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Wandsworth Common Halloween Beer Festival 2011: Beer List

The Beerviking crew have managed to get our hands on a draft list of the beers at the 2011 Halloween Wandsworth Common Beer Festival. This is another great list and a festival not to be missed.

 

About The Beers: 

There are 90 different beers. Plus a further 20 ciders. As before we are showcasing the entire output of several “featured” breweries. Our  glass sponsor Sambrooks of Battersea plus Thornbridge from Derbyshire and Dark Star from Sussex.. And Sarah Hughes will be providing all their beers not just the universally celebrated Dark Ruby Mild. Do not miss the one-off micro brew from Shepherd Neame brewed especially for this Halloween season called Spooky at 4.7% abv.

Click here to download:
WCBF_Programme_Halloween_2011.doc (45 KB)
(download)

Sign up here for the Beer Festival!

 

Beerviking's 10 beers to drink @WandsworthBeer Festival - this week

The 3rd annual Wandsworth Beer Festival kicks off this week on Thursday 24th of March and ends Sunday March 27th. This is one of the best small independent beer festivals in London. One not to be missed if you are south of the river this week. This festival is when the Beer Viking Crew normally come ashore to celebrate spring!

Here are the Beerviking's 10 beers to try at WCBF '11:
  1. Brodies Citra 3.1%
  2. Dark Star Hophead Citra 3.8%
  3. Salopian Brewery Darwin's Origin 4.3%
  4. Dark Star Golden Gate 4.5%
  5. Otley Brewing Company Garden 4.8%
  6. Windsor and Eton Conqueror Black IPA 5.0%
  7. Summer Wines Brewery Apache American APA 5.2%
  8. Thornbridge Jaipur IPA 5.9%
  9. BrewDog Hardcore I.P.A. 9.2%
  10. Brodies Romanov Empress Stout 12.1%

Notes: The Best Beer Bars/Pubs in London (draft)

The BeerViking Crew have been working on our top 10 list of London pubs for awhile. One of these days we will post up a little mini guide. In the meantime here's our working list of the best beer bars and pubs in London.

Its very easy to pick the top three, in our humble opinion in order these are:
1. The Cask Pub & Kitchen, Pimlico/Victoria
2. The Euston Tap, in front of Euston Station
3. The Rake, Borough Market

After the top 3 its harder to nail down specific rankings. But numbers 3-8 would (in no particular order):
- The White Horse, Parsons Green
- The Harp, Covent Garden
- Lowlander, Covent Garden
- The Westbridge, Battersea
- The Bree Louise, NW1 (also near Euston)

Finally, its a toss up to fill out the list. So here's a half dozen more great beer places in central London...
- The Florence, Herne Hill (a brew pub)
- Greenwich Union, Meantime's flagship restaurant and brew pub
- The Porterhouse, Covent Garden
- Jerusalem Tavern, Farringdon (a St Peter's pub)
- Brew Wharf, Borough, another brew pub
- The Cross Keys, Covent Garden (a Bordie's pub)

As you can see this is a slightly biased list and not geographically diverse. But for central London this will keep you busy for a few hours. Its great to see that The Cask and Euston Tap on the top of OUR list -- and interesting to note that The Cask in its current form is only about a year old and while The Tap is less than 2 months young! London's great beer scene continues to develop and expand.

Big Swell IPA from Hawaii might just be the best craft beer in can so far!

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The BeerViking crew are big fans of the craft beer in can or micro-canning revolution that is gaining momentum in the USA. These guys at Cask.com supply the canning lines and there is an entire site - CraftCans.com - dedicated to rating and reviewing this bold beers.

Big Swell IPA from Maui Brewing Co is a very drinkable super hoppy brew. Its very easy to drink. We give it 18/20 and so far its the best craft beer in can we have had - and trust us we have a few craft cans - 21st Amendment, Big Sky, Oskars and others... We think this trend needs to be exported to other great brewing nations! Happy drinking.

A Selection of Friday Beers at the Office

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Today it was the Beerviking crews turn to sponsor Friday Beer's at the office and in true viking style we have stocked the fridge with a nice selection from UK (Brewdog, Twickenham, Hogs Back), US (Dogfish, Anchor, Victory & Sierra Nevada), Australia (Coopers) and Germany (Andechser - brewed in a monastery! and others). We had to go heavy on the BrewDog brews in order to satisfy the "larger heads" in the office. Hoping this might help us convert these common folk from tasteless swill to real beer. Wish us luck! (Please Note: the Stella was already in the fridge.)

It's Official - London Has a Thriving 21st Century Beer Scene!

Yes, in case you've been living under a rock London has a dynamic, innovative and world class modern beer scene. The emergence of the London Brewers Alliance and their inaugural showcase event held last Friday night is more proof that London should be on every beer enthusiasts schedule. During the Friday festivities we tasted the following brews:
  • Ha'penny Brewing Co., Ruby Red, silky mild with hints of cinnamon. Brewrank:15/20
  • London Brewers Alliance Porter ~ 5% special one off brewed as a collaboration by all the brewers. Nice, hoppy. Brewrank: 17/20
  • Kernal IPA, Citra hops. Another great one from our favorite nano brewery. Brewrank: 16/20
  • Redemption Pale Ale, solid. Brewrank: 14/20
  • Windsor & Eton Brewery Best Bitter, smooth malty. Brewrank: 14/20
  • Brew Wharf Fire from the top of a monkey's head, hoppy madness. Brewrank: 14/20
  • Camden Town Brewery Pale Ale. Brewrank:14/20
It is good to see both Fuller's (the grand daddy of London brewing) and Meantime (the big innovator) supporting the LDN Brewers Alliance. The only reason we didn't drink any of their brews on Friday is we have a cellar full of the stuff... Overall the Showcase event was a solid 7 out 10. Next time we hope to see an event guide of some sort and a food selection. Maybe even an entire week of events - are we going to see a London Beer Week in 2011?!

