Real Ale in soho

[evilredlight]

So I am soon leaving dreary, cold Canada and I will be in
dreary cold England.
Just for One day, but I am going to sample some real cask ale

My Girl friend is taking me to a restaurant in soho
so we will seach out a Pub afterwards.

Wish us luck!

[chris_o]

Not the finest area for beer selection, but try the Dog & Duck on Frith Street. Madonna once claimed to be a regular and it was allegedly the inspiration for her famous comment that Timothy Taylor's Landlord is her favourite drink. As well as landlord, they usually have Fullers London Pride and two guest beers. It is very small, so be prepared for it to be crowded. The Moon Under Water, a Wetherspoons pub, on Charing Cross Road is another possibility.

[chazwicke]

The Taylor's Landlord is a fine brew as is the Fullers. I envy you for even being able to go for one night. I can't wait for May. I'll have 8 days of excellent beer!

[evilredlight]

well my trip to the UK was extended becuase of a snowstorm in Canada. We couldn't leave because of 1m of snow (40" yes 3.3 feet) that fell in 24 hours, directly on top of halifax.

So we missed our connecting flight to Spain and BritishAirways wouldn't reimburse or rebook us (snowstorm in canada doesn't effect what flies out of Heathrow).

So we stayed for 3 days in london. The problem was me and my girlfriend were sick the entire time + 2 more days when we finally arrived in spain. We were so sick that we didn't want to drink beer.
We drank it, but we didn't want to!
It was good, I appreciate a good beer anytime, but as for tasting and smelling and savoring, didn't really work out.

And then in Spain when we were feeling better, the beer is terrible, served in a juice glass, which is ok, because the beer is terrible! All except for a small brewpub in Sevilla and Alhambra Lager. which were great.

Then I was looking forward to what was supposed to be our only day in the UK, when we returned to meet our connecting flight back to canada, the original flight time was 10am but when we bought new tickets we were changed to 8:30pm.
We arrived in the UK at about 11:00 and started towards central london, checked into our hostel, and then asked where we could go for a pint. The answer was "everything closes at 11:00".

And the next day at the airport, I spied a bar and asked my girlfriend if she wanted to go in for a pint. She agreed, we had to spend our leftover pounds anyway. So we went to the bar and asked for the cask ale. The barmaid pulled the lever and water poured out, "nothing in the cask right now.

So it was a sob story all told, boo hoo hoo hoo!

But spain was amazing in everyother sense

[Beaver]

Wow, what a major bummer!

[chazwicke]

Sounds horrible! Sorry about missing the cask beers. I have yet to go to Spain but several friends say it is wonderful.

[stronk]

Bad luck! But for future reference, the pubs in Heathrow and Gatwick are actually very good. The Gatwick Wetherspoons pub is surprisingly so, with (if I recall correctly) 2 regular cask ales and 2 guests.

[Richard English]

The 2300 closing is an English eccentricity that goes back to the Defence of the Realm Act of 1917. The Prime Minister, Lloyd George, was advised that the munitions workers were getting plastered and that this was affecting production. (A load of old cobbler, of course). So from that day onwards, pubs in England have had to close when the Law says they must. Although the Law has been eased (most pubs now open in the afternoon - just afew years ago all were closed) the 1100 opening and 2300 closing is still in force.

Last year a Bill was finally give Royal Assent which will allow pubs to open whenever they wish (subject to the approval of the local councils who could refuse permission if they felt that a nuisance might be created). I understand that this Law will be introduced in time for the tourist season of 2004 - but I haven't seen any signs of it yet. Let us hope this quite absurd Law (which applies, don't forget, in London, the world's most popular tourist destination) is soon consigned to the annuls of history where it truly belongs.

Incidentally, the closing time laws do not apply to hotel residents so, if your hotel has decent beer (sadly this is unusual), you can stay up drinking it all night.

Lloyd George was a lifelong teetotaller and a lifelong serial adulterer. It's interesting to speculate what might have happened had his proclivities been reversed - the pubs would have been able to stay open all day but the brothels would have had to close!

[Herb Ninja]

I found a pub that stayed open way past 11PM, but its probably best I don't mention its name. Anyway, as much as you would imagine, not all pubs close at 11, only the ones worried about following the akward rules. Peace, HN-

[Richard English]

I did simplify the situation for the ease of posting. The English licensing laws are very complicated. Pubs are not allowed to stay open after 2300 to sell alcohol (and they can have their licenses instantly withdrawn if they do). However, they can stay open for a private party (which means they just lock the doors). Technically the landlord should know the customers but that can be taken to mean the regulars.

