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Top Tastings 2011, Beer sellers: The Beermongers
ABV: 9%
Origin: Bend, Oregon, USA
Website: www.bendbrewingco.com
 Bend Hop-Head Imperial India Pale Ale My trip to one of the US’s top craft beer cities, Portland, Oregon, in Autumn 2011 could easily have accounted for half my Top Tastings of the year, but to spread things out a bit I’ve limited myself to a few outstanding and representative beers. This is one of them, an amazing West Coast hop bomb that also manages to be seriously complex. It originates from a brewpub overlooking the Mirror Pond which, with the surrounding Drake Park, provides the scenic focus of the town of Bend, on the Deschutes river. Deschutes is also the name of one of the US’s most successful and impressive craft breweries, a near neighbour, but the beers produced by Tonya Cornett and Ian Larkin at the much smaller Bend Brewing hold their own in terms of quality.
Hop-Head is brewed as an autumn seasonal, and I tasted it on draught at one of Portland’s leading specialist pubs, Belmont Station, which doubles as a beer shop. The beer is a clear golden colour with a persistent white head and an aroma packed with resins and esters – pear, apple and pine. The rich palate burrs with hops, revealing layers of coconut, citrus, apricot tart, toast, pot herbs and even a bit of meatiness and smoke, with a slight alcoholic burn and an almost meringue-like sweet and pasty note. That apricot fruit persists in a finish which soon develops a massive peppery, chewy, pulpy and resinous hop attack, but the delightfully complex fruit steers you through it. One of the examples of the style that I’ve enjoyed the most.
 Box Steam Funnel Blower Top Tastings 2011
Southwest porters and strong beers
ABV: 4.5%
Origin: Colerne, Wiltshire, England
Website: www.boxsteambrewery.com
Family-owned Box Steam, founded in 2004 near Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s celebrated Great Western Railway tunnel under Box Hill in rural Wiltshire, is a brewery well worth keeping an eye on. I bumped into them in Bristol at a regional heat of the innovative Sainsbury’s Great British Beer Hunt. Unfortunately the beer they put forward at that event, the very decent porter Dark and Handsome, didn’t make the final. Maybe they should have entered their special vanilla porter, Funnel Blower, as the review bottle they gave me turned out to be splendid.
This dark and dense brown beer, previously known simply as Vanilla Porter and dosed with roasted barley and real vanilla, has won numerous festival awards in cask form. My bottle conditioned sample poured with a fine light beige head, throwing off a rich chocolate and vanilla aroma with plenty of cakey malt. There was more vanilla, though subtly blended, on the palate, along with some fruity flavours that were more reminiscent of darker cask ales, and an almost whiskyish note. The smooth, slighty stony palate turned roasty and tarry. The vanilla softened the sharpness of the roasted flavours, keeping the beer accessible and attractive while adding to its complexity.
The curious name, by the way, follows the same Brunel theme as all the brewery’s beers. It refers to an accident aboard the engineer’s steamship the Great Eastern, one of the largest ships in the world when launched at Millwall in 1858. During its maiden voyage in the English Channel, one of the five funnels was blown off by a buildup of excess steam caused by an exhaust mistakenly left closed. Six crew members died and several more were badly injured. The results of enjoying the beer that commemorates the event should, I hope, prove less catastrophic.
 Pakenham Arms, London WC1 It’s testament to the current dynamism of the beer scene in London that, 11 months after I finally drew the line under the ever-growing list of potential contents for The CAMRA Guide to London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars, I’ve just posted a near-40 page update listing around 65 additional places to drink (and with still more to investigate), and 21 operating breweries — over 50% more than when the book went to press.
This is the second PDF update, the first having been published simultaneously with the book itself, and collects together all the additional pub and shop reviews and brewery updates that have appeared on this site in a handy format similar to the book itself. You can download it here.
To make things easier for readers, the essential additions are highlighted. They include an impressive list of new beer specialists. Beer Boutique, The Botanist, BrewDog Camden, the Bull, the Craft Beer Company, the Duchess of Cambridge and Tap East are among the names that have grabbed beer geeks’ attention but there are other important newcomers, like Antic’s craft beer flagship the Red Lion and the dazzling Sussex Arms out in Twickenham.
More modest developments like the revamped Pakenham Arms, the new management at the Duke of Hamilton and the reopened Tapping the Admiral are also welcome. Upmarket burger chain Byron’s espousal of craft beer is significant in reaching out to new audiences.
Then there are the places I simply overlooked, like Teddington gem the Masons Arms and Fulham’s German-themed Fest. The updates do better justice to Antic’s estate and catch up on a few more Nicholson’s pubs worth knowing.
