Old Hopper's Brew

A little Googling (from the US) brings one to:

but it sounds as though the particular brew has sold out already. Kriswines appear to be the distributor for bottles.

to:

Cheers Davey Dunno why I didn't spot that when I did my own googling. Whether or not that particular brew is sold out, they seem to have a bunch of other interesting ones, which I will investigate with appropriate rigour :-)

Cheers again.

-- Adam

Please report back when (hic) you've had sufficient to write about. Or not. Cheers!

Will do. Am heading down to the King William IV this afternoon to try some out. Will attempt to take some notes. Although I'm crap at that sort of thing... I struggle to come up with much more than "mmm... I like that one because it was nice" or "I don't like that one cos it's yicky". Well I don't use the work "yicky", but you get the idea.

-- Adam

Have a good time, report or no!

What a great pub the KW4 is! I'll definitely be going back there. It's a big old place with a great domed ceiling (in the back bar), and interesting stuff to look at around the place. And wasn't mentally busy on a Saturday evening (probably better for the patrons than for the pub, I guess...).

And I managed to jot some stuff down about the beers me 'n' my mate had. He was driving so was limited to a few halves spread over a few hours, so it wasn't a guzzle-fest, but we got through a few between us. I'm afraid I am true to my word when it comes to my descriptive abilities, so this lot will not be featured in the next "book of actually useful beer opinions".

Seven hop 7%: very bitter from the hops I guess. Hid its 7% well. Quite liked it but I like a hoppy beer.

Elizabethan 22%: last dregs of the barrel, only got about 50ml of chocolate hop syrup. It's 22%. Really nice, like beer's answer to port, which, surprisingly perhaps, is a good thing. I could imagine having it with some decently-stroing cheddar or stilton or some other cheese that puts up a fight, after a winter's meal.

Porter 7.8%: yes: it is a porter. In that I mean it does what it says on the box, but doesn't leap off the page Like Gillespie's stout, maybe: a bit sweeter than I like a stout to be, but my benchmark for such things is Guinness, which might not be an informed position to come from.

Sunshine 4%. Hoppy but not like 7 hops. Bitter finish lingers. Reminiscent of Sierra Nevada (which is a good thing, in my books).

Dorothy's Friend 4.1%. I recoiled at first taste saying "Ah f*ck Jesus!!" (that's a quote). Relentlessly hoppy with a touch of dishwashing liquid. Fades to hoppy fairly quickly. Won't have it again. Difficult to finish my half: wince with every mouthful.

Pink Pride 3.4%. Can't taste it over the DF. Smells a bit musty, but doesn't taste so. Similar to Sunshine without the alcoholic bite,s o kinda tasted like something was missing.

Polska 6.2%. Looks like the sunshine, orangy green like diesel. Similar to sunshine but malt coming through. My mate got bitter almond from it. I couldn't it.

Bumble 4.6%. Bottle. It was served too bloody cold to get much from. Can find the honey if one looks very carefully, but it's not a major note: might be better if @ cellar temperature. Quite hoppy still. Very (too?) fizzy. But wasn't bad if one wasn't looking for something that says "honey" as one might expect from the name.

Kosher Rye Pale Ale 4.3%. Not much too it. Similar to Sunshine & Pink Pride.

Old Hoppers Brew 3.8%. Wow. Quite hoppy but not OTT like some others. I got a hint of ginger (a good thing: I love Badger's Blandford Fly). Benefitted from being out of the fridge for 30min beforehand. Best of show so far.

At that point I was getting slightly too drunk (and palate-dead) to make sensible comments on anything I drank, and my mate had had enough, so we called it a night. There were still probably ten more brews to try, so we'll be back to knock them off.

One note: the bottled beer - the ones I had were the Bumble and the Old Hoppers Brew - are kept far too cold, in the fridge. This spoiled the experience for the Bumble for me, so I wised-up and got them to take the Old Hoppers Brew out of the fridge and leave it on the bar whilst I got through the Kosher Rye Pale Ale. After however long that took... 30min according to my notes... it was at a good temperature to drink. It could perhaps have withstood another 10min to warm up a bit so the flavours weren't all killed.

Also worth mentioning is everything is cheap as chips! £2 for a pint, £1 for a half. The bottled ones were slightly more I think, but still very cheap for a London pub. We had a meal there which was also very cheap (I can't remember how much... but like a fiver): however the menu & food was pretty generic. Functional... and there was nothing wrong with it... but generic.

All in all a good (if short) evening, a good pub, and good beer. I'll be back.

-- Adam

Next time, start with the lowest abv first and work up - that way you are not going to taint your palate from the outset.

Where is this pub, anyway?

An excellent review! Many thanks, and I'll be waiting for the second round. You certainly managed to cover a good variety. Shame about the bottles being kept too cold. I once drank at a bar in Iowa which learned to pour me a Guinness and put it on top of the lights behind the bar to melt while I drank something domestic, by which time the Guinness was at a sensible temperature. Cheers!