Author: ewan
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The Jolly Butchers
The bright red frontage of The Jolly Butchers has long signalled something promising to anyone travelling along Stoke Newington High Street. Inside sits one of N16’s most dependable beer pubs: unpretentious, relentlessly lively and equipped with enough taps to make choosing the first pint unnecessarily difficult. Beer is not treated as a decorative extra here.…
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Augustiner Helles
For years, Augustiner Helles was one of those beers British lager drinkers spoke about with an almost irritating level of reverence. You could find the bottles in specialist shops, German beer halls and the better-stocked pub fridges, but drinking it on draught usually meant getting yourself to Munich. That changed in November 2025, when Augustiner…
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Stiegl Goldbräu
Some beers are easy to recognise but surprisingly difficult to track down when you actually want one. Stiegl Goldbräufalls into that category. Its red-and-white branding occasionally appears on London bar tops, particularly in pubs with strong European lager selections. Unlike the mass-market continental lagers occupying permanent lines across the capital, however, Stiegl Goldbräu is not…
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The Mayflower
Right on the river in Rotherhithe, The Mayflower feels like a pub that London somehow forgot to modernise – thankfully. Everything about it leans into atmosphere. Low ceilings, dark wood, cramped corners, flickering candlelight, and the constant sense that the building has absorbed several hundred years of conversations into the walls. You don’t really “pop…
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Alhambra Especial
Some lagers announce themselves loudly. Alhambra Especial doesn’t really bother. It’s one of those beers that starts appearing on taps almost subtly — first in a couple of food-led pubs, then a few beer gardens, then suddenly you realise you’ve been ordering it repeatedly without ever consciously deciding to. And that’s probably the point. Alhambra…
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Brugse Zot
Some beers are built for sessions. Others are built for moments where the evening slows slightly, the conversation settles in, and the pub suddenly feels warmer than it did an hour ago. Brugse Zot sits firmly in the second category. Brewed in Bruges, Brugse Zot has become one of the standout Belgian beers to properly…
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Paulaner Ur-Dunkel
Most dark beers in UK pubs fall into one of two camps: stout, or something trying far too hard to be “craft”. Paulaner Ur-Dunkel sits completely outside of that. It’s a proper Munich dunkel – smooth, malt-led, and quietly one of the most satisfying beers you can find on a London bar when it’s pouring.…
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The Kenton
Tucked away in Homerton, The Kenton has built the sort of reputation most pubs would kill for: somewhere people actively travel to, not just stumble into. On matchdays, it’s firmly a Spurs pub. The atmosphere shifts early, pints start flowing quickly, and the place fills with the kind of football crowd that actually improves a…
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Leffe Blonde
There’s a certain type of pub where Leffe Blonde just makes sense. Candlelight, dark wood, maybe a fireplace somewhere in the back, and someone at the bar slowly committing to a pint that definitely wasn’t meant to be necked in ten minutes. Leffe Blonde occupies a very specific lane in British pub drinking. It’s often…
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Howl At The Moon
If you’re looking for a quiet pint in Hoxton, keep walking. Howl at the Moon is built for noise, movement, and nights that pick up pace quickly. It’s a proper late-night boozer with Sports TV, the kind of place where a match is always on somewhere and the bar is never still for long. Groups…
