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

You can read all about the brew day here, but this post is the tasting of the beer we brewed and some new beers from Elephant School Brewing Co and Solvay Society, the other collaborators for our brew Cheru kol. I feel that Cheru Kol is best drank at room temperature and not when it has had any time in the fridge. It pours a lovely glowing polished wood brown, with a healthy white head to start with which then disappears to only thin layering around the edge of the glass. The

It’s the hottest day of the year, it is a good 33 degrees outside in the Brentwood country side, Ethan Kannor, Roman Hochuli and I are standing directly beneath a strip light cutting open bags of malt in Brentwood Brewing Co. My face is melting away in the heat! Despite this sweaty embarrassment, I am excited to be involved in the first day of a new Essex collaboration project. Belgian beer is what changed things for me when it came to liking beer and loving beer. My first tr

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

If you’ve never taken a walk down the beautiful seafront at Leigh on Sea then you should! Old Leigh can boast some of the best seafood from this part of the country and walking down this sea front you have plenty of opportunities to sample it. Walking down the roads is almost like going back in time as you walk along the cobbled streets and pass the old red London phonebox! Another reason to check out Old Leigh is the pubs! There are four pubs within short walking distance of

Mighty Oak brewery have an awesome award winning mild called Oscar Wilde and I had some that I had to use up, so to go along with a nice glass of Oscar I thought I would also use it to cook dinner for everyone. Below you can see my recipe! Braising Beef (I used two packs of braising steak as I am feeding 4 and hoping for some for lunch tomorrow too!) use as much as you see fit really! 10-12 Shallots Mushrooms (Mix them up if you can! I have chestnut and your average button mu

This Friday night just gone me and around 20 lucky beer drinkers were treated down to The Essex Beer Shop in Billericay for an interesting and up close lesson on the world of Beavertown Brewery. Beavertown brew their beers in Hackney East London which once upon a time in Victorian London was called the De Beauvoir area, which was then referred to by the old Cockneys as Beavertown! The original set up was in the kitchen of their pub Dukes Brew and Que but now has moved to fish

Like most boys when little I was a big fan of Thomas the Tank Engine! Fast forward 20 odd years and I am having a beer with him! Chappel beer festival is my favourite beer festival all year round, there may be bigger beer festivals out there but for me its all about the surroundings. You don’t have to be a 5 year old kid or a train spotter to enjoy sitting in an old train carriage drinking beer freshly poured from a brewery bar inside a train cart! For those who have never he

My girlfriend first bought this beer on our first trip to The Essex Beer Shop and we tried it over the weekend and loved it so I thought it rude not to buy another one when I returned to The Essex Beer Shop tonight. Puck’s Folly was crowned Golden Ale of East Anglia in 2009 and is brewed by Farmers Ales in their stable Brewery behind the Blue Boar hotel in Maldon Essex. It pours a nice clear golden colour with tiny carbonated bubbles raising to the top of the glass to a nice

As I have got older I have found that the beer festival in one of my favorite things to do! Being thrown in a field or hall surrounded by hundreds of barrels of beer, muddled among huge groups of fellow beer geeks with the wiff’s of wonderful food rushing through your nostrils! Through out my teenage years I grew up being friends with people who enjoy going clubbing and staggering around to deafening music (much against my taste!) while continuously screaming ‘WHAT?’ to each