Ramblings In Brighton - The Evening Star

There can't be many pub or beer lovers in the country who haven't heard of The Evening Star near Brighton Railway Station. It is the only other pub I went to in Brighton. I wish I'd gone more often but it was a good walk from the hotel.

Back in the 1990s it was one of the pioneering real ale pubs selling rare beers from the length and breadth of the isles. Drinkers flocked there from all over in search of their ticks and scoops.

Then Dark Star Brewery and its offshoot Skinners went into production in the cellar, and guest beers were less prominent. Having said that though Dark Star and Skinners produced loads of different ales to keep the scooper satisfied. Skinners fell by the way side and Dark Star relocated, and their beer range diminshed but the pub still carried on as a beer lovers haven, still in the Dark Star estate.

Nowadays there are six or seven real ales available (about half from Dark Star), a couple of real ciders, a couple of keg Dark Star beers, a few foreign draught beers and a selection of around 50 bottled beers from Germany, Belgium and the US. All the beers are carefully chosen with definitely no crap.

To my mind as a foreign beer lover, the beer range now is better than it's ever been. Of those foreign draught beers two from USA were available when I visited last week: Sierra Nevada Bigfoot and Flying Dog Snake Dog IPA. I have never seen either of these beers available on draught in the UK before and suspect if they have been it has only been in The Rake.

It's testament to the excellent beer range that the pub always seems busy. The clientele is reasonably diverse but one thing they all seem to have on common is the love of a good pub and good beer. If you're reading this in the UK, the chances are you've visited the pub before. If you haven't been then what are you waiting for?

Northampton BF - Final Beer List

All the beers are stillaged and ready to roll for Thursday's big kick off at the Northampton Beer Festival. I've updated the beer list which is now final. It can be found at the previous post.

Ramblings In Brighton - The Hand In Hand

The Hand In Hand was my local whilst in Brighton, being just 200 yards or so from my hotel. For that reason it was the pub I visited the most and the pub I watched The Champions League Final in.

There is no doubt that the pub has some interesting clientele. I first visited the pub in the 1990s and shared the window seat with two old toothless soaks who seemed like a regular fixture. I've not seen them since; they are probably in boozy heaven, but there is still the odd fascinating character to make people-watching fun.

Before writing this, I had a read of Beer In The Evening to read their comments. A lot of those are negative, but I have always enjoyed myself and have only once had a dodgy pint. This week there was two of their own Kemptown Beers: Kemptown Bitter and Ye Olde Trout, together with two from Dark Star: Hophead and Festival, and Cains IPA, which was a long way from home compared to its companions on offer. There are a dozen or so foreign beers including draught Bacchus Kriek and Hacker-Pschorr beers from Germany.

I stuck mostly to the sublime Hophead although I did have a couple of pints of Kemptown Bitter as well for old times sake. Between our group all five beers were tried, and there were no complaints

You wouldn't know it if you'd never been before but the pub has actually been spruced up over the last few years, with the smoking ban making a vast difference. It used to be very dingy, now it's only pretty dingy! The picture at the top shows it being yellow; I'm not sure it still is, but not taking my camera doesn't help.

This is a really good pub well worth the twenty minute walk from the railway station. Like a lot of Brighton pubs it is small (it claims to be the smallest in the city), and is all the better for its intimate size. The pub has been for sale and still may be, I am lead to believe, so changes may occur in the future. It would be a shame if the pub were to change very much.

Ramblings In Brighton - Night One

I didn't get to nearly as many pubs as I'd planned during my five nights in Brighton. It's not easy when you're in a group who, in spite of being beer drinkers, are also reticent to walk very far for their imbibing. Fortunately we stayed within 200 yards of one of Brighton's better pubs so I was happy to spend a great deal of time in there.

Arriving first on Sunday with one travelling companion my priority was to get a few pubs in before meeting up with the others when they arrived. We headed therefore for the North Laines for a wander.

The first pub we nipped in was The Heart & Hand as pictured yesterday. This is obviously attractive from the outside, and quite interesting on the inside. One roomed and furnished with a rare vinyl jukebox, it's a little bit of a throwback to another era. The pint of Harveys Sussex Best was in great nick.

From there it was to The Great Eastern, entering by one of the narrowest front doors I've ever been through, this pub was long and narrow and the chap next to me's roast lamb smelled nice. My pint of Pilgrim Porter was really good.

Onwards to The Lord Nelson. This looks like a small pub from the outside but goes back pretty far. The real draw to this pub is excellent Harveys ales. I had a pint each of Knots Of May, a 3.0% light mild, and Olympia Golden Ale. Harveys brew some great stuff, and although these are not perhaps up to their highest standards, I still enjoyed these two.

We then sadly had to leave the laines fo the town centre. Two more pubs were visited: The Bright Helm, one of the worse JDW's known to man. Eight pump clips welcomed the customer, but only one of them was on. "Our area manager tells us to keep the clips showing", I was told. My statement that Tim Martin says otherwise was met with a blank face. I was in no mood to change the look on his face but wish I had.

We moved over to the very busy Fiddlers Elbow for more Harveys Sussex Best in the company of our now arrived colleagues. The beer again was in great form. Bed beckoned after this pub, but in night one I had visited five pubs. All the beers I had were lovely, and rarely found in my neck of the woods which is a nice treat.

I was only to visit two more pubs all week. I'll write about them both tomorrow.

Northampton Beer Festival 2008

The Northampton Beer Festival runs from this Thursday at 5pm and is then open all day in Friday and Saturday. It is at Delapre Abbey and my report of last year's festival can be seen here. I'm working the day sessions so cannot sure how many of the list of beers below I shall get to try. The list is looking pretty good.

