Weissbier rules

Been drinking Erdinger Weissbier (Weizen or wheat beer for you non-Bavarians) at local Wetherpoons of late. Great value at £3.19. They also do sweeter Tucher at a steeper £4.25 and stock branded glasses which is a great help as almost impossible to pour super-effervescent Weissbier into a standard glass. Try it, but if you do rinsing first makes it easier. 

Gregory's girls (and boys)

Enjoying a pint of Butcombe bitter at tastefully revamped Gregorian on Jamaica Road in Bermondsey. Pub allowed to go to pot by punch, now back up and running as a friendly local thanks to Antic Inns

Hook Norton

Great new beers coming out of Oxfordshire Brewer hook Norton: loving Sweet Chariot by Pear Tree Inn barmaid...hoppy and refreshing. Also great new Zaubertrank a delicious spicy brew, enough to keep Britain in Europe 

Se1 rules ok

Great day enjoying peter jackson's innovative but traditional cask beers @southwarkbeer. Delicious and remarkably educated staff

A few Russian craft beers

Just back from nostalgic trip to Moscow. Here are a few of the craft beers they didn't have 30 years agon

Moscow Nights

Just spent wonderful four days in Moscow. Great to find 70s beer bar Zhiguli on Novy Arbat (formerly Prospekt Kalinina) still running as almost national heritage, but now with great unfiltered beer and Baikal vodka. Also went to Lavkalavka for amazing locally produced food and craft beers including Alexander Pokrishkin imperial stout at 12%. Barman's advice: "you like oil? This oil best" and he was right!

Plus ca change in Bermondsey

Sad to see grand old Corinthian in Jamaica Road in Bermondsey close, but welcome back to former St James' Tavern, now The St James of Bermondsey revamped and doing great local craft beers at very reasonable prices!

Marbella lost marbles

Discovering some wicked Soanish craft beer in Marbella, notably Rosita. Varieties include d'ivori @4.5pct, original 5pct, and the literally mind numbing bomba @17 pct. siesta incluida

Scotland the Brave

Just had a pint of Jarrl from Fyneales in Argyllshire. Fresh hoppy tasty. Nice. Wondered whimsically if it had anything to do with Jarlaberg cheese! It does, obliquely. Jarl is old Norse word for 'earl'. Even the breweries working on the Scandinavia connection. Will they make it real come September 18???

Hootananny

At Hootananny for a pint before Imverness literary festival gig. Great food. Proper Scottish from the Cullen skink to the lamb stovies. Decent beer. Music later. Secondhand tables, candles, vermillion walls, nice staff. Could be in Berlin! YES signs in lampposts outside. Scotland doesn't need the imperialist euro phobic English tie. It could and should  be a European nation in its own right!!

Sourhwark star

Enjoying a quiet afternoon pint in Sourhwark Tavern, great beer, good food, proper opening hours!  A traditional local well adapted of new world order 

Lazy Saturday afternoon

Saturday afternoon in SE1. Lunch at @marrakechse1 in Ropewalk, maltby street market, few beers at Kernel brewery, London Sour and delicious porter, finale of saison at Brewing by Numbers. Is Lonfon SE1 best place in world for new beer? 

Fly the flag, Bonnie Scotland

Drinking a few pints of Saltaire blonde in @deanswiftse1 . Come on SNP. Great beer. ScotlNd the brave!

swamped sheaf

never seen a pub makeover as poor as that of former Wheatsheaf, renamed stupiudly sheaf, on Southwark street se1. got rid of old long tables, candles and cosy nooks. pale wood, high tables and crap beer. suicide note!! by contrast rival Wheatsheaf round the corner newly revamped by Youngs looks ancient and much loved!

it's Beer, not Coffee!

Sitting in London West End'S best secret - which really shouldn't be a secret - the Old Coffee House on Beak Street off Regent Street, enjoying their new sample 3x1/3 tasters of excellent East End brewer Brodies ales. Had a Citra, Jamaican Stout and Kiwi from the cask hand pumps. Now following up with a Hoxton Special, Sunshine Pale ale and Raspberry London Sour. Heather behind the bar couldn't be friendlier! Amazing to see how once almost extinct Berliner Weisse being imitated so successfully in London! 

lost on the moor

pint of moor revival in dean swift, shad Thames!! excellent beer! been drinking their Raw and Norhop recently. these lads can't put a foot wrong. 

draft novelty

back to London after two glorious weeks in morocco, where we even enjoyed decent beer and some great wine (watch this space). now off to opening party for new @drafthouseuk pub at tower hill

Star Struck

Been drinking some very

nice hoppy summer beers from Dark Star at my two favourite London pubs, the Dean Swift in Shad Thames near Tower Bridge and The Rake by Southwark cathedral near London Bridge. 

but not for the next couple of weeks she this blog will be idle while I soak up some Moroccan sunshine. Beer there I fear Heineken-dominated so literally not much to write home about. back mid-June!

Back to Basics

Been drinking quite a lot of Hook Norton bitter this week, rather archly rebranded as Hooky (the village nickname). Reminded me though that, much as I love the new fashion for zesty, astringent, hoppy ales, sometimes you just can't beat a good best bitter. I've been drinking it for so long now, I suspect it's like the Middle Ages when good basic beer was safer and more often drunk than water. Tastes a lot better though.

A parting glass

My very old friend and mentor Ronnie Payne passed away yesterday peacefully at home. he will be sorely missed by a generation of journalist to whom he was a genial father figure. I would like to write something beery in his memory, but Ronnie was a wine man, and so his friends will all be raising a

glass of claret in his memory on Tuesday.