Krispy, Web Guru & Brewer

Saturday was one of those social events that just can’t be missed; my old school chum Graham’s 40th B’day drinky down in the big smoke.  It was a great chance to catch up with some of the best lads around, and also an excuse to get a little bit tipsy.

I think around 16 of us ended up in the Euston Flyer pub, our first stop on a pub packed journey.  Someone had done their homework, as we were able to walk between Kings Cross and the 5 or 6 pubs, then back again to catch a pint back in Pboro in the Great Northern hotel bar, sorted.

LOADS of bottled beers at the Euston Tap, there was another set of fridges like this the other side of the bar!

The Euston Flyer was a fairly standard Fullers pub, although some of their beer wasn’t kept as well as you’d like.  One pint was nice n bright tho, and went down a treat (mind’s blank as to what it actually was mind you, not a ‘standard’ Fullers pint that I’ve seen before anyway (had Discovery before that, and I’m told the Pride was fine).   The pub was PACKED by the time we left, as it’s a great place to meet up (which is why we had chosen it), and the football was on.  Unfortunately Pete H had managed to lose his phone within seconds of arriving – NOT CHUFFED!  So he had some catching up to do after dealing with the lovely people in lost n found back at the station.  We were the usual group of concerned blokes, showing empathy by ensuring we used our phones in front of him at every occasion

2nd pub was a classic, and a bit of a surprise; The Euston Tap.  The pub is in the park outside the Euston station, I think it was a station building at one point – one of a pair of gate houses (the other is being turned into a cider house I believe).  There’s little room in side on the ground floor, just enough for the interesting bar and standing room to order.  There’s seating upstairs, but as it was a cracking day for October, we stood outside in the sun.  The pub serves a massive amount of ales – mostly ‘craft’ ales from around the world.  Some 27 beers on tap(!), including one of my UK favourites, Jaipur.  I had a couple of great beers, a very rich ‘milk stout’ (can’t remember brewery ), and an American ruby ale, which was full of hops.  I completely recommend the pub, well worth a visit if you’re going past/through Euston.

The birthday boy Graham himself (left), before things got messy

Pub three (The Doric Arch) wasn’t anything to shout about inside, a Fullers pub which again sold some other good beers (Blue Moon from America, a Hoegarden type wheat beer), but it was only a few steps from the Tap, and showed football scores, so pretty handy at the time we were there!   Good news to make the afternoon even better, Peterborough won!  UP THE POSH!  The pub’s toilets were protected from local drug addicts by a code lock, not something easy to remember half way through a beer session!

A curry was required at this point, as we were all STARVING!  I think it must have been 7 or 8pm .. I’d lost track of time.  We found a local place and boosted their trade by 300%    A couple of beers and fish curry later, it was on to ‘The Bree Louise‘, which I believe has been CAMRA pub of the year for a couple of years running?   A PROPER pub this one, with a real mixture of drinkers.  Many real ales, most being served by gravity from the cask, and a large selection of ciders too – at least 7 or 8 I seem to remember, again from the cask on the whole.  I think I had a vintage scrumpy – so things were a bit hazy.  A whisky was also involved at some point.   Cracking ‘real’ pub – don’t expect pristine interior, or any keg lager (in fact there was one – 1664).

Then it was time to jump back on a train and get back to Boro for cheeky pint before home.  A cracking day out – not just for the beers, but to see some old friends, and to make some new.  I probably learnt a few things – and being a (MOSTLY) lads beery do, I heard the term “reach-around” far too many times, and probably had two asthma attacks from laughing so much! Â