Temple Brew House is just a short couple minutes walking from the Thames, with lots of local tube stations to pick from including my short 9-minute walk back to Chancery Lane for the central line (there is even a handy wall poster in the pub with all the last tube times). Take a turn onto Essex Street and you will see the front doors of The Temple Brew House, inviting you down to the basement bar. Lots of wooden tables and chairs surround the bar space all sitting under the d

Throughout growing up there was a few beers that stayed with me over the years, among such beers was the likes of Dark Star Hophead, Hop Back Summer Lightning, Oakham Citra, Duvel, bottles of Adnams Broadside and St Austell Tribute. There are many more that hold many memories for me and recently I have been revisiting some of those classics and finding that even after years of hop abuse I am still enjoying these beers. St Austells have just launched the breweries biggest ever

As mentioned in my previous post featuring some beers from the Badger Ale, which also included a recipe for Fursty Ferret Easter Lamb, I had a recipe idea for my favourite Badger Ale sent to me. Poachers Choice is a 5.7%, sweet, dark, rich, full bodied, fruity ruby ale. With flavours of dark fruits, especially plum, and a warm finish this beer works very well with food. I got thinking about what food would work well with those plum flavours, duck came to mind. So, I thought I

Trying to put a plan together at the Great British Beer Festival can be difficult, so many beers so little time. But Duncan Sambrook and his drinking buddies had a great route mapped out, starting in the counties of the South West of England and working their way geographically to London, visiting loads of great breweries from all the different counties on the way. The year was 2006 and although it was easy to visit many great breweries during this county pub crawl, when Dunc

I had just poured my very first pint of Guinness, it was in the Guinness Factory in Dublin and instead of trying to pour the clover leaf they had shown us I thought it would be hilarious to do a cock and balls, I think the 5 pints of Guinness may have helped the immaturity. Soon after for reasons I cannot remember we were taking photos with this American family, in one of the group photos the Dad Bob from Ohio instructs us to “flip the bird”, I had no idea what he meant but m

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

Some of my first memories of being in a pub is ones from the social club my family are members of. Memories of Christmas parties and pressing the buzzer for the Sunday afternoon raffles puts a smile on my face, my clothes stinking of cigars the next morning is not such a pleasant memory! There is a shortage of good pubs where I grew up, not even good beer pubs just a decent pub in general. But there are a number of social clubs. The Wickford Railway Club (now Platform 3) was

Best UK Cask Beer I dread to think how many different cask beers I have drank this year! Getting through 16+ different cask per match day at LOSC means I get to “sample” a fair few of beers. There is one beer that when I reflect back over the year I just instantly think of. It won my best keg beer last year but for me it is twice as good on cask as the flavours are more complex. That beer is the wonderful Five Points Brewing Co – Railway Porter. If I see it on any bar menu it

This Friday Tim Hampson will be at the famous Blackwell’s book store in Oxford to introduce people to the second edition of his 101 Beer Days Out. My sister is running the event and as well as Tim talking everyone through his new book there will also be local beers on hand to try. I have the first edition of 101 Beer Days Out and it sits lovingly on my book shelf. It’s a superb book about days out around the UK where you can incorporate the best beer stop offs. I would imagin

In the ever evolving world of craft beer brewing you should never be surprised hearing where new places breweries are popping up in. But last week when I was told there was a new brewery in an old shipping container I must admit I was curious. Could you really brew decent beers from inside one of those metal boxes? Would it work as a tap room? Are they playing on the gimmick of brewing inside a shipping container or do their beers do the talking for them. With these questions

There’s few things in life that produces such a great feeling as raising money for charity. My mate Paul, one of my closest Beer Buddies, is super human and has ran several marathons. He has all my respect for running them too as personally I get knackered out just trying to watch the marathon. In the build up to his runs I have helped out with quiz nights and darts tournaments. The feeling of getting people together to raise money for such good courses no matter what the cha

10 tall shiny metallic giants stand side by side in a room, watching over a hall full of people, old and young, male and female, “Hipster” and “CAMRA member” alike. These 10 giants are like a visual example of how far beer and the drinking of beer has come within the past couple of years. First we had cask ale changing their pump clips from the same boring selection across most pubs to a much wider and better quality selection, then we had the introduction to beer other than

Ermmmaaagward I lurrrvvee Sorachi Ace hops!!! This is my first thought whenever I have a beer that is brewed with Sorachi Ace hops, I love it, its characteristics are so different to any other type of hop used in brewing. The Sorachi Ace hop was originally made in Hokkaidō, Japan in the late 1970’s however it wasn’t commercial till 1984 and not really available to USA to be used in Craft Beer till 2006!  So quite the new comer to be honest. It was created by combinging Brewer

Straight off the bat I have to say Weird Beard is one of my favourites! Ever since I first see their beers a few years back at the start of this huge change in British beer scene I have loved their beers and their branding. Yet I had never made it to their brewery. To be honest West London is all fairly unknown to me, as most my time in London is spent either at work or in East London. So when I saw that they were opening the doors to their brewery once a month I knew I had t

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

A short walk away from Worthing train station you will find the Brookstead Alehouse, a hidden gem of a micropub! Although officially it is a micropub I like to think of it more of a beer cafe, I call it a beer café as it reminds me more of the beer establishment’s in Europe than a pub. You first walk in the door and are greeted by a window looking into the drinks room where they stock all their bottled beers, ciders, wines and casks. To the left of this window you will see a

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

From the outside all you can see is steamed up windows with dried hops pressed up against the top of the window! Sitting above the micropub is a huge multi colour sign which wouldn’t look out of place on a hippys tie dye vest! The words read “Ancored in Worthing micropub… local real ales and cider” … I’ve been in some small pubs before but not sure if they’ve ever labeled themselves as a micropub but Anchored in Worthing certainly deserves that title!!! It is tiny! Have you e

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