What beer are we drinking this week ?

Black Sheep wrote: »

Slightly frazzled from weekend in London. A fair amount of beer consumed, let me encapsulate if I can. Was around Islington area mainly, went to several different boozers. Also a Sam Smith pub near Covent Garden and a slightly more auspicious place with alot of Adnam's on tap near Barbican.

1. Black Sheep best bitter - Not a huge fan of this from the bottle anymore, but IMO a fantastic easy-drinking beer from cask.
2. Sharps' Doom Bar - Several of these. Fast-becoming an ubiquitous cask ale in London, suspect they are doing good business. Fond of this from the bottle in Dublin and there's fair uniformity ... Slightly ruby coloured and a little fruity, very drinkable.
3. Timothy Taylor landlord pale ale - A half percent or so stronger than the above ales, but you wouldn't taste the difference. Again, very easy to drink.
4. Asahi black lager (forget the proper japanese name) - with a meal of Okonomiyaki near Leicester square. Sight burnt toffee taste, quite nice. Nothin like the Guinness offering.
5. Old Growler - 5% of dark ale, punchy.
6. Adnam's Old Ale - Dark in colouring, almost like a porter, but surprisingly drinkable. A nutty, chocolate-hinting winter warmer, as billed by Adnam's. Didn't expect to love this one but I'd have it from the cask again even if I probably wouldn't hunt down the bottle.
7. Sam Smith's Pure-brewed lager. I've got a weakness for this and would love to see it more readily available here. Can't do better on the tasting notes as at this point I was fairly drunk. A long day.

Called into 'Against the grain' with the missus for a few drinks after coming back from London.

I desperately want to like this place, if for no other reason than they need all the friends they can get - situated on the "CORNER OF DEATH" as they are. How many bars have opened and subsequently bit the dust here? At least three that I can think of.

Anyway- the pros are:
1. Excellent selection of beers and in particular Irish craft beers.
2. Like the games and beer books scattered around.
3. Food menu looks pretty good, and some nice deals judging by their facebook page... A fair amount of free beer thrown out.

The cons:
1. A very surly bartender. Everyone is entitled to an off-night sometimes, but this guy was abrupt and bad-humoured enough that we both commented on it to each nother. Like it or not part of the job description in a bar like this is going to be fielding queries from punters about particular beers, and I felt like I was 'bothering' him by asking what X beer was like, or did they still stock Z. In a quiet bar (as this was) I wouldn't have hoped for a bit more than getting a slightly pained look and a monosyllabic answer.
2. The space remains a slightly limited one. It's not a great interior space for a bar, an odd staggered L-shape and there's probably only so much that can be done with it.

Beer-wise I had a pint of Bay Ale. Wouldn't order it again, just didn't do it for me. Slightly gassy, odd after-taste. Then a pint of a munich style lager served in a stein whose name escapes me. Impressively the GF was able to identify this as a munich-style lager without being prepped in advance. Great news if she decides to give up her current job and become a beer-taster.

Will I go back? Absolutely. Crabbit bartender aside, great pub for beer afficionados.

Lastly, someone mentioned Sierra Nevada porter a page or so back... It's on my list to try, after the stout came as something of a pleasant surprise to me. Genuinely one of the best stouts I've ever had - world class. Dark, syrupy, loaded with flavour.

Black Sheep wrote: »

Slightly frazzled from weekend in London. A fair amount of beer consumed, let me encapsulate if I can. Was around Islington area mainly, went to several different boozers. Also a Sam Smith pub near Covent Garden and a slightly more auspicious place with alot of Adnam's on tap near Barbican.

1. Black Sheep best bitter - Not a huge fan of this from the bottle anymore, but IMO a fantastic easy-drinking beer from cask.
2. Sharps' Doom Bar - Several of these. Fast-becoming an ubiquitous cask ale in London, suspect they are doing good business. Fond of this from the bottle in Dublin and there's fair uniformity ... Slightly ruby coloured and a little fruity, very drinkable.
3. Timothy Taylor landlord pale ale - A half percent or so stronger than the above ales, but you wouldn't taste the difference. Again, very easy to drink.
4. Asahi black lager (forget the proper japanese name) - with a meal of Okonomiyaki near Leicester square. Sight burnt toffee taste, quite nice. Nothin like the Guinness offering.
5. Old Growler - 5% of dark ale, punchy.
6. Adnam's Old Ale - Dark in colouring, almost like a porter, but surprisingly drinkable. A nutty, chocolate-hinting winter warmer, as billed by Adnam's. Didn't expect to love this one but I'd have it from the cask again even if I probably wouldn't hunt down the bottle.
7. Sam Smith's Pure-brewed lager. I've got a weakness for this and would love to see it more readily available here. Can't do better on the tasting notes as at this point I was fairly drunk. A long day.

Called into 'Against the grain' with the missus for a few drinks after coming back from London.

I desperately want to like this place, if for no other reason than they need all the friends they can get - situated on the "CORNER OF DEATH" as they are. How many bars have opened and subsequently bit the dust here? At least three that I can think of.

Anyway- the pros are:
1. Excellent selection of beers and in particular Irish craft beers.
2. Like the games and beer books scattered around.
3. Food menu looks pretty good, and some nice deals judging by their facebook page... A fair amount of free beer thrown out.

The cons:
1. A very surly bartender. Everyone is entitled to an off-night sometimes, but this guy was abrupt and bad-humoured enough that we both commented on it to each nother. Like it or not part of the job description in a bar like this is going to be fielding queries from punters about particular beers, and I felt like I was 'bothering' him by asking what X beer was like, or did they still stock Z. In a quiet bar (as this was) I wouldn't have hoped for a bit more than getting a slightly pained look and a monosyllabic answer.
2. The space remains a slightly limited one. It's not a great interior space for a bar, an odd staggered L-shape and there's probably only so much that can be done with it.

Beer-wise I had a pint of Bay Ale. Wouldn't order it again, just didn't do it for me. Slightly gassy, odd after-taste. Then a pint of a munich style lager served in a stein whose name escapes me. Impressively the GF was able to identify this as a munich-style lager without being prepped in advance. Great news if she decides to give up her current job and become a beer-taster.

Will I go back? Absolutely. Crabbit bartender aside, great pub for beer afficionados.

Lastly, someone mentioned Sierra Nevada porter a page or so back... It's on my list to try, after the stout came as something of a pleasant surprise to me. Genuinely one of the best stouts I've ever had - world class. Dark, syrupy, loaded with flavour.

blueshed wrote: »

@ Technocentral what did you think of the nutty black.
had it twice and njoyed it myself.

true on the cheap beer and bad beer.
a few of the cheap beers are ok and some like pisssssssss.
my local londis doing 500ml btls of Budvar at 1.85 each.

irish_goat wrote: »

Have some O'Shea's stout from Aldi in the fridge for later. Anyone tried this/know who makes it? There's no brewery details on the bottle.

Have a bottle of Cooper's Sparkling Ale(Australian) which I'm looking forward to as well.

gavmcg92 wrote: »

O'Shea's is a remarkable stout, It can be found in Tesco also. It also makes a great Guinness pie.