Category Archives: Beers

The beers

123. Maredsous Tripel

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Let’s continue a rather productive visit to Lowlander by following the Paulaner Salvator with something slightly stronger.

This is the Maredsous Tripel, an Abbey Beer from Belgium. To clear up any confusion, it was formerly known as Maredsous 10, which is how it appears in The Book. I notice it’s not explicitly listed on the menu at Lowlander, but ask nicely and the staff may just be able to conjur one up.

Maredsous Tripel at Lowlander, London

This is a beer that resides very much in the same category as previous Belgian-style Tripels that we’ve seen, such as the La Trappe Tripel and perhaps the archetype for the style, the Westmalle Tripel.

By way of a recap, Tripels tend to be blonde in colour, but stronger and hoppier than a typical Belgian Blonde. They stand in contrast to the darker, fruitier Dubbel style, for example La Trappe Dubbel.

And so there are no surprises when the Maredsous pours a rich, deep yellow colour, with some light, white froth on top. It looks and smells almost honeyish.

All the expected Tripel flavours are there: subtle dried bananas, Belgian yeast and fragrant hops. At 10% ABV it’s a big old beer, and the alcohol heat isn’t hidden by any means. It’s balanced out by that honey sweetness, though, and the result is a very pleasant beer.

It improves as it warms, as butterscotch notes appear and the hop bitterness becomes more apparent, though that alcohol burn never really goes away.

I appear to have written “better than Westmalle” in my scribbled tasting notes. That’s a bold claim, and it’s one I’ll have to selflessly research rigorously before committing myself to it fully.

Facts and Figures

Brewery: Abbaye de Maredsous, Denée, Belgium
Style: Abbey Beers
Strength: 10.0% ABV
Found at: Lowlander Grand Café, Drury Lane, London WC2B
Serving: 330ml bottle

122. Paulaner Salvator

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Without doubt, Lowlander has been a valuable ally on this journey. I’ve found several beers there already, and we haven’t quite exhausted the impressive beer menu just yet.

While many of Lowlander’s beers tend to be Belgian or Dutch, this one from Munich in Germany has recently appeared on the menu. It’s a Bock, and while I still don’t fully understand what that is, I know it’s technically a lager, though nothing at all like the usual pale Eurofizz.

Paulaner Salvator at Lowlander, London

Paulaner Salvator is in fact a Doppelbock, so it weighs in at a quite respectable 7.9% ABV. I’m told that it’s brewed with wheat, though it doesn’t appear particularly cloudy. Instead it’s a warm, rich chestnut colour with the slightest trace of caramel froth on top.

It’s lovely stuff, being smooth and deep with unctuous toffee and butterscotch flavours and sultana-like fruit. There are spicy notes too, similar to those found in a rye IPA.

The full body and richness remind you that the beer was originally brewed by Franciscan monks to sustain themselves through the period of Lent, and only later sold to the public to raise funds for the monastery.

For its fairly hefty alcohol payload, it’s surprisingly easy drinking and slips down a treat. All in all, Paulaner Salvator is a very pleasant change from the usual, and a beer I’m sure I’ll be enjoying again before long.

Facts and Figures

Brewery: Paulaner Brauerei, Munich, Germany
Style: Bocks
Strength: 7.9% ABV
Found at: Lowlander Grand Café, Drury Lane, London WC2B
Serving: 330ml bottle

121. Young’s London Gold

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A brief point of order before we begin. This one is listed in The Book as “Young’s Kew Gold”, a beer brewed to raise funds for the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. For whatever reason, that particular relationship ended, and the beer was renamed London Gold.

In a way, the new name is even more misleading, since Young’s haven’t brewed in London since 2006, and instead this one hails from Bedfordshire.

Young’s do still have a large number of pubs in London, though. Conveniently there’s one just minutes from the office: The Windmill in Mayfair. At a loose end for a lunch hour, and—in a scandalous dereliction of duty—not having blogged a single beer yet this month, let’s pick off one of the easier ones.

Young's London Gold

In terms of apppearance, this is very much your standard Golden Ale. It’s the expected gold colour with a minimal white head that at least means we’ve got something close to an actual pint.

