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Best beer and travel writing award 2015, 2011 -- British Guild of Beer Writers Awards
Accredited Beer Sommelier
Writer of "Probably the best book about beer in London" - Londonist
"A necessity if you're a beer geek travelling to London town" - Beer Advocate
"A joy to read" - Roger Protz
"Very authoritative" - Tim Webb.
"One of the top beer writers in the UK" - Mark Dredge.
"A beer guru" - Popbitch.
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ABV: 4.8%
Origin: Alresford, Hampshire, England
Website: www.itchenvalley.com
This beer featured in a piece about the influence of different malts on beer flavour on the bottled beer review page in the May 2011 issue of BEER magazine, sent free every quarter to CAMRA members, who can also view it online. The magazine is also available in selected newsagents.
 Itchen Valley Pure Gold Malted barley is one of the basic building blocks of brewing, the mainstay of practically all the world’s beers. Read any book that describes the brewing process in detail and you’ll find references to a bewildering variety of malts in a spectrum of shades from pale to black. But what does it all mean for the end user – the drinker? The five beers featured here might start to provide the answer.
Pale malt, kilned to achieve a pale colour alongside a good starch and enzyme content, is the brewer’s mainstay. 19th century export pale ales were often made of 100% pale malts and many craft lagers depend entirely on even paler Pilsner malt. But British preferences of the more recent past favoured slightly darker beers, achieved with a dash of more deeply coloured “speciality” malts alongside pale.
A good example of a pure pale malt beer is Itchen Valley Pure Gold (4.8 per cent) from Alresford in Hampshire. The barley variety in this case is top quality British mainstay Maris Otter, but the hops are slightly more exotic: Žatec (Saaz) from the Czech Republic and Cascade from the USA. The beer’s name refers not only to the recipe and appearance but to the gold bullion lost when the ship HMS Hampshire sank in 1916.
This fine, clear gold beer has a white head and liquorice and spearmint to an aroma that leads with hops, backed up by malty cereal notes. There’s plenty of sweetish, fruity malt on the palate, which is perhaps slightly too sweet, but lifted by hops to give citrus, mint, ginger and honeyed flavours. A clean, lightly drying finish is tinged with pineapple fruit.
To download BEER if you’re a CAMRA member, see http://www.camra.org.uk/page.aspx?o=beer.
To find out more about CAMRA membership, see http://www.camra.org.uk/page.aspx?o=joinus.
For more beers featured in this article, see Woodforde’s Nelson’s Revenge.
Read more about this beer at ratebeer.com: http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/itchen-valley-pure-gold/18596/
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
Southeast London: Other locations — Woolwich
 Dial Arch, London SE18 Contemporary pub (Young’s)
The Warren, Royal Arsenal Riverside, London SE18 6GW (Young’s)
T (020) 3130 0700 Web http://dialarch.com f DialArchRoyalArsenal tw DialArch
Open 0900-2300 (2400 Fri-Sat, note bars open 1200). Children welcome in Pantry until 2000.
Cask beers 7 (Wells & Young’s, Meantime, occasional guests) Other beers 3 keg, 6 bottles (Wells & Young’s) Also 1 real cider, wines
Food Sandwiches, pizzas, enhanced pub grub especially fish, baked goods in Pantry Outdoor Large front terrace overlooking green Disabled toilet, wifi
W wine club, S board games, Sn quiz, various weekday food promotions, occasional live piano
The Royal Arsenal was for centuries the heart of Woolwich. First established as an ordnance depot on the Thames marshes in 1671, it swelled into Britain’s biggest producer of armaments, dominating the town both geographically and as the major employer. At its peak during World War I the site covered 5.3 square kilometres (1,300 acres), all of it subject to military secrecy which ensured it appeared as a huge blank space on maps. The eastern section was sold off to build the new town of Thamesmead in the 1960s and the original grand entrance, the Beresford Gate, was severed by a road scheme in the 1970s, but the core of the site, much of it largely unaltered since construction in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, remained in military use until 1994. Since then it’s been subject to an impressive redevelopment, integrating homes, public spaces and visitor attractions like the Royal Artillery’s Firepower museum into the fabric of the historic buildings — a property that will become even more attractive when its new Crossrail station opens in 2018.
