"No more English, No more French, no more sitting on the old school bench" was a popular ditty in my school days all those years ago and which proved to be rather apt during my brief visit at lunchtime to the Stafford beer festival held this year at Blessed William Howard School especially as , well, we ended up sitting on an old school bench.
I arrived slightly late to find G and co already sampling the wares.
The main festival was held in the School's Gym with a Locale bar on one side and the National bar down t'other.
First up was Chocolate and Vanilla Stout from Titanic, followed by Golden Pippen from the Copper Dragon Brewery and finally (I was only there in my lunch hour), Worcestershire Way from Bewdley Brewery.
Overall a nice little festival although not many beers were unknown to me.
Friday, 30 July 2010
20th July Burton
Still on staycation and this evening wanted to avoid cooking and also relaxing in pubs normally visited due toi some external agenda. Of to Burton it is and after fish and chips near the Town Hall, round the corner to the Burton Old Cottage Tavern (previously referred to on here by its old name.)
As with other recent visits, guest ales were selected and (whilst some noisy pork scratching par-takers complained of the size of their personal fly infestation) included Peakstones Chained Oak (on hearing which one regular asked, did I "want a padlock with that?") followed by the stronger Sea King from Coastal.
Next up was the Devonshire Arms for a couple of beers from its owners Burton Bridge (no guests on now I note) and which included their Porter (well it makes a change!) and also Bridge Bitter.
Final port of call was the Coopers (I like this pub). Enville Old Porter was first up. I then thought I'd tried Yew from Castle Rock's monthly wildlife series. I didn't notice the fact the sign said "cloudt wheat beer" so back it went after which I sheepishly also went back to continue what was indeed a cludy wheat beer. Final beer of the night was the strong (6.4% - well its strong enough for the summer) Howard Town Dark Peak.
As with other recent visits, guest ales were selected and (whilst some noisy pork scratching par-takers complained of the size of their personal fly infestation) included Peakstones Chained Oak (on hearing which one regular asked, did I "want a padlock with that?") followed by the stronger Sea King from Coastal.
Next up was the Devonshire Arms for a couple of beers from its owners Burton Bridge (no guests on now I note) and which included their Porter (well it makes a change!) and also Bridge Bitter.
Final port of call was the Coopers (I like this pub). Enville Old Porter was first up. I then thought I'd tried Yew from Castle Rock's monthly wildlife series. I didn't notice the fact the sign said "cloudt wheat beer" so back it went after which I sheepishly also went back to continue what was indeed a cludy wheat beer. Final beer of the night was the strong (6.4% - well its strong enough for the summer) Howard Town Dark Peak.
19th July – Bakewell and Ashbourne
Spent this part of the staycation touring the area of Derbyshire between Bakewell and Ashbourne stopping at a few pubs for a brief half.
Bakewell was busy, it being market day and also cattle auction day but after lunch we ventured into the Queen's Arms. Bakewell would make a good venue for a pub crawl except that public transport is not great for that purpose (bus service only.) A number of hand pulls greeted us and I chose Independence from Shipyard brewing. A definitely American beer, the following snippet from reer-pages.com explains all.
Next pub we stopped at was the Bently Brook at Fenny Bentley near Ashbourne, notable as being the home of the Leatherbritches Brewery from whose range I chose Goldings.
Final port of call was after walking round Ashbourne for an hour we ventured into the "Green Man and Black Head's Royal Hotel" (Derbys CAMRA pub of the year for 2010) where I had Rich Ruby from Milestone.
Bakewell was busy, it being market day and also cattle auction day but after lunch we ventured into the Queen's Arms. Bakewell would make a good venue for a pub crawl except that public transport is not great for that purpose (bus service only.) A number of hand pulls greeted us and I chose Independence from Shipyard brewing. A definitely American beer, the following snippet from reer-pages.com explains all.
