26 mile pub crawl, Hastings to Rye, and back...

I'm hampered with ankle and lower lumbar injuries at the moment, so time to report on walks, pubs and ales experienced before yesterday. On Tuesday (9th July), the Routemeister, my brother Dan, and I walked a little over 25 miles in a 'figure of 8' route, starting in Hastings, over the cliffs and Hastings Country Park to Pett Level then along the Military Canal to Rye, where we popped into the Queens Head (twitter), where we were treated to the efficient and friendly bar service of the bar manager (I do believe she is), Kate. 

The ales are on sale here for £3.30 a pint, which is a decent deal when considering the strength of most of the ales, especially the one I drank. There were the 4 in the photograph, plus, being served by gravity directly from a barrel on the bar, Long Man Blonde (3.8%), so 4 of the 5 ales are brewed in East Sussex, nice one.  Indeed, there is regularly at least one ale each from Long Man and Franklin's breweries.  The 4 you can see are Franklin's Grumpy Guvnor (4.5%), reported before, all the way from Somerset, Cotleigh Buzzard Dark Ale (4.8%), and the 2 we drank.  Dan enjoyed the Long Man Golden Tipple, a 5% very pale golden bitter with a hint of cider in the flavour, and I had the, favourited many times in the past and excellent, Dark Star Revelation, 5.7%, and in your face hops, delicious, many thanks Kate!  

Anyway, we came back via the Castle Water wildlife sanctuary, and seafront, to Pett Level and the Smuggler Inn, now run by the 2 sisters from the Hastings Arms, Sue and Hazel, this was where we came to the middle of our 'figure of 8', and some more sustenance.  4 ales on, Sharp's Doom Bar (4%), their regular ale, Harveys Sussex Best (4%), a semi-regular, Youngs Bitter ("Ordinary" in Wandsworth terms, and 3.7%) which is soon to be replaced by Youngs Special (4.5%), and the very good Otter Bitter (3.6%) that I drank.  Good to see this fine pub open again, and glad for the sisters, cheers!  

We then walked up to Pett Village, and revisited the Two Sawyers, another fine hostelry.  The ales on this day were Ringwood Fortyniner (4.9%), Harveys Sussex Best (4%), and Youngs Special (4.5%), all regularly seen, and discussed before. There was also Old Dairy Brewery Red Top (3.8%), a darker bitter than my usual, with a dry roasted bitter taste, not bad at all!

We then finished off with a walk back to Hastings and a visit to the Dolphin at Rock-a-Nore, where Jason was working this night, with Mark, the landlord, in attendance too, and fine chat and imbibement was had by us 3... 2 guest ales on, including the Elgoods EP (4.3%), a "rich malty bitter", but we ended up knocking back a few pints of the excellent Dark Star American Pale Ale (4.7%) aka APA. Dark Star are certainly maintaining a decent version of the APA, much more bitter than when I first tasted it.  But I shall be adding more about the Dolphin in a future blog, very soon.

Cheers! 

Clapham Junction to Putney (Tuesday 14th May 2013)

Not written for a while, because of no access to a pc or laptop, so a few will be published over next few days, starting with my arriving in London to visit the Routemeister...

We first visited this new Young's bar, really, can't be called a pub, which is a shame when taking into account the brewer's history.  The Waterfront, what can I say? It's very 'modern', when I thought 'modern' was out of date now, much glass, as you can see from the photograph. A selection of the usual Youngs ales on, Special, Ordinary and Waggle Dance, of which we had a pint of Special each.  Quite frankly, the barmaid had no idea how to pull a pint, and had to be asked twice to top up the shortfall, the beer wasn't 'off', but it was a bit sad, lacked the usual flavour, was tired... Not that I'm suggesting it was near the end of a cask that must have been on for ages, or that the bar may have a cellar a fair way away from the pump, so a long line, nor that they hadn't sold any yet on that day, just that... I shan't be returning in a hurry. 

 

Anyway, that evening we visited the Bricklayers Arms in Putney, a different kettle of fish entirely!

Alway a great selection of ales here, on the day, dominated by dark beers; a couple of Old Dairy ales, Red Top (3.8%) and Gold Top (4.3%), a few others, plus 4 from Plain Ales Brewery in the West Country. We tried 2 of the Plain Ales, missing out the Mild Not Meek (5.4%) and Inndulgence, a 5.2% "Ruby Porter", Dan just drank the 4.2% "Ruby Best Bitter" that was Inntrigue, which I felt was a bit thin, after which I drank the 4.8% Inncognito, which was very nice, indeed, much more body, a bit chocolatey, with a hint of liquorice. Good stuff...

More to come shortly, cheers!    

30 Nov - Hythe, new pubs + another real fire

A lovely bright, if a bit chilly Friday, and I met up with Mark (the Pubmeister) at the Dolphin, Hastings, where, as you can see below, two drays were delivering ale, including from Hastings Brewery, great timing! We had a coffee before leaving to catch the 10.17 bus to deepest darkest Kent.

We had considered visiting the Red Lion in Snargate, but it was just too complicated to fit in yesterday (that will be for another memorable day, no doubt), so we undertook the near 2 hour bus trip straight to Hythe, on a lively number 100/101 bus, and the time seemed to pass very quickly too. Good chat one of the reasons for that.  Anyway, we arrived in Hythe shortly after noon and made straight for our first destination, The White Hart in the High Street.

The White Hart is a lovely big pub, originally built in 1395 as an inn, but now more of a restaurant and also selling two real ales, sometimes 3 during busier times.  This Friday the two ales on were Greene King IPA (their regular ale) and the guest was the Kent brewer Hopdaemon's Incubus, a 4% nutty flavoured bitter, not bad at all, which will be replaced by the same brewer's 5% Green Daemon, a great shame that wasn't on yet (Hopdaemon website).

From there, we crossed back over the Military Canal and walked the short distance to The Three Mariners in Windmill Street where we met the very friendly, efficient and enthusiastic manager, Sarah, and chatted to a few of the 'locals' too. The Three Mariners is a freehouse and regular CAMRA awards winner, and has 8 handpumps, in usual circumstances serving 5 or 6 ales, and a real fire, and you know how much I like real fires...

Anyhow, we had halves of 3 of the ales on offer, missing out on Caledonian Autumn Red (4.4%) and their only regular, the 3.7% Youngs Bitter (more of in my next blog). The 3 we drank were all Kentish ales, Gadds (website at the Ramsgate Brewery) Seasider, an easy to drink 4.3% pale amber ale; Westerham (website) British Bulldog, a golden coloured 4.3% best bitter; and Goachers (website) 4.5% Imperial Stout, a dark stout brewed with roasted barley and Fuggles hops, a too easy to drink ale, and both of our's favourite in Kent this day, I do believe.

 

Unless you include crisps and nuts, The Three Mariners is not somewhere to go for food in Hythe, but it is the place to visit if you want convivial company and well conditioned ales, nice one!

Our final port of call in Hythe was The Red Lion Hotel, Red Lion Square, another large interior well set out as a restaurant too. We met Debbie behind the bar here, who asked to be remembered to Brian at the Star in St Mary in the Marsh (more of in part 2 of this day's blog, I'll probably publish that tomorrow). usually 3 ales here, the guest was the 3.6% Greene King IPA, and two regulars Wells Bombardier (4.1%) and the Kent brewer Old Dairy's (website) Red Top (3.8%), which we had, a nice mixture of hops in this easy to drink session bitter.

 

Well, more to come in Part 2 of Friday 30th November, but for now, cheers!