The Framers Forum

Frank wrote: a single malt scotch.

now you could open up a whole new debate. Personally I am an Islay man the peatier the better

Hi Frank,

Welcome - nice to see a new OZ posting.

Funny how a request to find framers in London, becomes a slanging match for beer drinkers all over the UK.

So invites to Belfast, Manchester, Bristol, Lake District etc - you will need another week at least. !

Louise should be able to introduce you to some framers near to where you are staying in London, because I already know your time is very limited.

As Keith says time is pretty limited this trip but I can see I will need to come back and have some in depth discussions on both picture framing and drinking. Sampling some Islay single malt would certainly make the trip to manchester worthwhile.
I can see I'm going to get on just fine with English framers.
Perhaps we should introduce a new regular feature in our magazine focusing on what framers are drinking?

I brew my own beer as well

Frank,

My Gallery is at
104 Lower Marsh
Waterloo
London
SE1 7AB
tel 020 7928 4944

Hope to be meeting you soon


PS we have a varied choice of local ale houses who sell cold beer and the odd single mat!

Now we're talking, currently working my way through a bottle of Taliker, Isle of Skye. Prefer the Western Isles to the Speyside whiskys.

Islay for me too... Laphroaig.. but now then, with or without water?

I had a bottle of Talisker at Christmas I also enjoy a Laphroaig as well, but Lagavulan is my favourite but at £40+ a bottle its a bit steep and i haven't managed to persuade my arqadia rep to buy me a bottle for Christmas

Waterloo is certainly within striking distance for me this trip so will be in touch Kevin and will try and catch up.
For the record I like a couple of ice cubes in my whiskey. Not sure if this is proper. I mostly like the way they clink in the glass.

Frank wrote: For the record I like a couple of ice cubes in my whiskey. Not sure if this is proper. I mostly like the way they clink in the glass.

I used to as well but I now always drink neat, you drink less that way and savor the flavours and aromas more. Same with beer temp should not be too cold as you lose the aroma from the hops. . But then we live in a climate more conducive to hot mugs of tea

Bit partial to hot cup of tea myself. Especially in the work shop where a shot of whiskey and sharp things don't really mix.
But on another matter, my wife is a little concerned about what to wear. What will the weather be like in late june? Does she need a coat? Can she wear her silly high heels or should she bring gum boots? Or has global warming kicked in up there???

Well it is in its 20c + todauy but they forcast snow and temps of 6c on monday. However may June can be the best months I think always before the kids 6 week holiday. It will rain when we go away in august.

If you come when wimbledon and Glastonbury are on then it will either be a scorcher or rain, however ther is no Glastonbury this year so that will diminish the likely hood of either by 50%

Kevin it seems your gallery is about 1 mile from where I will be staying so I will be taking up your offer of a visit. And now I am completely on top of what the weather will be like. Or at least I have a 50% idea of what it might be like.

There are probably no winners here. After all "beer" to an Australian is XXXX or lager as we call it. Probably gassy pop. This suits Londoners though (remember watneys red barrell? ) So I would say that the centre of the universe has to be Dublin where REAL beer comes from. probably the most famous in the world. Not because I used to work there mind you, but it is a tad far from London.

But Alistair has a mean home brew I am led to believe.

Probably a "grand tour of the counties would be excellent for an article in the mag!!

Guinness and Irish stouts has its routes with London Porters and if It wasn't for the fact that Authur Guinness get a better land deal in Dublin it would have been brewed in Wales Yes back in 1759 .

Who has told you about my beer only two people that I know of on this forum have sampled it.

Arthur struck a superb deal with the council for land which basically means he gets to keep the same rent until "tomorrow" Nice work Arthur.

I didn't know he was going to brew it in Wales though. Its odd that when they brewed it in London, the taste was no where near as good as Ireland. It still isn't as good in my opinion but it's a lot better than it was. The difference is probably because they ship at high gravity and water it down over here.

I didn't say that your home brew had been tasted by me, but that I had heard that it was very good. It must have been someone who is no longer on here.

Stout originates from London Porters. The term Stout refereed to stronger porters it a stout porter (porter in term derives from the clientèle who drunk it in the London markets). London Porters and stouts were far reaching around the globe long before the Burton brewers exported pale ales to India. Imperial stout was very strong stout which was exported to Russia.

Old Arthur saw what the London brewers were doing, before that he was brewing Irish red ales in a different brewery, and decided he wanted a slice of the action so he looked for a new brewery south Wales was also earmarked but he bought a 9000 yr lease for the St James Gate brewery for £45 and also secured the water supply from the Wicklow hills (it doesn't come from the Liffey).

The water to Guinness is the key but it is similar to the water of London hard which is needed to compensate for the acid nature of the dark malts. Modern Brewing strip the water of its ions and then makes additions so that it has the exact mineral profile. In fact Edinburgh historically was the most blessed city for brewing as they have many different water profiles hard and soft and sulphurous (Burton on Trent) and they eventually over took Burton as the beer capital of teh world when they exported more barrels of Pale ale to India.

So really the drink which is so synonymous with Ireland owes its existance to londners.

Yes I did send a bottle to a friend no longer active on this site.

When I was in my twenties and thirties, I spent a lot of my time in and around south London. Many of the pubs were Fuller's pubs and used to sell Fuller's pale ale dispensed from the old fashioned hand pumps.

It was just the perfect drink on a hot summer's evening.

Real beer should be flat, not gassy!

Anyone from Sussex? What about King and Barnes? Now that's what you call real ale!

Wow you guys really know your beers. For the record XXXX is a Queensland beer and no one in Australia drinks Fosters and only Queenslanders drink XXXX. Thats interesting about Stout. I was in Dublin about a month ago and I would have paid more attention to the dark beer if I had known about the history. A couple of years ago I was in Middleton in Ireland and went to the Jameson factory where the tour guide told us Whiskey was invented by Irish monks. I am sure in Scotland the tours there tell you it was Scotish monks which invented the stuff.
I am seriously going to come back and do a tour of the country visiting framers. There will be no mention of computer mat cutters or moulding styles. Only what the local framer drinks.
Interesting there has been no mention of wine. In Australia I suspect most framers are wine drinkers. Might have to do a little looking into that as well.

Frank wrote: Interesting there has been no mention of wine. In Australia I suspect most framers are wine drinkers. Might have to do a little looking into that as well.

Could you imagine the scene if one of the chaps on this thread admitted drinking wine!!!! Having said that, as my capacity for beer is diminishing, I rather enjoy a glass or two of vino collapso of an evening.......let the pi** taking commence!!

Theres actually plenty of real ale around here including one pub (coincidentally run by a guy called Frank) where the only lager on tap is considered to be for the girls.....He usually has at least 12 guest ales which change seasonally, I've never completed the card though!