Wandsworth Common Halloween Beer Festival Recap

The Wandsworth Common Halloween Beer Festival concluded this past weekend and it was another great event. (For information on the festival and its history, please go here.) I attended on the Preview Night, which allowed me to try a good number of the beers on offer. Among the highlights were:

You may not find a better location for a beer festival.

Empire Colony Thirteen, 5.1% - Until this festival I had never had a beer from Empire, so I really didn't know what to expect. This beer was billed as an 'American style IPA', and I'll just say this: as a default I am skeptical of non-US breweries (and, to be fair, even many US breweries) who describe an IPA as American because, as an American, I have certain expectations. Well, congratulations, Empire, you did a damn fine job on this beer. The beer pours clear gold with a large, frothy white head. The aroma is a pleasant mix of lightly dried citrus fruits, hay and biscuity pale malts. The flavor is light to medium sweet with mild pithy lemons, subtle citrus rind and hay bitterness, and crunchy pale malts. The body is light to medium and the carbonation level is moderate - the beer is in top condition. The finish is quite clean with decent citrus pith, stony dryness, straw and balancing pale malt sweetness. This really is a superlative sessioner. And while I wouldn't describe this beer as a by-the-book American IPA, it's still an excellent beer; I'd probably call it a ramped up British golden ale with a nod to American IPAs.  Regardless of what you want to call it, this was one of the best beers on tap. (Score: 4.1/5)

Bank Top Dark Mild, 4% - I'm a big fan of milds. It's a difficult style to do well, in my opinion, because packing a lot of flavor into a low-ABV beer - while keeping it balanced and drinkable - is no easy feat. When done right, though, it's one of the best session styles around. Bank Top delivered a stunner here. The beer pours clearish brown with a frothy beige cap. The nose has nice chocolate notes and mellow roasted malts. The flavor is light to medium sweet with moderate toasted bread and light milk chocolate. Light bodied with fine carbonation; it's in great condition. Lightly earthy and dry to finish with more chocolate character. The beer is rich but mellow and very well balanced. Easily one of the best beers at the festival. (Score: 4.1/5)

The beer of the festival, folks: Fuller's Imperial Stout.

Fuller's Imperial Stout, 10.5% - Imperial stout might not be the best style of beer to have during a protracted festival drinking session, but that doesn't mean one should pass up the opportunity to try it; and bless the festival staff for only serving this beer in small pours. In contrast to a mild, I find imperial stout a much simpler style to pull off since any slight imperfections can be covered up by an excess of flavor. As with any style of beer, though, the chief goal should be to achieve balance, and Fuller's has most definitely done that with this rendition. The beer pours oily black-brown with a mellow, creamy brown head. The aroma holds lots of burnt wood, dark chocolate, well roasted malts and charred marshmallows. It's medium sweet with a nice torched wood character, subtle pine, dark fruits, rich chocolate and restrained bitterness. Medium to full in body with fine carbonation, the beer rests easy on the palate. It finishes with light dry burnt wood, further rich chocolate, earthy bitterness and more scorched marshmallows. The most impressive thing about the beer is the balance between the intense depth of flavor and it's drinkability; for a 10.5% beer, it was far too easy to drink. This was my favorite of the festival. I hope others were able to try it as well but I know there was only a small amount available. If you missed out, this beer can be purchased on the Fuller's website. (Score: 4.2/5)

Belleville Trick or Treat, 5.4% - Pumpkin beers are tough to do well given that you're dealing with a range of ingredients that don't often make their way into beer. The classic pitfalls of the pumpkin beer style include excessive spicing or cloying sweetness. I'm happy to say that Belleville managed to brew a lovely take on the style. The beer pours lightly hazy gold with a fine, filmy white head. The nose has notes of fleshy pumpkin, pumpkin pie and nutmeg. Medium sweet with notes of dry, bready malts, further pumpkin pie and restrained cinnamon and nutmeg. It's light to medium in body with fine carbonation. It finishes lightly sweet with great balance between the pumpkin character and the spices. While it's simple to write off pumpkin beers as novelty, this offering shows you can make one that is balanced and drinkable. Good work. (Score: 3.7/5)

Other beers worthy of mention include:

