On Walks and Beer

We agonised for a while whether we should strike out for a decent walk in Leigh Woods (just on the edge of Bristol) given that the weather was looking a bit iffy.

We decided to go for it.

Catching a bus to the area so that we could maximise walking time in the woods was a good ploy and we enjoyed good quality (only slightly muddy) paths as we bimbled around for a couple of hours. 

The walk ended with us on a riverside path in South Bristol so, naturally, we headed towards North Street.

The first place we came across was the Bristol Beer Factory tap room which is maturing nicely.  We had some cracking seasonal beers (both cask and keg enjoyed) and enjoyed the ambiance.  All that was lacking was a wood-burner in my humble...it would have made for the perfect atmosphere.

After a couple of pints we headed down the road a few yards to the Tobacco Factory bar.  Given it was 6pm on a Tuesday at the beginning of February it was amazingly full (that's to say not rammed but at least 50 people).  Beer was lovely (we had Moor on cask, BBF on cask and LHG on Keg) and we stopped for food which was nice and functional rather than stunning  (but there's nothing wrong with that).

All in all, these two places epitomise non-pub drinking experiences and how they should feel.

Both were family friendly without being too overwhelming, staff in both venues very efficient and friendly and, above all, a cracking selection of well kept beers.

Almost makes me wish I lived in Bedminster again.

Where There's Beer, There's Hope

OK - that title's come across a bit more needy than I'd like...but I can't think of anything better to be honest.

We're in Bristol for a few days, where we take the quality and choice of pubs and their beer largely for granted.

We arrived on Friday and we assumed that our local, at 5pm, would have enough room for us to have a couple of beers and something tasty to eat.  Boy were we wrong!

Whether it was the local snow conditions meaning work kicked out early, or it being the 1st February so the Dryanuaries were gagging for beer, or the fact that the pub was showing the rugby...or maybe that it was just after payday...or all of it..I just don't know.

We hadn't seen the pub that busy since pre-Christmas.  There was barely anywhere to stand, let alone sit, and the beer line up was fine but not as exciting as we were hoping for.  We stood with our pints and chuntered at each other before giving ourselves a good talking-to.  We knew that, being here for a few days, we'd easily be able to return and then we saw the positive in the upcoming beer list.

We kicked around a couple of possibilities, before settling on the Old Market Assembly (despite having been a little disappointed in it last time).  It had their house beer and an Arbor beer on cask; we could find a little table on the balcony and we had their lovely pizzas.  All in all, as good as an experience as we could wish for.  Again, we resolved to remember that everyone can have an off-day and we should allow for it.

Saturday we fancied watching some rugby in a pub but thought the BM would be heaving again (and we wern't quite ready to be disappointed so soon).  I had to pick up a parcel (I so love Amazon Locker...) so we headed in that direction and found ourselves near the Seven Stars.  It's a weird old place and I think that the beer isn't as good since the old bar manager left and set up his own place, but it has character.  Actually, since there was a punk festival next door in the Fleece there were many characters.  The place was rammed to the gunwhales with "original" punks....that's to say people who could have been punks when punk was first a thing.  That is to say...people rather like us...but with plaid, mohicans and leather jackets.  It was brilliant!  Most of them in the pub were drinking Real Ale and the atmosphere was jolly.  We shared a table with some other folk and bought a local punk-scene CD from them (£2, bargain).  The beer was fine, rather than great, but the whole experience was fab.

The Seven Stars wasn't showing the rugby but, just around the corner, the Cornubia was.  This is, again, a pub that typically does good but not particularly exciting beers.  We got a couple of pints and found a seat from which to watch.  We shared a few comments with the bloke next to us and, after the match, had quite a long local-based conversation with a couple of women.  Once again, I remind myself that although I'm quite reserved and introverted, if I'm going to be sociable, it's much easier and more enjoyable in the pub,

Sunday was for quietly sloping somehwere with a fire (I was cold) so we arrived at the Naval Volunteer (The Vollie) and, again, this has been a place not without its irritations for us but it fit the bill perfectly.  Reasonably quiet, a really good range of beer to choose from (cask a butnd keg), and altogether pleasant.

There will be more places to try whilst we're here.  Some will be perfect, some may be having an off-day  but I'm pretty sure most of them will be fun.

Dryanuary or Tryanuary?

As is usual in the post Christmas period and before everyone gets on with the New Year there's been an outpouring of "You should..." relating to what we eat and drink.

I think I'm with the Angry Chef when it comes to people telling what to eat and drink.

By all means take action for yourself.  If you think it would do you good to ease off the booze for a month (or longer) then by all means do it.  I  hope it has the effect you're hoping.