There are undoubtedly more changes to come, so look out for further new material on the website, and for the next update which is due in July, just in time for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
For more see the London page.
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
West London: Twickenham and Hampton Hill
 Sussex Arms, Twickenham TW2 (London) Contemporary pub, specialist (Punch)
15 Staines Road, Twickenham TW2 5BG
T (020) 8894 7468
Open 1200-2300 (2230 Sun). Children welcome until 2000.
Cask beers 10-12 (Unusual guests) Cask marque, Other beers 40+ bottles, Also 6 ciders/perries, some wines.
Food Pies and pub grub, Outdoor Large beer garden, front terrace, Wifi. Flat access but no disabled toilet.
Tue acoustic music, monthly Irish session, other events planned.
The transformation in July 2011 of this big “brewer’s Tudor” roadhouse just west of Twickenham Green from a sink boozer (“it wasnt a nice place,” said a customer) into a flourishing beer and cider specialist is yet more evidence of craft beer’s renewed ascendancy in the capital. The pub is a Punch lease but by special arrangement is able to source beer from all over, so friendly and expert managers Ashley Zobell and the appropriately named Peter Brew preside over up to 12 handpumps dispensing beer and another six with cider or perry.
Beers tend to be from small producers, often in unusual styles, and come from all over the UK, chosen with the aid of ratings sites like ratebeer.com: Bradfield, Hardknott, Ilkley, Nelson, Otley and Three Castles have all appeared and you might often spot a Scottish brewer like Cairngorm, Highland or Orkney. Tasters are provided to help you choose. Bottles widen the choice further — Chimay and Rochefort Trappists, Belgian fruit beers and strong stuff like Tripel Karmeliet, several BrewDogs, reliable British bottle conditioned beers from Cheddar, Downton and Hepworth, US entrants from Goose Island, Odell and Stone. As if this wasn’t enough, beer festivals are planned to widen the range still further, and they’re hoping to install an experimental nanobrewery as a point of interest rather than a commercial proposition.
The environment is pleasant too — the original dark wood and leaded windows have been restored, there’s dark wood furniture and floorboards and a delightful little room at the back tiled in green and white. Beyond this, an old market barrow forms the centrepiece of a large and attractive beer garden. As food goes, pies are a highlight — the chef is a specialist baker and pastry chef — but there’s also sausages, fish, stews, vegetarian options and a range of artisanal cheeses that provide a perfect match to the great beers. Unsurprisingly the formula is attracting enough of a crowd of thirsty and appreciative drinkers to make even a pub of this size seem busy.
National Rail Strawberry Hill Bus First Cross Road (110 Twickenham, Hounslow, 490 Twickenham, Feltham) Cycling Link to LCN+ 37, Hampton Wick, Brentford Walking River Crane Walk linking to London Loop
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
West London: Chiswick
 Tiles at the Tabard, London W4 Traditional pub (Taylor Walker/Spirit)
2 Bath Road W4 1LN
T (020) 3582 2479 W taylor-walker.co.uk
Open 1200-2400 (Thu-Sat 0100). Children welcome until 2100.
Cask beers 5 (Young’s, local & other guests) Cask marque, Also A few malts and wines.
Food Taylor Walker pub grub menu, Outdoor Front/side terrace, Wifi. Disabled toilet.
Fringe theatre/comedy in upstairs theatre, alternate Sn blues, ocasional quiz.
“We’re the best real ale pub in west London,” the cellar manager of the Tabard tells me with admirable loyalty. The claim may be debatable, but this large and friendly place just round the corner from Turnham Green Tube is certainly several cuts above average for the Taylor Walker chain in terms of beer choice, and has many other attractions. It’s on the southwest corner of Bedford Park, the “garden suburb” development of the 1880s that also spawned the Duke of Sussex (p221), and likewise celebrates the Arts and Crafts style of the day.
The handsome, rustic-styled exterior, designed by Norman Shaw, still displays its original sign, and encloses a series of rooms preserving some fascinating original features. Don’t miss the spectacular tiles by William De Morgan in the right hand bar, and also look out for the tiled fireplaces, one of which includes a depiction of nursery rhyme heroine Little Bo Peep. Further points of interest are the popular upstairs theatre, which has played host to the likes of Al Murray and Russell Brand; a blissful lack of piped music; and its proximity to the green spaces of Acton Green and Chiswick commons — it’s popular with amateur footballers enjoying a pint after midweek practice.
