When I am old, I shall wear purple...

 I was working in the new office on Tuesday, temporarily "in charge" as our office manager is on leave.

I had to stay until 4pm when our work experience student was leaving for the day.

The BBB was working from home and we were just getting glimpses of the impending heatwave.

I assumed he wasn't keen to hack down to town, but he offered to come down and meet me.  Our office was pretty cool so working wasn't at all unpleasant.

By sheer luck I happened to see that Wolf was opening from 2pm for the week because The Tennis (Eastbourne Open) is on.  Wolf is on a direct walking route between the Devonshire Park, where the tennis is held and Eastbourne Railway station.  It takes 10 - 15 mins to walk that route.  You can't miss the place, you approach it and can see it from a good 50 yds away and to get to the station you have to walk right up the long side window which clearly shows it's a bar.

Tennis week - like the air show - is a mixed blessing for residents.  It gets really crowded and as a result, a lot of us tend to know timetable and largely avoid. 

So, before 5pm we arrived at Wolf slightly concerned it would be too busy and wholly prepared to do a bit of a sweaty walk to somewhere else or head closer to home.

When we walked in - there was one other person there.  And he's a regular.

The lady behind the bar was a little bit dejected but pleased to see us.  They'd got a special event license to put seating outside and everything...

We ordered drinks and sat down (inside, obvs), doing our best to make the place look well-used.

Crowds of people started to appear (presumably after a match had just finished) - not a single person even gave the place a second glance.

After a gap, another load came up - one older lady came in.  Asked for a pint of Nitro stout (Kernel was on offer), tried the outside, declared it too warm and took an inside seat near the door to make the most of the draught.  She clearly enjoyed her pint.  It warmed my heart to see not just a woman coming in on her own but an older woman (definitely older than me) who was probably brought up to know pubs as places women didn't really go on their own, and certainly not to drink pints of stout.  I was in awe.

This lady was the highpoint of visitors - a few people came from the tennis and stopped for one but I imagine the team who run the place would have been a bit disappointed.

For years, I've wondered about how much revenue our event visitors really bring to the party.  Yes they buy the tickets and they spend money on the seafront stalls - but those stalls are only bringing revenue to the "market" organisation who organise it and who pay a fee to the council. 
Clearly there are overnight visitors who use hotel rooms and eat out - some restaurants are noticeably busy for a couple of days.

But the day visitors just don't seem to translate to a proportionate usage of Town Centre/Seafront pubs, cafes, etc.  They mostly troop in and troop back out again.  It seems like we need to do something else to get our great little non-chain places recognised and better used.  

The Crown Nails it Again

 We were meeting family on Saturday and they suggested The Crown.  He likes cask ale - preferably nothing that scares the horses but he has come round to lighter, hoppier beer.

She likes moderately dry white wine and, despite being a very "locals" pub - the Crown has a decent wine offering. 

We happily agreed 

We'd been entertained by New Bristol Juno and Kent Brewery Prohibition on Tuesday and although Juno was still just about on, we preferred the new offering:  Track Sonoma.

We've had Sonoma countless times including:

- on cask at the Kings Head in Bristol where we were thoroughly impressed by its bunch despite the ABV (3.8%)

- On keg at Marthas (I think) and at Beerarama, where it made a good enough starter beer but was in no way memorable.

- In cans direct from the brewery where, again, it was fine and a nice opener but lacked real interest.

 So, whilst it was still the natural choice yesterday (Most pubs in Eastbourne can't offer a wide cask range) I didn't know whether it would be remarkable or not.

It was.

It was refreshing and cooling yet still a good punch of flavour. So this jury's in - it's a great fresh cask beer...but much less engaging with other dispense methods.

Also - thanks to Andy and the team in The Crown, they're knocking it out of the park for good cask beer in a way no where else in Eastbourne is managing.  Not a bad feat for a Heineken pub... 

 

Oh My Goodness!

 I was in work yesterday afternoon and we had work experience students in for their last day (yr 10/4th year in old money).  They were lovely, but exhausting.

I didn't really make inroads into the work I was trying to do.  

Meanwhile the BBB was at home boiler-engineer-wrangling and it took him well into the afternoon, meaning that it would have been pointless to hack down and try to get anything done.

I got a text message (we are that old-fashioned) - "Have you seen what Andy's got on?"