Young’s have grabbed a prime piece of all this by converting the Dial Arch building, a Grade II listed former workshop, into a large and spectacular new pub which opened in 2010. Walk through the imposing arch topped with a distinctive sundial flanked by cannonballs and you face a large bar dispensing a good choice of cask ales, mainly from Wells & Young’s — Young’s Bitter, Special, London Gold, Wells Bombardier, Courage Directors and usually a seasonal — but with a local touch in the form of Meantime Pale Ale from nearby Greenwich. At the time of writing they’re thinking of bringing in Meantime’s keg wheat beer too, to replace the current Erdinger; Double Chocolate Stout and Pilsner Urquell are other keg choices of interest, with a few W&Y specialities like Banana Bread Beer and Waggle Dance in bottle.
A cavernous and atmospheric area to the left has bare brickwork and gunmetal tables, while further towards the front of the building is the bright and cheerful Pantry which operates as a tea shop during the day, though you can drink alcohol there too once the bar is open. To the right are a number of partitioned rooms including a table service restaurant area where you can enjoy a menu that’s big on pizzas, fish dishes — Selsey crab cakes, herb-baked grey mullet — and pub grub stalwarts like pies, burgers and steaks, though veggies will find themselves largely restricted to a choice of pizzas, also sold by the metre. Various food offers recur on regular weekday nights. Decor is interesting and just the right side of naff — souvenirs of the site’s former use mix with original art and oddities like car doors hung on the wall. Note there’s a “smart casual” dress code that seems to be interpreted relatively liberally, though they frown on trackie bottoms and football shirts (slightly ironically — see below).
Visitor note. The building looks out on the pleasant green of Dial Square, a name which may well be familiar from English football history. Dial Square FC was formed by workers at the complex in 1886. It was renamed Royal Arsenal when it became the first club in southern England to join the professional football league in 1893. Eventually known simply as Arsenal, the club crossed the river to a new ground in Highbury in 1913. Now one of the top teams in England, it’s played at the Emirates Stadium in Holloway since 2006. But if you’re a dedicated fan making a pilgrimage to its birthplace, check the note on dress code above.
National Rail, DLR Woolwich Arsenal Boat Royal Arsenal, Woolwich Ferry Cycling NCN1, LCN+ 56 Walking Capital Ring, Green Chain Walk link, Thames Path
 JCBA: Japan Craft Beer Association I don’t pretend to be a great expert on Japanese beer — I’ve not yet had the opportunity to visit Japan and have encountered imported products only rarely. So I was delighted to be invited in early June to a Japanese beer tasting and food matching event at the White Horse, London SW6, thanks to pub manager Dan Fox and beer writer and educator Melissa Cole. The event, organised with the Japan Craft Beer Association, was dogged by difficulties, first postponed due to the devastating Tohoku earthquake and fears of radioactive contamination of Japanese produce in its aftermath, and then affected by further delivery and customs problems. Finally five beers got through to an enthusiastic band of tasters in an event that became a fundraiser for the earthquake appeal. If their standard is anything to go by, there are many beery delights to discover.
Japan has its own lengthy tradition of fermented grain drinks like sake. Western-style beer brewing dates back only to the 1870s when it developed under the influence of German and American brewers, generally working with lager styles, and in the 1960s beer became the country’s most popular alcoholic drink. For many years tax laws required breweries to produce at least 20,000hl a year before they could be licensed, favouring the emergence of huge national groups like Asahi, Kirin, Sapporo and Suntory. Then in 1994 brewing was deregulated and a small scale, craft brewing sector soon flourished, building on an already growing interest in imported craft beer. There are now over 200 microbreweries and brewpubs in the country.
