We walked here after a heavy brunch at the Worker’s Cafe in Islington. I had the two halves below while the girls had some fresh lime and soda.
First I had the Truman’s – Runner. It’s a tasty ruby beer, with hints of mild. 4 / 5.
Then followed Truman’s – Swallow And Swift. This is a beautiful amber golden beer with a surprisingly smooth taste. Lots of biscuit and a subtle warmth of ginger. 5 / 5.
Yesterday after work, I met up with my lovely Katie at our favourite ice cream place: La Gelatiera in Soho. After some amazing basil and chili, strawberry yoghurt and our favourite the chocolate sorbet, we got a bus home. Or at least that was the idea at the time. But at Euston Station we decided to get off and find The Bree Louise; a pub we had heard so much good about. And we were not disappointed! Just west of Euston Station lay the pretty little pub. Even though it was very busy with loads of people thronging outside, it was still very friendly and service was fast. The beer selection resembled more that of a beer festival than just a pub, outperforming even the nearby Euston Tap on real ales.
The first beer I tried was the “safe bet” of a Tring – Side Pocket For A Toad. It was in a very good condition and tasted as fresh as when we got it straight from the brewery. I would even say that it was better than it’s been when we’ve come across it at some beer festivals.
A very well presented version of the lovely Tring beer – Side Pocket For A Toad. 5/5
With such a wide selection of ales, I wanted to try something new. I went for the Third Switch from ABC Brewery. It was a good choice and just what I was looking for.
A very dark beer with almost treacly coffee without being sickly. 5/5.
Katie had a very refreshing sweet cider from Hecks. We considered staying for tea, but felt adventurous, so we went for a walk down a road we’d rarely gone. We ended up on Eversholt Street where we found El Parador (the hostel) that despite its name was an interesting looking tapas restaurant.
We ordered five dishes, and while that was quite a lot of food, I wouldn’t have wanted to have gone without any of them.
The pork belly was one of best examples of the dish I’ve had. It was extremely tender and masterfully spiced with just the right herbs.
This octopus’ arm was amazing. It was soft and fresh. Not chewy like you might expect, but very tender and cooked to perfection.
We also had chicken livers that were like they should be, but how I would have no idea how to cook them; they were soft and creamy inside, without seeming too raw.
Here’s a picture of the whole table, though the bacalao (salt cod) hadn’t arrived yet.
All in all this was simply some of the best food I’ve ever had in this friendly and popular little restaurant.
One of my favourite ales, this mild has lots of flavours including licorice, malts and slight coffee.
I’ve decided to start blogging all my beers. I’ll split it up by months and just add them as I get them. The amount of description or detail will probably vary, but it’s more about getting them up there, and adding a few words of recommendation. I’ve started in April even though it’s almost over, so to avoid it being a bit too short, I’ve merged it with May.
First beer on the list is Fullers Chiswick, served in the best condition at The Centre Page by St Paul’s
The Alma in Islington has a beer festival, and I went there with my lovely Katie. Below are some of the beers.
Thornbridge - Wild Swan
Red Squirrel - London Porter
Mighty Oak - Oscar Wilde. One of my favourite ales overall, and a very tasty mild.
Milton Brewery - Minotaur. Another lovely mild for Mild May.
Milton Brewery - Nike. Dark and flavoursome.
Crouch Vale - Brewer's Gold. A deserving multi award winning hoppy beer.
Tring Brewery - Side Pocket For A Toad. My favourite brewery with a very hoppy session beer.
Kingston Beer and Cider Festival is on, and here are some of the beers I’m having (while writing)… May is Mild Month, so mild there will be. I decided to start rating the beers, so I should probably give a quick explanation of what the ratings mean: 5 – an amazing beer, that you would go well out of your way to drink again, 4 – a great beer that stands out from the general nice pint, 3 – a decent pint that you would order again, 2 – a mediocre beer that you would only drink if there were no other (better) options, 1 – a horrible beer that you would do your best to avoid in the future and might even tip away.
King - Royal Mild. A very pleasant mild. 4/5
Rudgate - Ruby Mild. Relatively strong and flavoursome mild. 4/5
Ossett - Dark Ruby. Unusually dark-flavoured mild almost with a coffee edge rounded by a smooth sweetness. 4/5
Coastal - Merry Maidens. Strong Cornish mild with fruity cherry undertones. Almost too strong. 3/5
Plain - Inntrigue. Very interesting full flavoured ale with fruit, biscuit and chocolate. Mysterious and surprising. 4/5
Welton - Light Duty. As the description says it's nothing like making love in a punt. Surprising amount of strong taste for a beer of only 2%. Not that pleasant though. 2/5
Surrey Hills - Greensand IPA. A fruity, hoppy and fresh IPA. 3/5
Before going to Boulogne we stopped in at The Antelope near Victoria for a drink.
