After my birthday excursion I decided to have a quieter day and visit some of my more local Guide entries. The previous day must have been good because I started this outing by making the amateur mistake of not double checking opening times. Thus I found myself at 13:00 outside a bar that didn’t open until 16:00. Oops. I suppose I could have just waited but instead I opted to double back in to Brentford and make my first stop the Black Dog Beer House. This is a large corner pub that is always very busy, a great thing to see. The beer range is always very good but I was unlucky today in that no beers from the in house Fearless Nomad brewery were available. Instead I was able to grab a beer form another of the smaller London breweries, Jeffersons.
From here it is a short walk to what should have been stop two, Ealing Brewing Tap Room. Unfortunately when I arrived there was a note on the door explaining that due to staff illness they would be unable to open. A shame but these things happen and credit to them for taking the time to put an explanation up, many is the time I have been to places that failed to open without explanation. Back to the main road, hop on a bus and a few minutes later I get to an actual second stop, Express Tavern.
This local landmark stands adjacent to Kew Bridge Station and looms over the actual Kew Bridge opposite. It’s long been one of the best local places for beers with 15 hand pumps split between cask ale and cider and a further 10 keg beers meaning there is always plenty to choose from. Note that it is very close to the new Brentford FC ground meaning it may get very busy on matchdays.
I negotiated my way from here to what was nearly stop one, could have been stop four but was actually stop 3 (keep up, there will be questions later), The Owl & The Pussycat. This micropub used to be home to the Marko Paulo brewery but that is now part of Ealing Brewing. I was therefore not only able to get some of their beers but was also brought up to speed by the owner as to why the Tap Room was closed. It has to be said that their take on a German Festbier was very good indeed, as have all of the German style beers I’ve had from them.
From here it as a brisk 15 minute walk in to Hanwell and my fourth stop, the Grosvenor, a very large corner pub that, like the Black Dog Beer House, is very popular with the locals. Given it’s location it is the sort of place that you would expect to have a fairly mainstream beer choice but in reality the choice here is very good. What was very pleasing to see was that they had beers from Ealing Brewing and what is more they were on cask. I like seeing local businesses supporting each other like this, it all adds to the sense of community.
I had another ten minute walk to get to the fifth and final stop of my quiet day, the Dodo Micropub. But. Once I got inside this fantastic micropub I discovered a number of beer friends who had spent the day at what turned out to be the final open day at Weird Beard. So much for a quiet day. Good company and an excellent beer selection meant that my stay here was longer than I had originally planned, but that is no bad thing.
Steve,
Fearless Nomad brewery is in hibernation due to workload of Black Dog boss Pete Brew. Will hopefully restart during the summer, hopefully in time for EBF37 (28-30 July).
You missed a firkin of his 8.4% Muscles From Brussels last week at Egham Beer festival (the last Fearless Nomad beer anywhere at present!).
Cheers, Bob
Cheers for the update Bob!
Just wanted to thank you for the excellent London Beer Guide series of posts. I follow them diligently now and my thoughts run to “oh yes, I liked that one too”, “I can’t believe I walked right past that” and “let’s get that added to my list”. Cheers.
Glad to hear that! I’m a bit behind in my writing so there’s more on the way!