Private clubs have quite different laws and can stay open much later. In many cases they operate just as if they were pubs although you might need to pay a membership fee. Clubs tend to be more common in the north of England but there are several in London.

Hotels have different rules again as to exhibitions and trains.

In many countries places selling alcohol can, like other shops, sell their product when they have customers that want it. Seems fine to me.

[evilredlight]

Here are the cask ales i did try:

1.) TJ bernards near trafalger square in london
Abotts Ale
it was delicious with a good creamy mouthfeel. I took me a long time to drink this pint as I was running to the washroom and trying to keep my faculties together.
I was quite jetlagged but this made me feel quite normal for a few minutes. Not a great experience for the first in london.

2.) I don't know where we were but it was somewhere between trafalger square and the black friars underground station. It was a nice pub and they had 2 regular casks and 2 guests taps. This is also the next day so I am feeling better but still not 100%.

I tried a Fullers London pride. It was very tasty. It was poured with a slight head that disapated but never disapeared, and a nice amber colour. The nose was berries, raspberries, like their smell not their taste. and the beer tasted slightly nutty.

The second beer I tried at this pub was Doctor Duncans.
It poured with no head, it had a amber colour as well and a nose of Apricot. the mouth feel was thin and the beer was dry, the taste finished quickly, and so did the pint.

I think I had 2 or three more pints on the way home.
We kept trying to get back but had to use a bathroom so would run into a pub and buy something
I know the last one was landlord and tenent
I think there was a bass (does bass come in Cask conditioned?)
and I believe another Fullers london pride.

These were only beers of convienience however and I was getting Ill again.

The one funny thing we saw at one bar was a product called J20.

It is a juice and comes in a bottle.
At a bar I suppose it is mostly women who drink juice
The label (and this is going to be hard to explain)
has The "J" and the "0" in the same size font
The "J "is a slight bit underexagerated however.
The "2" is completely underexagerated and is underset so that it looks like the H20 chemical sign

What alo happens is the J and the 2 are set close and seem to be one character, Giving the bottle the appearance of, and this is the funny part, "hO" !

This reminded me of the Tissue company called "Sniff"
I don't know if they knew, or if the printing/design company knew but,
With the verticle line on the "n" slightly lengthened and the top hooks on the "ff" under exagerated, the alternate use for this particular brand of tissue is implied in its own name.

[Richard English]

It sounds as though you sampled a fair range of beers! In answer to your questions:

Bass does come on draught; in fact, it is most common that way. Bottled Bass is not a very popular drink in the UK (it is not bottle-conditioned). Draught Bass is a reasonable drink but not the great drink it once was.

J20 is a silly created drink designed for kids who want to get drunk but don't like the taste of a proper drink. Avoid it at all costs. Indeed, avoid most of the bottled drinks in a pub - unless you know exactly what you're asking for.

Incidentally, "somewhere between Trafalgar Square and Blackfriars underground" is quite a long way (maybe a mile) but I'd be willing to hazard a guess that you were in Fleet Street or maybe at Ludgate Circus (was it the King Lud, perchance?)

[stronk]

j2o is actually non-alcoholic. It's not always used as a mixer, either.

[stronk]

PS: I don't think the advice 'avoid most of the bottled drinks in a pub' applies to the White Horse, Parson's Green ;); in fact, the opposite applies: 'drink all of the bottled drinks' in that pub!

[Richard English]

Quote "...j2o is actually non-alcoholic..."

I stand corrected. Then it's even more silly to buy it.

I have heard or the White Horse at Parson's Green but didn't realise it had good bottled beer. You mean they don't stock A-B Budweiser, Grolsch, Becks, Carlsberg and all the other indifferent bottled stuff? They must be the only pub in London that doesn't!

Even excellent pubs such as Fuller's and Young's houses usually have a selection of (highly profitable) chemical fizz!

[stronk]

I'll check next time I go there (off beer for Lent atm [I know I'm an idiot, but I've said it now and there's no going back]), but I don't think so.

In fact, one of the things that's great about the pub is that it has all its good beer in highly visible pumps and a few chemical fizz pumps set down in the bar, so you have to actually lean over to be able to see them!

You should visit it next time you're in London if you're in search of imported beer (esp belgians) on tap.

http://www.whitehorsesw6.co.uk