Exeter Avocet, 3.9% - A classical British golden ale with notes of lemon rind, straw and bready pale malts. Effortlessly drinkable if not particularly complex. (Score: 3.8/ 5)

Hawkshead Windemere, 3.5% - A good and hoppy golden ale with a dynamic character of tangerine, lemon and peach. It finished clean and dry with slight minerality and crunchy pale malts. (Score: 3.8/5)

Twickenham Autumn Red, 4.4% - A well constructed premium bitter marked by toasted brown bread, dried berries and balanced, piney bitterness. (Score: 3.8/5)

Exmoor Beast, 6.6% - A rich, hefty porter with notes of toffee, figs, raisins, sweet bread and semi-dark fruits. A nice cold weather beer. (Score: 3.7/5)

And in a tie for best names...

There's always something for everyone. 

Elgood Harry Trotter & The Deathly Swallows, 4.5% - While fairly average overall, the beer did have an intriguing fruit character with lots of berries, plums and cherries. And it was in good condition. (Score: 3.1/5)

Ulverston Laughing Gravy, 4.0% - It was a pretty decent bitter that hit all the right notes: grainy and bready malts, berries and other dried fruits, moderate leafy bitterness. I don't know what other people thought of the name, but I loved it. (Score: 3.6/5)

Many thanks to the folks behind this festival. You all continue to impress me with the range of beers and the consistently good conditioning. Cheers.

Beer Tasting: Brixton Brewery

Brixton Brewery's core lineup.

London welcomed a new brewery into the fold a few weeks back: Brixton Brewery. They launched at Craft Beer Co. Brixton on 16 October with three beers: Reliance Pale ale (a golden ale), Effra Ale (an amber) and Electric IPA (yep, an IPA). Craft was fairly rammed that evening so I bought the three beers in bottle (only one was on tap when I stopped in anyway) and took them home. And the next day, I drank them. Here's what I thought.

First off, I'd say it's worth noting that these are some sexy labels. Just look at 'em. They bring to mind the work of Peter Max and, for me, that's just great. But of course it's the liquid inside that counts, so along we move.

Brixton Reliance Pale Ale

I started with the lightest beer, the Reliance Pale Ale. At 4.2% it's right in the session beer wheelhouse. It pours lightly hazy gold with a moderate, frothy white head that settles into a cream. It has a pretty classic aroma of pale, lightly doughy malts with touches of hay and lemon. The flavor is lightly sweet with a character that follows as expected based on the nose: some lightly dried pale malts, a bit of white bread, dirty hay, lemon rind, background citric tang. It's light bodied with fine carbonation. Lightly drying on the finish with bitter hay and rindy citrus, it's balanced by a very simple pale malt base. It's highly drinkable golden ale. (Score: 3.7/5)

Brixton Effra Ale

Next up I went for the Effra Ale, a 4.5% amber ale.  The beer pours cloudy amber with a bubbly, white head. The aroma has notes of pine, dried orange and grainy bread. It's light to medium sweet with lots of dry and lightly yeasty brown bread, further pine, earth, some leaves and a bit more dried citrus. Light to medium bodied with soft carbonation - the condition seems slightly lacking. Mildly resinous on the finish with lightly toasted, dried bread, pine, hints of pineapple, orange and apple. It's a fairly tasty beer overall but it’s rather simplistic and a bit rough around the edges. (Score: 3.4/5)

Brixton Electric IPA

I finished off with the Electric IPA. At 6.5% it's far and away the strongest of the Brixton trio.  It pours lightly hazy, rich gold with a large, frothy white cap. The aroma has pine needles, grapefruit and perhaps some tangerine. The flavor is light to medium sweet with further citrusy hops, some alcohol, and mild notes of plastic and somewhat abrasive grass. It's medium bodied with fine, creamy carbonation. Subtly resinous on the finish with harsh grassy bitterness, subtle toasted plastic, pine and semi-ripe grapefruit. There are some nice citrus notes at times but overall the beer could be improved; I just didn't find it that drinkable. Given the quality level of IPAs in London at this point in time a beer like will struggle to stand out. (Score: 2.9/5)

It's great to see a new London brewery kicking off with a session beer like the Reliance - and doing it well. But with the Electric IPA and, to a lesser extent, the Effra Ale, it's apparent that this young brewery still has room to improve. I will look forward to trying more Brixton beers in the future to see how the brewery progresses.

