I met up with 3 friends from my late teenage years yesterday, 2 who now live in Ashford, and the other who has lived in Florida for nearly 20 years, and is over visiting family and friends. She decided she should visit the other 3 of us, so Tenterden provided a reasonably easy meeting place for us all, and I had never been there before. You would expect Shepherd Neame to be dominant here, and 2 of the 4 public houses on the main road are pubs of Kent, indeed, and the provider of my favourite ale of the day, at the last pub I visited!
However, the Woolpack Hotel (website), affectionately called the "Woolly" by locals, apparently, is situated right in the middle of this busy small town High Street, with the tower of the Norman Church, St Mildred's, peeping over the top in my photograph, and is run by Enterprise Inns. This 15th century inn now comprises a pub, hotel and restaurant, has open fires and wooden beams, and recently has undergone a major refurbishment. Consequently, like all these old pubs in the town actually, has quite an open bright atmosphere.
Similarly, the barman had a bright personality too, and was very welcoming and friendly, even happy to serve one of our group with a pot of tea for one, such is the modern hostelry. All these pubs serve food, as expected, and there were 3 real ales on offer here. From nearby Sussex was Harveys Sussex Best, regular readers will know my opinion of that ale, so nothing to be said here today, and also Timothy Taylor Landlord was on offer, another ale that can be very good, but not quite my cup of tea really! Oh yes, and the one I had a pint of, the ever reliable, Hopback Summer Lightning, enjoyable as always, even if a wee bit too strong for this time of the day. Consequently, the ales provided were all very well-known and easily available everywhere, not surprising for the ever-careful Enterprise Inns.
The William Caxton (website), a little further down the High Street at West Cross, is a Shepherd Neame pub, and is a hotel and restaurant, and 15th century too. The pub is named after some lad who had something to do with the printing press, and maybe had been born in Tenterden, though this is supposition, as no-one really knows where he was born, but they happily go along with the idea the pub should be named after him, as are other place and building names around the town! The other 3 all ate in the William Caxton, and apparently enjoyed their decent value food, but I had already eaten a fair sized meal before I traveled, so can only take their word for it, but the ham, in particular, appeared to get a firm nod of appreciation.
All ales were provided by Shepherd Neame, of course, who have certainly expanded the range of ales they brew; looking at their website, they now brew over 20 ales! There was the familiar Whitstable Bay and Master Brew, and I had their Goldings Ale (4.1% and subtitled Summer Solstice, so a seasonal summer ale). The Goldings is a golden ale, bitter, with a slightly sweet fruit-flavoured contrast, though I didn't get the mango and bananas suggested in the tasting notes, not bad though. I had a chat with the lass behind the bar, as you do, and found that this seasonal ale will soon be replaced by their American collaboration I recently reported on, the 4.5% Samuel Adams Blonde Ambition, so locals have a very good ale to look forward to there too!
Back up the High Street, we also visited, twice, the merely 16th century coaching inn, the White Lion Hotel (website), sorry, my mobile phone was getting very tired, and would not agree to take a photograph of the building, despite many attempts (I really do need to bring my camera with me these days), but if you link to their website, you'll see a large picture of the hotel, plus a few other images! Inglenook fireplaces, wooden beams, hotel, pub and restaurant etc etc... and, again, bright and airy. This is a Marstons/Ringwood hostelry, so quite a few of their ales, plus a local guest brewery.
From Ringwood are 2 old dependable ales, their Forty Niner (4.9%), reported on before, and a nice darker full-flavoured bitter, and Best Bitter (3.8%), an easy drinking best bitter, it does what it says on the tin, not bad. From Marstons their Old Empire (5.7%), which I have had before, a very decent full-flavoured darker bitter, and, I believe it is brewed by them, but have had trouble checking up, the label gave no hint, and the lass behind the bar hadn't a clue either, Lion Heart (4.5%), which Martin appeared to enjoy, another darker bitter. From their guest Kent brewer, Old Dairy, was their regular Gold Top (4.3%) and the seasonal Sun Top (3.6%), a very pale bitter with a slight malty biscuit taste. So 6 ales, from quite dark to pale bitters, provided quite a variation in style for the buying public.
The final pub, which I visited alone, having said goodbye to the others, and opposite where I would catch a bus to take me back to Sussex, was the relative baby of the bunch, a mere Victorian child by comparison to the rest, the 19th century The Vine Inn (website), and the second Shepherd Neame pub of the day. Bright and airy, blah dee blah, serving food, but I don't believe accommodation is available here, so I'm guessing that staff live upstairs because it is quite large, as you can see from the photograph. If they live here or not, the staff were exceedingly enthusiastic and friendly, all keen to serve, none more so than the bubbly Jazz, who served up my pint after offering a taster, which, well, I'll tell you about that in my ale analysis below.
Ales? All from Shepherd Neame again, as expected, Master Brew, Whitstable Bay and the Goldings I had already tried at the William Caxton, so, please see above, but also a gem from the brewery's 'pilot brewery', where I've reported in the past that the 2 sisters from the Hastings Arms have brewed before. Drum roll... one from the No 18 Yard Brewhouse (more ales to add to the 20+ Sheps ales already alluded to!), The Classic 442 or 4-4-2, named after the football formation, thus seasonal regarding the World Cup. As soon as I sampled this beer I felt a rush of hops up my nose, it was hard to explain, but also I thought wheat and barley, but I was wrong about that, as I found out following a bit more research, back to the website!
The effect I got of a wheat ale must have come from the hops, because wheat or lager malt was not used in the grist, so maybe from one of the 3 German hops, Halletau Hersbrucker, Herkules, or Halletau Mittelfruh, or perhaps from the Czech hops used, Saaz? Or maybe, even one of the SIX hops used from Kent made an impact?!? Yes, 10 hops in all were used for this impact ale, the Kent grown hops being Goldings, Fuggles, Admiral, First Gold, Challenger, and Cascade; so the Yanks getting their foot in the door too! Whatever, if you see this ale, have a try, and feel free to pass on your opinion. Cheers to Jazz for her professional and friendly manner, for offering a taster, and for putting up with this blogger...
Cheers to you all!
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