Dark Star Hopfest in Brighton (England) 1st of Oct and London+Canterbury

With a couple of friends from Rome (Italy) we will arrive in London on the 29th of Sept. We are planning a robust Real Ales hunting in the city and outskirts (Canterbury etc). On the 1st of Oct we will attend the Dark Star brewery fest in Brighton. On the 2nd of Oct we have a late flight from London and will try to hit few more places. Any tip/suggestion is going to be mostly welcome from the community. One of us knows the English craft beer scene very well, having been there many times before. Besides of this here are my points:

1. Does anybody know the opening hours of the Butchers Arm in Herne?
2. Does anybody know the opening hours and the email address of Gadds Ramsgate Brewery?
3. How many chances to have an Old Ale during that period? Is it a seasonal style? Where we can have chances to have it?
4. Must-to-visit pubs and places in these cities/towns where we will be.

We can come up with additional requests in the coming days and we will post them on this thread. Many thanks for your support. Cheers

va in bocca a lupo!

Here is a list of pub/breweries we aim to. Most likely we wont be able to hit them all or maybe some of them are not anymore worthy to be visited. I am going to list them here in order to get some tips from you guys, especially from the local English crew.

London:

The Harp
White Horse on Parson’s Green
Cask Pub and Kitchen
Southhampton Arms
Euston Tap
Rake
Market Porter
Jerusalem Tavern
Craft Beer Co.
Wenlock Arms

East Sussex:

Evening Star

Kent:

Butchers Arms
Foundry Brewpub
Gadd’s Brewery
Conqueror Alehouse

Many thanks

PS Gene...crepi il lupo ;)

That is a very short time for such an agenda. I would skip the entire Ramsgate/Butcher’s Arms part of your plan for this trip. It’s almost 3 hours in the train to Ramsgate and back, and the Butcher’s Arms is somewhat more remote.

Your dates seem compatible with the St Albans Real Ale Festival, for reference. It’s very close to London.

I just think, you have 3 nights in London, and you want to spend two days of them outside of London, with a lot of time on the train.

If you have not been to London before, there is *so* *much* to discover in London for pubs and beer. A day in Brighton, yes. But Canterbury and Ramsgate...save them for a future trip, spend those train travel hours pub-crawling in the city.

Yes Erlangernick,

I think you are totally right and we will consider re-shaping our plan. But still on Friday we have to be at Gadd’s (one of us has some obligations there), therefore the Butchers Arms being on the way will be a due stop. Perhaps we will skip the other 2 and divert more time to London. Another option would be to skip completely the Gadd’s meeting and postpone it and the rural tripping to another time (I will talk to the guy who wants to meet Gadd’s).

FatPhil...good info this Albans Real Ales fest. Do you have more details?

Both and all, does anybody know the opening days/hours of The Butchers Arms?

We are very glad of your contributions.

Cheers

I’m planning on being at St. Albans every day, if all goes well, I added an event here: http://www.ratebeer.com/event/47571/st-albans-beer-cider-festival/
Maybe more info will appear at http://stalbansbeerfestival.org.uk/ eventually, but they aren’t as good as some other CAMRA branches at pushing out details in advance.

Originally posted by Erlangernick
But Canterbury and Ramsgate...save them for a future trip, spend those train travel hours pub-crawling in the city.

Originally posted by ippopotamo36
1. Does anybody know the opening hours of the Butchers Arm in Herne?

Thank you alovelydrop,

do you have the contacts of Martin?