Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Tag: Craft Beer

London Craft Beer Festival 2025

My friend Simon mentioned last year about going to the London Craft Beer Festival, but I wondered if it was a bit expensive and so I didn’t get a ticket to join him. By chance, he mentioned last week that he knew someone selling a ticket at a much lower cost of £30, so I was there without much hesitation. Here’s the walk to Magazine, where this year’s event was being held.

There’s Susie and Simon, with the former’s efforts somehow getting us to the front of the queue. I hadn’t let myself get too excited about the event in case the ticket didn’t come to pass, but all was well and it’s fair to say that the excitement soon started when I had the wristband safely around my wrist.

Well, that’s exciting straight away.

The first beer of the day. The concept here is that all beers are free of charge and I won’t list here what I tried, but I did ensure that my Untappd remain updated for anyone who is interested.

We grabbed a table outside, but it soon became apparent that there was large amounts of seating, so this wasn’t an issue. Inside there were also fans and air conditioning, they didn’t want their beer drinkers over-heating, and I was happy to drink to that forward-thinking philosophy.

One of the two internal halls.

This was all so much bigger than I expected. There were some issues with the delayed opening where we left in the sun and that was sub-optimal, but once the event got going, it all felt well organised. There were maps dotted around of where all of the breweries were, but I’d need more than one afternoon to really visit every one that interested me.

I was impressed that there were no real queues at any of the brewery stands, you could get served nearly immediately.

There was a separate American beer bar and the list of options here was much wider than I had expected. As I’m not planning to visit the US for a while, this was an opportunity to tick some beers off.

One of the bar staff modelling a bottle of beer for my Untappd photo.

There was free water available of the sparkling and still options.

That path was what Liam and I walked on the Capital Challenge a few weeks ago…..

There’s Simon chatting away about Brazilian beer. I was pleased that the glasses were made of plastic, rather than, er, glass. So we had branded plastics, which means I could keep it without fear of it getting broken on the aircraft. Susie picked up a heap of free merchandise, which I’m merrily carrying around Portugal now, including baseball hats, t-shirts, lanyards and stickers.

I like a bit of Vault City, I should be visiting their new tap room later in the year.

A free ice cream and a beer slushie from Vault City which made me love them even more.

Simon wanted to go to the Vault City tasting, which was a marvellous idea, and this beer was handed around at the end of the session before.

One of the beers from the Vault City tasting.

Overall, I really enjoyed this evening and the atmosphere was informal and friendly throughout. There were no issues of anyone over-indulging, despite the large amount of free beer that was available. The organisation was better than I had expected, the scale of the event was broader than I had realised and the speed of service was faster than I had anticipated. I was very much surprised and delighted, so I think that I might just be back for next year’s event….

July 20, 2025
Random Beer Post – Verdant Cheeky DIPA

I haven’t had a beer post for a while, so here’s one for a bit of variety. I want to keep my two loyal readers entertained and fulfilled.

This is the Verdant Brewing Cheeky DIPA, a collaboration with Green Cheek Beer Co. Note the beautiful food pairing that I arranged, but more importantly, this 8.4% Double IPA really is quite decadent. Dank, rich, packed with fruity flavour, hoppy, clean, smooth, subtle, full bodied and really quite elegant, this is Verdant (and Green Cheek from the United States) at their best. Green Cheek are in Orange County in California, so next time I visit my friend Alexis in that grand state, then maybe I can pop along there to check matters out.

Anyway, I thought I’d record just how good this IPA was. Not cheap, but worth it and it’s no surprise that it’s so well rated on Untappd. Back to my usual posts now….

December 20, 2023
Bucharest Trip – Day 2 : Pardon

Apologies for the latest little hiatus in posting, it’s been a busy weekend. But, back to the Bucharest trip for my two loyal readers. Four of us decided to go onto Pardon, a craft beer bar a short walk from the Italian that we had visited. It wasn’t the busiest bar in the city and it also seems to go by the name of the ‘Happy Pub’ to add some slight confusion to proceedings.

I liked the beer list, although unfortunately several of the beers were unavailable. I felt that bar owner’s pain, he was really keen to offer me something and I was equally determined to find something that I’d like that was in stock.

There’s a bottles list as well, I was impressed at the efforts they were making in having a range of different beer styles.

