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Although I live in Cork, I missed the Franciscan well festival at Easter due to reasons beyond my control ( work and family stuff). The work stuff ended up with me having to go to london this weekend ..friday to monday ( with very little work to actually do) . So it ended up that I had saturday and sunday to myself. I sampled a large variety of real ales. In a few palces around the Highgate area .. ...In one place called the FLask there was no carling or grolsh or stella to be found just real ale ,german and belgan beer . They had about 20 + ontap. I Started with London pride / martsons pegigree / courage best/ greene king IPA / greene king Abbot ale , Dandoline and burdock porter, wheat ales I even managed to get my hands on an Irish Whiskey ale. This one had a note saying it was real ale type R or category R no idea what that is. I emailed a guy in cask-marque but he didnt know. Had a variety of real ales, but I must saw my favourite was a guest porter ..like bottled guiness on draught but not as bitter a real taste of more ....the amazing thing is the real ale costs less than the "imported beers" like heiniken and budwiser. They are spoiled for choice. As beer trips go London is up there.

Lucky sod <!-- s:) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!-- s:) -->

I have to say, I've yet to have a good beer trip to England. I used to go to Aylesbury a lot, but the range of pus in the town itself leaves alot to be desired. Although my favourite bar for a whilke was The Hobgoblin, owned by Wychwood. You'd think they'd have a load of good beers, but they only ever seemed to have a few bottles. The rest was the stuff you'd find in any bar. Pity.

Note to self: Go on a real ale tour! <!-- s:D --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_biggrin.gif" alt="" title="Very Happy" /><!-- s:D -->

Sounds like time well spent <!-- s:D --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_biggrin.gif" alt="" title="Very Happy" /><!-- s:D -->

Enjoy

I have often thought that the English don't know how good they have it, when it comes to beer. Mind you I have thought the same thing about the Belgians, the Germans, the Dutch, the Americans... then I realised that it's not them that have it good, it's us that are in the shit situation of having the market almost completely dominated by foreign producers of megaswill.

The trick to a good beer trip is research and for a trip to England that means finding the website for the local CAMRA group. Most groups seem to have a basic but informative website which includes a regularly updated list of real ale pubs.

When I went to the Brewlab course in Sunderland I had a list of pubs to go to. Not that I needed it, mind you. The blokes running the course took care of that end of things quite well.

[Edit: Not sure what happened here. Fingers not keeping up with brain, I suspect.]