...and we're back

It's telling that most of my posts in this blog tend to be about trips away from Eastbourne.

It's not that you can't get good beer in Eastbourne - it's more that it's harder to find interesting beer in Eastbourne.

We have a few pubs we go to most weeks:  Crown, Lamb, Eagle.
We have a few pubs/bars we go to every couple of weeks:  Bottle Grove, Hurst Arms, Dolphin, Victoria, Belgian Bar.
...and that's pretty much it.

When time (and aches and pains) allow - there are the out of town places:  Tiger, Plough and Harrow

After that you're talking about an excursion to Lewes, Hastings or Brighton for a bit of variety.

We've just come back from a week in Bristol and although we didn't go anywhere new, we reprised several places we've not been for a goodly while:  Small Bar, Moor Brewery Tap, Seven Stars, GBrothers, Cornubia, Lime Kiln as well as those places we almost never neglect:  Barley Mow (obvs), King Street Brewery.

This time we missed out the whole North Street run (Steam Crane, Old Book Shop, Tobacco Factory, BBF tap room), The other tap rooms, the Oxford, and the Orchard even though we had planned a cider hit.  This is it - there's simply so much variety and availability that it's pretty much impossible to get tired of places...even if on the day you go in, the choice of beers doesn't happen to be ideal for you.

What Eastbourne is really lacking is a pub that does a moderate (say 4 or so) cask beers with a few genuinely craft keg beers (no, Goose Island, Shipbuilders and Malthouse really, really doesn't cut it) just to shake things up a little.

I guess it's as much down to the local clientele who maybe don't have much of an appetite for change (see the sheer quantity of 6X sold in the Crown), a sort of Harveys stranglehold and, what I assume is some quite fierce price-sensitivity.

Anyhow now it's December, all pubs everywhere will be starting to get unbearably busy with people who seldom go into pubs annoying everyone else so I'm looking forward to January when pubs really need us...and we're happy to (quietly) oblige!