Mason & Taylor, Bethnal Green, London

This is a lovely bar in a nice location that serves really nice beers.

They have an extensive International selection, and you can try a flight – a selection of beers in small glasses – which is great if you want to expand your tastes and try something a little new.

I also tried their mulled wine and can safely say, this was definitely a lovely winter treat.

With a relaxed atmosphere and lovely décor (if it’s open check out the basement bar), this is definitely on my places to visit again!

Big fan of this spot. Amazing selection of beers (duh!) and awesome atmosphere. No reservations so you’ll likely have to wait for a table if you want to eat. The food is British tapas and most of it is delicious. Favorites were the salad with squash and black pudding croutons and mushrooms on toast, welsh rarebit. Braised fennel was not very nice. Definitely want to go back.

I was lucky to be picked by those lovely people at Qype to sample some ales as a preview of the Hip Hop Off beer festival that was held down at this new bar on the corner of Redchurch St and Bethnal Green Road.

Having been away of course, in a country where it is virtually impossible to get a decent beer (where are the IPAs in India is what I want to know!) it was a delight to try some new drops, a couple of which were fantastic.

We were introduced to the selection on offer by Steve Taylor who is a man truly passionate about his beer (although he is not an ale bore. He is happy to bore about lager as well..!) Seriously though, it was great to meet someone who can explain the cultural and historical rise of lager and the decline of ale in the last century and who is determined to get people drinking good quality beer - regardless of whether it is fizzy or flat, cold or warm.

It was also nice to see some real thought going into the selection of beers for the festival, selecting different breweries takes on the hops that they were using and allowing the drinker to compare what they had done. It's a good indication of the attention to detail that has clearly been an intrinsic part of everything about this place, I mean, there was some criticism of the lampshades but I didn't think they were THAT bad... As others have said though, this place is in hipster central and yet it manages to be entirely unpretentious and stylish without overwhelming.

So we started out with a couple of beers brewed with the Citra Hop, an American developed plant with fruity flavours. We had tasters of the Darkstar Hophead Citra, a special edition of the house ale and the much stronger Kernel IPA Citra. Some found this second beer too strong, but while I couldn't necessarily have drunk it all night, I found it an amazing drop. It assaulted you with it's smell first before the fruit cocktail of flavour with a silky texture hit the palate.

These two were among my favourites of the ones we tried during the night but Steve managed to even find something for the avowed beer-haters among us, bringing out a bottle of something that tasted like fizzy cherry sweets and not in a particularly good way as far as I was concerned; It won over the unconverted though so he obviously knows what he is doing.

The boozy food consisted of an excellent beer soaked "English" Rarebit and duck cured with hops which was subtle but delicious. The venison with chocolate sauce didn't work for me to be honest though and I felt the meat was marginally overcooked. Having said that, at least they are trying something a bit different with their menu and it was certainly a lot more interesting than your standard pub fare.

It's the beer and the devotion to it in all it's many forms that really wins me over here though. I feel I could happily spend evenings in here knowing that I would get a good drink and be in a casual but cool environment without any pretension.

Mason & Taylor is a pub I'd been wanting to visit for some time, being it "twins" with my absolute favourite, the Duke of Wellington in Dalston.

I enjoy beer and have nothing against hipsters (I know it's like saying I have nothing against mass murder, these days), so an invite to an ale tasting in Shoreditch, the Hip Hop Off preview, sounded very good to me.

And oh, it was worth it. After Steve the manager had given us a proper lecture about real ale, including its historical and social implications, we proceeded to a generous tasting of six rather tasty brews. I'd be happy to try some of them again but to be honest, in the end I went for a pint of Brooklyn Lager which is American and well, a lager.

As well as the beers, we were offered a sample of small plates from the pub's menu. The English rarebit and the duck (both cured in hops) were really good, but I'm not so sure about the venison in chocolate sauce. It does taste like venison in chocolate sauce, if you know what I mean.

As for the pub itself, it's just my kind of pub. It serves Brooklyn Lager and it's almost walking distance from home. It has already won a place in my heart.

Many thanks to Qype and to Mason & Taylor for organising such a lovely evening.

Thanks to Qype, I was lucky enough to get a sneaky preview of Mason & Taylor’s first ever ‘single hop real ale & craft beer festival…The Hip Hop Off! I’d heard a lot about M&T, which opened in December and was especially intrigued by their beer tasting flights, which are served in gorgeous 1/3 pint glasses in trays of either 3 or 6.

It was a day of new beginnings for me as I took my first ever trip on the (not so) new East London Line to Shoreditch High Street…merely a hop (apologies for the pun), skip and a jump from Mason & Taylor!

The sun was shining and upstairs was buzzing with an after work, long weekend, celebratory atmosphere, so I was a bit disappointed to be led into a fairly dark, empty basement…little did I know that this is where the Hip Hop Off magic was all set to happen…10 ales were rigged up on a specially constructed water-cooled gravity racking system in preparation for the festival the next day.

Now, I’m not what you would call a serious beer drinker, I don’t know if I should shout about it but I’m more of a lager fan myself. However, just listening to M&T’s beer aficionado, Steve Taylor, wax lyrical about it made me feel that I was well on my way to becoming a convert…what that guy doesn’t know about beer just isn’t worth knowing! His enthusiasm is completely infectious and I felt like we were in very capable hands, as he talked us through the 6 beers we were sampling…

Amongst others we tried Kernel’s IPA Citra, Thornbridge’s Kipling and Brodie’s Pink Pride, which contained fresh raspberries, adding a very fruity dimension without any stereotypical ‘fruit beer’ sickliness!

