Mallinson's Calypso delivered to my Door!

I recently wrote a blog about a couple of excellent ales I had delivered to me and enjoyed drinking immensely. Well, I couldn't resist the cask conditioned ale they provided this week either, from another excellent Yorkshire brewery, Mallinson's Brewing Company (website), and their 3.9% single hopped Calypso. Again, I was very pleased yesterday to receive a visit from the same jolly crew from The Jolly Fisherman (website) Alfred, Becky and Oliver, with respectful social distancing maintained at delivery, and it's always a pleasure to see this family; indeed, I'm looking forward to drinking at their micropub in the reasonably near future, fingers crossed...

The Calypso hop is another of my favourite hops bred and grown in the Yakima Valley in the US of A, and Mallinson's Calypso is a pale golden light refreshing ale, and so easy to drink. There is an amazingly complex fruity aroma and taste, with pears, apples, citrus and tropical fruits, and a wonderful dry bitter finish with grapefruit to the taste. It's pretty damn good, cheers!

And I can't get Suzanne Vega's Calypso (YouTube) out of my mind, which is not a bad thing. 👌

And a reminder, if you live in Hastings, or close by, and you want something delivered from The Jolly Fisherman; deliveries are made most afternoons/early evenings, with a new cask ale each week for the Friday delivery, plus they sell keg and bottled beers, ciders, wine, etc etc... Do have a look at their website for more details and to place an order.

If you don't live down here, check in your own locality for suppliers, or I provided ideas in an older blog; the links appear to work still. Good searching and drinking, and cheers! 👍

Cask Conditioned Ales, Many Thanks & Cheers!

During the first 'lockdown' I wrote a blog about ale, cider and perry delivery initiatives in Hastings, and I wrote other blogs about elsewhere too. Well, I couldn't cope with just tins and bottles for what seems a lifetime, so recently I had delivered by the same jolly crew from The Jolly Fisherman (website) Alfred, Becky and Oliver (respectful social distancing maintained at delivery, of course), 4 litres of genuine cask conditioned ale, that is, 2 x 2 litres of two very different styles. 

The first cask ale, you will have gathered from the image immediately above, was a stout from the Bristol-based Arbor Ales (website), their vegan friendly 5.8% Midnight Blue, a rather luxurious delight! Amazingly easy to drink for such a full bodied and fairly strong stout. As you can see, it was very dark, with chocolate and coffee in the aroma and taste, and just a hint of liquorice, finishing off with a dry roasted bitterness. I wrote, "not bad at all!" which means I liked it rather a lot, I just wished I'd bought more than the 2 litres of it. 😉

The second ale, as you can see, was a much paler ale from Newcastle-based Wylam Brewery (website), their 4.2% Hickey the Rake 'Limonata Pale'. This was a very pale beer brewed with 2 of my favourite hops for such ales, Chinook and Mosaic, producing a big fruity aroma and taste. Of course it's citrus fruits, initially grapefruit with a hint of lemon, as I expected from the name and hops used, dry and bitter and very refreshing and so easy to drink; I wrote "very good!" in my notes. So there you go, very good indeed, and again, not enough bought!

If you live local to Hastings, and want something delivered from The Jolly Fisherman; deliveries are made most afternoons, usually with a new cask ale for the Friday delivery, plus they sell keg and bottled beers, ciders, wine, well, look at their website for more details and to place an order.

If you don't live down here, check in your own locality for suppliers, or I provided ideas in another blog; the links appear to work still. Good searching and drinking, and cheers! 👍

Covid-19 Incidence, Hospitality & Beer!

Before I get too serious, a nice bit of good news... Pubs, bars and breweries are again showing their common sense and, despite early noises from the Government, are delivering ales, ciders and perries, and providing Click & Collect services, thanks to a U-turn from the Government allowing these activities. Yet again, because of the COVID-19 Crisis and travel restrictions, I am limited in my 2020 ale experiences, mostly to Hastings and its environs, where The Jolly Fisherman (from my other blog) is providing similar services to the first lockdown, nice one!

Recently, with my other blog, I vented my frustration with our incompetent and corrupt Government and their handling of this crisis, and the then looming second lockdown, particularly regarding most publicans taking care to follow the guidelines, if not to be respectful of their customers, to ensure they were not closed down by the Police and/or licencing authorities. Indeed, any publicans who weren't following guidelines well deserved to be closed down, as happened to a few for periods in Hastings. Again, further to my other blog, it has been 8 months now for the Government to sort out their Test & Trace programme, wasting £billions in the process by giving contracts to their inexperienced friends in industry, instead of supporting experienced public health authorities, and which would have been a much lower cost too!  