Shipyards in England
 | Having kicked off on the fourth of July appropriately enough, Shipyard Brewing Company of Maine's master brewer Alan Pugsley has brough a little bit of the USA back to his home country of England. Marston's Beer Company is featuring Shipyard Independence Ale as a special collaborative guest beer at more than 500 of its pubs, and on June 15th, Pugsley will travel to Marston's Brewery in Wolverhampton to brew Shipyard Independence Pale Ale. As the fireworks were lit in the United States on July 4th, more than 250 barrels of Independence Pale Ale were simultaneously tapped at Marston's pubs. The idea for this collaborate beer stemmed out of Shipyard Brewing Company's relationship with Marston's. Pugsley, who is originally from Hampshire, moved to Maine in 1986 after working at Ringwood Brewery. Marston's Beer Company now owns Ringwood, and the brewery's Old Thumper Extra Special Ale is brewed by Pugsley in the United States. |
Next pub we stopped at was the Bently Brook at Fenny Bentley near Ashbourne, notable as being the home of the Leatherbritches Brewery from whose range I chose Goldings.
Final port of call was after walking round Ashbourne for an hour we ventured into the "Green Man and Black Head's Royal Hotel" (Derbys CAMRA pub of the year for 2010) where I had Rich Ruby from Milestone.
16th July Tamworth
Brief resume from this evening's outing around what appears to be becoming the usual selection.
Globe Inn - Holden's Mild followed by their Golden Glory
Sir Robert Peel - Church End ?? (can't recall which)
Bolebridge - Grainstore Ten-Fifty.
Globe Inn - Holden's Mild followed by their Golden Glory
Sir Robert Peel - Church End ?? (can't recall which)
Bolebridge - Grainstore Ten-Fifty.
10th July – Salopian Cider Fest
Go back a year of so on this blog and I mention a mod life crisis and the desire to drink cider, well today I achieved it!
An advert for the 1st Redeye cider festival at the Salopian in Shgrewsbury had caught my eye and with nothing else on decided to spend the day there.
20 or so ciders and perry were available and I decided to initially work backwards down the Perry from the strongest which worked well. I samped halfs of:
The train home calls at Codsall so we took the opportunity of stopping there for an hour to sample Bathams Bitter, Jelly Roll from Morton Brewery and Brough's Pale Ale.
All in all a perfect Saturday and I was still sober enough to water the garden (with an Hose!) when I got home.
The next Reyeye festival is in August and I shell certainly try and got to it.
An advert for the 1st Redeye cider festival at the Salopian in Shgrewsbury had caught my eye and with nothing else on decided to spend the day there.
20 or so ciders and perry were available and I decided to initially work backwards down the Perry from the strongest which worked well. I samped halfs of:
- Broadoak Perry (7.5%)
- Merrylegs Fred Perry (6%)
- Rathways Painted Lady Perry (5.5%)
- Ross on Wye Farmhouse Cider (6.5%)
- Broadoak Bristol Port (6%)
- Madhatters 1st in Lyme (5%)
The train home calls at Codsall so we took the opportunity of stopping there for an hour to sample Bathams Bitter, Jelly Roll from Morton Brewery and Brough's Pale Ale.
All in all a perfect Saturday and I was still sober enough to water the garden (with an Hose!) when I got home.
The next Reyeye festival is in August and I shell certainly try and got to it.
6th July – Fudge Farewell
Day of the funeral for Chris finds us at Sutton crem. Shortly after arriving and parking the car we noticed a route master bus pull in and on closer inspection noticed that it was the number 47 Fudge Farewell which had brought his work colleagues from their meeting point at the Anchor in Birmingham. Slowly the crowd grew, and grew, and whilst chatting to some old acquaintences it quickliy became apparant what there were more people than would fit. Note that the 47 was a reference to Chris's other passion of class 47 trains.
The timetable on the door to the crem normally has 30 minute slots for eqach service, but this time it was a double booking.
Anyway, the tiem arrived and we managed to get a seat although it was packed with many standing and severla tens of peoplke unable to get inside. The humanist tradition service meant no hymns and the like, rather 8 speeches on various aspects of Chris's short life after which we exitied to "Hops and Barley" (a version on YouTube here.)
On to the less formal part of the proceedings, and after dropping my car at homw wee headed to the Assesmbly Rooms where five spacial beers had been laid on either which Chris liked or had been specially produced. they included Fudge Finale form Church End, Finns Hall Porter from Beowulf and Staffie from Blythe plus one from Sheffield which I didn't get to sample.
we then headed to the Sir Robert Peel where the Church End as above was consumed plus numerous Beowulf Chasewater and Oakham JHB.
