"Looking for my passport, I'm going drinking"
Name the band who composed these lyrics? I give you Circa Waves - if not Liverpool’s finest (that mantle is a competitive one) then at least a credit to Liverpool - and their song “Passport” from 2019.
What am I getting at, you may ask? I will tell you. About a week ago I received my London 2025 “Beer Passport” (https://beerpassport.co.uk) and this is a shameless (and unremunerated) plug for what is already proving my inseparable travelling companion. I found out about it by accident when I stopped off in Mondo for a beer and saw someone waving their passport to claim their half price flight of Mondo staples. It costs £30. I think I have already recouped that. It is valid for a calendar year, so ideally I would have bought it in January, but eight months seems a decent time period at the moment.
The passport is a little booklet containing 75 breweries. It is branded as London and it mostly is London, although there is a cluster in Windsor plus the well-established might of the Siren Craft Taproom in Reading (see https://www.londonbiermeister.co.uk/blog/the-siren-call-of-reading ). Each brewery has an offer. Usually Buy One Get One Free on the first pint on your first visit, sometimes with a subsequent 10% off everything for the remainder of the year. So a saving of at least £5-7 per brewery visit.
I explained this to the lady in my life. She was sceptical about the economics, seeking to argue that I could save even more if I neither bought the passport nor visited the breweries, and querying my use of the word “need” in the context of the purchase and consumption of beer. Her beautiful brows furrowed further as I told her that this had inspired me to the challenge of visiting all 75 breweries between now and 31 December. Apparently this is the kind of challenge that has a greater appeal to boys than to girls.
However, I am embracing the challenge not least because it is a glorious incentive to get to know my own city better. From Rickmansworth to Woolwich, from Walthamstow to Chiswick, from Muswell Hill to Croydon, all of London is here.
I started locally, cycling around my home turf of Battersea. The prize for my first brewery visited goes to Distortion just off Wandsworth Road. A great place to start. Classic railway arches / industrial estate territory and beer served direct from serving tanks behind the bar. Distortion is the classic story of a Londoner - Andy North - who was inspired by a US road trip in the 2000s, during which time he discovered exactly what hops could do. The passport contains recommendations for each brewery, so I followed these with pleasure and chose for my BOGOF beers the Sonar Pale and Decibel Porter. Lovely stuff.
Mondo is no stranger to me, but it was just round the corner on the Patmore Industrial Estate so it was the obvious next port of call. Their offer is the half price flight, so I lined up a row of Dennis Hopp’r IPA, Little Victories Pale and Dishoom Pale - all reliably excellent. (I passed on to the lady behind the bar my appreciation of the fact that Little Vics is now on cask in the Long Room at the Oval. Which isn’t stopping my fellow Surrey members defaulting to the Surrey Hills Shere Drop because that is what they have been drinking for decades…). Finally, concentrating hard to keep my bike moving in a straight line, I headed up to the Power Station to look in on Battersea Brewery. Another half price flight. It was all fine, but it didn’t change my view that Battersea just isn’t quite up there with the best.
I have been spending more time on my tactics for visiting breweries than any man really should. I have been thinking “clusters”, and last Sunday was the third birthday of the Blackhorse Road Beer Mile. So I paid a visit, as I had the previous year ( https://www.londonbiermeister.co.uk/blog/black-horse-and-a-cherry-beer-with-apologies-to-kt-tunstall ). The Blackhorse Mile has suffered over the past 12 months. Beerblefish, Wild Card and Hackney High Hill are all gone. Exale was closed with a drainage problem (I hope just temporary). So it was a lower key afternoon than last time. But there was still a good vibe, good music and great beer. I dropped in on Pretty Decent (the “I would get better than that at Tesco” Pale) and Signature (Backstage IPA). Plus Renegade Wines, Big Penny Social and Burnt Faith Rum, so that I could complete my card of stamps and get a free glass (yes, I am that kind of person). My thanks to my son for accompanying me and sharing in the deals, thus ensuring I did not end the day completely smashed like last time…
Finally this week I fancied venturing into new territory. So I ended up on a Thameslink train to Woolwich Arsenal and then strolled up to the Royal Arsenal Riverside. The Riverside has a rich history. You can still see it in some of the old buildings. It has now been very efficiently reclaimed in the usual way as high end flats, offices and restaurants. I am really glad to have been there and seen it, but I found it a bit lacking in heart and soul. Woolwich has always suffered from being a bit out of the way, and neither of the museums set up to commemorate the Arsenal and the Ordnance factories have survived.
As a (very half-hearted) Gooner, it was pleasing to be in the place where in 1886 the munitions workers founded a football club initially called Dial Square. They moved to Gillespie Road, Highbury in 1913 because (see above) Woolwich was just a bit too out of the way and underpopulated. Then they were elected to the first post-war First Division in 1919 after some slightly dubious backroom discussions involving their rich Chairman. Purely on football results, the club which should arguably have taken their place was… Tottenham Hotspur. But it is great to see that this ancient history has not affected the amity between those two friendly neighbours.
I was here for the Salt Brewery taproom. Nice beer - Serge Citra Pale. But I left annoyed. I was told that my BOGOF deal had to be two pints of the same thing. Compared with some of the problems facing the world today I know that this doesn’t stack too highly, but… why? The really nice people behind the bar told me wearily that this was Head Office policy “and we keep having to explain this to people because it isn’t spelled out in the Ts and Cs”. I hope I wasn’t too much of a problem for them, because it really wasn’t their fault. But it did mean that I postponed my plan to visit Salt Deptford, and decided against ordering one of their pizzas.
I did, however, get off the train at Deptford on the way back to London Bridge because I wanted to visit Villages Brewery Taproom. And it was one of the highlights of my touring so far. I am a bit of a sucker for an unpretentious taproom under a railway arch, it was really laid back and friendly and I enjoyed the Rodeo Pale and Palms “Bright IPA” (“it’s like a NEIPA but a bit lighter”). Under £5 a pint (well, £4.98 to be precise) and some great takeaway cans on offer for £2.50. One place that I will definitely go back to.
I paused to acknowledge my gran spinning in her grave at my having gone drinking in somewhere as notoriously rough as Deptford. (I still remember the 1990s stand up comedian saying “yeah, Deptford’s ok, the 176 bus goes there… I mean, it doesn’t always come back…”) All I can say is that the area around the station felt fine, and not up itself in the way that some trendy parts of London are. Sorry, Gran, Brixton is next…
And breathe. Since I started writing this I have already excused myself from the challenge of visiting all 75 taprooms for the sake of visiting all 75 taprooms. But this has enthused me and I hope I have conveyed some of that enthusiasm. More updates to follow.
[For the next instalment, read : https://www.londonbiermeister.co.uk/blog/brixton-beer-passport-journey-part-2
For the facts of what I have visited and when, see https://www.londonbiermeister.co.uk/blog/annex-beer-passport-the-story-so-far ]