18/5 2012 -George Gale - Spring Sprinter. While waiting for a bus to France. A very tasty, fresh spring beer. 4/5.
22/5 2012 – Cambridge Beer Festival is on and I’m there with the sun (and James).
Lord Conrad's - Hedgerow Hop. Tasty and hoppy golden beer. Great for a sunny day like today. 4/5
Moonshine - Harvest Moon Mild. A local very malty, tasty dark mild. 4/5
Felstar - Peckin' Order. Another amazing, golden larger with so much tasty flavour it's hard to believe it is indeed a larger. 4/5
Tring Brewery - Mansion Mild. My favourite brewery is back with this lovely mild. 4/5
Tring Brewery - Woodland Bell. A pleasant beerey golden beer. Slightly bitter and very fresh. 4/5
Binghams - Hot Dog Chilli Stout. Pleasant stout with a sharp spiciness without being unpleasant. 4/5
During the break of the Cambridge Beer Festival, we discovered that the Maypole have a beer festival on as well!
Tring Brewery - Blonde. This is one of my all time favourite beers from my favourite brewery. Sweet and tasty. 4/5.
Back at the beer festival and it’s even sunnier than before.
Brentwood - Summer Virgin. Very strong tasting bitter beer with some grapefruit. A bit harsh. 2/5.
Broughton - Dark Dunter. Dark licorice and sweetness dominate this exquisite old ale. 4/5.
Thornbridge - Sequoia. Another amazing fruity roasted beer. 4/5.
Gadds - Common Conspiracy. A bitter and flavoursome ale, with a crisp refreshing finish. 3/5.
Lord Conrad's - Gubbins. Strong tasting regular beer. 3/5
Back again at Cambridge Beer Festival, and having a breakfast beer:
XT - No 6. A scrumptious beer with lots of hops and malt. Great for breakfast. 5/5!
Hop Monster - Freak Show. Very hoppy beer with bitterness and slight grapefruit. 5/5
Hop Monster - Rochford Banshee. A rauchbier with a plenty of sweet flavour. Not too smokey. 4/5.
Moonshine - Red Watch. A sweet, malty beer with slight fruit. It's not obvious that it's made with blueberries. 3/5.
Lord Conrad's - Her MajesTea. A very special tea-infused beer, special for the jubilee. Very dry with an almost cocoa like bitterness. 3/5
Pickled Pig - Old Spot. For a change we're having a cider. A medium dry, very pleasant cider with lots of apple flavour. 4/5
Beartown - Black Bear. Smooth, ruby dark mild with fruit and slight licorice. 4/5
Buntingford - 92 Squadron. Tasty and hoppy golden beer with a citrus finish. 4/5
It’s time for a beer festival update. It’s now late February and a few of the previous lists have past but more importantly we’ve moved to London. This might move the main focus slightly south from Cambridge, though I’m sure anything that can be easily reached from here isn’t too far away from Cambridge either and vice versa. The Battersea Beer Festival is on as I’m writing and I’m planning a quick trip there tomorrow before going to Denmark for the weekend. I’ve been a bit cheeky and added the big Cambridge Beer Festival, even though it’s not on until May, but it’s always a great one, though this will be the first one for me where I don’t live in Cambridge, which will inevitably make it a bit less convenient. On the other hand is the Camden one, just by Kings Cross, going to be really easy with about 15 minutes walk home.
| Date | Location | Festival |
|---|---|---|
| 8-10 Feb | London | 22nd Battersea Beer Festival |
| 16-18 Feb | Luton | 29th Luton Beer & Cider Festival |
| 15-18 Feb | Derby | 11th Derby Winter Beer Festival |
| 17-18 Feb | Ely | 3rd Elysian Beer Festival |
| 24-25 Feb | Chappel | 3rd Chappel Winter Beer Festival |
| 7- 9 Mar | Camden | 28th London Drinker Beer & Cider Festival |
| 9-10 Mar | Hitchin | Hitchin Beer & Cider Festival |
| 15-17 Mar | St Neots | The 37th ‘Booze on the Ouse’ Beer & Cider Festival |
| 12-14 Apr | Sidcup, London | 7th Bexley Beer Festival |
| 25-28 Apr | Bury St Edmunds | East Anglia Beer Festival |
| 2- 6 May | Reading | 18th Reading Beer & Cider Festival |
| 21-26 May | Cambridge | 39th Cambridge Beer Festival |
A new year has begun, and I’ve started looking forward to what it will bring of ale enjoyment. However, it’s a slow start in the South East, and the list below is both a bit short and does include some events that are a bit further away, though they do sound like they would be worth a journey. Above all it includes the Cambridge Winter Ales Festival, which is always the place to be for me in the winter (even if this winter isn’t that wintry).
