Bottom of the Barrel

You know how it is. The pint you have just ordered doesn't seem quite the same, or as good as your previous one from the same handpump. You'd enjoyed the last one and this purchase somehow doesn't seem to measure up. It isn't as clean or satisfying. It's flatter and just, well, just inferior. You can't quite put your finger on it, but it leapt out at you on your first sip. What could have gone wrong?

Now of course I am talking about cask beer here. Real Ale if you like. The live stuff. Because it is live, you need a little more care in both serving and drinking it. So hopefully this will help when you get the experience desribed above. There are a few possible causes: you may have got a dirty glass. Not so common and it usually doesn't get as far as taste. Usually you can smell a dirty glass, but in bad cases it can taint the beer in some way. Most often it just smells bad. A much more likely cause is that the beer is reaching the bottom of the cask. After all, all good things come to an end and it is a living product. Now my experience tells me that with some beers, particularly if they are fast moving, you can squeeze almost every last drop out of a cask with little loss of condition, though there will always be some. Some beers pick up taint from the sediment (aka trub or lees - deposits of dead yeast or residual yeast and other particles that precipitate in cask conditioned beer at the bottom of the cask) more quickly than others too and some sediment is just heavier and stronger tasting and more likely to affect the last few pints of liquid.

In the case of the "not quite the same" pint there are one or two tell tale signs to look for. The first is that the pint will take a bit longer to clear and secondly, it will not have the same condition. It may well have a cloudiness or haze that was not apparent before.  In the worst case you will get a tell tale sign of "bottoms" - the sediment at the bottom of the cask, which will often taste very yeasty, but not in a good way. A faint (or not so faint) whiff of vinegar will sometimes be evident. These are signs that you should hot foot it to the bar and say in your best apologetic manner "I think this might be getting near the bottom."

Good luck with that. Perhaps I'll do a tutorial on that too.

The apologetic bit is most important. You are British for God's sake, so it is your fault.

A Mixed Bag

I've written about the Castle in Furnival Street before. I like it as a pub. Hidden down a side street off Holborn, it is as you'd expect during the day, a haunt of business types in suits. I used to wear one you know; every working day for 30 odd years, so it still feels somewhat discomknockerating to feel out of place amongst them, by being dressed in mufti; but I digress. The pub is bright and airy, one single room, with a bar and many beers. I tried two of them in halves. Both were pretty flat and turgid looking, though fresh enough. Derventio Emperor's Whim, was as odd tasting as its name, while Dark Star Espresso had its light hidden under a bushel by poor cellaring and presentation. Not GBG quality on this visit.

I was tempted by the Mitre as I passed, but I decided to save that for the return journey. Instead, a ten minute walk to the Gunmakers and a cheery welcome from landlord Jeff Bell. Purity Mad Goose was on and this provided such a good return on investment quality wise, that my intended trip to the Mitre was forgone while Jeff and I caught up and discussed this and that. My pints - yes it was pints by then - were in tip top condition and properly pulled through a sparkler. Others at the bar were giving Woodeford's Wherry some serious biff, though their preference was an unsparkled pint. It still looked good though.

My plan was then to meet E after work. Her workplace now is in the heart of Soho. I'd not been down that way for many a year and had forgotten how interesting and diverse it is. After a cursory look at her anonymous building, E led me through a maze of narrow streets to the Old Coffee House, a pub leased by Brodie's Brewey and featuring their beers. The pub is wonderful, with every available space filled by bric-a-brac and photos. (Our spot featured some interesting handwritten letters by David Beckham from his early days at Man Utd.) Our beer choice was Amarillo which was clean, hoppy, cool, but slightly flat. It had condition, but somehow the presentation rendered a beer which entirely lacked even the merest trace of head. That just doesn't look attractive. I tried the Brodie's IPA too, which was decent enough, but lacked character and oomph. Still, overall, rather good. They even had smoky bacon crisps, so what's not to like? I'll be back.

So, as the title says, a bit of a mixed bag. This ends my little trilogy of London GBG articles, but I'll leave you with this thought. My visits are a snapshot and may or may not be representative of the pubs taken over a longer period and more experiences, but most people use the GBG for just such one off visits. For them that's how it is.

