ALBATROSS! A return visit...

It's been a while since I've walked the 10 mile round trip along the seafront to the Albatross Club (RAFA) in Bexhill, but great to return! Following Geoff's departure, it is now run by Head Steward Karen, with Peter as her very able assistant.

4 real ales on still, and all at £3 a pint. 2 I drank on the day, and 2 I didn't, though 1 of those I have had a few times before, ie the very easy to drink pale session ale, Franklins English Garden (3.8%). The other was the 4.9% Weltons Red Cross Mild, close to St George's Day as it was...

The 2 I enjoyed on the day were the 4.5% Boadicea Ale from Rother Valley, a very good golden beer with a hint of caramel from the malt, and nice dry and bitter finish; I had more than 1 pint! Also very good was the dangerous 6% Pig & Porter Disgraceful Behaviour (not a portent on the day), smooth, rich, loadsa body, very very dark, with a dry coffee/nutty aroma and flavour, and a dry finish, nice one! 

They also sell a good range of ciders in bottles and 'real' from boxes too, cheers!   

It made me smile... The Carlton Tavern!

No! This didn't make me smile, but the fact that the firm that owns the Carlton Tavern in Maida Vale has been told to "recreate in fascimile the building as it stood immediately prior to its demolition." That is, they have to rebuild the pub, brick by brick, to look like this:  

Nice one! They shouldn't have thought they could ignore planning regulations... See the Standard for more information. 

Congratulations to Louisa at the Tower!

Congratulations to Louisa, and her colleagues at the Tower, London Road, Bohemia, for winning the local South East Sussex CAMRA 2015 Pub of the Year, and Cider Pub of the Year too, nice one, or two! I've known Louisa, the manager at the Tower, for 3 years now, and can honestly say that I've never had a bad pint there. In fact, she has brought this pub into CAMRA reckoning by maintaining ales in excellent condition, with many local Sussex ales too, along with excellent value. 

Consequently, I have been writing about the Tower for 3 years now, and have had a look back over my blogs to help with this one. However, I didn't really need to, because Louisa has continued to sell good quality and good value ales. I first noted the cheapest ale as £2.30 a pint in 2012, now it is still usually just £2.60 a pint, a fair comparison relative to other pubs regarding changes in pricing, but still so much better value than most, and in lined glasses ('spoons apart for price!). The Tower has also been in the CAMRA Good Beer Guide for 2 years now. 

Also, that early 'cheapest' ale was the excellent Sussex brewed Dark Star Hophead (3.8%) at £2.30 a pint, and the other virtual regular from Dark Star brewery (website) American Pale Ale (APA, 4.7%) at £2.40 a pint. They were both on for my most recent visit this week at £2.70 a pint and £2.80 a pint respectively, great stuff!  

Over those 3 years, Louisa has also added 2 handpumps from the 4 when I first visited, meaning usually at least 4 regularly changing ales in addition to the 2 virtual regulars. Other ales on this week were the even more local Franklins (website) Pudding Stout (4.2%); from the North West, Robinsons Voodoo Dawn (3.9%), a 'deep red ale'; and from South Yorkshire, Abbeydale Accent Compensation (4.1%), a pale bitter.   

Oh yes, and the 6th ale on this visit, from Peterborough, was the excellent Oakham Bishops Farewell (£2.90 a pint), 4.6% of pale hoppy, citrus fruity, dry and bitter ale. I've written so often about this ale, as I have the Dark Star pair, that I really don't have anything else to add, except, I continue to love drinking them! 

And to add to Louisa's collection of awards was the local Cider Pub of the Year! She sells 2 keg ciders, Strongbow and Symonds Founders Reserve, and 2 real ciders, as can be seen from the photograph. There is Shepton Mallet Somerset Snuffler (4.8%), and the legendary Westons Old Rosie, 7.3% and dangerous!   

Congratulations Lou!

Another trip to London & Two Excellent Ales

A crackin' weekend in London with my brother, the Routemeister, and about 35 miles walked. The first round trip being to Richmond and obviously including our favourite pub there, the Watermans Arms (website), where we had...

OK, I know I always drink this, when they do sell Youngs ales, being a Youngs pub, but also another Twickenham (website) ale this day, their 3.8% Grandstand Bitter, but we had to drink the Naked Ladies again: 4.4% of pale, dry, bitter, hoppy delight, packed with flavours from Pilgrim, Celeia and Chinook hops, excellent!  

On our walk back to Dan's we decided to visit the Halfway House (website), near Barnes, walked past it a few times, but never been in! Really friendly place, great music venue, and beer in good form, sadly though, I forgot to make a note of what we drank, and my brother can't remember either, but it was certainly Scottish, from Edinburgh, I believe. I seem to remember 3 ales were on the bar (handpumps), maybe London Pride and Doom Bar the other two, anyway, a 'tick' pub...  