Abbeydale Moonshine
Abbeydale Absolution
Alehouse Commercial Mild
Alehouse Smokey Joe
Alehouse Rauchbier
Anglo Dutch At t'Ghoul & Ghost
Atomic Fission
Bartrams Suffolk N Strong
Bartrams Premier
Beowulf Beorma
Beowulf Spring Tide
Beowulf Dark Raven
Beowulf Dragonsmoke stout
Beowulf Finshalls Porter
Beowulf Chiller
Beowulf Mercian Shine
Black Country Pig on the Wall
Black Country Bradleys Finest Golden
Blythe Chase Bitter
Blythe Ridware Pale
Blythe Staffie
Blythe Palmers Poison
Blythe Johnsons
Brewsters Hophead
Brewsters Marquis
Brewsters Cheval Mort
Brewsters Daffy's Elixir
Brewsters Hop a Doodle Doo
Brewsters Bathsheba
Bridestones Pennine Best
Bridestones Pennine Gold
Bridestones Sandstone
Bridestones S Special
Buntingford 92 Squadron
Buntingford Golden Plover
Buntingford Pargeter Dark Mild
Buntingford Oliver Cromwell
Buntingford Knight Templar
Crouch Vale Anchor Street Porter
Crouch Vale First Gold
Crouch Vale Brewers Gold
Crouch Vale Essex Boys Bitter
Digfield Fools Nook
Digfield March Hare
Digfield Barnwell Bitter
Digfield Shacklebush
Digfield Mad Monk
Digfield Dumpy's Special
Eastwood Stirling
Eastwood Best Bitter
Eastwood Gold Award
Eastwood Black Prince
Elgoods Double Swan
Elgoods Cambridge Bitter
Elgoods Black Dog Mild
Elland Born to be mild
Elland Eden
Elland Nettlethrasher
Elland 1872 Porter
Empire Entente Cordial
Empire Shrikes Back
Empire Crusader
Empire Drystone
Fenland Rabbit Poacher
Fenland Sparkling Wit
Fenland Raspberry Stout
Frog Island Best
Frog Island Shoemaker
Frog Island Natterjack
Frog Island Fire Bellied Toad
Frog Island Croak & Stagger
Funfair Meteorite
Great Oakley Welland Valley Mild
Great Oakley Wot's Occurring
Great Oakley Wagtail
Great Oakley Harpers
Great Oakley Gobble
Great Oakley Delapre Dark
Great Oakley Tailshaker
Great Oakley Festival Special
Hambleton Stud
Hambleton Nightmare
Hambleton Stallion
Harwich Town Mayflower
Headless Owd Reg
Highwood Shepherd Delight
Highwood Harvest
Highwood Old Timber
Hoggleys Phipps Triple X
Hoggleys Northamptonshire Bitter
Hoggleys Kislingbury Bitter
Hoggleys Mill Lane Mild
Hoggleys Resevoir Hogs
Hoggleys Pump Fiction
Hoggleys Solstice Stout
Hoggleys Mick's
Hoggleys What Knees
Hopshackle Shacklers Best
Hopshackle Shacklers Gold
Hopshackle Momentum
Iceni Crocus
Iceni Woolly Mammoth
Iceni Roison Dubh
Iceni Ported Porter
Iceni It's a Grand Day
Idle Idle Landlord
Idle Idle Chef
Idle Idle Sod
Idle Idle Dog
Idle Idle Cricketer
Idle Idle Boggin
J.Church Parsons Nose
Little Valley Sixpence
Little Valley Mild
Little Valley Tods Blonde
Little Valley Hebdens Wheat
Magpie Dark Secret Mild
Magpie Full Flight
Magpie Fledgling
Magpie Thieving Rogue
Maypole Maybee
Maypole Gatehopper
Milestone Rich Ruby
Milestone Somers Wheat
Milton Icarus
Milton Jupiter
Milton Sparta
Milton Cyclops
Naylors Pinnacle Mild
Naylors Pinnacle Porter
Naylors Old Ale
Naylors Special Brown Ale
Naylors Blonde
Naylors Pale
Nethergate Three Point Nine
Nethergate Augustinian
Nethergate Mary's Ruby Mild
Newby Wyke Summer Session
Newby Wyke Kingston Topaz
Newby Wyke Slingshot
Newby Wyke Puffin
Newby Wyke Marie Celeste
Nobbys Wet Spell
Nobbys Claridges Crystal
Nobbys Wild West Ale
Nobbys Best
Oakham JHB
Oakham White Dwarf
Oakham Bishops Farewell
Oakham Inferno
Oakham Haka
Oakham Mompessons Gold
Oldershaws Pearl
Oldershaws Mowbrays Mash
Oldershaws Old Boy
Oldershaws Decadense
Poachers Shy Talk
Potbelly Best
Potbelly Aisling
Potbelly Ambrosia
Potbelly Pigs do Fly
Potbelly Beijing Black
Potbelly Inner Daze
Potbelly Crazy Daze
RCH Steam Pole
RCH Pitch Fork
RCH East St.Cream
RCH Double Header
Red Squirrel Prohibition
Red Squirrel Dark Ruby Mild
Rockingham Forest Gold
Rockingham Dark Forest
Saltaire Cascade
Saltaire Million Ale
Saltaire Dark Mild
Saltaire Blonde
Shardlow Locking Down
Spire Chesterfield best
Spire Sovereign IPA
Tring Side Pocket for a Toad
Tring Jack O'Legs
Tring Tea Kettle Stout
Vale Black Swan Mild
Vale Black Beauty Porter
Vale Grumpling Old Ale
Vale Gravitas
Vale Special
Vale Spring Gold
Warwickshire Lady Godiva
Warwickshire Falstaff
Warwickshire Golden Bear
Warwickshire Kingmaker
Weatheroak Ale
Weatheroak May Day, May Day
Weatheroak Keystone Hops
White Horse Bitter
Wolf Prairy Gold
Wolf Straw Dog
Wolf Wolf Ale
Wolf Wolf in Sheeps Clothing
Wolf Granny Wouldn't like it
Wolf Coyote
York Yorkshire Terrier

Defunct Livery In Brighton

One of the things which sets me apart from pretty much all of the other British beer bloggers is my camera skills. Those skills can be broken down into two components:

Skill number one - the ability to take my camera anywhere with me.

Skill number two - the ability to take a decent picture even if I remember my camera.

Whilst out and about in Brighton last week, I saw three great examples of defunct livery on the front of pubs. First was The Kemptown Brewery (not the one still in existace) outside The Bulldog on St James Street. A distinctly drabby looking pub which I didn't venture into.

Second was the beautiful green tiled frontage of The Heart & Hand in North Road in the North Laines advertizing United Ales and Stouts which was actually The Portsmouth & Brighton United Breweries Ltd. I did go in to this quaint characterful pub and had a lovely pint of Harveys Sussex Best, which almost matched the tiles.

Third was the old Tamplins pub, The Victory in Duke Street. I've been in here before - it's crap, so didn't venture in this time.

There are plenty of other examples in Brighton, as can be seen here. They are all for another time. The photographs aren't mine, but borrowed from the aforementioned site.

