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Zythos Bierfestival 2012
ABV: 9%
Origin: Baarle-Hertog, Antwerpen, Vlaanderen
Website: www.dedochtervandekorenaar.be
 De Dochter van de Korenaar Peated Oak Aged Embrasse, Zythos Bierfestival, Leuven 2012 De Dochter van de Korenaar (‘the ear of corn’s daughter’, a poetic expression for beer) is a Belgian brewery, but only just. It was founded by a former home brewer, Ronald Mengerink, originally from Groningen in the northeast of the Netherlands, who lived for a time in France. When he finally went professional in 2007, Ronald located his brewery adjacent to his home in the intriguing location of Baarle-Hertog.
Connoisseurs of geopolitical eccentricity will be familiar with Baarle-Hertog, an enclave of the Belgian province of Antwerpen in the Dutch province of Noord-Brabant – or rather several enclaves totalling 7.5km2, some of which in themselves contain enclaves of the Netherlands. These enclaves are a legacy of 11th and 12th century land deals between the Dukes of Brabant, the Lords of Breda and the Counts of Holland that somehow managed to exert their influence beyond the foundation of the Kingdom of Belgium in 1831. The boundaries even bisect individual buildings and what life must have been like there before Schengen and the euro is hard to imagine.
De Dochter van de Korenaar is a small, artisanal setup and I have to confess my early experiences with its beers were not happy ones. But the quality has got more consistent in recent years and Ronald’s experimental approach has caught the interest of an increasingly globally aware young market of beer fans in both Belgium and the Netherlands.
Embrasse, first sold in 2008, is one of the brewery’s most highly rated beers, described as a cross between a strong, dark Trappist and an imperial stout, with a generous dose of hops more typical of the latter. It’s also been the basis of various oak matured special editions, including Peated Oak Aged (the English term is used), ripened for three months in oak barrels formerly filled with Connemara peated whiskey from the Cooley distillery in Ireland.
Last year Peated Oak Aged Embrasse was voted beer of the festival at the Zythos Bierfestival, and this year it was back, served from a suitably rugged looking barrel by handpump with the assistance of a CO2 cask breather.
The resulting beer was a very dark amber brown with a thick and bubbly head. A rich woody, leathery and meaty aroma had notes of black treacle as well as a definite whiff of peated malt whiskey. The thick chocolate palate was tingly with gentle carbonation, with oaky vanilla, tangy orange fruit, and lots of dark cakey malt, still with whiskey evident.
The woody vanillins became slightly more pronounced on a tangy finish, with more of that orange fruit, a pleasant sweetness and a roasty malt note that sat in the mouth, without the burnt quality of some beers in this style. A splendid beer that certainly redeemed my earlier disappointments.
Zythos Bierfestival 2012
ABV: 5.5%
Origin: Beersel, Vlaams-Brabant, Vlaanderen
Website: www.3fonteinen.be
 Brouwerij en stekerij 3 Fonteinen, Beersel, Vlaams-Brabant, België The simplest way to make an acidic young lambic palatable is to bung sugar in it, and in the past this was probably the most common way of drinking lambic in its heartland in and around Brussels. Low gravity lambic, blended with a lighter beer that might not be spontaneously fermented, would have been dosed with brown sugar at the pub just before serving. The resulting drink, known as ‘faro’, was, like mild in England, an everyday refresher popular with manual workers from factories and farms.
These days faro is a minority style, usually made from standard strength lambic and pre-mixed with brown sugar, and perhaps some caramel, at the brewery or blender. The sweetening needs to be done shortly before serving, or the beer has to be pasteurised first, otherwise the sugar will prompt a refermentation and the beer will lose its sweetish, relatively still character.
I find the style fascinating, and 3 Fonteinen’s version is one of the rarest, usually only reliably on sale in Beersel itself, so I pounced on it when I spotted it at ZBF, served from a handpump. I wasn’t disappointed.
The beer was mid-amber in colour with a bubbly white head, perked up by the pump. A gentle aroma had notes of oranges, oil and perhaps some cinnamon spice. A lusciously soft and slightly spicy palate was gently sweet and beautifully balanced, with a distinct lambic rasp and notes of orange and grapefruit pith. There was a more candyish note in a chewy, lightly nutty finish. Some bottled faro is sickly sweet – this wasn’t, but comforting and sublimely drinkable.
For more on the brewer and blender see 3 Fonteinen Oude Kriek.
