Even more ales!

So, ales on, and ales to come in the near future at the Dolphin, Rock a Nore, Hastings 'Old Town'; especially noting that next Tuesday evening (11th June) at 8pm, or 20.00 hours, depending on which you prefer, they receive the CAMRA award for East Sussex Pub of the Year, be there, or be not there, whatever... 

The usual 3 ales and regular seasonal 'guest' are Youngs Special, Harveys Sussex Best, and Dark Star Hophead and American Pale Ale (APA).  Recent guests have been RCH East Street, a 5% amber ale, and regularly returning from the Yorkshire brewery, Ilkley Lotus IPA, an excellent 5.6% pale, dry bitter ale with plenty of grapefruit, and a hint of peach, up your nose and attacking your taste buds, and with plenty of body, as I've said before, pretty damn good! 

To come on? Obviously quite a few, but including one from a previous employer of mine and another Yorkshire brewery, Kelham Island, their Riders on the Storm, a 4.5% golden pale ale, one of the 'Riders' sequence, named after the Doors' track; others include Pale Rider and it's wee sister Easy Rider.  Update, in error, the suppliers delivered the Easy Rider, bother! Oh well, that's not so bad...

Others to come on include returning ales already approved of by the landlord and customers alike, and reported in previous blogs, Otter Ale (4.5%) from Devon, and Milk Street The Usual (4.4%) from Somerset. 

Cheers!

Some disappointment in Hastings...

Not so much at the Tower in London Road, though, but then again... The lovely Sara was working, always pleasant, and some great ales on sale still, Ilkley Lotus IPA and Dark Star Revelation and APA (which I appeared to get the last pint of, thanks very much, but the other 2 are just to strong to only be drinking at a lunchtime visit, and, quite frankly, Doom Bar is very much a reserve for me, like if I'm dying of thirst!). I miss Hophead here at the Tower, longing for its return...

So, to the White Rock Hotel, down at the seafront, which did have Dark Star Hophead on sale, but nothing from the other 3 pumps, though it was after 12 noon, and it appeared 2 other ales may be pulled through at some time, but the lad behind the bar wasn't sure. OK, Hophead at £3.10 a pint, instead of the £2.30 the Tower charges, but... Quite frankly, that's me, 'frank' to the point of candour, I was reminded that, despite selling ales daily from 10.00 here, it's getting close to summer, and the beer was a bit warm, had definitely not been pulled through at all, and I wouldn't serve it up so cloudy (it was OK to drink-ish, and I always say I don't drink with my eyes, so can't be hypocritical, but I'll have no problems with my bowels this week!), this is why I don't drink in this establishment much during the summer, shame, as I like sitting out on the verandah looking at the sea...

So, where did I end up? At the General Havelock, to get my 'loyalty card' stamped and drink a decent pint of Hophead, but at £3.40 a pint now (inflation in a day). They also have Timothy Taylor Landlord and Harveys Sussex Best as regulars, and the Hophead of course, and Dark Star American Pale Ale (APA) as a guest on this day.  They usually sell Westons Old Rosie cider too, but a busy bank holiday weekend had seen that go down many gullets!

Good value food at the General Havelock too, had a wee chat to the lovely Ellen, serving today, and Jamie, the manager came in too, so pleasant company. For £4.45 I had a very nice cheese and red onion sandwich with mayo in brown bread, and a bowl of thick cut chips (the oil seemed a bit 'tired' and they were a bit fatty, but can't complain about the good value).  Cheers for another day...

Back again, Hastings updates...

Sadly, mostly because of a 'bug' that decided to help me lose 6 or 7 pounds in weight, ie be ill for 5-6 days, I haven't been drinking for a while, so a bit of 'catch up' required. First, again, sadly, Franks Front Room closed down in Hastings on Saturday 4th May, a loss, indeed!  Good luck to the ex-owners, I see the building is already going up for auction... 

But I have been to the Tower, London Road, with 5 ales there on the day; I just missed the Hopback Summer Lightning as it went off before I could order a pint, but it was replaced by the also excellent Ilkley Lotus IPA (5.6%), already commented on. There was also Sharps Doom Bar for the maltier ale lovers and 2 pale-ish ones from Dark Star too, the virtually ever-present American Pale Ale (APA, 4.7%) and Revelation, at 5.7% a bit more interesting, and, again, been reported on before. So, 4 excellent paler ales, and the Doom Bar of course...

I visited the Dolphin on the May Day public holiday and they had a Kelham Island beer on, a 'ruby mild' called Mistress Flames, 5% and a hint of spice in the aftertaste, loadsa body, smooth, frankly, delicious!  There were also the usual Youngs Special, Harveys Sussex Best, and Dark Star's Hophead and American Pale Ale, and one other new guest, ie Harveys Bogie Man (4.3%), brewed especially for the Hastings May Day celebrations, apparently; it was pale, a bit thin, with a strange flavour I couldn't distinguish properly, but certainly a biscuity maltness flavour in the bubbles.