Not sure why, but for some reason we weren't not sober (maybe it was Chris guiding us home?)
The timetable on the door to the crem normally has 30 minute slots for eqach service, but this time it was a double booking.
Anyway, the tiem arrived and we managed to get a seat although it was packed with many standing and severla tens of peoplke unable to get inside. The humanist tradition service meant no hymns and the like, rather 8 speeches on various aspects of Chris's short life after which we exitied to "Hops and Barley" (a version on YouTube here.)
On to the less formal part of the proceedings, and after dropping my car at homw wee headed to the Assesmbly Rooms where five spacial beers had been laid on either which Chris liked or had been specially produced. they included Fudge Finale form Church End, Finns Hall Porter from Beowulf and Staffie from Blythe plus one from Sheffield which I didn't get to sample.
we then headed to the Sir Robert Peel where the Church End as above was consumed plus numerous Beowulf Chasewater and Oakham JHB.
Not sure why, but for some reason we weren't not sober (maybe it was Chris guiding us home?)
3rd July – MCBA – Nottingham
The meeting was in the upstairs room of the Bunkers Hill in the somewhat depressed Hockley part of the city which provides a good choice of toasted sandwiches (including one with Hartly's jam). Some of these come with chips which are pre-salted (rather too much so for my taste.)
Whilst i didn't see her before hand one of my trips to the bar was also met with discussed from a local who tried to convince me she was there before me - ce la vie!
The drinking actually started in a Lloyds No 1 Wetherspoon which was serving Nottingham Brewery's Legend (and quite tasty it was to.)
At the Bunkers Hill commercial beers tasted were Sunny Daze from Oldenshaws, Queen Bee from Slaters, and Olde Home Wrecker from Milestone.
After the meeting (which included a lengthy session on water treatment) we moved on to the Newshouse where I had Flipside's Flipping Best and then the Framboise from Timmermans.
Whilst i didn't see her before hand one of my trips to the bar was also met with discussed from a local who tried to convince me she was there before me - ce la vie!
The drinking actually started in a Lloyds No 1 Wetherspoon which was serving Nottingham Brewery's Legend (and quite tasty it was to.)
At the Bunkers Hill commercial beers tasted were Sunny Daze from Oldenshaws, Queen Bee from Slaters, and Olde Home Wrecker from Milestone.
After the meeting (which included a lengthy session on water treatment) we moved on to the Newshouse where I had Flipside's Flipping Best and then the Framboise from Timmermans.
29th June – Birmingham
Well, the end of the month when my set of Wetherspoon vouchers are about the expire so where can we go to use them up, somewhere with a number of JD's places close togther, ah yes , B'ham.
On getting to the city, first port of call was actually the Yard of Ale which was fairly quiet (it was mod-afternoon) and over a pint of Marston's Merrie Monk we settled in to watch the end of Japan v Paraguay in the world cup (not exactly a thriller!) - see later post (18th November 2010.)
Onwards, and upwards (quite literally as its the only way out of the pub and on to our first Wetherspoon, the Square Peg where Batemans Salem Porter was selected along with food (I went for the smoked haddock& mozzarella fishcakes (With spring onion, in a creamy sauce) with chips.
Next was Wetherspoons inside pardise place with Oracle from Salopian being my choice.
Finally it was into the Brier Rose for Shardlow's Hit the Spot.
Then back to wait for the train at New Street and watching the mice running about the platform.
On getting to the city, first port of call was actually the Yard of Ale which was fairly quiet (it was mod-afternoon) and over a pint of Marston's Merrie Monk we settled in to watch the end of Japan v Paraguay in the world cup (not exactly a thriller!) - see later post (18th November 2010.)
Onwards, and upwards (quite literally as its the only way out of the pub and on to our first Wetherspoon, the Square Peg where Batemans Salem Porter was selected along with food (I went for the smoked haddock& mozzarella fishcakes (With spring onion, in a creamy sauce) with chips.
Next was Wetherspoons inside pardise place with Oracle from Salopian being my choice.
Finally it was into the Brier Rose for Shardlow's Hit the Spot.
Then back to wait for the train at New Street and watching the mice running about the platform.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)