Some Things Change, Others Not So Much

I was re-reading some of my first entries on this blog and was struck by changing, and non-changing things.

Things that have not changed?

Mine and the Best Beer Buddy (aka "S") and our continuing love of well made beer.

My delight in a well-kept pint of Timothy Taylor Landlord.  To my mind still an excellent example of a traditional bitter (but called a Pale Ale for reasons that still mystify me).
We could name a couple of other beers we've been drinking for many years and would still not turn our noses up:  Harvey's Best, Harvey's Old, Fullers HSB, Marstons Owd Roger...and that's about it.

Our love of The Victoria pub in Eastbourne.  We don't visit there as much as we used to since we don't have a base of operations in that part of town.  However the EU settled status sessions mentioned yesterday are just around the corner from the Vic so it would be rude not to...

My love of Oakham, Bristol Beer Factory, Arbor beers is as bright-shining as ever it was.

So what has changed?

My love of Dark Star beers has been tarnished by the Fullers-then-Asahi takeover.  The main brews now taste mass-produced and a pale imitation of what they were (yes, "Hophead" and "APA", I'm looking at you).  The stronger, less mainstream brews seem to be largely unaffected...at the moment.

The Evening Star's atmosphere is still good on a Saturday afternoon but the plastic glasses "imposed by licensing regs" is definitely a downward trend.

Our collective dislike of keg beers.  Good, small brewery, keg beers are now a staple in our beer diet.  We still tend to go for cask first but no longer are irritated by being cornered into drinking keg.  The cost is a bit irksome but I think we just have to get our heads around a redressing of beer pricing.

Beers which no longer exist:  BBF Sunrise, BBF Acer, Arbor Black IPA.

And in a weird twist of things that were, then weren't and now are again...

We learned that a pub in St Judes - "The Swan with Two Necks" was under new management.  I first learned of this pub via a comment in the 1980's that the landlord at the time was a fanatical beer keeper and drinker and that he wasn't a man who suffered fools gladly.

This landlordly legend, one John Lansdall then moved from the Swan to the Hare on the Hill - my first proper Local Pub.  Here, I learned that it wasn't so much he didn't suffer fools gladly...more that he didn't suffer them at all.  However, despite the gruff exterior he was a great landlord - with a brilliantly dry sense of humour.

Anyhow, the Swan gradually got worse and worse (as I understand it, since I'd never been there).

Now it's run by the same landlord as the Hilgrove Porter Stores (50 yards from the Hare, as it happens) and we visited a couple of days ago.  What a brilliant place!  It's a proper old pub but serving really good modern beers in a huge variety of styles.  5 cask pumps and 12 keg taps plus a fridge full of bottles and cans (inc low alcohol styles) and a landlord who exuded enthuasiasm and warmth.

So that pub is neither unchanged nor really changed and it won't be long before we're back there!