Much Ado about Hops, Great Ale, and a New Pub...

You'll probably guess from my brief last blog, I'm a bit unhappy at losing the original of this blog, it was a fair piece of authorship, and I don't think I'll get up to the mark again... Oh well! This was, and still is, designed to review some very hoppy and excellent ales, provide some news, and mention a pub I'd previously been told to avoid, but now selling some very good real ales, more later... 

Oakham are probably my favourite brewery, and that is saying something! Anyway, this very tasty offering from them, the 4.6% Bishop's Farewell, does the business for me, pale, fruity, hoppy, with plenty of body and a lovely bitter finish, great stuff, and recently available at the CAMRA South East Sussex Pub of The Year 2013, and now 2014 too: Congratulations to Mark and family at the Dolphin, Rock a Nore, Hastings 'old town'! And many thanks for the photograph too, presumably this thanks going to Laura, cheers m'dear! 

In addition to the 3 regular ales always on offer here, including the very hoppy session ale from the Sussex brewer, Dark Star Hophead (3.8%), and the Bishop's Farewell as a guest ale, there are always 6 ales in total, so 3 guests as well as the regulars. Another quality brewery recently represented was from Yorkshire, and goes by the name of Roosters (also brewing 'specials' under the alternative name of 'Outlaw'), an ale I've had up int' North, the excellent pale and bitter Yankee (4.3%). I also have to mention an ale that I found quite magnificent, but not what would be called my 'usual tipple', Yeovil Ruby, a deep red slightly sweet bitter with a malty aroma and clean taste, finishing off nice and dry! 

Whilst reviewing the Dolphin, they have recently started selling 3 'crafty kegs', 2 varying ones from Meantime, to me still tasting 'tinny', which comes from the unnatural gases used to pressurise and dispense the beer, I presume. But also one that is a collaboration between Charles Wells and the American brewery, Dogfish Head, called DNA - New World IPA (4.5%). In effect, this is a weaker version of the Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA (6%), brewed originally last year as a cask conditioned ale, but now a crafty keg. It's not as tinny as the other 2, but I wish I had had the chance to try the real ale version! 

When discussing drinking hoppy ales in Hastings, thoughts immediately go to The Tower in London Road, upper St Leonards. This is like drinking in a certain Sheffield pub, in the Shalesmoor area, but with fewer South Yorkshire accents! Just look at the photograph above, and 3 Dark Star ales, brimming with hops. Regular here is their American Pale Ale (APA, 4.7%), semi-regular is the Hophead (3.8%), both well-reported before. The 2nd and 3rd Dark Star ales in the photograph have also been reviewed before, and packed with hops, though slightly darker and dark, the revelation that is Revelation (5.7%), and the dark revelation that proves that it's not just strong ales that pack a punch, so does the 3.5% The Art of Darkness! Louisa has also served up their Six Hop Ale, subtitled "Extreme Hops", a 6.5% full-bodied darker golden ale, packed with fruity hops and a lovely dry bitter finish, quality! 

Another 2 Sussex brewers having their ales served here include the new (old) boy on the block, Burning Sky. 2 of their ales have been quite regularly served at The Tower, both brimming with hops, and well reviewed by me already, the 3.5% Plateau and the stronger Aurora (5.6%), even better quality! Also, even closer by, and featured in the photograph above, number 14 in the Hastings 'Handmade' series, their 3 Cs American Pale Ale (5.5%). The clue is in the name, not their usual 'Handmade' single hop brew, but 3 hops were used for No 14, and I was only 1 out with my guess at what they were, that is Columbus, Centennial and Cascade. You can probably write this for me, but I'll write it anyway: plenty of body, a pale golden bitter with a strong citrus aroma and plenty of varied citrus flavours coming through, finishing off with a pleasant crisp dry aftertaste, not bad at all! 

From further afield have been 2 ales from the apparently very consistent Red Willow, including Mirthless (3.9%), pale, citrus aroma and grapefruit and tangerine in the flavour, finishing off dry and bitter, and Wreckless (4.8%), a bit maltier, with a biscuit aroma, less fruity, and a wee bit darker. I doubt they'll bring out a "Tasteless" or "Hopeless", but they do brew a 4.1% Feckless... Oh, and another newer favourite brewer of mine has been represented too, Tiny Rebel Goldie Lookin Ale (4.5%), a collaboration with the Newport band, 'Goldie Lookin Chain'; though I doubt the music is to my taste! But the ale is, I'm guessing it's 4.5%, because of 45 RPM, sounds about right, and this is a golden bitter with a fresh aroma and tangerine and orange in the flavours, definitely worth a try (the ale)...     

