Best Beers II - Premium ales

I say "Premium Ales", but it's really ales between 4% and 5% in strength! Again pale ales and darker ones in my analysis, but starting with the darker ales this time.

Old Mill (website) of Snaith, West Yorkshire, who started up in 1983, brew some great ales, and I would have included their GBH (Great British Hopefuls), an excellent 4.2% bitter, but sadly it's only brewed every 4 years around the time of each Olympic Games. It is so good that I drank this only at a beer festival once I'd got the taste, ignoring other offerings, because it was that good. I first drank this back in 2000 AD, I do believe, and would happily drink it at any opportunity! 

Some great darker bitters are brewed more regularly, though, but not really to my taste, despite my being raised drinking London Pride and Youngs Special, both ales I continue to drink now and then, depending on where I am. However, Butcombe (website), a brewery established in 1978, and who moved to a 150 barrel brewery at Wrington in Somerset in 2005, brew the excellent Butcombe Bitter (4%) using Mendip spring water, and which I first tasted in the 1980s. This is a near perfectly balanced quaffing ale, tawny coloured with a dry refreshing bitterness, quality!

Hepworth (website) of Horsham, West Sussex, started brewing cask conditioned ales in 2003 and use locally sourced malt and hops for all their beers. Their 4.8% Classic Old Ale, does what it says on the label, it is an old ale, and it is a 'classic'! I suppose it is really a winter warmer, but it is a darn good ale, rich and flavoursome, with a lovely bitterness coming through at the finish. A very tasty dark old bitter indeed! 

All the ales already mentioned are very worthy of winning awards in all types of festivals, and in various categories, and have done! But I do have some humdingers to include with my paler choices, and Tiny Rebel (website) from Newport in Wales, have come onto the scene like a flash of lightning, brewing some crackin' ales at their 12 barrel plant since just 2012, winning numerous awards already!

Tiny Rebel's 4.6% Billabong is described as an 'Australian Pale Ale', and uses hops grown in Tasmania. I have seen numerous superlative reviews of this ale, "citrusy, bitter sweet, well-balanced, grapefruit aroma, lemon aroma" etc etc... My notes say it all, really, I believe this is an excellent pale bitter, with good body, and peach and grapefruit aroma and flavours, with a dry bitter finish. Say no more... 

I had to chose between 2 ales from Oakham Ales (website), either their superb 4.2% Citra, or the one in the photograph above, the 4.6% Bishops Farewell; though a very tough decision! One of my favourite breweries, as regular readers will be well aware, and the Bishops Farewell is a pale, fruity, hoppy ale with plenty of body and a lovely dry bitter finish. I'll even add the notes my brother sent to me when he drank this at the Swan & Rushes in Leicester, after I suggested he visit that pub whilst up there: "Pale, hoppy, fruity, smooth and slightly bitter", says it all, mostly!

From Salamander (website) in Bradford, West Yorkshire, founded at the end of the last century, and who expanded to a 40 barrel plant in 2004, comes a comparable ale to Oakham's contribution. Golden Salamander is a 4.5% golden bitter that uses Challenger and Styrian hops, and has a citrus aroma and taste, Salamander say it has an "assertive hop bitterness", and they ain't wrong! It is refreshing, fruity, and has a lovely dry bitter finish. Salamander are yet another excellent Yorkshire brewery, consistent, and their ales are always worth drinking, quality again...  

Twickenham (website), guess where they're based, consistently brew excellent ales too. They started off with a 10 barrel plant in 2004, expanding into larger premises and a 25 barrel plant in 2012. I first drank their 4.4% Naked Ladies well before trying it at the Crooked Billet, on the edge of Wimbledon Common, in March 2012, when I first made notes. It was excellent, and I have continued to drink it whenever, and wherever, I see it on the bar. My last couple of pints were tasted very recently at the Watermans Arms in Richmond, in the photograph above. Both of these pubs are Youngs pubs, by the way, which says a lot, but I have enjoyed my Naked Ladies at various freehouses too, eg the Bricklayers in Putney.

The name of the ale is inspired by the statues of water nymphs in York House Gardens in Twickenham, and the Naked Ladies is well-reported by me, obviously (love it!). This is an excellent pale golden bitter, very hoppy (using Pilgrim, Celeia and Chinook hops), citrus and peach aroma and flavours, with a light 'biscuit' malt about it, and a dry refreshing bitter finish. I'll repeat what I first said about it over 2 years ago, "Naked Ladies, you just can't beat them, continues to impress..."   

