The Euston Tap and National Winter Ales Festival

Christ, it's been a busy two weeks. Anyone else suffer from all-the-work-comes-at-once syndrome? After a relatively quiet Christmas, the New Year's been nuts, but the upside of this has been the opportunity to break up a couple of days in London on business with a visit to The Euston Tap.

It's been the #1 venue on my list since reading Adrian's great review back in November. So, what other venue to meet an old friend and catch up over a beer or three. Despite the initial confusion over where the taps are (they're behind the bar, sticking out of the wall, US-style), we then spent the next five minutes deciding what to have. This sounds like a chore-but in reality it's refreshing; it's been a while since I've been stumped by choice. Opting for a Thornbridge Wild Swan and a refreshing, grapefruity Camden Pale (followed by some Bernard in excellent nick), we caught up, whilst every once in a while commenting on the friendliness of the staff, individuality of the space (did it used to be a public toilet, anyone?), the prices (excellent for London) and the sheer range, both on tap and in the monolithically-sized fridges that flank the bar. It's going to be really hard to be in London and not visit, now my cherry has been popped. Visit it. I was so lost in the beer, conversation and the moment, I didn't even take any pictures. That doesn't happen often. Also, if you visit the website and watch the slideshow, you'll see a certain Mr Avery propping up the bar - and if it's good enough for Zak, it's good enough for you. Visit their website for further info.

Back to the North, and I pleaded and fought to take a day off on Thursday to attend the National Winter Ales Festival in Manchester. It's always a pleasure; well run, well organised, a great -and truly seasonal - beer list, and a nice, airy venue. Inital thirst adequately sated by an Okell's Alt - all toffee, caramel, and bready, malt led sweetness - I began on my beer list for the day. Stand out beers? SummerWine's Diablo IPA had all the trademark, golden sweetness for an SWB beer, and, to my mind, delivered a much more aggressive, spicy hoppiness than thier P6 Range. Wonderful stuff, and I'm glad I saved it until last, such is the hop attack. Hardknott's Infra-Red proved too much of a temptation from the bottled bar; and it refreshed the palate following a day of darker beers. One beer I'd had my eye on last time but missed was Robinson's Chocolate Tom. Surprisingly, I got practically no chocolate apart from a mild, milky chocolate hint at the end of the sip. It was, however, a good beer - plummy, red-fruit dominating the palate, with a hint of spice and the aforementioned chocolate-creaminess wrapping the whole package up. Sweet, but not cloyingly so, it was Christmas cake in a glass. Goacher's Fine Light perked things back up with mellow, unmistakable EKG hop notes before I made my big discovery of the day.

This was Hopstar's Smokey Joe Black Beer. I have never - and I really mean this - come across such a well-balanced chocolate beer. Layer upon layer of Dark and Milk Chocolate, a slight hazelnut/almond nuttiness providing a little sharpness, and light as a feather. An absolute diamond of a beer, and at 4.0 abv and not too cloying, I actually went back and had another half. It's not often that happens at a beer festival, either. It won Silver in the Stout category - and rightly so.

My usual drinking buddy, Chris, had never visited The Marble Arch, so obviously the route home was circumvented by a visit. Over post-festival halves of Utility Special, we opted to try the small cheeseboard and a share a bottle of Stouter Port Stout - what a beer! Damsons, Plum, Raisin, Sultana all peeking out from rich smokiness and a surprisingly light finish for a stout. Again, the environment, beer, excellent cheeseboard (and it really was - we opted for 'chef's choice' but really wish I'd have made a note of what we ate) and conversation prevented me from taking too many pictures, but good pubs have a way of doing that.

Twissups, Treason and Tapping The Pumpkin

Christ, it's been a busy week. Enjoyable, but busy nontheless. So I find myself with a spare ten minutes, on a Friday night of all nights, tapping away when the majority of Leeds beer-folk are hunting Pumpkin Ale. But more on that later.

Twissup kicked off the madness in style last Saturday; a hop to Manchester and then onto Huddersfield. There was also a hop to Stalybridge, but I got on the wrong train and missed that (honestly). A lot's been said over the past week about this event, so I don't want to dwell too much on it; but I would like to put my 'official' thanks to Mark and Andy for organising it. Apart from the great locations and beers on offer, It was a great opportunity for me to finally meet some of the people I've been conversing with more or less every day for the last god-knows-how-long and actually share a beer and a chat. I made a comment a few weeks ago that Blogging is like being in a virtual tap room when at it's best and most dynamic; well, this weekend, it became real, and it was an absolute pleasure - you were all top lads and lasses. Highlights? All of it. From the cask Ola Dubh we shared in The Angel (whisky-tinged, smoky, chocolate milkshake) to the wonderful surroundings of The Marble Arch, to finding the creamy Moravka (one of my faves) available at The Grove, the day was great. I'll be doing it again. Read here, here, and here for much better rundowns of the day.

Wednesday saw me hook up with James and Andy from Summerwine again; this time in Foley's for a Meet the Brewer event. Having met them previously we basically carried on chatting where we left off last time over a few of their own brews; tax on beer, the government, the joys of homebrewing, and future plans. Future plans is what these lads do well; this Christmas will see a Chocolate Orange Stout appearing in our glasses, as well as the last of the (surely now-famed) Project 6 IPA range. Next year sees another project; the Nerotype Black IPA's, the dark sister of Project 6. I for one can't wait. Myself, Chris, Dean and Fletch happily sampled the range whilst the lads gave a good account of themselves to a decent-sized crowd. Apart from spending every waking hour brewing, they do find time for these sorts of thing, and if they come to your town - go see them. Have a pint and a chat. I can recommend the Treason Treacle Stout in particular. Here's what BeerProle thought of the evening.

This afternoon my work schedule prevented me from getting too much time away from the desk; which as typical given that Rooster's were hopping around Leeds dropping off their Pumpkin Ale like evil little beer-elves. However, I did manage to catch the delivery of Foley's beer-filled treat, and hung around for the tapping and a subsequent cheeky sip. What's it like? Well, I did only have a couple of mouthfuls and a good ol' swirl, but there's masses of black pepper and spice on the nose, but a much smoother, sweeter and unmistakeably vegetal body to the (amazingly clear) beer. I liked it - and hopefully I'll be able to get my hands on more of it this weekend. Twitter was rocking to the tune of a lot of bloggers going out to North and Foley's tonight, so I imagine there will be a lot of good chatter about this beer over the weekend.

Right, I'm off to crack open a SWB P6 Brew 2 and put my feet up.