2 Rather Good IPAs and a bit more!

I couldn't believe it when I saw this on sale in Morrisons, but a 500ml bottle conditioned Thornbridge (website) Jaipur (5.9%). This superb version of an IPA with many hops from the USA, that are Chinook (hopslist), Centennial (hopslist), Ahtanum (hopslist), Simcoe (hopslist), Columbus (hopslist) and Cascade (hopslist). This is an excellent pale golden ale, with plenty of tropical fruits, grapefruit and citrus in the aroma and taste, with a dry bitter finish. I once had a few pints of a dry hopped cask conditioned version of this at the University Arms in Sheffield, when my old friend Mike Pigeon was the manager there, that was a bit special too, quality! 👍

Easily found at Marks & Spencer is their 4.9% Citra IPA, which is brewed by Oakham Ales (website), in the middle of Oakham's 4.6% bottled Citra and the bigger hitting 6.0% Green Devil, all brewed as single hopped ales, the hop being the excellent Citra, unsurprisingly (hopslist). Anyway, to the 4.9% M&S version, which has a big citrus aroma and taste, and paler than the Jaipur, with a lovely crisp dry bitter finish, very good indeed! Oh yes, and not forgetting... 😉

Have a guess what I was drinking yesterday in the Dolphin Inn in Hastings Old Town, yep, the wonderful session ale that is the  4.2% cask conditioned version of Oakham Citra! Not much to add really, does what it says on the label, and I can't remember it in better form, excellent!  😁

Cheers Ears! 🍻

The Dolphin Inn, 11-12 Rock a Nore Road, Hastings TN34 3DW (website).

The University Arms, 197 Brook Hill, Sheffield S3 7HG (website).

Have a Hoppy New Year!

And I drank a very good one yesterday, cheers!

More to come very soon... 😉

PS. Can you believe some of the new members proposed for the House of Lords, and that absolute gobshite Tim Martin getting knighted?!? Time to get rid of these 'honours' and abolish the House of Lords, replace it with a second house made up of representatives of regions, like the Senate in the USA or German Bundesrat. My resolution...

Happy Ēostre!

 

Happy Ēostre, or Easter, well, nearly there, and schoolchildren are on Easter holiday, but my first Easter ale of 2023, maybe my only one? Ēostre was the Pagan/Anglo-Saxon Goddess of Spring and Renewal, the festival celebrating her was 'Christianised' following Pope Gregory setting forth a mission in the late 6th century to convert Pagans to Christians, later superimposing Christian festivals onto Pagan festivals (thefield). 

Anyway, onto the ale itself, Kent (website) Ēostre (4.2%), an uber Citra ale really, hops that you like or don't, I do like them indeed! Citra is a hop from the USA, but with a complicated heritage, used by many brewers nowadays, but brought into Britain first by Oakham Brewery, and sometimes very difficult to get hold of because of its popularity. The hop's heritage includes Hallertau Mittelfruh, Tettnanger, Brewers Gold and East Kent Goldings (Hopslist). 

The ale certainly has a very fruity aroma and taste, primarily citrus, but with a hint of forest fruits too, very pale golden colour and clear, with a refreshing crisp dry bitter finish, I love it!

Cheers and Happy Easter! 

 

'tis the Season for Green Hopped Ales!

If you aren't already aware, green hopped ales are brewed using fresh hops, ideally picked and added to the brew on the same day, and thus usually very seasonal, unless someone like the excellent Oakham Ales (website) pull off a masterful plan (blog)! But not this October, not for me anyway, however, I have had 3 green hopped ales so far, and all very good too...

I think Ilkley Brewery up in Yorkshire (website) narrowly was my favourite, but a miniscule difference between the 3 very good ales! This was their 4.3% Harley Quinn, with Harlequin hops added to the mash on the 23rd of September, the day after they were picked at Charles Faram of Malvern (website) who developed this hop, bred from Godiva hops, with the Charles Faram Hop Development Programme. They suggest peach, pineapple and passion fruit in the aroma and flavour, and I certainly noticed the peach and pineapple, my notes say "tropical fruit flavours" and a bit sweetish at first taste, but drying out with a nutty bitterness to finish. Oh yes, it is a pale ale, 'Green Hop Pale' noted on the pumpclip, and was very pleasant indeed!

I first became aware of green hopped ales because of the annual Kent Green Hop Beer Festival (website) that I keep promising myself I should attend! So why am I including a photograph, incidentally shared on the Angels & Demons facebook page, of a Hukins of Tenterden (website) hop field? Well, on that facebook page they state that they collected fresh Challenger hops on the 6th of September from Hukins to add to the brew mashed in that morning, so I'm guessing! To the ale... This was their 3.2%, so very much a session ale, Lillibet, and the photograph is of hop fields because I could find no photograph of a pumpclip anywhere! Lillibet is a dry pale golden ale with a hint of fruit to the taste, and I added a question mark in my notes as I couldn't state specifically the flavour, but with a particularly dry bitter finish, nice one!