Of the five real ales on offer, only Young’s London Gold is a resident. The rest constantly change, often chosen in response to customer request. Beers with a localish slant are particularly favoured and breweries regularly supported include Itchen Valley, Purity, Red Squirrel and Sambrook’s. Staropramen is the best lager choice. There’s an extensive but standardised pub grub menu including sandwiches, jackets, burgers, pies, steaks, fish and chips and a “mega masala”.
Underground Turnham Green Cycling Link to LCN+ 35
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
West London: Fulham and Hammersmith
 The Swan, London W6 Traditional pub (Nicholson’s/Mitchells & Butlers)
46 Hammersmith Broadway W6 0DZ
T (020) 8748 1043 W nicholsonspubs.co.uk/theswanhammersmithlondon
Open 1000-2300 (2400 Fri-Sat, 2230 Sun). Children welcome until early evening.
Cask beers 10 (Fuller’s, Sharp’s, St Austell, Nicholson’s guests) Cask marque, Other beers 2 keg, 5 bottles, Also Some wines.
Food Nicholson’s pub grub menu.
This large landmark street corner pub, right in the centre of Hammersmith opposite the shopping centre and a short step from major music and comedy venue the Apollo, began life as an 18th century coaching inn, and was demolished and rebuilt in the early years of the 20th century when the District Line was routed underneath it. It spent recent years as an anonymous circuit drinking bar — “a bit of a s***hole,” according to one regular I talked to — before being splendidly refurbished by Nicholson’s late in 2009. The new incarnation has reclaimed the pub’s early Edwardian opulence — elaborate ceilings, big plaster arches, pillars, tiling, stained glass, mirrors, wooden partitions, a marble bar top and a distinctive double staircase leading up to the usual Nicholson’s dining rooms.
Beer choice is also impressive, with a row of ten handpumps dispensing Nicholson’s regular trio of London Pride, Doom Bar and Tribute plus, usually, Thornbridge Jaipur and interesting guests from the pubco’s seasonal list: beers from Adnams, Brains, Brentwood, Stonehenge and Thwaites occupied the pump clips when I visited. A few more bottles than usual — Duvel, Meantime Chocolate, Sierra Nevada Pale — join keg Pilsner Urquell and Suffolk Blonde among the other options. A very welcome addition to this busy west London town centre.
Underground Hammersmith Cycling LCN+44, Putney, Fulham, link to NCN4 Walking Thames Path
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
North London: Highgate and Archway
 The Bull, London N6. Pic: The Bull Brewpub, gastropub, specialist (Independent)
13 North Hill N6 4BX
T (020) 8341 0510 W thebullhighgate.co.uk f The-Bull-Highgate tw Bull_Highgate
Open 1200-2330 (2400 Fri-Sat, 2300 Sun). Children welcome until 2030.
Cask beers 6 (London Brewing), Other beers 7 keg, 50 bottles, Also 2 real ciders/perries, 35 wines.
Food Gastro menu, sandwiches, bar snacks, Outdoor Front terrace, Wifi. Disabled toilet.
Mon fortnightly beer school, food and drink events and promotions, seasonal events, functions.
The Bull is another example of a neglected and derelict London pub regenerated with great beer at its heart. Though clearly built as a pub beside what was once the Great North Road, it housed five different restaurants over 15 years then spent almost two years closed and squatted before reopening in its present form in August 2011 under the stewardship of Dan Fox. Dan has good form, having managed one of the capital’s most famous beer venues, the White Horse (p225). The Bull has the advantage of being a completely free house — not to mention equipped with its own microbrewery, its attractive wood-clad vessels just visible in one side of the kitchen if you look through the gap at the end of the bar.
Like the White Horse, and as you’d expect given its location a short walk from Highgate village, the pub is a well appointed, rather upmarket place with a food offer that’s better than ordinary too. The interior is decked out in tasteful maroon and cream, with open fires and solid wood furniture, signalling its beery focus with advertising enamels on the walls and hops draped from the ceiling. The moderately sized space downstairs is duplicated upstairs with two other very attractive rooms that can also be booked for functions — shades again of the White Horse. Food ranges from sandwiches and bar snacks like fish tacos, tempura vegetables and well reputed chicken wings to imaginative, but slightly pricey, main dishes like venison loin with potato gratin, pineapple and jalapeño pulled pork and pappardelle with dried tomato and courgette.