If you want to cut all animal products from your diet for ethical or health reasons...then again, go ahead, I'll defend to death your right to do that. (you might be limited to hummous and crackers at my place if you were to come round hoping for a meal, though).

Where I get all cross is when you try and push your agenda on me by trying to shame me (or other people).

Should I be given information on things that are likely to make me less healthy?  Why, yes, of course - I need information in order to make decisisions about my lifestyle for myself.

After that, if my habits aren't impacting on you then it's none of your business.


So I won't be cutting alcohol out of my diet (or meat, cheese or anything else for that matter) in January.  It'll be very much business as usual in our house, I would think.

We both like trips to the pub since, as you're probably well aware, being a cask-preferring-couple we can only get the beer we like best at pubs.
I like the idea that we can do our bit to support our local publicans in a tricky month since I want them to be there for us when we want a pint.

I won't lecture you on your choices either - deal?

New Data

...a kind of footnote from other posts.

I was re-reading some early entries on this blog from 5 years ago.

In particular this one and realise that things have really, really moved on for me.

Is it me?  Is it the industry?

Probably a little of both, to be honest.

I think the industry is better at doing what it does and I've drunk more beer and in so many styles, I've expanded on the things I like

The Perils of Untrained Staff and Murky Beer

So yesterday we walked up to the Oxford pub in Totterdown.  We've been there a few times and the beer availability can be a little erratic but generally good.

Clearly they'd been closed for a couple of days - there wasn't that much beer on and the pint of Cornish Coaster was pleasantly cool - but very flat.

The Boy had a good (bag in box) cider but we resolved to move on if they didn't put something better on the pumps.

We watched a succession of staff tinker around; look like they might be putting a Tapstone beer on; faff a little more and finally put two new beers on.

The first was Moor Confidence and the other was BBF special called something like "Big Sky Country".

The Tapstone remained stubbornly not on the pumps.

I orderd one each of the other two.  Both were very lively and the barman seemed to have no idea how to deal with them.

The BBF looked remarkedly like a Tapstone beer:  pale and very murky.

It says a lot that we're so used to drinking beer that isn't bright that I didn't really think much about it.  We tried both and I took the BBF.  We both remarked that it probably wasn't supposed to be that cloudy as BBF beer usually drop bright or, at least, near bright. 

Still - it tasted good so we carried on regardless.

After about 20 minutes it became really noticeable that the beer was dropping sediment in the glass.  There was a clear gradient top to bottom...we could clearly see the finings working.

By this time I was about a third of the way down the glass - the beer still tasted good but the increasing sediment at the bottom of the glass was starting to put me off.

How to deal with it?  Clearly the guy behind the bar would have no idea what the beer was supposed to look like...

In the end, I didn't do anything until we left and there was another (clearly more experienced) chap behind the bar.  I popped the glasses back to the bar and just said "Just to let you know - that BBF beer isn't quite ready yet..." and I showed him the glass.   To his immense credit he looked at it, pulled a horrified face and said "Can I change it...or are you leaving?" I told him I was leaving and not to worry.  So he said "next time you're in, we'll get you another".

Whilst I'm sure we won't go back in the next couple of days - I left feeling like I'd happily go back. 

It's a saluatory lesson that pubs really need to make sure they've got someone on the bar who knows what the beer on their beer should look, smell and taste like.

Beer and humbugs

I'm not a big Christmas celebrator.

Mostly it's the relentless pushing of a commercial agenda on people and the pressure of some stupid "perfection" model that I just don't relate to at all.

So, me and the boy tend to make like a couple of squirrels and semi-hibernate somewhere enjoying the odd (quite often, urban) amble in the outside to forrage for nuts (well, beer, obvs) then returning to play games, watch films and eat our own body-weight in sausage rolls.

So it was this year.  We decided to hole up in our flat in Bristol - we've done some domestic jobs we'd been meaning to for a little while, we're finally getting on top of the laundry, we've done some silly coding so that we can see our shelf of orchids come into flower in a couple of weeks, and we've played some games.

On the morning of the 25th we mooched around a bit then put a duck in the oven to roast in its own juices for a few hours (chuck a standard 3-person duck in the roasting tin; sprinkle copiously with salt; stuff a bit of thyme up it; prick the skin; chuck it in the oven - first hot for about 15mins then at about 150-deg C then leave it on its own for several hours).

We struck out to South Bristol as we thought, being a residential area, there was the greatest chance of encountering an open pub with decent beer.

We've stumbled on some really fun pubs in the past, in just this way. 

The first place we came across looked OK but was only serving Wickwar beer - by no means awful but not really what we were looking for.  So we continued to North Street.

