An excellent best bitter, but...

I had this excellent ale, the Ripple Steam Brewery (website) Farmhouse Pale Ale (4.2%) at the Dolphin Inn, Hastings, earlier today. Ripple Steam hail from Kent, having brewed since 2012, and they appear to be pushing to expand their client-base, certainly into East Sussex anyway, which is good for me...

Although this is described as a 'pale ale', and the beer is a nice pale-ish copper colour, brewed with Admiral hops from Kent, the garden of England, so local produce in the beer, but it tasted to me of a true 'best bitter; the right colour, and the right amount of bitterness and body, very good indeed! I'm looking forward to trying some of their other ales very soon, cheers!

Hoppy Springtime!

In a couple of hours time, at 10.29 am, we shall see the start of Spring in the UK, this being the Vernal Equinox... I couldn't find any Springtime ales around, so have used an image of the pump clip of this excellent one from years past, enjoy the Spring, and cheers!

The Albatross Club (RAFA), Bexhill on Sea

Yesterday, I visited the Albatross Club (Royal Air Forces Association) at Bexhill on Sea, the 2016 winner of the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) National Cub of the Year award, and congratulations to them for winning this, and this years local CAMRA Club of the Year too (the national winner in 2017 is the Cheltenham Motor Club). This a members club (RAFA, which I belong to, but you don't need to have been in the Air Force to join as an Associate Member), but CAMRA members are allowed in too, and sensible people should be able to get a member to sign them in, though a £1 donation to the club would be appreciated. Today, whilst the Ale & Arty Beer and Music Festival is on today at the wonderful nearby De La Warr Pavilion (see the festival website), the Albatross Club is open from 11am for all beer lovers to visit.

Four real ales on sale from handpumps (and blackboard behind showing some of the ales to come on soon!), all at £3.20 a pint, and as you can see, yesterday this included Yorkshire brewery Saltaire New World Red (5.2%), and local brewers Pig & Porter Temporary Truth (4.2%), one of their single hop pale ales (Centennial hops), and Bedlam Benchmark, a 4% copper coloured bitter, with a hint of roasted barley in the flavour.

The fourth ale was an incredibly sumptuous milk stout from Bristol brewery, Wiper and True, (website), their Milk Shake (5.6%). Brewed with chocolate malts, and enriched with vanilla, to present a creamy rich stout with body+++ and liquorice flavour too, sweet for my usual palate, but what an enjoyable pint, cheers! 

For more information about the Albatross Club see their website.

Hoppy St Patrick's Day!

Yes, it's unlikely I'll be drinking Guinness today, I'll chose something hoppier...

Slàinte mhaith!

Microbrewery ups the anti...

Already, we have crafty keg breweries, started off by Brewdog, who are charging silly amounts for their beers. Now, for me locally, the First In Last Out has increased the prices of their beers following the budget, but they have recently increased prices at least twice a year, despite having up to 50% small breweries tax relief on a pint of their own ales. So, they're selling a pint of their FILO Gold (a very decent ale, indeed, and local CAMRA champion this year!) at £3.70 since they put their prices up 2 days ago; which is equivalent to £4 a pint, or thereabouts, taking into account the tax relief. Indeed, a pint would cost you similar in the array of Hastings Shepherd Neame pubs (which are vastly overpriced too!), yet you can buy, today, a pint of the excellent Salopian Hop Twister at the nearby Dolphin Inn for £3.60, or 10p a pint cheaper straight up, or 40p a pint cheaper taking into account the tax relief...

Hmmm... is this taking the p*ss or what? 

New blog...

I have no idea why, but I've lost the link to write in my previous blog, so have decided to start up this new blog, and I may well nick specific blogs from there too. 😉

Here I go, cheers!