Brewdog Camden

2012 is here and my only resolution this year is to try and do more than two updates a month on this fine blog. To be fair December was a tricky time to write blog posts as I was gorging myself on chocolate, turkey, Pringles and ale. I was also playing Batman: Arkham City and Skyrim for most of the festive period. This meant that when I wasn't writhing on the ground with an upset stomach praying for death I was smacking henchman or dragons in a virtual style. But now January is here and with the sweet tooth satisfied the blog posts are sure to come flying. I've also finished Batman which helps.

Over the Christmas period I did manage to pay a visit to the new Brewdog bar in Camden Town. Brewdog is a brewery based in Scotland whose mantra on their website states:

We are committed to making the highest quality beers with the finest fresh natural ingredients.
Our beers are in no way commercial or mainstream.
We do not merely aspire to the proclaimed heady heights of conformity through neutrality and blandness.
We are unique and individual.
A beacon of non-conformity in a increasingly monotone corporate desert.
We are proud to be an intrepid David in a desperate ocean of insipid Goliaths.
We are proud to be an alternative

Basically they're tossers but I do enjoy their Punk IPA so I can't really complain. The bar was in high spirits when I arrived and we managed to snag a sofa in the comfy basement. Sadly The Lovely Jemma didn't join me for this visit so no pictures of beer and funky fingernails. In fact I only got one picture of the basement area and it's not my best work.

I did warn you - this photo is rubbish.

A good selection of beer was on offer although the pricing structure was odd to say the least. Just about everything was £3.95, and it didn't matter if they were 2.8% or 8%. Shots of the 32% Tactical Nuclear Penguin and 41% Sink The Bismarck were available at around £6, and there was a interesting and large selection of bottled beers. I opted for pints of 5a.m Saint and Trashy Blonde which were both excellent and in great condition. 5a.m Saint in particular had a very refreshing and tasty fruity hoppy taste. A pint of the Christmas Porter was the highlight - an excellent porter with a very pleasent taste of spice. The drinking was interrupted by a cheeseburger - the menu is designed by a Masterchef winner. I can't remember his name but I'm sure he's very proud of himself. The burger was top notch - not only was the meat excellent but the bun and veggies were fresh and tasty. Sadly they do not come with chips - presumably they're too mainstream for the Brewdog chaps.

The best thing about the bar was the atmosphere. Camden bars can sometimes attract a lot of tossers (maybe that's why I seem to drink there a lot) but the clientèle in Brewdog was eclectic and friendly. A random stranger joined us to help fill in the Private Eye crossword and we had a brief chat with some folks about Game of Thrones. They appeared to be of Goth or Metal persuasion, I can't tell anymore as I'm now 30 years old. A Tactical Nuclear Penguin was thrust into my hand by a random chap who couldn't even begin to drink the stuff. I understood why after my first sip as it tasted almost exactly like treacle. I still managed to choke it all down though because it was free. The service behind the r was also friendly and efficient. Overall this is a great bar and I'm looking forward to returning.

Cambridge Pubs Part 2

Previously on "A Bitter Bloke: Cambridge Pubs"

• I went to some pubs in Cambridge.
• I enjoyed an ale or two.
• An old man was spotted.
• I ate a pig.

And now the continuation of "A Bitter Bloke: Cambridge Pubs"

A bicycle in Cambridge? What a strange and unusual sight!

Our jolly jaunt through Cambridge took us to the Kingston Arms, a cosy little pub and probably my favourite of the pubs we visited in Cambridge. Walking in we were greeted with a L-Shaped room with a small bar containing a tremendous amount of hand pumps. Tasty looking food was also available but unfortunately I didn't get to try any. Adding to the "charm" were the booths which appeared to have been stolen from a 70's snooker club. I half expected to see Hurricane Higgins sitting in the corner supping a pint. But then I would have realised it was a ghost and would of run from the pub screaming. I went for a pint of Buntingford Delta, an American style ale which was really rather good, with an excellent and very pleasurable hoppy taste coming through. When we returned on Sunday things got even better as they had the Mighty Oak Oscar Wilde available. This was in tip top condition and every element that made it the Champion Beer of Britain 2011 shone through. A perfectly judged balance of coffee and chocolate flavours.

