Being back in Bristol for a little means that I try and catch up with friends here - and, obviously, that often means beer.
On Tuesday I had to go to an organizers' meeting for the Bristol Beer Festival. I've been the set up manager for a few years and although the whole endeavour is hard work, it's fun and very satisfying to see an empty hall turned into a festival venue thronging with people enjoying their beer.
We hold our meetings in pubs, not surprisingly.
These days it's in Bristol's heavy metal real ale pub - The Gryphon. They tend to like their beer dark and 'orrible in there, and the choice of music make it not really to my taste. But it's an interesting experience for sure.
I had a couple of pints of Mordue Radgie Gadgie which was nice, if not stunning and the lightest they had. My companions mostly drank darker.
The surprise comes when you pay for your beer - £2.50 a pint (presumably that's their CAMRA member price).
It's really nice to get two pints for a fiver!
Last night I caught up with a bunch of other friends and we met in the Alma Tavern. I've been here a couple of times before and it's probably more to my taste than the Gryphon, although not quite pubby enough. Their choice of beers was a little bit less exciting than the last time I was there (Doom Bar, Bath Ales Gem and Bristol Beer Factory Sunrise) but I was content with Sunrise and Tom opted for Gem so we were both happy.
Sadly, these two pints (both locally produced) were 50% more expensive than the beers from the previous night.
I know that's not that much more than the generally prevailing price of beer - especially in "posh" places but I still felt a little bit cheated.
I think I can conclude that neither of these two pubs will ever be on my 3+pint list.
No comments:
Post a Comment