists. Quite a mix, in short.

It didn’t smell, and, although the decor was a bit tired-looking, the place was very clean. The mostly very young bar staff all looked like they were in the same indie band and were positively charming.

As for drinks, we started with a couple from Moorhouse. Witch’s Cauldron was sweet with a delicious bite at the end. Witchfinder General was also pleasant enough.

We then went for two extremes in one round — Bateman’s Dark Mild (3%) and Otley 8 (8%). The mild was fruity and sour (should it have been?) but, in all honesty, on the borderline of being bland.  The Otley was syrupy and reminded us of Fuller’s Golden Pride, but with citrusy hops at the end. It would have been better in a nice glass (the half pint tumbler strikes again) but we really enjoyed it nonetheless.

We suspect we saw the Bree Louise at its best but, on this showing, will be coming back again some time.

Not all online beer types have a downer on the Bree Louise — there’s a more positive take from Kake et al here.

Categories
london pubs

Nordic Bar

nordicbar

If it wasn’t for a friend’s birthday, we would never have bothered visiting Nordic Bar in Fitzrovia, in central London.  It’s a Scandinavian themed cellar bar.  The focus is mostly on bizarre cocktails but there is a small selection of beer.

Admittedly most of it is pretty mainstream (I’ve never seen so many different types of Carlsberg in one place, and none of them interesting) but there was also Nils Oscar “God” lager. It’s nice enough, with a big malt flavour, and streets ahead of the other offerings. But it’s no Brooklyn Lager.

Lapin Kulta (“Gold of Lapland”) has a great name, but is a stunningly bland beer. Here’s what the Blogobeer lads thought of it.

“Stockholm 7.2” is a festbier, and is passable — quite sweet and a little bready — but not exciting enough to warrant the strength.

The bar does have an interesting (for London) range of Scandinavian snacks and is a nice place to embrace the dark northern European winter.

Categories
homebrewing

Brewing: better than meditation

meditativeboiler

I love brewing.  I find it so relaxing.

Mostly, it’s because of all the gaps (not the brewing, but the spaces between).  While the mash is going or the wort is getting to the boil,  you can happily while away the time playing MarioKart, but still feel like you’re doing something productive.

It also makes cleaning the kitchen feel less like a chore and more like an exciting preparatory ritual.

At the end of the day, we’re left with sparkling clean house; we haven’t thought about work for hours; and we’ve got a fermenter full of what might turn out to be the best beer ever.

Boak

Categories
beer reviews breweries london

We take it all back

villageipa

No sooner do we have a go at their selection of beer than the owners reinvent Eat17 in Walthamstow as a sort of lounge/bar/cafe/restaurant kind of thing, with its own locally brewed house beer.

Eat17 IPA is made by Brodie’s of Leyton, a brewery we want desperately to succeed, although the beers aren’t always to our taste. With this beer, they’ve really struck gold — it’s very pale, spritzy and floral and really very much like a cask ale.

We’ll stop going on about Walthamstow now.

Categories
Generalisations about beer culture pubs

Kids in the lounge

loungebar

I’m just about old enough to remember when pubs had separate saloon bars and lounges. In particular, I recall several miserable afternoons sitting on torn and stained couches in unheated ‘lounges’ because those were the only bits of the pub where kids were allowed. The fun bit — the bit of the pub where the action was, and the laughing, and the fruit machine — was the saloon.

These days, most pubs have knocked rooms through to make one big drinking hangar, or turned the lounge into a restaurant area.

Do I miss the lounge? No, not really. I’d rather drink my Panda Pop with everyone else.