South East Sussex Pub of the Year.

OK, this may seem a wee bit parochial, but it's where I live, so very important for me, many thanks... Congratulations must go to Louisa and her colleagues up at The Tower, 251 London Road, for, yet again, winning the local Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) South East Sussex Pub of the Year, and who was presented with her award on Tuesday evening. Indeed, in Hastings we are blessed with a great number of public houses and bars that sell good quality real ales, and yet Lou's pub has managed to stand out with CAMRA assessors for three years in a row now! There is available a great range of well-conditioned, good value, real ales (most usually from local brewers), six in all, and a similar number of ciders and perry support this award too.

I have visited the Tower very recently, though sadly couldn't make it on Tuesday, but on my most recent visit I noted the price of ales still starts at £2.90 for the regular session ale, East Sussex brewer Dark Star's Hophead (3.8%) at £2.90 a pint, an excellent pale hoppy bitter with hints of grapefruit from the Cascade hops used in the brew. Also from Dark Star (website) is another excellent regular ale, the stronger American Pale Ale (APA 4.7%) at £3.00 a pint, and brewed with Cascade, Centennial and Chinook hops, providing a more complex full bodied pale bitter.

Other ales were from up and coming East Sussex brewers, Three Legs (website) Columbus Pale Ale (4.9% and the most expensive at £3.20 a pint), a more traditional pale ale presumably brewed using Columbus hops; West Yorkshire brewer Vocation (website) Bread & Butter (3.9%), another fruity pale bitter using American hops; VOG Brewery, (website) in the Vale of Glamorgan, Dark Matters (4.4%), a blackcurrant porter; and the excellent Peterborough brewer Oakham Ales (website), whose 4.2% Citra, another single hopped ale, I couldn't resist drinking, a dry and bitter pale golden ale with grapefruit big in the nose and taste, excellent!

Nice one Lou, and cheers, yet again!

National Beer Days!

OK, I've seen all number of days which have been pointed out as National Beer Day, but now there's 4 days of beer celebration, it appears! Anyway, I do know that International Beer Day this year will be the 4th of August, so expect more then, cheers, and celebrate!

A Beautiful Walk, and 3 Pubs in/near Lewes, or not!

Well, we were out yesterday, ducking political news, and it should have been a pint in the Trevor Arms, which backs onto Glynde railways station, but it has recently closed we were disappointed to discover, and it looks like that is it, a no-hoper, sadly... so I didn't photograph it! However, we were undertaking a 15/16 mile circular walk from Lewes, so we moved on to the next hostelry, meanwhile, here's a photograph I did take yesterday, from up on the South Downs Way.

Our packed lunch was to be eaten out in the countryside anyway, but we wanted a pint, so the next nearest pub on our route was the 15th century Ram Inn (website) at Firle. In their atmospheric wood panelled bar we did enjoy ale from the very local brewer (Mark Tranter, previously of Dark Star, website), Burning Sky's Plateau (3.5% and £3.80 a pint), despite the low strength, this in no way lacks flavour and body, it is very pale with a lovely refreshing grapefruit aroma and taste, a dry bitter aftertaste and is packed with hops, quality... and a result! They have a real cider too, 2 guest ales, and their regular is Harveys Sussex Best Bitter (4%) at £2.60 a pint, a very decent price for Harveys, who aren't afraid of charging the earth!

We then continued, and completed our circular walk (more of on my other blog), finishing off with a couple of pints each at the Lewes Arms (website) before catching a train home. Now, the Lewes Arms is a Fullers' pub, but, similar to the Fullers' pubs in Brighton they serve a mixture of Fullers and Gales beers, and always have a few guest ales available too, plus the very local Harveys Sussex Best (4%) as a regular. I had one of the guest ales, the East London brewer Five Points (website) Five Points Pale (4.4% and over £4 a pint, this is Lewes!). Brewed with 2 American hops, Amarillo and Citra, you can guess what you're going to get, an ale packed with flavours, with strong citrus aroma and flavours, and this golden ale had plenty of body too, and was quite sharp and bitter... I loved it! 

Expect another visit to Lewes from me soon, I've got the taste 😋

It's Spring, so why not Green Ale?

Green shoots and all that, well, I had this interesting very green ale at the Dolphin Inn at Rock-a-Nore in Hastings 'old town'. I hadn't seen a green ale for quite a while now, previously I've drunk a green Spring ale at the Wetherspoons near Blackpool football ground, and I've also enjoyed one for St Patrick's Day, though both were many years ago! This ale is brewed by Stonehenge Ales (website), Sign of Spring, a 4.6% green pale ale with a dry bitter finish, indeed, this has a nice fruity aroma and I sensed a hint of apple, but was that just the colour kidding me? Anyway, it is very pleasant, cheers!