Nice surprises

Little time to write about beer of late.  Still some time to drink the stuff, but that is most definitely the priority over writing about it.

So, we're spending most of our time in Eastbourne these days, and mostly we tinker with computers, code, electronic and other geek-gear in the furtherance of TechResort CIC. But when the working day is over, we still like to seek out a good pint, and (try to) chill out a bit over some nice beer.

We've been pleasantly surprised by some pubs in town of late:

The Victoria in Latimer Road has definitely upped its game of late - from perfect seller of Harvey's beers through a bit of a spell of lack-lustreness and back to good form albeit with a smaller range of beer on at any one time.
So, this is frequently our "I'm thirsty" after work venue.  Olympia is my current favourite offering (athough Waterloo gets an honourable mention).

The Crown and Anchor - on the seafront (more or less) which is even closer to the office has started offering more than the normal Greene King beers.  We both dislike Green King beer - even when it is really well kept (which it is at the Crown and Anchor) and would usually walk out of a pub that doesn't offer a guest.  So, imagine our excitement when S passed the door one day on his way into the office and said "They've got Hopback Summer Lightning".  It's been on a few times since so we're crossing our fingers that they'll continue to offer a decent alternative to GK beers.  Their food is also good stuff.

And a little out of town is The Sussex Ox which we went to last night for a birthday treat for the man of the house.  We were expecting Longman beers which, although definitely improving over time, are not something we usually get excited about.  But instead (or rather, in addition to) last night there was an Arbor Ales beer from Bristol.  Food was nice and the surroundings were fantastic.  If we can find a way of putting the Ox into a weekend walk, I'll wager it'll happen.

So, whilst Eastbourne still really needs a killer real ale pub...there are pockets of goodness which, for the good of the team, we'll continue to explore just so's you don't have to.

Conspiracy Theory

We continue to be hopeful that the general quality of beer continues to improve here, in Eastbourne.  I think there's still a fair way to go, though.

Last night we stopped in at the beautiful Tally Ho pub in Old Town.  It's a building from 1912 or so...and still advertises itself as a Kemp Town Brewery pub in its leaded lights (just like the Dolphin, as it happens).

The interior has been lovingly refitted and the leather seats compliment the barrel-vaulted ceiling and its decorative plasterwork.

They are also advertising themselves as serving Real Ale...so we thought it was just about time we checked it out.

It appeared to have Timmy Taylor Boltmaker on...which excited us greatly...but we were disappointed when it turned out it wasn't in fact on at all (at least they didn't try and sell us some nasty old stuff).  So we had the Eastbourne standard pint of Harveys which was nicely kept and reasonably priced.  Then the guys behind the bar started to tell us how this was their first evening open (seems like a change of hands has happened).  They have reasonable plans (although I think they confused Craft and Real Ale terms a couple of times...) so we're hopeful.

Still, I can't help think that they'll revert to just Harveys...and some keg stuff before too long.

Maybe Eastbourne doesn't really like their beer all that much and someone has just told them that Harveys is the only taste a beer should have...maybe it's all an East Sussex conspiracy.  Just like this cartoon.

It's not you, it's me

I've been wondering for quite a long while whether old favourites in the beer world are getting worse, or has my taste changed.

Back when I started drinking beer (ooh, now that was nearly 30 years ago, I guess) I would have been in paroxysms of joy if I'd found a pub with four handpumps of well kept real ale of ANY stripe.  Finding Marston's Pedigree, Bass, Sharp's Doom Bar, Wadworths 6X, Fuller's London Pride, or Timothy Taylor Landlord would have seen me squealing in a very uncool fashion.

I can even list some of my favourite "rarer" beers that I used to get a polypin of at Christmas from the Off License (called the Brown Jug) around the corner from my first house:

Archer's Golden
Exmoor Stag
Exmoor Gold
Ringwood 49er

Add in a whole bunch of localish brewers' beers (to the West Country, that is) - Otter, Butcombe, Bath Ales, Abbey Ales and I can honestly say I've liked a lot of beers in my time.

Thing is, with few exceptions, these are not the beers I drink now if I have any choice in the matter.