Champions!

Watching United win The Champions League is sweet.

Watching United win The Champions League with six pints of Dark Star Hophead is very sweet.

Having fun in Brighton, but no time to blog properly. Normal service should resume at the weekend.

Off To Brighton

I'm off to Brighton in a couple of hours and won't be back until Friday evening. I may or may not post to the blog, apparently Brighton is the sixth most covered town in Europe for free wi-fi access.

I'm looking forward to going to The Evening Star where I haven't been for a couple of years, and I intend a quick trip to Shoreham where there are a couple of GBG pubs that look worthy of a visit. I shall also have a pint of two of Harveys Armada, one of my favourite cask beers,

See you all soon.

A Little Bit Of Bamberg In England

One of my readers, Hughie, lives in Bedford, which is just over 20 miles from where I live, but, I must admit, is a place I rarely visit. As of yesterday, though, I'm quite jealous of Hughie because I found out that Bedford's twin town is Bamberg, possibly the finest beer town in the World.

I don't think various rauchbiers are available in your average corner shop in town, but the spring festival certainly appears to be an occasion where the beer flows freely if the pictures in the article are anything to go by.

I'm not sure why Bedford is the chosen twin town of our beer loving cousins from Germany. I would imagine Bamberg should be able to do much, much better than choose the home of Charles Wells. Burton-on-Trent would surely have been a better choice.

Actually in a delicious twist of irony I read that one of Burton's twin towns is called Rochefort, but is no relation to the Belgian monastery. It's a funny Old World.

What Do They Drink In Bury St Edmunds?

I had to laugh on Monday night, whilst watching The One Show. The reporter went to Bury St Edmunds, primarily to visit England's smallest pub The Nutshell, which I have blogged about before.

First though they went to everybody's favourite brewery Greene King to show what modern Bury is famous for. Then we saw all the various pub signs in town with the Greene King name (note though, that these were not the new style GK signs with just the brewery logo), then we went to chat to The Nutshell's landlord and get out our tape measure to prove its diminuitiveness.

Finally we chat to two regulars who proclaim their love for the pub and the various characters who pass through its doors in the name of tourism. A closer look though reveals that these regulars are not drinking the local ale, but Guinness!

So after a few minutes of wonderful advertizing for GK, we are left with the two customers who won't touch the stuff. What does that say I wonder?

My First CAMRA Meeting

I didn't get to write a post last night to celebrate my first birthday, because I went to my first ever CAMRA meeting!!

The meeting was partly a planning meeting for the Northampton Beer Festival in a couple of weeks time, which I am not only working at, but helping to compile the tasting notes for the programme.

I was lucky in that the meeting was held walking distance from my house, in my village, at the Wootton Working Men's Club. The club presented with the Branch Club of The Year award on the night. It is rare that a WMC has six real ales on, and the beer quality is certainly very good.

I enjoyed the meeting a lot, and met some nice people who are very keen on their real ale.

The meeting was chaired by the Great Oakley brewer whose Wagtail was in sensational form, so much so I had three pints of it, which hasn't happened with any beer for a very long time. It's a beer he should be very proud of.

I'm looking forward to working at the festival for the first time, even though I'm promised it's going to be bloody hard work!

I'll be putting updates on the plans for the festival here as I get them.

My One Year Anniversary

Yesterday was the one year anniversary of starting my blog. I was too busy to do a post in celebration (more on that later), but I'd like to now thank everyone for reading my little part of the internet.

It's pretty amazing that I've stuck such a project out for a year already; normally my will power means I stick with something for a very short period before getting fed up and ceasing. I think it's testiment to you guys though and your interesting comments that allow me to enjoy doing this as much as I do.

There's a fair few British beer blogs now, all of which I read and enjoy. I think we all write with diferent styles but there's definitely a place for that.

Hopefully I'll still be around in twelve months time for my two year anniversary.

Cheers to you all.

Dog Beer In The UK

Apparently if your dog watches you drinking beer (s)he will want to too. I know animals like to copy but I'm not sure they're particularly bothered what they are drinking as long as they've got something to wet their whistle.

In spite of this, the Dutch introduced Kwispelbier last year, which is designed as a beer for dogs. Now though, that very same beer is available in Pets At Home stores in the UK. Imaginatively renamed (or should that be rebadged) as Dog Beer, this dealcoholized beer can be bought for £1.99 for a 330 ml bottle.

I haven't got a dog, but if I did I'd give him real beer if he really wanted it rather than this effort. Actually, I'd be more inclined to try it myself; well it's another tick!

The Best Food Pubs In The UK

Eat Out Magazine has compiled a list of the 100 best food pubs in the UK. Using evidence from its readers as well as the media they have come up with The Olive Branch in Rutland as its number one pub.

It's nice to see that as well as good food, the pub takes a positive attitude where its beer is concerned, favouring local brewers.

As the crow flies it's one of the nearest pubs on the list to my home, although I've never been. I'm not at all surprised that no Northamptonshire pubs appear on the list.

Reading Beer Festival - Huge Queues

I didn't get to the Reading Beer Festival this year. Actually I didn't go last year either, but I did go in 2006 and was very impressed with the vast range of beers, both British and foreign, and what is probably the largest range of ciders outside GBBF.

I read today that 14700 visitors drank more than 55000 pints of beer and 10000 pints of cider. That's an impressive statistic, and it's obvious Reading festival really does draw in the crowds.

I have heard from friend though that they queued for more than two hours, and in one case I've heard three and a half just to get in. That can't be much fun! Beer festivals really can be ridiculously popular, but I harp back to a previous article I wrote. I much prefer going to the day sessions. It's very rare you need to queue to get in during the day.

Beer Of The Month - April 2008

Sixty six new beers for me in April. Around half of these were at two festivals whilst most of the others were in various pubs. I drank very little at home during the month for some reason.

To be honest, quality wise it was a below average month. Only two beers from the bottle are worthy of particular mention. I had an unseasonal bottle of Corsendonk Christmas at the beginning of the month. This is one of those rare beers that actually deserves to have the word 'Christmas' in it, being nicely spiced. Good brown fruits also. This was bettered by the bottle of Mikkeller Santa's Little Helper which Phil smuggled into Coventry Beer Festival. Phil stated this was a couple of years old, and that bit of age and maturity could be tasted. This is a 10% beer from Denmark brewed in the Belgian style, and has some very rewarding malty and yeasty flavours. It is a deserving winner of bottle beer of the month.

