It's Friday

 It's warm and it's Friday.

We've been reasonably busy with work this week and negotiating builders around the house.

A walk through the woods was followed by a visit to the Crown.

It was the usual "Friday Post Work" crowd of tradesmen, together with the older regulars.  As such it was quite noisy but no so much that we didn't want to sit in the main bar and watch a little bit of sport as we drank our Kent Pale Ale.

We both agree that, unlike other Kent beers (Prohibition being the best example) - we didn't want to come back for any more of it this weekend, no matter how much we might have enjoyed the 2 pints we drank.

Earlier in the week we met beer-loving (and making) friends who live in Surrey but were cycling along the south coast for a few days.  P is one of Best Beer Buddy's oldest friends and a beer fanatic.  We said that most of the pubs in town were a bit lack lustre and would they consider one of the craft/bottle/can/tap rooms to meet.  They gladly agreed and we came from work to meet them at Beerarama.

I was extremely relieved to find that they liked the beer there as much as we do, I'd feared that they might find it a bit too fizzy for their tastes.

After dinner at the Thai restaurant at the station we had lasties at Ninkaci and realised we should probably do that more often.

Today we're in work again and I want to spend some time wrangling printers - a job I've been meaning to do for a good while.  After that I'm pretty sure I'm going to demand beer...the only question is:  where?

Harveys: discuss

 Most of the time we live in Harveys country.

This brewery, beloved by real ale folk and held in almost mythical esteem permeates East Sussex like an elderly grandparent daring you to drink anything else.

People who don't live in Sussex genuflect as you tell them you live not-that-far-from Lewes, that you have 2 Harveys pubs within easy walking distance from home and a further 2 an easy bus ride away.

We don't even bother to mention that pretty much EVERY pub in town stocks "Best" anyway since, apparently, old fellas around town won't drink anything else.

My brother, who had never even heard of them until he visited us down here (but who likes his beer brown and around 4%) was smitten from the first swig.

Me?  I like a well-kept pint of Best from time to time (usually from a Harveys pub) but prefer Olympia, Armada and the stronger, seasonal beers (Wharf, Star of Eastbourne, Bonfire Boy and Prince of Denmark) - but I rarely find it exciting, as such.

Sadly, their beers are not very tolerant of cack-handed cellaring and dispense and so it's quite easy to find a pretty grim pint of it, too.  As such, I'm very wary of it.

On Saturday, we were working at HQ and after that, we'd often seek a pint in one of the local tap/bottle shops.  This week, I suggested we make the effort to go around to the Victoria.  They're a safe pair of hands and the pub itself is a proper Victoria corner boozer.

It was one of the most enjoyable real pub visits we've had recently.  Quiet and relaxing, with a fairly low loud and bollock-talking quotient and so we stayed for 3 pints.

Next week we're heading to a revampe of a Greene King Pub from a landlady who keeps her beer really well, but that's not much consolation if you really hate GK beers.

I may drink...errr...something else.