Some of the beers at the tasting were in standard international craft beer styles — like a very impressive Imperial Stout from Minoh and a fair enough Imperial IPA from Ise Kadoya. But the two I’ve picked below had a bit more local character.
Beer picks
 Kinshachi Nagoya Akamiso Lager Japanese beer tasting, White Horse, London SW6, June 2011; Top Tastings 2011
ABV: 6%
Origin: Nagoya, Chūbu, Japan
Website: www.kinshachi.jp
Based in Japan’s third biggest city, Nagoya, Kinshachi was established in 1996 as the Landbeer brewery, though points to an earlier local tradition of brewing in the 1880s. Its experiments with adding traditional Japanese ingredients to craft beers include a green tea beer and this remarkable fusion, which draws on one of the local specialities, akamiso or fermented red soya paste — around 5kg for every 20hl batch. It was originally made for a local expo event a few years back and is now one of the beers of which the brewery is most proud.
This rich red-brown beer has a fine, smoothly foamy yellow head and an oddly fruit with notes of banana, strawberry, sour cherries and wood. The palate is rich and malty, almost like a Belgian dubbel, with an unsurprising note of salt and savoury unami flavour — the signature of fermented soy products but surprisingly and very successfully balanced by dark malt tones. I also noted dry crackers, buckwheat noodles, and nutty sweetness. The beer slips smoothly over the tongue into a warming fruity and raisiny finish that finishes with notes of banana, chocolate and popcorn. Definitely not a gimmick but a very memorable and enjoyable beer that deserves wider recognition.
Read more about this beer at ratebeer.com: http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/kinshachi-nagoya-red-miso-lager/69655/
Japanese beer tasting, White Horse London SW6, June 2011
ABV: 5%
Origin: Ise, Kansai, Japan
Website: http://isekadoya.com
 Ise Kadoya Yuzu Ale Ise Kadoya began in 1997 as a brewpub and restaurant at Ise, in Mie prefecture on the island of Honshū, a city best known as the location of the Shinto religion’s most important Japanese shrine. The brewery proved quite a success and has since notably expanded. The owning family have long been manufacturers of soya products like soy sauce and miso and the building was converted from a soya warehouse. This isn’t the only example of such a crossover — perhaps explained by the fact that soya processing, like brewing, involves fermentation.
Yuzu Ale is one of the signature products, so called because it contains yuzu, a highly aromatic citrus fruit related to the sour mandarin. Yuzu is used to make other alcoholic drinks in Japan, as well as sweets and sauces, so its use in beer might not be entirely surprising to local drinkers, while Westerners might be reminded of the use of more familiar varieties of citrus peel as a flavouring in Belgian beers.
Nonetheless the beer presents a very distinctive and, to my tastes, exotic flavour and aroma profile. A bottle conditioned sample was a hazy deep gold, with some white head and a very spicy, oily and citric aroma with burnt plastic and zesty perfume which reminded me more of lime than orange. The palate was very dry with a touch of burnt toast from coloured malts and an emerging citrus hit, leading to a long, dry and chewy finish beginning with pithy zest and developing a touch of bittering hops.
A keg version was served at the same tasting, but although hazier and therefore presumably unfiltered was notably less complex than its bottled cousin. The citrus peel note was more upfront and less balanced by speciality malt flavours, though a pleasant juicy malt character on the finish did a good job of softening the tart yuzu and bitter hop flavours. Certainly a unique beer.
Read more about this beer at ratebeer.com: http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/ise-kadoya-yuzu-ale/133403/80641/
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
 The CAMRA Guide to London's Best Beer, Pubs and Bars by Des de Moor My first book, The CAMRA Guide to London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars, is officially published on Monday (4 July) and copies are already being sent out. However such is the nature of these things that it’s already slightly out of date. Guidebooks are notorious for this, but in this case the problem is intensified, rather happily, by the continuing dynamism of the market, with new beer specialists opening and established outlets expanding their range. Indeed the beer scene in London is flourishing in a way that hasn’t been seen since at least the 1970s revival of interest in real ale.
