My last trip the other day yielded this photo which shows less than half of the selection. You may recognise some of the boxes – Brakspears, Wychwood, Summer Lightning and the branding of London Pride is well known of course.

When buying beer at Majestic you have to buy at least 12 bottles and boxes can’t be split. But they do carry mixed boxes like this Adnams one with 3 bottles each of 4 types.

Also, a seemingly permanent special offer means that if you buy 2 boxes (24 bottles) you get a £6 discount. This means that some beers are way cheaper than in a supermarket, which is good.

I wrote down the following random prices for a box (before the £6 discount):

• Adnams Mixed – £20.40
• Wadworth 6X – £18.96
• Martsons Bitter – £14.40
• St Peter’s Best Bitter – £18.00
• Young’s Bitter – £12.40
• Bath Ales Mixed – £20.40

In the end I chose the Bath Ales mixed box and the Sharp’s mixed box. I’ll post soon on the contents of each.

St Peters bottles at the Jerusalem Tavern, Farringdon

This picture was taken on a recent trip to the Jerusalem Tavern in Farringdon, London. Apologies for the poor quality – it was taken on my rubbish mobile.

For those who are not familiar with this pub, it is the only London outlet of the St Peter’s Brewery in Suffolk. It’s worth a visit if you like good beer and you’re in the area. The St Peter’s beers are very distinctive in their flavour tasting unlike beers from any other brewery. They usually have 4 or 5 on draught at any one time and most of the rest of the range are available in bottles.

I happened to notice these two bottles on the table on front of me (they weren’t mine) and was intrigued by the one on the left. If you’ve bought St Peter’s beers in the supermarket before you’ll be familiar with the elliptical shape of the base. It doesn’t come over so well in the picture but the left hand one has a circular base. I wonder if this is the new shape? It’s definitely got the St Peter’s badge moulded into the glass so they’re not brought in temporarily from somewhere else.

It would be a shame if the elliptical bottles disappeared.

Last week, Jon and I had a strung out pub crawl in London to take in a few places new to us and two of our favourites. It involved more walking than crawls we normally do but it was worth it.

The Jerusalem Tavern

Jerusalem Tavern, Farringdon

We started at the Jerusalem Tavern in Clerkenwell – surely a favourite of all real ale drinkers in London.

If you’re not familiar with the Jerusalem Tavern it’s a traditionally traditional pub. Lots of wood – walls, benches, chairs, and no carpets. The pub is the London outlet for the Suffolk-based St Peters Brewery and there are usually 4 or 5 draught beers on from their range. There are no handpumps, the beers served from taps in pretend barrels on the back wall of the bar. I’ve no idea how the beer is dispensed then – an electric pump? (The Hoop & Grapes in Aldgate used to have a similar set up.)

I think the Jerusalem Tavern also carries the whole range of St Peters bottled beers too.

We had a lot to get through so quickly moved on to the next one.

Read my review of the Jerusalem Tavern here.

The Peasant

At 240 St John Street the Peasant is a cavernous old pub with a mosaic tiled floor and enormous windows. If you read the Beer in the Evening reviews you could be easily put off going here, but I’m glad we did. The pub had a friendly, laid back atmosphere and good beer. I’ll come back for longer next time.

The Charles Lamb

The Charles Lamb at Angel - Exterior

Our next stop was the Charles Lamb just round the corner from Angel tube (at 16 Elia Street). We liked it here and the Dark Star Hophead was superb.

The Charles Lamb is reviewed glowingly at Boak and Bailey’s beer blog – a review which prompted me to want to go. The pub was very busy for a Monday night with a good atmosphere, and good food.

Read a more recent pub review of Charles Lamb here.

After this we headed off down City Road to an old favourite.

The Wenlock Arms

The Wenlock Arms, Hoxton

Another pub that you hope never changes. Visiting the Wenlock Arms (26 Wenlock Road) is a real ale dream come true. There must be at least 8 handpumps and the beers are always tip top.

You can read more on my boyish excitement at finding Brains Dark in the Wenlock Arms in a previous post. And read a more recent pub review of the Wenlock Arms here.

The Old Fountain

The Old Fountain, Old Street

Our final stop on the evening was the Old Fountain (3 Baldwin Street) close to Old Street tube station. By the time we got there it was dark and I was feeling a bit tired so I don’t really remember much about the pub other than the very impressive beer selection. I can’t remember what I had but I do remember that is tasted good. Jon’s pint was alright too – whatever it was.

We’ll definitely come back here again. A good pub to combine with the Wenlock and the nearby Artillery Arms for a more compact evening’s drinking.

Read a more recent pub review of the Old Fountain.

See this Google map to follow our route.