We were thinking about another long walk today, ie 15th, but only managed about 6 miles or so in total... the rain put us off...
But, not before we stopped at the excellent, as ever, Dove, by the Thames in Hammersmith. I love this pub, probably in my Top Ten of pubs, a Fullers house, where we drank the excellent 4.5% Wild River, sat overlooking the Thames out the back, well, generally enjoyed ourselves in a very laid back fashion.
We also went inside for a while, and this is a very atmospheric older pub, but my brother, the 'Routemeister', decided to take an amusing (to him) photograph, cheers Dan!
From The Dove, we went to the other great Fullers pub in Hammersmith, the Salutation in Kings Street, where we drank more of the excellent Wild River, well, you have to when it's on, as, apart from the London Porter and darker ales, this is, in my opinion, the best bitter they brew... There! I said it, I even prefer it to London Pride.
I also love the front of the Salutation, and the tiling inside, which gives it a unique decoration. From here, though, we headed back along the Thames to Putney and we made our first ever visit to The Cat's Back, a Harveys house in Wandsworth!
Now, as you'll realise, even though I live in Sussex, I rarely drink Harveys, but this meant I had to. We tried the Olympia Golden Ale (4.3%) at first, a golden ale, but sadly, about to go off... so, the wonderful Natalie, the landlady, poured us out some Tom Paine (5.5%), an ale the Routemeister said I should drink, my respecting the man himself an' all... A very good darker ale, though not tasting too heavy, but quite bitter, nice one!
Oh, by the way, they also had the ubiquitous, at least down in Sussex, Sussex Best and Sussex Dark Mild, though they do change their ales regularly. We'll be back...
From here we returned to the Bricklayers Arms, as described yesterday, still had the Fyne Ale on, so happy to appreciate that again, and it is crackin'!
I had a pint of Kelham Island Pale Rider at the Falcon, Clapham Junction, just before I caught my train back to Sussex; having brewed this ale myself, I hardly recognised it! It's either had a recipe change, big time, or they'd served up the wrong ale from the pump in error, or, frankly, something had gone wrong? Drinkable, but not the Pale Rider I remember... Dave Wickett would be turning in his grave RIP.
When I got back to Hastings at 22.30, sadly, Frank's Front Room wasn't open, looking like it had just closed, so I dropped into Pissarros, where another lovely barmaid, Lucie, served up a pint of Long Man Long Blonde, and I met my neighbour, Robert, to have a chat with. Now, I've appreciated Long Man ales so far, but this wasn't great, I suspect it was on the way out... not completely my day today then!
Oh well, next time... Cheers!
No comments:
Post a Comment