Category: Travel in Europe

Even though I am still a few behind Chris, I hit a major milestone yesterday: I visited my 350th brewery at Fuller’s here in London! There were 5 of us on the tour and we were all beer people.

This was good because the guide, Jane Peyton (she has a pub architecture book called Pub Scene), didn’t bother with all the finer points of the brewing process that we have heard a bizillion times before. Instead, she gave us Fuller’s history, breezed through the tour, and then let us spend the rest of the time tasting beer. She even opened a bottle of the Fuller’s Vintage from 2005! It was 8.5% and had a strong alcohol taste. The hands down favorite, however, was the Chiswick Ale.

Another highlight on the tour was when we approached the fermenting room. At the door was a CO2 meter, which was blinking red and beeping! That meant that the CO2 level was too high to go in. However, as we stood nearby, continuing the tour, the meter suddenly turned green and stopped beeping. It was apparently now safe to enter, which we did. I made the others go in first since I wasn’t interested in being the canary.

The Fullers tour is something everyone should try to do when they are in London. Fullers is the last of a dying breed… not only are they still a family-owned independent brewer (a dying breed in itself), they are also the last of the historic London breweries. Oh, they also have the oldest wisteria in England.

As usual, we started out our trip with a bang. Today, I think, is the beginning of not feeling so groggy. . .just in time for Germany. I have to admit, I am looking forward to moving onto Munich. Don’t get me wrong, London is really starting to grow on us, but I personally can only take so much real ale. I think I am ready for some cold, carbonated helles!

 

We made it safely to London yesterday… our flights were quite uneventful (except for the fact that Damian Lewis was on our flight… For those not a fan of Band Of Brothers, he had the lead role of Richard Winters). We even landed early but that was negated by sitting on the tarmac for 45 minutes waiting for a gate to be available. Even with that delay, we were at our hotel room here at Paddington within 2 hours of touching down.

After refreshing ourselves with a quick shower, we headed over to the Old Fountain, our ‘local’ here in London and where our friend Paul is the cellarman. We enjoyed a few cask ales and after Paul got off work, we headed over to the Wenlock Arms.

I tried 8 cask ales in the course of the evening… which leads me back to one of my pet peeves in the beer industry in the States right now. Every beer doesn’t have to be over 7 percent… It’s OK to brew a 4% beer. Several of the beers I tried last night were even below 4%. And they were good!

Four of the beers were Christmas ales… much different from the ones brewed in the States. The use of spice is much more subtle… I’m not making a judgment good or bad…

The two highlight beers were the Moonshine Black Hole Stout and “Colorado” IPA from Red Squirrel, a west coast style cask IPA. Absolutely amazing! I am hoping to get another pint of the IPA today but Paul says it probably will be gone by the time we get to the Old Fountain tonight.

Speaking of counting beers, we were introduced to John at the Old Fountain (and later saw him at the Wenlock) who has a book that lists all the pints he has drank (a tick list or a ‘scoop’ as Merideth likes it called). John’s book has over 9,400 beers listed… something our friend Chris probably would appreciate.

What’s on tap for today? Merideth visits her 350th brewery when we take the Fullers tour later this morning. And we are going to visit a few other pubs… and hopefully check out the Chinese terra cotta army at the British Museum… and St Paul’s Cathedral… and Tower of London.