My Top 5 Pints In London

from The London Review 2023

Who Are The London Reviewers

By Mauricio Gómez Montoya

I wholeheartedly believe one of the best ways to get to know a place is by doing what the local folks do. This includes going where they go, eating what they eat, and yes, you guessed it… drinking what they drink. During my time in London, I had a goal of visiting different pubs, chatting with locals, enjoying some local pints, and hopefully watching some English football. Mission accomplished! During the trip, I documented my thoughts on each beer using the Untappd app. The list below includes a variety of styles, breweries, and locations. All beers listed here were brewed in the London metro area and were consumed at local pubs. London offers a lot of options for zythophiles, and there were many other beers that I enjoyed but did not rank, from other English offerings to international beers from Portugal (Sagres), India (Cobra), China (Lucky Buddha), Spain (San Miguel and Madri), and the Czech Republic (Straropramen). Without further ado, here are the local London pints that cracked my top 5. Cheers!

5) Pure Ubu, Bitter Cask Ale - Purity Brewing

Location: Chequers Tavern, Oxford

Profile: Smooth, malty, and a bit flat. Cask ales are not carbonated and hail from England. This beer was consumed along with an award-winning meat pie while watching the Cheltenham horse races!

4) Brixton & friends - Lager, Brixton Brewery

Location: Turf Tavern, Oxford

Profile: Crisp, hoppy. Beer was consumed along with some tasty fish & chips. Excellent pairing! This pint was enjoyed after a morning at the Natural History Museum nerding out on dinosaurs.

3) Level Head, IPA - Greene King Brewery

Location: The Hoop & Toy Pub, Kensington

Profile: Hazy, light & floral. No food to accompany. Though, I enjoyed it while watching Arsenal FC get eliminated from the Europa League by Sporting Lisbon in penalties.

2) Frontier Pale Lager - Fuller’s Brewery

Location: The Red Lion Pub, Westminster

Profile: Smooth, hoppy & fruity. No food to accompany. This pint was enjoyed while taking shelter from the rain and the educator protests near Parliament. Nice people watching.

1) London Pride - Bitter - Fuller’s Brewery

Location: The Chelsea Pensioner, Fulham

Profile: Malty, easy drinking. A classic British ale. No food to accompany.

The main reason London Pride, or LP as folks at the pub referred to it, was ranked as my top pint was a bit circumstantial. Yes, it was a lovely pint. However, the primary reason why it rose to the top was the setting in which I had it. This particular pint was enjoyed at ‘The Chelsea Pensioner’. Apparently, ‘The Pensioner’ is the quintessential Chelsea FC supporter’s pub. I stopped by The Pensioner after touring Stamford Bridge, Chelsea FC’s stadium. While I am not a Chelsea FC supporter, it was awesome to have access to a supporter’s pub and experience their passion & reverence for the club firsthand.

I’m glad I was able to enjoy good pints along with some good conversation while in London, because, in the words of Brother Hyacinth Epp (1902), a Capuchin Monk in Munjor, KS, “without beer, things do not seem to go as well...”

Cheers to London!

Fun fact: Mauricio’s bag was missing/lost the *entire* trip, and didn’t show up at his house until a week after we got back. We stayed in Heathrow looking for it so long that we had to take a taxi to the hotel instead of the coach bus with everyone else.

Aarthi Aruna is a sophomore from Overland Park studying Behavioral Neuroscience and Anthropology with a minor in Spanish. She aspires to be an endocrinologist. She enjoys traveling, playing tennis, and spending time with family and friends. Her favorite part of London was seeing how so many cultures came together at the various markets, and the Tate Modern Museum!