03 April 2016

Brussels Beer Bars & Cafes

Antwerp, Bruges and Ghent have their own advocates as Belgian beer destinations but one big advantage that Brussels has for visitors from Britain is that it is a Eurostar destination and therefore easily reached by train.
Look out for the Tintin mural inside Brussels Gare du Midi on arrival. The alternative name for the station is Brussel Zuid and it lies south of central Brussels.

Moeder Lambic Fontainas

A good place to stop for a beer if you are heading to central Brussels is the second location for Moeder Lambic at Fontainasplein 8, just beyond Anneessens metro station.
Moeder Lambic Fontainas
Inside the bar is a central passageway with fixed seats and tables on each side. This leads to a long bar and a raised area with extra seating at the back.
The layout of the seating areas is symmetrical with a small wooden chair at the passageway end of each table. The bench seat backs match the polished concrete of the floor but they are made from grey painted plywood. A vertical flat panel on the exposed brick wall end of each table conceals lighting fixtures.
Saison de Dottignies - Brouwerij De Ranke
A waiter will take your beer order and return with the beer in the correct glassware and a small glass dish of roasted barley grains. Each table has a menu listing draught and bottled beers.
There is also a portable blackboard with details of additional beers currently available which the waiter can bring to your table. With up to 46 beers on tap, impressive interior design and good service, this is one of many Brussels beer bars worth a visit.

Poechenellekelder

Poechenellekelder lies only 200 metres away and the pedestrian streets of Rue du Marche au Charbon and Rue des Grands Carmes (via Manneken Pis) lead to this establishment at 5 Rue du Chene, named after its puppets. If you arrive on a quiet day outside the tourist season, a waiter may be able to find you a table in the richly ornamented main room.

The beer menu is split by style and I chose a Blanche Troublette which was expertly poured by the waiter at the table. A small glass dish of complimentary savoury snacks is brought with the beer.
The limited food menu includes an excellent and substantial lasagne with a cheesy topping served on individual ovenproof dishes.
Lasagne at Poechenellekelder
A look around the cosy bar reveals a display of oak barrels and enamel signs next to the stairs to the lower room. Apart from puppets hanging from the ceiling a large puppet is also seated at one of the tables at the top of the stairs.
Poechenellekelder was featured by Jeff Evans as the Inside Beer Pub / Bar of the month in December 2012. This Inside Beer post can still be found in the useful Pub of the Month archive.

Booze 'n' Blues

For a late night drink and a change of scene, Booze 'n' Blues, south of the main Sant Gery area, at the junction of Rue des Riches Claires and Rue de la Grande Isle, also lies about 200 metres from Moeder Lambic Fontainas.
The lovely old Rock-Ola jukebox may be playing vinyl singles or else there will be good music from a sound system. The blackboard behind the bar lists the beers available.
Brasserie de la Senne - Brussels Calling
This is a good bar to find a selection of beers brewed in Brussels by Brasserie de la Senne like Brussels Calling (pale ale) or Zinnebir (6% ABV 'Brussels' People Ale').
Brasserie de la Senne - Xmas Zinnebir
The bar is adorned with old photos, posters and ornaments. If you visit the bar on a Tuesday you may find space to sit at the bar and enjoy prompt service but the midnight closing time may be earlier than at the weekend.

Most of the photos in this post were taken on Tuesday 15 March 2016 when the three bars were visited by Tim Thomas and Simon Grist. 

An interactive map has been created for this Brussels visit - the three bars in this post are shown with green markers on the map below. The map shown below has been made available for sharing www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=zcSqbrcXaX-0.k2ohZyVJtR_U&usp=sharing



13 March 2016

Bristol - Moor Beer Co brewery tap

On 5 March, a coach took Oxford CAMRA Beer Festival volunteers from Oxford to Bristol. The coach arrived in Colston Street at 11.30am before many pubs had opened.
Shot tower viewed from Castle Park
Steve and I walked to the Moor Beer Tap arriving soon after the noon opening time.
Bicycle racks are provided outside the entrance to Moor Beer Tap in Days Road, not far from the end of the Bristol & Bath Railway Path.
To celebrate the launch of Union' Hop, a special offer on the day was a pint of the 4.1% ABV British hopped ultra pale ale and a Pieminister pie for £6.
While the pies were warming up we each chose three beers in third pint glases. I chose Union' Hop, So' Hop and Nor' Hop. These pale ales are all 4.1% ABV, unfined and naturally hazy, with hops from Britain, Southern and Northern hemispheres respectively.
Once the pies had warmed up it was time to take advantage of the pie offer including a pint of Union' Hop.
Before leaving Moor beer tap, a final third pint of a rare beer from the guest ale tap was irresistible. Take Five (7% ABV) is an Imperial Stout with vanilla and figs from Cerveza Domus (Toledo, Spain).
Moor Beer Company has won numerous awards for its beers and a visit to the brewery tap in Bristol is recommended (Open Thursday, Friday and Saturday).
The Barley Mow, Barton Road, Bristol
Sadly, there was not enough time for me to go inside the Barley Mow, the nearest pub to Moor Beer Company and also Bristol Beer Factory's flagship pub.
However, there was still time to visit other beer bars and pubs in Bristol before catching the coach back to Oxford at 6.30pm.
Google map showing Moor brewery tap (green tag) and other pubs visited.

