Actually, it isn't really.
Today and yesterday bright and clear...and fecking cold! Even the frogs who have been doing a lot of practice nocturnal cavorting in the pond for a week or more seem to have taken refuge at the bottom for the time being. Probably wise, frozen spawn doesn't have a good time of it.
After work on Friday we ambled, in the biting cold wind, towards Wolf without really discussing where we wanted to go...a pattern emerging, it seems.
We arrived maybe 20 minutes after opening time to find it pleasantly peopled.
The cask was Abyss Mild - it's not style I drink much of these days and at 3.4% maybe not a first choice if there had been another style/strength of cask on offer. All that said - it was absolutely gorgeous and we were both so pleased to have it. The two pints disappeared quickly.
There's not always a vast range of things we want to try but there's always enough. Second up decided that Lindemans Kriek (on keg) had to be tried but that we probably didn't want too much, so we shared 2/3rds of it along with a Downlands 4% pale.
Neither of us can ever remember which of the various krieks are very sweet and which have a more pronounced guezeness. Lindemans is very much the former, 3.8% (I think) but loads of body which probably comes from the sweetness. It was like drinking very nice cherry pop, properly fruity and with a really nice acidic tang.
The 4% Downlands beer, though really nice, balanced and well-made felt a tad thin when contrasting with the kriek.
To finish I had a stronger Downlands (Fire up the lasers...?) pale and himself went with Ascension Cider (Mothership) which he greatly likes.
This place continues to bring it for us. Friendly staff, other punters not too annoying, a little bit chilly perhaps but a solid addition to the beer scene in Eastbourne (thank goodness). When we work closer to this part of town, we'll probably start going on other days of the week.
