There is a story which I have never been able to corroborate but which is so good that it has to be true: that Sir John Betjeman once accidentally attended a lecture on the “joy of reading” and was disappointed because he thought it would be about the joy of Reading. I thought about this as I boarded the train that would take me to this part of the world. On my bucket list was another of Britain’s top breweries - Siren Craft and their new flagship bar in Reading Town Centre. With a secondary objective of seeing what else I could find.
But first, working up the necessary thirst. I took a further short train journey from Reading to Pangbourne. It was only around 1030 so too early for village pubs, but Pangbourne offers a beautiful stretch of the Thames Path so I resolved simply to walk back the six or so miles to Reading. There was an annoying section in the middle where I had to cut inland through a housing estate in Purley on Thames, but then normal service resumed on a green path which managed to preserve a rural idyll until we actually hit Reading proper. My body felt the benefit of the workout; my mind the benefit of the tranquility. A perfect preparation for beer drinking.
First, a pleasant unexpected interlude. I changed my plans when I was plotting my route into town and it showed Phantom Brewing relatively nearby, with a taproom that was just on the point of opening. This was a sign that could not be ignored.
I had not heard of Phantom, but I used my time comfortably resting in their taproom to do some research. They are relatively new kids on the scene, having opened in 2019. In a familiar story from the craft scene, Dom Gemski and Dane White were both homebrewers who eventually gave up their corporate jobs because they decided that brewing was what they wanted to do. They specialise in Blink-182 themed beer titles.
There are many brewers in Britain now who follow this “craft” playbook, bringing in hops from around the world and experimenting with combinations to produce US-style concoctions. Not all of them are great. In some cases, the “not great” ones are standard UK brewers who figured that they had to add a NEIPA or an APA to their roster - and it isn’t a good sign when you couldn’t tell the difference between the two with your eyes shut. Others are just enthusiastic ex-homebrewers who don’t quite have the flare or precision. I tend not to talk about these, on the “if you don’t have anything nice to say…” principle. But, anyway, Phantom was one that I did like. Very much. It doubtless helped that I was hot, sweaty and thirsty, that they had a convenient water tap to replenish my bottle and that I was able to order a chicken burger from a nearby place that arrived within 15 minutes. My pint of “Don’t Run! We Are Your Friends” pale (a “Mars Attacks” reference) played very well into this favourable context.
Then I asked for advice on their stronger stuff and the gentleman at the next table promptly leaned across in a friendly way to recommend their “Dressed to Kill” DIPA. As a general rule, the stronger the beer the better it has to be, and this got the taste just right. I saw afterwards that it was a collaboration with Hertfordshire’s Baron (another relatively new and precocious kid on the block).
My next stop was the Nags Head pub, which was about 15 minutes walk away just outside the Town Centre. The Nags Head has won multiple CAMRA awards in the past, for their cider as well as for their beer. But just in case the CAMRA reference makes you think otherwise, it is a very craft heaven. I counted 12 taps, each of them advertising which beer was “up next” when they ran out of the current one. They had followed the (obvious) golden rule of picking excellent breweries. There were some old friends from my recent travels - Jaipur DDH in cask, Wiper and True and others from Bristol. But I was here specifically to try one of the locals - Elusive Brew. Andy Parker, founder of Elusive Brew, clearly has a strong link with the Nags Head and has described it accurately as a “beer festival in a pub”.
Andy is another one with quite a backstory. My research caused me to bond with him remotely when I read that he had acquired a BBC microcomputer in 1983 and had learned to program from there, writing fun games. (Me too! Great little machine in its day. How could anyone possibly need more than 48K of RAM?) He was another one who had pursued a corporate career before realising that the best bit of his life was making beer at home. He was inspired by the Belgians and later by Mikkeller and BrewDog in their young upstart days. His breakthrough was collaborating with Gregg Irwin (now Siren, then Weird Beard) to produce a saison. Andy has garnered the title of “the nicest man in the industry” usually with a follow-up of “and he just brews amazing beer”. Elusive are now neighbours of Siren on the industrial estate in Finchampstead. Going back to Andy’s teenage programmer days, their branding majors on vintage video games (think opening credits of “IT Crowd”).
Anyway, I drank the Mojave West Coast Pale. There is a video of Andy describing painstakingly how he put it together, including a modern hop variety called Talus. This was an excellent West Coast taste - a bit sharp but not too much and deeply refreshing.
Finally, into town for the Siren bar. Siren Craft are the undisputed kings of the Reading beer scene. They have been going for 11 years now, which makes them one of the pioneers of UK craft. They made their name with the “Broken Dream” breakfast stout, which continues to be one of the very best of its kind (some day I will stage a formal blind tasting to pit it against Thornbridge’s Cocoa Wonderland). Siren are one brewery I will always gravitate to, because everything they do is reliably excellent.
The bar is right in the centre of Reading, ideal for pre-train beers. Large, lots of natural light. A bit functional. And, with apologies to Sir John Betjeman, Reading does not make my heart sing quite in the way that some English town centres do. But the beer is good. I started with the Liquid Mystique Cask Red Ale - very pleasant, a bit understated. Then the Pompelmocello Grapefruit Sour, which had a strong bite to it. Finally - drum roll - Shattered Dream, the 9.6% Imperial version of Broken Dream, which words would really struggle to do justice to.
All in all, a most agreeable day, and one which has furthered my education regarding what this part of England has to offer.
A couple of footnotes on recent experiences. Regular readers will know that I do not drink a huge amount of pilsner, but on a trip to Canterbury I found probably the best English pilsner I have ever tasted - Ashford’s Curious Brew, whom I will certainly patronise further in future. (A visit to Canterbury’s own Foundry Brewpub left me unfortunately underwhelmed - perfectly nice, but you expect more than that from a beer these days).
The last word goes, once again, to Manchester. On a recent business trip, business prevented me from finding my way out to the famous “Beermuda Triangle” (Cloudwater, Track, etc), but I had a wonderful evening in Pomona Island’s North Westward Ho bar. A wide variety of Pomona Island’s own beers, and also a mind-blowing array of international bottles that I will have to return for soon.