The Glasgow September Weekend has long been one of Hector’s favourites, the first respite after the start of the new session. München has been visited for Oktoberfests, more recently the equivalent in Stuttgart. This year Hector finds himself resident in Crawley staying at the mighty Castle of Lord Clive and Lady Maggie. Marg is not in tow, a planned Hockey Tournament released Hector to do as he pleased. What he planned was to hijack Lord Clive for a couple of days and enjoy some English Ale, at Source, well as near as…
Flying down to Gatwick yesterday, Thursday, September 20, Hector was rushed to a Curry House in Horley. Clive and Maggie were pleased to see me, it has been four days since Wolf. Thereafter Clive and I retired for a light refreshment at the Swan. Hector likes the Swan as a Pub, it sells Ale, but the only one I ever seem to get is the Hophead at 3.8% from Dark Star (Partridge Green, West Sussex). Still, not a bad way to start the long weekend.
Today would take a while to get going
Clive had work to go to. Hector had Brick Lane Curry on his mind. The planned lunchtime rendezvous was delayed considerably as I found my way from Brick Lane to Liverpool St Station – by chance as much as design. I recognised the Pineapple, sorry Gherkin.
I was instructed to alight at Farringdon, the Mainline Station which links Central London to Three Bridges. The exit was blocked and so Clive failed to make the planned rendezvous which was quickly relocated to the Craft Beer Co up beside Hatton Garden. Deliberately wearing a Bon Accord Travel Club shirt, the Manager recognised me as being from his Homeland, he had worked in Glasgow’s Blackfriars, a Pub I find myself visiting with increasing regularity.
With an array of Cask Ale on offer as well as Craft Beer from the USA and European Bier on draught, one would assume choice, and lots of it. However this was not to be. Yellow Wood at 5.1% from the Wood St. Brewery (Sheffield, Yorkshire) was neither yellow, dry or wonderful. This was not a great start to the day.
Clive returned to work, Hector went off on an above ground sojourn in search of the Euston Tap. In the 1980s I got to know my way around Central London quite well both above and below ground. Today I was coming from a different angle. Fact – the area to the East of Euston does not need any more Pret a Porter franchises. The area does need shoe shops, I did not encounter a single Shoe Shop after I left Brick Lane.
The Euston Tap has been mentioned in dispatches for some years. The Sheffield Tap is well known to us for all the correct reasons, I walked out of the York equivalent some two years ago – they had virtually no Bier. I found the wrong Gatehouse first, this presumably sold Cider, The Cider Tap. I found the Tap directly across the road. It had an array of Ales and Bier dispensed by dubious methods.
Kill Your Darlings a 5% Dark Copper Ale from Thornbridge (Bakewell, Derbyshire) is a far cry from the preferred intake of Dry, Hoppy, Yellow Ales. But then the Ales Thornbridge currently produce a far cry from what they used to. The Friends of Hector made regular visits to Sheffield a few years back just to spend the afternoon at Dronfield and drink Jaipur – or Guypoor – as some now call it. I never considered the possibility of choosing a Thornbridge Ale which would be a Dark Copper colour and taste as Sweet as a Mainstream UK Ale.
As for the Euston Tap, the spiral metal staircase to the Upper Room makes one question the accessibility to the toilets, or should this reference be a singularity? Wi-fi was at least available. I will not be in a hurry to return here, especially when the next port of call was only half a block away.
Clive had now finished work, it was time to go for a serious Bier, or two.
The Bree Louise is a traditional London Pub with the added bonus of selling a range of Ales on Gravity. That the Ale is dispensed as flat as tea is off-putting, it was a bit on the warm side too. We like this? Ross joined us and drank some cold yellow, fizzy, domestic lager. The Son of Lord Clive has much to learn if he is to inherit his Father’s Peerage.
Why The Lost Weekend? A partial answer lies in the fact that the trusty HTC let Hector down at this point. The App with the Bier Database simply disappeared off my phone taking all records since time began with it. Something from Yorkshire is all I can recall.
This was a very busy Pub initially, but became quieter as people went home, very strange. We sat at a large table with a couple of Chaps, one of whom was a Queens Park fan. He has the intention of coming up to Hampden Park to see his team play soon. I fail to understand why the Scottish Third Division has taken on such importance of late. Has the Honourable League not always been so? I advised him to get his ticket early, Hampden Park may well be full that day, and very noisy.
We bade farewell to Ross and Clive took me on a tour of the London Underground. Victoria via Camden Town? Camden Town and no visit to Nando’s?
We retired once more to The Swan in Crawley. After the customary pint of Hophead it was time to try something completely different. Jabberwocky a 5% American Black IPA (Triple FFF Brewery, Alton, Hampshire) was full of Malt flavours, Chocolate and Liquorice. So much for Pale, Yellow and Hoppy. There comes a time when one returns to one’s roots, Hector began his Real Ale adventures with Old Peculier (Theakston, Masham, Yorkshire) after all.
Time for bed – said Zebedee.
Pubs visited today:
The Craft Beer Co. – 82 Leather Lane, London, Greater London EC1N 7TR
The Euston Tap – 190 Euston Road, London, NW1 2EF
The Bree Louise – 69 Cobourg Street, London, Greater London, NW1 2HH
The Swan – 1 Horsham Road, West Green, Crawley, RH11 7AY
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