Some of you may very well remember our Cumbrian Beer Festival earlier in the year, which featured some choice brews from some of Cumbria’s finest. Hawkshead were of course well represented, and I’m happy to tell you that they will once again be returning to The Rake for an exciting meet the brewer event on Monday 14th November.

The beers on offer will include their Brodies Prime, Cumbrian Five Hop (aka Citrillo), Red, NZPA, and their kegged Lakeland Lager.

The shenanigans will ensue from 6pm that night, so make sure you come along – not only to enjoy some of the best from Cumbria, but meet the brewers themselves and hear what they have to say about their beers – not one to be missed!

First of all, the head brewers from Windsor & Eton will be in attendance from 6pm on Monday 12th September to meet, greet and wax lyrical about their excellent new pilsner, called Republika. This rather tasty 4.8% brew was launched at The Rake very recently, and if you missed it the first time round, fear not, because we will be the only venue in central London lucky enough to have two kegs available on the aforementioned date. Cask beer from Windsor & Eton will be available too, so make sure you don’t miss out!

Hot on the heels of this is another mouth-watering night – Project Venus Reloaded. Some of you may recall the original Project Venus at The Rake, and the brewsters – female brewers – are back to administer another dose of girl brewing power. The action kicks off at The Rake on Monday 19th September from 6pm, and will feature some of the UK & Ireland’s premier brewsters, including Oldershaw, Offbeat, Brentwood, Waen, and of course, Brewsters. They have all come together to brew Venus Rouge, a 4.2% red ale made with chinook, summit, and New Zealand cascade hops. Not one to miss!

Look forward to seeing you for these events!

This August Bank Holiday weekend (Friday 26th – Monday 29th) The Rake will be celebrating the best beers that Cornwall has to offer. As usual, the festival bar will be out on the decking with 12 beers as well as the three on hand pump inside. With the help of St Austell’s head brewer, Roger Ryman we have sourced some beers that are rarely seen in London and we’re sure you’re going to enjoy them.

Here’s the list :

St Austells

Smugglers Grand, 11.5% abv, Barley Wine aged in Whisky Casks.

Big Smoke, 5.6% abv, Smoked Porter brewed especially for The Rake.

Proper Black, 6% abv, The St Austells Black IPA.

Proper Job, 5,5% abv, IPA, rarely seen on cask in London.

Big Job South Seas Colonnial IPA, 8% abv, A double IPA, powerfully hopped with Tasmanian and New Zealand hops.

Admirals Ale, 5% abv, An Amber ale, brewed uniquely with Cornish Gold malt.

Black Prince, 4% abv, a dark mild with toffee notes.

Sharps

Abbey Red, 8% abv, A Belgian style red ale, aged for 18 months.

Spontaneously Fermented Blonde, 7.4% abv, A sour blonde beer, refermented with Cornish microflora, aged for three years.

Keltek

Magik, 4% abv, nicely balanced best bitter .

King, 5.1% abv, Pale bitter with a lingering finish.

Driftwood Spars

Red Mission, 4% abv, a red ale brewed to support the Cornish Air Ambulance service.

Dek, 3.8% abv, Cornish for Ten, Dek was brewed to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the brewery.

Skinners

Porthleven, 4.8% abv, One of the palest, fruitiest, zingiest and exciting beers you are ever likely to taste.

Coastal Brewery

Hop Monster, 3.8% abv, Thirst quenching session ale with citrus notes.

Penzance Brewing Company

Trink, 5.2% abv, Crisp, fruity and dry, brewed with Citra hops.

Scilly Stout, 7.1% abv, Clever name, clever beer! An exceedingly smooth and roasty stout.

Potion No.9, 4% abv, Light, golden and hoppy session bitter.

Atlantic Brewery (all organic)

Atlantic Red, 4.2% abv, Rich malt and marmalade make for a bittersweet finish.

Atlantic Blue, 4.8% abv, Cornish Porter with hints of Chocolate and coffee rounded off by a smooth smokiness.

Fistral, 5.2% abv, Beach blonde with a little wheat, citrus notes throughout.

See you there!

