Bean & Hop - By The Horns - We Brought Beer - The Beer Hive - UBREW

Saturday 25th March - Don't be fooled by the first shot of Eggs Benedict, this a post about beer.  If you aren't of a beery disposition, why not try Matt The Pissed, Matt Le Tiss, or perhaps Cat The List instead?

Still with me? I'll crack on. My to-do list was starting to get a tad South London beer heavy, so I signed up 2014-15 List Leader Tim "I'm actuary an actuary" Henshaw and his unwitting cousin Dan (on loan from Birmingham) for a day of discovery.

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It all started in Earlsfield at Bean & Hop (formerly The Earlsfield Deli) with a rather excellent breakfast and some caffeine.  They specialise in coffee and local craft beer, with some top notch food thrown in for good measure.  We enjoyed some beautifully cooked eggs and bargain bacon butties from their brunch menu with Nude espresso brews on the side.  It's worth noting that they stay open late for Italian flatbread pizzas and beers on Fridays & Saturdays.  Keep your eyes peeled for special popup food events too from the likes of The Pickled Fork. 

We weren't quite ready for a beer (did I just write that?), but they had an impressive 50+ bottle selection on show, and two local rotating beers on tap.  You don't see a lot of Southfields-based Rocky Head beers on tap so grab some while you can.

Big shout out to the apologetic woman who shared a desk with us in return for a sticker of an onion.

Highlight : 21 year old Dan loudly exclaiming in a coffee-obsessed joint that he "doesn't get coffee".

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A 10 minute walk down Garratt Lane took us to a small industrial state opposite the Wimbledon Greyhound & Stock Car Racing Stadium where By The Horns Brewery lay in wait.  If you want to enjoy this stunning view, a homely white picket fence and some fake turf complete with tables sits outside their lot for your enjoyment.

By The Horns open up their taproom on Thursday & Friday evenings from 5pm-10pm and Saturdays from 12pm-6pm, and the bottle shop is open throughout the week when the bar is closed.  It's a brilliant little hangout with foosball, a big HD projector and several screens for those of a sporting persuasion - we caught the lacklustre first half of Saints vs Spurs before moving on.

More importantly though, they have up to 9 beers on tap (6 keg, 3 cask) including the occasional guest ale, and prices are very reasonable for London.  Samba King Rye Blonde, Mick The Miller Amber, and Stiff Upper Lip Pale all went down a treat.  Many more of their beers like Sour To The People and Flapper Double IPA are available in bottle form.  Beer sticks and chorizo bombs are behind the bar if you get peckish.

Brewery tours are an option, and there are often events such as comedy nights and seasonal beer launches, so keep an eye on their website - www.bythehorns.co.uk

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We strolled over to Tooting Broadway and caught a bus to Balham to reach our third stop, We Brought Beer.  It's a wonderful, compact "beer and homebrew general store" with a few seats for drinking in, either from the bottle range or the four growler refill taps on offer, much like at Hop, Burns & Black in East Dulwich (but without the hot sauce and vinyl!).  See opening times here.

We enjoyed schooners of Stone Go To IPA and The Kent Gipsy Yuzu from their taps over a friendly game of cards whilst a mix of beer geeks and Balham yuppies dropped in, presumably after brunch at M1lk over the road.  Special mention must go to one mother who said to her children aged 4-8, "Just let me know if you see anything you want". 

And I thought trips to Sainsbury's with Dad were fun...

Keep an eye on We Brought Beer's website for Meet The Brewer interviews, news on events, and updated beer lists.  And don't be surprised if a couple more branches have popped up before the end of the year - I heard mutterings about a move to Battersea Rise...

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3 down, 2 to go.  We jumped on the tube to Clapham Common where we parted ways with Dan the man before continuing on the 35 to Loughborough Junction.  Some form of protest in Brixton hindered our progress, so we continued on foot down a sunny Coldharbour Lane.  The oddest moment of the day was most certainly when a full-sized remote controlled wheelie bin appeared in front of us spraying water on unsuspecting members of the public.  I'm about 99% certain that actually happened.

