On the mend

 Soooo...whilst my knee is still not back up to speed, the rest of me is fine.

Last Monday, me and the Boy decided it was high-time we tried the new incarnation of Ninkasi.

I arrived from work and was greeted by two blokes and Jo saying "crikey! we were just talking about you". That was a bit weird.  I'm not used to people know who I am and I find it a bit disconcerting - but it is what it is, I guess.

I settled down with a drink and marvelled at the new space which looks almost exactly like the old space but with an extension. It's got a cool, grown-up feel and yet feels like somewhere I'd like to be (I don't tend to like "cool" places much).

I reprised the visit on Thursday with a couple of ladies we'd been working with. It felt nice to share the place with new people - and they seemed to love it too.

 Friday, we were at the Crown (new cask usually comes on then - and it was Prohibition.  Result!)

On Saturday I had to work at HQ and the boy joined me later but said he didn't feel very well.  He suggested getting a beer so we went to Beerarama.  We sat down with beer but the boy's heart really wasn't in it.  He struggled to finish his 2/3rd of a rye IPA so I shared it with him.

The guys who run the place looked a little concerned when we left after one, but they had plenty of other customers to take care of.

By the time we got home, the boy didn't want more beer - clearly unwell.

After a few days, he's starting to pick up and is already planning to go somewhere after our board meeting on Tuesday so things are definitely looking up.

I guess it heartens me to see that, for both of us, when the chips are down and we're not well - we don't drink. It puts alcohol firmly in its place for us:  an activity of pleasure and enjoyment - not a physical or mental necessity. 

In Praise of the Landlord

 The first pub landlord I knew the name of was John Landsdel.  He was the landlord of my accidentally-found local when I moved to a new house in Bristol.

He was, outwardly at least, curmudgeonly and didn't suffer fools AT ALL.  I once saw him tell someone off for ringing the "time" bell.

He was well known in Bristol Beer circles for being fanatical about the condition of his beer.  He was definitely that.

He once berated my friend for accepting a mistakenly-given cauliflower cheese lunch when he'd asked for chilli.  Pretty much any time we went in after that, he'd make a joke at P's expense.  To P it got a little bit tired.  To John, it never did.

He was a director of Bath Ales and, over time, his duties changed so they appointed another landlord.

John was a superb landlord - he knew his customers, he knew his beer and he didn't take shit from anyone.

The landlord of my current local is Andy.  Altogether a different kind of a guy.  Seemingly more gentle but, again, you absolutely wouldn't mess with him.

He is also fanatical about the beer he sells - so when he came up to us yesterday and said did you have the L***** beer, what did you think?  I still marvelled that he'd remembered we'd bought a couple of pints.  Not only that but he broke off the "Sunday Meat Raffle" to serve us and then had a frenetic 15 minutes of play your cards right to offload a £200 jackpot to a crowded pub. 

He wouldn't truck any argument.  He said he wasn't happy with the beer (we'd put it down to just not being our taste) - its taste and condition so he was taking it off and immediately replaced it with a couple of pints of Gun Extra Pale - even though we'd almost finished our pints. 

Our local is an interesting place.  A broad range of clients - from plasterers and welders, to those working in Arts administration and well - us in Tech Ed.

The Sunday meet raffle brings the punters in.  It's a loud and raucous time and Andy fronts the show us like a veritable Bruce Forsyth.

But in his other place - the craft beer, whisky and cigar bar near the train station he's like a different man.  (he's also like that when the Crown's quiet).  Passionate about beer - both the serviing and the drinking - and always up for a chat about it but much quieter.

We don't see the other driving force of the business quite as much in the Crown - Jo.   She does make her presence felt, though - from the styling of the place (there are always flowers), to the occasional food bits offered.  We tend to see her more in the other place.

It's hard to imagine two drinking establishments, run by the same team which are more different.

I love both places for what they are and they are that because of the couple that are driving it.

A rare skill indeed.

Nervous Days

 So I've had a weird few days.

I either picked up a bug, or ate something that disagreed with me - or something else because for 5 or 6 days my digestive system was in turmoil.

This is highly unusual for me because generally I have the constitution of the proverbial horse and pretty much nothing disrupts my errrr regularity, shall we say.

For a couple of days I couldn't face drinking any alcohol - I pretty much stuck to water.  When it went on for more than 2 days and beer was tolerable but not much enjoyed I have to admit I got a little nervous.  Was this the thing I didn't "get over" and it just became something that older me had to learn to tolerate?

Beer is such a big part of my enjoyment of down-time.  No, I'm not dependent on it in any real sense, but it greases the wheels of being sociable because usually, I'm quite retiring other than when I have my professional head on.  If I didn't drink beer, I probably would socialise considerably less because I find it so incredibly hard to relax around people in a social sense.

Thankfully, the worst seems to have passed and I managed a pint and maybe 2/3rds of a lovely cask beer at the Crown last night (I topped the boy up with the rest).  I'm still being cautious, though because alcohol is an irritant so it would be stupid to hit the beer too hard until I'm sure everything is back in balance.