From the cask, I enjoyed Oakham Quint whilst on a stroll around Leicester. Oakham never fail to impress, and later in the month I enjoyed No Bully Dozer also. Both beers are hoppy as expected. Coventry BF provided the four other really nice cask beers of the month. Two porters in Fullers London Porter, and Bazens Knoll Street Porter; a hoppy Alehouse Sauvin So Good, and Dark Star Over The Moon Mild, all vie for top spot, but it's the Fullers which gets it.

As stated it's the first time I've tried it in years, and it's almost as good as I remember. A complex fruity, roasty, smoky porter with some chocolate and caramel edges. It just goes to show that Fullers can brew some great stuff when they put their mind to it. This wins not only cask beer of the month, but the overall prize too.

The Session #15 - How It All Started

November 1992, I get a phone call from my parents asking if I fancy a few days in the Lake District between Christmas and New Year. That sounds like a nice idea; let's go for it says I.

I'd never really been bothered about beer before. Sure I drank it, and 'bitter' was my choice over lager, but I wasn't that concerned about the nuances of the drink. I knew I enjoyed Wells Bombardier, Marstons Pedigree (believe me, it was nice in the early 90's) and I'd had some lovely Boddingtons in a pub near Manchester once, but ask me to name a few other good beers and I honestly couldn't.

So the trip to The Lake District ensued, and, for some reason I cannot remember, we visited The Masons Arms in Strawberry Bank. A remote pub, but famed the nation over. A quick look at the bar revealed a few real ales and books on the tables showed that the pub had a pretty good range of foreign bottled beers. I don't think we were aware before we got there, but the pub brewed its own beers back then, but one beer, or to be precise its name and pumpclip, just said 'drink me'.

That year Mauldons Black Adder had won Champion Beer Of Britain; an award I'd not even heard of. The pumpclip proudly advertized this award, and added to the fact that Blackadder sounded like a pretty cool name (the television programme hadn't started yet), we had to order some. It was delicious. A roasty full bodied dark stout. It seemed very complex and so flavoursome. This was probably the best beer I'd ever had the joy of tasting.

It was wonderful. But, it would have been rude not to try the home brewed stuff, so we then had some Amazon Bitter. To be honest after the Black Adder, this was really bland. From memory it was just an ordinary bitter with sessionable qualities, but it couldn't stand up to the stout we'd just had.

So a third beer was called for, and especially for the season, the pub had their homebrewed Damson Beer on. Now this sounded both wierd and exciting. I didn't know about fruit in beers, and I don't even think I'd ever eaten a damson in my life. The beer itself was a potent 9%, and quite strange to my tastebuds, it was pretty sour, and I'm not sure I liked it.

But I'd tried three beers, all very different. I'd been shown in one lunchtime session what a versatile and exciting drink beer is, and I wanted more.

We had a few more beers that holiday, mostly from Northern breweries, and although nothing matched the beauty of that Black Adder, I enjoyed each and every one. A hobby was born, and thousands of different beers later, I'm still discovering new things.

That's how it started for me. Mum and Dad - it's all your fault!!!

Mild In May

Today marks the start of CAMRA's annual mild month. During this month pubs make an extra effort to put more milds through their pumps, and events are held to celebrate this much underrated drink.

I'm a big fan of mild and am lucky to have two of the very best brewed on my doorstep: Potbelly Beijing Black, and Great Oakley Welland Valley Mild. There will, no doubt, be an abundance of these two beers in my local decent freehouses. I would prefer it however if a changing mild was a permanent sign at better pubs. The volumes drank during May suggest that it's an admired style, and the (usually) low alcohol content makes it an ideal beer for a session.

I'm not sure who is to blame for the relative scarcity of mild during the other eleven months of the year. Is it the consumer who would rather drink other types of ale; the publican who is nervous whether it's salable; or the brewer who doesn't produce enough of it.

I think that the current fashion of calling mild by another name as Lees have done with their Brewers Dark, and Everards have done with their latest beer is probably going to see an upturn in sales.

It's a real shame though that brewers feel that they have to do this. I prefer to call a spade a spade.

I've not been to a pub today but I'll try to keep an eye out for milds during the month, and let you know the best I sample in early June.

The Third Of A Pint - Is It Enough?

The third of a pint measure seems to becoming ever more commonplace at festivals these days, whether they be CAMRA organised or pub festivals. They have been available at both the Coventry CAMRA and Merchants Inn festivals which I have been to recently.

I guess they became popular again in 2006 when it was introduced at GBBF to such demand that they ran out of glasses pretty quickly. They didn't have the foresight then to have third pint measure lines on the larger glasses which we are now seeing at festivals, obviously giving the customer the choice which of the three measures they want. Increased customer choice is certainly the way forward.

I ranted about Peterborough beer festival last year where I was refused a third and even told it's not a legal measure, yet now they are more readily available, I'm not sure it's what I really want.

Real ale is a funny beast. Quality can vary so dramatically due to all sorts of influences. Of course some beers are plain bad, but others are effected by age, handling or whatever else. So you really can never guarantee what you are going to get. If you read Tandleman's, or Tyson's blog, you will see that very often they are disappointed with their beer, and for each disappointment money has been handed over. With beer averaging around £2.50 a pint around here, I'm not sure I'm willing to waste my money to that extent, and even £1.25 for a nasty half may be a step too far. So 80 odd pence for a third may not seem such a waste. BUT a really good third of a pint is over in no time. I am left wanting more. But do I really want to buy another third (or more) when there's so many other beers to try? I make no excuses that I have a ticker mentality, and although I have promised to tick less this year, that's proving harder than I thought.

So should I revert to halves? Should I drink thirds and if it's a good beer be grateful and move on?

I think the third pint measure seems to be popular; I do see lots of people having them. What is your take on the nip?

Welsh Beers At The Malt Shovel

Wherever in the country you live I would hazard a guess that there is a beer festival within ten miles of your front door this bank holiday weekend. If there isn't then you have my sympathy for living in such a barren location. My suggestion would be to move!

In Northampton we have a festival of Welsh beers at The Malt Shovel. This will be the first festival for some time due to the regular change of landlord over the last year, so unless anything's changed all the handpumps (13) will be handed over to festival beers. The festival runs from Friday evening until Monday night, with all day opening over the weekend which sadly only happens at festival time. Expect the pub to be very busy, but that does make for a special atmosphere. The beer list is below, of the thirty one beers I've only previously had ten, so plenty of new stuff for me to try!!