Pretty Good Really

A quick ten minutes walk towards London Wall takes me to two Good Beer Guide boozers in the same street - well I say the same street and it is, but with two different street names. The first, the Nicolsons operated Crutched Friar, is an interesting place and is so popular with suits that you will feel completely out of place if you aren't wearing one. There's a good selection of decently priced beer here. My two halves, one Thornbridge Lord Marples and the other of Brewdog Punk IPA were rather warm and poorly conditioned. Shame. I don't care for Lord Marples at the best of times and this wasn't the best of times. The Punk was grapefruity and alcoholic, but didn't impress either. Not good for a busy pub, where cask beer was turning over pretty well.

It was a different story fifty yards away at the Ship, a neat little one room pub, which despite a rather pedestrian choice of beer, seemed well run and popular. The ubiquitous Doom Bar, Courage Best, Spitfire and Butcombe hardly enthrall, but you could see they were well looked after. Cool, sparkled and bright was the order of the day. My Butcombe Bitter was brown. It was spot on condition and temperature wise, but tasted of virtually nothing. While you may dislike the choice, you couldn't argue with the quality and cellarmanship.

A further ten minutes walk took me along the astonishingly busy Fenchurch St, where heads turned, including mine, as a girl in a short crimson dress walked across the road, a vivid contrast to the dark suited (male and female) conservatively dressed mass. At the end, a right turn and into the Crosse Keys, a large JDW. Two beers tried here; Bateman's Autumn Ale and RCH Old Slug Porter. Both were cool and in GBG form, but why nothing pale and hoppy with 21 beers on offer?

Back towards home now and the White Swan in Alie St. Now readers of this blog will know I'm no fan of Shepherd Neame's beers, but the Whitstable Ale, though predictably harsh, had some leafy hop and was cool and well conditioned. Whether it was worth an astonishing £3.40 a pint is an entirely different matter, but no other complaints.

Last port of call was the Dispensary in Leman St, where a half of the new Truman's Runner was slightly warm, but well conditioned, though to my taste a bit too malty. The bitter, hoppy finish did make up for it somewhat, but that elusive "drinkability" just isn't there. My final half was from Dark Star. Oktoberfest was a bit dark compared to the current Munich offerings, but was made with German malt and hops, with a full bodied bitter finish. It was pretty decent really, as you'd expect from this brewery. It was cool too.

So there we have it. Five GBG pubs visited and four were up to snuff and one just wasn't. I guess that's probably par for the course, but I'll try the Crutched Friar again soon. All in all, a good result for the Good Beer Beer Guide.

Testing the GBG in London

I'm in London for a few days. Despite it being my other home, I kind of regard it as a holiday, so like on all holidays, I'm going to have a few beers. In the pub of course, though my fridge here has one or two beers that need supping soon. (Rogue Shakespeare Stout and Stone Russian Imperial Stout might make an interesting comparison I suppose, but if I drank two very large bottles of those, I might be a bit pissed.) So it's the pub.

Where to go is the problem. I'm going to use my new Good Beer Guide 2011 (GBG)I think and see where that leads me. The good news for pubs is that my Cask Marque thermometer's whereabouts cannot be determined, so it'll just be "too warm" or "temperature fine", or, in extreme cases, "very warm". I have already made a start though. I popped into the Bree Louise as I passed. Now this pub has a very bad record, so I wasn't expecting much. My first half of Adnam's Koelner was murky and undrinkable and was exchanged for a rather tasty (but way too warm) half of Dark Star Espresso, so no improvement there. Later I had a pint of Itchin Valley Single Hop (Cascade) which was served in top condition and lacked only hops! That was in my local JDW, Goodman's Field, which like the Bree Louise, unaccountably has Good Beer Guide status. Unlike the Bree Louise, it did have good beer on this occasion.

Later if I'm up to it, I'll stroll across Tower Bridge and seek out Dredgie who is apparently haunting the area tonight. E has (so far) declined to accompany me for that excursion, as she has work tomorrow. I don't of course. Retirement has many advantages.