euston tap
Saturdays at The Kernel Brewery in London
Sunday, January 22nd, 2012 | Beer | No Comments
The Kernel Brewery is a very good brewery in London. I first tasted their beer at the Euston Tap, where I had their delightful Centennial/Citra Pale Ale. It’s hard to find particularly inventive brewers in London, but Kernel makes fantastic strong IPAs and dark beers. I like them a lot.
Recently, The Kernel started having open houses on Saturday at their Maltby Street location in Bermondsey, London. Their brewery is conveniently located along the Maltby Street market. Be warned, it’s incredibly hipstery at this market, so much so there’s a shop selling only vintage fixie bikes. If that bothers you, steer clear. If you can look past the ironically dressed clientele, visiting The Kernel on a Saturday is very nice.
Kernel Brewery at Maltby Street market
They have a table setup where you can order a pint or buy some of their beer in bottles. We had the basic stout and one of their IPAs at the market and I took home bottles of the Centennial/Citra pale ale, 2010 Centennial IPA, Export India Porter, and Imperial Brown Stout. I haven’t had them yet, but, from what I’ve tasted so far, I can’t imagine they’ll disappoint.
The beer menu, some good stuff on there
Me buying some Kernel beers
The Kernel bottles I took home
Vancouver, take note. The Kernel served and sold beer out of the back of their brewery right onto the street! There were no fights, car accidents, underage drinkers, or even drunk people! Why can’t we do this in Vancouver?
Cheers,
Chris
Brewdog has a pub in London now
Wednesday, January 11th, 2012 | Beer | No Comments
In Camden to be exact, and it’s been there for about a month. I was really excited when I found out Brewdog opened their first non-Scottish pub in London (4th pub overall) in December. There are few epic beer bars in London, especially when you consider the scale of London and how much time people spend down the pub. Brewdog Camden joins Craft and The Euston Tap as beer nerd destinations in Londontown.
Erik was around over the holidays, so naturally we hit up Brewdog Camden. I was very impressed by the look of the place, which is very clean, modern, and on brand. I was even more impressed by the beer on offer, there were twenty odd taps and hundreds of bottles. The bottle selection was almost solely constituted of hardcore craft beer, mostly American (mostly Californian), some Danish (mostly Mikkeller), and Hitachino Nest of Japan. The majority of the taps were of Brewdog’s own beer, but there were also a few guest kegs from the likes of Stone and Mikkeller. Much of the Brewdog beer on tap I’d never seen in bottles before and I believe some were experimental. I really enjoyed the Winter Porter and the Hops Kill Nazis (a hoppy imperial red). I didn’t love the Wasabi Stout or the Dogma, but that’s just me.
Us guys at Brewdog Camden
What I really liked was that both Tactical Nuclear Penguin (32% ABV) and Sink the Bismarck (41% ABV) were on offer, £6 for a 25ml taste. I’d only ever come across these beers in bottles in the UK and didn’t buy because they carry a hefty price tag, so this was my first taste. We tried Tactical Nuclear Penguin (they were out of Bismarck) and it was a delight. It’s very syrupy in the glass and it tastes very sweet, more like madeira than beer. It also warms the throat in a good way, like a fine brandy or cognac might. A bottle would be dangerous in my hands.
Tactical Nuclear Penguin in the glass (Hops kill Nazis in the background)
Erik tasting TNP with an aristocratic air
London beer tourists, in this order, visit Craft, Brewdog Camden, and the Euston Tap. My one criticism of Brewdog Camden is that there aren’t many session beers to be had, which might turn off the casual beer fan. I don’t think Brewdog cares though, beer for punks after all.
Cheers,
Chris
London Pub Guide
Thursday, November 10th, 2011 | Beer | 2 Comments
The Euston Tap is a really good pub
When I moved to London I expected to arrive in a beer nirvana, where cask ale rains from the sky and everyone is happily just a little bit drunk all the time. While my expectations may have been lofty, I was generally surprised at how few good pubs, from a beer perspective, I could find in London. Sure, there are pubs everywhere and the majority of the English population is drunk a lot of the time (though not exactly happily), but where are all the good pubs? Over time I managed to find a few here and there, no thanks to terrible pub finding websites like Fancyapint and Beer in the Evening.
It’s not like I wasn’t trying to find good pubs in London, I’m ever diligent. I even downloaded the CAMRA Good Beer Guide iPhone app, which is great for finding pubs serving cask ale. CAMRA, however, fails to distinguish between a pub serving nicely conditioned cask ale and a nice place to hang out. CAMRA highly recommends the Wenlock Arms in Islington, which I decided to check out. When I walked in, I found the place full of dishevelled looking regulars staring at me like I didn’t belong there. Though the beer was some of the best I’d drank in London to that point, I found the atmosphere to be very disconcerting. Lucky for them, their beer gets them on the list.
Lucky for me, I eventually started working in the same office as a fellow beer enthusiast. The list below comes courtesy of Lee Bacon aka Baconator, who I kindly thank for his good advice. The best two places I’ve visited on hist list are The Euston Tap and Craft, which are both fantastic beer bars that, in my humble opinion, stack up with the best in the world.
North London:
London Bridge:
Old Street:
Chancery Lane / Holborn:
Covent Garden:
West London:
If you have any other suggestions for me, I’d love to hear them.
Cheers,
Chris
Search
Categories
Archive
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008