Beer Tasting: By The Horns Hopslinger American IPA

I picked this beer up at Oddbins London Bridge (which, incidentally, is a great place to source London beers). This IPA looks great: it pours a perfectly clear amber-gold, lightly effervescent, with a moderate, foamy white head. The aroma holds orange, pine, modest caramel, lightly toasted bread and some background grapefruit. The flavour is medium sweet with a sturdy malt character, some dry toasted bread, a bit of earth, dirty pine, semi-dry orange and further grapefruit. It is medium bodied with fine carbonation. Lightly resinous to finish, there are notes of juicy citrus fruits, bread, dry caramel, subtle grass and earth. It's a pretty decent IPA with a relatively dynamic hop profile. It certainly leans more to the dirty, earthy end of the IPA spectrum. (Score: 3.6/5.0)

Beer Tasting: Partizan Pale Ale Dr. Rudi

I recently enjoyed one of Partizan's pale ale releases, which features the New Zealand hop variety Dr. Rudi. Dr. Rudi has at times been described as a cross between Nelson Sauvin (a New Zealand hop) and Cascade (an American hop). Having tasted this beer, I can understand that description, as the hop certainly imparts the juicy fruit character I would expect from Nelson Sauvin while also lending a grassy, dirty bitterness, which I associate with Cascade.

The beer pours hazy, yellow-gold with a large, lasting frothy white cap. The aroma holds notes of ripening orange, mango, some lightly yeasty pale malts, zesty lemon, hints of citrus rind and dirt. The flavor is light to medium sweet with mellow grassy bitterness, more rindy citrus, dry pale malts, some hay. It's light bodied with average, creamy carbonation. The finish is lightly resinous with some quick, dry citrus bitterness, a bit more grass and hay, mild juicy tangerine, touches of spicy pine. At 5.5% ABV it's right in that session beer wheelhouse - at least for me, anyway. Overall it's quite a nice American pale ale and a good illustration of the Dr. Rudi hop variety. (Score: 3.8/5.0)

Event Recap: Meantime Tasting at the Union Tavern

On Tuesday evening, the Union Tavern hosted Meantime Brewing Company as part of the pub's We Need to Talk About Beer series. For this series, the pub typically brings in a single brewery and a representative from the brewery (often a brewer) takes the audience through a range of their beers. This occasion marked the fifth such event I have attended at the Union Tavern, preceded by Windsor & Eton, The Kernel, East London Brewery, and a mixed tasting of American beers.

Pete Brissenden from Meantime walked us through six beers from the brewery's range: London Lager, Pilsner, Wheat, India Pale Ale, London Stout and Chocolate (a Baltic Porter). Meantime, the second-largest brewery in Greater London after Fuller's, focus mostly on beers that appeal to a wide variety of drinkers. Their lagers, pale ales and porters are fairly straight-ahead examples of the styles, well executed if not especially exciting. Thankfully, Meantime do have an experimental streak and regularly brew small batch releases that are available at their brewery tap room and pub down in Greenwich. For example, they've put out a host of barrel-aged beers and other niche styles such as quad and saison. I find these limited-release beers to be far more intriguing than the standard lineup. They showcase the creativity and brewing acumen of Meantime's brewers, and I will continue to seek out such beers as and when I can.

With their core range of beers, though, Meantime strives for consistency and drinkability, embracing a 'Drink it, don't think it' (Pete's words) mentality. While many breweries like to vary their beer offerings by using new recipes on a weekly basis, Meantime wants its customers to know that the London Lager they drink today will taste the same as it did last month, and will taste the same next month. It's a sound model and it suits their mission.


Pete talking beer.

The first beer we tackled was Meantime London Lager, a 4.5% so-called Premium Lager. It's a fairly uncomplicated beer with a character marked by crisp but doughy biscuits and a very slight straw bitterness. This beer epitomizes the 'Drink it, don't think it' mentality. I would happily sink a few bottles of this stuff on a hot day. We followed with Meantime Pilsner. It's not terribly dissimilar to the London Lager, though it does have a bit more hop kick to it. The malts again are fairly biscuity, lightly doughy, with mild cereal grains. It's another highly drinkable beer.