Here's a good video by the London Brewers:


And here is the current list of all 13 London brewers that are either brewpubs, micros and local/family/regional brewers (sorry no bud or mass produce crud!):
  1. Brew Wharf - brewpub
  2. Brodie's Beers - micro & brewpub
  3. Camden Town Brewery - micro
  4. The Florence - brewpub in Herne Hill
  5. Fuller's - regional, family run
  6. Ha'penny Brewing Co. - micro
  7. The Kernel Brewery - nano, look for the bottles at places like the Rake
  8. Meantime Brewing Co. - regional, the innovator
  9. Redemption Brewery - micro
  10. Sambrooks Brewery - micro
  11. Twickenham Fine Ales - micro/medium
  12. Windsor & Eton Brewery - micro
  13. ZeroDegrees (Blackheath) - brewpub
Who will be number 14?

In the meantime here is our first mini guide to other places to experience London's Great Beer Scene... Including festivals, beer bars, food& beer events etc.

CAMRA Festivals:

Local & Independant Festivals (check Twitter, Ratebeer and other social outlets as well):

Great Beer Pubs/Bars that also do meet the brewer and other events:
Top Beer Stores:
Brewery Tours
London is also a great town for pub crawls - one of these days we will publish some suggestions but check any good beer guide. Happy drinking...

Salopian Brewery Darwins Origin (4.3%) - a great bottled beer

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We recently had the pleasure of drinking the Salopian Brewery Darwins Origin (4.3%) on cask at a small August bank holiday beer festival in Kent. From cask it rated a respectable 15/20 on the @brewrank scale. Here's how the Salopian website describes the brew:

Style: Darwin’s Origin is an eclectic mix of hops from across the world but this blend produces a beer that offers something to everyone. Crisp, tart, fruity and refreshing but also with a juicy malt background.
 
History: 
The brainchild of Debbie here at the brewery, Darwin’s Origin is the most recent addition to the Salopian core range in both cask and bottle. It was brewed to celebrate Shrewsbury’s most famous son Charles Darwin. Like most additions to the permanent range of beers, Darwin’s started off as a monthly special and the reaction of our customers and staff saw it replacing Abbey Gates.

Then we were at Ales By Mail for a spot of manual labour and managed to grab a few spare bottles. Well... As bottle beer it's even a little bit better! A solid 16 out of 20. The appearance is a light copper colour. Aroma is sweet like flowers with a hint of vanilla. Taste is zesty and just enough hop to make you want more. We would call this a golden ale plus - by plus we mean it has pale ale and bitter tones. Finish is smooth. A solid session beer. We will continue to drink it.

To order yours check out the Ales By Mail Shropshire 6 Bottle Taster Case  - a bargain and delivered right to your door. 

American Beer Festival 2010 at the White Horse, SW6 in West London

We know it shouldn't be a surprise but awesome to hear that the White Horse in West London will be doing their excellent American Beer Festival over 2nd-4th July.  We'll be doing our usual and opening affairs on the Friday afternoon.

Based on our time there in 2008 and 2009, we can totally recommend this festival as a must-visit if you love American Beer and can get to London.  Scratch that, if you love Beer in general and can get to London.

Here's some pictures from the American Beer Festival in 2009.

The Question? A friend has a few spare hours in Zurich where can he get good beer?

Beer_label_fraicheur_ch

Simple... In the main train station in Zurich is Brasserie Federal with 200+ Swiss bottled beers and a few on tap. 

Brasserie Federal
Bahnhofplatz 15, 8001 Zürich, Schweiz

Need to look for beers from:

Also worth trying one of the hemp beers which they still brew in Switzerland. Wild stuff.

And if he has more time try to find this brewpub Das Restaurant Steinfels  (which I haven't been to yet but looks intersting): http://www.steinfels-zuerich.ch/

Beer Festival: 40 Ales from 40 Miles at the White Horse

Tomorrow lunchtime, BeerViking will be raiding the White Horse 40 Ales from 40 Miles Beer Festival.  It will be running all weekend but if you can make it down it would be great to meet you.

 

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Previous years has seen this key London beer fan pub source it’s beers for this festival from a 25 mile radius but by going a little bit further they can now include Dark Star.  Some of the other breweries who will have beer there this weekend are:  Fuller’s, Meantime, Sambrook’s, Twickenham and Brodie’s to breweries further afield like Rebellion in Marlow Bottom, Ha’Penny Brewing in Ilford, Surrey Hills in Guildford or Buntingford in Royston.  Pencil & Spoon also tipped us that new nano-brewery Kernel will have some beers there.

Regardless if you come or not, stay tuned for field reports (apologies in advance if the Hunter decides to show up and jack the proceedings) and also make sure this May Bank Holiday weekend you drink good beer – taking a turn of phrase from our friend Steve Leighton – Life is too short for bad beer.

The White Horse (or Sloaney Poney giving it it’s proper name) is located on Parsons Green, SW6 in West London (it also used to be one of the BeerViking crew local’s for 10 years).  Here is a map to help you find it:


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