So I looked on the terrible app (Real Ale Finder) which the Crown and Beerarama use to publicise what beer's on.  It was "Aurora Australis" by Burning Sky.  There was also Downlands pale which on any other occasion would have been great but was (fittingly) totally eclipsed by the other guest (which was also much stronger).

No contest then, the Crown it was.

I pretty much gave up working around 3.45pm - packed up and then caught up with one member of staff I haven't seen for a while and bade a fond farewell to the WEX students.

I checked bus times and saw there'd be a but around 4.20pm and advised the BBB.

When I arrived at the pub he was just paying for the first round.  I flopped into a chair with a sigh of relief.

That beer was clearly in utterly perfect condition, with all the right things going on with the malt and the hops. Despite the strength, the first pint went down in less than 30 minutes (we usually take much longer), despite trying to slow down a bit.

The second pint would usually not hold the same thrill as the first - only in this case, it really did.

The post work wind down was a real tonic - and we wanted to prolong it all a little longer so we had a final shared pint (if he'd have suggested a full one, I'd have weakened...but he was playing 'sensible one' yesterday).

Much like an astronomical aurora - that cask will be transient.  I very much doubt it'll last into Sunday so it now lives in the memory of an outstanding pint when its impact was also very much welcomed.  Thank you Burning Sky - you've done it again! 

 

 

Never Satisfied?

 We're now about two weeks from our next trip to Bristol.

We went to the Crown on the walk home from work yesterday afternoon/evening rather than stay in town for craft beer.

We had two pints (each) of Three Acre Mosaic beer which was great, not spectacular, but a really nice, fresh pint in lovely condition.  

It was 6.30pm when we left - would we have stayed for another if there'd been something else on the bar? Yeah, probably. But midweek Eastbourne doesn't really work like that.

It's cool - just now we're kind of resigned to the way it is and we frequent places to help keep a bit of momentum, but even then only if the beer's worth having.

Tomorrow, because of work I daresay we'll pop to Wolf with a colleague who is coming over for work stuff.

Friday could easily be Beerarama if they've got a cask on.

Work's very full on - in person - at the moment so I'm already fantasizing a little bit about travelling to Bristol, then having a choice - an actual serious, difficult to make choice - of cask beer at the Barley Mow.

And my work will be remote admin, but I may be able to spend some time organising some files...luxury! 

Watching Playoffs in the Pub

 I'm not really a serious football fan - but there are certain events I find quite entertaining.

About 12 or so years ago, I sat with the BBB in a pub which would charitably be called a "locals" pub and watched all the playoffs for various football divisions.  All accompanied by McMullen's beer (probably IPA).  It was the closest pub to the BBBs house in Hitchin and the only one we knew would be showing all the football.

The Saturday of this Bank Holiday, I was volunteering at the Wish Tower but, following a couple of weeks of a lot of peopling, I excused myself a little early and, instead of the BBB meeting me in Town (it was ridiculously hot) we convened at The Crown.  

 We were quite excited that a Beak/Harveys collab beer could be on offer.  Sadly, it was gone before we even arrived.

However there was Oakham "Citra" and Pentrich "Wish Fulfillment" on offer so we definitely couldn't complain.

We were able to sit next to a window offering the combination of a bit of shade (admittedly from the portaloos which were outside and ready for a Sunday event that we knew we'd avoid, but they were freshly delivered and not in use) and an open window with a bit of a breeze.

Only one playoff match on offer:  Hull v Middlesborough following some shenanigans over spying or something and follow-up pouting about Hull having prepared to play Southampton or somesuch.

There was never a chance that all the people could have been pleased, even some of the time.

After 90 minutes of dull as ditch-water play it very much looked like there would be extra time and penalties.  Thankfully, an added-time goal put us all out of our misery.

It was very jolly and convivial in the pub, the beer was excellent and, because we had no real skin in the playoff result, even the entertainment was low-stress.

Being a only a 10 - 15 minute walk home, it made for the perfect venue - even though the day had been so stupidly hot.  

Yesterday, we could sit in our garden with fridge beer (not something we can ever do in Bristol) and listen to the event at the Crown at a distance (a little bit 80's-tastic to be honest).  We kept an eye on the closing day of the premier league season only in text format and I was glad (given the 3-0 defeat to Man Utd) that we were sat amongst greenery with birds, bees and butterflies rather than watching the match in the pub.