So! How is it that the Naked Ladies was pipped at the post, and it was just by a 'short-head', by a beer from Essex? I'm still scratching my head really, I was sure the Twickenham ale would be victorious in this category, but no... I kept looking at my copious notes and compared the two, and was surprised how Crouch Vale came into the reckoning right at the finishing post. Crouch Vale came into existence in 1981, moving to larger premises in 2006, and I have had quite a few very decent ales from them over the years; probably been drinking their ales for nearly 20 years now.

Anyway, the champion in this category is their 4.2% Yakima Gold, named after the Yakima Valley (named in turn after the Yakima Nation, whose reservation is on the east side of the Cascade Mountains), where the Amarillo hops used for this ale are grown. Indeed, 77% of all U.S. hops are grown in the Yakima Valley, and many grape vines too! I've had Yakima Gold in many different pubs/club and never had anything but a great pint or three, samples of my notes say "fruity, quite bitter, excellent"; "refreshing and very pale, fruity bitter with peach aftertaste, very good"; "genuine pale bitter, lovely stuff indeed!"

So, congratulations to the runner-up in this category have to be made (though all the ales mentioned are excellent!), I love the Naked Ladies, but the 'Gold Medal' goes to Crouch Vale Brewery and their Yakima Gold, cheers!   

Sheffield Part II - even more greater ales!

Where do I start when visiting a City with a plethora of genuine free houses and microbreweries, and consequently, loadsa luvverly ale!?! The easiest way would be to start at the very beginning, as a certain governess said in The Sound of Music, so I shall... but I shall also deviate a wee bit from convention, and leave the second pub visited that day until last, particularly as I was drinking there twice that day... 

I was going to have a cheapo breakfast in one of the many Sheffield Wetherspoons, but kept putting it off and didn't in the end, as I don't like the last 'spoons I reached that morning, the one at Hillsborough Corner, it feels reyt unfriendly; though I did meet an old neighbour in there, Dave, before I used its toilet facilities. So, instead, I decided to walk to Hillsborough Stadium, through the Park, and visited the memorial to the Tragedy; a visit here has always helped me to put things into perspective. Then, as I was in the area, I did as people are meant to do whilst in Rome, do as the locals do, so I had a pork sandwich (to my Southern readers, that's a soft bap, called a bread cake there, with pork in it) for my late breakfast, followed by a £1 poke of chips for my early lunch; healthy eating... 

Anyway, a short walk from nearby Malin Bridge tram stop is the bottom of Stannington Road, a wee way up which, on a corner on the right hand side of the road, is The Anvil, an Enterprise pub, now run by long-time friends, and more, Tom (full-time at The Anvil) and Brigitte (who also works full-time elsewhere), as I mentioned in Part I. Tom being a chef, I have no doubt the food will be very good, but I only stopped in for a pint as I had much more to do that day, so cannot report on the food, but the lovely barmaid (I've forgotten her name, as in forgot to write it down) served up a decent pint of Derbyshire brewer, Derventio's Winter King, a 4% pale hoppy bitter with a dry aftertaste. As I hadn't let them know about my likely visit, I also surprised both Tom and Brigitte when I turned up. Good luck to the both of you with your venture! 

Anyway, after visiting the second pub of the day, reporting further down in this blog, I had some more food, and a rest from alcohol, before visiting one of the most recent additions to good ale houses in Sheffield, Shakespeare's on Gibraltar Street, a music venue as well, and for a while closed, when it desperately needed refurbishment. Indeed, this is one of 28 Sheffield pubs in the 2014 CAMRA Good Beer Guide, and 26th of those that I have had an ale or three in over the years, though I had been here in the past under different management. I had arranged to meet up at 6pm with Noel (fellow R), and other mates, Lindsay and Jeff MacDoughnut, all 3 living in Sheffield still, though none of the 4 of us are from South Yorkshire, being 2 Southerners (me with mucho Celt in me), a Scot and a Paddy; good company indeed! 