The obvious solution is to keep it up to date through this website and that’s exactly what I’ve already been doing, both with blog entries and with a PDF supplement which I intend to publish periodically. The first supplement is already out and is available here.
As the final text went to the publisher, I already had a list of places to drink that perhaps should have been considered but weren‘t, and this has continued to grow. This update catches up among other things on a number of Nicholson‘s pubs I missed, and starts to provide better coverage of the Antic pubco‘s estate.
Several new developments are also marked here including, most significantly, the just opened Craft Beer Co. Then there’s the Dean Swift’s sister pub the Old Red Cow a restored range under new ownership at the Duke of Hamilton and upmarket burger chain Byron‘s espousal of craft beer.
The list of possible additions is by no means exhausted and I know of several further openings planned, not to mention new breweries, so there will be plenty of material for future updates. I’m also hoping readers will keep me up to date with comments, corrections and suggestions: see under About above for link.
Enjoy!
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
Central London : Clerkenwell & Smithfield
Contemporary pub
82 Leather Lane EC1N 7TR
email info@thecraftbeerco.com Web http://thecraftbeerco.com f thecraftbeerco tw thecraftbeerco
Open 1100 (12o0 Sun)-2300 (2230 Sun)
Cask beers 15 (Kent, unusual guests), Other beers 21 keg, 300 bottles, Also malts, bourbons, other specialist spirits
Food Pork pies, Scotch eggs, snacks only
 Craft Beer Co, London EC1 While it’s delightful to see many ordinary pubs and bars modestly but significantly revamping their beer offer in response to growing consumer interest in fine beer, the multiplying number of serious specialist places where even beer geeks will be dazzled by the range is also impressive. The Craft Beer Co is the latest and arguably the most ambitious of these, and, based on what I saw at the launch party at the end of June 2011, stands a good chance of being the most successful.
Its beer range is extensive, unusual and notably well chosen – as a relatively well travelled beer writer in my home city I was impressed that I’d only previously tried four of the 36 draught beers on offer. But unlike other places with a comparable range, it’s in a lovely old Victorian pub that would be a pleasant place to visit even if it just had a couple of handpumps with Doom Bar and Landlord. It’s big enough to be spacious but small enough to be intimate, with a main bar area preserving heavy wood fittings, a spectacular mirrored ceiling and chandelier, and upstairs a contrasting, more contemporary space with designer radiators.
 The view from the pumps -- Craft Beer Co, London EC1 There’s not a wasted choice on the beer selection. The battery of handpumps dispenses British microbrews in a range of styles. Besides the usual “craft” suspects like Bristol, Dark Star and Otley are little seen names like Five Towns, Fyne, Green Daemon, Ilkley and Magic Rock, with the house pale ale supplied by Kent. The house lager, meanwhile, is brewed by cult favourite Mikkeller at Proef in Flanders, with Camden Town Hells and Rothaus Märzen also regular; other keg selections included rare unfiltered lambic, kriek and faro from Girardin, Kernel Black IPA, Struise Black Albert, saisons from Stillwater, four more from Mikkeller and extreme beers from Southern Tier. The beautifully presented bottled list is big on US imports with many exclusives, Cigar City, Dark Horse, Duck-Rabbit, Maine, Sly Fox, Stillwater and Weyerbacher among them. Scandinavia also has strong representation in the form of Beer Here, Evil Twin, To Øl and XBeeriment besides more familiar names. Bierwerk from South Africa is another exclusive, and Westvleteren is stocked at an undeclared price. Mainstream industrial beer is conspicuous by its absence. The pub’s own customised glasses are generously lined for full measure and aroma space.
