Brewery tap rooms from Bethnal Green to Walthamstow - part 1

Part 1 - Bethnal Green and South Hackney

As well as visiting Signature Brew for their 5th birthday party, my tap room trail on Saturday 29 October, 2016, included Redchurch Brewery, Forest Road Brew Co, Wild Card Brewery and Pillars Brewery.

St John's Church, opposite Bethnal Green tube station entrance

 

Redchurch Brewery

Starting from Bethnal Green (Central Line) tube station, it was only a short walk to Redchurch Brewery, situated in railway arches at 275 / 276 Poyser Street.

South end of Poyser Street from Cambridge Heath Road

North end of Poyser St from Old Bethnal Green Rd

Take the Cambridge Heath Road (West) exit from the tube, head north until you reach Poyser Street or look for the signs where the elevated railway crosses Old Bethnal Green Road.

The illuminated sign makes the brewery easy to find. Take the steps on the left up to the tap room on the mezzanine level.

This is a big bright space with plenty of wooden furniture. The hard surfaces are softened by the use of billowing hessian fabric. The audio equipment produces a good sound and snooker player Steve Davis is one of the DJs who provide the musical background for evening events.

Redchurch Brewery Paradise Pale on resin bar surface.

There are 10 taps behind the bar serving the full range of Redchurch Brewery beers.These are listed on the blackboard next to the bar and include Brick Lane lager (4.7% ABV), Bethnal Pale (APA - 5.5% ABV) and Old Ford Export Stout (7.5%). The surface of the bar includes a 'r b' logo formed from hops and grains and covered in clear resin.

By arriving at opening time (noon) I had the benefit of Kieran's kind offer of samplers of the saison style beers from taps 8 (Tartelette - mixed fermentation Berline Weisse - 4.5% ABV), 9 (Dry Hopped Sour - with Cascade - 5.4% ABV) and 10 (a refreshing low alcohol Grisette made with Lemon Thyme, Chamomile and some Cascade hops). I would recommend all of these but instead chose a half pint of Paradise Pale (3.7% ABV). Prices are reasonable e.g. £2.30 (1/2) or £3 (2/3) for the low and medium strength beers.

 Cartons and Chilled bottles of Redchurch Brewery beers are also available to take away.

As I was still the only customer, I took the opportunity to give Kieran a copy of Ullage, the West Berkshire CAMRA beer magazine and inform him about West Berkshire Brewery and Wild Weather Ales from the Newbury area. We also chatted about some breweries we both know - East Sussex based Franklins Brewing Co and Andy Parker's Elusive Brewing. We agreed that beer and music go well together and learned from each other that End of the Road festival (Larmer Tree Gardens, Dorset) and the Kelburn Garden Party (near Largs, west of Glasgow) are good festivals for music and arts in natural surroundings. 

Although, we could have chatted longer, it was time for me to go in order to visit the four further brewery tap rooms on today's 'mission'. Kieran recommended a visit to the nearby Kings Arms in Buckfast Sreet, near Bethnal Green Road on any future visit. Before leaving I was able to get photos of the brewery and bottling line on the ground floor

Bottling line - Redchurch Brewery

 

Five Points Brewing Co

After a walk or a short bus journey (106 or 254 north owards Hackney) and crossing the Regent's Canal, you will pass the Five Points Brewing Co warehouse and distribution centre. (The Five Points bar is Mason & Company at Here East - Technology Innovation Centre, Olympic Park, Hackney Wick. The brewery itself is at Institute Place, near Hackney Central station, and tours can be booked on the second Saturday of each month.)

 

Forest Road Brewing Co

Soon after, turn west into Westgate Street and just before the railway arches, on the south side, is the gated entrance to Netil Lane, the location of Forest Road Brewing Co.

Take care not to trip over the base of the gate and you will see the green painted Forest Road Brewing Co tap room located in one of the railway arches which opens on Saturdays.

 There is seating outside and parking for bicycles.

Inside, I would find Rudder serving at the bar and a mixture of seating options including a sofa, a bench for a low table and stools at the bar and at a high table.

 

Rudder explained that Work, the Forest Road Brewing Co beer is currently brewed by Pete in Flanders, Belgium by Brouwerij Van Eecke, the Poperings hommelbier brewery. The flags behind the bar include the Massachussetts flag, Pete's home state. The other beers available were SAS Pils from the same Belgian brewery group, Partizan Saison Lemongrass and The Kernel Table Beer. Current beers at the tap room can be found on the website.

Forest Road Brewing Co - Work

A half pint of Work was £3 and served in a plastic cup. My Work, a 6 grain unfiltered IPA (5.4% ABV), tasted good but had a hazy appearance and was more fizzy than a cask ale.