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
Southwest London: Battersea and Clapham
 Powder Keg Diplomacy, London SW11 Bar (Lost Society)
147 St Johns Hill SW11 1TQ
T 020 7450 6457 w www.powderkegdiplomacy.co.uk
Open 1600 (1000 Sat-Sun)-2300 (2400 Fri-Sat). Children very welcome daytimes.
Cask beer 3 (Dark Star, unusual guests), Other beer 5 keg, 40+ bottles, Also Cocktails, 30 wines, home made soft drinks and spirit infusions.
Food Gastro British menu, Outdoor Tables on street, Wifi. No disabled toilet but will assist with access.
Seasonal events, occasional beer and cocktail tastings.
A decade ago the idea of installing cask ale handpumps in a hip and youthful London cocktail bar would have seemed ridiculous. Now the owners of such places are commissioning their own brand beers and planning to start a brewery. Powder Keg Diplomacy is the most recently opened and the most beer friendly of a small family of venues centred around Battersea and Clapham, of which the best known is Lost Society. Opened late in 2011 in a former restaurant premises that had lain unoccupied for two years, it really is a demonstration of how the image of fine beer is changing.
The smallish venue has a fin de siècle colonial Victorian theme – a ceiling map of the British Empire at its height, hatstands, cut glass, a lovely rear conservatory with a ceiling fan – but it’s accomplished with a sense of taste and isn’t intrusive or tacky. Besides a range of expertly mixed cocktails, unusual alcoholic infusions and home made soft drinks prepared by attentive, informative and occasionally uncomfortably overpolite staff, there’s a beer list that shows all the right signs of tender loving care.
Dark Star Hophead is a regular cask beer, joined by guests from breweries like Bristol, Ilkley, Magic Rock and Windsor & Eton. Kegs are all British craft beers including offerings from Harviestoun, Magic Rock and Meantime, except for the Belgian-brewed house lager. An excellent British-dominated bottled list includes Green Jack, Hopdaemon, Kernel, Marble, Redchurch and Thornbridge, with “colonial” guests from the US and Australia – the owners have a personal connection with the Mountain Goat brewery in Richmond, Victoria.
Decent food at approaching decent restaurant prices, cooked up by chef Warren Beasley, runs from substantial bar snacks like oysters and braised haggis balls to main courses like ale-braised oxtail, hake fillet, hung steaks and celeriac and potato hotpot. Beer matching recommendations, sadly, are missing from the menu, but otherwise PKD shines a light for a new generation of cool beer friendly hangouts.
National Rail Overground Clapham Junction Cycling LCN+ 29, links to 3 37 CS8
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
West London: Twickenham and Hampton Hill
 Prince Blücher, Twickenham TW2 (London) Contemporary pub (Fuller’s)
124 The Green, Twickenham TW2 5AG
T 020 8894 1824 w www.fullers.co.uk
Open 1100 (1200 Sun)-2300 (2400 Fri-Sat). Children very welcome until 2100.
Cask beer 4 (Fuller’s) Cask Marque, Other beer 1 keg, 9 bottles (mainly Fuller’s), Also 28 wines.
Food Enhanced pub grub, Outdoor Large beer garden, Wifi.
Thu quiz, big screen sport, functions.
This smart but homely place on Twickenham Green, like many pubs round here, has something of a rugby theme, welcoming “all the rugby clubs of England” – but its welcome also extends to drinkers who don’t know their tries from their conversions. An old fashioned exterior, complete with door glass naming separate bars, conceals a much bigger interior than expected, opened out and contemporarily furnished though with several distinct areas including some cosy sofa-strewn corners. It’s also very child friendly with a play area in the extensive garden.
Run by a former Fuller’s cellarman of the year, this is one of the pubs the brewery is targeting as a showcase beer venue. Chiswick, ESB, Pride and a seasonal occupy the handpumps, and there’s a good range of Fuller’s bottles including 1845, Bengal Lancer, London Porter and latest Past Masters issues. A sturdy pub grub menu – steak and ESB pie, honey roast ham, Pride-battered cod, burgers, wild mushroom risotto – is complemented by kids’ meals, daily specials and two for £10 lunchtime deals.
Pub trivia. It’s unusual to find a British pub named after a German who wasn’t also a British royal, but Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, Prince of Wahlstatt (1742-1819), enjoyed a fan following here for contributing to the defeat of Napoléon as the commander of the Prussian forces at Waterloo. He had a locomotive named after him as well as pubs.
