When I was about 18 (may have even been 17… Naughty me) back in college one of my favourite pubs was The Hot House in Chelmsford. It was way before its time I think, Belgian beers, German lagers, Czech beers and lots of weird and wonderful flavoured shots dominated the drinks menu. It was a bit funky and provided an alternative venue to go out to. Had it opened today I think it would have been very successful. When we used to go we was always told the basement bar that was on

The dish that I made here is a real Chelmsford collaboration, the beer is from Chelmsford microbrewery Round Tower Brewery and the fresh pasta I bought is from the excellent market restaurant Pastasciutta. When I first moved to Chelmsford I was excited at the idea of living somewhere that had so much going on, compared to where I grew up where there wasn’t much of a high street or pubs. Simon Tippler the head brewer at Round Tower really makes great dark beer, Slipstream bein

I don’t usually do posts like this, I leave the ranting and beer politics to people who do it much better than I do. But the more time I spend in The Alehouse Chelmsford the more it puzzles me to how it has never been awarded for its beer by our local CAMRA branch. Before I go into one, I don’t want this to be thought of as an attack on my local CAMRA branch, because it is not it is an open question. I have met a few of the local CAMRA branch and they are all lovely people, s

Ever since I took my first step in The Hop Beer Shop I instantly fell in love with the first Micropub in Essex. I’m a huge supporter of Micropubs in general, I think we are going to see loads more opening up in the near future. As I mentioned in my previous post about The Hop Beer Shop I think the real success of a great Micropub is all down to the owner, the Micropub atmosphere takes on the personality of the owner. This is why it is no surprise to me that The Hop Beer Shop

Today marks the 1st birthday of the SX Bottleshare, Essex’s only once a month bottle sharing beer-geekfest! For 12 months now a group of beer enthusiasts meet up, all with a bottle of something special in hand , so they can hang out and chat with like minded people about their favourite subject… good beer. Our groups usually range between 10-14 people, which means we have roughly tried around 130 different beers over the year! Its been great fun over the past year, the most c

After my visit to Worthing to sample the excellent Brookstead Alehouse and Anchored in Worthing micropubs I was delighted to hear that Chelmsford had also opened a new mini pub. Chelmsford is a short journey away from me and probably has the best local selection of decent pubs and beer bars, it’s size and choice narrowly beating Billericay and Rochford. After walking through the long wide Chelmsford high Street, past the shops, past the market stalls and crowds of busy shoppe

Due to family and football commitments I unfortunately wasn’t able to attend the first two SX Bottle Shares but with a blank space on my calendar I was going to make sure that I was in the Alehouse this April! Even though my bottles had made it from Bruges and Barcelona unharmed I was worried that they wouldn’t survive the journey to Belgravia and back, as to make it in time for kick off I would have to leave straight from work! After a slightly delayed train and a close shav