The third green hopped ale was from the very local to me, Lakedown Brewing of Burwash in East Sussex (website), using freshly picked Bramling Cross hops from A Bushel of Hops (website), whose family have been growing hops 'for generations' in the High Weald of Sussex and Kent. Bramling Cross hops are described as possessing hints of lemon and a spicy blackcurrant main taste, and again I had trouble picking out the precise fruity aroma and taste; using freshly picked, not dried, hops provides a wholly different perspective! Kicking Donkey, a 4.8% 'Green Hop Pale' with hints of fruit and a dry bitter finish, was pretty good indeed, maybe this was my favourite of the three really? Shame I didn't try them all on the same day...

Oh well, research is a hard job, but someone has to do it, cheers! 😉

Be Prepared for Cost of Beer to Rise AND...

We've likely all been thinking similar, and I didn't really want to mention it, but the price of beer is going to rise substantially soon, and even more pubs are going to go out of business sadly. The Cost of Living Crisis, which is becoming another crisis, no two ways about it, means spiralling costs are already putting pressure on brewers. This article (Peterborough Telegraph) was what stimulated this blog, as one of my favourite breweries, Oakham Ales, is calling for Government action to help ease the effects of inflation and swiftly soaring energy costs, which are driving up the cost to brewers "of raw materials, production and distribution" and no doubt soon to be followed by the need for higher wages for employees! 

For me, the local public house isn't just a place to go and drink, it's a social hub, often a social service for more vulnerable locals, and they also raise significant money for charities, for example my local, the Dolphin Inn in Hastings recently gave £1,379.50 to the RNLI Lifeboat Station from their collection box (Steve on Hastings). It isn't just the brewers that are looking at problems related to rising prices, and wages, but public houses too, energy costs particularly, as the cost of heating and lighting throughout opening times go metaphorically through the roof. And not to forget that the loss of pubs would mean the loss of places to buy real ales, worrying indeed!

Let's Play Musical Hops!

I drank an ale called Cashmere recently, a single hopped ale from the excellent Kent Brewery (website), and, when I shared it on facebook, a friend immediately did what I did, and linked it to a song by Led Zeppelin (YouTube). I'd thought the same, but had been thinking this Musical Hops idea for a while. However, that song is Kashmir, spelt differently. Anyway, I'm not giving up on this as I'm adding another 5 hops to this blog that start with the letter 'C' - bear with me!

The Cashmere hop was developed by Washington State University and released in 2013, being a 'marriage' of Cascade and Northern Brewer hops. Cashmere has flavours of lemon, lime and melon, exhibiting a smooth bitterness, mildly aromatic with a subtle herbal bouquet* - I certainly don't remember much aroma, but have lost my previous notebook, sadly. So I didn't use an image from that ale, but the image above is of this year's Duvel Tripel Hop Cashmere, and I have recently written about their previous  Tripel Hop (blog), a bottle of which I happen to have in my fridge 😉 and, just now I ordered a few bottles of the Cashmere pictured above!

My second "C" hop is Calypso, which was one of the 3 hops used by the, also excellent, Yorkshire brewer Mallinsons (website) in their 'Tropical Blonde' (above - and blog). This tune is haunting, frankly beautiful, and sung by Suzanne Vega, and Calypso was one of the 2 hops that gave me the idea for this blog well before I'd even heard of Cashmere, so Calypso (YouTube).

The Calypso hop was bred in the Yakima Valley of Washington State, with Hopsteiner lineage. It features crisp, fruity aromas and flavours, and is complex* with hints of stone fruits, apple, pear and lime. For the Tropical Blonde I got citrus and tropical fruit in the taste, noticeably mango and pineapple in the aroma, but then there were 2 other hops involved as well! 😉

My third hop, and another of the earliest influences for this blog is Cascade, one of the 3 hops used by the American brewer Sierra Nevada (website), and you'll likely have noticed these "C" hops are mostly from the U.S. of A. The beers I mention in this blog are of the, highly influenced by the craft brewers over the Pond, and mostly labelled American Pale Ales. So, to the music for this one, and Cascade by Siouxsie and the Banshees (YouTube), quality!

The Cascade hop was pioneered at Oregon State University in the 1950s and is widely used, indeed Cascade hops have been grown in England since 2002, after development at Wye College (website). However, Cascade was originally developed from the English Fuggle hop and the Russian Serebrianka hop and released in 1972. Cascade provides spicy citrus flavours, particularly grapefruit.* Indeed, the Sierra Nevada (blog), certainly has grapefruit in the taste.

So to my fourth hop, and, for the music I had to dig deeper, it wasn't as automatic for the next 3, and so a wee bit eclectic! Anyway, the Crystal hop, which is one of the FIVE hop varieties used in the eponymous Revelation, which is a revelation, and is brewed in Sussex by Dark Star (website). Music is Crystal by New Order (YouTube), never heard of it before, but not bad.