Hastings seems to have more celebrations than anywhere else I've ever known, the May Day celebrations including a significant motorcycle rally, and 'Jack in the Green', it's very own fertility tradition, procession etc, so many people are dressed in greenery.  Here is the Dolphin's very own living Pre-Raphaelite portrait, Maz, serving up a fizzy drink; I tried to get a good picture serving up real ale, and, if I'd persisted, I would have got a good one, but, I have to own up, I lost patience, and this is a very good photograph, nice one...

I'm back... Cheers! 

The Dolphin, Hastings, and an excellent ale, or six…

I thought an update concerning my ‘local’, the Dolphin, was due, particularly as I drank here, yesterday, what must be my favourite ale for years, it stood out that much.  Also, a testament to Mark, the landlord, and all the family and staff there, that they have kept to 6 ales since the New Year, as their sales of real ales have kept up, so no need to have a month or two with just five ales as in previous years, as Mark always likes to ensure to his ales are served in best condition, quality!

On Thursday, the real ales included the 3 regulars, Dark Star Hophead (3.8%), Youngs Special (4.5%), and Harveys Sussex Best (4%), and three guests: Franklins Mama Knows Best (4.1); Milk Street The Usual, a 4.4% bitter, with a hint of roasted malt, and aroma of toast and marmalade, very interesting and very good; and a very drinkable pale ale, Orkney Scapa Special (4.2%).

By the 25^th, the guest ales were all different, and I’ll start by describing the excellent ale mentioned in the first paragraph, sitting next to my regular favourite, Hophead, it was the 5.6% Ilkley Lotus IPA, a “wolf in sheep’s clothing”, to quote Ilkley’s pumpclip… As soon as you smell it, a citrus aroma fills your nose, very big on grapefruit in the drinking too, good body, dry, pale and bitter, what more could I ask for? All the way from Yorkshire and, although I had drunk this last year, as previously reported, it hadn’t stood out as much then, but yesterday, I loved it!  

2 other new guest ales too, both very drinkable: from a Sussex brewer, so much more local, Isfield IPA, a light beer, with a slight flavour of roasted malt; and a ruby ale from Plain Ales of Wiltshire, Intrigue, a full-flavoured 4.2% bitter.

 

If you want to taste the Lotus IPA, I’d suggest you get to the Dolphin very quickly, as I doubt it will still be available for much longer, despite 2 firkins, as it really is that good, and really is being drunken in quantity, otherwise, visit Yorkshire, cheers!

Albatross Club Beer Festival

OK, I made it to the 2nd Albatross Beer Festival eventually, so missed out on trying a few ales, it being the last day of the festival, though I did manage a few, despite having not slept for over 30 hours...

It would be easy to list all the ales and 'tasting notes', but I'll only talk about the ales I actually tasted myself. I started off with drinking halves, first, Mallinsons Aramis, a 3.9% very dry pale bitter with the aroma of the aramis hops standing out, very nice, and I only just managed to get a drink before this ran out. 

Not having many weaker ales, and, as the poster said "NO BLAND BEERS", I moved on up to Ascot Ales Red IPA, 5.5% of a darker bitter, hard to describe the aftertaste, I wish I could have worked out the hops used, but couldn't today.  I then moved on to the 'in your face' hops of the 6.5% Stringers Hop Priest, this was dry and bitter and lovely.

Then came the 6.6% Summer Wine Diablo, my favourite ale of the day, a dry hopped pale bitter, incredibly, with a tropical fruit aroma!  The I moved onto the one below, brewed by Dave ''Unpronounceable' and his mate in the brewery behind my old Sheffield local, na zdrowie!  Steel City Hopfenstraube, a 4.5% wheat beer, cloudy, as you'd expect from the type of beer, and oozing hops and bitter, as you'd expect from Steel City's ales, and a hint of orange in the bitterness, nice one...   

... and I tried the Ilkley Lotus IPA too, 5.6%, slightly dry aftertaste and bitter, and other good ale, then the Bristol Beer Factory Southern Conspiracy, 6.5% of a pale ale, finishing off with a pint of 7.2%Redwillow Ageless, and I have to own up, I think I mixed up my own notes, so shan't say anything more about the final ales, well, I had gone about 34 hours without sleep by now, and a few ales...

Anyway, good choice of ales at only £2.60 a pint, or equivalent, I like the Albatross Club and would visit more often if it were closer to home; pleasant company, good banter, pretty damn nice time overall, though knackered by the end of it, cheers!