DNA on Draught?!

It was another one of those rare Friday evenings off work, I had some laundry to do which made for a wonderfully fun Friday night. I started doing my laundry at my parent's house in Walton-on Thames, after a disagreement with the local launderette... a long story. I planned to ride my bike to my parent's place with the good intention of putting my wash load on as soon as I arrived so the cycle would finish and I could dry it in the tumble dryer before going to bed that night.

Unfortunately I got a little side tracked at the bar after work. I'd been bought some beers, a couple of bottles of DNA to be precise. So I decided I would have them as soon as I finished, make them swift then have a bite to eat and ride straight to Walton do my laundry and meet my mates for a beer at a local pub. I ended up having a meaning I was running late and had to rush. My idea of sorting my laundry out went straight out the window, I could always sleep in my old bed and do it in the morning as I wasn't due to start work until 7pm so had plenty of time.

I rode my bike as fast as I could carrying my 15kg rucksack full of dirty laundry. I arrived incredibly sweaty, so much so that my mum didn't even want to give me a hug when she said hello to me. I put my things down, said hello and goodbye and left for the pub.

I assumed they'd be in the Swan's huge beer garden chilling with a beer right by the Thames' riverside. I went through the pub from the street so I could buy a beer before going out to the beer garden. I glanced about and ordered a Doombar but quickly changed my mind luckily before the barman had a chance to start pouring my beer. I noticed that they had DNA on tap. I immediately ordered one of those instead. I was quite shocked when my beer was put in front of me and the barman asked for £4.84 for the pint. What a ridiculous price and how steep too. I thought. In reality I handed over the money without fuss.

Over £4.80 for a pint of ale is verging on the extortionate price charged in some places for the fancy continental lagers, prices so astronomically high that the days of buying a pint for under £2.50 will seem like a million years ago. I recently paid £4.70 for a pint of Fuller's ESB which I struggled with the idea of but £4.84, oh my goodness.

I cannot deny the fact though, it is a marvellous beer, one that has certainly become my drink of choice at my pub.

Another thing that annoyed me about the beer, other than how expensive it was, was the glass. It quickly got on my nerves mainly because of its design. It has the same design that's on the bottle, the bright garish almost Caribbean themed (probably not really but I think it looks that way) label, complete with the jagged little black bit along the bottom. It was a dark dull autumnal evening and in the fading light my mind was tricked by that bloody black bit. Not only did I try and take a sip and there was nothing as the glass was empty, I did it three times. Perhaps it was cunning or maybe more likely because I had only eaten half of a vegetarian lasagne and drunk a few beers and rode my bike so fast that all the alcohol had gone straight to my head.

Frank's 50th washed down with some Meantime Pale Ale

The stage was set for uncle Frank's 50^th birthday celebrations. He'd hired a pub called 'The Perseverance' on Lambs Conduit St, London. On the the outside it looks like an everyday Victorian boozer but was set beautifully amongst boutiques on a fancy little street that even has what I would class as a silly shop, the 'Peoples Supermarket'.

I met up with Frank early to see if he needed any help with anything, also just to be there to try and relieve him of his stresses as he can get and was very nervous about all the preparations involved in arranging his own party. He was so anxious he couldn't eat and didn't want much beer so he didn't peak too early. We had a few beers at his flat first as it was only around the corner from the pub and he wanted to tell me all about the trip to Amsterdam he'd just been on that I was supposed to be on if it hadn't been for the bloody passport office making mistakes and taking ages I would have got my passport in time and been able to go. I applied for it in May and still haven't received it, that's another story altogether and not about booze so I'll save it for elsewhere even though I could moan about it for hours.

So he showed me the photos of his trip and in particular this houseboat that I'd hired for the few days that we would or he was there. It even had a little mirror ball hanging from the ceiling. I was a little upset but happy that he'd enjoyed his time and had the chance to chill out, Amsterdam isn't going anywhere so I can always go another time. After he'd showed me all the pictures and stories of his quiet holiday we left for the pub.