National Rail Strawberry Hill, Twickenham Bus First Cross Road (110 Twickenham, Hounslow, 490 Twickenham, Feltham) Cycling Link to LCN+ 37, Hampton Wick, Brentford Walking Thames Path
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
West London: Twickenham and Hampton Hill
 The Fox, Twickenham TW1 (London). Pic: Twickenham Taverns. Contemporary pub (Enterprise/Twickenham Taverns)
39 Church Street, Twickenham TW1 3NR
T 020 8892 1535 w www.thefoxpubtwickenham.co.uk f thefoxtwickenham
Open 1100-2300 (0030 Fri-Sat, 2330 Sun). Children welcome until 1930.
Cask beer 6 (Fuller’s, Sharp’s, Twickenham, 3 sometimes local guests), Other beer 2 keg, 6 bottles, Also 37 wines, a few malts.
Food Enhanced pub grub menu, interesting bar snacks, Outdoor Unusual beer garden. Disabled toilet.
Thu-Sat live music, functions.
The choice for discerning drinkers in Twickenham expanded still further late in 2011 when this historic pub in picturesque Church Street reopened after a thorough refurbishment. It claims to be oldest pub in the town, founded in 1670 as the Bell to serve ferry operators on the nearby river, then rebuilt in 1749. The main bar is rustic and traditional, with old beams and an uneven floor, the steep step down from outside indicating how the street level has risen over the centuries. But off to the side is a new and attractively contemporary space created by glassing over a side yard, leading through to an unusual beer garden decked out with palm trees, bamboo and “found sculptures” of eroded wood. A British food menu creeps into restaurant prices for dishes like calves liver and bacon, pan roasted cod loin or three bean and mushroom pie; a more snacky bar menu – smoked haddock Scotch egg, grilled goat cheese and chips – will fill you up for less.
The pub is now run by the people behind the outstanding Sussex Arms nearby, and although it has a notably more restricted beer choice than its sister venue, there’s still plenty to be getting on with. Doom Bar, Pride and local favourite Naked Ladies are the regular cask choices, while guests tend towards unusual beers and seasonals from established breweries like Caledonian, Robinsons or Wychwood, all immaculately kept. Anchor Steam, Sierra Nevada Pale and Negra Modelo add a touch of class among the bottles.
Insider tip. If it’s not in use for pre-booked functions, look out for the half-hidden Oak Room, a small wood panelled delight.
National Rail Twickenham Cycling LCN+ 37, Hampton Wick, Brentford, link to NCN 4 Walking Thames Path
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
West London: Twickenham and Hampton Hill
 Rugby-themed soft furnishings at the Cabbage Patch, Twickenham TW1 (London) Contemporary pub (Fuller’s)
67 London Road, Twickenham TW1 3SZ
T 020 8892 3874 w www.cabbagepatch.co.uk
Open 0800 (1000 Sat-Sun)-2400 (0230 Fri-Sat, 2330 Sun). Children welcome until early evening, children’s menu.
Cask beer 7 (Fuller’s, Caledonian, 3 guests) Cask Marque, Also Malts, 27 wines.
Food Short enhanced pub grub menu, pizzas, breakfasts, Outdoor Large heated beer garden, Wifi.
Live music, nightclub, big screen sport, functions.
 Cabbage Patch, Twickenham TW1 (London) With the RFU’s stadium on the doorstep, pretty much every pub in Twickenham is a rugby pub, but none is more famous than the Cabbage Patch. This large and odd looking building almost opposite the station is a longstanding fan favourite before and after games, and holds an impressive collection of shirts, memorabilia and rugby related paraphernalia. Even some of the wallpaper and cushion covers have a rugby theme. But there’s plenty going on between matches in this sprawling place, including in the attached night club and music venue, home to the Eel Pie blues and R&B club, continuing a local musical tradition that began on nearby Eel Pie island in the 1960s. Refurbished early in 2012, the pub now offers a spacious, loungey environment with reasonable food that attracts a much more varied crowd than its reputation suggests, including many women.
The pub was bought by Fuller’s in 2011 though is run by leaseholders and for the time being also retains its previous tie to Heineken, so unusually it now boasts an extended range supplied by both. Expect to see ESB and London Pride alongside various Caledonian beers, seasonals from both breweries and occasional guests from people like Brains or Theakston.
