Ye Olde Cider Bar, Newton Abbot

"Ye Olde Cider Bar?!?" I hear you question, "but you write about real ales and pubs, and sometimes brewing, Steve." Indeed I do, but I'm writing this blog for a number of reasons, not least, because I used to visit the Cider Bar quite a bit in my youth, though I haven't been there for getting on for about 25 years now... Also, they've just won the award of the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) National Cider Pub of the Year!

Ye Olde Cider Bar is at 99 East Street in Newton Abbot, Devon TQ12 2LD (tel: 01626 354221), which I first visited in about 1978 with an ex-girlfriend, Teri, and two friends, who are still together and still living in Newton Abbot, Steve and Jude, who we were visiting after making friends with them on a holiday to Austria. I visited Steve and Jude many times before moving to Devon to train in Mental Health with Exeter Health Authority in 1985, obviously nipping into the Cider Bar every now and then, and also when visiting Newton Abbot races in the 1990s. Though Steve, Jude and I have met up in Exeter more recently, I do need to visit Newton Abbot again, soon.

As you can see, many ciders are sold, and straight from the barrel too, which has changed over the years. When I first visited in the 1970s, they had 3 ciders from handpumps, a dry, sweet and medium, that cost 25p a pint, no spirits or beers, but fruit wines and mead, I'm guessing it's sold as a honey wine, and they do still sell mead and fruit wines, plus ciders (though many more!) and perries, and I note from their facebook page "a few selected spirits" are sold now, and it is believed to be one of the "four remaining cider houses in the UK." 

My first impression, at lunchtime I believe, was of a small bar (it has been enlarged since) with a number of small older men seated around the edges, each with big red noses, which is more like a description of me now! The dry cider tasted to me of apple flavoured white spirit, not that I've ever tasted white spirit, but proper cider was new to me, the sweet was like sweet apple flavoured spirit, and the medium, well, I could happily drink that at the time, though I am obviously an ale man, I do enjoy drinking cider from time to time, though I do prefer a good perry. 

By the late 1980s, Julie (ex-wife who I met in Exeter, no, that's not us in the photograph!) and I regularly were travelling over from Exeter on the train, often with friends, and you should have seen the state of some people returning to Exeter after enjoying the delights of Newton Abbot, though not us, of course! The bar was bigger, there were still the 3 'rough' ciders, and a collection of keg stuff too. By now, if not drinking the medium cider, we sometimes drank the dry with a lemonade top, how things change over the years. Indeed they don't appear to sell 'keg' anymore.

So who are the two people in the photograph? Well they are Kim Leonard and Jonathan McCool, who have been running Ye Olde Cider Bar for just 2 years now, and have already won the prestigious CAMRA award, so congratulations to the both of them!

I have borrowed images from CAMRA and Devon Life, many thanks.

Old Favourites at The Tower

I've visited The Tower, 251 London Road, Bohemia, Hastings TN37 6NB (tel: 01424 721773) on a few occasions recently, last time a couple of days ago, when I enjoyed drinking a couple of old favourites!  In addition, I enjoyed chatting with the lovely landlady, Louisa, and with a friend, Darren, who's birthday it is today, so Happy Birthday Darren, have an excellent day!

There was a mild and a stout available too, but I'm going to be writing about darker ales very soon, so not in this instance, but, all the way from the beautiful west of Scotland, from Fyne Ales (website), was their refreshing 3.8% session ale Jarl. I've written about this before, and what can I say, it's a dry, pale golden hoppy ale, with citrus flavours, a slightly nutty flavour too, and a fruity aroma. Good old Citra hops are used in the brewing of this ale, and it finishes with a slightly sour bitterness, and at just £3.20 a pint, nice one!

And the ever excellent 5.7%, more than a session ale, indeed a 'revelation', Dark Star (website) Revelation! This is packed with hops, Warrior, Columbus, Crystal, Chinook and Cascade, and dry-hopped too, I seem to remember, so in your face hops! The Revelation is a deep coloured golden ale bursting with flavours with a fruity aroma, tasting of mango, peach and plenty of citrus too, plenty of body with a dry finish, and just £3.50 a pint... Yes, I do love this!

Of course, there are 6 ales in all, plus 5 or 6 real ciders and perry, and the two regular ales are also from the Dark Star Brewing Co. Their 3.8% Hophead, is the regular session ale, brewed with Cascade hops, with more flavours than you would expect for a session ale, indeed, one of my nicknames is 'Hophead Steve' and not just because I'm a 'hophead', but because I regularly drink this pale golden bitter, it is excellent, and costs just £2.90 a pint at The Tower. The other Dark Star ale regularly sold here, at only £3 a pint, excellent value, is their 4.7% American Pale Ale (APA), brewed with Cascade, Centennial and Chinook hops, obviously with more body than the Hophead, and with a greater variety of citrus and tropical flavours too, and a yeast strain from the USA is also used to create this APA style ale, again, an excellent beer!

Many thanks again to Louisa for keeping and serving up excellent ales, and a Happy Birthday again to Darren, cheers! 😎

International Stout Day 2017

Well, I thought it was today, but it appears it was yesterday, so apologies for being a wee bit late, but I did drink a 'Porter' yesterday, so I sort of got there... anyway, celebrate dark ales! Louise, the barmaid and youngest daughter of the publicans at the Dolphin Inn (website), asked me what the difference was between Porters and Stouts, and I sort of knew, but thought I'd better do a bit of research before publication. 

Dolphin Inn

Stouts appear to have developed from Porters, a dark ale favoured by London market porters 300 years ago, though a blend of ales originally, before brewers started brewing Porters themselves. Whereas 'Stout' tended to be a term to describe stronger beers. Stout, as in Stout Porter, was a strong, dark brew that London's brewers developed, and the dark beer that we think of today as a typical Stout style.

Technically, nowadays, Porters are brewed using dark malts, and are usually a very deep, very dark, red in colour if you put your glass up to the light, whereas Stouts are brewed using Roasted Barley and are black or very dark brown, notably in the colour of the head. Of course, I've drunk different brewers' Stouts, Porters and even strong dark Milds that taste as you would expect one of the other styles to taste, but, for me, I would define the Stout from the roasted barley taste, though no doubt many would argue with me there!

Anyway, back to the Dolphin, and yesterday I drank the 5.2% Plum Porter from Nottinghamshire brewer, Milestone (website), which does what it says on the label. This was a very deep dark red in colour with a definite sour plum fruitiness in the aroma. There was plenty of body, quite rich, smooth and sweet at first taste, with hints of sour plum, and I even got chocolate when well down the glass, also that hint of a 'stout' with a slight roasted barley flavour; see what I said about telling the difference between the styles, not so easy! The finish though was quite dry and bitter, not bad, which is good coming from a 'hophead' like me, cheers!