Booze: An awesome London adventure in January

27^th January 2012.

I decided to take a trip to London. Wendy and I were meant to go on a pub crawl but he had a heavy one the night before so he bailed on me. That left me with a few hours before going to stay on the coldest sofa in the history of sofas to drink awesome beer.

I had quite a few beers on the train which probably wasn’t for the best considering I hadn’t eaten since lunch.

Euston tap had an IPA festival on so naturally I had to stop there.

Beers:

Williams Brothers Joker IPA on keg; I’d had it in bottles but justice was not done. Kegged it is absolutely brilliant. Hoppy, quite sweet and citrusy.

My first beer by Summer Wine Brewery, Diablo (IPA); again on keg, bloody amazing. Massive tropical flavours... I’m pretty sure I got mango and papaya... and that finishing pine flavour we all love in an IPA.

I then had Summer Wine Diablo on cask. I wish I didn’t. Yeah, it was great but I much preferred it on keg.

Oh and I was sitting across the bar from Tim Anderson, Masterchef winner. I didn’t say hi though. I probably should’ve.

I then went on to Brewdog Camden. My first ever visit there. It had to be done. I bloody love Brewdog.

Beers:

Punk IPA: C’mon. It had to be done. I bloody love it. Citrusy, toasty, piney. Just yes.

Hops Kill Nazis: A nice dark red ale.  Very hoppy. Caramel-like sweetness with fruity and bready flavours. I could’ve drunk more.

Hardcore IPA: Very dark. Massively hoppy and bitter. I like it. I couldn’t drink it all the time, though.

Final stop of the night was The Black Heart. Because it’s metal.

Just the one beer here:

Brooklyn Lager! It was the first time I’d had this on tap after consuming the Longwater Lane Sainsbury’s entire stock. It’s a Vienna style lager made from a pre-prohibition recipe. It’s quite malty for a lager and tastes a lot darker and bitter than it looks. I bloody love it.

I then retired to Wendy’s house and had a few beers before passing out.

I woke up to find this facebook status:

So yeah; that. I don’t remember.

28^th January 2012

Very hungover. Decided that the best cure would be to go to Chinatown and get a buffet. Awesome idea. We went to Little Wu. It was cheap, filling and nice. Cured my hangover at least.

Beer:

A bottle of Tiger. It’s just simple.

We then decided we wanted to go to Tate Modern. Neither of us had a clue where it is. We got off the tube at London Bridge instead of Southwark. Then walked in the wrong direction.

This led us to:

Draft HouseTower Bridge. I had wanted to go here for a while but never found myself around there.

Beer:

The best pint of Budvar in my entire life. I’m pretty confident it was Budvar yeast. Simply phenomenal. A revelation.

It was here Wendy looked at me dead in the eye and simply said the words that everyone loves yet dreads: “Fuck it mate. Let’s do a pub crawl.”

We continued walking and found ourselves at a wetherspoons.

Beer:

A pint of Fuller’s London Pride. I’m sure we’re all familiar with this. It’s a great standard ale.

NEXT!

Continued walking down the river Thames and stopped in some place overlooking the HMS Belfast. That’s a bit ass boat.

Don’t remember what this place was called but it seemed like a chain pub. Filled with families.

Beer:

Something called Suffolk Blonde. Wasn’t thrilled by it.

I then realised where we were and that the only place to go was The Rake.

Beer:

Fancied a lager so went with Kaiserdom Pils. The Germans know how to do it.

We then went to Brew Wharf. Another place I had wanted to go to for a while. The first time I tried to go there I failed because it was closed for a private function.

Beer:

It was here I had my first experience of Camden Pale Ale! Lovely stuff. Citrusy and biscuity.

We also had the best chips ever.

We then met some friends and went to The Market Porter. Lovely pub. Very lively although it looks like a standard old man joint... with a Brewdog tower which is always respectable.

Beer:

My first Otley beer. Otley O’ Garden. Cask. Very lemony and biscuity. I could drink this all the time.

I then forced everyone to return to a haunt of the previous night: Brewdog Camden.

It was very busy but worth it because...

Beer:

StoneBrewing Co. Arrogant Bastard Ale! 2/3 of that, please! This was especially awesome as I had tweeted at Neil a couple of days before and was like “BRO! I’m in London this weekend... PLEASE put Stone Arrogant Bastard on!” and he declared it to not be a problem, thankfully. I absolutely love this beer. Sweet caramel, grapefruit and quite bitter but also very drinkable!

The others were a tad too drunken so they decided to go home but I had to make one final stop before I left.

Back to the Euston Tap!

Beer:

I needed another pint of Williams Brothers Joker IPA. I needed it.

I then ended up talking to a random Slovakian guy and a couple of people who bizarrely also originate from Norwich. How can this be? I get out of Norwich but I can’t escape the people.

This led to more beer:

Summer Wine Lime & Coriander Saison. You can taste the lime and coriander. It’s also quite spicy and yeasty. My problem was that I couldn’t taste the lime enough. I did convey this to Summer Wine on twitter and I completely understand when they replied with “The whole point was for the lime not to be overpowering” fair.

That was the end of my weekend. That day has since been known as “Wendy & Nate try to find the Tate”. We could’ve found it quite easily, had we tried but I guess pub crawls are much more fun than art galleries. Right?

Gruelling journey back to Norwich. Took me 5 bloody hours! Train to Ipswich... wait in Ipswich for an hour (I contemplated suicide. Please never make me go back there) before a coach back to Norwich. ‘Cause yeah, that’s exactly what I pay stupidly expensive train fares for.

All in all, an awesome weekend! So much awesome beer. Awesome company.

Winner.

Nate Dawg

http://www.twitter.com/NateDawg27