I don’t remember any kind of aroma. Perhaps there wasn’t any to speak of because, to be polite, this beer does not overwhelm the palate with flavour. In fact the most prominent flavour in there is that of the water. Maybe if you really concentrate there’s the faintest hint of a microscopic amount of unexciting English hops. Maybe.

It’s in impeccable condition at the Windmill, as one would hope, but that doesn’t make it any more interesting. On the positive side, this is a very easy drinking, sessionable beer, but let’s diplomatically just say it’s far too subtle for my tastebuds to be able to appreciate it.

Facts and Figures

Brewery: Wells and Young’s, Bedford, England
Style: Golden Ales
Strength: 4.0% ABV
Found at: The Windmill, Mill Street, London W1S
Serving: Cask, pint

120. Boon Mariage Parfait Kriek

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Oh BrewDog. You mischievous bunch of pseudo-anarchist yet ruthlessly commercially driven scamps. Stop winning me over by actually being really nice guys who genuinely know and care a great deal about good beer.

And stop tempting me back to spend all of my wages at your fancy new Clapham Junction bar with its magnificently cornucopial supply of rare and delicious beers, such as Boon Mariage Parfait Kriek.

Actually don’t stop: this would have been a difficult one to get hold of otherwise.

This is a very special sour Gueuze from Lembeek in Belgium, brewed with no less than 400g of overripe, sour cherries per litre of beer, and then aged in oak vats for many months before being expertly blended and then refermented in bottle for a minimum of two years.

Boon Mariage Parfait Kriek at BrewDog Clapham Junction

Here we have a bottle of the 2011 vintage of Boon Mariage Parfait Kriek. It’s presented in a smart 375ml bottle with a sexy little champagne cork arrangement on top. Full credit must go to the barman for trusting the customer to open and pour this one themself.

It pours a rich, wine-dark red colour with a big frothy pink head which fades almost immediately. The aroma is light and delicate, with modest, fragrant hints of fruit and sourness.

That lightness and delicacy carries over to the flavour. Despite the respectable 8% ABV payload and the huge amounts of fruit, wood and time that have gone into this it’s such a subtle beer. You can taste the cherries for sure, but to call this a fruit beer would be to miss the point entirely.

There’s almost entirely no sweetness there at all, just a huge long dry finish that has you reaching for the next sip immediately. For all that dryness, it’s surprisingly refreshing, and as with the Cantillon Kriek, it’s sour, complex and just truly special.

It may well sound pretentious, but this is a real connoisseur’s beer, and in no way could my clumsy tasting notes and affectionate digs at BrewDog do it justice.

Apparently the Mariage Parfait should age beautifully over quite literally a matter of decades, and so now I’ve enjoyed this one, that bottle of the 2012 I found at BottleDog a couple of months ago can be put aside for a special occasion many years into the future.

Facts and Figures

Brewery: Brouwerij Boon nv, Lembeek, Belgium
Style: Lambic and Gueuze
Strength: 8.0% ABV
Found at: BrewDog Clapham Junction, Battersea Rise, London SW11
Serving: 375ml bottle

119. Meantime IPA

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Between visits to Brighton last weekend and now Essex, we’re quite the jetsetter these days. You may remember Essex from such beery adventures as the rare and very tasty St. Sylvestre 3 Monts Bière de Garde.

This time let’s pack a bottle of something from closer to home, and once again call upon the help of friends in working through this formidably-sized, champagne-corked bottle of one of South East London’s most famous beers, Meantime IPA.

Meantime IPA

Meantime IPA pours a deep, rich amber colour with a modest dose of white froth. The aroma is initially a somewhat unpromising combination of root vegetables and wallpaper paste, but as it warms and breathes a little things become more fragrant.

This is an exceptionally flavoursome beer, with prominent zesty lime notes and big piney, oily resins from the hops. Indeed there’s a huge amount of bitterness in there, but it’s successfully balanced out by the malting.

I’d say the Meantime IPA seems to strike a really nice balance between the English and American styles of IPA, with the warm, sweet malts of the former combined with the big citrus hops and higher ABV payload of the latter.