We then moved on to the Meantime Wheat. True to its style, this 5% hefeweizen had plenty of banana and clove in the aroma, and of course bready wheat. The flavor was moderately sweet with lightly sugary wheat bread, mild spices, ripe bananas. Not the most inspiring hefe I've had before, but certainly quaffable.

Next was the fairly heady 7.5% Meantime India Pale Ale. The brewery markets this beer as an 'authentic' IPA; that is, a beer true to the style of those IPAs that, back in the good old days, made the voyage from the UK to India. It's a decent beer and it drinks pretty well for its strength. There's a mild breadiness to the malts, and the hops impart notes of earth, cedar and tangy citrus. The alcohol leaves you with a warming finish.

We finished the tasting with two dark beers, the Meantime London Stout and the Meantime Chocolate. The London Stout (4.5%) is easy going, its character defined by dark sugars, lightly roasted malts, some ash and faint coffee. The Chocolate (6.5%) is a bit punchier, the roasted malts a bit harder. The chocolate character can be a bit chalky at times but overall it adds an interesting element to the beer.

It was a fun event and thanks to Pete for making his presentation insightful and engaging. And, of course, big thanks to the Union Tavern and its staff for hosting. I loved the ribs.

Beer Tasting: Signature Brew Doctor's Orders and Ed Harcourt's Dark Heart

This evening I ventured further into the Signature Brew roster of beers. I'd had a few others from this outfit before (Professor Green's Remedy, Sssnakepit and Unplugged, to be specific) and enjoyed them, so nerves were not an issue. On the docket tonight were Ed Harcourt's Dark Heart (a ramped up brown ale) and Doctor's Orders (a fairly straight-ahead lager).

Signature Brew bring something unique to the table. The three guys behind the company - David and Sam, who come from the music industry, and Tom, who has a brewing background - pair up with their favorite musical acts or record labels to create collaboration beers, which they in turn aim to sell at music venues where these acts perform; the beers are also sold to pubs and bottle shops. The collaborative process begins by meeting with the musician in question and sampling through a range of beers to assess his or her tastes. The team document these tastings and post the resulting videos on the Signature Brew website. (These videos are actually quite enjoyable to watch and I would recommend in particular the one with Ed Harcourt.) Once Tom has enough information to go on, he puts together a recipe. Signature Brew then contracts the recipe out to a brewery to have the beer produced.

So the Doctor's Orders was a collaboration with Hospital Records, the South London-based label that specializes in electronic music. The result of their collaboration was a malty lager, clocking in at 5.2% ABV. The beer pours clear, deep gold with a moderate, frothy white head. The aroma has lots of bready malts, some cereal, hints of ripe orange. The flavor is medium sweet with lots of lightly toasted bready malts, some caramel, mild bitter cereal grains, touches of orange. Light to medium bodied with fine, creamy carbonation. Sweet finish, more sugary bread, light bitter toasted hay. It's decent. Certainly not the most complex beer you'll come across, but it's easygoing stuff.

Taking it up a notch, I moved on to the 6.8% brown ale, Ed Harcourt's Dark Heart. Mr. Harcourt seemed to quite relish the opportunity to create a beer (see the video here), and his enthusiasm definitely comes through in the finished product. This so-called 'Edwardian Brown Ale' pours clear, red-brown with a strong, lasting beige froth head. The aroma holds a bit of chalky cocoa, well toasted malts, some dry earth. The flavor is light to medium sweet with lots of bittersweet cocoa, some almost-burnt brown bread, licks of robust coffee, earthy bitterness. Medium bodied with average, creamy carbonation. The texture is fairly oily. It finishes with lots more bittersweet cocoa, further earthy bitterness, burnt toast, dirt and charred malts. A pretty sturdy brown ale, and a solid effort overall. Apparently Ed Harcourt likes his beer to have some teeth.

I've enjoyed the beers I've had from the Signature Brew project so far. And I'm especially intrigued by the collaborative process they undertake. I'll be interested to see what other styles of beer come out of this fairly singular approach to brewing.

