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.

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.