Indeed, at 7.4% this is a big, strong beer, but there’s no harsh alcohol burn. Instead there’s just a huge mouthful of chewy flavour and a long, long finish.

Meantime IPA is actually a great beer, and I’m not sure why I don’t drink it more often. I guess the fact that it’s kind of rare to find on tap, or in a sensibly sized bottle, might partly explain it, but it’s definitely one I’ll pick up again.

I’m also slightly curious to find out how this one would age. Whilst the usual advice is to drink a hoppy IPA as soon after bottling as possible, something about the malts in there, and perhaps the champagne cork sat on the top, suggest this one could mature quite intriguingly.

Facts and Figures

Brewery: Meantime Brewing Company, Blackwall Lane, London SE10
Style: India Pale Ales
Strength: 7.4% ABV
Found at: Whole Foods, Glasshouse Street, London W1B
Serving: 750ml bottle

118. Ballards Wassail

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As I mentioned when we met Burton Bridge Empire Pale Ale recently, there might be a little more travel involved in tracking down some of the next few beers. And so it happens that this month’s Official Threehundredbeers Day Out takes us to the south coast for a slightly beery tour of Brighton.

We’re on the hunt for Ballards Wassail, a beer I’ve never even seen in my life. Fortunately the wonders of social media alerted me to the fact that the well-regarded new restaurant Coggings & Co carry an impressive list of local beers, including this one. Apparently they do a fine burger too, so this shouldn’t be too much of a hardship.

In fact, I think this will be the first beer here to be found in an actual restaurant. Clearly, we’re going up in the world.

Ballards Wassail at Coggings & Co

It turns out Brighton is quite the beer city these days. Apart from Coggings & Co, I managed to visit the Craft Beer Co, Brighton Beer Dispensary and the terrific Evening Star (twice) all in one day.

Anyway, to the matter at hand. Ballards Wassail is a deep, honeyed golden colour with very little in the way of froth. It was originally brewed as a christmas special, and it shows: this is a rich, warming beer full of festive fruit and spice flavours along with, at 6% ABV, a prominent but not unpleasant booziness to it.

In terms of style, I’d say this is about halfway between an Old Ale and a Barleywine, with the caramel sweetness of the latter very much present, but without the double figures alcohol payload. There’s a big, bready maltiness and even some herbal notes that remind me a little of the Fraoch Heather Ale.

This may not be a typical beer to choose in the height of summer to accompany a sturdy lunch, but we don’t stand on convention here at Threehundredbeers. I enjoyed it enough that I had a second while I was digesting.

A very nice beer then, combined with a cracking feed including some of the best chips I’ve ever had, and a warm welcome from the lovely staff. I was a very happy camper indeed. I look forward to trying more beers from this brewery, and I can certainly recommend Coggings & Co if you’re in the area.

Facts and Figures

Brewery: Ballards Brewery, Nyewood, Hampshire
Style: Old Ales, Barley Wines and Vintage Ales
Strength: 6.0% ABV
Found at: Coggings & Co, Dyke Rd, Brighton, East Sussex
Serving: 500ml bottle

117. North Coast Brewing Old Rasputin

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BrewDog are one of those companies that can greatly divide opinion within the beer world, to say the least.

Their histrionic, Kevin-the-Teenager marketing schtick may not be to everyone’s tastes, but they do brew some fine beers. And now, via their bars and wonderful new shop, BottleDog in King’s Cross, [Edit: sadly now closed] they’re importing and making available some exceptional and rare beers from far-flung corners of the world. Which brings us neatly to this guy.

North Coast Brewing Old Rasputin

North Coast Brewing Old Rasputin is a fairly intimidating 9% ABV Imperial Stout, and hails from Fort Bragg, California. You’ll very occasionally find it in bottles, but will almost certainly never have seen it on tap in the UK. Unless, that is, you made it along to the newest BrewDog bar in Clapham Junction within the first few days after it opened.

Which, needless to say, Threehundredbeers did.

The beer board at BrewDog Clapham Junction

It’s a stout alright, and a mighty one at that. Old Rasputin is utterly black, coating the inside of BrewDog’s well-chosen glassware thickly with its tan froth and boozy alcohol “legs” as you swirl it around.