First we landed at the Hen and Chicken which, when I lived in the area a long time ago was a great place to get beaten up, it's definitely a good place these days - not amazing, but good.  It was rammed inside but they had Two Bridges beer, Wild Beer - Bibble and a BBF special beer on as well as the more standard Gem.  Service is always a little bit slow but we got served without too much hassle, found a couple of bar stools and enjoyed a couple of decent pints in the company of about 60 other people.  We remarked that it's not the ideal place for us since it doesn't have any quiet corners - nevertheless the beer was good so we weren't complaining...at least not until a couple of kids got screamy.

Look, I know places are supposed to be family friendly and I also know this area of town is no longer a working class part of town - all the houses are owned by middle class professionals attracted by the gentrification of the area following the establishment of the brilliant "Tobacco Factory".  It wasn't even as if I was that surprised to see so many young kids with their 30-something parents.

I see lots of social media comments about "Christmas Pub Goers" whose manifold sins seem to revolve around not knowing how pubs are supposed to work (allowing their mates to add to their order when they've just come in and there's a huge queue at the bar; asking for Guiness Shandy; asking for loads of lattes in a busy beer bar...you know the people...).

I'd like to add...
- The open area between the bar and the route to the loo (which is the only open space) is NOT a playground for your kids to tear around screaming.  It's not my job to not trip over your children who aren't looking where they're going.

- in an already noisy, open bar high-pitched screaming (in hysterical jolity or amidst a melt-down) is not conducive to other patrons' enjoyment of their beer.

- You are responsible for your kids' behaviour and trust me none of the rest of us find their screaming adorable. 

So, as you can imagine, we was a bit grumpy once we'd finished our beer and decided we couldn't bear it any more.

That aside, well done Hen and Chicken for having a decent community friendly facility in what was a complete shithole before.

So, we kinda resolved ourselves that nowhere else might be open and we reamined grateful that H&C was open and had decent beer but we struck out in the general direction of home.

We passed The Old Bookshop which we'd visited in the past and sort of liked but had been fairly unimpressed by the beer.  It was open and, not only that, the sign on the door said it was open all day.  Well, it would have been rude not to...
What a difference!
There were plenty of people inside and there were clearly some families but the noise level was so much lower (and beard and trendy tattoo quotient much higher).  There were 2 cask and 8 keg pumps on so we grabbed a couple of pints, climbed onto stools in the window and enjoyed the chilled ambience.
It was such a contrast to the previous place that it probably felt disproportionately lovely...nevertheless it took all our willpower to not stay for another.

We headed back for our beautifully cooked duck and congratulated ourselves on the 5 mile walk, good beer and perfect choice of celebratory fowl.

Here we are at Boxing Day and there will be the angst, later, of working out where might be open for a pint...

Then it Finally Happened

A goodly while ago on what, I think, was our second visit to the Moor Brewery Tap we had a conversation which mulled on the idea that some beers suit different dispense methods.

It sounded plausible and as it was a member of the brewery staff with whom we had the conversation, and he was doubtless more learned than us on the subject, we decided that it was probably true...it was just we hadn't come across the beer that didn't shine best as a cask ale.

Then the other day, it happened.

We'd had a good journey from the Sussex Homelands to the Western Reaches (Eastbourne to Bristol, obvs) on the train and we'd picked up a parcel (of which, more later) and decided to head out to the Barley Mow.

I was ecstatic to see Tiny Rebel "Juicy" on the bar and without further ado, ordered a pint.

I like most Tiny Rebel beers and we've had a number of their brews delivered in bottle/can for the fridge.  I'd had Juicy from a can and really enjoyed it in the summer.

It has a distinct mango flavour which worked so well when I'd had it before.  But from a cask pint which was a degree or two warmer, and without additional carbonation it was pleasant and drinkable but a bit over-sweet and claggy to my taste (and that of the Best Beer Buddy).


Actually, it's nice to find an example for myself and I'll also think a little more before making an unequivocal decision about whether or not I like a beer.

In other news, the parcel we collected was for one of those newfangled pod espresso machines for our flat.  We've been making coffee here with a cafetiere since we bought the place and of late have found the texture of the coffee less clean than the espresso we make in the house down south.

We really couldn't justify the additional expense of another espresso machine AND a good enough grinder to grind to the correct texture - not when we don't live here most of the time, and we only have a single mug of coffee each, each day.

It took a while to find compostable pods and that decided our format of machine.  The parcel we collected on arrival was this new, dinky little machine.

We've only had two drinks with it so far and we reckon it'll take us a while to find the right pods and use them the most appropriate way but it's definitely got promise and the clean taste of espresso is worth a bit of experimentation.

As a woman who previously roasted her own coffee this is a bit of an admission.  In fact, alongside the notion that not all beer is best as cask.

See - we all learn, and we're allowed to change our minds about stuff as more data comes in.