South East Sussex POTY again!

Congratulations, yet again, to Louisa at the Tower, London Road, St Leonards, Hastings, for winning the local CAMRA Pub of the Year again! I've made 2 trips there recently, just to make sure, of course, nothing to do with excellent ales at good value prices, oh no... Anyway, both trips 6 ales from handpumps, none more expensive than £3 a pint, can't be bad, and all in good nick too!

The ales are mostly from local brewers, her 2 regulars being the excellent, and Sussex brewed, Dark Star (website) Hophead (3.8% and £2.80/pint) and American Pale Ale (APA, 4.7% and £2.90/pint). Other local-ish ales were Gun (website) Scaramanga (3.9%) an extra pale refreshingly light bitter, Long Man (website) Copper Hop (4%), a more typical bitter which I have reported on a few times before and very good, and Pig & Porter (website) Skylarking (4%) a refreshing pale golden bitter hopped with Ella and Galaxy, so hints of exotic fruits.

And, from further afield, Derby brewer Shiny (website) Pail (4%) brewed with Ella and Cascade hops, pale and lovely and bitter, Yorkshire brewer Ilkley (website) Rombald (which was £3 a very fair pint and 4.6%) a hoppy 'American' amber ale brewed with Cascade, Chinook, Nugget and Columbus hops with a biscuit malt flavoured base, and, from even further afield in Scotland, Fyne Ales (website) Maverick (4.2%) a reddish copper coloured bitter brewed with Bramling Cross and Challenger hops, always good ales from Fyne Ales!

But, not only did the Tower win the POTY for ales, but for Ciders and Perry too, nice one! Ciders included Orchard Pig Explorer (4.5%), Biddenden Bushels (6%), a favourite of a Scottish mate Jeff, Westons Old Rosie (7.3%) and Old Badger (I think, can't read my own writing! 4%), and their Country Perry (4.5%), and priced between £3.10 and £3.40 a pint... I can remember paying 25p a pint at the old Cider Bar in Newton Abbot in my youth!

Oh yes, and ales shortly to come on, if not already available, include excellent ales from Oakham Ales (Endless Summer), Fyne Ales (Highlander), Downlands (IPA), and Franklins Citra, enjoy them if you see them, you lucky people!

Pubs/Bars without lager/keg beers.

No doubt most of you will have read in the Metro recently (site) about the Queen's Arms ("Elsie's") in Cowden Pound, Kent, and how the only beer she sells is cask-conditioned Adnams Bitter.  Indeed, the pub has been in her family ownership for 100 years this year, and has never sold lager, not sure if they ever sold keg, but they certainly don't appear to now, nor lager in bottles for that matter!  Many thanks to www.geograph.org.uk for my borrowing their photograph, but I've never been here, a visit to which, I suppose, will have to be enabled sometime soon.

So I had a think, you could probably hear the cogs whirring in the North of Scotland, and I'm sure I have been in more pubs or bars without keg beers or lager in the UK, but I can only think of 3 today, the first of which was my local when I lived in Sheffield, though when I first visited the pub in 1996, they did sell Stella on draft, when the pub was called the Cask & Cutler. 

Now, however, under different ownership for quite a few years, the pub is called The Wellington (site) and is situated near Shalesmoor tram stop, not far away from my old employer at Kelham Island Brewery, and all the excellent pubs (genuine freehouses) and microbreweries in that area, including their own brewery, Little Ale Cart. The point being, they no longer sell lager or any keg beer at all, though I believe they still sell bottled lager, and a good selection of Belgian bottled beers too, another excellent type of 'real beer'.

 

The Wellington, which has been a pub since 1842, sells ales from 10 handpumps, usually at least one dark beer, ie a porter, stout or mild, a real cider, and  a few of their own very pale, and very hoppy, ales, which could be why I have grown to love pale bitters, the more dry and bitter the better; also many other, mainly pale and hoppy ales are served.  But no draft lager or any type of keg beer, and a better provider of ales I have yet to find, and I've been to a few!  But this is not a place for a swanky night out, this is a pub, and proud of the fact; indeed, I'm already looking forward to arranging my next visit...  

  

So, where else can I remember, ah, yes, the Bottle & Glass Inn (site) at the West Country Living Museum near Dudley, which I visited a couple of times a few years ago. This building, and built as a pub, is nearly 200 years old, and was transported, every brick, slate, floorboard, window and door, from nearby Brockmore and rebuilt in the 'village' here as a fine period building.  Have a look at the museum's site, because it is a very interesting place to visit.

 

When I was last here, they sold only 2 ales, no lagers, Holden's Black Country Bitter and Black Country Mild, though I believe they now sell other local beers, and not Holden's anymore (shame, because they're crackin' ales). Last I heard they were selling Banks's and a real cider (Thatchers) from 4 handpumps.  Incidentally, the beer engines they use are very old too, from a traditional London design, I believe

So my last memory of a keg and lager free pub is Ye Olde Cider Bar in Newton Abbot, Devon, and a good few years have passed since I lived in Devon, sadly. The name gives it away really, as they don't sell beer but only cider, and perry, fruit wines and mead may also be bought here.  When I first visited, they only sold 3 of their own ciders, dry, medium and sweet, and you needed a lemonade top to cope with the dry!  The bar has changed since, been extended, and many more varieties of cider and perry can now be bought here, but it was always interesting to spot those who had been imbibing here on the late trains back to Exeter, memories...

 

I cannot find a website for the bar, too 'olde worlde' maybe, but there are many references to this cider bar if you google Ye Olde Cider Bar. Now, if anyone who knows me can remind me of other non-keg establishments I have visited, I'd be glad to hear from you, and I shall rack my brains more over the coming months, no doubt.  Or, if you have your own memories of keg and cider-less pubs, please share with me and I'll enable a post or blog, many thanks and cheers!