An indented bottle of Work, just under the Forest Road sign, caught my eye on the chipboard wall opposite my table. Noticeable from his accent, Rudder is from Alabama and he may have chosen the Southern style music playing on the system during my visit. Before leaving, I was able to purchase 2 chilled 33cl bottles of Work to take home for £5.

From Mare Street, I would catch a 55 Bus to take me near Signature Brew. See part 2 for further details.

London Fields Brewery

Another possibility would have been to include a visit to the taproom at nearby London Fields Brewery tucked away between Mare Street and London Fields park at the south end of Mentmore Terrace, just under the arches, which is open until midnight, seven days a week.

End of the Road festival 2016 ciders

I have been visiting the End of the Road festival at Larmer Tree Gardens in Dorset every year since 2007. The quality and variety of beer and cider on offer has been improving over the years.

Most of the bars at the festival are run by The Really Good Bar Co.. In 2016, most of the festival bars, like the Black Crow, near the Woods stage served draught Symonds cider and local ciders.

Every year, the Somerset Cider bus brings Burrow Hill cider and is parked in the Tipi area near the campfire and the Tipi stage.

This is the best place to find hot spiced cider before sitting by the campfire or enjoying live music from the Tipi stage or some dance records in the smaller marquee tent next to the cider bus.

The hot spiced cider is served in doubled cardboard cups for extra insulation and strength.

Big Thief - Tipe stage

In 2016, the late night music to go with this warming cider was provided by Big Thief from Brooklyn featuring Adrianne Lenker (Friday) and The Big Moon from London (Saturday).

2015 - Bob Chaplin - Copse House Cider

Copse House Cider from Sandley, Dorset was available at the festival in 2015 and I met Bob Chaplin the cidermaker at a tasting event in the Bear Tavern then.

In 2016, boxes of Copse House Landshire medium cider were available at several of the festival bars including the bar at the back of the Tipi stage tent.

Seratones - Tipi stage

I was lucky to enjoy Copse House Landshire cider with the last Tipi Stage Surprise Show acts of the night from Weaves from Toronto (Friday) and Seratones from Shreveport (Saturday).

For more details of music at End of the Road festival 2016 - see my Tumblr blog eotr2016

For details of beer at the featival - see blog post End of the Road festival 2016 beer bars
Addendum:

Chris of Really Good Bar Co writes:
I think we have one of the best cider selections at a music festival, all tip top and possibly the best 3 cider makers in the country, but thats just me and I would say that. Bob at Copse House and the Temperleys at Burrow Hill are cider legends and Bill at Cranborne Chase is the young kid on the block making waves and winning lots of awards with his excellent cider.

Bill (Cranborne Chase Cider) - End of the Road festival 2014 (photo from @reallygoodbars Facebook page)

You should mention Bill at Cranborne Chase Cider, he makes it a few miles down the road from the festival. It is great oak conditioned real cider, very tasty. Check his facebook page for details as he won some awards in Somerset this summer.

End of the Road festival 2016 beer bars

Model of the End of the Road festival site - not to scale!

The first End of the Road festival at Larmer Tree Gardens in Dorset was in 20016. I have been to the festival every year since 2007.

List of beers outside the Bear Tavern

The quality and variety of beer and cider on offer has been improving over the years.

There have been previous experiments with returnable plastic glasses for a refund and heavy duty souvenir plastic glasses but recently flimsy plastic disposable glasses have become the norm. See Chris Corry's explanation of why these are best for outdoor festivals at the end of this post.

Simon outside the Black Crow - the bar for the Woods stage

The Really Good Bar Co runs most of the festival bars including the Black Crow near the Woods stage and the real ale festival bar at the Bear Tavern, situated near the Big Top stage and the festival merchandise store.

On Saturday 3 September there was a brewing demonstration by the Brew Shack, Wimborne, at the side of the Bear Tavern tent.

Adam Bascombe with 'Ullage'

 It was a pleasure to meet Adam Bascombe, the brewer of 'Naturally hazy unfined ale made in small batches'. Adam advised that the brewery will be increasing capacity soon from 1.5 BBL to 4.5 BBL. A true small batch brew was in progress using a pilot plant with an electric element heating the brew kettle.

Brewing ingredients, including several varieties of malt and hops, were on display. Adam and his colleague answered questions about brewing from interested festival goers.

The Brew Shack - 9 Grain Porter

This was a good opportunity to order half pints of their beer from the casks on stillage behind the bar. 9 Grain Porter (5% ABV) was a good start to the day with coffee and chocolate notes. Later I would also enjoy 5 a day IPA (5.5% ABV).

Anderson East - Woods stage

After watching an excellent set from Anderson East on the main Woods stage, it was time to return to the Bear Tavern for shelter as it started to rain more heavily. From a place at the far end of the bar it was possible to observe the bar staff at work.

