Aperitif

Dear Subscriber,

Hello again. We hope this finds you well, enjoying the last vestiges of summer (!) and drinking some nice things.

If you've been in to visit in the last few days, you'll see that we've had a bit of a facelift. We thought it was about time, and we think it looks great! Hopefully you'll approve. There are still a few more bits and pieces to come in the next few weeks - we'll leave the train spotters amongst you to identify what they are. If you haven't made it in recently, there are a few  pictures on the left to give you a sneak preview.

With summer drawing to a close, we have the traditionally sunny Bermondsey Street Festival coming up. Saturday the 19th September should be a fun day, with some great beers and gin cocktails from us adding to the merriment. There are also plenty of tents should the weather continue to be unimpressive...

On the subject of tradition, we have just had our annual staff pilgrimage to a site of alcoholic importance; this year Belgium. Chris has eloquently described the ensuing mayhem below, so should you find yourself in Brussels, we have a few suggestions for you. If you're stuck in London though, drop in and share our current enthusiasm for Belgian beers!

Cheers,

Paul

Tuesday Tastings

Our Tuesday Tastings cost £10 per person. Tastings start at 7pm and last around 2 hours. They are a mixture of tasting, talk from one of us, a wine maker, spirit producer or expert of some kind, general chat, plus a little bit of food to pair with the tastings.

They are held in our back room, so we are limited to 25 participants on a first-come basis. We can take reservations for the tasting, but due to no-show bookings, we need to take payment in advance. Please let us know if you would like a table in the bar afterwards as well.

Click here to reserve space at a tasting

Tuesday 15th September, 7pm
Sangria Tasting

Our last Sangria night was a great success, so we've decided to give it another go. We'll have a few different styles of sangria to try, along with some appropriate foods to soak them up. Red or white, winter or summer style, we'll show you there's a little more complexity to it than just chucking your leftovers in a jug!

Tuesday 29th September, 7pm
Italian Reds

Following on from our Italian whites and rosé tasting earlier in the year, Liberty wines (Italian specialists) will be back in the newly-redecorated back room to showcase some fantastic Italian reds. Expect full, rich, earthy flavours. accompanied by some traditional Italian fare. Details of the wines to follow on the website newsletter page in due course.

Digestive

The Hide Staff Trip 2009
 

Every year, The Hide generously takes its staff on a "research" tour to do some tastings and maybe take in a manufacturer of some fine beverages. Our first trip was to Sanlúcar da Barrameda in Spain to try some sherries, last year we went down to Champagne to visit Ayala and Bollinger, and this year, I finally got my way and we went to Belgium, home to some of the best beers in the world. A quick hop on the Eurostar and we were in Brussels early Wednesday morning. Dump the bags at the hotel and then wander round for a bit, taking in some sights, Mannekin Pis (really little, and bizarrely dressed up in lederhosen) and the Full-screenPlace des MartyrsAddress:, a spot of lunch and then on to our first brewery tour, Cantillon.
 
Paul visited Cantillon last June, and has already mentioned it in the pages of this newsletter, so I won't bore our esteemed readers by going through the details again, just a couple of things. I'm a huge fan of Lambic beers, loving the sourness and the completely different flavours involved, but I was in a very small minority amongst The Hide staff. Thoughts of pearls and swine come to mind; Philistines. We tried a wide range of their beers and I can hugely recommend their Grand Cru Bruocsella which is aged for three years in oak and is fantastically dry and sumptuous. The brewery itself is somewhat odd, still brewing after a hundred years; not much has changed. The place exudes tradition and heritage in a rustic, homey, family sort of way. The cobwebs are testament to the brewers' superstition that if they clean the place too thoroughly, they'll disturb the micro-organisms that are so intrinsic to lambic brewing. A fantastic place, a peek into another era when time wasn't money and rushing wasn't a virtue, unlike modern brewing.
 
After the tour, we stumbled through the streets, finding a great place to have some classic Moules Frites, then back to the hotel for a nap before hitting the streets again to find some bars and some beers. We'd heard some good things about Delirium Café, named after the 8.5% brain-eater, Delirium Tremens, a huge beer in Belgium. We were certainly not disappointed. With a beer list of more than 2500 beers, Delirium is an amazing place. Old beer trays adorn the walls and the seating is around giant, empty beer barrels. The music is loud and quite heavy, the crowd is lively, there's a crush at the bar and it's an absolute corker of a night out. Right next door is Floris Bar, a tequila bar for serious tequila drinkers. Almost every tequila in the world is represented on its straining shelves. The night slowly dissolved in the many bottles of La Chouffe (one of my favourites) and saison beers (including one flavoured with elderflowers), and a couple of tequilas thrown in for a bit of colour. Then, after wandering the streets for a bit, we found ourselves in L'Archiduc, a cool little art deco bar on the Rue Antoine Danseart. A bit worse for wear, we stuck to old favourites Negronis and 'ti punches with a couple of beers and an odd rum and champagne shot. We also made friends with some of the locals, including a strange artist/photographer type who handed out postcards of naked ladies. They're a friendly lot in Belgium. Thoroughly sated, we made our way back to the hotel for some kip.
 
A late start, very un-bright-eyed and un-bushy-tailed, saw us in a cab to Breendonkdorp and the Duvel Moortgat Brewery which was founded by Jan-Leonard Moortgat in 1871. The opposite of Cantillon, Duvel is made in a spanking new brewery with a state of the art bottling line. Duvel (pronounced Doovel) is the Brabantian word for devil and at 8.5%, it certainly packs a punch. It undergoes a second fermentation in bottle which leaves behind a touch of yeast and gives the beer a subtle extra flavour, all held together by the high alcohol. The brewery produces nearly three hundred thousand hectolitres a year, with more than half of the brewery's output going to the export market, backing it's claim to be Belgium's favourite beer. They also produce Liefmann's, Maredsous, Vedett, Palm, Bel Pils, Steendonk and Achouffe at different breweries throughout Belgium and a modern micro-brewer, Ommegang in Cooperstown, USA. Though very modern, the company is still 75% in the hands of the Moortgat family and is very proud of its heritage, with the fourth generation looking after the beer today and their octogenarian grandmother watching over from her house across the road from the brewery. The staff are very friendly and helpful and again this tour is definitely recommended if you find yourself in Belgium with a couple of hours to kill.
 
The longest, hottest bus ride in the history of the world took us back to Brussels and back onto the Eurostar. Tired and a little hung-over, the party split up at St Pancras, thoroughly sick of each other after spending nearly forty-eight hours together. Evidently, our patience is not of the highest quality. Luckily, we are all very forgiving people.
 
All in all, Belgium makes a great holiday destination. The food is fantastic, it's full of history for those who enjoy that, bars for those who enjoy that and the beer is of astronomical quality. The Belgians also understand that their beer is superb and deserves the recognition it gets. They understand that it is equal to wine in every degree and sometimes even surpasses it. Hopefully we can start a little beer revolution at The Hide. Pop in for some Belgian brews including Duvel, Liefmann's Kriek and Vedett.

 
Cheers,
Chris
 
 
Archiduc
Cantillon
Duvel
Delirium Cafe