Under the same ownership as Cask in Pimlico and like its sister pub another previously decaying boozer leased free of tie from Greene King, Craft Beer Co nonetheless has its own separate identity and brand. It also has the advantage of location on a historic market street in an interesting area of central London just west of the river Fleet, where legal overspill from Holborn meets the residential southeastern reaches of the London Borough of Camden. Owner Martin Hayes is confident he can use the pub’s inherent attractions to draw a broad audience into enjoying such a seriously impressive lineup, and he may well be right. For anyone with an interest in great beer, it’s an instant must-visit choice.
Insider tip. Ask about bottled specials and have a good look in the fridges — there’s more than shown on the printed list.
National Rail Farringdon Underground Chancery Lane, Farringdon Cycling LCN+ 0, 7, 39
London’s Beer Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
Southwest London: Other locations — Balham
Bar
7 Ramsden Road SW12 8QX
T (020) 8673 4700 W www.balhambowlsclub.com f balhambowlsclub tw balhambowls
Open 1600 (1200 Sat-Sun)-2300 (2400 Thu, 0100 Fri-Sat). Children very welcome until 2100.
Cask beers 3 (Adnams, Purity, 1 often local guest) Cask marque, Other beers 2 keg, 10 bottles
Food Gastroish menu, Outdoor Front terrace, garden. Disabled toilet
Mon chess club, Tue quiz, Wed knitting club, ukelele society, poetry, comedy, snooker, board games, table football, summer barbecues
 Balham Bowls Club, gateway to good beer, London SW12 Those of a certain age and/or taste in British comedy may well find the words “Bal-Ham, Gateway to the South” springing to mind as the tube pulls in, as declaimed in mock-American travelogue style by Peter Sellers in a celebrated 1958 radio sketch poking fun at what was then buttoned-up South London suburbia. North American visitors are well advised to remember the local pronunciation is the more modest ‘Ballum’. A settlement since Saxon times, it’s now a typical mixed inner city area, though well placed for access to several historic commons – open green spaces – including Clapham, Tooting and Wandsworth, reminders of its rural past.
Thankfully refreshment choices are no longer limited to Sellers’ tea room where everything was off, as the area is home to one of London’s most extraordinary drinking places. The Balham Bowls Club is, as its name suggests, a genuine former private bowls club. A refurbishment in 2006 by the enterprising Antic pubco preserved much of the 1950s retro decor – wood panelling decorated with pennants, trophies and even original scoring cards – to create a unique contemporary bar. There are several intriguing rooms, one of which is mainly restaurant space, and a pleasant garden, though the bowling green itself wasn’t included in the deal and is currently languishing unused behind fences while Wandsworth council decides what to do with it.
Roasted wood pigeon, harissa chicken salad and aubergine and spinach tortelloni should tempt the hungry, while the handpumps dispense Pure Gold, a rotating Adnams brand and a local from the likes of Sambrook’s or Truman, supplemented by Blue Moon and Früli on keg and several bottles including Budvar, Hobgoblin and Kenyan Tusker lager. The range isn’t as extensive as some Antic venues but the surroundings compliment the well-kept liquid offerings perfectly. Table reservations are accepted in both bar and restaurant.
Insider tip. There’s still more space upstairs, including two full size snooker tables.
National Rail, Underground Balham Cycling CS7, LCN+3, 5 Walking Link to Capital Ring
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
Southeast London: Other locations — Crystal Palace
Contemporary pub
79 Westow Hill SE19 1TX
T (020) 8670 0654 Web http://www.westowhouse.com/ f Westow House tw westow_house
Open 1200-2300 (Thu 2400, Fri-Sat 0200). Children very welcome until 2100.