A different Adam, who I had chatted with on a visit to Wakefield Beer Exchange in March, was busy tapping and spiling some casks on the scaffolding stillage behind the bar. It was fortunate that he was wearing glasses as beer spurted out at his face with a couple of the livelier casks. All the time, the bar staff were serving customers in a friendly and helpful way.

Watching them stoop or crouch to pour beer from the lowest casks made me wonder if their job could be eased by having these casks raised higher in future. Once the casks had been tapped, Chris Corry appeared to observe and taste the newly tapped beers to see if they were ready for serving.

This year I didn't get a chance to chat with Chris but hopefully he will have found one of the copies of West Berkshire CAMRA's Ullage magazine which I left with Adam.

In 2015, some keg Beavertown beers were also available at the Bear Tavern. In 2016, a new dedicated Beavertown bar, near the Singing Theatre and Garden Stage catered for craft beer enthusiasts.

Whitney - Garden stage

Visiting the bar on Friday, only Neck Oil was available on draught and I purchased a can of Gamma Ray (£4.50) to enjoy while watching Whitney on the Garden stage.

On Sunday, more draught beers were available including Lupuloid IPA (6.7% ABV) which had been launched officially at the festival on Saturday.

Thee Oh Sees - Garden stage

I ordered a half pint (£3) and drank this while watching the start of the set from Thee Oh Sees on the Garden stage. Until now Gamma Ray has been my favourite beer from Beavertown but Lupuloid IPA tasted even better!

For more details of music at End of the Road festival 2016 - see my Tumblr blog eotr2016

For details of cider at the featival - see blog post End of the Road festival 2016 ciders

Addendum 

Chris from Really Good Bar Co advises:

EOTR is the only music festival I've been to this year where they encourage us to go and find good quality, interesting, local produce for the bars. Hence why all the ale is local as well.

We went with the current plastic glasses as previous versions caused us problems. The current ones work directly with the mechanical recycling kit at the depo and so gets packaged up and reused. The glasses also split once, when trodden on, so they flatten. This is very important as it stops the cups breaking into multiple bits. When they do this and it is wet the small bits disappear in to the mud and then reappear when livestock is on the land resulting in lots of problems and big vet bills. So although they are a bit flimsy for us beer drinkers they actual are the best all round solution for outdoor events.

We tried washing hard plastic ones, but these caused lots of grey water issues and a potential problem for bar service when the washing machines broke down onsite. The also split into multiple shards of hard plastic when trodden on so very dangerous all round.

Paper cups - you can't see if its a full pint or settled and finally corn starch cups although in theory are great as they reduce to compost, have a tendency to contaminate batches of plastic cups destined to be reused & recycled.

Pisa & Cinque Terre 2016

Pisa

Pisa is an ideal gateway for visits to Tuscany and Liguria. Frequent flights from the UK and an airport within walking distance of the city make it a relatively easy and economical destination.

When combined with multiple railway connections, a good value central hotel and two of my favourite beer bars within walking distance, the case for Pisa is hard to beat! That explains why since my first Pisa visit in January 2014, I have returned in July 2015 and in May 2016.

I usually stay at Hotel La Pace, near the station and this time my 6th floor room even had a distant view of the leaning tower, on the other side of the river Arno!

Lungarno Galileo Galilei on south bank of River Arno, Pisa

 

Pisa - Orzo Bruno

Pub Orzo Bruno opens at 7pm and it is a good idea to arrive there early in the evening to enjoy the complimentary buffet laid out on the bar.

Miki serving at Pub Orzo Bruno - note complimentary buffet on bar

The direct route from the hotel and station is via Corso Italia, the pedestrian street and crossing the river Arno on Ponte di Mezzo to Piazza Garibali.

Two more pedestrian streets, Borgo Stretto and Via Mercanti lead to the pub which is popular with students from the university nearby.

 With six fonts and a handpump supplying beers brewed locally by Birrificio Artigiano di Bientina a good choice of beers of different styles is available.

Livio serving Valdera Rossa

Valdera Rossa served from handpump was the popular choice of the friendly staff at the pub who take meal breaks in turns. All the beers are priced at 3 euro for 0.3 litre and 4 euro for 0.5 litre glasses (May 2015).  Meals and snacks are also reasonably priced and made to order.

Pisa - La Torre del Luppolo

La Torre del Luppolo, a bottle shop and beer bar which opened in May 2014 is only a short walk from here, in Via Renato Fucini.

 La Torre del Luppolo is open every evening from 6pm. 

 The good news was that I turned up on Monday 16th May, the beer shop's second birthday and was offered a free beer. A tray of pastries was also offered to customers to celebrate the birthday 

A screen gives details of the six beers available on draught. Beers are priced at 3 euro for a piccolo (1/2 pint), 4 euro for a media (3/4 pint) or 5 euro for a grande (pint) and plastic glasses are mainly used. (May 2016).

