Category: Year in Beer

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.