We also got to sample some of the food that they’d be serving during the festival, which had all been prepared using hops in some way or another…duck breast, which had been smoked using citra hops and venison that had been cured in hops and served with a chocolate and barley sauce…(meat and chocolate…how can you go wrong?)

Although the Hip Hip Off was a special event for the Easter weekend, M&T’s beer selection on a normal day is pretty darn impressive… ‘12 draught beers and ales on tap at any one time and a seasonal list of 40 bottled beers which changes every 2 months’. They source all of their beers through independent breweries including a couple of my faves…Kernel and Camden Town. They also serve up a tempting menu of small plates of food…ideal for sharing and soaking up some of the stronger beers! :).

I feel it’s my duty as a newly converted beer drinker to sample more of Mason & Taylor’s wares very soon…let’s call it homework!

http://afternoontease.co.uk/post/4958244403/the-hip-hop-o...

Of all the places I'd expect to find myself on a warm evening, an ale bar in Shoreditch isn't one of them. But I put aside my East End snobbery (far too many undercuts for my liking) and deep-rooted dislike of beer for Qype's ale tasting event with Mason & Taylor last week.

Despite having a very well thought-out selection of beer and ale, Mason & Taylor seems much more like a bar than a pub. It's all glass, exposed lighting and squishy sofas. There's a DJ a couple of nights a week too (nothing too hectic - they were playing funk/soul when I was there, which pretty much sealed the deal for me).

But trendiness and lovely atmosphere aside, Mason & Taylor is definitely all about the beer. Head Beer Chooser (not his official title) Steve was incredibly knowledgeable about the ales we tried and even managed to find me a beer that I liked. A 3.5% cherry beer that tasted of lollipops but beer nonetheless.

The food menu is also worth a look and pretty unusual for a bar - the welsh rarebit, smoked duck breast and venison were all delicious and come in small plates, perfect for sharing.

So well done to Mason & Taylor for reversing my opinion on beer and Shoreditch. I'll be dragging my prejudiced friends here before long I'm sure.

Shoreditch. It's an interesting area. Populated by those strange beings known as 'hipsters'.

And where hipsters are, pretension, trendiness and general rubbish are not far behind. Not the things you want in a bar. The things you want in a bar are - drinks, friends and comfortableness.

Mason & Taylor may not be able to provide the friends (you have to find your own) - but drinks and comfortableness are in abundance.

It's a big open plan bar with plenty of comfortable seating and huge windows allowing those who want to people watch ample opportunity.

So - to the bar. Good gawd, Mason & Taylor have some beers. Oh, so many beers. And good beers too. And that's not counting those they brought in for the Hip Hop Off Festival.

I'd suggest drinking by the half here so you can sample as many different boozes a possible. Don't worry about where to start, but pick something and keep going - you're sure to have a blast.

Mason & Taylor is a bar that is all about craft beer , real ale, and locally sourced food served as smaller dishes to share. This means that each visit there will be something new to try. You will find Mason & Taylor in the buzzing area of Shorditch at the top of Brick Lane on Bethnal Green Road.

This Easter weekend Mason & Taylor are having a beer festival called Hip-Hop Off, with the focus on single hop beers, showcasing breweries such as London’s Brodies and Kernel, Allgates, Art Brew, Blue Monkey, Crouch Vale, Moor, Otley, Steel City and Saltaire. Allowing you to compare different breweries’ treatment of the same hop strains, in different beers. There are flights of 3 and 6 beers available to give you a chance to try the different real ales side by side.

Along with the real ale there is Mason & Taylor’s usual small plate menu with dishes added which include hops in the ingredients. The food at Mason & Taylor is well priced, (plates and sides running £3 to £6.50 each) and is well prepared and tastes great. I think the small sharing dishes are perfect for a gather of friends to enjoy sharing while sampling the wonderful beers on offer.

You won’t find a man more enthusiastic and knowledgeable about his beer as Steve Taylor, with his knowledge and expertise he has put together a fine festival worth getting yourself over to Mason & Taylor to check out. Hopefully there will be other festivals but as the beer changes around every couple of months there is always an opportunity at Mason & Taylor to try a new real ale or other beers.

Nice place. Dark Star Hophead as house beer is a good plan. Good selection of foreign beers on draught and in bottles. A touch pricey but then it is in the Shoreditch catchment area.

Made it to Mason & Taylor's soft launch a couple of days ago and was well and truly impressed. I know the main attraction of M&T is meant to be its ale, but I am not a beer drinker (sorry) so I decided to give that a miss, and instead opted for a glass of house red which came served in a small glass tumbler. I didn't mind it so much as I liked the informal feel of a tumbler, while my friend, an avid wine drinker, protested that it wouldn't taste as nice. Whichever suits you, I guess.

The food menu was definitely a cut above your usual average pub fare... and dare I say, above the usual gastropub fare. The food they had for us to sample was really good: rabbit, wild boar sausage... truly a carnivore's delight. There were some nice vegetarian options as well - the artichokes were delicious, if I recall correctly.

I liked the decor of the pub as well. Nice and woodsy and a great relaxed place to catch up with friends. Definitely a great addition to the Shoreditch neighbourhood!