So, after missing out on their beers at the London Drinker Beer Festival the other week, I felt I owed myself a visit to The Queens Head. A brew pub off the Grays Inn Rd, Holborn, London. I actually wanted to sample all they had on at the festival but by the time I actually got in, they had sold out.
Cancelling any plans that I'd made, when I hadn't. I simply sat and thought trying to justify to myself that I should go, no, I had to go there. Even if I had made plans, I didn't, you can quite easily change them. After all, all that is required is simply rearranging a few things in your head until your potentially busy but free day becomes a busy day. So make plans I did, instead of moping around thinking of things to do I went out in search of the pub.
The Queens Head happens to be a short walk from Frank's flat making it the obvious exploratory destination for the afternoon. Without reading anything about this place, or their beers, knowing it was a craft beer pub that had its own in-house brewery was enough. Enough to excite anyone with the slightest interest in decent pubs and good beer.
Admirably decorated and looking like most of the original fittings had been kept whenever it was most recently 'fixed up' or however you would call it. It was tastefully done, a cool pub perfectly mixing the old with the new. What's more there were taps almost spanning the entire length of the bar and fridges packed full of beers from all over. I had to pause for a moment and have a think, another long feeling thought process that literally takes less than a nano second to complete in reality. All of a sudden something grabbed my attention, like the excruciatingly loud engine of a Harley Davidson motorcycle or a person of mesmeric beauty. It was a beer I'd heard a bit about, not all that long ago.
'Monolith', a dark barrel aged beer from a brewery called 'Burning sky'. I'd been told it was that it was unimaginably rare, rarer than the cliche of something being 'as rare as hens teeth', it was rarer than that. Or so I was told, in bottle at least, I don't know about keg. For that reason alone I had to try it, not just out of curiosity or the want to try what was apparently such a delicious beer.
My Pale Ale phase a few months ago seems to have passed. Drinking crisp, refreshing pales when we are in a season of sub-zero temperatures and moving back to some of my favourite styels, the dark beers, porters and stouts. Just as it starts to warm up. Obviously I still drink pales and other styles and depending how brave I'm feeling, the occasional sour.
Frank had a half of the pubs very own 'Brown Ale' it was good but suffer from food or drink envy I did not. Monolith, jet black, as deeply black and glossy similar to that of the black, glossy object of desire in the 1968 Stanely Kubrick epic, 2001: A Space Odyssey. Equally as shiny and smoother than the finest cup of coffee you would ever know, not mention that it is bursting with truly complex flavours and aromas. Aged in Burgandy (Pinot Noir) barrels but I might be wrong. A tartness like soured cherries and blackberries from the use of a sugar devouring beast, the Brettanomyces strain of yeast. Both an incredibly complex and rich dark beer with sour notes, it was a delight. Holding the glass up to the light, it was a glorious beer, a spectacle. A beer to admire and savour, so much so that I took my time with it, allowing it to caress as it went down with each sip.
Jealous of Frank's position doesn't quite cut it, okay so I do get to sample my fair share of some amzing and some not so great beers but living in a place that has so many amazing pubs, some of the best that London has to offer and all on his bloody doorstep. I mean Craft Beer Co N1 is enough but it doesn't stop there, there must be at least half a dozen in less than a mile walk. And then there's Bottledog, a great little bottle shop selling all sorts of weird and funky beers.
If you have the money and are feeling adventurous, one could always pop on the Eurostar and scoot over to Belgium for the day, after all, it is only a couple of hours away.
burningskybeer
Well, the first thing I saw when I typed in Queens Head London into the search bar read, 'Best Pub in London'. That tells you something.
queensheadlondon
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