Crackin' Ales from across the Country!

I've had 2 excellent ales from Kelham Island Brewery, an old employer of mine up in Sheffield (website). Their Miami Pale Ale (5%) was a nice refreshing pale golden ale with a dry bitter finish, and their Atomic Blondie (nice pump clip!) was a more full bodied, though not as much as I expected, 6% golden, dry and bitter ale, incredibly dangerous, as very easy to drink!   

Over from Somerset, ie from RCH Brewery (website) of Western Super Mare, came another excellent 4.5% pale golden ale, their THIRTY POINT SIX, brewed with Bodicea hops, a dry citrusy bitter, enjoyed muchly too!      

And from Oakham Ales of Peterborough (website), I've very recently had 3 ales, always a dependable sight on the bar! Their 4.2% Citra, very pale with a citrus aroma and taste that smacks you in the cheeks, making them go cold, a gorgeous dry bitter! Their 4.4% Scarlet Macaw, grapefruit, but a bit more subtle, again, pale, dry and bitter! Also, their ever lovely 4.6% Bishops Farewell, I've written about this fruity dry bitter so often, I shan't bore you again, sorry! Impossible to get bored drinking Bishops Farewell, cheers! 

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!

The Bell Inn, Bath

Following the Chancellor's decision to get rid of (we hope for ever) the Beer Duty Escalator, today's news is about the offering of shares in a cooperative to own the CAMRA Good Beer Guide entry, The Bell Inn, Bath (site).  OK, we're not likely to see any decrease in the price of ales in pubs due to this tax reduction, but it should help publicans to keep increases in prices to a minimum, taking into account the brewers' own price rises, which many pubs have already passed on, but some have not awaiting the Chancellor's announcement.

The Bell Inn is a music venue, as well as offering 9 real ales, and has the support of many celebrities, including Peter Gabriel, Clare Teal, Robert Plant, Midge Ure and Will Gregory of Goldfrapp, who should all be able to contribute a few coins between them.  This looks to be an interesting project, and great if it keeps a good real ale house, and music venue, alive and kicking.

 

The Bell has 7 regular ales, that include quite a few I have recently commented on: RCH Pitchfork (4.3%); Stonehenge Danish Dynamite, a 5% light golden ale much enjoyed recently at the Dolphin in Hastings, and both soon to be available there again; Abbey Ales Bellringer, a 4.2% amber ale; Otter Brewery Otter Ale, a 4.5% bitter; Bath Ales Gem, a 4.1% ale that includes wheat and barley malt; and 2 of my favourite all-time ales, the excellent 4% Butcombe Bitter and the 5% pale and hoppy trendsetter from Hopback, Summer Lightning, always sampled by me if available. 

 

In addition, 2 weekly changing guest ales are available, usually chosen from a host of reasonably local small brewers, including Arbor Ales, Cotswold Spring, Milk Street, Plain Ales, Spinning Dog, and many more.  If you're ever in Bath, I'd suggest you pay this pub a visit, if you do, I'd be happy to publish your findings, 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!

Wetherspoons

OK, I have to prove I don't only drink in the Dolphin when in Hastings, and it's true, I don't only drink at the Dolphin, and, being a good member of CAMRA, well, a member who takes advantage of 50p off a pint at 'spoons every now and then, I visited Hastings 'spoons today, and had a pint of Arundel Stronghold, a 'Premium Ale' at 4.7%, and, with the CAMRA discount, a whopping £1.49 a pint, nice one... and it was a pretty decent darkish strongish ale, what you'd expect really!

Update on the Dolphin, though, and I have to giggle now, private joke! The Lemon Head and Heel Stone have been replaced by RCH Pitchfork and Old Slug Porter respectively, RCH do brew some very good beers! Mark (landlord) does like the Porter, and it's pretty good, I even had a pint of it on Monday, but back to my favourite Hophead...

 

Cheers!

August Bank Holiday 27-08-12

No wandering too far today, so just off to the old town in Hastings, and the Dolphin, which I reached before it opened, but, luckily, the stall selling 'fishermen's rolls' had just started producing, and I was first in line to enjoy one of their wonderful sandwiches/baps, with 2 filleted fish (usually a dab and a plaice, bap sized), cooked in olive oil and seasoned with pepper and lemon juice... Only £2.50, very good quality and excellent value!

Anyway, I only had a few minutes to wait after I had finished eating the sandwich, and entered the Dolphin, where 2 new guest ales were on sale, including Stonehenge Ales (Bunces Brewery) Heel Stone...

Thanks to a taster from Mark, I found the 4.3% Heel Stone to be a golden ale, fruity, with an easy bitterness to it, though not quite bitter enough for my taste, so, before my usual Hophead, I also had a taster of the RCH Pitchfork, also 4.3%, and then a pint, as it was pretty good.  It's a paler golden colour, and a very easy to drink bitter, which can also be found in bottles.

 

The name comes from the last battle to be fought on British soil during the English civil wars, in 1685, when James II was on the thrown (the Monmouth rebellion).