Some form of sport was being shown behind the bar and I liked the decor here.

I went for the Mad Otter from Mad Lads Brewing Co which was a clean, juicy and hazy NEIPA that didn’t disappoint. I had a quick try of the Sencha from Hop Hooligans which was a herbal beer that I quite liked, but lots more about this brewery in future posts.

Steve started to negotiate his way to ordering a drink as well.

Free snacks were provided to us beer drinkers which was a lovely gesture.

I liked this venue, although they probably need a better system of updating what drinks they have available. The service was though friendly, the atmosphere was inviting and the surroundings were comfortable. With that late night expedition completed, Steve and I (who are completely selfless) decided that we’d walk Susanna and Bev back to their hotels (well, hotel in Susanna’s case, Bev seemed to spend most of the time rummaging around the cupboards of the set-up she was at which she said wasn’t a hotel). From what I can work out, the former Happy bar has been rebranded as Pardon, but much of the on-line information such as Untappd hasn’t been changed.

November 19, 2023
Bucharest Trip – Day 2 : Zaganu

I hadn’t realised until Google told me, but I’ve visited this venue before in February 2020. It took me a couple of minutes to remember that visit, but I recalled that last time it was much quieter and the upstairs was closed off. The venue has a good reputation judging from the on-line reviews and it’s owned by the brewer Zaganu. It’s also open plan and feels modern and on-trend, as is visible from this photo that I took from upstairs.

I mentioned last time that I was just a little surprised to receive table service, and that’s still a little unusual for Bucharest (although by no means unique). Whatever works for them, but I just wanted to get a drink at the bar and pay, but we were offered a choice of seating upstairs and downstairs with table service. We went upstairs and weren’t entirely sure of the ordering process as there didn’t seem to be staff about, so we headed back down to order at the bar. The service was polite, but this bar visiting process of ours did seem to interrupt their ordering flow and I’m not sure they were entirely surprised and delighted by our group. However, the staff were friendly and were trying their best to assist, and we did prevent other members of our group making the same mistake when they entered. Also, I liked their lights which were constructed from beer bottles.

I only had one beer here, the Hefeweizen which is brewed by Zaganu and this was a decent wheat beer, slightly chewy and with a pleasant aftertaste. I don’t see much of this brewery’s beers in other locations and the last time I had a beer by them was in February 2020 when I had previously visited here. The brewer seems to have a solid reputation and I noticed after the visit that they’re listed on Untappd.

I was intrigued about the food options for later in the week, but when I went to look at the menu they took it away (I’m sure by mistake), but here are some of the special offers they have.

I’m an advocate of high seating, but some of the tables here felt mismatched in terms of the chairs that were located by them. For Bev, she was struggling to see over the table. The atmosphere in the venue was convivial and inviting, with only limited empty tables available.

However, it made it easier to take photos down the table.

Anyway, I enjoyed my repeat visit here, with the service being friendly and the venue being clean. It’s fair to say that I did get a bit muddled up with the ordering process on this occasion, but they worked around our accidental breach of protocol. There was a decent choice of beer on draft and in bottles, with a range of different styles being offered. The prices were reasonable for the location and I’d happily recommend a visit here to others.

November 15, 2023
Bucharest Trip – Day 1 : No Room Taproom

I think it would be fair to say that this proved to be a memorable bar visit and all for the right reasons. It became apparent very soon why the venue has the name that it does and it relates to the reality that it has nearly no space inside to sit. However, the welcome was immediate, engaging and warm, so the atmosphere was inviting. Fortunately, we also had the social butterfly Susanna who was merrily chatting to the local couple who were sitting on the only two stools in the venue. There’s also a window ledge to sit on and there’s a small amount of outdoor seating as well.

The beer selection, which was well presented and ridiculously large given how small the venue was. It was all quirky and I liked that.

This is the Dystopian Future pastry stout, a beautiful beer which had vanilla, chocolate, cinnamon and was rich and decadent. I was enthusing about this beer to the owner and he mentioned that the brewer had just come in.

I then bored the brewer by telling him how good his beer was. To be fair, he was probably rather pleased with that situation. The owner of the bar runs Maktoob Brewing, so I made sure I had a couple of his beers. Both were very credible, the Postcard from Iguaza IPA and the Azulejos NEIPA, he certainly knows what he’s doing.