We've remarked for a while that whilst Harvey's is a really good old fashioned brewer - there's only so much of it we want to drink these days.

Even Everards (which used to be something I really liked when travelling in the Midlands) has fallen into that category.  It was on at the Buccaneer at the weekend and S had a pint - and he was in the Midlands last night and tried some in its homeland but just wasn't keen so switched to something a bit newer.

It can't possibly be that all these perfectly good breweries have become rubbish over the last 20 years or so.  So - it would seem that even us dyed-in-the-wool real ale drinkers whose drinking spans far longer than the age of some of the newest members of the non-lager-drinking society are not quite as "traditional" as we might think.

I can't pin down precisely what it is about newer style beers that usually appeal more to us.  They're not all gold and hopped to f*ck and back - there are some really well balanced darker and deep beers we've tried in the last few years that have really urged us to drink more.

Whatever it is, we have exciting times to enjoy - it's almost like rediscovering beer all over again.  How fantastic is that?

Mind you - if you offered me a pint of Timmy's right now...I'd bite your hand off

Blossoming

I love watching pubs I know and frequent get gradually better.

This has been the case with The Dolphin, here in Eastbourne.  We've been eating and drinking here pretty regularly for a few years now and the beer range has gone from OK, through decent, and is now into "good" territory (obviously if you know us "good" is high praise when it comes to beer).

Coupling that with the general quality of the ambiance and the food in the pub and you've got a great combination.

It's a shame that the strictures of the pubco beer tie system means that guest beer prices are higher than prevailing prices in this part of the country and that is a bit hard to take but The Dolphin remains somewhere I enjoy going and the enjoyment of the beer is ever increasing.

Nice work Rachael and Tim, and well done Glenn.

Old Haunts, Good Times

S had to go to London for a meeting this week and I'd been meaning to go to sell my beloved, but criminally underused, Leica camera so it made sense to make the trip together.

After S had concluded his business, and I'd spent a happy couple of hours at camera shops and bookshops I had a quick look in the Guide to see what pubs there were around to be explored.  Neither of us wanted to stray too far from getting back to Victoria for our train home so I was looking around the Charing Cross area.  To be honest, I was disappointed in what seemed to be available - lots of Nicholson's pubs (which are fine in their way but we wanted somewhere properly nice) and another couple of not-particularly-special places so we went for ol' faithful...or The Harp, as we know it.

I arrived about 10 minutes before S and so I braced myself for the usual crammed, hot, noisy space.  I took a deep breath and pushed inside.  It was different.  It was pleasantly peopled but there were a few seats available.  Ok, it was before 5pm but I was still surprised.

Delighted, I ordered a beer.  Stupidly, I failed to read the pump clip properly and just asked for it by name.  the lady behind the bar said "It's a strawberry saison, it's very fruity, is that what you want?".  She managed to do it without making me feel stupid, either (some skill).
"Errr...no, you're absolutely right...I definitely don't want that".
She offered me a couple of alternatives and I chose sensible beers for both of us and went to get a seat.

If I'm brutally honest, I was a tiny bit disappointed with the range on offer...specifically for us, that is:

London Pride (it's now a Fullers-owned pub)
Harveys Best (probably great if you don't see it often...but...you know...Sussex dweller an' that)
Dark Star Hophead (ditto)
The aforementioned Strawberry Saison (Celt beer)
Oakham Green Devil IPA (too strong for a starting beer)
Kentish Cobnut (I think...so we had one of those)
Brewsters (can't remember what it was but I had one of these)

However, the Brewsters was tip top, and the Green Devil which followed it was superb.  S had the Cobnut which was really good (much better than the description on the pump) and followed with a mouth-puckeringly dry cider which was recommended to him by the bar staff by offering him tasters.  He joined me in the final pint of Green Devil.

By the time we left the place was buzzing and I was really pleased to see quite so many women also drinking beer.

The Harp keeps up its standards despite the change in ownership.  By the time we left we were pleasantly sloshed, ready for food and reveling in our visit.

Happy days

Movers and Shakers

OK, it's been yet another month since I've posted anything new in a blog I had originally intended to be more-or-less daily.