We all turned up within a couple of minutes of each other, and I was pleased with the work done in the pub, which has not noticeably changed at all architecturally. It was great to meet up with the 3 lads, who are great friends I hadn't seen for a couple of years. This being a beer and pub blog, though, I shan't go over our conversations, but just add notes on the 2 ales I had from their 12 real ale handpumps. The only regular ale is the Sheffield brewer Abbeydale's Deception, a 4.1% pale, fruity hoppy ale, though this wasn't one of the two 'guests' I tried. No, I had ales from further afield, though still from 2 Yorkshire breweries. First, the 4.3% North Riding Brew Pub's Galaxy (4.3%), another fruity pale hoppy bitter, presumably using Galaxy hops, and very nice too. Second, Great Heck's Five, a 5% pale hoppy bitter with plenty of grapefruit aroma and flavour, I liked this very much!     

We then ventured to the Kelham Island Tavern. Shakespeare's has already won awards, which is great, but the KIT, as we like to refer to it locally (oh dear, I'd became a local all over again, if only for 48 hours), has won the CAMRA Pub of the Year, in recent times, NATIONALLY... and 2 years in a row, which is some feat! Immediately, we saw Pete (who works part-time behind the bar at the Wellington) as we entered, the pub was tightly packed, though, with a great variety of people as we expect in here; young and not so young, male and female, it is an excellent success story for Trevor and Louis, the owners/landlords. Indeed, I had a good chat with Trevor whilst there, and with Dave, who I keep in touch with on facebook, though he'd probably deny we are 'friends' ;-) was serving behind the bar, together with a few others, including a rather fetching young lady who, again, I hadn't added her name to my notebook, but she made an impression... 

Ales-wise, there is an excellent choice of ales served from 12 handpumps, regular and guests, as you would expect from such a prolific award winning pub, from local microbreweries, and some from further afar. Indeed, I drank an ale brewed over t' Pennines in Rochdale, Pictish Polaris, a 4.5% dry pale bitter, perfectly suiting my taste, and as recommended by Dave, cheers! 

From the KIT, we wandered round the corner to the Fat Cat (get it? KIT-CAT, as locally referred to) and bumped into 2 more great friends, Bob and his wife Marie, as they left the Cat, which sits in front of Kelham Island Museum, and which has it's own brewery Kelham Island (where I worked for a while at the turn of the Millenium until 2001/2). Bob and Marie were on the way to the KIT with a couple of friends I didn't know, but you can appreciate the general mobility of regulars in this area... 

So, our penultimate destination was the Fat Cat, one of the earliest exponents of real ale in the country, a very early brewpub of modern times, and started up by my old employer, Dave Wickett, who sadly died in 2012, following a lengthy illness with cancer: RIP Dave. We met up with a few folk in here too, and Duncan still the manager too, though it was too busy to chat with him, another pub packed with young and old, male and female alike; who said real ale was just for old men? I didn't drink one of their own ales, from the array on offer, but had a 'guest', from another Yorkshire brewer, Salamander's Scarf & Mittens (5%), a very good pale hoppy winter ale at £3 a pint. Whilst at the Fat Cat, another mate, Will, contacted me to say he'd meet up with us at our next port of call, which he did...  

My second visit of the day to The Wellington (previously, Cask & Cutler and, previous to that, The Wellington), so my second and ultimate pub of the day, which serves up many of its own ales under the label of 'Little Ale Cart Brewery' that used to be brewed out' back, but now brewed elsewhere in the city. They brew excellent pale and hoppy ales, but, as I'd let Will know, this day they had their own dark bitter, and a stout on sale too, hence ensuring his joining us! They also serve, from their 10 handpumps, a real cider, and guests from other micros too; their only 'regular' being Millstone Baby Git, an excellent 4% pale hoppy oxymoron of an ale at £2.40 a pint. There are no keg beers and lagers only in bottle; and quite a few Belgian bottled beers too. 

As soon as we walked into the 'Welly', sans MacDoughnut (who has an issue with Richard the owner here) standing at the bar already were Andy and Jan, two former regular customers at the Bath Hotel; which is why I hadn't seen them at the Bath the previous night, they've moved allegiance. It was good to see them, plus the rest of the regulars here; it was like going back 3 years, and I'd have known everyone who would be there, virtually. Indeed, my earlier in the day visit had seen me meeting up with a few old friends too, NB the other Richard (not owner) and Pete, who was serving behind the bar then. It was excellent to meet up with so many people I hadn't seen for years and who I like; too many to mention individually, but great stuff! 