We were then told that it was something of a spooky expedition to visit the venue’s toilet. And it was certainly one of the most intriguing visits that I’ve had, with another customer leading the way to show us where to go as it was far from obvious and involved walking down the street and down into a cellar. It’s not how these things normally work, but there we go.

Steve was merrily videoing the whole arrangement.

And it reminded me of the trek to the toilets at JD Wetherspoon….

But with a bit more jeopardy.

This was a marvellous end to a rather exciting first evening, the start of the exploration of craft beer in Bucharest as that’s really what the whole group is here for. There were some lovely customers, the service was impeccable and the selection of beers was outstanding for the size of the venue. This one is definitely worth popping in to visit for anyone in Bucharest who wants to try some locally made craft beer.

November 14, 2023
Bucharest Trip – Day 1 : Ironic Taproom

Second on Bev’s list of places to go in the evening was Ironic Taproom, a craft beer and burger bar.

The venue’s beer list and I must admit that I didn’t understand the departures and arrivals board. I’m not sure whether that was part of some theme or they were indicating which beers weren’t on yet. Interestingly, they’re card only which is seems to be part of a shift in Bucharest away from cash. The pricing is per 100ml which is a different way of doing it which I had to think about briefly, but I can see why they’d do it like that. The service was friendly and immediate, with an inviting and on-trend atmosphere internally.

The open kitchen area. Customers need to visit the separate till here if they want to order food, with the customer name written down and shouted out when the meal is ready. I was pleased to note that my name was spelled correctly, although I looked up the Romanian version and it’s Iulian which isn’t much different.

The burger menu. In terms of prices, just divide by five and take a little bit off to get the English equivalent. However, before I go onto the beer and food situation, I had better apologise to the people of Romania about Bev. I was quite content with the seating that we had at the bar, but we got ourselves a table which transpired to be already taken. I would have happily have just gone back to the seating at the bar, but Bev was most certain that the two people should have made it clearer that they had reserved the table. To be fair, they should have done, as the venue was at near capacity and they hadn’t made it clear. Anyway, Bev had a little moan, the guy took Steve’s drink (by mistake I’d add) and they wandered off. Everyone in our group was content with that situation, other than Steve who had lost a drink and I’m not sure that he’d even put it on Untappd. Anyway, back to the main event.

Firstly, the beer, that’s Crazy Peach which is brewed by Ironic themselves. It wasn’t overly sour and it didn’t have a huge depth of taste, but there were plenty of peaches and the flavours were pleasant. Secondly, the Korean Burger, that was excellent with a meaty and rich flavour, a soft roll which complemented it well and Parmesan fries. I was suitably impressed by this, all told a reasonably priced evening meal for our first night.

Bev golloped her burger down and I noticed that when Susanna was waving her burger about in the air that Bev nearly went for it, as I’m sure she wanted another one. She then went to order cheesecake, which I think she thought was acceptable. Returning to the burgers though, I think all five of us were suitably impressed with them. All told, this was another very positive visit and although we went at a busy time, the service was always prompt and pro-active.

November 13, 2023
Bucharest Trip – Day 1 : Ground Zero Beer

All that Steve and I have heard this week are the demands from Bev to go to craft beer bars. So, being the helpful souls that we are, we’ve obliged and we will continue to be obliging in this regard. The first craft beer bar of the week was Ground Zero Beer, an on-trend arrangement which looked bright and inviting from the exterior and is operated by Ground Zero Brewery. As is usual, Steve and I arrived first and then Bev arrived having had yet another drama with the CityMapper app where she had walked around in circles. Steve and I didn’t say anything.

The nicely presented beer board with the main beers on the left and their experimental range on the right. The prices were reasonable and there were a variety of options regarding the size of the beers. I went for five beers in the smallest measure, which he quite rather charmingly called the child sized glass. They’re not doing food at the moment, but customers can bring their own food in. Fortunately, Thim and Susanna appeared soon after and they happened to have food they’d got for their breakfast, so we all ate that so that was a win-win for everyone.

The interior with the Italian style art on the ceiling and the black walls to offer some sort of contrast. There were some larger and smaller tables, with some thought having out into the design and comfort.