Festival Recap: The Wandsworth Common London Beer Festival

The Wandsworth Common Beer Festival is one of my favorite festivals in London. For setting, beer selection and overall experience there are few festivals that can really touch it. As such, when they announced they would put on a new iteration of their festival focusing solely on London breweries, it excited me greatly. Additionally, the prospect of a summer festival (the Wandsworth Common Festivals had until now taken place in March and October) was also a major perk.

The Royal Victoria Patriotic Building (pictured at right) houses the beer festival, and the festival takes place in the building's courtyard and attached restaurant, Le Gothique. It is quite a fetching structure aesthetically, and its history makes it all the more intriguing. According to the its website, the building began its life as an orphanage in 1857. It was subsequently a hospital during WWI, home to MI6 during WWII, and later on a school. When the building fell into disrepair, the London County Council eventually sold the building on to an entrepreneur, who funded extensive reservations to the Grade II listed structure. That was in 1980. The building now has residential flats, artist studios and workshops, office units, a bar and restaurant. And it is in that bar and restaurant section of the building that I spent last Thursday evening.

The selection of beers from London brewers was indeed dizzying. There were about 40 distinct London breweries represented, ranging from the classic (Fuller's) to the more progressive brewers that have opened in the last few years (The Kernel, Partizan, Weird Beard, et al), and the styles of beer available for consumption ranged widely. The gravity casks outside poured all manner of bitters and golden ales, APAs and IPAs, stouts and strong bitters. A select few kegs lines added to the variety. In doors, a further range of handpumps offered drinkers different cask options, and there was also an excellent selection of bottled beers for sale. On the Preview Night, the session I visited the festival, the bottles were not part of the tasting schedule, so I was precluded from drinking those beers offered in bottle at the festival, such as the aforementioned Kernel and Partizan, in addition to Brew By Numbers, Little Brew, Ellenberg's, Redchurch, Beavertown, Howling Hops and Pressure Drop. During the subsequent festival sessions, which were pay-as-you-go versus the all-in price of the Preview Night, the bottles could be purchased by attendees.

Even without the bottled beers there was more than enough draught beer to keep any drinker occupied. Despite applying myself fairly vigorously for several hours, I reckon there were a few dozen beers I did not get to try. The quality level of the beers I did have was overall quite high. And the festival did well to get breweries from a broad geographic sample: from the north, London Brewing Co.; from the east and southeast, A Head in a Hat, Beavertown, Crate, East London Brewery, Five Points Brewing Co., Hackney Brewery, Brupond; and from the west and southwest, Belleville, By the Horns, Clarence & Fredericks, Cronx, Fuller's; and all these breweries are just a portion of what you would have found during the festival.

Among the most notable beers were the following:

Fuller's Special 7-Year Old Matured Cask Bitter, 8.5% - it's not often you come across aged beers at festivals so it was certainly a fun experience to try this one. The beer definitely showed signs of its age, its character rife with tangy and leathery fruits, molasses, raisins, earth. I've had a number of aged beers from Fuller's before, mostly bottle conditioned beers from their Vintage Ale collection; it was nice to try one from the cask.

Rocky Head Zen, 4.8% - this was likely the most refreshing beer of the day. Pouring from a key keg, it was chilled a bit more than the gravity casks. The beer was tastefully hopped and had traces of dried lemon, tangerine and hay, with an adequate dry pale malt base to provide just enough sweetness. The beer finished lightly resinous with a nice, cleansing mineral quality. It was a really lovely little pale ale, and easily the most drinkable of the festival.

London Brewers Alliance Collaboration Ale, 7.2% - this was an interesting one. The beer was an IPA base with roasted malts, oats and wheat, and a yeast designed for wheat beers. The recipe resulted in a genre-bending so-called 'black and white IPA'. The beer showcased the creativity of the members of the London Brewers Alliance, or LBA, and the range of flavors that can be packed into one beer. Past collaborations from the LBA, which have included an IPA and a strong stout, have been fairly straight-ahead takes on those two styles, so it was great to see the brewers have a bit of fun this time around. The beer had the look of a dark beer (brown in color with creamy beige head) and some nice roasted malt character, baking cocoa and charcoal notes throughout. It also had the earthy and piney bitterness you might expect from an IPA. And it also had definite traces of banana and wheat bread that you would expect from a hefeweizen. It was a novel experiment in style-mixing and I enjoyed the resulting beer.

