Underrated South East London Pubs

Just a small post. There are lots of London pubs that get mentioned all the time and deservedly so but there are also a couple of my favourites that never get talked about... some people have never even heard of them. So I just want to give them a quick mention and recommend that you check them out.

Stormbird, Camberwell

One of my favourite pubs in London.  I might be a bit biased because this is my local but why does this never get mentioned by anyone?!  One of the best keg ranges in London including Belgian and American beers that I don't see anywhere else in London... do you know anywhere else that has Kwak on tap permanently?  The prices are really reasonable, I can't say I've seen pints of Kernel and Beavertown any cheaper anywhere else.  It's a very relaxed place with friendly and knowledgeable staff.  If you're one of the many people who for some reason have never heard of this place, go and check it out, you'll thank me.

The Ivy House, Nunhead

This has recently re-opened and I first visited it a few months ago but since then it has become a favourite. It's an amazing place, an old music hall with original stage and lovely old wooden panelling... makes for a really cosy setting.  The beer selection is good, mainly focusing on local beers with cask ales from breweries such as Brockley, Late Knights, Clarence & Fredricks, all of which are well kept. On keg, regulars inlude Beavertown Gamma Ray and the deliciously quaffable Rocky Head Zen... it's worth going just for that in my opinion.

If you're ever in south east London, I recommend you check these out... they deserve more praise!

Chinook Pale

This is the first blog I have written in ages so I had lots of things that I could have written about but I thought first I would give an update on my latest homebrew and what has inspired it.  

The Inspiration

There are lots of different beers around at the moment, and I'm trying more and more that I'd never tried say 3 years ago. Saison, Sour, Berliner Weisse... all beers I really enjoy when I'm in the mood but it took a recent trip back to my Derbyshire home to realise how much I love a simple (in a good way) fresh cask pale ale. I have mentioned it before in a blog post but I'll say it again... I don't think cask pale ales get any better than Buxton Moor Top.  I think with lots of high ABV keg beers all the rage in London at the moment, I forget how much I love this type of beer.

Pint of Moor Top

My dad at the Cliff Inn, Crich with a Moor Top!

So, I decided after a couple of adventurous (for me) homebrews, I would revert to my love of simple pale ales and try and recreate a Moor Top type dry, crisp, hoppy pale ale.  All I knew is that Moor Top was brewed with a smidgen of wheat and with chinook hops. I look chinook hops. There are lots of fruity pale ales around, I'm thinking particularly of ones made with Australian and NZ hops, chinook is less fruity with more of a herby, grassy, piney taste. I want a dry moreish pale ale and I think this hop works better than a tropical fruity tasting one that can sometimes take over a bit.

My Chinook Pale

The Recipe

Malt

3.5kg    Maris Otter

0.25kg  Wheat

Hops

10g Chinook        60 mins

20g Chinook        30 mins

30g Chinook        10 mins

40g Chinook        Dry Hop

Yeast

US-05

I know it's a very simple recipe and there could be more to it but one thing I have learnt from brewers (especially when I brewed with Kernel) is that it's all about simplicity, especially with a light pale ale like this... keep the malt base simple and let the hops shine through etc.

The brew day went well with no problems for probably the first time ever. I added some gypsum to harden the water slightly.  I mashed at a fairly low temperature of about 65 degrees for 90 minutes. I'd read that mashing at lower temperatures for longer would give more fermentable sugars, hopefully meaning a good attenuation and a nice dry beer.  I was hoping that this along with the clean US-05 yeast would give me the crisp dry beer I was after. The estimated OG was 1.039, it ended up as 1.041.  The estimated FG was 1.011, it ended up at 1.010. So, apparently the yeast attenuated well so I was pretty pleased.  I then dry hopped the barrel with more Chinook.

Lovely chinook added to the boil

Cold Break settling nicely to leave an amazingly clear wort

I reckon lots of homebrewers reading this will think that I've not added enough hops but it is a weak beer (about 4%) and according to the malt/hops chart, this is still considered to be very hoppy and it has an IBU of about 47 which I thought was enough for a beer of this strength.

After conditioning in the barrel for 10 days, I bottled the beer with sugar.  I filled 43 330ml bottles (all the bottles I had in the house) which left a few pints for me to enjoy straight from the barrel and by this time it was tasting really good... I could almost imagine I was drinking Moor Top! well, that's probably a bit biased, but I genuinely think it didn't taste far off.  

The more I have read of other people's recipes, I'm still a bit anxious that I've not added enough hops or the late addition wasn't late enough or I should have dry hopped with more. Having said that, I always have doubts when I've made a beer, after all it's all about trying new things.  I'm still optimistic that the beer will develop further as it conditions in the bottles and as always I'm excited about the outcome.