Pub trivia. The pub name is a reference to the stadium, also known as ‘Billy Williams’ Cabbage Patch’. The site was once a market garden that was cleared by Williams to create a rugby pitch where the first international between England and Wales was played in 1910.
National Rail Twickenham Cycling LCN+ Kingston, Isleworth, Hanworth, links to NCN4 Walking Thames Path
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
North London: Canonbury and Barnsbury
 Dukes Brew and Que, London N1 Brewpub, bar (Independent, small group)
33 Downham Road N1 5AA
T 020 3006 0795 w www.dukesjoint.com f Dukes-Brew-Que tw dukesjoint
Open 1600 (1000 Sat-Sun)-2300 (2330 Thu-Sat). Children welcome until 2000.
Cask beer 6 (Beavertown, Redemption, Oakham, unusual often local guests), Other beer 5 keg, 30+ bottles, Also 1 real cider, tequilas and tequila cocktails, some specialist spirits
Food US-style barbecues and burgers, Outdoor Tables on street, Wifi. Disabled toilet.
Beer matching dinners.
London gained yet another new brewery in February 2012 when the owners of the American-themed Off Broadway cocktail bar in Broadway Market, also noted for its beer range, launched this equally transatlantic brewpub and barbecue joint in the shell of the Duke of York in De Beauvoir Town, an area of distinctive 1820s development east of Kingsland Road and north of the Regent’s Canal. As the exposed brick and girders visible in the bar area attest, the place had been completely stripped and was due to be redeveloped as flats, and the side bar and the open kitchen with its adjacent brewery have all been built from scratch. A good two thirds of the floor area, presided over rather curiously by an installation involving an old pram and a doll, is dedicated to dining – yet so rapid has been the venture’s success that you’ll likely need to book ahead if you want to eat.
Drinkers, however, are always welcome at the cheerful bar. Up to six cask beers include at least one house brew (under the name Beavertown); the remainder usually come from local breweries, with various Redemption beers on regularly and others from Dark Star and East London, though Oakham JHB is a near-regular thanks to public demand. Mainstream and big brewery beers are avoided across the board – expect to see the likes of Paulaner helles, Meantime London Lager and Camden Ink on the keg taps in preference to Guinness or Stella, alongside Thornbridge Chiron, Schneider Weisse or something from BrewDog. Bottles cover several bases, with London’s Kernel and Redchurch alongside some less familiar imports – Bear Republic from the USA or the Troubadour beers brewed at Proef in Belgium.
Top quality is assured by bar and cellar manager and beer expert Hannah, formerly of Fuller’s pub the Ship in Soho (p109). “I’m OCD about cellar hygiene,” she tells me. “I can’t sleep if I know the pipes haven’t been cleaned.” Let’s wish her pleasant dreams.
Overground Haggerston Cycling LCN+ 8 10, Regents Canal towpath Walking Jubilee Greenway
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
Southwest London: Other locations – Cheam
 The Railway, Cheam SM3 (London) Traditional pub (Admiral)
32 Station Way, Cheam SM3 8SQ
T 020 8642 7416
Open 1200-2300 (2400 Thu-Sat).
Cask beer 6 (Timothy Taylor Wells & Young’s, 3 often local guests).
Monthly quiz, monthly live music, poker, occasional big screen sport, beer festival, seasonal events, golf society.
Brother and sister Neil and Zoe took over this snug, traditional one-bar pub almost opposite Cheam station in 2007, and have steadily improved the beer offer. Courage Best and Directors still occupy two of the pumps – the pub once held the record for selling the most Courage best in London. A third is dedicated to Landlord while the three guest pumps “normally lean towards the small and local” – Ascot, Dorking, Pilgrim, Tring, Twickenham or Weltons, for example. An annual beer festival has recently been introduced, upping the beer choice to 20. There’s currently no food, but it’s planned to return, most likely along the lines of shepherd’s pie or lasagne. It’s a friendly place, well stocked with cushions and knowledgeable regulars, and a keen supporter of the Royal Marsden hospital. It also retains the tradition of hosting a golf society, once followed by every pub in Cheam.
Visitor note. You’ll be well rewarded for wandering on into Cheam village, which is listed in the Domesday survey and was once known for its brewing. The village centre is a conservation area which boasts several centuries-old timber framed houses alongside classic examples of 1930s Tudor revival shops. Only a step away, though over the London boundary in Surrey, is lovely Nonsuch Park where you can view what little remains of one of Henry VIII’s most notorious unfinished vanity projects, Nonsuch Palace, demolished in 1683 by Charles II’s mistress Barbara Villiers to pay off her gambling debts.