I've also had a problem with my knee and I had to lay off the Ibuprofen just to make sure that wasn't aggravating things but today I'm determined to try and make a short walk in the woods and then I think we're going to settle down in the garden with some fridge-beer that arrived earlier in the week.

I seem to be on the mend (in all the senses) - so I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Persisting

 So it's the weekend again.

Friday saw us risk the "Cornubia". By risk, I mean that we don't always fall in love with their beer but we like that they always have plenty of cask beer.

We hadn't been there since last summer with the sitting outside.

It was too chilly to do that and as we arrived we saw it was reasonably busy outside and in but could see a little space next to the window so we popped in.

This pub remains steadfastly old-fashioned and tends to serve beer which are less expensive we tend to drink these days.

I saw that a couple of Yeovil beers were on the bar - both sounding interesting.  Even though I didn't have much hope, I chose the pale beer - I've never been a fan of their beers but there wasn't a lot else I fancied.  He chose a porter.

We inveigled ourselves on the spare space in the window and I took a first mouthful.  It was really, really nice.  He approved of his porter, too so we both relaxed and watched the pub.  They've had a bit of a spruce-up and it feels a brighter and more widely-welcoming space.

The pub was very busy with the after-work crowd and unlike some of the other places we go we sat bang in the middle of age demographic.

We ended up in conversation with a fellow table-dweller - not exactly willingly but sometimes you know it has to be done.

I had a second pint of the pale and he switched to cider.

Still people rolled in and we watched people negotating the tricky door whilst wrangling drinks. Definitely a proper pub.

The garden filled up, the pub remained busy and the staff managed the bar really well.  We finished with a shared pint of Yeovil's other beer - at 7.2% it wasn't for the faint-hearted and then we strolled home.

Saturday we decided to try the Newtown Park brewery tap.  When they first started, I thought their beers were fine but didn't knock my socks off.  Also we'd wrangled with their remote ordering and paying service last summer and so we weren't sure whether or not we'd stay long - or even go in if it was busy.

We combined it with a very short stroll and approached via the cycle path.  This meant you could see and hear how busy it was as you approach the end of the path.  It looked really busy and sounded noisy.  Best Beer Buddy wasn't sure he wanted to run the gamut but at the last minute we decided to give it a try.

It was busy outside but there were a couple of tables inside (and apparently upstairs, too) so I ordered a couple of pints and we settled in.

The beer was much more accomplished than I'd remembered and they had about 12 beers on offer - all in a range of styles and including lager and a no alcohol.  These folk have been busy!

The staff were an absolute delight - really friendly withouth being obsequious. The demographic were very young-professional with kids.  As a result there were a few kids running around but the music was as good as the beer.

All in all, a really nice few hours and relaxing (the seats could be a tiny bit more comfy but it's a small gripe) to boot.  I can foresee us heading there again next time we're up.  It's always worth trying beers you don't think you're impressed by just to check whether they've changed.  In this case it was a two-for-two.

Craving Quiet

 Now look, we've always like to go to pubs (and their like) when it's quiet - this was a choice well before the ugly bug took hold of the world.

Our typical time to do this is to arrive between 4.30pm and 5pm and stay for 2 - 3 hours.

Yes, yes we have had occasions when we go places at a more conventional time but when given the choice (and mostly we have choice, these days) we're early fillers.

Is it because of places getting busy, or is it something else?  To be honest, I really don't know but it's what we do.

Obviously we know that the week has different dynamics throughout and that early in the week places are likely to be less busy, in any case.

I've always liked to think of us as being welcomed by a place that knows it's going to get busy later, with a bar crammed full but who are pleased that the place is earning its keep for now.

So on Wednesday we tootled off to Martha's thinking we'd get there before the after-work crowd.  We arrived and there were about 10 people already in there - which was nice.  Then suddenly more, and more people arrived. Clearly it was some sort of after-work thing but it consisted of about 30 -40 people.  All of whom queued like sheep at the bar - and completely overwhelmed the bar staff.  Sadly, this coincided us finishing our first drinks.  We abandoned all hope of us getting a second beer in anything like a timely fashion and braved the rain and popped around the corner to reprise the Barley Mow (well, obviously we'd gone to the BM on Tuesday when we'd arrived).

It was busy in the BM but not unpleasantly so.

Yesterday, admittedly a Saturday, we went for a longish walk in a place with no pubs (I know!) but it was a train journey away and, being a subburban line , there were opportunities on the way home.  So we stopped off in Montpelier.  We went to the Cadbury house - arriving around 4.45pm and the place was already humming. Nice brown beer on cask but not much variety so we weren't minded to stay for a second.  Instead we struck out through the now very busy pub and headed to New Bristol Brewery Taproom.  We arrived around 5.30 but there wasn't a seat to be had - the inside and outside spaces rammed to the gunwhales with 30-something blokes.  My knees were in no condition to stand for any length of time so we sighed, and headed around the corner to Basement Beer.

