Category: Travel in Europe

Saturday was our last day in England and we finished up strong by visiting a couple of breweries in the north London suburbs and returning to GBBF for its final session.

When we were in London in December, I tried a Colorado IPA from Red Squirrel Brewery.  I thought it absolutely brilliant and knew I wanted to visit the brewery.

Luckily, we had a connection through our friend Paul, the cellarman at the Old Fountain. Paul was able to grease the wheel and set up the brewery visit. So Saturday morning, we met Paul at track 10 (not 9 3/4) at King’s Cross Station for the half hour ride to Hertford.

Located in an industrial park near the Hertford North rail station, Red Squirrel is a 10 barrel brewery producing a dozen or so real ales. Unfortunately, due to the ‘hop issue’, my beloved Colorado IPA was no longer in production.

Gary Hayward, the owner, is amazingly a one-man operation, handling every task you can imagine. Brewing, washing casks, distribution, sales, accounts receivable, accounts payable… he does it all.

The beer we got to try is the replacement for Colorado IPA… Springfield IPA. While not as hoppy as its west coast-style brethren, it still will raise the eyebrows of any hophead out there. We want to thank Gary for taking a few minutes out of his busy day to spend time with us.

As our luck would have it, there was also a another brewery in Hertford (well, there are actually two other breweries, but only one is open to the public) to visit before we headed back to London. The Old Cross Tavern, located in the city center, not only has an impressive collection of hand pumps, but also a small brewery located in the former kitchen.

Their beer that they were pulling was Laugh and Titter, a very nice Bitter. It makes sense that it was a Bitter since that it is what Laugh and Titter is slang for.

Even more impressive was their collection of vintage bottled beer. There was several hundred bottles including vintage Thomas Hardy from the 1970s and a bottle of Bass Ale from 1869! I guess I should stress that these were full bottles of beer, not empties.

It was time to return to London and after parting with Paul, we headed over to Earl’s Court and the the last session of the festival.

Call us GBBF rookies which is apropos because we are. And we pulled off a really, really, really BIG rookie maneuver.

Over half the reason for going to the trade session is so you can try the Champion Beer before the masses are let in the venue. This year the winner was Alton’s Pride from Triple fff Brewery. During the trade session, despite knowing that we were supposed to try the Champion, I never bothered finding out who had won.

We doubled our mistake by not trying it on Thursday when we were volunteering. The beer was only in the next section over, B6.

Well, Saturday, was going to be the day we tried it. We met a friend – more about that in a second – and then bee lined for section B6. It was out but we were told that it would be back on in an hour and a half – 5pm. We returned dutifully at 4:56pm and were told that is was gone for good. Lesson learned.

So the friend we met is JJ, formerly known as The Thirsty Hopster and a fellow Bay Area Beer Blogger.  JJ’s claim to fame, in reference to us, is that in our 10 years of travel to Europe she is the first person that we know from the States who we have met up with over there. Congrats JJ! Your plaque is in the mail.

By 6pm, the festival was winding down but we wanted to stay the last hour to get video of the people streaming out. But an odd thing happened… as more and more casks ran dry, people started leaving on their own volition and by closing time, 7pm, the convention hall was pretty empty.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention our fussball friends…  unfortunately, we don’t remember their names (If by chance you guys are reading this, send us an e-mail). We were wondering around the hall in the last hour and walked by one of the fussball tables scattered around the venue. Three guys were looking for a fourth and I got asked to join a game. So, we played a game of fussball (no spinning) and then talked with them for about an forty five minutes. Truly one of our greatest pleasures of going to Europe: good beer and good conversation. Thanks.

 

It seems like it has been a while since Chris and I engaged in the typical tourist things on our trips. So with more time to spend in London than we have ever had before, we decided to try to take in some of the sites.

First, we took a boat cruise down the river Thames to Greenwich. The trip started with us standing in line with hordes of other tourists to buy our tickets. The trip took over an hour, as the captain drove slowly and provided a commentary on the sites. Despite feeling a little dorky, it was very enjoyable. The weather cooperated and the captain had interesting things to point out. My favorite was the pier where they chained convicted pirates and waited for the tide to rise. Apparently, the judge enjoyed watching them drown while drinking pints at a pub across the river. The pirates were left chained for at least two high tides to ensure they were dead. Very considerate.

Once in Greenwich, we couldn’t resist our natural state so we reverted back to our ‘normal’ selves and walked 10 minutes up the street to two pubs that were recommended to us. The first, the Greenwich Union, is a pub for the Meantime Brewery. Unfortunately, no brewing is done at the pub so we couldn’t count it on the list. Along with the taster set and half pints, we had this lovely dish with potato cake, salt pork and a poached egg.

