Archive for July, 2009

Morrison’s Bottled Beer Deals Update 2

Jul 27th, 2009 | Author: The Beeralist

** Please note this post has been superseded by Morrisons Beer Offers – September Update **

Wychwood Hobgoblin has now joined the ranks of the £1 per bottle deals at our local Morrison’s. There are big empty gaps where some of the other beers in the offer were.

The Hobgoblin is a dark and malty bitter – on the strong side at 5.2%. I find the taste OK, but I wouldn’t want to drink a lot of it.

The Brains SA pictured is not on special offer but I haven’t seen the ‘normal’ SA at Morrison’s before – they do normally carry the young upstart SA Gold. Mmm, perhaps someone made a mistake and ordered the wrong stuff…

Now I do have a soft spot for Brain’s beer having been at university in Cardiff many years ago so I leaped on this one. The aroma is unmistakably Brain’s but the lively nature of this bottled beer seems at odds with the smoother, subtler consistency of the draught version.

An Evening in Winchester (Part 1)

Jul 23rd, 2009 | Author: The Beeralist

Geoff and I had a good evening out in Winchester the other night. Here is my first report of the pubs visited.

I arrived in the city before him so this post covers those that I did on my own before meeting him from the station. This enabled me to visit practically all the pubs on my shortlist – see my previous post on planning the Winchester evening.

My first port of call was an unexpected extra.

The Albion

The Albion is the closest pub to Winchester station since the South Western was shut many years ago. It’s situated at the town end of Stockbridge Road by the busy junction there. I’d visited the pub once before earlier in the year and although the pub was itself a small and friendly establishment, the beer quality wasn’t the best. However as I walked past I noticed the Daleside ‘England’s Pride’ pump-clip – a beer I enjoyed greatly the week before in London. So I decided to go in.

The first thing I noticed was that the beer selection had increased since the time before. The Albion was now offering 6 draught real ales – 3 handpumps and 3 casks sitting on the bar.

Apart from me, I noticed one other couple drinking real ale – everyone else seemed to be on lager. The ‘England’s Pride’ was OK but not as nice as I’d had before – a very slight vinegary feel to it. It’s always good to see pubs with a great selection of beers, but does this pub sell enough real ale to justify having 6 on? I’m not sure.

So on to the next.

The King Alfred

My next was going to be the Hyde Tavern but on the way I decided to pay another visit to the King Alfred.

The King Alfred (11 Saxon Road) used to be a favourite when I lived in Winchester 20 years ago. At that time it was a Marstons pub (as were most of the pubs in Winchester) and the Pedigree was always superb. Lots of games were available in the pub for the punters too.

After Marstons sold their southern pubs to Greene King in 1999 the beer selection in the King Alfred became GK IPA and Abbot – neither of which I like much. So I stopped visiting the Alred on my occasional trips back to Winchester.

The King Alfred is still a GK pub and I could see through the open door that the beer selection was still the same. There was a third pumpclip turned round and I read on Beer in the Evening that they do carry a guest beer. But in the absence of anything else I decided not to stay for a pint – maybe another time.

So back up the road to the Hyde Tavern.

The Hyde Tavern

The Hyde Tavern is a wonderful little two-room pub tucked away north of the city centre at 57 Hyde Street. It was my original choice for first pub on this crawl and was another old favourite that I’d written off after Greene King acquired it. When I found out that GK had sold it (about three years ago I believe) I started coming again. It’s now a free house with a good selection of beers.

The pub was almost empty, but it was still only 6pm. There were 5 beers on – Ballard’s Midhurst Mild, Cheriton Pots Ale, Ringwood Best, Hogs Back Summer Ale and Harvey’s Sussex Best. A real cider was also available but I can’t remember what. I had the Ballard’s Mild and Pots Ale and they were both delicious. The mild had an amazingly powerful flavour given its strength (3.4%).

Interestingly, the handpumps here still have Marstons stamped (moulded?) on the handles which becomes visible when the pints are pulled. This is a hangover from when the Hyde Tavern was also a Marstons pub. The old Marstons brewery was nearby at the southern end of the road – on the corner with North Walls. The brewery later became a Marstons distribution depot and was demolished some years ago for housing.

My last two visits to the Hyde Tavern were in wintry evening darkness so I hadn’t appreciated that there is also a garden on a lower level at the back of the pub. If the sun had been shining I might have strayed into it.

So after some good conversation with a photographer and his missus I headed back up to the station to meet my friend Geoff.

(Added later) Read about the ones we got to:

And the ones we didn’t get to:

Other Winchester Gems

This Google map shows my favourite pubs in Winchester.

Clerkenwell to Angel to Old Street

Jul 23rd, 2009 | Author: The Beeralist

Before I get started on the Winchester trip which happened last night I wanted to finish this one and get it out.