The Crystal hop was developed from Hallertau, Cascade, Brewer's Gold and Early Green hops, with floral, fruity and spicy flavours, notably cinnamon, nutmeg and black pepper.* I'm sorry, but the Revelation has so much going for it (blog), that I couldn't guess how much Crystal hops influence the flavour, but influence they must, cheers! 😄

OK, I'm slipping in a couple of 'googlies' here, first although used in many pale hoppy ales (and other styles!), the Challenger hop is actually English, but certainly can be included as a "C" hop! And my second googly is the music, I said eclectic earlier, and a wee bit space agey... Challenger by Creo (YouTube). Oh yes, and Challenger hops are one of 2 hops used by another excellent brewery, Oakham Ales (website), in their session ale JHB.

The Challenger hop, as I said, was developed in England, at Wye College, and is the result of marrying Northern Brewer and German Zattler hops, and was released to the public in 1972; also know as Wye Challenger. Challenger provides floral, citrus and spicy undertones, and is good for bittering ales.* JHB certainly has the citrus flavours expected, as noted in this blog.

My final hop for this blog is Chinook, one of the 3 hops used in Proper Job, which is brewed by the Cornish brewer, St Austell (website). The music is again a wee bit electronic, and bowls us yet another googly, Chinook by Julian Jordan (YouTube), likely more about the wind than hops. 😉

Chinook hops were released in 1985, a cross between a USDA male and Petham Golding hops, and has a spicy pine bouquet and definite grapefruit flavouring. They are widely used in APAs.* I regularly drink Proper Job, whether cask-conditioned, bottle-conditioned (my favourite!), or even from a can (blog), which has forest and citrus fruit flavours, notably grapefruit, nice one!

*If you're surprised by my wealth of knowledge about hops, don't be, I've used the excellent hopslist website as a source of much of the relevant content, many thanks to them.

I do hope you've enjoyed this blog, and some of the music too, cheers!

Congratulations to the Brickmaker's in Bexhill on Sea!

I can't believe I haven't written about this excellent micropub for over 2 years (blog), that is the Brickmaker's Alehouse, 27 Sea Road, Bexhill, East Sussex TN40 1EE (Tel: 01424 602778 - website)! But I have been back quite a few times since the first lockdown ended, and very recently I revisited again to congratulate the owners, Martin and Robin (although Robin wasn't present on the day), as the Brickmakers Alehouse has been chosen by the CAMRA South East Sussex branch as their Pub of the Year 2022, congratulations!

I include the Cider Board (image below), although, in this instance I didn't drink a cider, but I did drink a few of the ales (above), including one that I'm amazed I haven't had before, which is the one I started off with. That is, the Kent Brewery (website) Kent Golding Bitter (4.1%), a traditional style best bitter brewed with Golding (unsurprisingly) and Fuggles hops. It did what it said on the label, was an amber/copper colour, and smelt and tasted like a best bitter, my notes say "very good" but now I was not 'amazed' as Kent Brewery is one of my favourite brewers!

The second pint was of Sussex brewery Burning Sky (website) Plateau, always full of flavour and at just 3.5%! Of course, this is the brainchild of Mark Tranter, legendary fine tuner of Dark Star Hophead when he worked there, so is like a Hophead, a little weaker in alcohol, but with more flavour with thanks to hops, Mark suggests "hopped at different stages of the brew with a mix bag of US and NZ hops..." and his finesse. A very pale golden bitter, very easy to drink, with grapefruit noticeable in the aroma and taste, a wee bit hazy, and I'm not sure if Mark is brewing it that way on purpose now (as vegan friendly), but still very decent indeed.

The final ale I devoured was one of my favourite ales from another favourite brewery, Oakham Ales of Peterborough (website), who I have written quite a bit about recently, notably following the sad news of the death of their head brewer, Alex Kean, just before Christmas (blog), and after my most recent visit to Peterborough in February (blog). Anyway, I couldn't miss knocking back a pint of their Citra (4.2%), an ale brewed with the excellent Citra hop, pale golden with grapefruit in the taste and a very dry bitter finish, thankfully I see this in my local quite often, 'tis excellent!

So, to summarise, I drank ales from my 2 favourite breweries, Kent and Oakham, and another from another excellent brewer at Burning Sky, to celebrate the Brickmaker's success, cheers!

I'm on the go now, Peterborough and Rye Again...

