We recently found ourselves at the Royal Oak in Borough for the leaving party of James, the manager of this, CAMRA South East London branch’s Pub of the Year. As it happens, it was also branch stalwart Alex Lines’ birthday drinks. Among the beers on tap was Harvey’s Armada Ale (4.5% ABV) which we had sampled from the wood the previous night at Woodfest Five. This was not an entirely scientific experiment but my view was that it tasted slightly better than what we had the night before; just a bit more flavour? This could however have been caused by a temperature variation and I acknowledge many other factors could affect the taste buds in this ‘experiment’.
Among the other beers available was the fruity Harvey’s Georgian Dragon (4.7% ABV) and from this ruby ale we progressed to sampling a very special cask version of Prince of Denmark strong dark ale (7.5% ABV), which is usually available only in bottles. It has complex flavours with sweet notes, somewhat reminiscent of a Pedro Ximenez sherry to which I am partial as a Christmas treat! This was definitely a fine finish to a mini lunch time session.
Best wishes to James and welcome to Terry. I look forward to visiting the Royal Oak again soon.
Maria Freeman