Craft Beer Co SW4

I finished at 9. Being so amazingly skilled at forward planning, I was ready to leave almost on the dot. The only and annoying thing that held me back was a sudden and unforeseen desperation to use the loo. The delay meant that I missed all of my connections and arrived later than I was wanting to and expected.

A couple of glasses worth of beer had been left, maybe for me to finish off but more than likely was overlooked and left in mistake as the guys left in such haste.

It was an long old journey but as I didn't have to work for a couple of days I didn't care as much, I was up for anything that night to offer. The only problem was that I knew the pub shut at 11pm and I didn't leave work until 9.15pm. I'd manage to miss the train from Richmond to Waterloo via Clapham Junction. The next was in another 15 bloody minutes. When I finally arrived at Clapham Junction, I sat on the Overground for about 10 minutes and when it left it took over 10 minutes to make its way past 2 stops.

I over dramatically burst through Craft Beer Co's doors at 10.15, an hour after I'd set off. Somewhere that is only about 3 miles or so as the crow flies took an hour on public transport.

Nobody even noticed when I walked in, I felt almost invisible.

I bumped into the departing colleague at the bar and was instantly welcomed to the party with a half pint of Wild Beer Co 'Ninkasi'. A Saison blended with apple juice and fermented using Champagne yeast. It was an unknown flavour sensation but was surprisingly enjoyable and slipped down my rather too easily. It was almost as if I had simply inhaled it in one.

The guys had clearly been caning it. Their tables were covered in empty bottles and a mix of full and empty glasses. Everyone was slouching on sofas, necks drooping with slightly glazed looks on their faces. To be fair, a few were being responsible and left soon after I arrived.

Either I scared them off or maybe it had passed 10.30pm and time to head home to bed. It was a school night after all.

I helped finish off a few of the what looked like full and untouched halves on the tables. We needed to clear some space for more bottles and glasses. One was a red IPA, another was a sour of sorts and the other was another Ninkasi.

I bought half a pint of smoke porter and then paid £1.75 for a bag of tasty but expensive pork scratchings. I was told to tell the barman to put it on the tab but he refused to and so I paid. It was a lovely porter but I have no idea what one it was. For some reason the barman didn't seem to trust me. I think he may have been jealous of my incredible, unkempt moustache. He had one and it was nicely kept, trimmed and styled, a very well maintained moustache.

I remember hearing once to 'never trust a man with unkempt facial hair' or was it 'with no facial hair'?

We finished the night on a very light and citrussy Geuze, maybe an Oude Geuze, and aged one. I refuse to admit it but I think that possibly, in the very near future, I might start to like sours. I do like or at least did like to eat sour sweet, I just haven't had any in a long time. My palate needs time to get used to the sour taste again.

If you're brave and want to try some craft beer classics or try something out of the ordinary, give these guys a look/try.

wildbeerco

I've been told that they are doing a take over of the Craft Beer Co pub in Covent Garden on 28th Feb

Craft Beer Co Clapham (SW4)

thecraftbeerco