Moor Beer Company, Days Road, Bristol. BS2 0QS
moorbeer.co.uk

26 February 2016

Elusive Brewing pre-launch event in Newbury


 On Tuesday 23 February 2016, Andy Parker visited the Cow & Cask micropub in Newbury to give a talk about Elusive Brewing. He brought three 5 litre mini-casks of prototype beers for his audience to taste at the event.

Landlord, Ian Batho, greeted Andy on arrival shortly before 5pm opening time and posed for a photo once the casks had been placed on a shelf to settle, before the event's start at 7.30pm.
Andy Parker and Ian Batho
There was time to visit Inn At Home beer bottle shop in Bartholomew Street, The Lock Stock & Barrel pub beside the River Kennet and the Catherine Wheel pub near the Market Square before returning to the Cow & Cask which was filling with beer enthusiasts by this point. To avoid overcrowding only twenty places were made available for advance booking.
Cow & Cask micropub, Newbury
Jugs were filled with beer from the first mini-cask and these were distributed to tables so that everyone could have about 1/3 pint. Tim Thomas then introduced Andy Parker to the audience.
Talking about his new brewery premises in Finchampstead, Berkshire, he mentioned that the unit is only about 50 yards from Siren Craft Brew on the same industrial estate.
He described the smoked ruby mild which had been poured as a baby version of Sarah Hughes Dark Ruby Mild but with a twist. The twist is that 25% of the malt had been smoked over cherry wood. This adds some fruity smokiness to a beer that is relatively weak (3.7% ABV). The beer is called Cherrywood Road, which is also the home of Farnborough Town FC, Andy's home town. Andy invited comments from the audience about the beer and mentioned that Cherrywood Road is intended to be more subtle in its smokiness than a German Rauchbier.
Andy said he started brewing about four years ago. He was encouraged to visit a brewery after seeing a tweet by Lovibonds brewer Jeff Rosenmeier suggesting buying beer from a brewery instead of from a supermarket. Andy visited Crondall brewery where he met David and Chrissy Taraszek who had started the brewery after taking early retirement from an IT job. He later learned that David and Jeff had been on the same Brewlab course in Sunderland. Andy found it inspirational that David had developed from a home brewer into owning his own brewery and Andy has now followed the same path.
Jugs of the next beer were handed around as Andy moved on to talk about its origin - as a beer to be served after the wedding of friends Damian and Vanessa, as their guests travelled by bus to the reception venue in central London. The original name D & V Pale Ale will be changed before the beer is brewed commercially after a doctor pointed out a negative connection to a medical abbreviation! Andy assured us that drinking his beer was unlikely to have any negative effects!
The 4.8% ABV English Pale Ale is dosed with natural apricot fruit flavouring before being casked. The strength may be changed to 4.5% ABV when brewed commercially. The golden colour is due to the use of a small amount of crystal malt in the recipe.
While the final beer was being poured into jugs, Andy talked about the marketing side of Elusive Brewing and gave out some brewery stickers. Andy was born in the early 1970s and grew up playing early video games. The simple 8-bit graphics of those games have been adopted in branding. Lord Nelson, a previous beer brewed in collaboration with Weird Beard also uses 8-bit graphics for the beer bottle label.
 Andy said similar graphics would be used for Elusive Brewing beers including Level Up, the third beer to be sampled. Level up will be the name for the brewery's flagship beer and is taken from video games and also refers to Andy moving up a level from home brewing to commercial brewing.
In fact it was this beer, originally brewed with Citra and Simcoe hops, that won Andy the title of National Homebewing champion in February 2014, a £5000 prize which he put towards the purchase of brewery kit and the chance to brew his American Red IPA with Dark Star Brewing Co.
The prototype version of Level Up from the third mini-cask is a 5.8% ABV American Red IPA brewed with Mosaic and Equinox hops from the USA. Six malts were used to give the beer its red hue and 'a little bit of sweetness'. The Mosaic hops were used during the boil stage and the Equinox hops were dry hopped in the fermenter later to give aroma. Gooseberry, melon and citrus fruit aroma and flavours were noted for this version of Level Up. Andy will rotate the hops used when brewing Level Up due to some hops becoming unavailable and also for the sake of variety. Versions will be numbered eg Level Up 2 and the hops used will be shown on the pump clip.
Level Up will be available in cask, keg and bottle. When bottling beers will be bottle conditioned. For cask, a lower strength e.g. 5.2% ABV may be adopted providing the characteristic body and richness of the beer can be retained.
With other brewers present in the audience, including Kevin Brady of Indigenous Brewery, Andy went a bit technical and described how the American yeast used for Level Up was different from the English yeast used for the other two beers in terms of attenuation and floculation.
Questions from the audience afterwards included the reason for the shortage of Citra hops and the size of the Elusive brewery. Andy explained that his brewery, from Elite Stainless Fabrications of Swindon was 5 brewers barrel (BBL) size and slightly smaller than Longdog Brewery, Basingstoke, where a 6 BBL plant was obtained from the same source. The Elusive Brewery unit (600 square feet) is smaller than the Longdog Brewery unit so Andy can only fit a maximum of three fermenters and there is no room for an office or packaged beer storage.
Ending his talk, Andy encouraged patrons to have another beer from the casks tapped behind the bar including two from Longdog Brewery - Kismet and a personal favourite of his - Lamplight Porter. The audience applauded Andy and Ian was soon busy serving beers from the bar.