Speaking of which, the 1/3 pint measures are a nice touch, since this is quite a strong beer, and there are many other strong beers to be sampled here too. For the curious, that other third in the background is the Stone Brewing Old Guardian, a gigantic Barleywine that’s similarly rare to find on tap, if at all.

The aroma is surprisingly fruity, though fruit as in dates, figs, that sort of thing. The body perhaps isn’t the fullest I’ve ever come across in an Imperial Stout, though it’s still pretty robust.

First impressions are dominated by a huge bitterness, so much so that in my scribbled notes I wrote the word “bitter” three times, just in case I somehow forgot. There’s a big, warming alcohol hit up front too.

All the requisite Imperial Stout boxes are ticked: there are licorice, dark chocolate, leather and coffee flavours in spades. That bitterness won’t lie down though, not that you’d want it to.

This is a great beer, and it’s a real treat to find it on tap. I’d have had another, but that Old Guardian won’t drink itself. Either way, a browse through the BrewDog beer menu suggests this won’t be our last visit. Any excuse to return to a very pleasant bar that’s a wonderful addition to the South London beer circuit.

Facts and Figures

Brewery: North Coast Brewing, Fort Bragg, CA
Style: Porters and Stouts
Strength: 9.0% ABV
Found at: BrewDog Clapham Junction, Battersea Rise, London SW11
Serving: Keg, 1/3 pint

116. Brakspear Bitter

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A trip to the West Dulwich mail sorting office to collect a package is always a good excuse to stop by The Alleyn’s Head, a pleasant enough local pub with a traditional but regularly changing guest cask lineup.

Since the sorting office is only open in the morning, we’ve reached the pub at a scandalously early hour, so perhaps something on the sessionable side is called for. Fortunately, there on the pumps is another of the many English Bitters we need. At an improbably reasonable £2.95 a pint (£2.49 all day Mondays) it won’t break the bank either.

Brakspear Bitter at the Alleyn's Head

Brakspear Bitter hails from somewhere in Oxfordshire, and comes to us courtesy of the same folks who brew that rather nice Brakspear Triple we enjoyed back in this blog’s infancy (last year).

It’s a fairly standard colour for a Bitter, in other words brown, if a little darker than some examples of the style. There’s a smallish cream coloured head that clings to the glass in an appealing fashion.

Well, it’s certainly bitter. There’s an unmissable citrus tang all the way from front to back. There are some juicy underlying malts and a tiny hint of butterscotch sweetness, but it’s that sharp bitterness that gets the attention.

In fact it’s hard to taste much else unless you concentrate quite hard. It’s not unpleasant though, and in fact is quite moreish. There’s no doubt that the Brakspear Bitter is in impeccable nick today, so I had a second pint. At that reasonable a price, it would seem rude not to.

Facts and Figures

Brewery: Brakspear Brewing Co., Witney, Oxfordshire, England
Style: Bitters
Strength: 3.4% ABV
Found at: The Alleyn’s Head, Park Hall Road, London SE21
Serving: Cask, pint

115. Burton Bridge Empire Pale Ale

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It’s becoming apparent that if I’m to make a great deal more progress through the lengthy todo list, I’m going to have to spend a little more time looking beyond the perimeter of London.

Burton Bridge Empire Pale Ale is a case in point: it’s brewed in the heartland of British brewing, Burton-on-Trent, but the vast majority of it is exported to the States. One of the few places you will find it in this country is at the brewery tap, the Burton Bridge Inn.

As it happens, a day trip to St. George’s Park with The Official Threehundredbeers Sister meant that a visit to the Bridge Inn on the way home was eminently achievable, nay inevitable.

And why not. It’s a very pleasant, traditional two roomed pub of the sort that you’d barely leave if you lived nearby. There can’t be many places where one could get a stronger sense of being back where it all began, beer wise.

Burton Bridge Empire Pale Ale at the Burton Bridge Inn

Burton Bridge Empire Pale Ale is only available in bottle-conditioned form, and I’m immediately impressed that at the Bridge Inn, the bottles are kept in the cellar to be served at the perfect temperature. Fortunately the barman is a youthful chap, and more than happy to descend the stairs to fetch us one.