As for the beers, some were better than others in my view, but all were credible and interesting. The most memorable one was the Xperimentale 018 | Honey Hazelnut Imperial Stout, weighing in at 13.2%. It was a powerful little number, rich with a slightly artificial hazelnut flavour, but not unpleasant. It was smooth, boozy and really rather delicious to finish the pub visit off with.

I hadn’t realised at the time, but this is a new premises for the brewery and they’ve moved from their previous former communist factory site where they also offered food. Some people, judging from the on-line reviews, preferred the old arrangement, but things change and I like what they’ve done here. It’s modern and gives a positive impression of the brewery and their offerings.

November 13, 2023
Thursday – Tuesday : Krakow Visit (Craft Beer and Pizza)

I’ve visited a good number of the craft beer bars in Krakow before, but to my surprise and delight there have been some new openings, or just venues that I haven’t noticed on previous visits. It felt only appropriate to visit some of them during the week that I was in Krakow, to help me cope with the extreme heat. I’d stress that this was across the week, I didn’t go through all this beer and pizza on one day as I can be very responsible when I want to be.

This is Tea Time, a brewpub which specialises in producing cask beer, which is a rare situation in Poland. There’s a lot of British influence here, other than the fighting, so it felt like something different for Krakow.

Friendly service, with the ordering process being clear of what they had. I have to confess to preferring keg over cask, but I’m happy with both, and variety is the spice of life and all of that. Beer isn’t meant to be staid and dull, that’s why I don’t drink Heineken other than under extreme duress (by duress I mean it’s free).

Note the real ale trail on the wall which starts from Burnley, going through Halifax, Huddersfield and London.

I went for the beer flight thing to try four of the beers, with the peanuts being a free gift from the bar, which was much appreciated. All of the beers were clean tasting, well-kept and at the appropriate temperature. I had gone for the Platinum Blonde, the Helmut, the Anaconda and the Black Prince, with the Anaconda being my favourite, a hazy IPA with a depth of flavour and I thought it was a little unusual as the style felt more like a keg beer. But, delicious. Definitely a recommended venue for the laid-back atmosphere and friendly team members. Oh, it was lovely and cool as well, as I may have mentioned, but it was too hot outside.

Next was Beer Street, a modern and on-trend feeling venue. The service here was polite, although I was unfortunate their Ontap account was just slightly out of date, and so I ended up confusing everyone from that, but they were helpful and fixed everything.

I love this whole arrangement. I’m a loss to the pub industry as if I had a chain of pubs, I’d want some set-ups like this. Obviously I couldn’t build these platforms myself as they’d fall down, but my friend Liam is a civil engineer and is no doubt trained in putting bits of wood together. I’m not sure he’d be very delicate though and he might use a pile driver to get things into place rather than smaller and more subtle tools.

I liked the window view from my perch at the top of the wooden construction and the beer is the Smooth Operator from the ever wonderful Funky Fluid.

I had wanted the Risfactor Blueberry and Vanilla beer as it was on draft on Ontap, but they said they’d just run out. They had the same beer in a bottle, so that sufficed me, and I accidentally ordered a pizza to go with it. All very delicious. The Risfactor is part of a series of beers from PINTA brewery, who I’ve mentioned on this blog numerous times before as they’re another of my favourites.

I really liked this little bar, Spoko, which had a lovely relaxed feel to it. Some decent options on that board that seemed tempting and exciting. I had just eaten (although that doesn’t always stop me) but I noted the bagels they served sounded quite tempting. I’d go back here if I return to Krakow, it had a nice vibe to it.

And a selection in the fridges to widen their offerings.

The beer at the front is the Far Away Galaxy, again from PINTA, which is a sour IPA which had no shortage of fruit flavour to it, suitably tart in taste. The other beer is the Treasure from Browar Nepomucen and I’ve had a few of theirs, including some from the excellent Crazy Lines series. This was a good smoked beer, not perhaps quite as powerful as I’d have liked, but still refreshing and delicious.

It was busier when I arrived, but I waited for people to go before taking a photo. They were much busier outside, but it was too hot for me to sit in the sun, since I had found a nice cool area inside.