Last week, Jon and I had a strung out pub crawl in London to take in a few places new to us and two of our favourites. It involved more walking than crawls we normally do but it was worth it.

The Jerusalem Tavern

We started at the Jerusalem Tavern in Clerkenwell – surely a favourite of all real ale drinkers in London.

If you’re not familiar with the Jerusalem Tavern it’s a traditionally traditional pub. Lots of wood – walls, benches, chairs, and no carpets. The pub is the London outlet for the Suffolk-based St Peters Brewery and there are usually 4 or 5 draught beers on from their range. There are no handpumps, the beers served from taps in pretend barrels on the back wall of the bar. I’ve no idea how the beer is dispensed then – an electric pump? (The Hoop & Grapes in Aldgate used to have a similar set up.)

I think the Jerusalem Tavern also carries the whole range of St Peters bottled beers too.

We had a lot to get through so quickly moved on to the next one.

The Peasant

At 240 St John Street the Peasant is a cavernous old pub with a mosaic tiled floor and enormous windows. If you read the Beer in the Evening reviews you could be easily put off going here, but I’m glad we did. The pub had a friendly, laid back atmosphere and good beer. I’ll come back for longer next time.

The Charles Lamb

Our next stop was the Charles Lamb just round the corner from Angel tube (at 16 Elia Street). We liked it here and the Dark Star Hophead was superb.

The Charles Lamb is reviewed glowingly at Boak and Bailey’s beer blog – a review which prompted me to want to go. The pub was very busy for a Monday night with a good atmosphere, and good food.

After this we headed off down City Road to an old favourite.

The Wenlock Arms

Another pub that you hope never changes. Visiting the Wenlock Arms (26 Wenlock Road) is a real ale dream come true. There must be at least 8 handpumps and the beers are always tip top.

You can read more on my boyish excitement at finding Brains Dark in the Wenlock Arms in a previous post.

The Old Fountain

Our final stop on the evening was the Old Fountain (3 Baldwin Street) close to Old Street tube station. By the time we got there it was dark and I was feeling a bit tired so I don’t really remember much about the pub other than the very impressive beer selection. I can’t remember what I had but I do remember that is tasted good. Jon’s pint was alright too – whatever it was.

We’ll definitely come back here again. A good pub to combine with the Wenlock and the nearby Artillery Arms for a more compact evening’s drinking.

See this Google map to follow our route.

An Evening in Winchester (Before)

Jul 21st, 2009 | Author: The Beeralist

I’m planning a trip to Winchester tomorrow evening with a like-minded friend. It’s going to be a lightning raid – similar to my recent trip to Brighton. But the question is which pubs to visit in one evening?

From a real ale perspective Winchester has many more pubs worth going to now that the Greene King ones either stock guest beers (eg Fulflood Arms), or are no longer Greene King pubs at all (eg Hyde Tavern). A trip to all my favourites would comprise (in no particular order):

Black Boy – Free House
Wykeham Arms – Fuller’s (ex Gale’s)
Bishop on the Bridge – Fuller’s
Green Man – Free House
Old Vine – Free House
Eclipse – Free House (ex Greene King)
St James Tavern – Wadworths
Fulflood Arms – Greene King (with guests)
Roebuck – Greene King (with guests)
Hyde Tavern – Free House (ex Greene King)

You can see a Google map of all of them here.

Obviously that’s way too many for one evening since they’re all so spread out. I guess I’ll just have to leave out the ones that are not near others.

(Added later) Read about the ones we got to:

And the ones we didn’t get to:

Other Winchester Gems

Brain’s Dark Sighted in London

Jul 18th, 2009 | Author: The Beeralist

I was out in Clerkenwell/Angel/Old Street the other night with a friend and we popped into the Wenlock Arms off City Road for a while. I got very excited when I noticed they had Brain’s Dark on draught.

Brain’s Dark was my beer of choice when at university in Cardiff many years ago. It’s a beautifully smooth pint – a bit like Guinness but nowhere near as bitter. And it’s so rare to get it in London that I just had to have one.

But, things don’t always go as well as you think and although the pint tasted a bit like Brain’s Dark it had none of that creaminess I was expecting. After a short time I realised what had happened when my beer became an old-style London pint with practically no head – something that would of course never happen in a Brain’s pub in Cardiff. There was no tight sparkler on the pump – none of the pumps in the Wenlock have them.

I am grateful that the barstaff eventually found a tight sparkler from somewhere and I was able to enjoy a glass of Dark how it should be. It’s frustrating for the staff though if they’re not used to it – one of the other barstaff at the Wenlock who wasn’t involved in the discussions just took the sparkler straight off later. In Brain’s pubs in Cardiff you’ll see pints lined up waiting for a top up – it should be poured in stages like a Guinness.

I’ll be posting about the other pubs we visited that night soon.

The Wenlock Arms picture was from Flickr. Thanks to Andy Roberts for allowing his picture to be used.

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