Sometimes only the 'mow will do

 Work is kind of odd at the moment - lots of apparent interest in what we do but all the time knowing that work we do to promote ourselves won't actually pay off for ages (if ever).  This puts an odd pressure on me because most of what I need to do is this sort of future planning and development whilst making sure that the young team of brilliant workers we have back down in Eastbourne are properly supported.

Switching off from all this at the end of the work day is particularly hard at the moment. 

Anyhow, a hot afternoon (entirely glass curtain wall in the flat), battling with InDesign in bright sunshine on a 13" laptop had me uncharacteristically flustered by about 3pm.

Where to go for "after work" beer, though?  Being Friday, busy and noisy pretty much comes with the pub territory and I really didn't think I could deal with too many people or too much noise.  Were we in Eastbourne, I would probably have demanded beer in our own garden.  

"How busy do you think the Barley Mow will be...?" I ventured.

We agreed it was worth a punt.

It was busy outside with all the tables and the pews on the pavement fully occupied.  However, on stepping inside to the cool darkish interior, it was an oasis of instant calm. Even better, "our" corner was entirely unoccupied.

We were greeted by cheery staff and we got a couple of pints.  The second we sat down I relaxed - before I'd even touched my beer.  It's not just the beer in the pub, it's the pub itself.  Bit by bit my flusteredness ebbed away and I started to look forward to tackling the InDesign document the following morning.

The pub itself did start to fill up and the table of accountants next to us were a tad noisy but by then I was able to handle and because we couldn't hear ourselves talk, we started playing a card game instead.

I love this pub.  

 Today, I'm back to a bit of InDesign and vowing that, in future, I'll do the bloody documents at my desk in Eastbourne and not leave it until the last minute! 

 

Is it beer, though?

 We landed in Bristol on Thursday having dealt with a few things down south (where Things = ears and a Trustee meeting).  I insisted on catching the bus because we'd decided we wanted to make sure the "Beast" lens, a decent camera and a tripod were conveyed to the flat - mostly for the purposes of getting a better picture of the peregrines that use the nearby ledges as their dining table.  

Anyhow, I digress.

Despite more than usually bulky luggage, the journey was pretty-much textbook though watching people using the Paddington ticket gates, there's definitely a PhD in there somewhere.

Naturally, upon landing at the flat, the usual offices were carried out and we got out to The Barley Mow.  It being Thursday, it was starting to get reasonably busy but we bagged a good table, and started to neck a couple of lovely BBF cask pints.  Relax.  The second was another cask beer each (Tileys for me, Stroud for him).  We were pretty restrained on our final drink - despite some lovely (and strong) beers on Keg, we decided to avoid the strong and go with Summacrush from NBB instead. 

Friday we tinkered about with the camera, did a bit of work - and then knocked off a little early.  Moor had Illumination on cask so it would have been very rude not to.  We took our drinks out into the garden, got annoyed by a particularly gobby magpie and by a couple of annoyingly loud cars (we are old, after all) and then as it cooled down, sought refuge inside and played some Regicide.

Saturday is always a tricky day in the spring/summer - we definitely don't want to go towards town (we'd seen all the hen and stage parties arrive...shudder) so I took a look at the real ale finder app and the Kings Head looked like it had some interesting stuff on - so we strolled round there.

Got chatting to the chap who appears to be a new landlord/manager living-in???  An Oakham beer was on offer and I expressed delight.  Turns out he's from the midlands and so knows the brewery well.  "It's dividing people", he said.  Turns out not everyone likes the lemon peel that was added (I liked it a lot).

Second cask beer was a 5% NEIPA which we shared a pint and a half of (they don't really do 2/3rds on casks here).  It was excellent - and we'd barely touched the cask offering, really.

However, what we'd both seen was three (count 'em) strong stouts.  Fyne on cask, Vault city and Holy Goat on keg.  I bought 2/3rds of the Fyne which was 9.5% (so they can do 2/3rds...) and attempted a 1/3 of the Vault City (it was 15%) which was, fortuitously generously poured.   Both stouts were lovely in their own way and we shared them before strolling home for dinner - definitely feeling the effects.

Today I'm musing on 15% keg stout.  Is it really beer?  It's stronger than most of the wines we drink.  I certainly would have it again - it's almost the perfect last-beer but even I'm thinking it may be a bit too much...maybe.

Ennui

Contemplating the "beer scene" in Eastbourne doesn't make me smile.

Our lovely cask-ale local is a bit of an oasis of quality - but not necessarily of  huge variety.  This not a criticism but a reflection of pragmatism in the landlord who knows what he can sell reliably both in terms of quantity and style.  This is how it needs to be, for sure.

Beerarama has variety but no cask.

The Tiger and Bohemian are pretty good on cask quality, a little bit of variety - but pricey.

The Lamb has good quality Harveys but that's all.

Ninkasi usually has great beer but can be oddly quiet at the times we want to go in - and excessively crowded at other times.

Belgian bar is...well, unique.

We haven't been to The Hurst, The Vic (both Harveys), The Eagle, the Dewdrop or the Dolphin (limited cask options) for ages.

There are a load of pubs we simply don't and wouldn't go to for a variety of reasons.

Then there are the little outliers...

"Bibendum" wanna be chic restaurant/bar, where a cosy corner to sit in is in short supply because the bar area feels like the waiting space for the restaurant.  

"Frontier" half record shop, half bar is definitely a compromise venue usually has decent beer. If you're with coffee-drinking pals then the coffee-beer crossover time threshold can be painlessly managed.

So, when I got off my train on Wednesday having been a little traumatised by a 'spoons at lunchtime (has to be said the beer was really well kept) I wanted to hunker down in my "depeopling" mode.  We stood there wondering where to go.  Himself said that Ninkasi would probably be too quiet, suggest Belgian Bar - but I said I wanted to go there after work on Thursday (with pizza in prospect afterwards).  Beerarama chaps were on holiday.  So we ummmed for a bit.

Eventually I tentatively suggested "Frontier" because we'd not been there for ages, it was close and, well - you know where else????

They had three good beers on (two from a Welsh brewery, one from Pollys), there were sufficient, mostly young, people in evidence to make it perfectly peopled.  It's true that it wasn't cosy but, on the other hand it was comfy enough for us to stay for all the beers before grabbing a bus home...and we agreed that we'd really enjoyed it.  

Then old school friend of Beer Buddy got in touch to ask for recommendations for meeting up in Eastbourne over the weekend.  Much agonising ensued and it's highly likely these two old men will spend a lot of time on Sunday grumbling over the "not as good as they used to be" pubs of their youth,