London Fields Love Not War, 4.2% - it's impressive for a bitter to be a standout at a beer festival. When you've got high strength IPAs, stouts, old ales, etc., it can be difficult for a lower ABV bitter or golden ale to match the flavor and complexity of these higher ABV styles. But with its juicy hop character and tasteful malt structure, that's exactly what Love Not War achieved. The beer contained engaging notes of ripe citrus, orange, toasty bread and some earthy pine bitterness - and all these elements were well balanced. Along with the Rocky Head Zen, this was one beer of which I could have drank a whole lot more.

Weird Beard Little Things That Kill, 3.8% - winner of the Look-What-We-Can-Do-With-Only-3.8% category, this beer punches well above its weight in terms of its dynamic flavors and hop profile. This little ABV killer has loads of hops packed into it, resulting in a mélange of mango, grapefruit, urine (in a good way!) and lemon. And there's just enough sweet and lightly doughy white bread to hold the whole thing together. I feel like I could sink a few pints of this beer (which I didn't do during the festival - too many other beers, you know?) so I will keep an eye out for it around London.

 Aside from all the great beers, though, it really is the atmosphere of this festival that makes it so special. I was lucky enough to have a seat at one of the few small tables in the courtyard thanks to my early-arriving cohort; but I'm sure the groups of friends who took their places on the grassy patches outside Le Gothique did so happily. The weather, thankfully, was beautiful during my visit, so the tent and space heaters (which you may note in the pictures on the right) were of little use. The bar staff was prompt and friendly (not always guaranteed at festivals!) and helped to make my experience a real pleasure. So well done, festival organizers, for putting together another wonderful festival, and especially well done on bringing together so many London breweries all in one place. This was easily the most comprehensive collection of beers from London-based brewers that I have come across, and it was with great enjoyment that my friends and I worked our way through the catalogue of beers on offer.

Until next time.

Beer Tasting: Weird Beard Saison 14

This evening I tried another saison from West London's Weird Beard Brew Co. Based in Hanwell, this brewery was started by a pair of homebrewers who, after achieving some success at the amateur level, decided to turn pro, as it were. Their pedigree does shine through in the beers they put out. I've been most impressed by the brewery's saisons, though their pale ales and dark beers aren't bad either. The brewers, Gregg and Bryan, do a great job of getting their beers to market. You can routinely find Weird Beard around London at the bottle shops (e.g. Kris Wines) and pubs (e.g. any of the Craft Beer Co. outposts) you would expect, in addition to festivals. Most recently they've made quite a splash at the Ealing Beer Festival and the Wandsworth Common London Beer Festival.

So the Saison 14. It pours mostly clear gold, hugely effervescent, with a large, lasting white froth head. There's pleasant dry, yeasty dough in the nose, hints of lemon rind, some grass and grapefruit. Light to medium sweet flavor with a nice, semi-dry dough foundation, along with some straw and grass bitterness, a bit of lemon merengue, touches of tangy mandarin orange. Light to medium bodied with average, massaging carbonation. Sweet finish with further doughy malts, a bit of sandy yeast, grass, mandarin orange. It's lovely stuff overall. If I could change anything I wouldn't mind the beer being a touch dryer.

As I said, I like what these guys are doing on the saison front. I look forward to seeing what else they have in store.

The Week in Beer: 4-7 July, 2013

Another big week of beer lies ahead. I got up early to write this, so please read it. If you see an error let us know @londonbeerguide.

Wednesday, 3 July:

• Ealing Beer Festival (3-6 July):
• The 24th year of this festival will feature some 247 (give or take )beers and ciders. The obvious emphasis of this CAMRA festival is on cask ales but they've also got a solid foreign bar with the likes of Cantillon, Struise, De Molen and many more. Further information can be found here. Definitely a festival worth checking out.

