Arrived in London

The travel was uneventful -- I missed the Delta meltdown by a day. After getting settled in our rooms, we headed out for a beer.

First stop was a new place for me, the Resting Hare. It is owned by the same folks as Euston Tap, Holborn Whippet, etc.

Decent beer list with 8 kegs and 4 cask...

Went with a local brew, Redemption Trinity, a tasty, hoppy 3% beer.

I learned later that their house Lager and Schwarzbier were brewed by the Anker brewery in Ochensfurt (near Würzburg) -- a brewery I visited on a bike tour in 2010. Have to come back for it.

Then it was over to the Euston Tap, one of my favorite places in London. They have 15 keg beers and 8 cask

When with the Orbit Neu Alt -- I visited the brewery the last time I was in London -- they specialize in German styles.

We noticed they had one beer both keg and cask so we decided to order a half pint of each. Tom ordered the cask but I when I ordered the keg version they said it had just kicked. So I had a Redemption Fellowship Porter. which I think I had here last time I was in London.

Then it was over to the Bree Louise for some food and a beer. They had a tap takeover from the Tring Brewery so I tried their Red Ride. A nice spicy rye character.

For a night cap we headed over to another new for me place, the Scottish Stores, just around the side of the Kings Cross station.

I was warned that the keg beers at the front bar weren't that interesting but to check out the side bar. There I saw an Orbit Citra Kellerbier. Couldn't pass that up.

I liked it but it was too much Citra for me, the last third was harder to finish than the first two thirds.

Jet lag kicked in so we called it a night.

Beer and Bike Trip About To Start

I'll be riding with a friend from London to York thru Oxford, Birmingham, Derby and Sheffield. And of course drinking beer.

Follow along at www.TheMadBrewer.com

Arrived in Stockholm

After a long day (LA -> Seattle -> Amsterdam -> Stockholm) I arrived at my hotel. After checking in and getting settled I decided it was time for a beer. About a block away was Bishop's Arms pub. This is a chain of British themed pubs in Sweden. I had been in a couple in Malmö about 5 years ago so I knew what to expect.

Inside, it could have been a pub anywhere in Britain. The beer list tended towards British (obviously) and American craft beers, with some international industrial beers thrown in. And a few Swedish ones.

 I went with the Oceanbryggeriet Arbetarporter, from Goteborg. It turns out to be a 9% Imperial Porter. Very, very nice.

I decided to leave the couple of other interesting Swedish beers for a future visit, and headed off to The Flying Dog, a couple of blocks away.

I don't know if there is any formal connection with the US brewery of the same name, but their logo was all over the place. They specialized in American beers with no less that six taps of Ballast Point and five of Speakeasy. Plus a couple of Flying Dog. They did have some Swedish craft beers, though.

I started with the S:t Erik's IPA (S:t = Saint).

It was very caramelly and biscuity with not a lot of hop flavor but quite a bit of bitterness. It was a very drinkable beer.

I hadn't eaten in a while and the had a planked salmon on the menu to so I ordered it.
 

Very nice and hit the spot. I needed another beer during the meal so I ordered a Sigtuna Double IPA.

A very nice beer. Lots of hop flavor and bitterness with some sweet malt to back it up. But it's 8% alcohol and the large meal did me in. The jet lagged kicked in and I went back to my hotel and crashed.

Off to Stockholm...

... to "research" Swedish beer. Except there is a Franconia Beer Festival on so I my be distracted.

I won't promise to blog, but I will try. But I will be tweeting regularly so you can follow my antics at www.twitter.com/FredWaltman (don't need a twitter account to read).