Francesco and Alessandro - La Torre del Luppolo, Pisa

Five of the taps are just behind the front window with the sixth on the narrow bar. I chose Brewfist Burocracy a 6% ABV India Pale Ale from the Lombardy region. I gave Francesco and Alessandro a copy of Ullage, the West Berkshire CAMRA magazine and they kindly posed for a photo.

A large range of Italian and European bottled beers are also available, to drink here or take away, from shelves and fridges.

Liguria & Cinque Terre

Pisa > Deiva Marina train ticket 10.50 euros

Single train fares in Italy on regional trains are inexpensive. The 70 mile trip from Pisa to Deiva Marina, on the Ligurian coast north of La Spezia and Cinque Terre cost 10.50 euros (May 2016). Note that a Cinque Terre tariff supplement may apply to train tickets within the Cinque Terre national park area to support tourism initiatives.

The marble quarries near Carrara are visible from the first train between Pisa and La Spezia.

La Spezia station - Train for Sestri Levante via Deiva Marina

After changing at La Spezia, the second train travelled through tunnels only emerging into daylight as it passed stations of the Cinque Terre including Corniglia and Monterosso al Mare, without stopping and was therefore not crowded with Cinque Terre tourists.

View of the Ligurian Sea from the train at Framura station

Deiva Marina

The railway route hugs the coast and my train stopped at Framura before entering another tunnel and emerging at Deiva Marina station. My Newbury friend, Chris Reynolds, had arrived on an earlier train from the opposite direction after a stay in Genoa.

Balcony view from Albergo La Lampara, Deiva Marina

We walked to Albergo La Lampara on the seafront where my room had a balcony giving an uninterrupted sea view.

The hotel balcony proved to be the perfect place for sampling popular bottled and canned beers like Moretti and Peroni.

Birra Toz Friulana Artiginiale at Raggio di Luna, Deiva Marina

The only bar in Deiva Marina where we could find bottles of 'craft beer' was Raggio di Luna, an ice cream cafe. Three kinds of beer from Birra Toz were displayed inside in a tall fridge.

The same scooter riding character is featured on all the labels but the clothes change to distinguish them.

Vernazza 

Chris and I spent the next day in Vernazza (Cinque Terre). In October 2011, Vernazza was drenched in mud after severe storms and flooding. Now it is difficult to spot any signs of the devastation.

Tim with a beer - overlooking Vernazza's main street

Chris had the use of a balcony overlooking the main street with his room. We enjoyed an al fresco lunch here with focaccia and beers from a nearby grocery shop.

We shared a large bottle of Moretti Siciliana from the brewery's Le Regionali range. This was my favourite bottled beer of the trip. The 5.8% ABV beer has floral notes from orange blossom.

We followed a footpath a little way out of the town towards Corniglia. The effort was rewarded with panoramic views from Bar La Torre.

We enjoyed a break here with draught Menabrea beer before the steep descent back to the town.

Riomaggiore

The weather had turned wet and windy on the next morning when we met up again in Riomaggiore (Cinque Terre).

After a walk to the harbour we found shelter at Bar O'Netto Brasserie on the main street, a little way uphill from Piazza Vignaioli.

We ordered glasses of draught Poretti '7' (unfiltered) and sat inside until a table with a street view was available on the sheltered passage passing the entrance.

Chris with Poretti 7 at Bar O'Netto

A media (0.4 litre) glass of draught beer cost 3.50 euros (May 2016). We looked at the beer menu which listed bottles of 'craft beer' from Birrificio del Golfo based in nearby La Spezia. The 50 cl bottles were priced at 7 euros and the range included a 5.5% ABV India Pale Ale.

Entertainment arrived in the form of an Australian stag party group. Dave, in princess outfit was accompanied by his Gold Coast friends wearing Super Mario costumes. We would return to Bar O'Netto later in the evening and again on Friday, after a hike to Manarola, before my return to Pisa.

Manarola

The sun shone on Friday as we hiked up and down the Beccara Trail to Manarola (Cinque Terre).

Looking back at Riomaggiore from the Beccara Trail

The level footpath (Via dell'Amore) was still being repaired after the storm damage of 2011 but the alternative difficult hike rewarded us with elevated views from the vineyards.

Forst at Nessun Dorma, Manarola

By the time we had descended to the harbour at Manarola we were in need of a cold refreshing beer and a draught Forst, from the Merano valley, at Nessun Dorma, with a view back to the town was ideal. After our lunch break we returned to Riomaggiore on one of the frequent trains.

Later - a return visit to Orzo Bruno, Pisa

While Chris spent another night in Riomaggiore, I returned to Pisa and enjoyed further visits to La Torre del Luppolo and Orzo Bruno before returning to Newbury the next day.