National Rail Cheam Cycling LCN+ 75, Epsom, Ewell, Carshalton Walking London Loop
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
Southwest London: Brixton and Stockwell
 Canton Arms, London SW8 Gastropub (Enterprise)
177 South Lambeth Road SW8 1XP
T 020 7582 8710 w http://cantonarms.com
Open 1100 (1700 Mon)-2300 (2230 Sun). Children welcome until 2100.
Cask beer 4 (Skinners, Timothy Taylor, 2 guests), Other beer 3 bottles, Also 30+ wines, a few eaux de vie and whiskies.
Food Gastro, Outdoor Front terrace, Wifi.
Occasional big screen sport.
This biggish former Truman pub is on a main road site on the edge of Stockwell and Kennington. Since reopening in 2010 it has rapidly gained a strong reputation for the fine and inventive but decidedly unfussy food served up by Trish Hilferty, the original chef at the Eagle in Farringdon and therefore one of the key architects of the gastropub phenomenon (from which you might conclude that she has a lot to make up for). The pub doesn’t take bookings so you’ll have to choose your moment if you want to enjoy dishes like grilled polenta with Swiss chard, roast wood pigeon or tempting desserts from a menu that changes daily. Failing that you can enjoy a foie gras toastie at the bar, or one containing Quick’s cheddar…with baked beans if you must.
Pleasingly, though, it remains a proper informal pubby space with big windows and some original floor tiling, attracting a lively local crowd. It’s a rare pub that picks the light mild Golden Best as its regular from the Timothy Taylor range, but here it is on the octagonal island bar, alongside Betty Stoggs and guests ordered through the SIBA direct delivery scheme from the likes of Ascot, Black Sheep, Loddon, Moorhouses, Red Squirrel, Theakston or Twickenham. Budvar perks up the fridge.
National Rail Vauxhall Underground Stockwell, Vauxhall Bus Thorne Road (2 88 Vauxhall, Stockwell) Cycling LCN+ 3, link to CS7
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
Southeast London: Other locations – Lewisham
 Ravensbourne Arms, London SE13 Contemporary pub (Antic)
323 Lewisham High Street SE13 6NR
T 020 8613 7070 w www.ravensbournearms.com f ravensbourne.arms tw RavensbourneArm
Open 1600 (1200 Sat-Sun)-2330 (0030 Wed-Thu, 0130 Fri-Sat, 2230 Sun). Children welcome until 2100.
Cask beer 5 (Adnams, 4 sometimes unusual guests) Cask Marque, Other beer 5 keg, 12+ bottles, Also 18 wines, a few malts.
Food Gastro/enhanced pub grub menu, Outdoor Front terrace, beer garden, Wifi. Disabled toilet.
Table football, bar billiards, darts, board games W quiz, monthly live music.
This big roadside pub near Lewisham University Hospital is another successful makeover by the enterprising Antic group. Until Spring 2011 it was known as the Coach and Horses and had, as one contributor to a pub rating website put it, “a slight air of menace”. Antic have revealed the original wood fittings and parquet floor, and added their usual junk like deer heads, cutlery displays and old radios to create a big bright space with a sort of off-kilter hunting lodge feel. Several Adnams beers are usually on, and guests might come from Dark Star, Purity, Redemption, Sambrook’s, White Horse and the like.
BrewDog Punk IPA and two Meantime beers cheer up the keg choice, with a range of Timmermans (sweetened) fruit lambics beside Budvar, Goose Island and Little Creatures in the fridge. Food ranges from trendy retro bar snacks like pork and pickle pie and warm Scotch eggs to pan fried vegetarian gnocchi, chicken parcels with herbed pork stuffing or whole red snapper. Other friendly touches include a community noticeboard and free dog biscuits for four legged companions. Something of a shining star in an area short on good pubs.
Visitor note. The pub is named after Thames tributary the Ravensbourne, which runs through Ladywell Fields nearby.
National Rail Ladywell, Lewisham DLR Lewisham Bus Ladywell Leisure Centre (numerous Lewisham) Cycling NCN 21, link to LCN+ 22 Walking Waterlink Way, Lewisham Promenade
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Cask  This pioneering new book explains what makes cask beer so special, and explores its past, present and future. Order now from CAMRA Books. Read more here.
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