Little Ale Cart ales? The 2 dark ones that enticed Will to visit and appreciate were the 3.9% brown bitter Farmer's Boy, the pump clip featuring Richard the landlord/owner as a wee lad on a tractor even further up North, as can be seen above; he's not so cute now! The other dark ale was Daft Sheep Stout, 6.2% and just £3 a pint. The 4 pale hoppy bitters I tried during the 2 visits included 2 featured in their steam engine series, Alnwick Castle, a 4.3% fruity bitter and Flying Scotsman Mk 4, 5% with more body and more bitter. 

The other 2 were 'Harley's Dog's Dinner 97' (Harley is Richard's, the owner, dog, and 'Dog's Dinners' are mixes, generally using up ale left over following racking off brew lengths) Sleekit Beastie, a 4% slightly darker beer than usual, in that Farmer's Boy was one of the ingredients, and my favourite ale of the weekend, a 'Harley's Hop Special', Tornado, 4% as well, but much paler, dryer and more bitter with plenty of grapefruit aroma and flavour, and just £2.30 a pint, luvverly!   

Next blog, my journey home via London, cheers for now!

Central Sheffield; Some crackin' ales, Part I...

I arrived in Sheffield after a decent enough journey, despite the rain, and OK, most of these photographs were taken the next day, but it was dark and wet, and a mobile phone isn't too good at taking night-time photographs, at least mine isn't... 

  

Started off with food, not a bad idea, meeting up with my good friend and ex-colleague, Debra, at Mama's and Leonie's, my favourite restaurant in the whole wide world! It's a great place to eat, where you can either book an upstairs table, take a risk to find an ad hoc table downstairs, or sit at the bar and watch your food being prepared, and chat to staff, when they're not too busy, that is...

Most of the staff stay here for years, an excellent sign, and it was great to chat to Debs, of course, but also to their Head Chef, John, and  the second John, and other chefs I know, plus with the lasses who, though not all working this one shift, obviously, I still saw a few, including ones I've known for more than 15 years, the lovely Josie and Tracey, who is to become a mother to a second child. The food is excellent too, me eating my usual Warm Chicken and Bacon Salad, which is heaped into a big dish and takes a while to finish! If in Sheffield, this is the place to eat; situated between the Crucible and the Winter Gardens.

Next, I was meeting up with Will at the Bath Hotel behind the old Glossop Road baths. This used to be run by the ebullient Brian, who has since leased out the bar to Thornbridge Brewery, who have taken over a few pubs in Sheffield. This used to be Will's local, but not being enamoured by ales flavoured with American hops, unlike me, he has been put out by the change, life. Indeed, I hardly recognised anyone there! 

So, 6 ales served by handpump, including 3 guest ales and 3 of their own. The 3 Thornbridge ales were Black Harry, a 3.9% deep dark red coloured ale, with a very roasted malt flavour and a nutty aftertaste at £2.70 a pint; Hopton, a 4.3% pale bitter, though a bit thin, with a hint of roasted malt in the flavour at £2.90; and the 4.8% Jaywick, an 'American Pale Ale' at £3.10 a pint, which was my favourite of these, not a surprise, with a fruity aroma and peach flavour coming through. Also, if you drink here before 7pm, you get a 10% discount if a card carrying CAMRA member, sadly, it was just too late in the evening to take advantage of that deal. 

We briefly popped into the Red Deer, just off Glossop Road, which appears to now be a student pub, though there have always been many students in here, just even more now... very busy and very loud (I am getting older, tsk...). This used to be run by another reyt miserable old git, but now has a 5% discount for card carrying CAMRA members, so not so bad, though we didn't notice until we were already drinking. Anyway, from their array of ales, we both chose well known ales, which suggests it is a pubco pub, though I cannot be bothered to confirm that. Will drank Moorhouse's Pride of Pendle (4.1%) and I enjoyed the Yorkshire brewer, Copper Dragon's Golden Pippin (3.9%), another favourite brewer of mine! 

We visited the University Arms, that used to be a staff social club at the university, but is now a public house, primarily to chat with the manager and partner, Tom and Brigitte, so I was surprised a wee bit to find out they are no longer here, but they now have a pub that I will mention in my next Sheffield blog. It was quite busy, not so noisy though, so we could talk quite easily. We drank Welbeck Abbey Red Feather, an OK 3.9% bitter (well, that's how I made the note) and the reliable Crouch Vale Brand X, a 4.5% lovely pale fruity bitter with grapefruit aroma and flavour. 

