Ægir Brewery in Flåm

And the Norway posts keep coming, just for a little while yet, I hope you're not bored of them yet. In yesterday's Flåm post I promised to write a post about the Ægir Brewery that is located in Flåm, so here it comes. We spent one very fun evening in this wooden pub building that is a new build, but built in the Viking style with suitable interior, an open fire at the centre of the room and heavy wooden furniture. It was very cosy and the service was excellent and extremely friendly.

They brew beer in the premises, but also have a bigger brewery building just a few hundred meters away from the pub. The beer selection is very wide, all imaginable beer styles are available. We decided to start with the tasting boards to get more acquainted with their beers, as we had never tasted the Ægir beers before.

I especially like the naming of the beers after local areas or characters from the Old Norse sagas, like Ratatosk or Tors Hammar, and also the artwork on the bottles and cans. Of course all the beers were excellent as well. It's quite an unique location for a microbrewery and I will remember this experience for a long time to come.

BrewDog Shepherds Bush

Couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure to visit the BrewDog Shepherds Bush, a pub by the Scottish craft beer brewery BrewDog. 

They offer a very wide selection of craft beer in a great atmosphere with a cool interior. It's quite difficult to decide what to choose from all of those beers, strong, light, dark, pale, they have everything...

I tasted two wonderful beer sorts. Firstly I had the "Bohemian Pilsner", Fake Lager 4.7%, which is a rather German style Pilsner, the kind I like.  

My second choice was the Dead Pony Club 3.8%, a Californian Pale Ale described as “hoppy as hell”, and that it certainly delivered. I think I might have to buy that bottled as well.  

I was happy sitting in the pub enjoying my beers while it was a pouring rain outside. Go and visit them and see what all the fuss is about!

Your VegHog

In this previous post I reviewed BrewDog's Hoppy Christmas Christmas beer.

The Eagle and Child Pub in Oxford

”The Bird and Baby”, as it was called by its locals J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and their fellow ”Inklings”, who liked to meet in this pub and discuss their literary ventures. Whenever The VegHog is in Oxford, it will make sure to visit The Eagle and Child as it has such a great vibrant atmosphere and good drink selection in a convenient location. The Eagle and Child has been a public house since 1650, which means that also the building is a fascinating one. The atmosphere is normally relaxed even though it can a very busy pub.

Last weekend I had the pleasure to visit Oxford again, so I went to this pub a couple of times. I had great Saturday evening drinks and a wonderful vegetarian Sunday roast with a nut roast, roasted veg and Yorkshire pudding with a cosy mulled cider to finish it off.

For a while now I have been trying to track down the newish Weston's cider Rosie's Pig, and finally at The Eagle and Child I got lucky and was able to taste it. Rosie's Pig is very easy to drink for a cloudy cider due to its soft and mild taste, but please be still careful as that might deceive you at some point.

I really recommend a visit to The Eagle and Child and the beautiful Oxford.

Your VegHog

The Bankes Arms Country Inn and Isle of Purbeck Brewery in Dorset

The Bankes Arms is an idyllic country pub on the jurassic coast of Dorset. It's located close to Studland beach and Old Harry Rocks and a walking distance away from Swanage town. The scenery in those parts is just amazing, I can only recommend a visit! Just behold the picture compilation below.

The VegHog usually snuffles its way from Swanage over the hills, past the Old Harry Rocks for relaxing in the pub's huge beer garden with a sea view. This pub is brilliant in the summer season because of its large outdoor facilities but also very cosy inside in the winter with open fires and a relaxed atmosphere.

The Isle of Purbeck Brewery is attached to the pub and you can taste their excellent beers in perfect quality and even buy a party keg to take away. They also serve good ciders and pub food. I think they could have more vegetarian options on their menu but the main thing is that they have good drinks.

The Coach & Horses – London's first veggie pub

The Coach & Horses is a vegetarian public house located in 29 Greek Street in London's Soho. I visited it for the first time couple of weeks ago and have only good things to say about it. The interior was cosy, it wasn't too busy and the staff were extremely nice. It seemed like the perfect place to escape the hectic London streets for a while.

They had many tempting dishes on the menu and also some vegan options and a good selection of ales and ciders. The ales were in a good condition. I decided to have the day's special, a vegetarian lentil and vegetable shepherd's pie. It tasted very hearty, was filling and good value for money. Apparently they also offer vibrant entertainment such as a ”Good old Cockney piano sing-a-long”.

Well worth a visit if you're in London, it's easily accessible from anywhere in central London as well.