 Toilet humour at the Bull, London N6 Each dish has a beer matching suggestion drawn from an impressive range. This starts with the house cask beers, which have rapidly become best sellers under the London Brewing brand. Six are normally available, including the distinctive Beer Street Best Bitter, Galena Red, a golden ale, specials and seasonals. The likes of Veltins, Blue Moon and Brooklyn are on keg, with guests kegs coming from US brewers like Sierra Nevada (including seasonals) and Flying Dog or British ones like Camden Town. A fine range of packaged beers also heavily features Americans — Anchor, Goose Island, Green Flash, Odell, Port/Lost Abbey and Southern Tier, with Caldera and Maui in cans — plus a few reliable Belgian and German stalwarts. A collection of large bottles invites sharing with a meal, and includes some rare stuff from excellent Somerset brewer Moor.
There are numerous beer-themed events including a popular Monday night tasting under the name “Beer School.” Some other London venues may have more extensive lists of rare beers, but the Bull does a great job of showcasing fine beer as a quality, artisanal product, while also featuring it as a perfect match for great food in a civilised environment. One bull to take by the horns.
Underground Highgate Bus Hillcrest Estate (143 Archway, East Finchley) Cycling LCN+ 6A, 80 Walking Link to Capital Ring
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
North London: Kentish Town and Tufnell Park
 Tapping the Admiral, London NW1 Contemporary pub (Pineapple)
77 Castle Road NW1 8SU
T (020) 7267 6118 W www.tappingtheadmiral.co.uk f Tapping-the-Admiral tw TappingAdmiral
Open 1200-2300 (2230 Sun). Children welcome until 1900.
Cask beers 8 (Adnams, Brodie’s, Dark Star, Redemption, unusual often local guests), Other beers 5 keg, 14 bottles (UK), Also 4 ciders/perries, 12+ wines, cocktails & home-blended spirits.
Food Thai, Outdoor Beer garden, Wifi. Flat access but no disabled toilet.
Wed quiz, music planned, annual cider festival.
Kirk McGrath, owner of the Pineapple (p156), a gem of a place in Tufnell Park, opened two new pubs in 2011 along broadly similar lines: the Railway Tavern in Stoke Newington and this delightful place in backstreets just round the corner from Kentish Town West Overground station. Like the Pineapple, it’s a small, cozy, characterful and welcoming community pub with a strong beer focus. Originally known as the Trafalgar and for a while bearing the ghastly label Tavern Inn The Town, the pub had been closed, derelict and squatted for years, at one point threatened with demolition to make way for a block of flats, before its current rejuvenation.
Inside the irregularly shaped drinking area is now clean and modern with wood surfaces and a few big posters: less cluttered than the Pineapple, it feels more spacious, although Kirk insists it’s actually smaller. The beer policy is “to stock plenty of local ales and avoid the obvious”: there’s usually a beer each from Adnams, Brodie’s, Dark Star and Redemption, though the exact brand may change, complimented by guest casks that might come from Butts, Kingstone, Meantime, Moorhouse or Purity. It’s also good to see small Welsh brewer Kingstone among a short but well chosen list of British bottle conditioned beers, alongside Adnams’ rare barley wine Tally-Ho and more from Butts, Dark Star and Meantime. Other choices include house speciality cocktails and a range of unusual flavoured spirit blends, made locally by hand. As in the Pineapple, there’s a good value Thai-based menu, with lunches for a fiver during the week.
While the big new specialist beer bar openings gain the lion’s share of the attention from beer geeks, it’s great little places like this that are strengthening the infrastructure of London’s beer renaissance.
Update. In Spring 2012 the Thai menu was replaced by a more general pub menu with sandwiches, pies, tapas-style dishes and salads.
Pub trivia. After the Battle of Trafalgar, mortally victorious British admiral Horatio Nelson’s body was shipped to Gibraltar in a cask of brandy, from which sailors allegedly took surreptitious sips, thus the phrase “tappping the admiral” for taking a sneaky drink. As the brandy was laced with camphor and myrrh, I suspect there’s little truth in this picturesque tale, but it provided great inspiration when the new owners of the pub were looking for a name that honoured the original, the Trafalgar, one of numerous Nelson-themed pub names in the area, without sounding too flag waving. Look carefully at the pub’s logo and you’ll see the story depicted graphically, making inventive use of an admiral’s uniform shoulder insignia.
Overground Kentish Town West Underground Chalk Farm, Camden Town, Kentish Town Cycling LCN+ 6A
http://maps.google.com/maps/place?q=tapping+the+admiral+nw1&hl=en&cid=3654771458453481583
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
North London: Camden Town and Primrose Hill
 Some of the decorations at the Sir Richard Steele, London NW3 Traditional pub (Faucet Inn)
97 Haverstock Hill NW3 4RL
T (020) 7483 1261 W www.faucetinn.com/sirrichardsteele
Open 1100 (1200 Sun)-2400 (2330 Sun). Children welcome until 1900.