Purple Moose

Snowdonia 3.6%

Madoc's 3.7%

Glaslyn 4.2%

North Wales

Abergela Ale 5.0%

Bodelwyddan 3.8%

Farmers' Favourite 4.0%

Welsh Stout 4.4%

Moelfre Mild 3.6%

Facers

Clwyd Gold 3.5%

Flintshire Bitter 3.7%

Northern County 3.8%

Sunny Bitter 4.2%

Splendid Ale 4.3%

Dave's Hoppy Bitter 4.3%

Landslide 4.9%

Plassey

Plassey Bitter 4.0%

Fusilier 4.5%

Cwrw Tudno 5.0%

Dragon's Breath 6.0%

Great Orme

Orme's Best 4.2%

Celtic Dragon 4.5%

Three Feathers 5.0%

Welsh Mountain IPA 3.8%

Welsh Black 4.0%

Jolly Brewer

Taid's Garden 4.0%

Suzanne's Stout 5.0%

Conwy

Castle Bitter 3.8%

Welsh Pride 4.0%

Celebration Ale 4.2%

Honey Fayre 4.5%

Mulberry Mild 3.8%

Television's Top Pubs

The Guardian TV and Radio blog today has an article about TV's top 10 bars and pubs. It's a list which is bound to meet with plenty of dissent. For my part there should certainly be a place for The Jockey from Shameless and, my number one, The Grapes from Early Doors.

Whilst considering this list it made me realise how unrealistic pubs are on television programmes. I mean everybody drinks in them, from your real heavy drinkers like Frank Gallagher down to your sherry supping posh old ladies like Emily Bishop. I'm not sure many ladies of her ilk really are regulars in back street corner boozers, yet she's in there every night the old minx.

Of course television isn't really life as we know it, and television pubs even less so, but I do enjoy playing spot the pumpclip. I spied Westerham Grasshopper on The Apprentice this week. That's a beer I've never had, so does spotting it on TV count as a tick? I do hope so!

Classical Music With Your Tinnies

I realise this is supposed to be a blog about beer, but in my defence I have bought beer from the store so there is a tenuous link, but look what they are doing at my local supermarket.

You couldn't make it up.

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.

World Awards For Roosters And BrewDog

The World Beer Cup is a bit of a car crash of a competition with far too many categories, and beers being entered in categories which you would feel they don't belong in. There also seems to be an inordinately large amount of medals for the big boys.

Naturally the amount of beer entered is a tiny fraction of what is actually being produced in the World, with entries from these shores even more so. Having said that, it's still nice for a beer to be recognised by winning. The brewers obviously want to win or they wouldn't enter. Having said that though, I guess even being there is useful for getting your products known.

So it's hats off to Roosters of Knaresborough for winning category 51 English-Style Summer Ale, for YPA and to BrewDog of Fraserburgh, Scotland for winning category 16 Wood and Barrel Aged Strong Beer for Paradox Grain.

These are two breweries I hold in high stead and have discussed on this blog before. Congratulations to them both.

For those who can be bothered to look through the 91 categories, the full list is here.

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?

Mordue To Be No More?

As can be read here, Mordue Brewery of Tyne and Wear has gone into administration.

It would be sad indeed if this micro went under. In 1997, only two years after they formed Workie Ticket their 4.5% bitter won Champion Beer Of Britain, and a very fine beer it is too. I enjoyed a fair few pints of it on my only beer drinking trip to Newcastle. They have still been winning Beer Of The Festival awards in the last few weeks.

Time will tell of course if this is the end, but I do hope not.

Namyslow Plum - Beer Of The Festival

As the Wetherspoons festival has now ended I am going to take the current results showing on their website as the final results. They make surprising reading for those who thought the Polish plum beer was less than pleasing. As can be seen from the list below the plummiest of all beers actually came out on top. I'm not sure what this says about Wetherspoon customers although it has to be said I did like the beer. Cains Bock which came in second was pretty poor in my opinion and certainly not what I would describe as a bock. And the most talked about beer in Britain came in third. The Stone was the best beer I tried although I didn't think it as wonderful as a lot of commentators. The list makes interesting reading, that's for sure.

Rating: 4.2 13 NAMYSLOW ORIGINAL PLUM BEER
Rating: 4.1 30 CAINS BOCK BEER
Rating: 4 50 STONE CALIFORNIA DOUBLE IPA
Rating: 3.9 49 GREENE KING ABBOT RESERVE
Rating: 3.9 43 YO-HO TOKYO BLACK
Rating: 3.9 39 TITANIC LAST PORTER CALL
Rating: 3.9 47 MAULDONS BLACK ADDER
Rating: 3.8 45 JENNINGS SNECK LIFTER
Rating: 3.7 29 BRAINS REVEREND JAMES
Rating: 3.7 41 FREEMINER SHAKE MANTLE GINGER ALE
Rating: 3.7 32 HARVIESTOUN OLD ENGINE OIL
Rating: 3.7 36 ORKNEY DARK ISLAND
Rating: 3.6 14 SKINNER’S HELIGAN HONEY
Rating: 3.6 35 WOODFORDE’S NELSON’S REVENGE
Rating: 3.6 23 SHARP’S EDEN PURE ALE
Rating: 3.6 38 ST GEORGEN BRÄU KELLER BIER
Rating: 3.6 42 OUTLAW BONESHAKER INDIA PALE ALE
Rating: 3.5 06 SPRINGHEAD LIBERTY
Rating: 3.5 11 EVERARDS SUNCHASER
Rating: 3.5 34 PHOENIX BLACK BEE
Rating: 3.4 17 THWAITES WAINWRIGHTS
Rating: 3.4 26 HIGHGATE HIGHLAND WHISKY ALE
Rating: 3.4 31 HALL & WOODHOUSE HOPPING HARE
Rating: 3.4 33 OKELL’S DR OKELL’S EASTERN SPICE
Rating: 3.4 46 KELHAM ISLAND PALE RIDER
Rating: 3.4 05 OAKHAM JHB
Rating: 3.4 44 HOLDEN’S SPECIAL
Rating: 3.3 27 SALTAIRE AMARILLO GOLD
Rating: 3.3 03 CALEDONIAN CHOCOLATE DROP
Rating: 3.3 19 HAMPSHIRE IRONSIDE
Rating: 3.3 15 WADWORTH HORIZON
Rating: 3.3 09 BEARTOWN GINGER BEAR
Rating: 3.2 24 SHEPHERD NEAME EARLY BIRD
Rating: 3.2 22 WYCHWOOD MAD HATTER
Rating: 3.2 10 ELGOOD’S OLD WAGG
Rating: 3.2 25 WELTONS OLD COCKY
Rating: 3.2 16 NETHERGATE APRIL FOOL
Rating: 3.2 07 ROBINSONS TOP TIPPLE
Rating: 3.1 08 THEAKSTON BLACK BULL BITTER
Rating: 3.1 02 YOUNG’S BITTER
Rating: 3.1 01 J. W. LEES BREWER’S DARK
Rating: 3.1 21 RINGWOOD 78
Rating: 3 28 WHITE HORSE WAYLAND SMITHY
Rating: 3 04 MARSTON’S SUNBRIGHT ALE
Rating: 3 18 BATEMANS SPRING GODDESS
Rating: 2.9 12 HOOK NORTON 303 AD
Rating: 2.9 20 HYDES TROJAN HORSE
Rating: 2.6 40 ECAUSSINNES COOKIE BEER
Rating: 1.8 37 ARCHERS GOLDEN

