At Last

 So, by the time I'd "coaxed" the builders into shape it was Friday

 Meanwhile, we'd realised that open return tickets now expire after a month (always used to be 3 months) so there was some required shenanigans with already purchased train tickets.  Thursday afternoon was spent at distance trying to work out the logistics of the most cost-effective way to sort journeys out whilst navigating strike days (of which I'm fully supportive).  As a result, I made the journey up via Salisbury to take advantage of my Network Rail card.

Fortunately, the little bit of journey-stopping building work was completed by about 9.30am on Friday so I struck out to make my journey.  The Salisbury route takes about an hour longer than the London route but it was not at all unpleasant.

I arrived at Temple Meads a little before 4pm, met by the BBB and pretty soon after we were in the Barleymow (of course).  It was busy with work Christmas party-goers but pleasant, and we easily found a seat.  

It allowed me to start to relax and the Arbor Zero Zero on cask (first time I've ever had it other than in a can) was tremendous.  For all the world it felt like we'd been in the BM every week, despite it being a couple of months (they even remember straight glasses).  

I read a blog post by a beer blogger who said that he doesn't really like non-pub drinking venues.  Me?  I like lots of different places to drink my beer - indeed this evening we're odd-on for the Moor brewery tap which I identified very early on as "absolutely not a pub" but the beer, and the people make up for it and a week in Bristol would be far the worse for not going there.

However, I'm pretty determined we're going to try more than the "old favourites" this trip.  We've a month in residence (well, actually one month and 2 days hence the train ticket problems) so there's really no excuse, is there?

All Upside Down

 Work on our house continues and it's partly lovely to see and partly very scary and frustrating.

At the flat, a bust water heater needed attention and so a plumber needed to be found.

Ultimately the boy had to travel up to Bristol to plumber sit, whilst I do some builder "coaxing" down here.

So the louge is now full of all the stuff which was in the kitchen.

 The kitchen is largely unusable for, well, obvious reasons.

So I'm mostly confined to the office for reasons of sanity.

For all that I say I like to drink beer, and the beer is the "payoff" in its own right, it has to be said that drinking a lone can of "Dancing with Spectres" just isn't the same.

I even took a colleague to Beerama this evening for a catch up out of the office and as much as the beer was great, and the company was delightful...and catching up with J&J the owners was really nice, it's just not the same.

Even the BBB hasn't ventured out to the pub on his own.  He's made do with World Cup football on the TV and whatever beer and wine is in the flat.

It kind of reminds me of when we weren't living together all the time but having a sort of itinerant life between, at one point, three homes and doing weird triangular train journeys between the various places and making the first "meet up" in the nearest pub to the train station. 

Originally, I was going to head to Bristol tomorrow but the building work is running behind so now it's looking like a Thursday journey.  I'm gutted, even though we'll probably be in Bristol until the New Year so it's not like we're not going to get a chance to go to all the places.

It's just that, something's missing - it's just short of 6' and carrying a beer for me.

 

 

Follow that Star

 The second pub I ever went to in Brighton was the Evening Star.

It was my first trip to Brighton and I'm pretty sure it was a match day at Withdean.  It might have been the day that Brighton and Hove Albion (BHAFC) secured its promotion to the Championship from League 1 but I can't be sure.

What I do remember is  a heaving pub, thronging with football supporters and incredibly efficient staff either with preternatural hearing or just really good at understanding various bits of sign language and pointing.  Whilst there was always a queue after a match, it never felt like a hard job to get served in a fair manner.  The pub was run by two people who, coincidentally, moved to our favourite beer city...yeah, yeah...Bristol.

It was explained to me that the ES had been a brewpub but that the brewery had expanded and moved out to a dedicated site.  Oddly, I've since learned that they took on their large site around about the time I first went to the pub.

So, of course, it was this pub that I first drank Hophead.  Almost more memorably, I also had APA there for the first time and for a long while, I would have called it one of my favourite ever beers.