After deduction of venue and travel expenses, the West Berkshire CAMRA supported event raised £31.50 for West Berkshire Mencap as Andy provided his time and prototype beers at no cost.

Andy has blogged about setting up his brewery and these posts can be read on his blog - Musings of an Elusive Beer Geek eg So you wanna open a brewery? Part 1 and So you wanna open a brewery? Part 2.

Links to the Elusive Brewing email, facebook and twitter accounts are shown on the Elusive Brewing website: www.elusivebrewing.com

24 January 2016

Mondo Brewing Company - Battersea

Six West Berkshire based beer enthusiasts headed to South London on Saturday 16 January. Blog posts by London Beer Guide and Matthew Curtis Total Ales inspired us to visit Mondo Brewing Company in Battersea.
Having visited Brixton Brewery and Bullfinch Brewery at Herne Hill earlier in the day we arrived at Wandsworth Road station by Overground train in the late afternoon. Leaving the station we turned right and walked along Wandsworth Road past McDonald's.
Amesbury & Durrington - Westbury Estate
We turned left into Stewarts Road and walked 300 metres to reach Mondo Brewing Company at 86-92 Stewarts Road. There was a view of the sun setting behind two tower blocks on the Westbury Estate as we neared the brewery.
Unlike the two breweries, situtated underneath railway arches, which we had visited earlier, Mondo Brewing Company has an industrial building as its home. The taproom is situated on the ground floor with security windows made from glass blocks.
The leather seated bar stools are comfortable to sit on and the large tables are ideal for groups like ours.
The oak barrel tables near to the bar, the polished floor and industrial style metal lampshades are other noticeable design features in the taproom.
A wide choice of beer styles was clearly listed on the board near the bar. The columns list ABV and price in £s for 1/2 pint, 2/3 pint and 1 pint.
Our party chose half pint glasses in order to sample as many beers as possible. My first beer was Rider APA (4.6% ABV) served in a distinctively shaped branded glass. Mondo Brewing Company branded beer mats are also provided in the taproom.
From our table we could see through a full height window into the brewery itself. The glass block taproom windows are reflected in the window separating the taproom from the brewery. This was a Saturday so there was no visible activity in the brewery itself.
(Photo: Chris Reynolds)
The state of the art bottling machinery is also visible through the window from the taproom.
(Photo: Chris Reynolds)
My second beer at Mondo Brewing Co was Queenstown APA (5% ABV), another refreshing pale ale.
There wasn't time to taste all the beers so I bought 330 ml bottles of Kemosabe IPA (6.4% ABV)  and London Alt (4.8% ABV) from the tall fridge beside the bar to take home. Columbus, Cascade and Centennial hops are used for brewing Kemosabe. London Alt is a Dusseldorf style 'old' ale with a sweet malt character balanced with a floral aroma from the Spalt hops. The bottles have a distinctive smoothly curved shape which match the branded glasses.
Look out for framed original paintings in the taproom and on the staircase to the toilets on the first floor.
The spotlit artworks are another visible example of the care taken by Mondo Brewing Company over all aspects of the business.

