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!

New Year 2012-13 - Hastings

Happy New Year!

So, apart from visiting the Dolphin, Rock-a-Nore, 'Old Town', have I been anywhere different, or drunk anything special over the New Year?  Well, yes, actually... The Dolphin had it's usual Dark Star Hophead, Young's Special and Harveys Sussex Best on, as well as the Harveys Sussex Old and Hastings Porter, plus the 4.2% St Austell 'Cornish Pale Ale' Tribute, another pale and hoppy beer, so Christmassy beers no more...

But not at the White Rock Hotel, on the seafront, vitually opposite the Pier, where I wandered in on the off chance to see if the Dark Star Imperial Stout, a massive 10.5%, was on tap yet, and, luckily, it was being drawn through by Kerry as I waited!  A whopping £2.50 a half, but then, when considering the strength, a half of this is like drinking a pint of strong ale at an equivalent 5.2%, so not so expensive really. "What was it like?" I hear you ask, well, it was nothing like the 10% Imperial Stout I remember drinking many years ago, that was brewed by Durham Brewery, in fact, if given this in a blind tasting, I would have guessed it was either a barley wine or Christmas beer, because it released a Christmas Pudding basinful of flavours in my mouth, very full bodied and nice, but a tad too sweet really for me really.

What else did I get up to? I visited the Tower, London Road, to watch a football match on Sky, and to take advantage of their excellent value ales. I started with a couple of pints of the Kent KGB, that I recently reported on, gave the Sharp's Doom Bar (only £1.99 a pint for a seasonal special price until New Years Eve), and even the Dark Star APA, a miss, because the 5.7% Dark Star Revelation was available at £2.90 a pint, crackin' ale and crackin' value...  The Revelation, as I've probably said too often, is a revelation, a pale ale bursting with hops and flavour, and from this month, it becomes a permanent ale on the Dark Star inventory, crackin'!   

Finally, I also visited the Hastings Arms, George Street in the 'Old Town', a Shepherd Neame pub, so the choice was... well, as you can see in the photograph above. Although the ale you can see me about to drink is in a Bishop's Finger glass, I had that fine ale last time I was here, as recently reported, but I drank the 5% Christmas Ale, at £3.50 a pint, more the norm for Hastings prices, a more easier to drink ale than the Imperial Stout, which had tasted like a 'Christmas' ale to me, maybe even like one of those big beers from Belgium, like Gulden Draak.  No, Shep's version of Christmas Ale was lighter than expected, quite bitter, and with a nutty, maybe 'walnut', hoppy aftertaste. Liked it! 

So that was it, I've plans to go further afield soon, but in the meantime, it's Hastings for me, cheers!  

Christmas 2012

Merry Christmas, Bon Noel, whatever... Christmas and St Stephen's/Boxing Day were spent in Hastings for me and with no work this year, yay!  Most of my drinking outside my home was spent at the Dolphin, Rock-a-Nore, opposite the fishermen's huts, and Santa Claus/Father Christmas/St Nicholas/whoever, had landed a bit early on the lower roof.  The day started very wildly, with driving wind and rain, but the sun later came out, so it was a very mixed bag of weather of, what will become, the wettest year on record in the UK.

Ales at the Dolphin included the usual Dark Star Hophead, Harveys Sussex Best and (lately) Youngs Special, all very well known to readers, if not most ale drinkers in the World, by now, and the seasonal regular Harveys Sussex Old Ale, and RCH Pitchfork (4.3%), which I believe I have noted elsewhere to be a decent pale ale, nice and bitter, and all the way from Cornwall, Sharp's Winter Berry Ale, more about below.

However, before I visited the Dolphin, on both days, I walked up the hill to the Tower, on the corner of London Road and Tower Road, (upper) St Leonards, and bordering Bohemia.  Good to see Louisa, the Landlady, here on Christmas Day, when she had Dark Star American Pale Ale (APA, 4.7%) and Critical Mass (7.4%, hence why I gave it a miss at 11am), a darker strong ale from the Sussex brewer; Sharp's Doom Bar, seen all over the Country and only £1.99 a pint here until 6pm on New Years Eve. 

The previously reported Rother Valley Golden Valley had finished at the end of the previous evening, but Kent Brewery's KGB, aka Kent Golding Bitter (4.1%) was being pulled through as I left, hence my Boxing Day visit to try that one too.  So, Christmas Day saw me drinking the more bitter than usual APA, a very nice surprise, and the single hopped (presumably) KGB was my drink on Boxing Day, a nice refreshing golden hued bitter with a dry aftertaste, worth the revisit indeed!

I had planned to try a half of the ludicrously strong Dark Star Imperial Stout (10.5%) at the White Rock Hotel on Boxing Day, but it was not on and they only had two ales, not the most exciting either, so I made a deviation to the Dripping Well, Cambridge Road, and a wee drink and chat with Mark the landlord (and other patrons, of course).  OK, no Christmas ales here either, but I had a decent pint of Hastings Best, and the usual Wadworth Henry's IPA and Adnams Broadside were on sale too.

So, I ended my 2 days Christmas 'bar drinking at the Dolphin, where I met up with all the family barstaff, though not all working both days, including Mark and Mo, and Laura and Louise, and had drinks bought for me by Joe and Mark, cheers mateys! Following a pint or two of the Dark Star Hophead, I finished both days, actually, by drinking the Sharp's Winter Berry Ale, a seasonal ale flavoured with morello cherries, and very tasty too...

Seasons Greetings to everyone who reads this... well, to everyone anyway, cheers!

9th & 10th October, still in London.

Thursday evening, the 'Routemeister' and I drank in his new local, though he likes to say it's MY local in Putney, The Bricklayers Arms, (website) which had had a Kent beer festival very recently, and was still selling just ales brewed in Kent... A sort of home from home for me these days!

 

Anyway, we had a choice of Kent beers that included Downton's German Pale Ale and Quad Hop; Old Dairy Soft Top, a 3.5% dark mild; Kent Brewery Cobnut, a 4.1% ruby ale; Nelson Brewery Powder Monkey, and a few others...

 

We drank the 2 Downton ales, we both had the German Pale Ale, a 4.2% pale bitter, and I also tried the Quad Hop, which I'm sure I've had before, a 3.9%, even dryer and more bitter pale ale. Both were very drinkable, thank you!

 

We returned to The Bricklayers for our Wednesday late lunch, having done a bit of work in the Routemeister's flat into the afternoon.  Now, they don't do meals here, but we sat outside with sandwiches we'd brought with us, which they were happy for us to do, swilling even more ale; Dan sticking to the German Pale Ale we'd had a few pints of the evening before, but I progressed to a few pints of the Nelson Powder Monkey, a 4.4% even dryer pale bitter! Loved it...

 

Just to the left of the bar as we entered, the same bloke was drinking there who had been there with a mate the evening before, not sure if he'd moved, but, with the lovely Hungarian barmaid, Anett, very ably serving the ale today, I could see a good reason for being there that afternoon session too.

I returned home, late that evening, via Clapham Junction, and a drink at The Roundhouse (website) at nearby Wandsworth Common, and I have written about this place before.  Indeed, I used to go there quite often when I still lived in London, as they had a lot of live music in those days, but not so much these days, apparently.  

 

I had a good chat to the barman, a Scot from Stirling, and I drank the Hobsons Town Crier, another pale golden ale, 4.5%, with a slightly nutty hop character.  This was not even a 'Hobson's Choice' though, as they also had Sambrook's Wandle Bitter and a 3.4% Adnams beer Lighthouse. 

 

Then I walked the short distance to Clapham Junction Railway Station and caught the train home... Cheers!