Eventually we found our way to The Beer Hive, a co-operative brewery and taproom tucked away in a railway arch on Belinda Road.  It was set up recently by Clarskshaws Brewery and London Beer Lab, and more breweries will hopefully join the cooperative over the next few months.

The brewery is currently open for boozing on Saturdays from 12-6pm.  It's a fairly basic space at the moment, similar to how several of the Bermondsey breweries started out, but what more do you need than a few tables and chairs (including some ripped out car seats) when there's fresh beer around? Vegan Lauren joined Tim and I to appreciate the vegetarian Clarkshaws brews.

If you have time, you might want to pop in to Brixton Brewery, London Beer Lab, Craft Beer Co. or Crown & Anchor in the Brixton / Stockwell area, and of course there is superb food on offer all over Brixton.

We pressed on, walking towards Camberwell before getting the 42 to Bermondsey.  Stormbird in Camberwell and Orbit Brewery off Walworth Road are two more top beer stops en route. 

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Bermondsey is the beer mecca of South London, with six breweries (at the time of writing!) and The Bottle Shop taproom dotted around railways arches from Tower Bridge to Millwall ("South Bermondsey" if you like). 

The newest addition is UBREW, an open brewery and taproom near The Bottle Shop and Anspach & Hobday Brewery where paying members can come and brew their own beer, making use of professional equipment and a community of brewers on site.  There are various membership options, starting with a 3 month pass at £75 per month, and plenty of courses to get you up to speed.

The taproom is currently open on Saturdays from 11pm-7pm though that's set to expand soon.  They are currently serving a range of guest beers and bottles, but they will hopefully offer beer brewed by members in the future, including a few from the UBREW team themselves.  That said, we weren't complaining with kegs from Magic Rock & Tiny Rebel, though rowdy Northerner & List Leader 2013/14 Natalie (raised in a pub) gave the staff quite a talking to on their pint pouring technique. 

We sipped our drinks in the open air as closing time approached, bonding with some friendly Spaniards on our table over the use of the conditional perfect tense in a GCSE sentence that I've still got memorised.  Si hubria hecho mis deberes, habria ido al cerveceria con mis amigos. A*s and high fives all round.

Expect to see several nano / micro / gypsy / contract / cuckoo (what are we calling them?) breweries coming out of UBREW soon.  It looks like Beatnikz Republic might be the first to go commercial with their Farmhouse Hitchhiker NZ Farmhouse Ale amongst other beers as soon as HMRC signs off on the paperwork.

Wonderful for Beatnikz Republic Generation IPA by Liam Brazier

THAT'S ALL FOLKS.

5 points to Tim. 3 to Dan. 1 to Lauren. 1 to Natalie.

Thanks to Jezza at London Beer Guide for keeping me informed.

Hagen & Hyde - Poulet Rouge - Balham Bowls Club

Friday October 4th - South London is very quietly being taken over by Antic, the group responsible for Effra Social, Brixton Dogstar, Battersea Mess and Music Hall, and Tooting Tram & Social.  They are trying to bring the social club back to London, and it seems to be working.  Balham has two quirky Antic boozers so I decided to check them out, along with the charming Poulet Rouge in between for some food.  I was accompanied by Coral, Lucy and Amy, who make limited Team List appearances due to a strict "no school nights" policy.  

Our first stop was Hagen & Hyde, one of Antic's newest pubs.  It is right next Balham Station on the High Street, so many punters might dismiss it as a rubbish station pub - more fool them.  It also looks vaguely like a shop, with coats and other garments on show in the windows. Every table inside is a different shape and size, and the walls are covered in all sorts of vintage paraphernalia.  

I arrived first, so I got myself a very tasty pint of By The Horns Hopslinger, and found a quirky table in a corner which had a bookshelf in the middle of it, just in case you don't like the people opposite you. I'm sure this will also be used regularly for some classic library style flirting through the shelves.  I resisted the urge to sit at one of the two upright piano tables - I'm not sure I would feel comforatble putting a pint on top of a piano anyway!  