I have reasons (some of them good, some of them not so good) but here we are, a month on and it's not like I haven't drunk any beer in that time.

One thing I've noticed is that S and I drink in pubs so often that it's really hard to impress us these days.  We can, however, still be surprised.

Such was a trip to the Prince Albert in Brighton.
The first surprise was that the visit was even suggested.
One thing I've learned in the last five years is you don't f*ck with the arrangements on a match day.

The day is:

• Meet at the Basketmakers and eat with a couple (probably three, actually) pints.
• Go to the match
• Have a pint or so on the concourse (the Amex serves real ale in the concourse bars - other football grounds please take note) to allow the crowds on the station to disperse a little.
• Train to Brighton station and thence to the Evening Star.

There are good reasons for this itinerary - the best one being that it works and works well.  We all know what to expect and even if we haven't been in touch, we know where folk will be.  Even the non-match goers (like I am most of the time) can pick up the entourage with confidence at whatever point we like.

Still, the last home match of the season had already been messed about with as the kick-off was 12.15pm for televisation purposes.

That meant there was no pre-match pub venue at all - also that lunch was delayed until after the match.  But we stuck to the Basketmakers to ensure lunch could be stress-free.
However, after eating and a couple of pints, one of our number suggested that we try a new place: The Prince Albert which is found just down the hill from the station.

So we did.

From the outside it looks a little bit challenging and the presence of jubilant Watford fans inside meant it was always going to be a little bit lively. But we're not people to be put off by that so we went inside.  They had a nice few beers on cask - including Burning Sky Plateau and Aurora.

It has to be said that the place is seriously pricey (over £12 for three pints) but there are lots of nice different place to sit and the beer was top notch.

So there we were, sitting with our beer feeling pleasantly surprised.  I'm quite interested to try it on a quieter day/time to see whether I could even be impressed by it.

You never know

Potential Oasis in the Beer Desert

I was brought up in a small town about half way between Bristol and Bath: Keynsham.

People of a certain age will always say "what...K-E-Y-N-S-H-A-M?" when presented with that information. (If you want to know why, Google Horace Batchelor).

It's not a bad small town, but I was pretty eager to leave it as soon as I could.  However, circumstances drew me back to it this week and we'd arranged to meet my big Brother and his wife in town for a beer and a catch up.

There is one pub in Keynsham which is in the Good Beer Guide:  The Lock Keeper and its very near the train station...but no matter how well it's been kept and served, I seldom want to drink Youngs beer these days. 

Now, the last time we all met in Keynsham, we tried The Ship and were pleasantly surprised by its decent food and range of decent (if rather dull) beer, so we'd arranged to meet there since, as far as I could remember there we no other decent sellers of real ale.

So we had a pleasant couple of pints of Butcombe, Ringwood and Sharps beers and the decided to head back to the station to come back to Bristol.  Then S asked "What about that other place further down the High Street that used to be in the guide?"...He meant The Old Bank.  We were a lot less than impressed last time we tried it but we thought we'd pop in and give it a try.

There were four beers on offer so I plumped for "Twisted Oak Sheriff Fatman" and S went for a Porter.  We also saw that the Italy vs England football friendly was being shown so we settled down, having had a brief conversation with the Landlord about the beers (and my previous disappointment with Twisted Oak).

After about a minute, the Landlord came over to the table and asked S how his pint was.  S says "a little bit borderline maybe...but I thought might be the natural sourness of a porter".  Landlord says "it's the bottom of the barrel and I'm not very happy selling it to you - would you mind if I replaced it with a fresh pint of the Coastal Brewery St Piran's Porter straight from the cellar? 

As it happened the replacement beer, whilst in perfect condition, wasn't that interesting but both of us were bowled over by the attention to his beer that the landlord - who introduced himself as Simon - had.

We carried on and had a great conversation with him about beer in general and beer in Keynsham, specifically.

Simon's been at The Old Bank for a little over a year now but I'd like to think that it's a pub on the up again and that next time we come to Bristol we'll want to make a special journey to give it another try.

Definitely one to watch out for..