Seasonal Change

 So summer landed with a sizzle this week.  So from huddling in my fleece-lined hoodie to try and keep out the sharp wind to suddenly realising that it was boiling hot outside work (though still blissfully cool inside thanks to a Victorian building with immense thermal mass).

So it seemed fitting when we knocked off work to stroll back to the Gun Brewery Tap at the sports club across the road.

The first beer we tried was a 5% cask beer (can't remember its name but it wasn't one of their regular brews) - brownish, a bit hazy and rather indistinct.  Like the third attempt at making the recipe having gone through tweaks to make it better.  We weren't quite sure what it was supposed to be like - and it felt like the brewer wasn't sure yet either. 

It wasn't awful, by any means, it just wasn't...great.  It unusual for Gun, their brews normal call the style and you can recognise it.

The bar was quiet when we arrived and we opted to sit on the new terrace overlooking the main cricket pitch - sadly no match on, but we were entertained by one of their girls' teams having a training session.

We became aware of more people joining the terrace and how much smarter they were dressed than us (we set a low bar, admittedly, but the contrast was stark).  It was kinda "Ladies who lunch" meets "Off duty estate agent convention" meets "pink flowery shirt with a panama hat" brigade.

We were happy to be outside because the increase in noise would have been difficult were we inside.

Turns out there was a fund raising gala type affair for the local hospice and the great and the good (and the...) had turned out to support it in all their finery.

There was a LOT of lager and local sparkling white being drunk - very little cask beer by the looks.

 It wasn't bothering us one iota, we were happy that the tap room was getting so much custom - and it was nice to see lots of people milling around the sports club.  Sad there wasn't a cricket match to see but you can't have everything. 

Himself fetched the second pint and a half (no 2/3rd here) - having started a little too hard, there was only one place to go: Zanzama at 6.5%

It was so much better than the other one - we enjoyed it and the thronging around us.

We decided a final shared pint would be nice before we strolled home.  So I set off into the bar.

Pandaemonium!  People were about 8 deep at the bar and, clearly, not at all capable of "doing pub" properly.  

Shouted in orders to the bloke being served by people joining at the back.  Blokes gesticulating wildly and nearly punching me in the face (accidentally, obviously because being of Hobbit proportions I was below their eye-line).  "Are you in the queue" shouted at me from behind a couple of times...other guys (it was ONLY blokes buying drinks) aiming to push past (I was having NONE of  it) - and patted on the shoulder more than once (really, WTF!) 

 I've not been in such a quagmire of annoying testosterone at a bar for so long and I nearly ducked out...but then one bloke was especially patronising  and I became determined to dig in.  So I did.  I finally came to get served and asserted my place and the bloke next to me said something facile about what I had just ordered. I shared a sigh with the lass behind the bar, gave him my coldest look whilst I paid for the beer and got out with my beer intact.

When I got back outside the BBB said "you could have given up" and I had to confess it was my stubbornness at fault (again).  

...and yet, I still really enjoyed our time there.  Not really quite sure why, maybe it was being able to sit outside, looking at greenery on the first warm summery evening.  Ach, you get your kicks where you can.

 

 

Back into the Swing of it

 We've been back 6 days now and most of our days have been...busy and a bit weird.

The day we arrived back we were straight into an evening meeting that then took us to "Frontier" for a quick beer and then a meal at the nearby Thai restaurant.

 Wednesday I was in work all day and got caught in the rain afterwards so it was home and sofa and fridge-beer.

Thursday I was in Hastings and St Leonards where I was, as I indicated, delight to go to the Prince of Wales.

Friday we were split between Town Hall and our current HQ and the rain came again when it was home time so we dashed around the corner for a couple of pints of Belgian Cafe beer.

Saturday and Sunday didn't really lend themselves to going out so we called on the Fridgebeer again (note to self:  needs topping up).  This means we haven't really done our usual after work "where shall we go?" calculation since we've been back.

Still.  This afternoon we'll pop around to the Crown.  The beers on aren't the most exciting (appears to be Quiet American by Kent, and APA from Longman, according to the Real Ale Finder app) but we'll go anyway.  Fresh cask in Eastbourne (with the exception of Harveys) is a little bit like Unicorn Droppings.