I have been travelling elsewhere too as the pandemic appears to be easing, and will soon (honest!), be writing about old haunts in particular, but on Saturday I revisited Peterborough, with a new pub added to those I mentioned in a blog last year. Indeed, my 'new' pub is the reigning local CAMRA Pub of the Year, the Ostrich Inn, 17 North Street PE1 2RA  (website). This pub first opened nearly 200 years ago, and maintains great character, serving up 5 real ales and a real cider from handpumps. Now I only found this great pub because, fortuitously, I again bumped into the brothers/son/nephew, Steve, Tony and Mark, although I had expected to meet up with them at Bumbles later, as we'd arranged. 😀

I drank 2 of the ales, first, from Zest Brewery of Grantham (website), their 5.5% Blond Volupta, their website says 5.0%, but I noted that the pump clip stated 5.5... Anyway, described as a "zesty tropical blond" which I found very easy drinking, with a slightly dry finish, not bad. But here I preferred, from the much more local Nene Valley Brewery (website), their 4.4% Release the Chimps, brewed with hops I do like a lot, including Magnum, Ella, Topaz, Simcoe, Ahtanum and Ekuanot, now there is a flavoursome mixture, and including late dry hopping!  It's a pale golden bitter with a dry fruity aftertaste, very decent indeed.

We then wandered round the corner to the Bumble Inn (Bumbles) at 46 Westgate PE1 1RE (website and mentioned in my blog last year), where I sampled the local Rockingham Ales (couldn't find a website, sorry) Dave's Not Here (4.3%), an American Pale Ale. Thus hops from across the Atlantic producing a pale fruity bitter with a dry finish. liked it, just a shame I couldn't find out more, though CAMRA's Good Beer Guide suggests they've been brewing for some time!

And a visit to Peterborough wouldn't be complete without a visit to Oakham Ales' (website) The Brewery Tap, (website and also mentioned in my earlier blog, as was their Charters Bar, though this, sadly, was very packed Saturday!), 80 Westgate PE1 2AA. Anyway, they always seem to have an ale on at £3.00 a pint, and on Saturday this was the excellent Inferno (4.0%), packed with hops from across the Atlantic, Sterling, Amarillo, Centennial, Cascade and Chinook, no wonder I love Oakham's ales! With a light golden colour, tropical and citrus flavours and aroma, and a light dry bitter finish, another great ale from Oakham Ales, and just £3 a pint, cheers! 👍

I also revisited Rye on Thursday, and the Rye Waterworks micropub of course, but seem to have lost my notes! As I have written about this excellent and very friendly establishment recently, I shall refer you to that blog, if you haven't already read it, otherwise it was again good to see David, Ulla, Eddie and Lotte, all serving up great ales and ciders, and an enormous Scotch Egg to me, many thanks! I also met a couple who know my mate Mark, from his parish...

I didn't drink anything I haven't drunk and mentioned before, I think, cheers!

And some details of, and history of the Waterworks, can be read at this older blog.

And, as I mention Peterborough Cathedral in my alter ego's blog, which I visited for the first time on Saturday, I'll mention the Parish Church of St Mary, Rye, in that blog too.

Oakham Ales Sad News...

I have written about Oakham Ales quite a lot recently (eg blog), but was saddened to discover when I was looking to contact them, that their head brewer, Alex Kean, passed away just before Christmas. My thoughts and condolences go to his wife, family, colleagues and friends. 

Alex Kean R.I.P. 

New Year Ales!

I have had some excellent pale, dry and bitter ales over the past week, notably the excellent 4.8% Oakham Frozen Fresh Hop Citra, a delight, and a variation on a green-hopped ale, where fresh hops, usually used on the day they are picked, are used in the brew. In this instance, the U.S. Citra hops used were 'flash frozen' within a few hours of being picked and arrived at the brewery in the middle of November, when they were thawed out and used a day later for this brew. I can only repeat what I wrote in my notes: very pale with a BIG fruity citrus aroma, bl**dy good with a clean dry bitter finish, and I added 3 ticks, which I don't often go that far, exceptional!

Since that 'Citra' ran out, I have been drinking the more regular 4.2% 'Session IPA' Oakham Citra which they describe as 'feisty, hoppy, citrus' and, in this instance, they are very correct, it does what it says on the label. More easily available dried Citra hops are used, but they still produce a big citrus aroma and flavour, also pale dry and bitter, and very good indeed!

You may take it from this blog I have been drinking plenty of Oakham Ales (website) beers recently, one of my favourite brewers, including their superb 4.6% Bishops Farwell. I have also been drinking other excellent pale dry bitter ales from another of my favourite brewers, Kent Brewery (website), just sneaking into the photograph immediately above is their 5% Brewers Reserve, but also other quality pale bitters, including their own 4.5% Citra (there's a lot of it about 😉), the 4.2% The Quiet American, with a more subtle use of hops from the U.S.A., the 4.9% Tropic Ale, and the excellent 4.8% Prohibition, quality, and with its own 'fan club' of drinkers who follow the beer around Kent and East Sussex to grab a few pints of Prohibition!

I have also sampled some other fine paler ales from nearby and further afield, and for my next blog I will write about some darker ales I have enjoyed, cheers and a Happy New Year!

Peterborough - A New City (for me) Visited...