As I’m sure you’re all aware it’s the week of The Great British Beer Festival held by CAMRA. To complement their hugely successful festival The Rake will be extending it’s cask range to 13 this week.

Monday to Wednesday we will have the following beers on the bar.

Otley – Motley Brew, 7.5% abv – a Double IPA brewed by Rake Manager, Glyn Roberts.

Oakham - Untouchable 9% abv – An Imperial IPA brewed especially to help celebrate The Rake’s 5th Birthday.

Waen – Tidy Pint, 4% abv- A deliciously drinkable session ale from the Powys based brewery.

Freedom – 1010 Pilsner, 5% abv – A Pilsner brewed in October 2010 that has been left to mature for 10 months – Kegged.

Kernel – Pale Ale with Centennial, 10% abv – the 100th brew from The Kernel Brewery and the only keg in existence.

Stone - 12th Anniversary, 9.2% abv – a bitter chocolate oatmeal stout that we have been ageing for 3 years now.

Thornbridge, St Petersburg, 7.7% abv – an imperial russian stout with hints of chicory, bitter coffee, and dark chocolate.

These will be complemented with our usual range of randomly occurring beers.

We’ll also have our Festival bar open all week with the following beers on gravity…

Otley - UtObeer, 4% abv – An American hopped red ale brewed by Rake Manager, Glyn Roberts to help celebrate The Rake’s 5th birthday.

Oakham – Green Devil, 6% abv – Oakham’s IPA, dangerously drinkable for a 6% beer!

Summer Wine – 7 C’s of Rye, 7% abv – RyePA anyone?

Summer Wine – Nerotype Herkules, 6% abv – Awesome Black IPA from a brewery that isn’t afraid to use hops!

Summer Wine - Kahuna, 6% abv – Another IPA released for #IPA day!

Summer Wine - Diablo, 6% abv – A devil of an IPA!

Waen – First of the Summer Waen, 3.9% abv – New session beer from Waen, definitely tick or rate worthy!

Waen - Janners Pride, 4.6% abv – Best bitter with hints of whisky and ginger!

Waen - Festival Gold, 4.2% abv – Same recipe as Waen’s Landmark but with a lower abv, it’s dry hopped with Goldings to give it extra aroma and flavour.

Waen - Blackberry Stout, 3.8% – Rich and dark with a dry hoppy finish, absolutely awesome beer!

***ALSO NEW***

To help mark our 5th Birthday we have these stylish T-Shirts that you can buy at the bar.

Comes in sizes S, M, L, XL

Only £15.00

Proceedings start at 6pm and Roger will be in the bar to guide you through the St Austell beers that will be available.

We will have the following available…

On Cask – Proper Job(4.5%), Proper Black a 6% Black IPA(in cask especially for The Rake) & Big Smoke, a 5.6% oak aged porter brewed especially for The Rake by Rake DM Tom South.

We’ll have three special bottles for you to try too, Cornish bock, a 6.5%, Tribute Extra, 5.2% and Smuggers Grand Cru, 11.5%.

Hope to see you here!

Glyn

James Watt and Martin Dickie?

Yep the Dynamic Duo of James Watt and Martin Dickie will be in residence here at The Rake on Wednesday 13th July from 6pm to do tastings of a couple of new beers!

The beers sound bonkers but I’m sure they’ll be world class as usual!

The beers available on the night will be…

Black Tokyo Horizon, 16% abv, collaborative beer with Mikkeller and Nogne O.

Prototype 17, 77 lager that’s been oak aged, raspberry infused and made with Belgian yeast.

The all new and in my (not-so)humble opinion, much improved Punk IPA and maybe….just maybe something a wee bit spesh if you’re really good!

You all know what Brewdog nights are like at The Rake so I’m gonna say get here early to avoid disappointment!.

See you next Wednesday!

Glyn

well,lots going on soon and here’s the first bit of it!

Melissa Cole has been ‘at it’ again. Oh Oh. By at it, I do of course mean brewing (she’s not that kind of lady you know!). This time not only will the now famously awesome Thai-bO(you must remember the Kaiffir Lime Leaf, Lemongrass, Lime skins and Galangal) be on but it’s been joined by yet another bonkers creation, HedgrO.