When Dark Star was sold to Fullers I was sad.  But, I thought, like 'em or loathe 'em Fuller do brew good beer and as long as the production site doesn't change then maybe Dark Star beers will retain their distinctive flavour, style and "craft"-ness.

Our local pub, The Crown, had Hophead as one of their regular beers which delighted us - and sealed the deal for it being our local.  But after the takeover, Hophead started to lose its brightness (flavour, not clarity) and not long after, our landlord said he couldn't stock it any more because it had become too inconsistent.  By then, production had moved to Chiswick.

The sell-off of Fullers to Asahi, I guess, was probably inevitable.  Fullers is such a mainstay of the "traditional" brewing scene that I suppose it was very attractive to a  multinational volume-brewer. Let's put it this way, in a round of "names of cask brown bitters" London Pride is never going to be a Pointless answer.

And so, now, the Dark Star brewery at Partridge Green - which, I understand, was not some rustic plant but a standard industrial unit set up like the ones I adore in Bristol - is being closed at the end of the year. Production will be moved to the Meantime Brewery and the usual "economic" arguments have been trotted out.  

I haven't drunk much Fullers or Dark Star since the original sell-off happened so it's not like I'm going to notice other changes from here on in but the closure still makes me a little sad.

When you're introduced to a place or thing (in this case beer) by or with a loved-one and then it's irrevokably changed you definitely take it personally even if you've moved on from the place or thing.

Thank goodness that Mark Tranter still brews locally (8 miles up the road), running Burning Sky and that the Evening Star is back to being a mainstay of our beer excursions (if anything, even better than the day of my first trip there) otherwise it would really feel that something had been stolen.

Getting Old

 I've never liked Old ales - tried a few, includng those that people say epitomise the style but they really didn't do it for me so I've avoided them.

And then, a month or so back we went to The Victoria which is now under new management.  They only had Old and Best on so I went with a pint of Best - which was in tip-top condition.

I also tried himself's pint and it was lovely.

Next round I had one myself and thought it was delicious.

A few days later there was Longman Old Man on as the guest at the Crown.  So I went for it.  Not as good as Harveys but nice, nonetheless.

This Sunday (yesterday) we had a short stroll through the woods and repaired to The Lamb (as usual).  The beers on offer were Best, Old and Bonfire Boy and although I like the seasonal beer it's a little bit sweet for me so I went with Old and was very happy with my choice.

It seems that maybe strong dark beers have been a gateway drug leading me towards dark less strong beers.

Or maybe I'm just getting old.

Back to the Shire

 What with the busy work, the building work going on in the house and other time-drive seasonal things (like an MOT), it's getting quite tricky to slot a leisurely trip to Bristol in.

However, the call of the Orchids, together with the prospect that a new credit card will probably have arrived there, and just the need to be in a slightly more homely space (our house is really anything but, at the moment) drove our decision to do an evening journey.

I had a full day at work - including two longish meetings to attend - so we decided to aim at a 5.30pm departure from Eastbourne.

It's a very different experience than our usual late morning start but spending the evening travelling, rather than the middle of the day makes it feel a bit more useful day.

We were due to arrive at 9.30pm but the journey was delayed by faulty points and we got into the flat a little after 10pm.  Oddly, whilst we could easily have popped around the corner for lasties - we never do when we make this journey.  We go through the "arrival" ritual of preparing the place for our residency, sit down an chill with some TV and a glass of wine and then go to bed.  To be honest, I was so shattered when we arrived I'm not sure I would have been able to drag myself out to the pub.

There is something really nice about waking on on the first day here without really having to contemplate travel - even though we both like the train, and our journey had been pretty untraumatic.

I'd picked up bread, cheese, wine and milk at the Sainsbury's across the road so all the essentials are in place, and I've a grocery delivery arriving shortly.  

We work when we're here so it's not a holiday but it definitely feels like a break in the offing.  The only thing now is to decide where we're beering later...