| Date | Location | Festival |
|---|---|---|
| 18-21 Jan | Manchester | National Winter Ales Festival |
| 19-21 Jan | Cambridge | 16th Cambridge Winter Ales Festival |
| 19-21 Jan | Colchester | 5th Colchester Winter Ales Festival |
| 3 – 4 Feb | Dover | 19th White Cliffs Festival of Winter Ales |
| 8 -10 Feb | London | 22nd Battersea Beer Festival |
| 15-18 Feb | Derby | 11th Derby Winter Beer Festival |
| 17-18 Feb | Ely | 3rd Elysian Beer Festival |
| 24-25 Feb | Chappel | 3rd Chappel Winter Beer Festival |
| 16-17 Mar | St Neots | The 37th ‘Booze on the Ouse’ Beer & Cider Festival |
| Date | Location | Festival |
|---|---|---|
| 22-24 Sep | Letchworth | 20th Letchworth Garden City Beer & Cider Festival |
| 28- 1 Oct | St Albans | St Albans Beer Festival |
| 5- 8 Oct | Bedford | 34th Bedford Beer & Cider Festival |
| 12-15 Oct | Milton Keynes | 18th Concrete Pint Beer Festival |
| 13-15 Oct | Wallington | 18th Croydon & Sutton Real Ale & Cider Festival |
| 14-15 Oct | Cambridge | Cambridge & District CAMRA 5th Cambridge Octoberfest |
| 21-22 Oct | Chester | Chester Real Ale Festival |
| 24-29 Oct | Norwich | 34th Norwich Beer Festival |
| 27-29 Oct | Twickenham | 11th Twickenham Beer & Cider Festival |
| 27-29 Oct | Sawbridgeworth | 5th Sawbridgeworth Beer Festival |
| 27-29 Oct | Birmingham | Birmingham Beer Festival |
| 22-26 Nov | Rochford | 33rd Rochford Beer & Cider Festival |
| 30- 3 Dec | Dovercourt | Harwich & Dovercourt Bay Winter Ales Festival |
| 6-10 Dec | Hackney | Pigs Ear Beer Festival |
We enjoyed a very beautiful and intimate concert with Emmy The Great in the unusual venue of Cecil Sharp House in Camden. The set was a great mix of songs from the new and old albums plus some extra treats. Now we’re looking forward to the concert in Cambridge in October.
Everyone in front of the stage were sitting down and we sat in the front row of people. It was very Emmy. The support act were called It Hugs Back and though they seemed very shy their music was very good. It was only very hard to make out any of the lyrics, but hard to know whether it was due to their shyness or just their style.
This year we were going to Skanderborg Festival aka Smukfest (= beautiful fest) for the first time. I’d heard nice things about it, and there were a promising line up with Tom Jones, Skunk Anansie and Robyn as some of the bigger names, though Kaizers Orchestra was the one I was most excited about. However, we’d never been there and there wasn’t anyone we knew going and we weren’t sure how much of the “smuk” in the name was pure marketing. This post is about the mud, the great music and how we discovered that it really is beautiful 🙂
We didn’t go to the festival from the first day the camp sites were opened, as we wanted to enjoy the summer house for a bit longer (I know I need to write the second post about that trip). Instead we went there on the Wednesday, which was also the first day the festival area opened and the actual festival started. However, the camping sites had opened on Monday and Tuesday, and when we arrived most of them were full. We were directed to Holst camping site, and when we got there, it looked rather full as well. We managed to find a big enough gap that had been ignored by others, as it was quite wet and muddy. It wasn’t too bad though, and we had air mattresses so we didn’t think it would be a problem.
