52Brews in Europe Part 3: London

It's not entirely fair of me to resume my tale of European travels such a long time after they've commenced (over a year since the trip). If anything, London deserves a far more respectful overview than the one I'm about the recall - after all, England is the nation from which my mine originally took away its knowledge of brewing.

Moreover, the country has a devout passion for beer and is even home to a group of extreme enthusiasts - CAMRA - whom would have you believe that the processed and filtered "crap" we serve from stainless steel tanks has no right to be called "beer". Personal views aside, the point is that these people take their product seriously, and I had the pleasure of experiencing first-hand what London has to offer. 

Pubs and Wholesale

If you need a refresher, this trip was the third and final leg of one that took me to parts of Italy and Belgium. The foremost place of mention for our purposes here in London is Utobeer - a wholesale bottle shop (more like a "booth") in Borough Market. Now, Utobeer is important for a couple reasons: first, their bottle shop carries an amazing selection of domestic and imported brew, including a number of rarities and a ton of Belgian beers; second, Utobeer operates The Rake - a nearby craft beer bar with an awesome tap selection and even more awesome bartending staff. The Rake is not a typical London pub (see below for a couple of those) - rather, this is the place you can find a couple of the specialties (including American microbrews) on-tap and in-bottle. Duchesse de Bourgogne, Schlenkerla Helles Lager, and Brewdog The Physics (cask) made up just a few of the draught choices. This, backed by an extensive bottle selection, made The Rake my top choice for beer in London. 

On the more traditional pub side, however, we did hit a number of spots. The Mudlark is perhaps as well known for its meat pies as it is its real ale, while The Old Thameside in London Bridge is located beside a to-scale replica of Sir Francis Drake's ship, The Golden Hind. Both pubs are owned and operated by Nicholson's - a group that owns more than a half-dozen in the UK. These establishments will not strike you as the sort of cookie-cutter "chain" bar or restaurants all too common in the states. These are well-worn, authentic-feeling pubs, even if their financial backings indicate something higher-scale than a mom & pop.  The more traditional English milds and bitters are featured on cask here, and while I tend to be a fan of more extreme beers, I found these offerings to be quite accomodating- one of my favorites being the Thwaites Bitter. 

Ciders

I was most excited to sample the ciders in London. I've often heard there are few comparable ciders in the US, and was curious to find out what I was missing out on. While the US markets seem saturated with some of the syrupy or sweet offerings like Woodchuck or Cider Jack, most of the ciders I sampled in London were somewhat drier or at least more balanced. The brand I kept returning to was the popular Bulmers which is actually an Irish brand. Bulmers is served pretty much everywhere, draught and bottles abound, and seemed as common to the locals as Budweiser is to me as an American. While I'm sure to receive few/no nods from the connoissuers for my mass-appeal top pick, I found the Bulmers to be quite refreshing, approachable, and (as mentioned above) well more balanced than the choices I can find at home. Even the company's exported counterpart, Magners, doesn't give me the same satisfaction as the local product. The Westons, pictured left, was also a decent choice, but I only found it in one of the pubs we visited. 

Aside from the standard apple, Bulmers - and others - do have pear and berry varieties available. These atypical selections (like pretty much anything other than a standard cider or beer) in a typical pub, I was taught, will often fetch a grown man some crooked looks from the surrounding patrons. Research, however, demands a certain level of investigation; and my findings were more or less that these other varieties of cider were too syrupy or sweet for my taste, reminiscent of those I detest oh so much domestically. Even while cultural 'status quo' allows for the addition of ice for the proper cider pour, Bulmers draught, no-ice was my routine drink of choice for the length of my stay in London. 

Throw Down (the "other" stuff)

Note: You'll find no honest 'tasting notes' here because there is no legitimacy in the comparison of these concoctions. On a lower-key evening on which we decided to stay in the hotel room, we basically decided we wanted to augment the few beers we had, and meanwhile explore some of the more common mass-brew or younger-appeal sort of beverages available. What we ended up with for the night was a motley crue handful of drinks from a nearby convenience store as well as the few that we had taken with us from Belgium. 

On the furthest end of the spectrum: a couple items simply called called "K" and "WKD Blue". These are more or less British malt liquor. The blue stuff tastes like a cotton-candy flavored lolipop, sweet and well... candy-like. K, high-ABV cider-ish creation, is god-awful and I cannot begin to imagine why someone would drink it. I'm pretty sure if left unattended it would eat right through the side of the can and strip the varnish off of any nearby furniture. 

Somewhere in the middle-of-the-road lies Bulmer Pear and Old Speckled Hen. The pear cider, as mentioned above, is not my particular cup of tea. That said, it is far more tolerable than the K or the blue stuff so was a welcome alternative. The Old Speckled Hen was a bottle I wanted to pick up because, simply put, despite its commonality, I hadn't ever tried it. The Hen is an unassuming amber ale, drinkable, balanced - nothing to write home about. 

The clear winners of the night were two brews from De Dolle and one from Cantillon. Yeah, they're Belgian, and yeah, I said we weren't really comparing any of these - Totally unfair, right? These bad boys were stashed away in our bags from the previous leg of our trip, and we were just waiting for them to have a little company so we could make an evening with them. Unfortunately for them, the company was the equivalent of a couple of hobos from Jersey named "K" and "Blue", but I promise you we saved these best for last, and they were slow-sipped with a compliment of English Cheddar from a shop nearby Borough Market. 

With the taste of "K" distant, yet too close for comfort, the 52Brews European tour comes to a close. For those of you who have kept up with the three part series over the course of the year I thank you for your patience, and I hope you're not wholly dissappointed in the payoff. If you are, I can't blame you - nothing should take this long to write! As for the future of this blog, I shall continue to share my experiences periodically - as I am able - and will continue to be a quiet contributor to the otherwise colorful and prolific realm of the beer bloggers. Cheers.