It must have been about 5pm when we arrived, the place was quite full of drinkers and people getting some early dinner on their way back from the shops or on their way out, whatever, there were people eating and drinking which is always a good sign. As he wasn't drinking he had a vodka lime and soda or was it a G&T? I had a pint of beer which I thought was a little cloudy but tasted fine, maybe it was me not knowing it or perhaps it could have done with a little more time to settle. About half way through my pint I got a call from my mum, my mum and dad had come up for the evening and were staying in a nearby hotel. After we said hello I pointed them in the direction of a fantastic little Italian restaurant on the same street called 'Ciao Bella' I would have to say, in my opinion they have the best pizzas I have had outside of Italy. They also have many other scrumptious dishes and the best appetizers of Parmesan cubes and mixed olives. They left to get some food as they were hungry so Frank and I returned to our drinks. I was a little surprised when my parents turned up, I'd kind of forgotten that they were coming. Not too long after I received another phone call from my mum saying that she's eaten as much as she could and if I wanted to finish off her pizza, she'd only eaten half. Of course I bloody would, I went over to pick it up from her. I ate it a few metres along from the pub. As I ate I watched these guys in the Oliver Sweeney shop putting up the most old fashioned anti battering bars in the windows, it wasn't the old fashioned metal grate or even the metal shutters, it looked like these huge wooden beams that went across the window and were then secured in place by a metal rod and padlocked to each beam. How wonderful I thought.

I scoffed the whole lot in moment but that half pizza temporarily suppressed my hunger.

Back inside for another pint, this time I noticed they had Meantime's London Pale Ale on tap, I'd only tried it for the first time in bottle the night before, I liked it so gave it a go. As you would imagine, it was a rich chestnut brown colour, had the distinctive hoppy aroma of pale ales and tasted just as it should. It tasted great, perfectly suiting my newly developed palate, it is quite similar to the Camden Pale Ale and equally as enjoyable. After a couple of pints a few of my friends arrived which led to a few more pints which then led to several more pints all consumed in relatively quick succession.

I bounced around saying hello to people I recognised or know on a more personal level, conversing and drinking more of these beers in the process. Some food appeared on a back table. It was all veggie as Frank is a vegetarian and to play it safe opted for a completely vegetarian buffet or various quiches and other things that I was too drunk to remember apart from the fact that I enjoyed them and by the time I left they had all gone. I'd never realised the night before that in less than 24hours I would be drinking and getting completely pissed on Meantime Pale Ale.

The Perseverance is a great little pub with good food and a brilliant selection of beer made better by the fact that they don't serve Guinness. The bar maid was very friendly and knowledgeable. The landlady was present and you could quite easily talk to her for hours about beer, as a matter of fact she was in the process of writing her dissertation or thesis about beer, to be more specific I think I remember her saying it was about the 'branding of microbreweries'. How very interesting I thought to myself. I might even consider reading it if I ever get the chance, it is a subject that I too am very fascinated about. I hope she managed to finish it in time to a high enough standard, good luck to her.

It wasn't until I woke up the following morning that I realised just how drunk I must have been, thinking back on it I must have sunk at least 10 pints of the stuff plus the few other beers I'd had that afternoon.

click on any Perseverance to link you to the pubs site

link to the Meantime Brewery site

meantimebrewing

I'm going to call this one BEEEEEEERRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOZE

Over the last few months I have come to the realisation that I acquired the taste for American Pale Ales or any Pales ales within reason. It may have been slowly ignited when I tried a bottle of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale several years ago or maybe when in Australia, looking for something other than lager I drank Coopers (green) Pale Ale regularly.

This recent discovery if you can call it that is maybe only shocking to myself or some close friends... but mainly just myself.

I have never until only the last couple of months tried, liked or even enjoyed the 'American style' Pale Ale or IPA or basically any American beer or styled beer that isn't pissy weak flavourless beers like some of their more famous mass produced lagers. Coors light and Bud light come to mind, among many others.

This is all about how I have come to like and in some particular cases love Pale Ales. I have liked them for a while but like I say it was only in the last couple of months that I could go as far to say that I have become almost infatuated with them. If I see a Pale Ale on tap I'm more than likely to give it a go.

My love of Porters and Stouts is still definitely around, it's just that they seem to be a bigger gamble and are also a lot less popular this time of the year. Of course there are ones available all year round but their popularity grows late autumn/winter time. For now Pale Ales are commonplace beers.

I think I may be developing a slight addiction to Pale Ales, I have, I'm sure of it.