And the new pub? This is The Clown in Russell Street, just behind Queens Road, and very close to the town centre. It's always seemed a bit rough, from observing the clientele smoking away outside, and doesn't look much from outside either, does it? But I'd had a whisper they were selling FILO ales now, so I had to make a visit... It's actually quite a fun wee pub inside, decent juke box, decent banter, and 3 handpumps for real ales. The first time I visited there was just the very good Churches Pale Ale (4.2%) from FILO, but they do still serve up more common ales such as Wells Bombardier. However, I very recently visited and they had 3 FILO ales, the Churches Pale Ale, which is now a regular, plus Gold (4.8%) and Crofters (3.8%). So things are looking up in Hastings Town Centre... 

Oh, I've only visited early lunchtime, and even the lad behind the bar advised me that I may not appreciate the pub at other times, cheers Alan!     

5th Bexhill Beer Festival 4-6 April 2014

The 5th Bexhill Beer Festival is to be held at The Albatross Club (Royal Air Force Association), 15 Marina Arcade, Bexhill-on-Sea TN40 1JS, at the end of this week, with free admission to all of legal age!  

Friday 4th April, 11am - 11pm 

Saturday 5th April, 11am - 11pm 

Sunday 6th April, 11am - 7pm.

All real ales will be £3 a pint; £1.50 a half-pint; £1 a third-pint... Planned ales: 

5 Towns Niamh's Nemesis 'IPA' 

Big Hand First Hand 

Dancing Duck 22 

Dark Star Seville 'Spanish Orange Bitter' 

Deeply Vale Breakfast Stout 

Dervento Cleopatra 'Pale Apricot' 

Flipside Russian Rouble 

Hand Drawn Monkey What would Jephers Do? 

Heavy Industry 77 'Big Amber IPA' 

Hopstar Lush 'Copper' 

Kirkstall Pale 

Red Willow Headless 

Rooster's Londinium 'Coffee Porter' 

Sonnet 43 Brown Ale 

Also, bottled 'craft' beers from Tiny Rebel Brewery at £3.50, including Fubar, Urban IPA and Hadouken, and 3 real ciders at £3 a pint; £1.50 a half; £1 a third-pint.

Great ales, excellent value, and good company too! 

www.drinkaware.co.uk

300th BLOG!

300th blog, so what do I write about? Obvious really... I love pale and hoppy ales, I've been hither and thither recently, and even discussed beers from over The Pond, but have had some crackin' ales since my last blog about beers in the UK, so where better to start than looking at the 4 excellent ales served from The Tower bar in the photograph immediately below, and then discussing them?!? 

With my love of hops, The Tower, 251 London Road, St Leonards, Hastings TN37 6NB, produced a masterpiece with this choice of 4 hoppy ales, and I've seen Louisa, and the new barmaid, Sheena, regularly too, I can't complain! This particular day and I was really stumped what to drink, but had to start with my  new favourite, Burning Sky's 3.5% Plateau, brimming with hops, with a lovely refreshing aroma, dry grapefruit taste, dry and very bitter, quality! There were also the 2, very well reported on by me already, Dark Star ales, American Pale Ale (APA, 4.7%) and its big brother, the hoppy revelation that is Revelation (5.7%). But there was a new one for me too, Red Willow Mirthless 'Pale Ale', 3.9%, with a fresh citrus aroma, a wee bit 'malty' flavour not detected in the others, not so dry, but still quite bitter... What a choice for me!

Oh yes! And I've also recently had Dark Star's Art of Darkness (3.5%) and Hophead (3.8%), both oozing hop flavours and reported on regularly too; the 'classic' that is Hop Back Summer Lightning (5%), which amazingly seems 'old hat' these days hop-wise; another local brewer keeping the hops 'ultra', Franklins Citra IPA (5.5%); and a wee bit darker amber bitter, Hogs Back HBB or Hogs Back Bitter (3.7%) with a hint of 'peach' in the flavour, and dry and bitter, great stuff, Louisa, cheers!     

At the First In Last Out (FILO), High Street, Hastings 'old town' TN34 3EY, there was the usual array of their own FILO ales, including the hoppy threesome, varying in their styles, Gold (4.8%), Churches Pale Ale (4.2%) and Crofters (3.8%), and more about the FILO ales coming up in the near future... But there was also an ale from Yorkshire, possibly the birthplace of pale and hoppy ales, ie Roosters Cogburn, nice cowboy pun! The Cogburn is a "Robust Pale Ale", according to the pumpclip, and I have to concur, it is a pale bitter, indeed, 4.3%, with a fair amount of body, quite dry and hoppy, I gave it a smiley face in my notes; cheers to Adam (and not forgetting Mike - Bigg Senior - and Tony, the brewer, manager, etc etc) !   