A trip to Peterborough and dreams of Oakham Ales (website, and more later), base of one of my 2 favourite breweries, real ale bars, and maybe a point or three at football, fingers crossed... I had been looking forward to this day for ages! My first port of call was the Bumble Inn (website), close by the railway station at 46 Westgate, PE1 1RE, which opens at 12.00.

At the Bumble Inn I met three friendly Peterborough lads, 2 brothers and a son/nephew, who each had their own pub in their gardens, I kid you not, I was shown photographs... dead impressive and useful during the lockdowns no doubt! Anyway, this micropub sells 5 ever-changing real ales, 2 of which were from that excellent Yorkshire brewery, from Huddersfield, Mallinsons (website), and they, apparently, as I didn't partake, sell home-made pork pies, 'jumbo' sausage rolls and/or scotch eggs; 'pop-up' food events held on the third Thursday of the month.

I had a pint each of the 2 Mallinsons ales, both pale and hoppy, both 4.0%, their Denimes Denimes, and, my favourite of the two, the single hopped Kohatu (New Zealand hops), quite bitter with a dry crisp finish, not bad at all. As we decided, I press-ganged them really, I went along with the lads to my next port of call, the Oakham bar on a barge, Charters (website).

Charters Bar was packed, as was the bankside area next to it, which provides a huge outside area which must have been very useful during the first phase of returning to 'normal' last year. As usual at a bar near a football ground on match day, it emptied out between 2.30 and 3.00 pm, but not before we shared a few pints each, me of the excellent Oakham Citra (4.2%), a wonderful session pale bitter, like me, pale, dry and bitter, great company. Great ale at just £3 a pint ('special' regular deals), and 5 friends of mine (including my ex-wife) turned up here just before 2.30 (Noel and Ian in the photograph above, just as we were leaving to go to the ground).

After the match, sadly an upsetting last 10 minutes for me, but not for my new mates from Peterborough I imagine, 5 of us met up at The (Oakham) Brewery Tap (website), which is just a few minutes walk from the railway station in Westgate...

Here I drank, again at a bargain price, 2 or 3 pints of Oakham Inferno (4.0%), brewed with Sterling, Amarillo, Centennial, Cascade and Chinook hops, those who know me well will appreciate I approve of brewers using these hops from the USA 😉 - And again, great ale, again, pale, dry, refreshing and bitter, great company, and another decently priced ale too, thank you very much Oakham! The journey home was a wee bit rowdy, but not due to me guv...

And, just because I didn't take a photograph of a beer I was drinking, here's one I took earlier, last week at the Dolphin Inn in Hastings (website), my local, cheers! 

CAMRA - Happy 50 Years! And more pale bitters...

The choice for me today (above) at the Dolphin Inn in Hastings (facebook page), and what a great choice! I must admit I've been drinking mostly excellent pale bitters from Kent Brewery (website) and Oakham Ales (website), and I can't complain about that, cheers!

I will write much more soon, but have to mention the CAMRA 50th anniversary (website).

Favourite Ales of the Crisis, so far!

By now regular readers will be aware that my favourite ales are very much like me, pale, dry and very bitter, but in other years I would include some darker ales in a blog such as this, because I do enjoy a good porter or stout. Since March 2020, it hasn't been so easy, first, months without ales as many pubs were shut for much of the year, and when open, limited, often by supply, plus my regular local was selling Harvey's Old Ale under Tier 2, which I find too sweet for my taste, sorry. So this blog is about wonderful pale 'APA' style bitters mostly, many from Kent Brewery (website), as close by where I live, and regularly sold at my local, when open, including...

Two of my favourite ales from Kent, their Tropic Ale (4.9%) and Prohibition (4.8%) were particularly enjoyed, and if I could only ever have 1 ale if marooned on a desert island, I would be happy with either but, if given a choice, I would say the Prohibition edges it, just. And at the end of the first 'lockdown' in July, this was the first ale I drank in a pub and, as I said in the relevant blog, it was GORGEOUS! A variety of hops from the USA make this very much an American Pale Ale (APA) and gives it a big citrus fruity nose and taste, particularly grapefruit flavour, but such a pleasant refreshing pale bitter with a dry and bitter finish, quality.

Their Tropic Ale is also a dry bitter ale, but with a difference, whereas the Prohibition has a predominantly citrus flavour, the Tropic Ale also has tropical fruit flavours to add to the citrus, making it a wee bit more complex. Tropic Ale has a very nice dry bitter finish too, also refreshing, and gives Prohibition a run for its money. Both are very easy to drink, and because of their strength alcohol-wise, easy to get merry by, if only one of them had been available to me over Christmas... 😉 Further down I will discuss quite a few other excellent Kent ales too.