Coventry Beer Festival

Apart from the cathedral I cannot really think of a good reason to visit Coventry. The last time I went to a beer festival there was in the 1990s when it was held at the University, and although it was a good festival, the walk there and back from the station was not a pleasant experience.

The festival is now located at the rugby union ground, which is nearer the station, but still a less than pleasant journey on foot is required. I travelled from Northampton station with my friend Dave and his prolific letter writing brother Pete, who knew a shortcut to the venue. If I'd have been on my own I would have walked around the ring road, no doubt taking my life in my hands, but the shortcut was safe from vehicular dangers. The rugby club is a comfortable enough venue, although the seating area does feel a bit cramped as is the standing room near the stillage area, but the quantity of toilets cannot be faulted. As for the beer, the choice ran to 80 odd at opening time on the Friday of which not too many had disappeared by opening time on Saturday. A few ciders, bottled beers and country wines made up the numbers. Although this wouldn't really be described as a ticking festival there was still a decent amount of rare beers, and certainly enough new stuff for me to choose from.

Due to sharing halves, and a couple of smuggled bottled from the US and Denmark, I got through 19 beers. Although beer quality could have been better, and the temperature a little on the warm side (an all too common fault of indoor festivals, but that's for another day), I enjoyed almost everything I tried. The stand out beers were Dark Star Over The Moon, a very modern hoppy mild, and Fullers London Porter, which I've had before but not for many years. It truly lived up to the memory I had of it being a delicious full bodied roasty porter.

The beer festival opens from 12-4 and 6-11 on just the Friday and Saturday. There's a lot of talk about why festivals need to close during the afternoon, and it's usually because of a lack of staff, who, remember, are all volunteers. Coventry though seemed to be very well staffed; waiting time for beers was very very short, so I'm not sure why there was a need for a two hour kick out. I'm sure though the pubs of Coventry appreciated the extra trade.

All in all another good festival. One I shall certainly return to. As well as my travelling companions, there were also four RateBeerians: Glen, Simon, Mes and Phil, who all added to it being a great day. Phil, as ever took some superb photographs, which may be found here.

What I Detest About Nitrokeg

Of course I prefer my beer to be dispensed by handpump (without sparkler) or straight from the barrel with the assistance of good old fashioned gravity. This is natural beer served naturally. Adding gas to a beer is unnatural and unnecessary. It does nothing for the taste and even less for the aroma if that matters to you. Carbon Dioxide is bad enough, nitrogen is much worse.

The biggest bugbear for me though is how long it takes to pour a bloody pint. I haven't done a scientific time trial but I will guarantee it takes less than a quarter of the time to pull my foaming pint of real ale than it does for Mr Old Duffer's pint of Extra Creamy Smooth to arrive. Waiting for my pint is bad enough at the best of times but when the delay is being caused by waiting for some crappy flavourless nonsense to be poured, I'm even more agitated.

Still, I'm off to Coventry Beer Festival tomorrow. No gas there (except plentiful flatulence).

A Herculean Box Of Beer

It's not every day the postman brings you something special. It's normally junk or, worse still, bills. However on Monday the doorbell rang and there was a very nice man with a delivery for me. It transpires that unsolicited I had been sent a great box of beer from Beermerchants.com

Beermerchants call the selection The Hercules Case due to the strength of all the beers. The weakest of the eighteen different brands is a tear-inducing 8% with the strongest being the delicious Bush Ambrée. Also in there is my all time favourite Rochefort 10. There's also a rather snazzy glass, just perfect for most strong Belgian beers. The box was superbly and safely packaged with enough 'peanuts' to keep a monkey happy for a lifetime. To round off the package is an A4 sheet of tasting notes which include recommendations for food pairings. I've not seen this before from online suppliers, and I think it's a really nice touch especially for the beginner.

For me of course the case was the best value possible, but. at £34.90 for normal customers, it still represents great value. There are other good deals to be had. Give the website a visit and see what you think.

Thanks Very Much Then, Goodbye.

No, this is not me signing off from blogging, but hopefully a discussion on what is another element of a good pub. We all use the phrase "the pub was welcoming", but then it's pretty obvious that they are going to nice to you when you walk in their door. After all you're signalling to them that you are about to spend some of your hard earned money. It's hardly appropriate that you'd be given short shrift and a cold shoulder before you've even dipped your hand in your pocket. Hey, if the welcome's that good you may feel inclined to stay longer and spend some more.

But what happens when you've had enough and it's time to move on? What would you say to friends when they leave your house? Something along the lines of "Thanks very much, goodbye" wouldn't go amiss. After all you've been a valuable customer and that adieu message may encourage you to return.

Why then is it so rare to be thanked for your custom and wished nice things on your way. I swear goodbyes and thanks have become rarer over the last twenty years. I don't expect a goodbye from an understaffed drinking barn, but one wouldn't go amiss at a more civilized pub. Has anybody else noticed this phenomenon or is it just that I'm not a valued customer and it's only me??

