A Festival of IPAs at the Gun, Docklands

The International break has given me a little time to catch up on blogging about non-Charlton activities which seem to revolve around real ale.

I'd missed out on the Gun's previous ale festival in June and so when I heard about their latest event in September there was no way I wanted to miss this one even though it was raining cats and dogs.  With over 30 IPAs in Cask, keg and bottle format this was a truly unique occasion.

www.thegundocklands.com/index.php/calendar/ale-festival-sept/

Now the Gun is a Gastro pub with a good reputation so while there was no entry charge, the prices were somewhat commensurate with its status but I don't mind paying a bit over the odds for a one off and to sample many beers in one place that I would be unlikely to find in a regular pub.


However, it was good to see that they had prepared a handy booklet on the various beers on offer to give you an idea of what you could expect from each one.  Like any good festival there was also an option to buy just a third of a pint to allow you to sample more and they are to be commended for this sound practice. A separate sheet also showed the alcohol content and which beers were on that evening.

Beers well looked after

I started off with a middle of the road Hand Drawn Monkey IPA which I'd have been happy to drink all evening, but of course that would be rather against the point.  It was only after that I found the 2.8% 1/2 Mast from Siren Craft Brew.  As a rule the taste of the higher alcoholic beers tends to dull the taste buds of more subtle beers and so it is usually not worth going back to a lower gravity beer.  However, in this case I have to take my hat off to Siren as the hops still sang through.

It had been heavily pouring all day and there was no sign of a let up that evening.  However, the Gun was well prepared with a large canopy and decent outdoor heaters, so even though it was teaming with rain all concerned had a good time.

I had my first black IPA that evening, Hop Studio's Obsidian.  There was nothing wrong with the beer but like Porters and Milds it was just not to my taste. This was followed by Franklin's Citra IPA which cleared the palate nicely.

A sample of the evening's ales

We finished off with some of the heavyweights.  No IPA session is complete without a sample from the Kernel Brewery in Bermondsey and their Galaxy HBC291 did not disappoint, although with a name like that I think their creative branding department needs revitalising. I'd previously tried Weird Beard's Hit the Lights (a strong tasting IPA) and so was keen to sample the rest of their range and so a sample of their Holy Hoppin' Hell #2 seemed to be in order, but at 9.7% it was definitely going to be the last beer of the evening!

Friendly & Knowledgeable Staff

Rather a soggy evening in E14

The Millwall team you might just like....!!

With a dearth of news on the Charlton Athletic front so far this summer, I have the choice of creating false rumours or causing a ruckus with a misleading heading - I've chosen the latter.

I bet you thought that you would never hear the day that you heard a Charlton fan say that they also supported Millwall, well I do, what's more I have brazenly worn my Millwall shirt to games at the Valley!  However, before you rush out to call in the medics or the lynch mob let me explain.

To most of us that support the club in SE7, Millwall is a team that plays at the Den down near New Cross.  In fact its history lies in E14 on the Isle of Dogs, when the club was set up by a group of Dockers in the area known as Millwall.  It's still known as Millwall but many people have dropped the name with many preferring to use the term "Isle of Dogs" to describe the area.  I will leave it up to you to decide whether this has anything to do with the connotations with the fans of the club of the same name.  Suffice it to say, the story is that they were so concerned about thick football fans turning up on a Saturday afternoon that they named the nearby Docklands Light Railway station "Mudchute" rather than Millwall.

However that does not stop the area being called Millwall and some teams are still quite rightly proud enough to wrestle back the name to preserve the rich history and heritage of the area and this  includes Millwall Rugby Club.  This fledgling club was set up in 1995 and by all accounts has been well supported and flourished.  They currently have about 200 active members and 800 supporter subscribers, with three men's teams, a woman's team and a number of youth teams.  Having spent a few nights with various members I can also confirm that they are active supporters of the local public house trade!  Always game for a laugh and a pint I have to say that they are a decent bunch of people keen to promote their sport and integrate into local society.  Indeed a friend of mine, who's son played for one of their youth teams was amazed at how many of the older players acknowledged his son and stopped to say hello when they saw him in the area.


So I know the shape of the ball is wrong and they pick it up with their hands but this is a local club which has started from scratch and deserves all the recognition it can get.  So if like me you live in the area come and have a closer look at this community club.  For more information go to www.millwallrugby.com or contact secretary@millwallrugby.com

A short history of the pubs on the Isle of Dogs

I've had a bit of a rant in my recent blogs about the Chancellor's escalator tax on beer.  While he appears to have axed it in the last budget I thought I would share with you an example of what higher prices have done to the pub trade.

The George is a fine example of an Isle of Dogs pub located near to Crossharbour station on the Docklands Light Railway.   The Landlord has four regular ales on at all times as well as the occasional guest beer.  The regular selection currently consists of Fullers London Pride, Young's bitter, Timothy Taylor's Landlord and Deuchers IPA from the Caledonian Brewery in Edinburgh.

The pub has a cosy lounge with plenty of pictures depicting bygone scenes of the docks and buildings of the surrounding area.  On Sunday however I noticed a new picture that I had not seen before.

This shows a map of all the pubs that existed at one time or another on the Isle of Dogs (excluding the new developments at Canary Wharf and Harbour Exchange).

 To save your eye sight there are 42 pubs listed on the map.  This is an impressive list by any means until you realise that of those 42  only nine are still open.  That's over three quarters of the pubs now closed!! 

Of the other 35 I can remember at least eight closing during my short tenure living in this part of London.  A few such as the Cubitt Arms which closed last year have been converted to residential property and retain a hint to their former lives in the architecture and signage but many have been knocked down and replaced by large modern developments. 

While changing demographics and other factors may also have played their part to the closure of these pubs I for one do not wish to see any more call time, so the scrapping of the tax is to be welcomed.

I'm pleased to say that despite this gloomy news, there has been something of a renaissance for the remaining pubs on the Isle, with a number of them recently changing hands, being refurbished and putting on a decent selection of cask ales.

For those of you interested in the history of closed pubs in the area can I recommend the following link:-

www.closedpubs.co.uk/london/e14_poplar.html

The picture above has been personalised for the George but if anyone could source me a copy of the original print I'd be extremely grateful, please contact me below.

Business on the football front resumes as normal later in the week with a visit by Bolton Wanderers to the Valley.