I made the journey up to Hitchin yesterday, after schlepping around Eastbourne dropping off leaflets for our forthcoming "Heritage Open Days" event in Eastbourne, "Open Eastbourne".
Well, as an aside, we're quite excited about next weekend because the Tour of Britain is passing through, and we're doing "Open Eastbourne" (which we've been co-ordinating) and we've got some friends visiting for both events...and, possibly more importantly, for P (who is one of S's oldest friends) and S to revisit their beer-drinking youth. Yes, you knew it would come back to beer, didn't you?
As lads, S, P and M (with whom we drink regularly in Brighton before and after football) had a few regular haunts - the Eagle, the Dolphin, the Hurst Arms and the Victoria and I'm pretty sure that we'll need to visit several of these.
But S is particularly keen to take P to the Crown which is not somewhere they ever frequented because we're pretty sure P will be as smitten as us by good beer served straight from the cask.
Anyhow, enough of looking ahead...last night we, as ever, dropped into the Nightingale upon my arrival.
Since buying out the tie of the pub, the landlady and landlord have been able to vary the beer they buy a bit...and the price has dropped a little (that's right, you heard me...they didn't trouser the extra revenue, they passed at least some onto their customers).
Yesterday they had a dark beer by Wolf (the name of which I can't remember, and isn't on their standard cask list) which was decent enough - a bit like a better version of Tring's Colley's Dog. But they also had on Newby Wyke Banquo which is a lovely, lovely beer. Yes, it's golden and hoppy but it's well balanced and very drinkable.
So it was that we decided to stay for a third pint before venturing off to get something to eat and as I ordered - Sue, the landlady, says "Do you like Theakston beers?" (they had some Grousebeater on another pump which I hadn't even considered buying) - so when I said "not really" she smiled and pointed to the pump and said "I've no idea what got into them with this one - it's terrible, would you like to try it?". So she poured me a snifter.
I'm not wholly convinced by Theakston doing pale beers - the Lightfoot I had when I was in Robin Hood's bay last year was nice enough but, by and large, it didn't seem a natural style for them. I think I said as much to Sue as I swirled the taster and sniffed.
It smelt AWFUL. A little bit like teenagers' sweaty socks. There was a fruity note in there somewhere but it was completely overwhelmed.
Then I tasted it. If possible, it tasted worse than it smelled. It was barely like beer at all - much more like wheaty-tasting jelly-tots.
I passed it to S - who was even more scathing than me.
This is where the seasoned beer-drinker gets to remind themselves there's a difference between bad beer, and beer which has gone bad.
This stuff was fresh and decently kept. I think it was a tad hazy but that's probably as a result of the fruit in it. There weren't spoiled flavours in it at all. It was just nasty beer.
Sue said "the people who were in here a moment ago really liked it, I don't understand" - well, each to his own, I reckon.
She shook her head ruefully as she put a "Special price £2.50" sticker on the pump.
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