Cask beers 5 (Adnams, Purity, 3 sometimes unusual guests) Cask marque, Other beers 3 keg, 15+ bottles
Food Gastroish menu, Outdoor Front terrace. Disabled toilet
Mon table football league, Tue table tennis league, Wed poker, Thu (fortnightly) live music, Fri-Sat DJs, Sun films, summer Sun monthly hog roast, mothers’ group, occasional craft fairs, occasional big screen sport
 Unusual arrangements of antlers, frames and retro lights at Westow House, London SE19 The South London-based Antic Pub Collective is one remarkable new small pubco that might perhaps have been better represented in the Guide. Founded in 1999 by Anthony Thomas, it has very successfully overhauled several important pubs over the past few years, mainly on town centre sites south of the river but with an increasing few elsewhere, a mix of free houses and leased pubs. Each has its own identity – which is why they prefer the term ‘collective’ to ‘company’ – but in my experience most have several things in common – a relaxed contemporary feel, quirky decor, friendly staff, a sense that there’s always something going on, and a notable effort with the beer offer, even when restricted due to ties or lack of cellar facilities. The estate currently stands at 24, several of which are Cask Marque accredited. A fine example for beer is the Antelope in Tooting (p218) but several others now approach or exceed this standard.
Big, chunky and looking slightly dark and forbidding on the diagonally opposite corner of the main Crystal Palace junction from the Grape and Grain (see the London guide p187), Westow House turns out to have a playful and curiously embellished interior fashioned out of a Victorian pub shell, using the extensive space well with mixed furniture and a rear area equipped with table football and table tennis. Current manager Justin has revamped the beer offer, rotating five pumps through a range of 40 cask beers – Adnams Lighthouse, Pure Gold and Sharp’s Doom Bar are favourites of the group but choices from King in Horsham are often seen and very popular. Kegs include two Meantime choices and a real Czech lager; bottles change but might include Australia’s Little Creatures (nodding to Justin’s homeland), Odell Cutthroat Porter, Maisels Weisse and all three Chimays.
Food includes several veggie choices (macaroni cheese and gratinated gnocchi with mushrooms when I looked) alongside the likes of beer battered coley and roast guinea fowl. An extensive front terrace and a packed activity programme complete the picture.
National Rail, Overground Crystal Palace Cycling LCN+23, Deptford, Beckenham Walking Capital Ring, Green Chain Walk
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars
Southeast London: Camberwell, Dulwich & Peckham
Contemporary pub
18 Camberwell Green SE5 7AA
T (020) 7703 5246 Web http://thetigerpub.com f The-Tiger tw camberwelltiger
Hours 1600 (1200 Sat-Sun)-2300 (2400 Thu, 0100 Fri-Sat). Children welcome until 2100.
Cask beers 5 (Caledonian, Sharp’s, 3 guests) Cask marque, Other beers 2 bottles
Food Short gastroish menu, Outdoor Side terrace. Disabled toilet
Quizzes planned
 The Tiger, London SE5 Most locals who remember this big pub right by Camberwell Green from a decades-long previous life as a rather dodgy boozer called the Silver Buckle will surely appreciate its latest incarnation, launched early in 2010. Current leaseholders the Antic pubco (see Westow House) have revived its original name, the Tiger, recalling the circuses once regularly held on the Green. Inside it’s been revealed as a spacious place, with big windows illuminating a main drinking area, a more secluded space to the left and a side alley turned into a beer garden. The beer makes the best of a Heineken tie, with Caledonian 80/- a welcome visitor, Doom Bar regularly available, and guests from Brains and Theakston, all very well kept. Budvar livens up the fridges. Food might be pan fried squid or asparagus risotto in both tapa and main sizes, supplemented by grazing plates of cheese and charcuterie, burgers and steaks.
Insider tip. Go through the raised side area to find a delightfully half-hidden front parlour-like space with a fine view of the busy street.
National Rail Denmark Hill Underground Oval, Elephant & Castle Bus Camberwell Green (various Oval, Elephant & Castle) Cycling LCN+23
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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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