Our second round trip was to Borough Market/London Bridge/Southwark Cathedral (where a set of our great-great-grandparents were married). Oh yes, and to The Rake (website) of course, where I drank the also excellent...  

Oakham Ales (website) are another of my favourite brewers, and we were very lucky to find that, in addition to their Citra, oft tried and quality, they had this unique "Limited Edition" The Racketeer (5%). Oakham describe it as "Full on citrusy golden beer with powerful New Zealand hops dominating throughout." I wrote in my notes, thankfully written this time, as a 'tick' ale: "pale golden bitter, citrus aroma, citrus flavours, tangerine and grapefruit" - I liked it a lot!

I should also say they had a third beer on, as usual, this one from West London brewer, Dragonfly (website), their 4.3% "London Stout" Dark Matter. Anyway, a good chat with the two staff members, and another customer who used to run a bar in Putney, the excellent The Racketeer being imbibed, and a walk back to Dan's in prospect, meant I didn't try the stout, sorry... Cheers anyway!   

Happy St David's Day!

I would love to raise a pint of beer brewed by my favourite Welsh Brewer, Tiny Rebel (website) today, sadly, none on locally, so will have to be a local Hastings ale (from the FILO Brewery) instead, whatever, cheers! 

Yorkshire Ales in 2015

I made a trip up to Yorkshire in January, so my first 3 Yorkshire ales of the year were imbibed in dear old Yorkshire, which I do miss a tad...  

Anyway, 6 of us traveled up, specifically to attend a football match in Burnley (which is very close to the Yorkshire border), first destination Leeds, where we had a couple of drinks at the Wetherspoons in the station, and it is just called "Wetherspoons", not very imaginative... We were also awaiting Tom, who had missed our train at Kings Cross, but was coming up on the next one!  

Whilst in the 'spoons, we started with pints of Leeds Pale, a 3.8% very easy drinking pale session bitter, brewed with Slovenian Bobek hops. It was a nice refreshing way to start our drinking (if you ignore what was consumed on the train up), but our second pint was much better... That is, the Saltaire Cascade Pale Ale, a 4.8% ale, more body and bitterness, with a dry grapefruit finish produced by the Cascade and Centenniel hops used, this was getting better and more flavoursome.   

We got to Haworth thanks to another train, and wine provided by Kieran, and by taxi from Keighley, where we stayed at the Apothecary Tearooms and Guesthouse, run by our mate Teapot Dave and his brother Nick, ta muchly. I'll not mention the trip over the border, we came second, but after we'd eaten, we did a few pubs in Haworth, the only one worth mentioning ale-wise being The Fleece. Although it is a Timothy Taylor house, they had a Saltaire guest ale on, which I noted as "3 Cs", so I'm guessing it was the 4.4% Trio Pale, which uses 3 American hops, and I remember it being very good!   

Back to the Dolphin and Hastings, and this month I have savoured 4 more Yorkshire ales here. First, a completely different style of ale, the Rudgate Ruby Mild, a deep red 4.4% richer beer, almost a meal in itself, and not too easy to drink much more than one pint at a time, but very nice and tasty, and in a RNLI glass, respect.  

They have also had 3 pale hoppy ales, much more to my taste, of course. The first 2 of which were from one of my old favourite brewers, that is, the Roosters Cogburn, a 4.3% pale golden bitter brewed with American hops, very thirst quenching and their ever dependable Yankee, another 4.3% pale bitter, that uses Cascade hops also from the USA. Both very nice, indeed, but my favourite so far this year has to be from my old employer, Kelham Island Brewery, which is awaiting a new website, so cannot provide, sorry! Oh yes, their 4.9% Blondie Beer, pale, hoppy, with a nice dry bitter finish, very good, indeed, cheers!    

The Bear at Stratford upon Avon

Guest blogger, Dan, The Routemeister, recently visited The Bear Free House and Kitchen, Swan's Nest Lane, Stratford upon Avon CV37 7LT (website).    

The Bear first opened in 1662 and has been significantly refurbished in more recent times, as you can see from the photograph, it is also by the river! It is a little over 5 minutes stroll from the Royal Shakespeare Company, where the Routemeister had been to see a play written by a contemporary of Shakespeare. Apart from being taken by the lovely French barmaid, he assures me that this is full of genuine locals, not just tourists, and well worth a visit.

Up to 8 ales are available, including Wye Valley Hereford Pale Ale, Purity Pure Gold, and the 3.6% The Bear Best Bitter, apparently brewed especially for The Bear (I can't find who brews it, sorry) and which Dan drank, a decent golden session bitter. The Routemeister says it is well worth a visit if you are in Stratford, Cheers Dan!