How tastes change over time, 6 or 7 years ago I would never have considered drinking some of the beers I drink now, I would have at least sampled them but never to enjoy or even have a pint of. Once upon a time I would have even had a word with somebody drinking something pale and fruity and light, maybe slightly dry and hoppy but lacking any real character or body or depth of flavour that you can only get from Special bitters or Porters and Stouts.

How I have changed my tune. I bloody love Pale Ales including IPAs and several other varieties. They do have depth of flavour and body and sometimes have the length to equal or better some of the most flavourful and intense Porters. To a certain extent though as some are incredibly SHIT! I had one recently that I'd tried a couple of years ago and not liked at all, I still don't. To me, it tastes like sucking on a hop flavoured lollipop stick, very dry and wooden.

This can be said for any style of beer.

To be continued...

Odell, how you've failed to disappoint me!

After frequenting the late night/cocktail evening at the Fallow Deer Café for a while, you kind of get used to the flavours of certain things and if like me your curiosity stretches beyond the gentle sort, then you'll always be searching for some a little different with more varied experiences and tastes. After trying many of the cocktails, avoiding the classics that I've had so much of over the years, even had a stint making them on a regular basis when I worked at a cocktail bar in Sydney, Australia. The cocktails are great by the way, my mate certainly knows what he's doing.

This time I decided to go for the other Odell beer they had, the Odell IPA. At 7% it is like the slightly stronger more intense and refined bigger brother to the Odell 5 Barrels Pale Ale. Apparently the beers are selected by a guy who works at the Real Ale shop in Richmond, London.

Once again I have let my previous experiences influence my judgement of a beer before I have even tried it, this time yet again wrongly. Another American Pale Ale gets the tick from me. It's not like some of the 'Imperial' IPAs I've tried here, the States and even in Australia which are usually around 9% and have something way overpowering like the booze or hops or even a thick treacle maltiness that feels and tastes like a whisk(e)y reduction. It is certainly nothing like the watered down so called IPAs that often a lot of breweries will churn out with no real idea of what they are actually producing, Green King IPA springs to mind there.

I even like the label on this beer. There is a little Indian fellow riding on an elephant resembling an old Mid-Western Cowboy riding on a bull during a rodeo. Except this little guy is controlling a bigger stronger wild beast. A great little thing showing how this brewery is paying homage to the original roots of the IPA beer but with a unique twist that only an American could do. It's subtle touches like that that really get me going, bloody fantastic.

Odell, you have done it once again. I think I'll have another and another and maybe another.

Check out the Real Ale shops website

realale

Click on any Odell for a link to their IPA

Charles Wells x Dogfish Head DNA IPA

An American style pale ale coming from 'the destroyer of Young's ales' doesn't really sound like it's going to be anything great but I'm all for trying something new and setting differences aside.

What appears to be a collaboration between the Charles Wells Brewery, Bedford, England and the Dogfish Head Brewery from Milton, Delaware, USA. According to the label, it claims to be a 'reduction' of the Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA whatever on Earth that is supposed to mean. I've since seen a 120 minute IPA too, I think I'll have to do a bit more research on this matter later another time.

Once out of the bottle, the beer is a rich dark chestnut brown colour. It has the distinctive floral hoppy aroma of an IPA with an ever so slight note of something I'm not too sure how to describe. Not quite verging on vinegary but slightly more than the yeasty fermentation smell, don't get me wrong, it isn't at all unpleasant, in fact it is a delicious beer. I tried one last night and have already recommended it to people in and out of the pub. When I finished work, I cracked open another bottle to help wash down my dinner.

At 4.5% it isn't a strong one allowing it to be consumed like a session beer, drinking a lot of it in a single sitting. The flavours are well balanced with none of the overpowering bitterness of some American IPAs I've tried.

The bottle has a very distinctive label with florescent greens and pinks and yellows with DNA in big type across the middle. Some might argue that it looks a bit tacky, I think I fit into those some. There isn't anywhere on it that tells you anything about the beer, which is pretty crap but then it makes it more of a gamble when you open it up and take your first sip.

I hate to admit it since the severity of my dislike towards Wells & Young's is in a constant state of evolutionary change but this beer is actually bloody marvellous.

