Love Good Beer

Belgo Centraal in London

Saturday, May 29th, 2010 | Beer | 1 Comment

Belgo Centraal Monk Waiter

The wife’s sister and her husband are in town so we went to see Oliver (Food, Glorious Food!) in Covent Garden the other night.  We needed some quick eats before the show so I surfed the intertubes and came across Belgo, a London chain of five Belgian style restaurants.  I was particularly drawn to the beer menu (delicious Trappist beers!) and the Beat The Clock theatre menu, where you pay the time you order your food at (between 5-6:30).  For example, if you order at 5:15 you pay £5.15 for your meal.  We wondered what we might get, but we received full size, quality meals served by waiters dressed up as monks.  To be honest, I could have lived without the last bit of humiliating kitsch. However, I can’t complain about £6 meals accompanied by delicious Belgian beers.  Amongst our party we enjoyed Mussels with frites, Spit roasted chicken with frites, and pork and leak sausages with mash.  Rachel and I enjoyed Westmalle 8 and Rochefort 8 with our meals, not too shabby for some fast pre show food.

Cheers,

Chris

Belgo Centraal Beat the Clock Menu

Tags: belgo centraal, covent garden, london, rochefort 8, trappist beer, westmalle 8

The Wenlock Arms in London

Saturday, May 8th, 2010 | Beer | 1 Comment

We’ve been in London for a couple of weeks now, time enough to check out a few pubs.  Obviously I was aware that pubs were a big deal over here, but I wasn’t really aware of just how big a deal.  There are probably twenty pubs within a ten minute walk of our flat.  Back in Canada, there weren’t any pubs within a ten minute walk of where I lived and my pub of choice was a 15 minute drive.  English people are also very worried that pubs are closing down at an alarming rate.  In my opinion, these pubs must be closing down for a reason, that being they suck.  Every pub I’ve walked by in England so far has been packed, and this is at all hours of the day, so it’s hard to imagine any half decent pub needing to close down.  Anyway, I love pubs, so I’m pretty happy with my new found selection.

When first looking for interesting pubs to try I stumbled upon the Wenlock Arms, which is frequently voted North London pub of the year by CAMRA.  They advertise nine casks of quality beer, so I obviously had to check it out.  It was in a bit of a sketchy neighborhood that you would only go to if you lived there or were heading for this pub.  The pub itself was a bit rundown, as was the clientele.  I supposed I expected the young, hip crowds you find everywhere else in London, but what I found was a bunch of old dudes who look like they drink too much.  Given the Wenlock Arms is a beer destination, it is fitting that it attracts beer nerds, and for good reason.  The two beers we tried were both outstanding.  It’s been a few weeks so I don’t remember what I had, but I was delighted to have a hoppy beer rivaling something from out of the North West for the first time in London.  Built in 1836, the place has some pretty cool history too.  Anyway, I’ll be back to try more of their delicious beer and to find out what it actually was, but I’ll only go there with serious beer people who will overlook the atmosphere.

While not every pub has nine casks of delicious beer on offer, pretty much all of them have at least three.  This includes The New Rose, which is a convenient one minute walk from our place.  It’s a livelier spot frequented by the trendier locals hereabouts and it just might be our regular pub.  Their website is brilliant too.

Cheers,

Chris

Tags: big ridge, camra, Cask Ale, london, the new rose, uk pubs, wenlock arms

Love Good Beer goes international

Monday, April 5th, 2010 | Beer | 2 Comments

Jet lagged in Guildford two years ago

My wife and I moved to London, England last week.  We’ve been staying with my gracious great aunt in Guildford, Surrey, an accessible train ride from the city. We’ll hopefully be able to continue doing so until we find our own flat (British for apartment), which will hopefully be soon.  It is true that everyone here talks funny and drives on the wrong side of the road, but I suppose we should be thankful the British sent all of their smart, good looking people to Canada (and their dumb and ugly to the US) 400 or so years ago to improve upon their language and culture.  Even though Canada is eleven times better than the UK, we decided to come experience the old country and the rest of Europe before we became bored enough to try having babies.  In all seriousness now, it was time for a change in our commute heavy and not entirely fulfilling lives, so here we are.  I mean no offense to people who have babies (we’ll be them soon enough) and very little offense to the UK (come on, it isn’t perfect here).

What does this mean for LoveGoodBeer.com?  Not a whole heck of a lot really.  We’ll continue blogging, Erik from Vancouver and myself from here.  And while I’ll miss the burgeoning BC beer scene, there will be plenty of new beer experiences for me to have and write about.  I’ve already been to two British pubs (the Lamb and Flag and the Grantley Arms) and sipped real ale, but I also plan to visit Belgium, Oktoberfest, and more of the UK, including the GBBF, in the coming months.  Erik plans to visit twice too, meaning our entire staff of writers will be reunited, however briefly, across the pond.  Back to things that I’ll miss, I don’t know how I’m going to live without Brewery Creek and the Alibi Room, not to mention my friends and family, for however long we’re over here.  Hopefully the experiences will make up for any sense of loss, but I’ll just have to hope everything isn’t too different when I get back.  I will miss Vancouver and those close to me there dearly.

Cheers,

Chris

Tags: alibi room, Belgium, brewery creek, camra uk, england, grantley arms, guildford, lamb and flag, london, oktoberfest, real ale, surrey, uk

GIB / Fullers Beer Exchange

Sunday, January 24th, 2010 | Events | No Comments

Granville Island Brewing let us know last week that they will be taking part in an international beer exchange with London’s Fullers.  From January 25th to February 5th, Fullers London Pride will be available at the GIB Taproom and Lions Winter Ale will be available at the Iron Duke in London.  GIB will also be hosting a Taproom for the UK event, which is open to all comers, this Wednesday, January 27th at 6PM at the Taproom.  While I think this exchange is a cool idea, I have a feeling it has more to do with marketing than beer.  Consider the timing of the event and the participation by breweries in the next two Olympic cities. Notwithstanding that neither London Pride nor Lions Winter Ale can truly be considered world class beers, so we can’t say either brewery is really putting their best foot forward.  And while Fullers is a major international brewer and their beers are readily available in BC, I wonder if anyone in the UK has ever heard of GIB?  That isn’t a slight to GIB who are widely considered BC’s favorite brewery among non beer enthusiasts.

My biggest concern with the event is the quality of the beer itself.  While both Fullers London Pride and GIB Lions Winter Ale are both good beers at the best of times, the international travel these beers will undertake won’t favor the quality of the beer.  Consider that beer is best served fresh and, save for high alcohol beers stored under the right conditions, will only deteriorate over time.  Now consider that these beers were brewed 4708 miles away from each other.  The beers must each travel across a continent by truck or train), across an ocean by boat, and then be stored at a liquor distribution center until the appropriate paper work has been filed.  I’d guess the age of these beers to be at least three months since packaging, which means that they are probably starting to go stale.  I’ve experienced stale Fullers London Pride often, but, considering that I bought this beer at a BC Liquor Store, it could have been up to a year old.

I hope beyond hope that both beers were shipped expediently after they were brewed, stored in optimal conditions, and are both tasting great. What would be even better is if the beers were casked and conditioned (under optimal conditions) on the way, but that might be too hopeful.  Best of luck to both GIB and Fullers in this endeavor.  However, I’d suggest keeping future international exchanges local in the interest of freshness.  Washington and Oregon aren’t too far away.

Cheers,

Chris

Tags: fresh beer, fuller's, Granville Island Brewing, international exchange, iron duke, Lions Winter Ale, london, london pride, olympics, stale, taproom, vancouver