Beer Of The Month - March 2008

It often feels like March is the beginning of the beer year as festival season starts in earnest and I always have a week's holiday in the month, which tends to result in a reasonable amount of drinking. I sampled 87 new beers in total during the month. Pleasingly the vast majority of these were either in pubs or at a festival; namely Leicester.

Naturally for the reasons mentioned above, I had a fair few cask beers during the month. The first particularly good one was Woods Shropshire Lass from a brewery which is more miss than hit for me. This was a nice blonde beer with citrus notes and a mouthfeel I described as like fizz bombs. Thornbridge Gildas and Fuglestow Sledgehammer Stout were the stand out beers at Leicester Festival. One a delightfully hoppy full bodied IPA from one of England's finest, and the other a roasty smoky stout. The best beer I had on my Northampton Crawl was Banks & Taylor Edwin Taylor's Extra Stout. I have had this deliciously dry roasty stout before but not I've started rating beers. It's head and shoulders B&T's best beer. From the Wetherspoons festival I have had three beers worthy of a mention. First was Titanic Last Porter Call, a dodgy name for what is a good porter with coffee and chocolate notes. Second was Namyslow Plum, a true love it hate it beer if ever there was one. Yes it's very sweet and not particularly 'beer-like', but that plumminess is amazing. An underused fruit if you ask me. It's not a beer I could drink much of (my half was probably enough), but I really did enjoy it. Thirdly was 'the most talked about beer in Britain': Shepherd Neame Stone California Double IPA, as hoppy as expected and with a decent body. Certain people I know have raved about this, and nobody has said they didn't like it. For me it was very good, but not a beer I could session on. I lost a bit of interest three quarters of a pint through. While this would be a lot of people's cask beer of the month, mine went to Thornbridge Gildas.

From the bottle just two beers have stood out. An American porter and a Danish stout with undoubted American influence. The porter was Left Hand Black Jack Porter. Left Hand describe this as a London Porter, and even though it uses English hops it uses them in American quantities. Chocolate, coffee and roasty malts complete the flavour. Finally, and the beer which actually outclasses the Thornbridge beer was Mikkeller Beer Geek Breakfast. Not only a topical name but a delicious beer. I got soy, fish, coffee, hops, fruit, oatmeal and goodness knows what else in this complex stout with a really long finish. This beer has its fans and its detractors, but to me it's a real treat. It's certainly beer of the month.

Special mention must go to one of the worst five beers I've ever had which was the first bottled beer I had in the month Krombacher Cab. This is some sort of beer/cola concoction with dragon fruit. Avoid at all costs.

The Session #14 - Beer People

This month's session is entitled beer people and thankfully gives us plenty of leeway for thought. I prefer a session to skimp on specifics and boundaries, which is why I don't play every month.

There's a phrase I've been using a lot recently, whether out drinking with friends, on this blog, or in beer forums. It describes how best I feel about beer people. First though I need to consider what is a beer person. Most people drink beer, but most of those do it for a reason other than you and I. They do it because it's there. They drink beer because it's probably the most sociable drink to partake of and get happy, merry, drank, ratarsed or any other point on the inebriation scale. It's a fairly easy thing to drink as the majority of beer sold throughout the World is deliberately brewed not to taste of much. The best selling lagers are actually brewed to have minimum flavour and aftertaste. If, however, lager is not their thing, they will probably be drinking dreadful nitrogenated stouts, or smoothflow beers which to them have a bit more flavour, whereas in actual fact they don't.

These people though are not beer people but people who drink beer.

No. Beer people are people who drink beer for pleasure, for enjoyment, for taste. It's actually their drink of choice because they like to drink it, and can appreciate the effort that has gone into producing it. They like to try different beers too, and compare one against the other. I'm not necessarily talking tickers or raters. Just normal people who treat beer as an experience to savour rather than just part of the whole going-out thing.

I've met a lot of these people over the years. Ordinary local CAMRA members, hardcore scoopers (tickers), RateBeerians, publicans, brewers, and beer journalists. These have all been great people to share a pint or more with. People who you can talk about beer to, but who are also interesting in other areas and who can hold down a conversation for an hour or two. These are people you are happy to call your friend.

I feel the same way about bloggers. The only ones I've met are Ron and Simon, but the beerblogosphere feels like a community with like minded people enjoying the output of their peers. Sure we may disagree with others' opinions, and the odd skirmish may break out, but it's generally all good.

So to get to that phrase and it's one that I could never overuse, and, remember you should probably count yourself as a beer person:

BEER PEOPLE ARE GOOD PEOPLE

Televisions In Pubs

I don't mind music in pubs so long as it's at a reasonable volume in order that I can hear myself think or my companions speak. Indeed if I'm drinking alone it does provide some company of sorts as a familiar lyric enters my head.

What I don't understand though is the purpose of televisions. I don't believe people go to the pub to watch EastEnders or such twaddle, nor do they really want to keep up to date with BBC News 24 or some such channel. Sports matches are a real draw but for my mind only serve to fuel a siege mentality, be it between supporters of opposing teams or in the case of a National team, a ridiculous (and fairly short-lived) alcohol fuelled patriotism. Added to this televisions don't lend themselves to being at a sufficient volume for those watching, to hear what's going on anyway.

For my mind the best form of pub entertainment is a gentle game of cribbage or dominoes; true pub games for true pub goers, none of your modern technology nonsense. Mind you without live news channels and those wonderfully inaccurate live subtitles I would never have discovered yesterday that Bertie Aherne is actually the "Pam Ayres of Ireland". Conjours up a picture of two.

New Pub To Sell US Beers Only

I've been contacted by reader Thomas Fool who has exciting news for Northamptonshire drinkers, and those from further afield. Tom is currently converting an old Kettering church which he will be opening as a pub in the next few months. However it's a pub with a difference. "I will only be selling American beers" he tells me. "Myself and my wife April have been to the last two GBBFs and I have loved all the US cask stuff. I also drink a lot of American beers in bottles, and I think they'll go down a storm. But what's really convinced me", he says "is how well the Stone beer has been going down in my local Spoons, and, it appears, nationwide."

I mentioned to Tom that Kettering may be an odd choice for such a venture but he is convinced that drinkers in the market town are an adventurous bunch. "We have two exciting micro breweries and a great award winning free house in The Alexandra Arms, plus being in the Midlands will allow drinkers from all over the country to get to us easily"

Sounds good to me, I'm awaiting my invite to launch night.

