Hello fellow beer bellies!

Again, apologies for the lack of pictures, I’ll update this post with snaps as soon as I have some. lack of phone camera is really slowing me down as I often forget to take my camera out with me.

Here is my typical but necessary let-me-introduce-myself post. I’ll tell you a little about myself, why I’m doing this blog, then a quick a rundown of a few of my favorite pubs and beers, some craft, some..”normal”.(Is there an opposite of craft?)

So… about me.

By day, I’m a pub chef at a nice little joint in Bloomsbury, Central London. When I’m not running around the kitchen swearing my head off and throwing ladles at colleagues, I am working on animations, illustrations and other digital media, in the hopes of one day making a creative career for myself. Sometimes the pressure of creative work takes it’s toll, and that’s partly why I’ve started this blog. Because what do I do when I’m not working?

I drink. 😉

I’m a self proclaimed beer belly. I love the stuff. Always have. I still remember my year 6 camping trip, when I snuck a six-pack of non-alcoholic Becks into my luggage, thinking I was the absolute shit. Since then I’ve left the Becks Blue behind in favour of more crafty options.

I have my preferences; fruity, american-style keg pale ales are probably my favourite and I prefer weaker ales, at around 3.8% – 4.5%, as I like to enjoy a good session. But I have a place in my heart for all styles of beer and lately have been trying to taste more things outside of my comfort zone.

A few of my favourites…

I will be writing more in-depth reviews for a few of these but here’s few favourite beers and a few favourite pubs of mine, in no particular order.

Beers

Camden Pale Ale: (4%) Camden Town Brewery (Camden) This is pretty much a staple drink for me. Reasonably priced(£4.50 – £4.90 in central London) and widely available in most places. Slightly citrusy, fruity hops with a sharp bitter after taste. (shout out to Camden Wit, which didn’t make this list but is a gorgeous wheat beer by the same brewers)

Neck Oil: (4%) This session IPA from Beaver Town Brewery (Tottenham) is a firm favourite of mine. delicious both canned and keg, a smooth, cirtrusy flavour with a hoppy finish. Price varies from around £4.40- £5.90 a pint. Cans are around £2.99 in most shops. And I’ve got to give credit to the awesome artwork on all Beavertown cans.

Wu Gang Chops the Tree: (3.8%) By Pressure Drop brewery (hackney), this is one of my favourite German style wheat beers. A herby aroma with a sweet but not sickly flavour. It’s light on the taste buds and goes down like water. They have it in a lot of weatherspoons which is great as I can get a craft option for cheap. (£4) In more central locations it’s around the £5 mark.

Pubs

The Chequers: (145 High St, London E17 7BX) I don’t actually live in Walthamstow anymore but I still consider this to be my local. Dubbed by Pokemon Go(It’s a Pokestop!) as the “hipsters with kids pub,” it certainly is a live example of the gentrification of Walthamstow. But hipsters aside, it is a great pub, plenty of space, 3 rooms, an open fire and(most importantly to me, being a smoker) a large heated beer garden dotted with fairy lights and bric-a-brac furniture. they have a huge selection of real ales, just a few craft beer options on keg and a few more in the fridges, as well as your standard beers for the not-so-crafty beer lover. DJ sets some nights and good music always. Oh and the food is lovely for pub grub.

The Faltering Fullback: (19 Perth Rd, London N4 3HB) Another regular watering hole of mine, this traditional irish pub is a real life Tardis. From the outside, it looks like a small house with ivy climbing up the walls. you walk in to a large bar and what looks like not much space to sit…but wait… there’s a room around the right side of the bar…and another to the left…and what if we go straight through…Holy shit. Towards the back is a huge, dining hall style room packed with tables, a big telly and a pool table. But truly the best part of this pub is the beer garden. It’s the smokers utopia. wooden decking stretching up 4 levels, (maybe even 5??) with some sections well covered from the rain. Heaters everywhere, ivy and plants thickly scattered about. Here you can find a big open space table for large groups as well as intimate little corners for those date nights. They only have one or 2 craft beer options on at a time and it’s never anything spectacular, but this pub is all about atmosphere.

The Perseverance: (63 Lamb’s Conduit St, London WC1N 3NB) Ok I’ll confess. I work here. I’m shamelessly self advertising. I was a bar tender for just under a year and now a chef. This pub might not look like much on the surface, the tables are wobbly, the chairs are falling apart, half the lights don’t work, but it really offers something special. The staff are the friendliest and most welcoming I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. Seriously. I get annoyed when I go into other pubs and the bar tenders aren’t as lovely as us. You’ll always get a warm welcome here. 4 cask ales which change regularly, 3 ciders and 12 keg taps with craft and regular beers. Oh and the food is great…I make it after all.

So there you have it.

That’s me in a nut shell. upcoming on my blog expect to see in-depth reviews for beers and pubs, tasting tests, brewery visits and other beery thoughts.

tr_kegpclip_clubtropicana

I was planning to have a little introductory first post, so you can get to know me and my tastes, but last night I found a beer that had me weak at the knees and I just had to write about it.

During an unplanned visit to the Craft Beer Co, High Holborn, (A place I will write about later) I found my new favorite beer. I love me a fruity pale ale and Clwb Tropicana is as fruity as they get. The brew pours a gorgeous, cloudy, yellow colour, almost like orange juice, a look that I personally love. (Think Kernal pale ale or Beavertowns american pale)

The taste is smooth and hoppy with a huge burst of tropical fruit flavours like peach, pineapple and mango. This beer doesn’t feel strange like I find many peculiar/niche beers to be. It’s not like the chocolate larger you try for the novelty or the berry beer that’s nice but not drinkable by the pint. The flavours all work wonderfully together and whilst the taste is unusual, it’s not so far out of the box that you’d “only try a half.” I could drink this all evening, every evening.

Bottom line, it’s like a party in my mouth and everyone’s puking rainbows and hula dancing.

It was surprisingly difficult to find anywhere selling it online. A quick visit to the Tiny Rebel brewery website tells me it was released February 2016. Could be that it’s a seasonal thing and I was lucky to have a taste this late in the year. Please let me know if you know anywhere I can buy it!

Abv:5.5%
Style: Pale ale
appearance: Cloudy yellow, small white head.
Flavours: Peach, Passion fruit, Mango, slightly dry, hoppy finish.

Sidenote Sorry for the lack of pictures in this review. I didn’t take my camera out with me and my phone camera is broken. I’ll aim to have some snaps in future reviews.