Only a short stroll along the seafront, in the sunshine, from The America Ground to the bottom of London Road, St Leonards, and I found 3 bars that sell real ale, at prices mostly cheaper than the town centre, ie at £3.20-£3.50 a pint, nice!
Almost immediately I start walking, below the Grade II listed, late Victorian, 'gothic' Palace Court (star of the vampire film Byzantium, which I still haven't seen), I reach the Pig in Paradise, which changed hands earlier this year. I didn't eat at either of these establishments on the day, and they all serve food, but the Pig also has regular 'comedy club' nights, and music, a recent gig saw The Lambrettas playing!
In addition, they have 2-4 real ales available, always an ale from the East Sussex brewer Long Man, and regularly a more common beer like Wychwood Hobgoblin or Sharps Doom Bar. On this visit I had the Long Man Best Bitter (4%), which was very pleasant, I do like their ales, as recently discussed. They also have a huge range of bottled beers, including 'craft' beers, eg from Meantime Brewery, BrewDog and many American beers, and not a few Belgian beers either! They also sell a crafty keg from Long Man, ironically (to me) called Crafty Blonde (4.1%).
Next stop was the regular CAMRA Good Beer Guide entry, the bar of the White Rock Hotel, with its fine balconies looking out onto the seafront and pier. Here, one is blessed with a choice of 4 Sussex-brewed real ales, on this visit including the ubiquitous Harveys Sussex Best, Rother Valley Golden Valley, and Dark Star Hophead and The Art of Darkness, a pleasant easy to drink 3.5% deep dark red bitter with loadsa hops used. I do understand how they make these dark hoppy 'pale ales', but it's still an oxymoron, and still I'm always amazed at the flavours coming through from the hops... I do like this ale!
My final port of call was in-between Warrior Square Gardens and London Road, St Leonards, the Gecko Bar & Bistro, 22 Grand Parade, which also has regular music, and which is a very recent find for me, though David, the licensee, assured me he's been here for 2 years now! Anyway, beers, in addition to the one real ale they have available, which David is planning to increase to two, and we had a bit of a chat about this, they sell a couple of BrewDog beers on draft. OK, crafty kegs, indeed, but BrewDog do know how to get the best out of the hops for their Punk IPA (5.6%), though a bit more costly at £4.60 a pint, though I've seen it for much more.
The Gecko Bar has an ale from Long Man as its regular, and it looks like it should be their excellent 4.2% bitter, Copper Hop, for some time to come now, and what a good choice too, though I'm looking forward to seeing what other ales may be appearing in the future, cheers!
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