So, I shall leave you to look at the graph above, with figures not much more than 24 hours old, there's up to date for you! I shall just add a few dates to help you consider whether pubs reopening from July the 4th were significant in the rising levels of COVID-19, and whether they really deserved to be closed down at 22.00 hours on the 4th of November, and noting that the majority of COVID-19 cases are now teenagers and young adults up to 24 years old, indeed, by the 12th October, 60% of new cases were university students. 

First, yes, pubs were reopened from the 4th of July; Second, schools were reopened from the 1st of September; Third, the university academic year began on the 21st of September...

Not to mention Cask Conditioned Ale, cheers!

I recently posted a blog about ale, cider and perry delivery initiatives around Britain, and elsewhere a blog about similar but specifically closer to where I live in Hastings. Indeed, last Friday I had delivered by the jolly crew of The Jolly Fisherman (website) Alfred, Becky and Oliver (respectful social distancing), 2 litres of genuine cask conditioned ale, a luxury indeed!

The cask ale, you will have gathered from the image immediately above, was the Kent-based Iron Pier (website) 3.9% Long Ferry, described as an 'easy-drinking dry-hopped golden ale' which I shall disagree with a smidgeon...  It is certainly 'easy-drinking' cannot argue with that, very drinkable indeed, however, it was a wee bit darker than one would expect from the description, I'd written down pale copper colour, and for a style of ale I noted it as tasting like a "very good traditional best bitter, light and refreshing!" Anyway, much enjoyed...

Oh yes, and also delivered were 2 litres of a genuine real Perry, from Bartestree Cider Co (website), their 7.0% Taynton Squash, made from a specialized single Perry Pear, believe it or not, the Taynton Squash. 😉 Apparently (see, I do undertake a wee bit of research other than just drinking beers, ciders and perries), a highly rated Perry Pear going back to the 17th century, so drinking a real bit of history too. So, what was it like?

Well, I'm not a great expert on ciders and perries, but I know what I like, and I've drunk some rough stuff in my time, particularly when I lived down in Devon and sourced from local farms, or went to the Cider Bar in Newton Abbot, which is a great experience, please do read the blog regarding this award winning bar! What was it like, get on with it Steve!?! (Too much time alone in this 'lockdown' is encouraging me to talk to myself 😮) Well, I've ordered another 2 litres to be delivered this week, which lets on that I liked it, but then I do tend to prefer perries to ciders, not always though, but they tend to be more dry and bitter, like the ales I tend to drink. Yes, it's dry and bitter/sour, with that more subtle pear flavour that you get rather than the more robust flavours of apples in cider, very more-ish, cheers!

And cask ales being delivered from The Jolly Fisherman this week are local, from Gun Brewery (website) Project Babylon, a 4.6% APA that is vegan friendly, and from Pig & Porter (website) a 4.0% Blackbird Stout which I would imagine is also vegan friendly, knowing their beers, and a stout. You can guess what I've already ordered, or just wait until I write about it/them... If you live down here in Hastings, go to the website to order for this Friday delivery, and they provide keg beers, bottled beers and ciders, wine, well, look at their website for more detail.

If you don't live down here, check in your own locality for suppliers, or I provide some ideas in a recent blog, anyway, good searching and drinking, and cheers!

CAMRA and Beer Deliveries to Your Door plus More!

The Jolly Fisherman, Hastings

The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) provides details of its contemporary campaign Pulling Together (website) concerning the current Coronavirus lockdown, something I have mirrored where I live down here in Hastings (Steve on Hastings blogspot). Commendable though Pulling Together is, as you might expect I did find some errors and missing services, eg a pub that isn't delivering beers included (The Tower, and the publican has assured me she is not delivering beers, and no off sales) and missing pubs that are delivering locally. Consequently, please do use the links I include below, but you may find some are not delivering, and that you may be missing others that do, so more research may well be required where you live. 

CAMRA link to brewery initiatives; click on where you live on the map.

CAMRA link to pub and bar services; add the postcode or town where you live. 

CAMRA link to cider and perry services; click on where you live on the map.  

Plus, CAMRA has also created a virtual pub where you can go on line and chat, join in pub quizzes and other events, and drink too... with ales supplied from the services detailed above, of course! I haven't visited, but this link will take you to The Red (ON) Lion.

Please look after yourselves folks, cheers!