This is Nowy Kraftowy, which is a little more central than the other bars and this was perhaps my favourite of the venues I visited, primarily because of the beer selection. Now, let’s dwell on this for a little while 🙂

That beer selection is, if I’m being honest, still exciting to me now when writing this. An excellent range of beer styles, different breweries and some innovative options going on there. Poland can do beer, indeed, Poland can do beer very well.

The pub’s garden area, which was quiet and I was able to sit under a fan as it was too hot.

The beer in the photo is the Rakieta from Browar Kazimierz, a perfectly good IPA. But I also had at the same time the Pretty – Peach, Passionfruit, Mango and Creme Brulee from Magic Road, a bloody lovely beer in every sense I can imagine. Every one of the ingredients could be identified by taste, it was refreshing, smooth and quite beautiful.

I moved inside at this point as I felt the beer menu needed more investigation and I went for the Triple Gelato PB&J which was another exceptional beer. Flavours of blackberry, peanuts and blackcurrants, smooth with a touch of sourness and no artifical edge. Fruit and peanuts are an odd combination perhaps, although that’s the essence of the peanut butter and jelly it’s named after, but it worked in my opinion. It complemented the pizza which I had again accidentally ordered, as all decent beers do, and this was one of the best meal combinations that I’ve ordered myself in a long time. Thank God for Poland.

Wezza Krafta is in the Jewish quarter, and is next to a Jewish museum, hence the vibrant wall painting on the side of the building.

I was far too hot when I arrived and I tried to cool down inside, which took me some time. I went for the Bilberry Giveaway from Magic Road and the Saturator from Ziemia Obiecena, both sours which I enjoyed, although I didn’t feel were exceptional.

And yet again I accidentally ordered a pizza. It’s important to order these key Polish dishes though to keep them alive.

AntyCafe, which is just a short walk from the main market square, which had some interesting options on their board.

It’s a bit of a music venue, but it was quiet on the evening when I was there, which was fortunate as I’m not one for loud music and raucousness. I couldn’t resist the Milk Me from Browar Wrężel, a 6% milk stout which had the appropriate amount of sweetness for me. The venue was relaxed and calm as well, it had looked quite busy from the outside, but only had a handful of customers when I entered.

Krakow is a decent city for craft beer, there are some new openings on a regular basis and some classics bars which offer a reliable service. Prices are reasonable, often a beer and pizza comes to around £7, not bad for a tourist city. And, yes, I know there’s more to a city’s cuisine than beer and pizza. Although, actually, maybe I don’t….

July 4, 2022
Thursday : Mikkeller Bar in Barcelona, A Steak Gone Wrong and the Beach

Sculptures aren’t often easy to define as cute, but this giraffe is winning the argument here, although it’s designed to look flirtatious. I wonder how that bid was put to the city planners, as a vision for a flirtatious giraffe is certainly something different. Known as Girafa coqueta, it was designed by Josep Granyer and placed here in 1972.

Perhaps Prince of Wales Road in Norwich could do with a flirtatious giraffe? We had quite a lot of meandering around in the morning as it was a ninety minute to our destination of the Sagrada Família.

Lato Cafe, a rather pleasant spot for lunch. The service was attentive, but the beer selection was poor and limited to a choice of one. Not ideal, but the surroundings were delightful and the staff particularly welcoming.

Beautifully presented, a sweet ceviche, which felt like healthy eating to me, an ideal way to complement the craft beers I was planning for later on in the day.

Ever the professional photographer, I’ve put a slight lean of the Sagrada Família in here. The new tower is visible on the right hand side with that star thing at the top. Work started on this cathedral in 1882, with Gaudi taking over as the architect the following year and it’s in his style which has made the building one of the most identifiable religious structures in the world. It is meant to be completed in the 2030s, although I can imagine that the timetable will slip somewhat as it’s already one of the longest running architectural projects in the world.

I didn’t go in because I’ve been in before and the admission charge is expensive, at over £20. I climbed the tower last time and the building is certainly a work of art. I’ll go in again when they’ve finished it.

Whilst Bev was inside the cathedral, Ross and I popped to a local cafe. They had signs sellotaped on every table saying that visits should be limited to thirty minutes and although I approve of the general passive aggressive nature of the messaging, it did make it feel unfriendly. The service was warm and friendly, but we were the only customers in there, so I decided that we could safely have a stay of over thirty minutes.

