There will be beer

It was a couple of very beery days.

Thursday 27-October-2016:

Meet the brewer. We went to our local (The County Arms) for supper and, unbeknownst to us, Wimbledon Brewery were there for a "Meet the Brewer" event. They came round and gave us tasting samples of three of their beers: Common Pale Ale, Tower Special Pale Ale and Phoenix Smoked Porter. The pale ales are low ABV, session beers, and an interesting business decision to contrast with another local brewery, Sambrook's, whose range is by-and-large much higher in alcohol.

Wandsworth Common Beer Festival. After supper a short stroll round the corner to Le Gothique for a serious beer festival. Not knowing what to expect I was amazed at the massive selection of beers. Mary and I drank halves so we were able to try five beers apiece.

Mary	Mark
Box Steam - Chuffing Ale (bitter)	Bradford Brewery - Farmers Stout
Downton - Honey Blonde (golden ale)	Downton - Chocolate Orange (dark ale)
Peerless - True Brit (English IPA)	Downton - Roman Imperial Stout
Dynamite Valley - Prospector (wheat beer)	Isle of Avalon - Pomparles Porter
Mad Dog - Its All Propaganda (black IPA)	Sarah Hughes Brewery - Snowflake (Barley wine style)

The two extremes for me were both from Downton - the Roman Imperial Stout at 9% was a seriously delicious, heavy duty tipple best followed by a siesta; the Chocolate Orange was described in the catalogue as "consistently one of the most popular beers at every festival", personally I thought it was disgusting, after a few mouthfuls I poured it away on the gravel and moved on to something more palatable.

Mary enjoyed all of hers except for the black IPA which seemed a bit too bitter after a few mouthfuls.

Friday 28-October-2016:

Young's Winter Warmer Launch. Tipped off by our beer aficionado friend, Tony, we went to The White Cross in Richmond for the official launch of this season's Winter Warmer. The deal was a full English breakfast and two pints of beer accompanied by live music.

We could have had a ride on the dray but we concentrated on eating and drinking instead.

Meantime Pop-Up Bar. The main event was a concert to celebrate Bill Wyman's 80th birthday as part of the Blues fest. We started the evening with a visit to Meantime's special beer pop-up bar. It was, our barman claimed, the smallest bar in the UK; it was a shed with seating for two and a couple standing.

The master brewer had developed six beers for six cities. This being London they were serving "Luminor" British style pale ale designed for the great metropolis.

As a souvenir we both got personalised bottles of pale ale.

At the concert Mary drank Brewdog's Dead Pony Club while I switched to red wine having had enough beer.

A very interesting range of beers and experiences.