Cask beers 4-6 (Adnams, Wells & Young’s, Westerham, guests) Cask marque, Other beers 1 keg, 1 bottle, occasional real cider.
Food Imaginative pub grub, Outdoor Beer garden, Wifi.
Thu quiz, Sun live music, annual beer festival, board games, functions.
One of London’s great eccentric pubs, and the winner of numerous awards including most recently a fancyapint.com reviewers’ award in 2011, the Steeles, as it’s known locally, is a big corner pub on the lower slopes of Haverstock Hill. On the edge of Belsize Park and just down the road from Hampstead, it’s popular with celebrities but is welcoming to anyone. Cult film director Tim Burton lives nearby and you might think he had a hand in the decor, which is quite spectacular: rich wood panelling, clocks, old advertising signs and other curios, stained glass, large portraits of the pub’s namesake, fireplaces, giant mirrors and toy bats hanging from a ceiling that sports a vast Renaissance-style fresco depicting regular customers.
Until early in 2011, the pub had been under the same ownership for 25 years, and the current look dates from the 1980s. The owners, Paul Davies and Kirk McGrath, had since reopened the Pineapple nearby (p156) and decided to sell the Steeles to finance further smaller pubs on the real ale-focused Pineapple model, prompting much local anxiety. Thankfully the new owners, Faucet Inn, who also own the Dartmouth Arms (p154), have changed little, though they have given the place a good clean and it’s now looking better than ever.
They’ve also brought in manager Paul, a real ale expert, to improve the beer focus, so it’s well worth keeping an eye on. The plan is for up to six cask beers, with one pump permanently dedicated to a changing Westerham beer, another to a changing Wells & Young’s, and guests from those breweries as well as the likes of Adnams, Batemans or Thwaites. Classy lagers are Camden Town Hells on keg and Budvar in the fridge, while occasional beer festivals will expand the range further. A varied home made food menu runs from sharing plates, salads, sandwiches and burgers to toad in the hole and caramelised red onion tatin.
Pub trivia. Irish-born writer, politician, theatre manager and founder of the Tatler and Spectator magazines, Richard Steele (1671-1729) lived nearby, and the locality is known as Steeles Village. Steele once observed: “People spend their lives in the service of their passions instead of employing their passions in the service of their lives.”
Overground Kentish Town West Underground Chalk Farm Bus Steeles Village (168 Chalk Farm, Belsize Park) Walking Belsize Walk
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
North London: Canonbury and Barnsbury
 Drapers Arms, London N1. Pic: Drapers Arms Gastropub (Independent)
44 Barnsbury Street N1 1ER
T (020) 7619 0348 W thedrapersarms.com tw DrapersArms
Open 1200-2300 (2230 Sun). Children welcome.
Cask beers 3 (changing often local guests), Other beers 3 keg, 4 bottles, Also 65 wines, a few malts.
Food Gastro menu (reservations recommended), Outdoor Beer garden, Wifi. Disabled toilet.
Aug beer & cider festival, seasonal events, board games, functions.
With an elegant powder blue façade overlooking one of Barnsbury’s more select streets, this fine old pub was restyled and reopened in 2009 by Nick Gibson and Ben Maschler (Fay Maschler’s son) as an Islington gastropub par excellence. A clean and stylish interior — tasteful shades of green, floorboards, black and white floor tiles in a pavilion-style dining room, and shelves of Penguin paperbacks — complements a well regarded British menu. This changes daily but typical offerings might include puy lentil and vegetable roast, lemon sole and brown shrimp butter, pot roast rabbit, rare breed pork chops and various sharing deals involving large chunks of animal, though with main course prices between £10-15 this isn’t bargain pub grub.
Very much worth knowing about is the small but well chosen and well served beer selection — many gastropubs let themselves down here with dull choices but the Drapers regularly offers Harvey’s Sussex Best and two others that might well come from locally connected producers like Sambrook’s, Truman or Windsor & Eton, including dark beers particularly in winter. Camden Town Hells joins Staropramen and a changing craft choice, perhaps Brooklyn, on the keg taps, while BrewDog and Erdinger are in bottles. Non-dining drinkers are welcome and the place is friendlier than you might expect.
National Rail/Overground/Underground Highbury and Islington Bus Islington Town Hall (numerous Angel, Highbury) Cycling LCN+ 7, Camden, Haggerston, link to 8 Walking Link to Jubilee Greenway
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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.
London’s Best Beer  The fully updated 3rd edition of my essential award-winning guide to London’s vibrant beer scene is available now from CAMRA Books. Read more here.
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