When I return to Barcelona, which is now nearly certain, I will spend more time investigating the cake options.

Our intrepid photographer.

We had an hour or so walk to the sea, but after all of that effort, Ross and Bev refused to go swimming.

I must admit that I wasn’t tempted either.

There’s a large beach area and there were people playing volleyball and the like, although there was plenty of space for anyone who did want to sun bathe.

I had identified a craft beer bar to go in that Ross would like, but it didn’t open for forty minutes, so I diverted us to Poblenou Cemetery. It’s a substantial sized cemetery where I imagine there are tens of thousands of burials. The first cemetery was laid out at this site in 1775, but it was destroyed by Napoleon’s troops and so was reconstructed in 1819. There have been numerous extensions added to the cemetery since given the number of burials.

Some graves were more ornately decorated than others.

A little ostentatious perhaps, but this is one of the many family tombs. Some of the tombs had been emptied out, I assume with the knowledge of the cemetery, but it’s very much an active site.

There was a lot of squawking when we walked past here.

The culprit, a seagull protecting its eggs.

This is just a little confusing, as one of my most favourite bars is Hoppiness, but that one is located in Warsaw.

Some interesting beer options and the bar surroundings were laid-back and welcoming, so it appears that I now have two bars called Hoppiness that I am quite partial to. I was very impressed with the beer here, I went for the Don’t Jinx It from SOMA beer, which was a formidable 8% DEIPA showing just how good Spanish micro-breweries can be. And if that wasn’t enough, I then went for the 11% Melting Moment imperial stout with white chocolate, another rich and decadent beer. This bar really was quite a treat, I’d certainly come back here.

I spent a little too long deciding how much I liked Hoppiness, which led us rushing by the Monument of Tribute at the large Parc de la Ciutadella. Just enough time for a quick photo though.

Our evening meal was again booked using The Fork, with 30% off the food at Craft Barcelona.

The drinks selection had a few Thornbridge options which was very acceptable, although I’ve had these before and wanted to have some more Spanish options. I had the Carolina del Sour from Milana and the Nancy from Cerveses Almogaver, the latter of which was an intriguing fruity and hazy IPA.

My bar food was entirely adequate, although the chorizo in cider sauce was a little bland, which is something that chorizo really shouldn’t be. However, the Nachos, chicken wings and the like all tasted fine, although with regards to the fried foods, it’s hard to get those wrong and Ross was content with his burger. Bev muttered for several minutes about her steak, but Ross and me didn’t get involved, although in the end, they didn’t charge for the meal and so I thought that was very positive. To my annoyance though, the restaurant pretended to The Fork that we had no showed, which I thought was petty of them. I did ask them to correct that, but they didn’t, so The Fork intervened directly. Disappointing and shoddy I though, I was going to leave them a positive review before they tried playing that game. I had quite liked the venue, but it’s one I hardly dare go back to now.

Erotic waffles? I don’t think you can get these on Norwich market. I hadn’t even noticed this shop, I just noticed Bev charging towards it with her camera. Ross and I didn’t say anything….

Mikkeller, an on-trend craft beer bar which has quite an international presence, particularly in their home territory of Scandinavia.

The beer list by the door, with quite a lot of gaps. I went for the La Federal from Cierzo Brewing Co, a porter which has chilli in it, with that heat being evident.

Mikkeller wasn’t as busy as I expected, I had thought it might be quite busy in the evening. Given that the staff member wasn’t doing much, I thought they were a lacking a little in engagement, but I had beer and so I was entirely content. It wasn’t clear whether food was served or not, it was mentioned on the web-site, but didn’t seem available and Bev had hoped for something as she had only eaten half a steak. It was though a suitable nightcap, before we got the Metro back to the apartment, with this time Bev managing not to post her ticket into the machine itself.

May 18, 2022
Craft Beer and Brewing – Melvin Me, Myself and Thai

I’ve decided, I need to spend several weeks in the United States next year. I keep reading Craft Beer and Brewing magazine and there are hundreds of beers that I want to try. The people of Alpine, Wyoming should feel very pleased to have this sort of innovation. Just remember that the people of Bury St. Edmunds have Greene King IPA.

September 14, 2020