It’s lovely looking stuff, a honeyed copper colour with a thick tan head that lasts. The aroma is of huge bitter hops—it’s an IPA, that’s for sure—and an unexpected but unmistakable waft of sour notes that can only come from Brettanomyces yeast, of the sort that turns Orval slowly yet deliciously sour as it ages in the bottle.

We’d better get stuck in. Blimey, it’s strong and drinks every inch of its hefty 7.5% ABV payload. It immediately gets to work, flushing your face with warmth, and making you think you should probably take it slowly rather than get giddy and embarrass The Official Threehundredbeers Sister.

Once you get past the initial boozy hit, it’s lovely, mouthwatering stuff. The hop bitterness is huge and uncompromising, and the beer is all the better for it. It’s complemented by peppery spice and sultana fruit from the malts.

This is an IPA very much in the traditional English style, and I suspect this is as close as you can get to the proper old IPAs that were brewed in Burton 150 or so years ago, and exported to the Empire. Hence the name, I suppose.

That said, the sour Brett notes are intriguing, and not typical of IPAs that I’ve experienced. Thinking about it though, the chances of a beer brewed back then, and then transported in wooden barrels in the hull of a ship for several months not becoming inoculated with a wild yeast strain seem fairly remote.

Either way, it works. The combination of bitter and sour mean you’re more than likely to be sending the barman downstairs for another, as I did, and perhaps even taking one or two more home with you.

This is very much to my tastes, and it’s a beer I’d drink quite regularly in London if only it were easier to find. I’d also be fascinated to know how it responds to the long journey over to the States. For the time being, though, it looks like I’ll have to find another excuse for a trip back to the Bridge Inn.

Facts and Figures

Brewery: Burton Bridge Brewery, Burton on Trent, Staffordshire
Style: India Pale Ales
Strength: 7.5% ABV
Found at: The Burton Bridge Inn, Bridge Street, Burton on Trent
Serving: 500ml bottle

114. Triple fff Alton’s Pride

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You simply have to love The Grape & Grain. I’ve said it before, but the contribution the pub has made to this blog, not to mention the South London beer scene, has been absolutely priceless.

This is no less than the tenth beer that the Grape & Grain have been able to furnish us with. Look, I’ve even given the relevant posts their own super special Grape and Grain tag now.

Shall we swing by once again on the off chance there may be something of interest among their 12 hand pumps? I don’t think there’s any doubt that we shall.

Triple fff Alton's Pride at the Grape and Grain

I know very little about Triple fff, other than they’re a fairly small brewery tucked away somewhere remote in rural Hampshire. Alton’s Pride is yet another past winner of CAMRA’s coveted Champion Beer of Britain award, along with such beers as Mordue Workie Ticket and the wonderful Kelham Island Pale Rider. Perhaps I should create a tag for past winners too, as there are more to come.

Alton’s Pride is another fairly typical English bitter. I’ve been known to accuse examples of the style of being a bit boring and even crushingly unexciting, but this one is in a different league entirely.

It pours a very appealing deep bronze colour with a big, foamy tan head that fades quite quickly. Unlike some bitters, this one actually tastes of something.

Indeed, it’s big and fruity, with both citrus and dried fruits up front and vying for your attention. There’s a dense underlying Lyle’s Golden Syrup sort of sweetness from the Maris Otter and Cara Gold malts, and an immense, long bitter finish from the First Gold and Northdown hops. And when I say long, I mean I drank this beer several days ago and can still taste it. In a good way.

What a lovely pint. If I was looking to find fault, I might mention that the body is perhaps a little on the thin side, but for a beer weighing in at a modest 3.8% ABV, that isn’t really anything out of the ordinary.

What you get in return is a beer that’s hopelessly easy drinking, and an excellent session bitter that isn’t actually boring at all. Good stuff, and I’ll be keeping an eye open for more beers from this brewery.

Facts and Figures

Brewery: Triple fff Brewing Company, Alton, Hampshire
Style: Bitters
Strength: 3.8% ABV
Found at: The Grape & Grain, Anerley Hill, London SE19
Serving: Cask, pint