The Victoria Inn Rugby Beer Festival

It's a shame I went to The Victoria Inn Beer Festival two days before Pan-C, it would have been fun to share a few jars. Thursday however was my day of choice, and I had a good but solitary time.

Before the Victoria I nipped in The Merchants Inn whose Beer Festival I've previously written about. I have to say that sadly the choice of beers at the bar was somewhat boring, with offerings from Thwaites and Theakstons amongst the eight real ales on offer. I had a quick half of Warwickshire Best Bitter, which was below average and left. I feel it is good sense for a pub this good to have a good range of beers on when a pub in the same town is having a festival, but obviously others think different.

I nipped into The Rupert Brooke next, to test my confidence in walking out without ordering, but I didn't need to, as cask conditioned Anker Bruin from Belgium was on offer, and very good it was too.

From there I walked to The Vic. Pan-C writes very eloquently about the pub, and I have to say what a great boozer it is. The type of back street local we would all like, and so proud of its beer range with the handpumps standing like brave soldiers plumping out their chests. The back yard is perfect for a small stillage like we had for the festival. I had four beers from out back and three from inside. I was a bit disappointed with Taunton Castle, my first beer from this Somerset brewery but enjoyed all the other beers I tried including the hot, hot, hot Chilli Haze from Atomic. This is no Cave Creek Chili Beer. Instead it's really warming, and inviting, and almost has aphrodisiac qualities. Certainly the best chilli beer I've had.

The Victoria is a top pub which I shall return to. The festival was well organised, and the beers carefully chosen. It was quiet on my visit, but hopefully busy at other times; it certainly deserved to be. I'm sure they will have another festival before the end of the year, but why wait that long before going back?

The Merchants Inn Rugby Beer Festival

In contrast to Coventry which I wrote about last week, Rugby has more going for it. Famous for its school and the birthplace of some sport whose name escapes me, it is worthy of a visit for historical reasons. However I tend to go to places just for the beer, and in The Merchants Inn they have one hell of a pub.

For those who know The Malt Shovel in Northampton and are impressed by the breweriana on display, The Merchants actually puts it to shame. It's a veritable feast of old advertizing boards, posters, pump clips, mirrors and collectable old beer bottles (all of which I think are full). It's pretty much a museum of old beer memorabilia.

On an average day the pub sells nine real ales on handpump together with a pretty decent range of Belgian bottles. However I was here for the Joy Of Six Beer Festival week long festival featuring 66 beers, all of which have a 6 somewhere in the ABV; a bizarre theme if ever there was one.

Stillage space in the back bar is limited so of course not all 66 beers are available at once. There was actually a choice of 28 which should, though, be enough for anyone. I worked my way through eleven of them; and found them a mixed bunch in terms of quality. I was pleased to see Wickwar Station Porter, but was very disappointed in it, finding it to have an odd sweetness and no roasty flavours which Wickwar promise.I also tried Cauldron Snout, now brewed by Darwin, and a good beer, but not as nice as I remember it from its High Force days.

The best beers I tried were No Bully Dozer from Oakham, brewed with reference to the campaign to save The Brewery Tap, typically hoppy well brewed beer, and Lancaster Black, a nice tasty roasty stout.

Prices were reasonable for this part of the World at around £2.50 a pint, and the festival fish and chips looked bloody handsome. There will be another beer festival in the Autumn, and other pubs in Rugby have ones lined up for the Summer. Rugby CAMRA are having their festival in three weeks time, so right now it's a pretty good town for beer, and with it being less than a fiver on the train for me, life is sweet.

How Many Beers Make A Festival?

The King Billy in Northampton is advertizing a beer festival next week to celebrate St George's Day. It's a good thing that a pub chooses to do this and hopefully it will be a success and raise the profile of real ale both in this pub and the town as a whole. It's a fairly small affair with just ten beers, which is less than the Malt Shovel just hundred yards away has on on a permanent basis. Still it's a start, so good luck to them.

I may pop in if I have time, but my priority next week is the Joy Of Six Beer Festival at The Merchants Inn in Rugby where sixty six beers are promised during the week.

Do you think 10 beers constitutes a beer festival or is there a lower limit?

A Few Beers In Rugby And Then Home

On 11 May, I took the short train journey to Rugby to visit their festival. I arrived 45 minutes before the festival opened so strolled to The Alexandra Arms. This pub sells five real ales, sometimes including those from their own brewery “Alexandra Arms Brewery”. I sampled the Quaffers Ale, a 3.8% quaffing beer. It is light but easy to drink. A bit steep I thought at £1.05 for a half seeing it was home brewed. The pub is what I would call a local. At first glance it appears to be one roomed, although hidden away at the back is a games room which also has a loud jukebox. It is a six times winner of Rugby CAMRA pub of the year, a title though it would struggle to win at the moment as there are two better bets in town in my opinion. The pub was pretty smoky on this visit (I have found it less so before) with a chap at the bar smoking a particularly strong cigar. It’s hard to avoid peoples’ smoke when they seat themselves at the servery.

Then it was time to walk to the Festival. This is held in an indoor bowling centre which in spite of Rugby CAMRA’s claim is a 20 minute walk from the station. This is my third visit and I found the beer quality and range to be better this year than on other visits. I had beers from the following breweries:
Arran
Bushys
Great Orme
Okells
Purple Moose
Valhalla
Franciscan Well
Messrs. Maguire

My Beer Of The Festival was Bushys Old Bushy Tail a lovely malty fruity beer with great bready flavours. Very nice. I sampled an excellent Chicken and Potato Curry which is the best curry I have ever had at a beer festival and cooked by an English lady. A word on the smoking. It was barred from the room where the seating area was but allowed in the bar area where the beers were. Customers don’t have to go to the seating area but they do need to buy beer so a bit arse about face really. Smoking has been banned from most festivals for a little while now.

After the Festival I went to The Victoria Inn which is owned by The Atomic Brewery. I sampled two of their beers Reactor and Bomb, both of which were lovely pale hoppy beers. The pub has a smoke free lounge and a bar/games room where smoking is allowed.

My final pub on my crawl was back in Northampton to The Malt Shovel. Here I had the new mild from Great Oakley Brewery brewed for May, and a Hambleton beer. The pub was busy as ever and there was a small proportion of people smoking but it wasn’t too bad.

I shall visit all of these pubs soon after the ban and will report on how they have changed. All in all a good night’s crawl with some very good beers at great pubs, and only a couple of duff experiences.

A few links:

Rugby CAMRA: http://www.rugbycamra.org.uk/

Alexandra Arms: http://www.alexandraarms.co.uk/

Atomic Brewery: http://www.atomicbrewery.com/

Malt Shovel: http://www.maltshoveltavern.com/

Great Oakley Brewery: http://www.greatoakleybrewery.co.uk/