Thursday, 4 July:

• The Wandsworth Common London Beer Festival at Le Gothique (4-6 July):
• This is routinely one of my favourite beer festivals in London. The setting is unique, the beer list always well curated. For this iteration the festival organizers are focusing solely on London breweries. The goal is to have 'all' London breweries available. While I don't believe they will have them all in the strictest sense of that proclamation, I am very much looking forward to enjoying the majority of London brewers all in one place. Event info here.
• The American Beer Festival at the White Horse on Parson's Green (4-7 July):
• I'm usually impressed by some of the beers that the Pony brings in for their annual American Beer Festival. Expect the likes of Brooklyn, Sierra Nevada, Odell, Flying Dog, Stone, et al. Info page here.
• American Beer & Food Festival at the Duchess of Cambridge (4-18 July):
• I went to this pub last year for this festival and wasn't disappointed. The beers on offer will include a nice range on tap and even nicer in bottle; expect stuff from Goose Island, Flying Dog, Fordham, Brooklyn, Anchor and more. If memory serves, they also roll out some US-style beers from UK brewers on cask. Some basic info can be found here.
• Hop the Pond Independence Day Party at all Draft House bars:
• Any excuse to highlight American beer (and food) sounds good to me. Info here.
• Hells Yeah at Camden Town Brewery
• Want to slam a bunch of London's best lager to your face, eat street food and listen to music? Go here. Apparently there will be 20 vendors slinging their wares. Details available right about...here.

Saturday, 6 July:

• The 'Meric F Yeah!!! Festival at Brupond:
• I think the focus of this festival is on beer from American brewers stationed in the UK. I think - the details are slightly fuzzy; decipher what you can here. At any rate, there should be beers from Brupond, Hoppie Collie, Lovibonds, Moor and more - a respectable collection of brewers, to be sure.
• The Five Points Brewing Co. Open Day at the Brewery
• At this event you'll be able to meet the brewer, tour the brewery, get free tastings, eat some food and listen to music. There will also be a 'mini festival' featuring neighborhood brewers such as Pressure Drop, Howling Hops, Wild Card and Hackney. It's a shame I'll be out of town on Saturday because this sounds like fun. Event details are available on the brewery's Facebook page, here.
• Partizan Keg Party at Craft Beer Co. Clerkenwell:
• The good folks at CBC Clerkenwell have taken little time off between events, the memories of their 2nd birthday celebration last weekend still very fresh in my mind. This Saturday they're rolling out nine kegs of Partizan liquid - an impressive number for a brewery event, even more impressive when you consider Partizan has to date rarely been seen on keg (excepting the recently-released coffee black IPA). With a bit of luck I might be able to catch the tail end of the event. Details here.

Beer Tasting: Pressure Drop Pale Fire Nelson Sauvin & Mosaic

Tonight I tried my twelfth beer from Hackney-based brewery Pressure Drop and, I'm pleased to report, it's the best beer I've had from them yet. This year Pressure Drop has tackled an eclectic mix of beer styles, including a foraged herb hefeweizen, witbier, dunkelweiss, brown ale, porter and a range of pale ales. The majority of these beers have turned out well. The lone blemish was the Nanban S.P.A., a sweet potato ale that, after it stopped gushing from the bottle, had a messy character with notes of melon, bubblegum, citrus and rubber (not to mention a fleet of floating bits to rival the Spanish Armada). Aside from that unsuccessful experiment the beers have been good. Tonight's beer, though, is excellent - it's the Pale Fire Nelson Sauvin & Mosaic.

The two hops showcased in this beer could each serve as stand-alone hops but they also work quite well together. The beer pours mostly clear gold with a moderate, frothy white head. It has a gorgeous, enticing aroma, dripping with cat pee, mango, grapefruit and tangerine. The flavor is lightly sweet with an adequate pale malt base, above which the hops sing out: plenty of orange and lightly tangy tangerine, a bit of lemon and grapefruit, some lime and papaya, hints of hay. Light bodied with fine, massaging carbonation. Very faint hoppy resins to finish, lightly sweet, biscuity pale malts, light urine, pine needles and lots more fresh, zippy citrus fruits. Wonderful. Definitely one of Pressure Drop’s best beers yet. I look forward to tracking this brewery's progress going forward.