See below links to both breweries

charleswells

dogfish

Thornbridge Jaipur IPA

Working as a wine specialist for Waitrose often had its perks, I would often do tasting sessions as part of my role and not just of wine. Occasionally I would do beer or cider tastings, mix it up a little and help push new or promotional stock. The range of bottled beers including ales and continental lagers as I call them, or posh foreign beers. There were two bottles that particularly stood out to me from a small brewery called Thornbridge out of Bakewell, England. They had two beers on our new assortment, both had very well designed labels, one could even call them beautiful. One was a greenish-blue and the other was a bright orange not dissimilar to the Dutch national football teams kit.

It was long since forgotten until I rediscovered it at my local Wetherpsoon's pub, they had it on cask. After only having it in the bottle and remembering that I did enjoy it quite a lot, I took a gamble and ordered myself a half pint of Thornbridge Jaipur IPA.

It was a bit more cloudy than I remember but then again I don't remember exactly what it looked like and it was also out of the bottle before so would most probably been filtered and carbonated. It didn't have any bits floating in it and smelt exactly how you'd imagine an IPA should smell. I really have started to like the hoppy ales, as long they aren't too overpowering or bitter bordering on astringent. At 5.9% it's a pretty strong beer and after a pint and a half it was already leaving me with a slightly warming buzz.

If I didn't have to go to a monthly publicans meeting and then do a long shift at work I could have and would have stayed and drunk more and more and more until the liquid began flowing faster out than I could possibly get it in... by that I mean pissing it out as I tend to have quite a weak bladder and after only a pint will be pissing like a race horse all night long.

It was actually the fact that I had to go to this meeting which allowed me to rediscover this beer that I really enjoyed. I'm almost grateful for these bloody boring publican meetings.

I had a couple of pints of it the other night at the same Wetherspoon.

thornbridgebrewery

Odell Brewing Co

I was first introduced to this beer at a Friday night session at a café where my friend is the Bar Manager. It was a Friday night session because at that time, they didn't hold a liquor license so used a temporary event license for Friday nights. The café opened a little while ago but recently changed location to a bigger and better venue. For a short period of time I had Friday evening free and so to show support to my friend and a local business I thought I'd check it out on the Fridays. I'd been to the café a few times during the days and was overall very impressed with the place. A chilled atmosphere to relax and enjoy a cup of coffee and a book. The café is The Fallow Deer in Teddington.

The first Friday night session I turned up about 8pm after I'd had a quick bite to eat after work and cycled over. I was meeting another friend there but he hadn't made his mind up whether he was going for sure. After a little persuasion he left his house and was on his way. In the mean time I had one of the house speciality cocktails that my friend the bar manager had created himself. It was gorgeous, I could quite easily have had more and more and more but then I would have been way to drunk to function as a regular upright human being. The bloody thing went down so easily it was like it hadn't even touched the sides, I was thirsty for another drink but wanted something more session like so I had a bottle of beer called 'Citra'. It is a beer that I'd had before a little while back and knew that it was perfectly drinkable, it is a great beer in fact one that I'd recommend if you like hoppy IPA style beers which I sometimes do and have recently developed a bit of a taste for. The beer that really blew me away was from a brewer based in Fort Collins, Colorado, USA. The Odell Brewing Company to be precise. I'd seen their beers before but had never gotten round to trying in any, now was my chance. The beer in question was the 5 Barrels Pale Ale. After an almost unpleasantly hopped beer to this divine pale ale, it was smooth, full of body and flavour and had a length that went on and on and on. I have since had it a few more times in the bottle.

When I went for a beer in a pub local to my friend in Camberwell, London and noticed it on tap I couldn't resist. Without any consideration I ordered a pint. I should have known that the price tag would have been hefty, a craft beer pub in a pretty trendy part of London serving imported beers from all over. At £4.95 a pint it has to be one of the most expensive pints I have bought in a long time. In all fairness though, it cost me £4 a bottle and the bottle is quite a bit less than a pint so it kind of makes a bit more sense value for money wise. The pub was on the empty side but the people that were in there were very fashionable and young with beards, moustaches and shiny patent leather shoes. One might go as far to call them hipsters, they most certainly were. The pub is a little place in Church St called 'StormBird', I really enjoyed the atmosphere, the beers and would have enjoyed the company more if my mate didn't have his head resting on his arms on the table as if he was about to doze of to sleep. He woke up a bit when his flat mate swung by for a quick beer. If I'm ever in the area again I think I'll check out the pub again, maybe get a half next time though.

Brewery, pub and café links below

odellbrewing

StormBirdPub

thefallowdeer