Anyway, the usual 3 ales were on sale, Hophead, Directors and Sussex Best, and the summer regular, Dark Star American Pale Ale too, making it 6 good or excellent ales at the bar, and, as usual, I drank a few pints of the Dark Star Hophead, this in the convivial company, earlier, of Mark the landlord.   Working behind the bar were, early on, Laura and Louise, and Fraser, Joe and Debs appeared too, as did Mo.  Later, after Mark had left, there were also Dave, Kevin and Al to chat with at the bar, a nice afternoon, indeed, with the family and friends...

 

Cheers!

Links for Stonehenge (link) and RCH (link).

17th May 2012 SW London

Had to revisit Clapham Junction so that I could get to the Eagle this time (opens 2pm), crackin' real ale pub just off the Northcote Road, in Chatham Road. Had a great chat with the landlord too, Dave, who is very knowledgeable about ale and brewers.  They have up to 8 ales on, on Thursday, there were Surrey Hills IPA (4.6%), Saffron Littlebury Lighthouse (4.2%), Redemption Trinity (3%), Pilgrim Weald Ale (3.6%) and Woodforde's Wherry, and the ales were in good form too.  I shall return. 

Before we visited the Eagle, we had walked along the south embankment of the Thames from Putney Bridge, well, I did; I met my bro in Wandsworth Park. Consequently, we passed the Ship, near Wandsworth Bridge, a pub that neither of us had visited for years, and I mean years!  This is a Young's house, so serves up Special and 'Ordinary' bitters, but also had 2 Sambrook's ales, Wandle (3.8%) and Pale Ale (4.2%).  We tried a pint of the Pale Ale, which it certainly was pale, but a bit lacking in hops for my taste, not very bitter, thus easy enough to knock back.  Very friendly young staff, and we sat overlooking the river, and one of the remaining industrial parts of London. 

In between these 2 pubs, we visited The Castle in Battersea High Street, which holds its 'wake' today (Saturday), as the licensees are being evicted by the landowners, who want to build flats on a site which has been occupied by a pub since 1600! The present pub is from the mid 1960s, and, as they're getting rid of stock, there was only Doom Bar for us, which was just about OK.  Good luck with the continuing campaign, which can be followed on the facebook page - The Castle Pub Battersea.

We ended our ale drinking at Le Gothique, previously reported on by me, and this photo is actually from our first visit with Kieran.  On Thursday, they were serving Shepherd Neame Whitstable Bay (4.1%), Skinners Keel Over (4.2%) and RCH East Street (5%).  We had a good time, though, chatting with one of the locals in particular (a Cork man, who lives in the building, so he had a long walk home).   

Sláinte!

Monday 14th May

My brother came down to visit on Sunday, which mostly consisted of watching the football on the tv in a pub I just cannot recommend, sorry, I was only there for the football, and it only sold Harveys, and not in that good condition!  So, yesterday, we went for a circular walk from and to Lewes, strated fine, but rain and wind meant it was a bit of a trying day! 

Our first port of call was the intriguing, and over 500 years a hostelry, the Ram Inn in Firle, a great old building, excellent garden, smashing small wooden panelled bar, and a dark and eerie interior, quite grey and dark (see their website for photographs).  A rather charming young lass served us, and, in addition to the 2 less exciting ales, TEA and Sussex Best, there was a gem from Dark Star, Golden Gate (4.5%) - Yes, you guessed correctly, it's golden in colour, certainly a bitter, and rather sharp and refreshing, loved it!  The Ram also had Westons Country Perry (4.5%) on sale, which was a bonus.  This was the last time in the day we were actually dry, as it strated tipping down soon after our departure, but the Ram Inn is certainly somewhere I will return to.

Following our soaking from the persistent rain and horizontal wind up on the South Downs Way, we managed to return to Lewes without drowning... We immediately headed for the Snowdrop Inn, one of Dan's favourite pubs down here already, as well as mine, particularly, because it always seems to have either/and a Dark Star stronger ale, and something from Thornbridge.

We drank a couple of pints each of Dark Star Revelation (5.7%) and Thornbridge Kipling (5.2%), two of my current favourites, both full of hops, pale and bitter, with sweetness hinted, but dry finishes, crackin'!!  They also had RCH Brewery Steam Showers Bitter (4.8%), Dark Star Ruby Mild (6%), Knots of May Light Mild (3%) and Sussex Best, well, this is Lewes!

Our final visit, before returning to Hastings, was to the Gardeners Arms, Lewes. Another good real ale pub, though none of the people I usually chat to when here were here yesterday, but, as I wasn't alone, that wasn't a problem. On sale were Rother Valley Mild (3.8%), RCH Steam Showers again, Tring Death or Glory (a whopping 7.2%), Lytham Epic (4.4%), a pale-ish dry bitter with a slightly sour aroma and aftertaste, and, from Scotland, The Smart Brewing Company's Wild Thing (4.0%), named after Gareth Ainsworth, beloved by Blades fans (OK, a joke there ;-) - pale and dry, but, unlike Ainsworth, not a lot of strength or taste.

OK, I'll report on Tuesdays visit to Pett Level and Icklesham soon, cheers!