Also from Kent, Angels & Demons (website), who I'm guessing aren't brewing, for now anyway, as their facebook page is unavailable. Anyway, I had a newer ale from them, another great brewer that likes to use plenty of hops, their Evil Thieves (5.1%). Billed as an IPA, really another APA, although you never know these days, American hops are now being cultivated in Britain too, but I'm guessing hops from the USA were used for this ale. A big citrus aroma, and tropical and citrus fruit in the flavour, a pale golden bitter, very nice indeed. I just hope they get brewing again when the COVID-19 Crisis is under control, fingers crossed. I would miss their wonderful I Spy Dragon Fly and A.D.H.ME, and particularly miss Goldilocks is Dead... 😢 

Also from close to me down here in East Sussex, Gun Brewery (website) who brew mostly 'vegan' beers, and many gluten-free beers too, and I did enjoy their rather tasty strong-ish Zamzama (6.5%) back in July during my second pub visit post-lockdown (blog). A 'Vegan IPA'  although more like an APA again, I'm pretty sure hops from the USA used, a big fruity aroma, plenty of body and flavour, with citrus and tropical fruits, very drinkable, very nice!

The only pub I visited away from home in a year now was in August (blog), so you can see my predicament trying to write about different ales from around the country. On that visit to London I very much was brought back to life by drinking a couple of lovely, refreshing, if expensive, pints of St Austell Proper Job (4.5%) after walking for an hour in 37 degrees! Pale golden colour, citrus fruit, dry, bitter and very refreshing, just what the resus doctor ordered, phew... 😷 

St Austell Brewery has been much remembered over the past year, not just for being the only local brewery surviving from when I lived in Cornwall back in the early 1990s, but particularly because of the sad death of the brewer who rejuvenated the brewery after I moved away, Roger Ryman (blog), and the appointment of Georgina Young as his replacement (blog). Also, the lockdowns have meant that their local representative to us has not been able to visit in December, when she was bringing a very nice Proper Job polo shirt for me, missing you Linda!

From further afield, from way up int' North, in Huddersfield, I had 3 excellent ales brewed by Mallinsons Brewing Company (website), though imbibed down here in Hastings. Tropical Blonde (4.3%) does what it says on the label, it really tastes like 'sunshine in a glass' - well, sort of 😉 Brewed with Calypso, Citra and Nelson Sauvin hops that produce citrus and tropical fruit flavours, and with mango and pineapple in a big fruity aroma. A very easy drinking, pale dry bitter, I did like this, but then, Mallinsons is another excellent brewery.

Also, I had their single hopped Amarillo (4.2%), yes, brewed with Amarillo hops from the USA, unsurprisingly, but surprisingly with a bitter orange in the flavour! A very dry bitter finish, and I definitely liked this, but it is a hop I do enjoy. And Shift (4.3%), what can I say? Brewed with Ekuanot and Centennial hops that produce peach, citrus and tropical fruit flavours, and Mandarina Bavaria hops, a reasonably new variant bred in Germany, released in 2012, and a 'daughter' of the Cascade hop, and which adds a tangerine flavour to the mix! Refreshing and very easy to drink, with a nice dry bitter finish, as I said, another excellent brewery.

Anyway, Mallinsons hasn't been the only Yorkshire brewery whose ales I have enjoyed since the first lockdown, for example, Ilkley Brewery (website) and their 4.2% Pale or All Day Pale. This is a nice refreshing pale bitter, as you'd expect, brewed using Nelson Sauvin, Chinook, Centennial and Hallertau Blanc hops, including dry hopping, and which provide plenty of fruity aroma and flavours, and a lovely dry bitter finish... I liked it! 

Sadly, no Kelham Island of Sheffield ales in 2020, hopefully that will change in 2021, but other excellent Yorkshire ales did get down here, including two 4.3% lovelies from the always reliable Rooster's Brewing Company (website), Cogburn and Union Gap. The Cogburn is an ale I've drunk many times over the years, regularly when I was living in Yorkshire, and the name is a homage to the character played by the actor John Wayne in a couple of films. It is pale and dry, with a subtle citrus fruity aroma and flavour, nice one. 

The Union Gap I recorded as even better! Presumably named after the 1960s band that brought out a single that would be very questionable nowadays, labeled a 'West Coast Pale Ale' and appropriately brewed with Chinook, Cascade, Centennial and Simcoe hops. With these hops you unsurprisingly get a mixture of citrus flavours and aroma, tangerine and lemon particularly. Refreshing, pale dry and bitter, yes it hit the spot, thank you very much!

Coming further down the country, we reach Peterborough and I shall mention 3 of the ales from one of my very favourite brewers, the excellent Oakham Ales (website), including their single-hopped 4.2% 'Session IPA' Citra. Their Citra is, as you would expect from that hop, zesty and with a hint of citrus in the aroma and taste, very pale, and a great dry bitter finish. Another ale I love and could include in my luxury ale on my desert island, along with a cooling system. 😉

The other 2 Oakham ales I particularly enjoyed were the Citra on steroids Green Devil IPA (6.0%), plenty of body, pale, dry and bitter. Also a single-hopped ale with Citra hops, but less subtle, packing a punch with grapefruit and tropical fruit flavours, which could replace the Citra Session IPA on my desert island, and I wouldn't need as much of it! Oh yes, and Bishops Farewell (4.6%), a smoother golden ale brewed with Cascade and Challenger hops, plenty of body and subtle citrus and tropical fruitiness, dry and bitter, also excellent, as are all the wonderful ales in the Oakham range, and I've never had a bad seasonal beer from them either!

