Vegan beer this weekend

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Here are two fabulous opportunities to get your lips wet with vegan beer this weekend.

Opportunity the first is with Clarkshaws Brewery.

We’ll be open for tours of our new brewery and the chance to try exclusively available beers, including our Coldharbour Helles. The brewery taproom will open regularly on Saturdays from March, but this is your chance to get ahead of the crowd and visit the brewery before it officially opens to the public. The Beer Hive is a collaboration between Clarkshaws Brewery and London Beer Lab, and will expand to include other breweries in the coming months, creating a cooperative of microbreweries and letting visitors taste the work of different breweries all on one site.

Saturday 21 February, 12.00-18.00.
Arch 283 Belinda Road, off Coldharbour Lane, Loughborough Junction, SW9 7DT.

Details: No need to book, just turn up on the day. We will be licensed for on and off sales so come by for a drink and pick up a bottle or two to take-away! Facebook event page here.

Opportunity the second is with Orpington Liberal Club.

Our next Beer and Cider Festival is on Friday, 20 February to Saturday, 21 February 2015

Festival times:
Friday, 20 February 5pm to 11pm
Saturday, 21 February Noon to 11pm

You must buy a ticket in advance, but THERE IS NO ENTRY CHARGE. The ticket is pre purchase of a voucher for the first two pints of real ale, cider or perry. Tickets are £6.00 over the bar or £6.40 online (people buying online should bring their receipt on the day to collect their vouchers). Vouchers can also be used for food. Soft drinks, wine etc will be available. All beer/cider/perry is just £3.00 a pint. Slightly more than previous festivals, but we are sourcing harder to get and more expensive beers.

We have 27 real ales plus ciders and perries. Following a number of requests, and given the big response we had to them last time, all the real ales will be free of isinglass finings. This means they may be a bit hazy, but they will be very tasty!

You can find out more (including line up of drinks) and buy tickets online.

Get involved with vegan beer drinking this weekend!

Also, don’t forget to pencil July 18, 2015 into your diary as London Vegan Beer Fest returns for a third year. Add your email address to the mailing list form below to ensure you are the first to know about ticket sales.

Vegan Scottish tablet

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Do you like to eat delicious things?

This post is just for you.

I was recently contacted via email about a product called Dairy-free Scottish Tablet. Due to my birth having taken place decidedly south of the equator, I had no idea what to make of this information. Scottish tablet? How unusual!

I wrote back to explain my ignorance of tablet as a food and the producer explained it as a chunkier, grainier version of fudge.

Of course I was intrigued (you had me at fudge!) and I happily agreed to receive a bag for sampling purposes. Check it out below.

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NYC to LDN eating

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If you are a vegan traveller, you probably spend a fair chunk of your preparation time wondering what your airline-supplied meal will consist of once you are in the sky.

I have a recurring section on this blog dealing with just that very topic. You can click here to view past stories of airline meals, or keep scrolling down this page to see what I was served on my British Airways flight between JFK New York and London Heathrow last week.

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Shop vegan in Mexico

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I recently named Mexico City as one of the best places on the planet for vegans.

This mega-city has some truly inspiring vegan enterprises springing up and is a must-visit destination for plant eaters all over the world. You can get delicious handcrafted food delivered by bicycle, have dinner served from a 100% vegan taco stand and visit one of the locations of a deliriously-cute falafel chain.

But it doesn’t end there.

I am thrilled to find out there is now a vegan grocery store in Mexico City!

My pal Kay is currently in Mexico City for work and has been sending me updates about the vegan scene. One of her more interesting finds is vegan grocery store called Vegattos.

Vegattos is a small store selling food, clothing, personal care products and more for humans, as well as toys and accessories for cats. The store helps to raise funds for rescued cats in Mexico City and has been opened since 2014.

Check out some of the photos sent to me by Kay.

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Angry Birds

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What’s better than vegan cookies? Vegan cookies shaped like Angry Birds, of course!

Check out these gorgeous cookies that just happen to be vegan.

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Too far

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Have you seen this music video released today by OK Go for their new song You’re a Fucking Nerd And No One Likes You?

I have included the video below, but please be warned it contains adult themes and explicit language. Trigger warning: the lyrics of the song contain the word rape.

I am unsure how the band members, record company, film company or anyone connected to this project considered the content of the song to be an acceptable form of promotion for a movie (Hot Tub Time Machine 2).

Here at FGV, concepts of social justice hold court over everything that happens. This music video blows social justice out of the hot tub water.

The lyrics and visual content manage to display misogyny and homophobia, while repeatedly making a vile reference to animal rape.

I’m all for satire and saying offensive things in a clever way to make fun of people who say those things seriously, but I don’t see that comical device at play in this song and accompanying music video. If that is the intention of the artists, it is incredibly poorly executed.

Am I missing something?

Is making jokes about raping tigers a clever way for the band to make fun of ‘bros’ and macho culture, or have OK Go got this terribly wrong?

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Killer view

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Is a great view worth the cost of a meal?

I think this outlook just might justify any expense.

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London Vegan Beer Fest 2015

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I am thrilled to announce the return of London Vegan Beer Fest to the capital on July 18, 2015.

lvbf holdingAfter two incredibly-successful years in Bethnal Green (during which attendance grew by more than 100% year on year) London Vegan Beer Fest is set to stamp its indelible beer stain on King’s Cross.

That’s right. London Vegan Beer Fest is moving to Zone 1.

The 2015 version of London Vegan Beer Fest is set to be an explosion of vegan beer, cider and food. An exciting day-long schedule of events is being planned to give attendees an immersive beer experience like no other.

Full details coming soon.

Subscribe to the Fat Gay Vegan email newsletter to receive exclusive alerts about ticket sales, brewery line up and more.

Email newsletter subscribers will get access to an exclusive early bird ticket offer prior to the general public.

Make an effort

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I don’t know why I don’t live on the East Coast of the USA. The food is on another level. Well, I do know why I don’t but I’m trying to be dramatic in order to convey how seriously they take their vegan food over there.

Take Blackbird Pizzeria of Philadelphia as just one example.

This pizza restaurant is everything you could ever hope for and more. Huge pizzas, crunchy fries, cheesy calzones, seitan wings and a 100% vegan status will make you think you have landed in plant-based heaven.

Check out the photos of my recent take out order from Blackbird. The pics below show (in order) a slice of Haymaker pizza (featuring seitan sausage, red onions, garlic butter, tomato sauce, Daiya cheese and fresh oregano) I ate as I waited for my takeout order, calzone with oozing cheese, sticky root beer seitan wings, rustic fries and a Brunchbird pizza (featuring tofu scramble, crispy seitan bacon, sautéed spinach, garlic butter, Daiya cheese).

Stunning.

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Grocery frenzy

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I’m thrilling myself by buying all the vegan groceries here in New York.

Check out my latest haul in the photos below.

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