Down The Orient

Last night saw Liz and I wander over to Leyton for Piglet 9 - it's November so there has to be a Piglet at some point.

These are small festivals run by the Leyton Orient Supporters Club at their bar behind one of the main stands - initially started as a fill-in when the Pig's Ear festival had nowhere to go.

The supporters bar has always been good for beer even when it was by the (then) open away end. It still has a great reputation and has won numerous awards - it's currently the joint winner of CAMRA's National Club Of The Year.

When I pulled up at the bar for my opening pint, the bar staff- all volunteers and generally Orient fans - were all having a moan about their recent performances, the latest being knocked out of the cup at home a few days earlier by Tranmere - until I told them I was a Darlo fan and they should think themselves lucky.

This brought the usual questions - "Is George Reynolds still with you?" and "Is he still in jail?". They're a bit behind recent events at the <insert latest sponsor name here> Arena.

"Well you've got a lovely new stadium" one added. Hmmm, OK if you like that sort of thing. Which I don't really.

(left) Brodie's Orient - yummy

The festival had a special beer on - Orient from local brewery Brodie's - which is probably only a mile or so from the ground. You simply can't get more local.

I've been having quite a few of their beers recently and they've all been good. I don't know where they find the time to churn out some many brews.

The Orient was very good - a golden ale which at 4% is a more-ish quaffing beer with plenty of taste but which doesn't overpower your taste buds.

Liz was getting stuck into the ciders - well the Two Trees Perry from Gwynt Y Ddraig first which was slightly sweet but went down well.

Chris T joined us and managed to cadge a chair off somebody - the place was getting quite busy and it was standing room only. The crowd was very old-school London CAMRA with the usual crew from the Wenlock Arms in residence.

There was another local brewer present with three beers on offer from the Ha'Penny Brewery in Ilford. They had their Ha'Penny Bitter (3.5%), Sixteen String Jack IPA (3.8%) and Spring-Heeled Jack London Porter (3.9%).

The bitter was very clean and light - another session beer - and the porter was lovely - not a lot of body but full of dark flavours.

Unfortunately their IPA was a bit murky. It had been served to some people early on but later took it off.

(right) Ha'Penny Bitter

Brewer Gavin Happé (who co-brews with Chris Penny - hence the brewery name) told me that they'd used a huge quantity of hops and it had caused a haze (though it looked more than a bit hazey to me). All part of the learning curve I suppose.

One other good beer was Beer Monster from Oakham Ales - at 4.8%, it was a full-flavoured beer with a nice touch of maltiness, not too malty for me - I've never had a bad beer from them yet. I do miss our away trips to Peterborough!

And all beers and ciders were very competitively priced at £2.50 for a pint - beat that!

Liz and I finished off the night with Brown Snout Cider - yet another one from the chaps at Gwynt y Ddraig. At 6.0 it was quite a bitter single-variety cider, quite reminiscent to my cider novice tastes to the Kingston Black.

So well done to the LOSC team for yet another top festival. If only we had something like this at our place...