We also visited the Young’s pub, Richard I, which is next door to the Greenwich Union.

With a few pints under our belt, we went back to the tourist thing.

We visited the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. Located there is the clock from which we get Greenwich Mean Time. As we arrived, a tour group of older Russians was just leaving. However, still around were large groups of Italian tourists. Noticeably absent (on the whole trip actually) were Americans. It is just too darn expensive for Americans right now.

The view from Greenwich Park (location of the observatory) is fantastic and I would have liked to wander some more. However, we got a late start that day and the boat trip out there took a bit longer than we anticipated, so we only had a few hours to spend out in Greenwich before the last boat left. Unfortunately, we did not get to see the Cutty Sark, as it is currently being renovated.

Our Greenwich tip: Leave by mid-morning to allow yourself plenty of time to walk around. Be sure to venture away from the pier area.

The cruise turned out to be one of the more affordable tourist attractions. We had intended to visit the Tower of London on this trip. However, it was going to cost over $50 for the two of us! We decided the money would be better spent on pints in historic pubs instead. Based on suggestions from friends, we visited several pubs that we later found in our London’s Top 10 book. So some of the pubs we visited turned out to be tourist sites.

On the recommendation from several people, we went for Thai food at the Churchill Arms. It may seem like an odd combination, but Thai food in pubs is not so uncommon. The restaurants are usually operated by someone else, but located within the pub.

When we arrived at the Churchill Arms, it was packed. It took some hovering and vibing, but we eventually got a table. Then we began to notice that the place was crawling with Americans. We later saw it in a book of attractions, which would explain the high American count. The food was great and the pub did begin to thin out a bit as the time for food to end drew near. Table space was still premium, though, and our table was scooped up as soon as we lifted our rears off the chairs.

Our tip: In order to get a table to eat, try to get there before the after work crowd arrives. Don’t worry, the place will get hoppin’ in no time, but you’ll already have a seat.

We also visited Market Porter next to Borough Market. We had a quick pint, then wandered the market. The market is phenomenal and we bought ham, cheese, cornichons and bread for our picnic lunch. We bought the cheese at the nearby Neal’s Yard Dairy and it was crazy good! The area was busy with tourists and business people alike since we were there during lunch time. We never knew that so many business people imbibed in the liquid lunch.

Cheshire Cheese and Ye Olde Mitre House are two other historic pubs we visited. Both were hundreds of years old and they seemed like mazes with multiple small rooms and narrow staircases. A person could especially get lost in Cheshire Cheese if they were trying not to be found. Cheshire Cheese had a cozy bar in the front with a cool old fireplace. And, it said “Gentlemen only served in this bar” above the door. They must not enforce that anymore because I had already ordered and drank my beer before I noticed it.

Our tip: When visiting Ye Olde Mitre House, be sure to wear your running shoes and a reflective jacket in order to safely negotiate the Holborn Circus roundabout. Go there and you’ll know what I mean.

On Saturday, we met our friend Paul at King’s Cross Station to go to the North London suburbs. If you are a Harry Potter fan, you know that the train to Hogwarts leaves from platform 9 ^3/4. Lucky for us, our train was leaving from platform 10. I had to stand in line behind a bunch of kids, but Chris did eventually get a photo of me trying to get to Hogwarts. I guess it doesn’t work for muggles.

No real tip here. Not being big Harry Potter fans, we probably would not have made a special trip to it, if we weren’t leaving from the platform next door.

We contemplated a whirl on the London Eye, but in the end we didn’t go. It was later recommended by our 16 year old niece as something cool to do. Some friends also later informed us that Londoners get discounted tickets to the Tower of London and they could get us some for our next trip. The Tower of London was also highly recommended by our niece.  So, we’ll plan to see those tourist sites next time.

 

Thursday was our day volunteering at the Great British Beer Festival. Pulling pints was something we looked forward to – we were just worried about the ‘money issue’.

At GBBF, the volunteers also take the money. So, combine a strange currency with varying prices and no cash register – just a till – and you get a bit of anxiety. Could we do this?

We duly showed up at Earl’s Court staffing office at the requested hour, 10am. Well actually, we were there a bit early. Asked what we wanted for a job assignment, we passed on steward, and whatever other job there was and said we wanted to pour beer. We were assigned to area B5, Mid West England. If you are unfamiliar with this region of England as we are, it includes the counties of Staffordshire, Worcestershire Shropshire and Herefordshire.  To throw out some brewery names… Burton Bridge, Enville, Hanby, Hobsons, Old Cottage, White Shield…

After donning our bright yellow vests – forklifts were still flying around the convention center floor – we headed  downstairs to B5 to meet Zippy, our bar manager.  After explaining to us the evacuation route, he quickly went down the line and gave a brief description of the 20-odd beers that we would be pouring: milds, bitters, best bitters, porters and stouts.