Our penultimate ale house for the night was The Hop, Devonshire Green, a relatively new pub (used to be a wee supermarket, there's irony for you) run by Ossett Brewery, where I first drank in on my last visit to Sheffield, and which was very noisy with music this time. It's big and spread out, with a much younger clientele at this time of a Friday night. Anyway, there was an array of Ossett's own ales, as you'd expect, plus a few guest ales. The Ossett ale I tried was the Big Red, a venture away from their majority paler ales, 4% and a well-balanced maltier ale than I usually enjoy. 

I also had to try the Steel City Unholy Trinity, a 6.66% (and if you believe they can be that accurate, you're very naive) very dark beer, with chocolate and coffee in the taste, and very tasty, I have to admit. Indeed, I've never had an ale from the lads who brew under the moniker, Steel City Brewing, that I've disliked; they do like using hops!  

Our final destination of the evening was another pub with loud music, and mostly younger customers than us, though we do like to mix with the youth of Sheffield to maintain our own youthful outlook! The Old House in Division Street, sells its ales at a reduced price in the late afternoon/early evening, but, of course, we were much too late for that again; so we missed out on 3 deals in total that night... Anyway, I cannot remember what Will drank, but I had another decent Yorkshire brewery, Salamander's Piper's Son (4%), pale, and not quite so bitterly hopped as I usually like, but I seemed to enjoy drinking it...

Anyway, that's it for now, but more to come in Part II, cheers!

Lincoln Green

When my brother and I got to Lincoln, we walked uphill from the railway station, up ‘Steep Hill’, with historic buildings all around, passing the cathedral on the way up, which has one of the most impressive frontages of buildings in the UK, awesome! 

We had an early lunch at the Victoria Inn, 6 Union Road, just below Lincoln Castle.  This is a Batemans’ house that, in addition to their own XB, sells Castle Rock Harvest Pale and Timothy Taylor’s Landlord as regular beers, and guest ales too, up to 7 ales in total, as well as ‘real’ cider from the cellar!  The Victoria has a comfortable feel about it, some very interesting artefacts, a true pub, and good value food to boot, sandwiches with chips on the side, soup and bread roll, ploughman’s lunch, the usual pub fare, yes, but good quality. 

Walking around the castle, we reached The Strugglers Inn, 83 Westgate, this has a long main room and a smaller ‘snug’, but we sat out the back in the garden, which was a warm and protected place to sit.  The Strugglers has up to 6 real ales, including Greene King Abbot Ale and Rudgate Ruby Mild, among the regulars, plus guests, and I had a couple of pints of Salamander’s Golden Salamander, which went down a treat.  Lunch is served here too, reportedly very good value too, by the Good Beer Guide, but we had already eaten, so I cannot pass an opinion. 

I came back downhill, walking round to the east and south, Dan went to visit the cathedral, leaving me alone to visit The Jolly Brewer, 27 Broadgate, a ‘rock’ pub with regular live music.  The exterior doesn’t look too inviting, but don’t let that put you off, as the bar staff are warm and friendly.  The interior is ‘green’, with lighting helping to augment an art deco feel to the main room, look at my photo and you’ll know what I mean.  Work adorns the walls by local artists, so, should you fancy purchasing an original, there you are.  Westons’ Perry and Broadoak Moonshine cider were on sale, and up to 6 real ales are available, with Young’s ‘ordinary’ Bitter and Courage Directors the regulars, and often 2 locals among the guests, I enjoyed Leila Cottage Lincolnshire Life and Grafters’ Over the Moon! 

Further south and getting closer to the station, I met up with Dan again at the Green Dragon, Magpie Square, Broadgate, a 16^th century timber framed inn, with 10-12 regularly changing real ales on sale throughout the pub.  Henry VIII dined here a few years ago as a guest of the, then incumbent, Duke of Suffolk, so we were drinking in the company of very famous ghosts (the Good Beer Guide suggests “quality food” is available, but I still wasn’t hungry).  We sat outside, enjoying our drinks sitting by a peaceful side road and the canal (you can just see the back of my brother in the photograph).

I enjoyed visiting Lincoln.  Cheers!