I’ve been scandalously neglecting the Threehundredbeers project recently, but I’m still here. That this beer was consumed back in March will tell you how far behind we are, and so the time has come to get things back on track.

This particular beer was consumed at the London Palladium, more specifically at one of the finest gigs I’m ever likely to attend. This was the night Glen Hansard nearly took the roof off the place with a three hour set (setlist here) including six encores, a guest appearance from Dublin poet Stephen James Smith, and even some death-defying balcony-dangling from Glen himself.

The choice of beers at the Palladium is, to put it politely, limited. So unless you fancy a Stella Artois (I didn’t) it’s a Hobgoblin for you tonight. Fortunately, that’s one we’ve yet to tick off The List, and doubly fortunately, it’s the stronger, 5.2% bottled version and not the watered-down cask offering.

Furthermore, the good people at the Palladium are more than happy to let you take it to your seat while Glen makes whiskery love to your earholes with his big ginger acoustic face.

The beer itself is a bit of an English classic. It isn’t as strong as it used to be, even the bottled stuff, but it’s still welcome enough tonight. It’s a beautiful deep ruby colour with a small yet firm tan head, even in an idiotproof plastic pint pot. It still packs a punch at 5.2%, but that strength is well backed up by big, fat fruits and juicy malts. There’s almost a wine-like finish and it all goes down very easily indeed, especially if you’re on some sort of musical cloud nine as I clearly was by this point in proceedings.

I’ll leave you with some shakily-filmed moments from the gig. Here’s Glen taking an old Frames song up a notch. The video doesn’t quite capture the walls of the Palladium visibly shaking in response to Glen’s bassist’s thumping great bass line:

Here’s Her Mercy from the 2015 album Didn’t He Ramble:

This is the sort of thing you don’t want to see when your vertigo is already playing up from being way up in the cheap seats for the last couple of hours:

And finally an unexpected highlight of the night. This is Stephen James Smith performing perhaps his best known poem, Dublin You Are, which had about 2,500 people on the edge of their seats, hanging on his words in quiet awe:

It’s impossible to put into words how good this show was: the cameraderie and warmth and love in the room, the audience participation and the sheer spectacle of the last night of the tour. All in all, a pretty magical evening, and Hobgoblin did a fine job of accompanying it, even if I did later have to run to The Lyric for an emotion-calming pint of Magic Rock Cannonball just in time for last orders.

Facts and Figures

Brewery:	Wychwood Brewery, Witney, Oxfordshire, England
Style:	Extra Strong Beers and Bitters
Strength:	5.2% ABV
Found at:	The London Palladium, Argyll Street, London W1F
Serving:	500ml bottle

It’s time to hit the road again, and you certainly can’t say I don’t treat you, because today we’re off on a day trip to Swindon.

Whilst not always considered to be the most glamorous of English towns, Swindon has been home to Arkell’s since the brewery was founded in 1843. That makes Arkell’s two years older than London’s oldest brewery, the venerable Fuller’s.

We’re on the hunt for Arkell’s Kingsdown Ale, an ESB-style brew, and where better to try it than the Arkell’s brewery tap, the pub after which the beer is named. And so an eye-wateringly cold day sees Threehundredbeers, armed with a rigorously-researched knowledge of Swindon’s bus system and the correct change for a DayRider, make its way to the The Kingsdown.

The Kingsdown is a lovely big old-fashioned pub. It was all but empty on the Saturday lunchtime that I visited, though I imagine it to be busier during the week when the adjacent brewery is at work. Of course, at the brewery tap, Kingsdown Ale—brewed a matter of meters away from the pub—is always available and in excellent condition.

Served in an oh-so-nearly appropriately-branded glass, it’s a handsome beer, dark copper in colour and with a smooth tan head. It’s blooming drinkable stuff too. A little lighter than Fuller’s ESB, it’s still a weighty beer and full of raisin and sultana fruit. There’s that rich caramel sweetness so typical of the style, and big, moreish tangy notes at the end.

There’s an almost wine-like character to the Kingsdown Ale, which reminds me a little of the Fraoch Heather Ale. It all goes down easily enough that a second pint is inevitable. We’ve come all the way to Swindon, we might as well.

Good stuff, and definitely one to try if you happen to find yourself on the outskirts of Swindon, as I’m sure you regularly do. For now though, DayRider at the ready, we’ve another Wiltshire-brewed beer to track down.

Facts and Figures

Brewery:	Arkell’s Brewery, Swindon, Wiltshire, England
Style:	Extra Strong Beers and Bitters
Strength:	5% ABV
Found at:	The Kingsdown, Upper Stratton, Swindon, Wiltshire
Serving:	Cask, pint