Then we spent almost two hours sitting around reading the tabloids because the festival didn’t open until noon. We also had a chance to meet our fellow staff and we particularly enjoyed chatting with Les and Des.

Noon finally arrived but because we were situated in the back part of the hall, it would take a few moments for the crowd to sift back towards us. However, we were guaranteed a busy day because the Champion Beer of the festival, Alton’s Pride from Triple FFF was in B6, the section right next to us. We were certainly going to get some overflow.

I pulled my first pint about quarter past the hour and we were off and running. I think it was Slater’s Top Totty.

The crowd waxed and waned over the afternoon sometimes being several deep at the bar. Part of the time, this was due to the English inability to step away from the bar after getting their pints. At other times, it would be a ghost town in front of us.

The highlight beer in our section might have been the Ginger Ale from Enville which really did taste like ginger ale. Unfortunately, it will also the hardest beer to pull as it was very lively and foamed easily.

Taking money wasn’t too hard considering I hadn’t been in a job where I took money since I was in my teens. Once I could get a system down in my head, it went smoothly most of the time. I will admit, I messed up on the money once and the older gentleman was nice enough to help me out.

The most difficult situation was when some punter came up with five of his mates and he was buying. All six would get different beers and different sizes and you would have to keep a running total in your head.

And I do need to mention that we were able to drink beer on our shift. On our break and after our shift, we were able to enjoy free pints in the staff bar. And we were able to sample the beers we were pouring.

Zippy in his opening talk told us that the main thing was for us to have fun. And it was fun… it was great… when we make it back to GBBF, we will do it again. For all of our hard work, we received not only fond memories, but also a free session and discounted beer.

We finished up the day at our second favorite pub in London the Wenlock Arms meeting Paul and Eilís for quiz night. Run by Eddie the – now not so – Fat Controller, it is a lot of fun and is something that we would recommend. The questions are a lot harder then quiz in the States… well, at least in our neck of the woods.  We came in sixth out of 13 teams.

 

Tuesday morning we left the quiet English countryside for the bustling sounds of London…and the Great British Beer Festival.

Arriving by train, we took just enough time to drop off our bags at the hotel and head over for the trade session. It was amazing and overwhelming at first. We had no idea how this festival worked. Turns out, first you buy the size glass you want: 33ml, half pint, or full pint. We opted for pint glasses, which have the smaller quantity markings on them. In the end, I never got more than a half pint anyway. And you can return the glass at the end and get your money back.

This festival is unlike any festival we have been to in the States. Not only because of the size of pours, but also because you pay cash for your beers. Basically, the place was like one huge pub. Some breweries had their own bar set ups, some of which were quite elaborate. The one confusing thing, besides not knowing what beers to buy, was that the beers were all different prices.

At the risk of sounding like a total eejit and rookie traveler, I’ll tell you about the first beer I bought. The price was £1.70 for a half pint. I gave him what I thought was the exact amount. He brought back the coin marked 50 and indicated that he couldn’t take it. I was completely dumbfounded and couldn’t figure out why. Well, when I got back to Chris and was telling him the story, I looked a bit closer. It was actually a 50 Euro cent piece and not a British 50p coin. What a rookie! Oh well, I figured the guy chalked it up to another goofy American.

The mood was crazy. People in drag. Pubs with huge contingencies all dressed in matching shirts. Singing. And of course, beer drinking.

We started out at the Irish bar, where we talked with Aiden from Galway Hooker, Liam from Carlow Brewing, and Cuilan from Messrs. McGuire. We also talked with John, aka TheBeerNut, from irishcraftbrewer.com. We were having a great time, but the Irish beers were right next to the American beers and I felt it was wrong to come all the way to England to be near American beers that I’m already familiar with.

Sierra Nevada sponsored the “U.S. and Rest of the World Bar” and S.N. Wheat and Big Foot were served. Other American beers offered included Lost Abbey’s Angelshare, Stone IPA, Cape Ann Brewing Old Fisherman’s Ale, Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron, and a Sly Fox beer that I can’t remember.

The highlight of the day had to be the contingent from the Cornish brewery Skinner’s. Thirty to forty people strong, they spent the all day drinking beer and singing songs, mostly traditional. They even had a guy in drag dress up as Betty Stogs, the name of their bitter. And when the beer won champion best bitter , the revelry increased.

In the end, between the two of us, we tried around 12 beers. The trade session was ending and the masses would start coming in, so we decided to call it a day at GBBF. We were meeting our friends Paul and Eilís at The Old Fountain later and needed to rest up for the second part of our night.

It was a good day of beer drinking and fun. Tomorrow we actually get to sleep in and will do some sight seeing.