Mondo Brewing Company, 86 Stewarts Road, Battersea, London SW8 4UG
Website: www.mondobrewingcompany.com 
Tel: 0207 720 0782
Twitter: @mondobrewing

The Tap House - Opening Hours (copied from website 24/1/2016. Phone to confirm current hours)
Monday & Tuesday     Closed
Wednesday - Friday    17:00 - 23:00
Saturday                      12:00 - 23:00 (NB: Winter opening at 14:00)
Sunday                        12:00 - 18:00 (NB: Winter closed on Sundays)
Blog posts which include more information about the founders, brewhouse, beers and taproom:

Leighton Smith blog post for London Beer Guide - The Mondo Tap House: one of London's best brewery taprooms www.londonbeerguide.co.uk/2016/01/the-mondo-tap-house-one-of-londons-best.html

Matthew Curtis blog post about Mondo Brewing Company, Battersea and UK Craft Beer's Second Wave www.totalales.co.uk/blog/2016/1/2/mondo-brewing-company-battersea-and-uk-craft-beers-second-wave 

22 January 2016

Bullfinch Brewery taproom - Herne Hill

Six West Berkshire based beer enthusiasts headed to South London on Saturday 16 January.
Having seen A London Beer and Pub Guide tweet that listed Bullfinch Brewery as one of the top three new London taprooms in 2015, the Herne Hill based taproom was part of our itinerary.
After visiting Brixton Brewery shortly after opening time at noon, we headed to Bullfinch Brewery in Herne Hill by alternative routes. 
Brixton station
Tim used his travelcard to catch the Victoria to Sevenoaks train from Brixton station. Herne Hill was the first stop on this service which operates every 15 minutes on Saturdays. The others walked to Herne Hill.
From Herne Hill station it is a short walk down Norwood Road, beside Brockwell Park, until a left turn into Rosendale Road leads you to Bullfinch Brewery, located under railway arches. The taproom is in arch 887.
The unit may not look open from the road but if the gates are open and the blackboard is outside then the Bullfinch Brewery taproom is open with access through a door within the blue roller shutters.
A blackboard next to the arch shows the taproom opening hours (subject to change).
On a clear, cold day, we decided to sit inside the taproom and not on the benches outside.
Inside, it was not much warmer than outside yet so we kept our coats on and ordered from the range of beers which included keg and cask options.
Keg beers are competitively priced at £4.50 pint with cask beers at £4 pint. My first half was Luna (4% ABV), a light pale ale, served in a tulip shaped glass. After this refreshing beer it was time for a half of Milou (6% ABV) a zingy saison.
Milou - Saison
Apart from a busy photographer we were the first arrivals at the taproom and spread ourselves around the picnic tables set up inside.
The tables were laid with hessian cloths and the bench seats were covered by strips of blanket.
The taproom is lit by strings of bulbs suspended overhead. It was soon time to return to the bar which has an illuminated lettered sign and original artwork of the 'horned' bullfinch adjacent.
On the other side of the bar is a display of bottles and snacks. One or Two pint take away containers are available.
I took the opportunity to deliver some copies of Ullage, the West Berkshire CAMRA magazine. Rascal (4.8% ABV), a session APA, was my final beer at the Bullfinch Brewery taproom.
Rascal is currently hopped with Kazbek, Simcoe, Ahtanum and Columbus hops.
Rascal is one of the beers available in 330ml bottles along with Empire (7% ABV) a Transatlantic IPA hopped with English (Target) and American (Ahtanum) hops, Wolf (5.8% ABV) an American Pale Ale and RyPA (5.8% ABV) a full flavoured Rye IPA.
Ryan McLean with Ullage
Before leaving there was time to buy some bottles to take away and have a chat with Ryan. I was able to hand him a copy of Ullage and pass on greetings to him from Andy Parker (Elusive Brewing) who knew him from the days when Bullfinch Brewery used to operate from a railway arch on the Bermondsey 'beer mile'.
The next stop on our tour of South London taprooms would be Mondo Brewing Co in Battersea. We caught a 68 bus from Norwood Road to Denmark Hill and then an Overground train from Denmark Hill (photo) to Wandsworth Road station.

Bullfinch Brewery, Arch 886 / 887, Rosendale Rd, London SE24 9EH
Phone: 0789 9795823
Website: www.thebullfinchbrewery.co.uk 
Twitter: @Bullfinch_Ale

Taproom details from Bullfinch Brewery website (22/1/2016):

Our tap room is open every Friday, Saturday & Sunday and is in the adjacent arch to the brewery.

We have 12 taps featuring our core range of beers plus our experimental and exclusive editions, we also have guest beers from our favourite local breweries.

We are dog and kid friendly.

The tap room hours are:

Friday 16:00-22:00
Saturday 13:00-22:00
Sunday 13:00-22:00

Please note we are in a residential area and kindly ask our patrons to be respectful of our neighbours.