Beer Moose

 Time’s arrow stops for no Guinness drinking man, the quest must go on!  The Empress:  I hadn’t visited The Empress since February, when during the visit two people had a bit of a punch up whilst another destroyed a toilet mirror. Safe to say, this pub isn’t one of my favourites. My friend and I braved it. The Christmas decorations were already on display both inside and outside the pub, tedious I muttered. Christmas wasn’t the only holiday being celebrating, the Halloween deco was also out in force!  Guinness obtained we sat in the garden, beside what appeared to be chairs from a school. A few dogs roamed around the garden, which caused people into that sort of thing great excitement. The Guinness was poor to average. The first half was average at best, once I got the the second half it tasted sharp and metallic. Two bugs of some kind also decided to land in my pint at different points. Guinness rating 1.75 out of 5.  Victim 1 Victim 2 The Brook:  A pub th...

 One of my best friends lives in Bedford and thus I spent a fair amount of time in the market town turned commuter town. It’s not a bad little place, of course it has some issues, the riverside is very much a delight.  What isn’t a delight is the beer scene. Bedford’s beer scene is dominated by mediocrity, in the forms of generic Green King and Charlie (formerly Charles) Wells pubs. Even the latter’s new brewery complex, Brewpoint, doesn’t make it onto my Bedford beer shortlist. I’ll file that place under nice place, shame about the beer. There are however three places actually worth visiting, let’s get to it.  BeerFly  A beer shop with six taps, occasionally one cask and multiple fridges that showcase the best craft beer available. BeerFly is the standout beer venue in Bedford. The range of beer served here is nothing short of impressive. From sours to lagers and imperial stouts, BeerFly has something for everyone. The Wellington Arms A sister pub to The Live in Cam...

It’s time for another of my favourite Cambridge pubs and this one may surprise a few people!  In my opinion the Earl Of Beaconsfield is a greatly underrated pub. Affectionally known as ‘The Beaky’, it’s a place I love to visit. Situated on the Romsey side of Mill Road bridge, I highly recommend a visit. The Beaky is one of the few Cambridge pubs which remain open after midnight, thus I usually end my nights here. It’s a great pub to end the night in, but it’s much more than just a late night venue. I like the busy, yet friendly atmosphere here.  The Beaky serves a good range of ales, honestly I cannot recall ever having a bad pint here. Sometimes one of my all times favourites, Titanic Brewery’s Plum Porter is available:  The Beaky is a pub which prides itself on an array of entertainment including, regular live music, jam sessions, live sports and something that’s an increasingly rare sight in Cambridge:  Obviously I won Situated at the back of The Beaky’s courtyard...

  I’m quite partial to a Guinness there’s something about it, which it makes it just the job when you fancy one. I also believe that there is a big variation in quality of Guinness you get served. For this challenge I’m aiming to visit every venue in Cambridge which serves Guinness on draught. I will rate the Guinness on a scale from 0-5, in 0.25 increments, the same as Untappd. I really have no idea how long this will take, there’s a lot of pubs to visit! At this point I haven’t even worked out how many pubs actually serve Guinness in Cambridge, though I suspect it’s most. I may also include places that aren’t pubs, if I can get in. I may group pubs together by location in future parts, but part 1 is a random start! The best Guinness I’ve ever had: The benchmark: It was the 25th of November last year, England were playing the USA at the World Cup and my friends and I had just arrived in Dublin. We were surprised to find that what we agreed was the best Guinness in Dublin could be ...

 The second instalment of my guide to Cambridge’s best pubs takes us to King Street. Once the beer destination of Cambridge, there’s now only one pub on King Street worth visiting, until the Rad reopens. Gone are days where people would compete to complete the King’s Street Run, having a drink in each pub in the quickest time and having to go back one if any boldly fluids get lost. I’ve never seen anyone attempt it.  The Champion of The Thames or ‘Champ’ as it’s affectionately known as, is one of the finest drinking establishments in the centre of Cambridge.  To be honest I don’t like Greene King much. I find most of their beers bland and I don’t really like Greene King pubs either, I can count on one hand how many I like, because in my experience, most GK pubs don’t look after their beer well enough. However The Champ is thankfully the polar opposite to what I’ve just described, the beer here is always served in excellent condition. If you want a GK beer, this is the pla...

 ‘A toast, one, two, three, drink!’ I don’t like horses, but I can make an exception if they are delivering beer. When you think about beer festivals, you think about how many different types of beer from a large number of breweries are available to you. However, the World’s most famous beer festival features beers from a total of six breweries, who supply roughly two styles of beer. Yep, six breweries. But this isn’t an issue, it’s tradition. The six breweries in question are Augustiner, Hacker-Pschorr, Hofbräu, Löwenbrau, Paulaner and Spaten-Franziskaner. Each year these Munich titans brew a special Festbier/Marzen for the festival. In simple terms it’s a stronger Helles beer, around 6% ABV. Don’t call it lager! There’s no such thing as lager… another time Dan. Each brewery follows ‘Reinheitsgebot’ aka German Purity Law. Written in 1516, this law states that beer can only be made from water, malted barely, hops and yeast. Don’t be fooled into thinking this means the beer is borin...

 A cold and crisp Helles can be the perfect beer. In my opinion, Munich’s iconic beer style is best enjoyed in either a Bräuhaus or a beer garden. Munich is home to several of both. My trip to latest trip to Munich was mostly for the Wiesn, but I did find time to explore some of the Bräuhaus’ around Marienplatz, the heart of Munich.  Tegernseer Tal Bräuhaus  It was my first visited to this Bräuhaus, we got seated in a small drinks only area by the door. I didn’t mind this as it was nice to be somewhere quiet for a bit. The Helles on offer was of course, Tegerneseer and it was delicious. Cold, clean and refreshing. We then opted for the Dunkel Weiss but due to translation issue, I’m actually learning German now to prevent a repeat, we ended up with a local Weiss beer. This led to full on investigation to find which beer we were drinking on Untappd.  Doing the Lord’s work Augustiner am Platzl I make no secret of the fact I think Augustiner are the best brewery of the M...