Sadly the pubs size cannot cope with the popularity and there were plenty of the dreaded "Reserved" signs on the tables when we visited on Sunday. Reserved signs are for restaurants, not for pubs. Unless the Reserved is there to warn people that the people sitting at the table are quiet and unassuming. Even with this minor annoynace I really enjoyed both visits to the pubs. There were posters on the tables asking punters to vote The Kingston Arms as Cambridge Pub of the Year. I hope they get it and wish them luck.

The final pub we visited was The Devonshire Arms. This pub has recently been taken over and renovated by the Milton brewery and was looking good. Although small and unassuming from the outside there's actually a very large room at the back with a real fire, so plenty of space to enjoy a pint. I had a great pint of Sparta, a refreshing pale bitter. The Lovely Jemma asked me what I was drinking and I somehow resisted the urge to slam my pint onto the table and bark "This. IS. SPAAAAAAAAAAARTAAAAAAAAA." Probably because I was a bit tipsy by that point and had forgotten the name of what I was drinking. Still it was a excellent and very tasty pint. Gerard Butler would of been proud.

Overall I really enjoyed all four of the pubs we dropped in to in Cambridge. Now I'll have to do a real ale jaunt around Oxford and find out which one is truly better. All I know is, whoever wins, my stomach loses.

Cambridge Pubs Part 1

I forgot to bring my camera again. Sorry.

A couple of weekends ago I paid a visit to the charming city of Cambridge. Glorious buildings, a charming river, and of course plenty of lovely real ale pubs. I still prefer Oxford to be perfectly honest but Cambridge ain't bad. It's certainly better than the university I went to, the wonderful Bournemouth University. While Cambridge colleges have amazing fifteen century architecture with fabulous chapels, Bournemouth is a 1970's prefab nightmare with a shabby library attached. Still the union bar was cheap, and at £1.10 for a pint of Fosters you couldn't really complain (except that you were drinking Fosters.) Heaven knows what the price of drinks is now, but with students having to pay £9,000 a year just to attend I imagine they can afford it.

Cambridge is blessed with some cracking pubs and it was my mission to visit the highlights. We were in town for a weekend to visit The Lovely Jemma's friends so a crafty pub crawl to her house was devised. We started off at the Free Press, a lovely little Greene King boozer. This small pub has no music, no TV and mobile phones are not allowed. Clearly run by a militant bore but the pub was very pleasant. A welcome pint of Titanic Iceberg was poured which was in tip top condition, and highly refreshing. The rest of the ales were the usual Greene King suspects, although the rarely seen Mild was on. Sadly I didn't get to try a pint. A group of lads who had taken over the snug were clearly trying make up for the lack of TV's by recreating their own episode of The Only Way Is Essex by being as loud and obnoxious as possible. Still this didn't detract from an excellent Ploughman's lunch. A lovely little pub and well worth a visit.

Visit this pub it's ace.

Next stop was the Cambridge Blue, voted Cambridge Pub of the Year 2011 by those knowledgeable blokes at CAMRA, and not something ridiculous like TV Quick Magazine. Incidentally it always amuses me when I see something proudly proclaiming to be "Show of the Year," but when you look at the small print you see it's actually "WOW! Really?! Magazine Readers Choice Show of the Year 1989" and your heart sinks because you know these readers of WOW! Really?! are bound to be idiots and the show is going to be trash. Basically my advice is never watch anything that has won a Readers Choice award. I had to suffer through We Will Rock You which has won many such awards. How I managed to sit through the show without punching others or myself in the gut even when they changed the lyrics in Radio Gaga to mention "Internet Gaga" I'll never know. Brian May must be spinning in his grave. I hope never to return to the show because they've most likely shoved a Lady Gaga joke in there and I will be forced to run around the theatre frothing at the mouth and ruining some poor Grannies birthday.

The Cambridge Blue was great, with a fine selection of ales and a gigantic beer garden out back. I enjoyed a delicious pint of Nethergate Dew Drop which was in fine condition and appeared to be a house favourite. We visited on both Friday and Saturday, and on Saturday there was a hog roast and "real live" reindeer, which I suppose is better than real dead reindeer. The hog roast was excellent and paired with a pint of WharfeBank Camfell Flame I'd pretty much found pub perfection. Sadly a reindeer roast never appeared but overall the Blue is an excellent boozer and was quite rightly packed out.

That's enough for now, to keep up the suspense and to boost my post count I'll post comments about the Kingston Arms and the Devonshire Arms in my next post. Ta-ra for now.