Around Town with Amateur Drinker

Beware the Ides of March.  March 2019 was the most momentous month in London’s recent beer scene, and almost all the news was bad. The biggest was undoubtedly the demise of The Bottleshop. It is no secret to anyone who has been reading this blog, that I regarded this as the best venue in London,…

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Around Town with Amateur Drinker

As the trip started, on the train from Euston, in the month of February, I will detail the Manchester visit, for Cloudwater’s Family & Friends, in this month’s blog. After checking in, The Editor and I started at The Crown & Kettle, which had a superb Buxton IPA on cask. A wonderful Burning Sky Arise,…

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Around Town with Amateur Drinker

Pubs are rammed with the Office Xmas Party crowd in December, so don’t need events, while January sees alcohol consumption drop so I’ve decided to combine both months for the purposes of this blog. The combination is also hideously late, for which I apologise. The biggest news of the period was obviously Fuller’s. The Editor…

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Around Town with Amateur Drinker

Writing November’s round-up it seemed that Cloudwater had a finger in every pie as they opened a London tap-room, announced a new festival and re-launched cask. The new bar is in Enid Street, Bermondsey between Moor and Brew By Numbers. Cloudwater has upped the ante, clearly spending a great deal of money, so that it…

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Around Town with Amateur Drinker

October saw the much-anticipated Mikkeller Bar opening in London’s Shoreditch. Like any sentient being, I passed on the Friday opening, featuring impromptu concerts from co-investor Rick Astley and free give-aways. The stories of failed kegs and pictures of queues on social media rather justified that decision. The Editor and I went the next day, which…

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Around Town with Amateur Drinker

Apologies for how late this September column is, and those late summer days seem a long time ago, as I write this….(Ed – never start a column with an apology). 2018’s Zwanze Day was at The Beer Merchants Tap, leading to my first visit to the venue.  It’s clearly an impressive space, with a great…

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Around Town with Amateur Drinker

Mikkeller announced that it would finally open a London bar. It will be in Shoreditch, close to The St. Leonard’s church, and somewhat bizarrely it is in collaboration with Rick Astley, who is also investing. Unfortunately they are not ticketing the opening, which will also feature the singer performing, so adding his fans to the…

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Around Town with Amateur Drinker

Another month, and another one bites the dust – this time south of the river, as Kirin bought FourPure. Unlike June’s debacle with Beavertown, this was far more honest, as founder and CEO Dan Lowe told Good Beer Hunting: “We’re not going to say nothing will change. What would be the point of doing it…

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Around Town with Amateur Drinker

Whilst it was very far from a surprise to anyone who wasn’t doing PR for Beavertown, (who were still denying it, even as I wrote this,http://beerinsider.com/amateur-drinker-loses-taste-for-beavertown-and-its-extravaganza/), June saw by far the biggest upheaval in London’s nascent scene. You will surely already know about the Heineken/Beavertown nuptials and most of this blog is devoted to it.…

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Around Town with Amateur Drinker

The highlight of May, and almost certainly 2018, was obviously MBCC in Copenhagen. This year my visit extended to six days, so I was able to experience more of the accompanying Beer Week events around the city. As in 2017, I bumped into another regular Bottle Shop couple at Gatwick, early Tuesday morning! A gorgeous, sunny day…

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