Category: Scooping

20 February 2022

Beer Guide London Visits 8 – Richmond

Despite choosing to avoid going out in order to ensure my Ukraine trip went ahead I couldn’t avoid having to to and get some last minute bits and pieces, so I figured it would be rude not to pop in to a couple of local bars too. I began in Richmond, starting at Richmond Tap Tavern. Despite it’s central location in the town it is […]

8 February 2022

Kyiv Bars

When researching the bars to visit in Kyiv I decided to stick with those that had ‘Verified Venue’ status within the Untappd app. The thinking behind this was that I would be able to see in advance what beers were available and, more importantly, be able to point at the beer I wanted on my phone screen should the language barrier prove to great. In […]

31 January 2022

Where’s The Chicken? II

So I didn’t get much sleep, my leg really hurt and I wasn’t able to get comfortable at all. I guess there is a lesson to be learned here, but I doubt I’ll learn it. Anyway, the first task for today was to locate a craft supplies shop in order to procure a gift for Mrs MusingAnorak so I spent a bit of time on […]

25 January 2022

Where’s The Chicken?

So a lifetime ago (last September) I started looking at a possible city break destination. Initial thoughts centred around Poland but then I read somewhere that UK nationals didn’t require a visa to visit Ukraine until the end of January 2022 and that immediately made Kyiv the destination of choice. Flights and hotel were booked. But. It was still a wait of four months. And […]

28 December 2021

This Is Crewe. All Change.

I grew up in Crewe but was never really a drinker whilst there. Even when I went to university I only drank Newcastle Brown or John Smiths. As a result I had no concept of how good or bad the pubs were in my home town, they were just pubs. Only when I was introduced to the world of Real Ale in my mid twenties […]

15 December 2021

The Ballad Of Reading Ale

For the first time since my drinking recommenced I headed West, away from London, for my bar visits. I planned on making my first appearance in Reading for a couple of years and reacquainting myself with some of the great pubs and bars there. I have volunteered at Reading Beer Festival for more than 10 years, for my first ever session I was assigned to […]

11 December 2021

Beer Guide London Visits 7 – Bromley & Bexleyheath

It turns out that while I was hunting down Snowmen in Bromley Jezza was updating the Guide entries for Bromley. Talk about good timing. It meant that, this week, I had confirmation from my first target that they would indeed be open at 12:00. And they were. Bromley had been chosen as I had seen reports the week before of a beer from Marlix Brewery […]

2 December 2021

Beer Guide London Visits 6 – Brixton

These trips don’t always go to plan. The planned destination was Brixton, an area I love visiting. Lots of great places to visit in a relatively compact area. Checking before hand showed that two places opened at 11:00 meaning that it was possible to make an early start. Except that both of the 11:00 openers now open at 12:00. That’s why we do these trips, […]

26 November 2021

Beer Guide London Visits 5 – West London

So after a remarkably restrained day on Saturday, and with a day off work on Monday, what better way to spend Sunday than to some of the more local revisits. My first destination was BrewDog Shepherd’s Bush, my favourite BD in London and conveniently reachable by bus from home. One of the reasons for heading here, asides from the need to revisit, was to collect […]