It was reasonably busy but I managed to snag a seat in a corner - the boy returned with beer to say we had about 20 mins to drink it since they were closing for a party.

After an abortive attempt to try the Crofters Rights (closed, again) we decided to cut losses, walk across town and come home.  We did pass LHG on the way and, unsurprisingly, it was also rammed with 30-something blokes.

I know it was Saturday and it was spring-feeling day so maybe it's not so surprising that the place was so busy but we found ourselves quite disappointed that "our" time of day for beer is increasingly becoming more popular.

Of course I'm happy for the great places in the industry who have been so badly hit by the last couple of years' disproportionate effect on the business model but I'm really craving the unfound but brilliant places at quiet times of the day.

Cultivating Relationships

 Me and "the boy" are creatures of habit - but also creatures of guilt when it comes to drinking.

One day a week we go to the Belgian Bar after work (no more than 5 minutes from TRHQ) it's so much more about the place and the people than the beer.  Unlike any other place we go, we seldom taste lots of different beers - I tend to stick to IPA and he will try something different but usually comes back to IPA for a second.  Beer at the BB is usually followed by food a few doors down at Anema e Core which is a family run restaurant where the front of house is led by a woman with a prodigious memory for our orders.  Also, even with the new front of house staff we've rarely taken off our coats, let alone sat down before someone asks "Montepulciano?".

Our other places of regular pilgrimage are the Crown, Bottle Grove, and Ninkasi.

 We feel really bad if we don't visit them all at least every other week.

Last week our Thursday trip to BB and Anema we passed someone who called to the Boy and said "how are you"...the boy looked momentarily confused before he added  "I run the Hurst Arms".  We had a chuckle with him and then felt guilty we'd not been there for a while.

Today, I was reading an article about the landlord of the "Bag of Cats" (ok, nails) in Bristol and reading it I realise I'd drunk with him at every pub he's managed in Bristol (right back to the Smiles Brewery Tap).  He's a proper grumpy old landlord but with good reason - people often come and sit in his pub because it's a Bristol institution but they frequently don't drink - they just chat with friends who are drinking.

It makes you realise just how hard it is to be a publican because people want everything and there's a bit of a received wisdom that beer in a pub should be cheap.

We've become a lot less price sensitive in the last couple of years - he still does a calculation but is much less likely to grumble about the price, or not buy the beer than he used to be.

Watching Cloudwater go through financial difficulties - and this is a very well respected brewery which prices on the high side for their product - it's important to remember that small breweries and pubs/bars are not privatised utility companies who never seem to share the increased cost of their product (because people can't help but buy them) - these are people who seldom get very rich for years of investment and brutally hard work.

The independent breweries and bars/pubs need us to pay fair rates for their product - not only the production but the cost of running places we want to sit and drink and cultivate the culture that leads to "regulars" being greeted with "I've got this lovely new beer on - it's a Black IPA" knowing it's your favourite beer style.

Getting Better All the Time

 The new bar (Beerarama) was on the list of places to visit iminently.

So we did.

It's pretty close to our work HQ (5 - 10 mins walk) so when I was working one day we arranged to meet there.

I arrived first and the owners were friendly and keen to welcome me.

It was only a couple of days after their "official" opening and they said how pleased they were that people were already finding the place.

The bar was stocked with 5 or so keg lines and the fridges packed with cans - many of which were names new to me.  The keg beers on offer were all quite stong, but I coped.

Pleased to see they have adopted the "2/3rd" option on their board that's what I had, and I settled into a comfy chair and started to enjoy it.

We had a bit of general chit-chat about beer and Eastbourne-and-beer and a joke about whether they'd be offering Harveys (that one never seems to get old when talking to craft beer folk).

Then the best-beer-buddy arrived, did another meet/greet/how's it going conversation with the owners and then settled down next to me with a beer.

We loved the comfy chairs - although we're normally more keen on sitting in corners - and there isn't really one in this bar.  No matter.

Also, there are full-width bifold doors to the front of the place which will open in summer to make the whole place feel light, airy and an indoor-outdoor combo. What's not to like?

In fact I seem to remember that there's a nascent plan to pedestrianise this bit of the road and if that comes to fruition, Beerarama will really benefit, I think.

When I went to top up the beers, one of owners told me how pleased he was to see a woman come in on her own and that they were hoping to promote an atmosphere where women felt comfortable to sit and drink.  I like that they'd actually given this some thought.  I do feel like I'm quite atypical in women beer drinkers (at least in Eastbourne) - as I told him, these days I'm pretty happy to go into almost any beer-related pub on my own because I know how pubs work, and I know my beer so I'm never likely to be intimidated by the place.

All that said, I'd certainly be happy to take any female friends and colleagues into a place like this - so bravo.

We've been back once and we'll be doing a work thing next week there.  I definitely like the place, and the guys that run it.

 It almost feels like Eastbourne is finally starting to get the beer vibe - thank goodness!