I managed to get in this excellent 'green-hopped' ale before Tiers 3 and 4 kicked in, just, not to mention Lockdown Mark 3! This one, Dark Star (website) Green Hopped IPA, a very decent annual arrival for my hopmonster palate, and with a full bodied experience, as you would expect from this 6.5% pale bitter. If you aren't aware, green-hopped ales are brewed using fresh hops, ideally picked on the day and thus seasonal, and this brew used Warrior, Simcoe and Ernest hops. The end result was an amber, subtle fruity bitter with a dry finish, and very good indeed!

I've already mentioned the excellent Kent Brewery above (website), a brewery that competes very well with Oakham Ales and their pale bitter beers, honest, I never thought I'd be that lucky to have another reasonably local brewer so good, and we have some other very fine brewers down here in Kent and East Sussex to compete with them too! But, comparable with their Prohibition and Tropic Ale described above, I'll specifically mention the Brewers Reserve (5.0%). This has a big fruity citrus aroma and taste, with a dry bitter finish, quality!

Quite frankly, I could sing my praises of many of their ales, but will just mention here a few more that I have specifically enjoyed during these upsetting 10 months, and I could add even more, but want to publish this blog today! So, other Kent Brewery ales that helped me cope with the COVID-19 crisis include Mayflower 400 (4.2%, and brewed to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the departure of the Mayflower to the New World), the two 4.5% single hopped ales Citra and Mandarina, and the 4.2% 'session APA' The Quiet American, after recent antics in the USA, surely an oxymoron, but a very easy drinking beer indeed... 😉

Well, I hope this was a reasonably fun read, and here's to the reopening of public houses this year, hopefully sooner rather than later, cheers m'dears! 🍻

A Love Affair With Pubs...

Not my 'love affair' with pubs, but yesterday I read Roger Protz's piece in the June edition of CAMRA's What's Brewing, which I still get in hard copy (can be read online here) A Love Affair With Pubs. Roger mentions 14 pubs, a good number of which are from where he has worked and lived, a few in London when he worked in Fleet Street, and 4 in major cities around the country; those 4 he appears to have particularly liked because of their architecture and interiors.

Please note I've had some problems with websites, presumably Covid-19 induced. 😕

The Philharmonic, Liverpool

I was a wee bit surprised to see the pubs he chose, but I shouldn't really have been. Of the 14, I've never been to any of his local/Suffolk pubs, of the 4 in London I have been to 2 of them, coincidentally because I used to work close to Fleet Street in the 1970s too, maybe, but the 4 from major cities, very interesting, because I love all 4 of them, indeed, 6 years ago they were all in a national top 10 of pubs I'd chosen! The Philharmonic (website) in Liverpool, came in at number 7 on my list, and a pub I have very recently written about (blog) after it had become Grade I Listed, if you haven't already read the blog I'd suggest you do, as it gives a bit of history of the pub, plus a bit of history of my interest, and all these pubs have a football interest in them for me too, as in visiting whilst in town for a football match, but 3 of them I've visited just to go there for a drink when I hadn't even been living locally, that's how good they are!

Next, The Bodega (website) in Newcastle, number 8 on my list, but why Bodega? The name comes from a small wine cellar or wine shop in Spain, and there are a few pubs called this in Britain, notably this one in easy reach of Newcastle FC, although I have also drank here before and after matches at nearby Sunderland FC too! Another lovely interior in another Victorian pub, with a long bar extending way back, an elaborately tiled floor and 2 stained glass domes, or cupolas, in the ceiling. I haven't visited for a while, but last time there were 8 real ales on offer, 4 guests supporting 4 regular/semi-regular ales from 3 of my favourite brewers, Oakham Ales, (website) Fyne Ales (website) and Durham Brewery (website), no wonder I like returning!

Next, and number 4 on my old list, is The Marble Arch Inn (website) in Manchester, another wonderful listed Victorian building. Gorgeous tiling, some of which, it appears, was found by chance when the ceiling fell in because of dampness! This used to be a brewpub, and you could see the brewery out the back, and, in the past, I had often chatted to the brewers about the ales on offer, but now Marble Beers (website) are brewed around the corner in larger premises, supplying organic, vegan-friendly, ales to the pub and the free trade, indeed, I last drank their 3.9% session ale Pint at the Tower Pub in Hastings not too long ago. Their pub though, sells not just excellent ales but very good food too, and they had a great jukebox when I was last there.

