Weekend 2-3 February and surprise 3.5% Ale!

I watched football on Sky tv at the Tower, London Road, St Leonards, Hastings, and found they had 3 Dark Star ales on sale, the 5% 'winter warmer' Winter Meltdown, the excellent 4.7% pale ale, American Pale Ale and The Art of Darkness, only 3.5%.  They also had Tring Moongazer, a 4.3% lightish ale with "All American Hops".  The Moongazer is a light coloured ale, with a hint of caramel in the aroma, and a little sweet to start with, but with a bitter aftertaste, nice.

But the surprise was The Art of Darkness, Dark Star adding a whopping amount of hops to make this session beer, by strength, a "full flavoured black beer"... Not too bad a description, but the colour was more a deep dark red, and the flavours were certainly there. Yes, full of hops, refreshing, with a dry aftertaste, and I was very happy to drink more than just the one pint, excellent!  

At the Dolphin in Hastings, I again enjoyed the full flavoured 5.5% CITRA IPA from Franklin's, which does what it says on the label, this new brewery from Bexhill certainly is brewing some decent ales very early in its existence.  In addition to the CITRA, there were the Dolphin's usual regulars, Harveys Sussex Old and Sussex Best, Youngs Special and Dark Star Hophead, and there was also:

The Dolphin's first foray into ales from Kent Brewery, which shouldn't be their last, as this is another reasonably local brewery, in adjacent Kent, that brews some very good ales. The 4.1% Cobnut is a dark ruby ale, with a nutty flavour, and reminds me of a stout, very nice.  Cheers!

Brighton visit and last 2 pubs

The Basketmakers Arms, Gloucester Road, Brighton:

The Basketmakers is a cracking Fullers pub, that sells the whole range of Fullers and Gales ales, plus guests from other breweries, eg an old favourite of mine was on sale yesterday, Butcombe Bitter. There is also a great menu, whiskeys galore, loadsa real ale, friendly, but a lot busier inside than all my other visits of the day.

I took my pint of Fullers Bengal Lancer (5.0% India Pale Ale) outside, when I couldn't really find anywhere to settle properly inside, I just seemed to be getting in the way of others, who were mostly eating too. Decent sized pub too, so they must be raking it in!

Anyway, drinking the very tasty Bengal Lancer outside, and I found myself chatting to a teacher named Emma, who was drinking Fullers ESB, and used to live in Cambridge before moving down to Brighton. As most people who like real ales will appreciate, we can be a bit boring, but far from it, lively discourse was the order of the day, and Emma provided me with significant information about drinking in Cambridge too. Consequently, I shall soon be adding a Cambridge page to my website.

Many thanks to Emma for her company and information provided, always welcome to join me for a drink in Hastings, or elsewhere on the coast, cheers!

Final stop before catching my train home was the always reliable, The Evening Star, Surrey Street, near to the station, and I was not to be disappointed.

The Evening Star is the 'tap' to Dark Star Brewery, being its first pub, and continues to provide excellent ales, specialist beers, Belgian beers, and real cider too. The Star has 4 of Dark Star's own ales on sale and 3 guest ales from other breweries.

On their own side of the bar was Dark Star Revelation (5.7%, and it was a revelation too, cracking beer!), The Original, Hophead (a regular beer I drink in Hastings, great stuff too!) and Winter Meltdown. The guest ales too show a findness for pale hoppy ales, all being versions of pale ale/IPA, the first was a collaboration with Thornbridge Brewery, from up my previous neck of the woods, PUJA (6.7% and reyt interesting), Magic Rock Curious (3.9% pale ale) and the excellent 6.0% IPA from West Yorkshire, the Summer Wine Brewery Diablo, too good and too strong to carry on with, I'm afraid... I was going to have another pint, but common sense won me over, that was my last drink before leaving Brighton.

Interesting coincidences again, the manager would be drinking up in my old haunt, ie round Kelham Island and Shalesmoor in Sheffield, and at my old regular pubs, including the Wellington, drinking pale hoppy Little Ale Cart Brewery ales. Also, they've done collaborations with other brewers too, eg Brodies, a brewery I'm very interested in, and were advertising their Easter Beer Festival at their 'tap', the King William IV in Leytonstone, East London, 6-9 April 2012. All ales at £1.99 a pint at the festival, in line with Brodies pricing policy!

Anyway, a cracking day for me, and many thanks to all those who helped that be possible!