Stella, Stella, Stella, Strike, Strike, Strike

So I'm sat in a Wetherspoons today (drinking Stone California Double IPA (yee-ha)) and reading their newspaper. There's an article about Stella Artois. Apparently it's "the most widely available draught lager in UK pubs" and "the third biggest grocery brand in the UK after Coca-Cola and Walkers". Then I'm at home surfing the wicked (I mean wide) web and find this:

"Soaring commodity costs and falling sales of its premium lager have forced Inbev, the Belgian brewing giant, to axe up to 250 jobs at two Stella Artois breweries in Lancashire and Wales. Up to 166 workers in Samlesbury, Lancashire, and 80 in Magor, south Wales, face redundancy after an operational review by Inbev. A consultation process with affected employees has started. Unions and workers' representatives have vowed to fight the move, which the GMB union described as "shocking".

Too bloody right it's shocking. "An operational review" to me basically means the same output with fewer staff. Make the buggers work harder. Hopefully the GMB will take appropriate action, and show the bastards what's what .

Wetherspoons - We All Blog Together

An interesting thing about the Wetherspoons beer festival is that it's being covered by pretty much all of the British bloggers, even those who have a self-imposed boycott of Tim Martin's pubs.

Normally when we blog about a festival or some beers we've sampled, however interesting it might be to us, our readers are not sharing the experience as they won't have been to the festival, and may not ever get to see the beers we write about.

In this instance though, we are (nearly) all going to Spoons on a daily basis and taking in the festival. It's great that a Northern blogger is drinking the same beer on the same day as a Southern blogger, and they are both writing about it. It's good fun reading about people's search for the Stone IIPA (which I've still not had), and, in my case, drooling over the description of how much they've enjoyed it.

So one thing the festival is doing is bringing us all together and making it feel like we are all drinking in the same boozer, and that's a really enjoyable experience.

A Wander Round Northampton

It's not often I have a bit of a crawl around my home town of Northampton. Normally if I'm crawling, I'll go a little further afield, but yesterday, towards the end of a week off from work and to coincide with the start of the Wetherspoons festival, I decided to have a wander.

I made The Moon On The Square my first port of call. This is in the lower echelons of Spoons pubs in my opinion, for a plethora of reasons, one of which is the normally disappointing beer range. It does of course participate in festivals so the range does improve. Today though the festival had barely trickled into action. Just Okells Doctor Okells Eastern Spice, and Titanic Last Porter Call available from the festival list. Two further pumps were decorated with the clips for Marstons Pedigree Six and Greene King Abbot Reserve but these were "coming soon"; a typical Wetherspoons tactic. Four beers were on from Langton brewery, which is often the case. Clearly there is some sort of deal going on with this Leicestershire brewery; why a Northants brewery cannot be chosen I really don't know. I tried Lock Keeper which was a new one for me. I have to say that all three beers were in excellent condition and very tasty. If only this were the case all the time.

My next pub was The Wig and Pen which is one of my semi regular haunts. The pub is owned by Fenland, and four of their beers were available along with two from Great Oakley and one from Thwaites. There was one blank pump. As I was on a ticking mission I tried the draught cider Westons Traditional Draught Scrumpy which was ok. Obviously brewed by one of the big boys as it lacked a certain character.

Onwards to The Malt Shovel now ran by one of the owners, and in my opinion already showing signs of improvement. I've been critical in the past of pumps being empty which would be acceptable in slow moving pubs, but almost everyone in the pub drinks real ale, and they can sustain a full spread. Since Mike and Roz have been front of house there have been thirteen ales on at all times, which is what we want to see. I sampled five new ones on this trip: Iceni Norfolk Winter Lightening, Tring Brock, DowBridge Fosse, Banks & Taylor Edwin Taylor's Extra Stout and Burton Bridge Top Spin. All were good but the stout was superb. A beautiful full bodied roasty dry stout.

From here I wandered back into town heading for the second Spoons pub in town. However en route is The Fish Inn which sells four real ales and has the bonus for the ticker of the pumps being visible through the window from the street. Spotting a new beer Batemans Hooker, I bagged me a half. It was disappointing which I find in pretty much all of Batemans' occasional beers. It was also the dearest ale of the day. Typical!!

Next and finally to Lloyds No 1, part of the Wetherspoons chain but supposedly concentrating more on the youth market than normal Spoons. The beer festival was in better swing here though than its sister pub. Three beers were on, all of which I'd not had before. So halves of Namyslow Plum Beer, Lees Brewers Dark and Batemans Spring Goddess were supped. The Batemans was as expected; the Lees was a mild mild and the Plum beer was as plummy as it's possible to be. I shall probably do a piece on that beer and the other two foreign ones I want from the festival when I have sampled them all, but suffice to say if you see this beer you should try it if only for the plummy novelty.

I was surprised with how many new beers I found around town. There are a fair few other decent pubs I didn't get to which are a bit further from the town centre, but it's a crawl I shall certainly do again. I think we all too often neglect what's on our doorstep, but I will try to appreciate it more in the future.

Stone's (I Mean Shepherd Neame's) New Beer Going Down Nicely

I've read three reports now from people who have sampled the beer brewed by Stone brewers at Shepherd Neame. They are all favourable and report that the beer is superbly hoppy.

So this 7% beer which Wetherspoons describe as a double IPA, but Greg Koch himself calls an ordinary IPA is going down a treat, and it seems that being brewed at the Sheps plant which isn't used to seeing so many hops, especially American Centennial and Simcoe, isn't seeing a dumbing down of any flavours at all.

As previously reported, the beer is here for the Wetherspoons festival which officially starts tomorrow and runs until April 14th. I will be going to a Wetherspoons every day until I find this beer. Let's hope it happens soon, or God help me.

Anyone For A Beer Of The Week Post?

Regular readers will no doubt eagerly await my Beer Of The Month posts. I mean, what could be better than reading about all the good stuff that I've had in the last month, with perfect descriptions of all the attributes of said beers?

Actually you're probably bored of them, you probably think my taste in beer is crap, and my descriptions of the beers rubbish, but it's a feature I'm going to keep going, if you don't mind!

It could be worse I could be doing a Beer Of The Week feature like this chap. You've got to admire the willpower to keep it up, although his taste in beer isn't exactly the same as mine.

By the way I hope you all had a good Easter; I'm drinking a Corsendonk Christmas Ale tonight. After all the weather hasn't exactly been seasonal.