HedgrO is a pale ale made with Elderflower(trust me, LOTS of Elderflower) and Gooseberries! Bonkers but brilliant!

This Thursday, 30th June, The Rake will be the 2nd venue on the Otley/Melissa Cole ‘Oh Oh Tour’. The Tour goes as follows…

Jolly Butchers 5pm – 6pm,

The Rake 6.30pm – 7.30pm

The Euston Tap – 7.45pm – 8.45pm

The White Horse, Parsons Green 9.15pm – Close.

Melissa Cole will be joined by Nick and Matthew Otley and a host of other thirsty peeps(me included) so we hope to see you all at The Rake for what promises to be quite an interesting night!

Cheers

Glyn

First of all, thanks to all who supported the recent London Beer Week at the Rake! Now it’s time to give you all a heads up concerning another exciting event we have planned – our Cumbrian Beer Festival. It begins on Friday 29 April at 12 noon, and we will be featuring 19 casks and 3 kegs, 22 beers all in all, from five of Cumbria’s most celebrated breweries.

We will be showcasing on keg, Hardknott’s Queboid, Cumbrian Legendary’s Croglin Vampire, and Coniston’s Thurstein Pilsner. On cask, we will have the following:

Hardknott – Atomic Narcissus, Infra Red, Cool Fusion, Continuum

Hawkshead – Brodies Prime Reserve, Citrillo, Organic Stout, Windermere Pale, Lakeland Gold

Coniston – Bluebird Bitter, Special Oatmeal Stout, Coniston IPA

Cumbrian Legendary – Loweswater Gold, Grasmoor Dark Ale, American Invasion

Stringers – Victoria IPA, Mutiny, Hop Priest, Yellow Lorry

An exciting line-up, as I’m sure you’ll all agree. Join us from the 29th to try these fantastic beers!

EVENTS

Last Week we had the Launch of Project Venus’ Venus Jade and the Brewdog Avery, Brown, Dredge Imperial Pilsner. This week it’s out London beer week. We’ve met several brewers already who have signed the wall and we have the nice folks at Meantime coming in this evening. Tomorrow night we’re hosting Jasper and Co from Camden Town brewing and Thursday see the Windsor & Eton peeps join us to do the London launch of their Royal wedding beer, The Windsor Knot. It’s all going on at the moment and the good news for me is that I have some annual leave coming up at the end of this week.

But just because I’m not here doesn’t mean it all comes to a grinding halt, oh no…One of my Team Leaders, Chris is busy organising a Cumbrian beer weekend for the end of April (29th – 1st May). Now some of these beers are rarely seen outside London and it’s an ideal opportunity for you all to completely ignore the Royal wedding and come drink some great craft beer!

STAFFING

We advertised for staff late last week and we’re still looking at CV’s, so if you are looking for work, or you know someone that is looking for work in the craft beer business then send them my way.

BEERS

The ever popular Motley Brew (That wot I helped brew at Otley Brewing Co)has gone through it’s final transformation and is now finished(we think), The final version is dry hopped with 140g of Columbus Hops in each firkin and we have two Casks in the Warehouse at the moment and I look forward to hearing your thoughts on it. It should be on some time next week if I remember to order it before I go away.

So until next time. Adios!

Glyn

Outside Bar

Saints & Sinners, Stop Short IPA, 6.5%

Brodies, Superior Porter, 7.2% and Beer Ritz IPA, 6%

Ha’Penny, Gog Magog Golden Ale, 5.6% and London Stone Best Bitter, 4.5%

Sambrooks, Wandle, 3.8% and Junction, 4.5%.

Twickenham, Naked Ladies, 4.4%, Spring Ale, 4.3%, Four Grains, 4.5% and Smilers, 4.8%.

Windsor & Eton, Knight of the Garter, 3.8%.

Inside Bar

Camden Town, Wheat, 4.5% and Helles 4.5%.

Zero Degrees, Rye Ale, 5%

Fullers, London Porter, 5.4%

Redemption, Trinity, 3%, Kernel Export Stout, 7.8 and Hopspur 4.5%

Meet the Brewer Event this Evening : Meantime! 7pm GMT!