And, top of the shop at number 1 for me 6 years ago was The Bartons Arms (website) in Birmingham, particularly suited for attending Aston Villa FC matches (safe for away fans), but I have traveled to Birmingham alone just to drink and eat here. Yet another gorgeous Victorian pub, the Victorians certainly knew how to build them, built as the Mitchell and Butlers brewery flagship, and now one of the handful of Oakham Ales pubs (website). Beautiful interior, superb ales, and fine Thai cuisine, other than a victory at Villa Park what more could you want?!?

So Roger Protz obviously chose wisely pubs that I value too, but, that just supports how interesting they are as buildings, and what good pubs they are as public houses... I shall now have to have a rethink of my top 20 pubs nationally and write about them soon; oh well, gives me something to do before pubs are open again, cheers! 😉

And beers in a bottle...

3 very decent bottled beers enjoyed by myself very recently, bought in a local off licence, 3 for £5.25 and I've had all 3 cask-conditioned in the past too... But where to start? It has to be the 2 Oakham Ales (website) first, paler, and actually the order in which I did drink them. 😉

So, and straight from the notes I took, with a wee bit added here and there because of my knowledge base, of course, Oakham Inferno (4.4% but usually 4.0% cask conditioned), labelled a 'Blonde Ale' but I wrote "pale golden" which is what I shall retain in my memory; blonde, golden, what's the difference really, just trendiness I suppose! Quality too, Amarillo, Cascade, Centennial, Chinook and Sterling are the U.S. hops used. I wrote "very pale golden, citrus in the aroma with a hint of citrus in the taste, but quite subtle (amazingly subtle, considering the hops used! - me added just now) with a lovely dry bitterness, very nice!!" Excellent session ale.

Oakham Citra (4.6% but usually 4.2% cask conditioned) pretty much does what is says on the label, zesty hoppy citrus, a single hopped ale using Citra hops, and I believe it to be the first single hopped Citra ale brewed in Britain. Notes: "Not quite as pale as Inferno, but pale golden with a fruity citrus aroma, bitter orange and grapefruit in the taste, a drier pale golden bitter!!"

Says it all, both great ales indeed, but...

And now for something completely different! That is, Titanic Brewery (website) and their 4.9% Plum Porter! Straight to the notes: "Deep dark red colour, with a big fruity plum aroma, plum flavour and a hint of vanilla, bitter sweet really, with a dry bitter finish. Very good!"

So, hardly surprising that I liked the 2 Oakham ales, a brewery that I love, I can't say I've ever not liked any of their ales, and they brew excellent pale dry bitters, just what friends and regular readers will know that I like. However, I had forgotten just how good the Plum Porter is, the only shame is that I can't drink these 3 beers cask conditioned these days... 😢

Another Hastings Micropub - Twelve Hundred Postcards

Hastings newest micropub very recently opened at 80 Queens Road TN34 1RL (opposite Morrisons petrol station), so I had to visit, obviously...

... and very happy I was too when I got there (above), well I was already quite happy, but pleased with how Twelve Hundred Postcards is shaping (the story behind the name is described in great detail on their website, so I suggest you have a look there if you want to know more), and I got to meet up with a couple of friends there I hadn't seen for quite some time too, nice one! 

On entering I was impressed with the bright decor, and how far back the bar room goes, consequently providing plenty of seating (I calculate room for 30-40 seated, and plenty of room for standing), as you can see from the photograph above.

The man in charge using modern technology to aid his efficiency, and the cooled beer storage area behind him, pretty much an enormous fridge that you can see into.

To the 4 cask conditioned ales available (above, what was available yesterday evening 3rd November, but no regular ales, I believe, so these will regularly change as they run out, and I also believe there are ales to come very soon from quality local Sussex brewers Franklins - website - and from Burning Sky - website).

I have to admit the ales available yesterday (3rd November) included 2 of my longstanding favourites, from Peterborough brewers Oakham Ales (website), their excellent 4.2% Citra, a pale golden bitter brewed with the eponymous Citra hop, producing a gorgeous citrus aroma and grapefruit flavour, refreshing and gorgeous! Plus, from Derbyshire brewers Thornbridge (website), and also excellent, their 5.9% Jaipur, another ale with citrus aroma and flavour, but with much more body, not quite a supping ale, though quality indeed!

Looking back towards the front

So what else is available? In addition to the ales there are 3 ciders available and a crafty keg beer, plus numerous bottles and cans in a fridge behind me when I took this photograph, including some Belgian beers, 2 red and 2 white wines, and a variety of crisps to snack on. As I said above, Twelve Hundred Postcards is bright, clean and roomy, to which I can add, very friendly too, so well worth a visit, or many visits for that matter, cheers! Oh yes, opening times: 

Sunday, 12-4 pm

Monday, not open

Tuesday, 5-9 pm

Wed/Thursday, 12-2 and 5-9 pm
Fri/Saturday, 12-9.30 pm