Sharing an Enthusiasm

 Almost every time I go to St Leonards for work, my colleague there, and I take time to go out to lunch.

It's quite odd for me because I'm a hasty-sandwich-grabber for lunch as a rule.

But it started when the colleague's boss instructed her to take the Best Beer Buddy and I to lunch after we'd helped them with some stuff.  In fact, it was the first time we'd all met face to face and the rapport between us all was really noticeable.  As a result we gratefully accepted the invitation and we went to a Persian cafe which was absolutely lovely.  The second time it was just me, and it was in the middle of summer so we went to "Goat Ledge" on the seafront for fish in a bun and a soft drink.

Then I learned of Heist.

We've never been anywhere since.  The beer is fab, the food is delicious (and small portions are available for lunch) and it's jolly and friendly.

Last week, I had to go to St Leonards and the colleague wasn't going to be there, so I suggested the BBB met me and we planned a walk between St Leonards and Hastings ending the walk at the Imperial to enjoy lovely Brewing Brothers beer and pizza.

The weather, however, had other ideas.

BBB decided he'd accompany me to the appointment and do a few chores there and then we could go for walk.  But, instead, it absolutely hurled it down meaning any walk would be pretty miserable.

Once we'd finished our work there (just updating some laptops for clients who don't have them) we decided just to go straight to Heist.  I've always been wary of introducing people - even the BBB - to places I love.

I needn't really have worried.  He immediately got the place and was suitably impressed with the available beer.  We'd had a late lunch of substantial sandwiches so we weren't eating.

The only slight fly in the ointment was that doors and windows were open (steamy inside) so there wasn't really a cosy place to sit.  To be honest, I'd never really noticed it wasn't cosy - mostly because I think I've only been there in warm weather.  "We can find somewhere warmer?", I offered but he was pretty keen to stay and try the beer which pleased me greatly.

He said it was a bit more basic than he'd anticipated but he definitely liked it and it wouldn't be hard to entice him back, I think.

Since then, I've learned (from one of the builders wrecking our house at the moment) that Brewing Brothers have now added a taproom and a place on Hastings Seafront to their premises.  Definitely on the visit list!

Things as Usual

 
A couple of days after we got back from Bristol, there was a Saturday home match at Brighton.

We hadn't seen our pal, M, since his birthday in May so we suggested meeting him in Brighton before and after lunch.

Of course we did "the usual" and so had Fullers beer and lunch at The Basketmakers.  It was a lot less busy than we had expected but it was buzzing with activity and we played "upgrade your seat" until we were happy with our spot.

Chatter, beer and lunch but without the pressure on us to leave at a specific time made for a really good time.  We took a couple of old film cameras to fill the time when we were not in the pub and to help us resist the impulse of just pub-hopping all afternoon.

The beach was heaving but I could see the attraction of being there, I guess.

Eventually we headed inland and made a half-hearted attempt to find the Hole in the Wall - but failed and so we strolled through back lanes and thence back to the Evening Star.

M arrived a lot quicker than he had expected after a good result for the local team and we spent a happy couple of hours nattering about football, ecology, tech and nonsense.  For all the world, it was like there was never a gap in Saturday attendance.

The only slight blight on the evening was that, when we were back in Eastbourne events conspired to prevent the traditional purchase of special fried rice for late night beer-soaking-up.  Still, friend egg on fried bread did the job almost as well.

Since then we've not excurted for beer beyond my work-related lunches in St Leonards and Lewes - the latter reminding me that people still seem to find my real ale habit somewhat unusual - when presented with an order for one lemonade, one coffee and a half of real ale I was the last person the beer was offered to.  Sigh.

Whilst there's nothing new on the Eastbourne scene, our "usual suspects" of watering holes continue to supply beer and a bit of interaction with staff/owners.

I'm feeling the need to find somewhere new to go (or old to revisit) to ring the changes, though.