Katie in her smarties wellies
It wasn’t a real problem. Even though it rained all through the first night, the tent held tight and we didn’t get wet. However, when we opened the door and looked outside our front tent bit was flooded, and the mud that had looked very soft the day before had turned into a thick liquid paste. The sight was almost enough to make us lose hope for a lovely festival. But as soon as we got out of the mud in our waterproofs it didn’t seem that bad. It was still raining, but it was a very gentle rain and we had proper gear. Almost! We had no wellies. So the first thing we did when we got to the festival area was to buy some boots. Not surprisingly there were quite a few stalls selling wellies, and it didn’t take us long to find some we liked. I got some traditional green farmer/fisherman/biologist ones, but Katie got some amazing, colourful smarties-covered ones 🙂 They were beautiful as you can see in the photo on the left. At about midday the rain stopped and we hadn’t been cold at all. The rain only meant that it was much easier to get around at the festival and find seats/tables at the drinking and eating places.
To finish off this post I’ll leave you with two more photos. The one on the left is of our favourite bar at the festival, the Special Beer Tent. It had a wide selection of Danish and foreign bottled and draft beers, including several festival specials. The other photo is the view over the lake seen from the main road between the camping area and the festival area. It was a pleasure walking past this every day 🙂 I’ll soon post again with Part 2 where I’ll talk about the music at the festival.
Special Beer Tent – our home away from home
View over the lake
There are a few Android applications that I use and find either really useful or entertaining, so I thought it would be useful to share them with everyone else, and also describe what about them I like (and possibly what I think could be better). I’m going to write them as a top 5, where the ordering is determined by many things or none at all. They might be at the top because I’ve just found them, because I use them a lot, or for no particular reason at all 🙂
The first one on my list is a game that I’ve only just discovered. It’s extremely simple, but very very fun. The addictiveness of the game combined with the fact that it’s free has earned it the top spot. The story of the game is simple as well: you’re a newly hatched dragon who has run away from your nest. You haven’t learned to fly yet, so you have to use the many rolling hills to build momentum. It’s all about timing and even when you get it just right it feels quite exhilarating. There is only one control in the game: touch the screen anywhere to dive. You have to use this to dive into the hills just at the right time and then let go to allow you to shoot out of the valley off the opposite hill. One of the things that makes the game extra cosy to play, is that when you do lose you don’t die like in many games, but you’re simply taken back to the nest by your mummy 🙂
This is one of my favourite applications, and it would probably have been number one, if I had written this post in a few weeks when I might be slightly less excited about Dragon: Fly! 🙂 It is extremely easy to add or edit posts, add images from the phone and upload and publish the posts. You don’t get the thumbnail generation feature that the normal WordPress interface gives you when uploading photos, but since the images taken on my phone aren’t that big anyway, I just use the full images in a scaled display for thumbnails and then click through to the full sized versions. You can also use it to approve (or delete) comments, which I think could be very useful, though I haven’t used it yet as I get very few comments (hint, hint 😉 ).
As I mentioned in the beginning of the post, the ordering of this list is a bit random. This application is actually maybe my most favourite one 😛 It’s very simple and easy to use. You simply open an MP3 and then the app gives you a graphical representation of the song and you can drag and drop the start and end points, play the currently selected region and save the currently selected region as a ring tone once you’re satisfied. I don’t know if there are other apps out there that do similar things with more features, but it’s hard to imagine any of them being significantly better.
This is an app I’ve had for a very long time, and I almost forget it’s not just a standard Android feature. I use it almost more than I use my browser 🙂 It’s fast, simple, looks good and it’s free. There is an ad-free version for £1.79 (about $2.95), but the adverts are quite subtle and don’t really bother me. The app features lots of other apps as well as Wikipedia, but I’ve never actually used this feature. Seems very useful, but I didn’t know the feature existed until I looked at the market web page for the app while writing this. I’ve always wanted an app for Wiktionary, so now I like it even more! 🙂
At £1.81 this is the only paid app on the list. I actually only just bought it now, but I’ve had the demo for a while and I’ve quite enjoyed just playing the bit you get for free 🙂 So, now I’ve got the full game. The game is a simple, Risk-like real-time strategy where you have to try to conquer all the little islands before the NPCs capture them. When you hold an island you gain troops there, so it’s important to quickly get the easy ones so you can get more troops to conquer the more heavily guarded islands.
That’s all the ones I’ll put on here. Some other apps that I use, but won’t include in an otherwise too long list are: Alchemy, ASTRO, AudioManager, ColorNote, DropBox (that one is really useful), IMDb, London Underground Free, QuickPic, StopWatch & Timer, Sudoku 10,000, TripAdvisor, Urban Dictionary, Winamp, xkcdViewer and YouTube.