Beer World Tour - England

Welcome to the third and final Beer World Tour. My trip to Europe ended with a few days in the UK where I got to try warm beer during summer!

Now, I know that we like to joke about English beer being warm and we can't understand why, but there is logic in the madness. Bitter beers & Ales are made to drink straight from cellar into your glass and while in winter they may appear colder, in summer they can be room temperature. However, when you taste one of these delights the flavours that you get from the beer is wonderful and maybe lost if it was chilled to 2-3 degrees as we do in Australia.

That being said there is no excuse for warm lager, lager is made to be icy cold, but true English bitters & ales are just right out of the tap regardless of the temperature.

So let's start the final leg of the journey!

The first stop was in Hampshire where we stayed at the local Holiday Inn and really didn't get to try any of the local brew.

We had flown in from Holland that evening and after the 60 minute drive to the Hotel we had enough time to buy a burger, down a couple of beers & then head off to bed!

The next night we travelled to Kent where we went to a posh restaurant where only Belgium beer was served. It was strong, but very very good!

My next stop was in the beautiful town of Ludlow in Shropshire. I spent my time exploring this historical town in the Welsh Marches, where Catherine of Aragon was exiled for a time. There was a number of new beers to try in the many pubs in the town and I will need to return soon as there was way too much to taste and explore in just a couple of days.

Included in my visit was the Shakespeare festival at the castle which my in-laws arranged for me as well as staying in their beautiful Jacobean house. More about Ludlow in a future hub...now back to the wonderful local beers.

My final stop was London which was in the grip of Olympics fever!

I spent two days shopping and visiting museums while finding ample opportunity to settle down for a pint or two.

In typical English summer style I went from being warm to cold in minutes, in fact at one time I was feeling a bit hot so poked my nose into a pub to down a quick pint when to my horror when I went outside again it was pouring with rain! I used the disturbance to have another pint while I waited for the clouds to pass. On to the beers...