Archive for September, 2009
The Keep in Guildford
Sep 30th, 2009 |
The Keep is a bit of an overlooked gem in Guildford. It is situated in Castle Street close (not surprisingly perhaps) to Guildford Castle – so a little south of the main centre of Guildford.
The Keep is a single room pub and the interior has a modern feel with a wooden floor and bare brick walls. There appears to be another smaller room out the back. It’s only when the smokers light up that you realise that it’s actually the small courtyard garden. On my first couple of visits to the pub I swear I hadn’t noticed that. The interior photo shows the courtyard garden off the back of the pub.
From a real ale perspective the main reason for visiting the Keep is that they stock beers from the nearby Surrey Hills Brewery. As I’m writing the notes for this post the Shere Drop is tasting lovely. Don’t expect a massive selection of beers at the Keep though.
They don’t sell a lot of real ale and I think having one or two excellent beers is better than having many tired tasting varieties.
On my last visit I ate here for the first time. I had a burger with salad for £4.50 which was pretty good, but maybe would not have satisfied those with larger appetites.
The sad thing about my visits to this pub is that hardly anyone ever seems to go there. As I write these notes it’s 7:30 on a Thursday evening I am the only customer apart from the wargamers who have retreated upstairs. Why are the good pubs in Guildford so overlooked?
Majestic Beer Boxes
Sep 26th, 2009 |
Majestic Wine Warehouses are normally know for their deals on wine, but it seems increasingly that they are pushing their selection of beer boxes. My local Majestic in Woking now has all of one wall given over to many different boxes of beer whereas just a couple of years ago it was a small display in one corner. Their catalogue however barely mentions beer!
My last trip the other day yielded this photo which shows less than half of the selection. You may recognise some of the boxes – Brakspears, Wychwood, Summer Lightning and the branding of London Pride is well known of course.
When buying beer at Majestic you have to buy at least 12 bottles and boxes can’t be split. But they do carry mixed boxes like this Adnams one with 3 bottles each of 4 types.
Also, a seemingly permanent special offer means that if you buy 2 boxes (24 bottles) you get a £6 discount. This means that some beers are way cheaper than in a supermarket, which is good.
I wrote down the following random prices for a box (before the £6 discount):
- Adnams Mixed – £20.40
- Wadworth 6X – £18.96
- Martsons Bitter – £14.40
- St Peter’s Best Bitter – £18.00
- Young’s Bitter – £12.40
- Bath Ales Mixed – £20.40
In the end I chose the Bath Ales mixed box and the Sharp’s mixed box. I’ll post soon on the contents of each.
Aldgate Pub Lunch Options 5 – Brown Bear
Sep 24th, 2009 |
The Brown Bear is situated down at the southern end of Leman Street E1, just by the railway bridge. At times since I’ve been working in the area it’s been a regular haunt and I’ve had some great times there. But pubs go down as well as up and fall out of use. I’m pleased to say though that the Brown Bear is in the ascendant again and is now a regular lunch time stop.
The Brown Bear has a horseshoe shaped bar that extends down the right hand side to a more secluded seating area at the back.
As you can (maybe) see from the photo of the outside, the pub was originally a Taylor Walker pub. I’m not clear who owns it at the moment but I do know that it offers good real ales from an ever-changing selection of guests. Only London Pride seems to be a constant, and on my last visit the O’Hanlons Yellowhammer was good. (It’s what I should have been drinking on my last visit to the Double Locks near Exeter).
On the food side they have a standard pub-type menu with some specials on the board. But there are also many Thai dishes available as well – all priced at around £6 – £8.
On my last visit I had a Pad Thai (see pic) which was delicious. There was also so much that I couldn’t finish it. In the past I’ve had burgers here and they’re good too.
Previous posts in this series
What A Waste
Sep 22nd, 2009 |
Nothing whatever to do with beer or pubs, but just something I feel strongly about. I saw these four bags left in the street near where I live last week. They are full of apples from someone’s garden and they’re in the local council green waste bags to be collected.
Now I know they’re not dumped in the general waste and that they will go for compost, but it just seems mad that they’re not being used.
Many gardens in this area (including my own) have apple trees as the whole area was a series of orchards up until about 50 years ago. But it does seem that we are the only people round here to actually use what grows on the trees – it is incredible getting so much fruit every year with no effort. When I told my neighbour (who has an apple tree too) that we used most of our apples he was actually amazed. Badly bruised windfalls and others that we don’t eat straight away get chopped up and frozen, and my wife makes a superb apple crumble all year round with our own apples.
It’s ironic that those people with apples rotting in their gardens probably buy the apples they actually eat in the local supermarkets.
Anyway, my rant is over and a normal beery service will resume.
Morrisons Beer Offers – September Update
Sep 21st, 2009 |
My local Morrisons (Woking) has a few beer offers on again at the moment. Both Brakspear’s Bitter and Wyre Piddle’s Piddle In The Hole are priced at £1 for a 500ml bottle.
Although you can’t see it from the photo the price labels state that the prices will hold until early October
Not quite so cheap but still competitive is Hook Norton Bitter for £1.25 for a 500ml bottle. And if you like Moretti Italian beer with your pizza, Morrisons are doing three 660ml bottles for £5.