There were plenty of beers to choose from and a couple of interesting ciders as well.  They have built a separate dining room upstairs that specialises in fish, seasonal game and colonial British fare, and they are still decorating a large space at the back.  In any normal pub, it would feel odd having part of the place unfinished, but it doesn't seem to matter here at all.  After a couple of drinks we moved on to get some food elsewhere, but I will definitely return as it is charming little pub and it was not too busy considering its location.

We only had to walk for about a minute to get to Poulet Rouge, a cosy new restaurant that focuses on rotisserie chicken, galettes and crêpes.  They don't take reservations but we were seated straight away. The turnaround is pretty quick, so there should hopefully never be too long a wait.  The design is simple and lovely, with colourful patterned floors and an open kitchen visible at the back where the chickens can be seen rotating away.

To drink there are several affordable wines and some fizz, plus a short but sweet bottled beer list that includes Poulet Rouge Golden Ale (brewed for them by the Two Cocks Brewery), Redhook Longhammer IPA (from Washington), and Kona Big Wave (all the way from Hawaii).

The girls all went for bargain £5 1/4 chicken with various sides that turned up in attractive baby Le Creuset pots, whilst I went for the Chicken, Chorizo and Rocket Galette (only £7.00) that was fantastic.  I can't see myself ordering anything else next time or even bothering to look at the menu, it was that good.  The sides were a hit too - we sampled the Chorizo Cassoulet, Corn and Dauphinoise Potatoes.  You can turn your meal into a £10 roast of sorts by ordering the Sunday Sides at £5 with your 1/4 chicken.  There are also some enticing vegetarian galette options if chicken isn't your thing!

Most of us still had change from a tenner so we decided to treat ourselves to their dessert crêpes.  I was expecting your standard underwhelming undersized pancake that you finish in two bites, but instead a monster pudding was put in front of me, which I struggled to finish.  We tried three between us - Banana, Nutella & Honeycomb, Vanilla, Pecan & Maple Syrup, and Apple Crumble & Mascarpone, which was probably the pick of the bunch.  You can also get a simple Lemon, Sugar & Cinnamon crêpe for just £2.50!

We were all very impressed with Poulet Rouge and I can't wait to take some more people there.  They even open up at 8am to serve Breakfast Galettes including a Sausage & Mustard option at just £2.00. They could get away with charging a lot more, but I hope they keep the prices low.  They will have to, as competition is arriving in the form of a second Chicken Shop site in Tooting, after a successful year in Kentish Town.  Hopefully there is enough for both of them!

We hopped round the corner for a final drink of the evening at Balham Bowls Club, one of Antic London's older establishments. Unsurprisingly, it was originally a Bowls Club which has now been converted into a social pub and restaurant spread over several warm, inviting rooms.  It gets very busy but it is a relaxing, fun place to drink nevertheless.  I would imagine it is very popular for roasts on a Sunday, when people settle in for the whole day with some board games.  Check the pinboard on your way in for info on events such as pub quizzes (on Tuesday), live comedy and film showings (which take place in the beautiful upstairs event space).

Like most Antic venues, they have a nice range of ales including some local produce.  I had my first pint from Belleville Brewing Co who are just round the corner at Wandsworth Common.  I tried to visit them earlier when I had some time to kill but they weren't open, so I was delighted to see their Thames Surfer on tap at BBC.  I was envious of the buzzing atmosphere in the dining room and might have to try eating here next time, if I can resist the temptation to return to Poulet Rouge!  Antic can do no wrong at the moment, and I will hopefully report back soon on more of their excellent creations, including Sylvan Post in Forest Hill, and Graveney and Meadow in Tooting.  Thanks to Lucy, Coral and Amy for joining me on the Balham crawl - 3 points each.

More info on the SW London microbreweries mentioned in the post:

By The Horns brewery is located between Earlsfield and Tooting - they open their brewery tap bar Thu-Fri 5-10 and Sat 12-6.  Head over on Fridays to try out their hop rocket!

Belleville Brewing Co. is right next to Wandsworth Common station, which is a 10 minute walk from Balham.  They are mostly brewing American style beers.  They don't have a brewery bar yet, but if you get in contact they are often happy to let you taste on site and buy some bottles.