... and what of the Dolphin, Rock-a-Nore, Hastings 'old town' TN34 3DW, the local CAMRA reigning Pub of the Year? OK, many will be aware I have the nickname 'Hophead' here, because I do enjoy drinking one  of their regular 3 ales, the Dark Star Hophead (3.8%), and just how many times have I reported on and analysed Hophead? But they also have 3 quest ales at a time, which is soon to rise to 4 guest ales, so will be 7 ales in total... So what other hoppy ales have I had here recently? 

There has been the ultra-reliable Stonehenge Danish Dynamite (5%), pale and full flavoured, reported on a-plenty; local brewer 1648's Gold Angel, another 5% pale golden ale with a biscuit aroma, plenty of body, slight roasted malt flavour, quite dry and bitter; West Berkshire's Full Circle (4.5%), a pale golden bitter, dry and pretty good, indeed; and Kent brewer Pig & Porter's Penhuist Pale Ale (4.5%), a deep amber colour, with a fruity aroma and a hint of peach in the flavour, drying out into a very nice bitter, cheers Mark & family! 

Well, that was the 300th blog, hope you enjoyed it as much as I did, cheers!     

Congratulations to the Tower and even more luverly ales!

So, many congratulations to Louisa at the Tower in London Road, (upper) St Leonards, Hastings, for having her pub added to CAMRA's 2014 Good Beer Guide, great stuff, and well deserved. So, despite having more obligations these days, I felt a visit was in order, well, not just one, of course, but a speedy return was required!  So, yesterday evening it was, and a rather exciting ale or three on offer too, great value, and warm chat and banter with Louisa herself, and many others this side of the bar...

4 ales, including a couple of new ones for moi, Sharps Doom Bar (4%), a well known ale from Cornwall, already reported on numerous times, one of my local favourites Dark Star American Pale Ale (APA, 4.7% and just £2.50 a pint here), an excellent pale ale, brewed using American hops, packed with body and flavour, notably grapefruit, with a citrus aroma, I do like Dark Star's 2 regular pale bitters, this and Hophead, but regular readers will already be well aware of that.   

The 2 new ales to me were Red Willow Endless Pale Ale from Macclesfield, which had a fruity aroma, sweet to taste at first, but turning bitter with a dry aftertaste, not bad at all for a 3.8% bitter, I liked it. So, why such a small photograph of the pump clip of the second new ale? Well, for some reason I forgot to take any photographs inside, and this was all I could find on Google, so this was it, the seasonal/monthly Dark Star Indian Summer IPA, and it does what it says on the pump clip, if you can read it... It's a wee bit darker than their usual pale hoppy ales, with plenty of body, not surprising since it is a 6% ale, very comparable to Thornbridge Jaipur IPA, which is probably the wanted result from the brewer. Now, I was silly enough to be eating a pack of Jalapeno bar snacks, so the flavour was effected big time, still very nice though.

OK, what have I had at the Dolphin at Rock-a-Nore in Hastings 'old town' recently? The usual local Dark Star Hophead (3.8%) and APA of course; and their other regulars, the local Harveys Sussex Best (4%) and Youngs Special (4.5%) have been available. But guest ales have included the 'rusty' coloured Demon's Eye from the Yorkshire brewer, Elland Brewery. This is another beer that starts off with a sweetish flavour but with a bitter dry aftertaste, very tasty indeed, and well liked by a number of the regulars too.

The Dolphin has also had Rudgate Volsung (5.2%) on, a well reported excellent pale bitter,  and, as I write, the Oakham ale Scarlet Macaw, a 4.4% pale bitter that I recently had at the Bricklayers Arms in Putney (I'll have to write that visit up, as I seem to have forgotten to, in all my business lately!). This tastes more than a 4.4% ale with plenty of body, with a fruity aroma and nice dry bitter flavour, I do like Oakham ales too, who brew excellent beer. So, if like me, you like pale bitter bitters, pop on down to the local CAMRA 2013 Pub of the Year, the Dolphin in Hastings. By the way, "Happy Birthday!" to Louise at the Dolphin for yesterday :-) 

Much congratulations in order all round. Cheers!