Beer Tasting: HOBO Beer Craft Czech Lager

I finally got around to trying the HOBO Beer Craft Czech Lager. The producer, HOBO Beer + Co., hails from East London and seems to be hanging its hat on this one beer. What is most distinctive about this beer is likely the can. Few UK brewers have taken to canning their beers, despite the myriad advantages of doing so (as enumerated by HOBO here). There's a certain stigma attached to canned beers, which is wholly unwarranted given the advantages, though understandable given the types of breweries that have offered canned beers over the last few decades. Thankfully, in recent years, a number well-respected breweries have started canning their beers, especially in the United States. Some breweries exclusively can, such as can pioneer Oskar Blues out of Colorado, while others can a few of their brands, such as Sierra Nevada and, as of very recently, Sam Adams.

It's easy to find canned beers on the shelves of UK supermarkets; unfortunately, the majority of these beers come macro breweries (the likes of Stella, Carling, Carlsberg, et al) and only a small minority come from what might be considered craft brewers, among them Fuller's and BrewDog. HOBO, to the best of my knowledge, is the second brewery in London (after Fuller's) to put out canned beers. It's nice to see. While I appreciate the high-brow aesthetic glass bottles allow, I'm also a big fan of the simplicity and economy of the can; indeed, I'm on record saying my favorite beer is Utica Club from the F.X. Matt Brewery (also known as Saranac), which comes predominately in can format and only rarely would one find it in bottle. (Incidentally, I prefer UC out of the can.)

And how does HOBO's lager stack up against its aluminum brethren? It's an easy-drinking warm weather beer. It pours clear, yellow-gold and effervescent, with a moderate, creamy white head. Grainy malts in the nose, some cereal, dry hay. Light to medium sweet flavor, some further husky cereal grains, light bitter hay, biscuits and dough, slight metallic bite. Light bodied with average carbonation. Pretty clean to finish, some sugary pale malts, lightly dirty hay bitterness, cereal, husky grains. It is a simple beer whose character is marked by sweet malts and cereal - it lacks the hoppy punch of a proper Czech pilsner. It would be a nice beer to drink when beer isn't the focus.

Beer Tasting: Camden Town Byron Pale Ale

On a recent visit to Camden Town Brewery I was happy to see that they were offering their Byron Pale Ale for sale. I've been to several Byron restaurants and have even enjoyed this beer before, but I don't typically take out pen and pad during a meal so I've never really put this beer through its paces, as it were. For those who don't know, Byron is a chain of burger restaurants with a high concentration of outposts in London and an ever-expanding universe outside of the Big Smoke. (For the record, Byron is, at present, my favorite burger house in London.) At some point Byron and Camden Town collaborated on a beer to offer at all the restaurants, and this beer is the result.

The beer pours crystal clear gold with a moderate, foamy white head. The nose gives off a decent bready malt punch, perhaps some lightly toasted bread, then behind that there are subtle citrusy hop notes. Light to medium sweet flavor with a prominent bready malt base, atop which an understated hop character adds enough character to keep the beer interesting. Some light dried pine, orange, grass. Light to medium bodied with average carbonation. Balanced finish, some dry and bready malts, slight minerals, delicate pine, grass and orange, some mild citrus rind bitterness. A pretty well-balanced APA. I would guess the restrained hop character is intentional, for in my opinion too strong a hop presence might not sit well with a burger. Having the breadiness out front is probably sage. This is a good, uncomplicated beer.

Beer Tasting: Partizan Saison Grisette Lemongrass Edition

My quality of life has improved dramatically since March of this year, mostly because that's when Partizan began their Saison Grisette series. I'm a huge fan of the saison style and, until this year, very few breweries in London had been attempting the style, let alone producing a good example of it. What has been especially exciting about Partizan's saisons is that brewer Andy Smith has been releasing a wide array of variations. His saisons range in ABV from around 4% all the way up to north of 7%, and include a variety of ingredient tweaks with regards to the hops, fruits, herbs and spices.

It could very well be my imagination, but I feel like these grisettes are getting better and better with each batch. The one in my glass tonight - the Lemongrass Edition - pours perfectly clear, lightly effervescent with a frothy, pure white head. The nose carries dry dough, some biscuity pale malts, lemony citrus. Light sweet flavor with the typical Partizan Grisette balance, mild straw, doughy pale malts, white bread, faint grassy bitterness, some lemon merengue. Light bodied with average to lively carbonation. Fairly sweet to finish with just a touch of dryness to even things out, with further white bread, angel food cake, light grass and straw bitterness and some further playful lemon merengue. An absolute delight.