More Real Ale Available during this crisis...

The Tower

Apologies to readers from elsewhere, but this is mostly local to me and where I live on the south coast, but I did write a blog not so long ago about initiatives around the country, so please don't feel left out. Anyway, I more recently wrote a blog about real ale brought to me by The Jolly Fisherman in Hastings, but now I have an extra source of cask-conditioned ale, yay! 

The Tower (see, for example, an older blog), up on the corner of London Road and Tower Road in Hastings & St Leonards TN37 6NB, is holding a launch opening on Monday 1st June 2020, and then will be opening 3 evenings a week from Wednesday 3rd June to provide off sales, with 'social distancing' facilitated, and hand sanitizer provided too:

Monday 1st June 4-8pm; THEN

Wednesdays 4-8pm

Fridays 4-8pm

Saturdays 4-8pm

There will be 2 cask-conditioned ales on sale at a great value £3.99 for 2 pints, changing as each cask runs out: kicking off with 2 Sussex ales this Monday, from Dark Star Brewing Co (website), their superb 3.8% pale refreshing session ale Hophead, brewed with Cascade hops providing plenty of citrus flavour and bitterness, a dependable old favourite. 

The second is a darker ale from Franklins Brewing Co (website), and a very interesting Porter style too, their 5.0% Sriracha Ace, brewed with Sorachi Ace hops to add a citrus note to dark chocolate and coffee flavours subtly spiced with Guajillo Peppers... I so need to try this one!

They are also selling 6 different real ciders (2 pints for £3.99, again, great value); keg beers, beginning with Guinness, Fosters and Stella Artois; cans, including ale and lager (2 cans for £3.80 or 4 for £7.49), from another local brewer, Gun Brewery (website); bigger cans (!) as in Mini Kegs from Gun Brewery too (small and large cans, I gather, will change as stock changes, and 'showcasing' different breweries); and 3 bottles of wine for £20. 

2 pint reusable plastic bottles are available, but customers are asked to please bring their own bags in which to transport them. It is excellent to see another local business helping us real ale drinkers survive the Coronavirus Crisis, and I wish good luck to, and express my thanks to, Louisa and her colleagues, who I may just see very shortly. 😉

Look after yourselves folk and be careful out there, cheers!

Roger Ryman R.I.P.

Roger Ryman, the man who transformed St Austell Brewery over the last 21 years, has died, sadly, "following a brave battle with cancer" (The Packet), and aged just 52. R.I.P. 😢

He was the Proper Job I know, my having lived in Cornwall in more fallow years.

My thanks to the Falmouth Packet for their photograph.

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! 😉

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!

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... 😢

Back to beers in a can...

Okay, I tend to prefer beer from bottles than cans (and from cask even more!), it's probably just psychological, but I bought this lot and, probably because both are very hoppy, and because I haven't had a proper cask-conditioned pint for ages, however, I quite enjoyed them both, or all 8, depending on how you look at it... 😉

I'll deal with the Derbyshire brewers Thornbridge (website) and their 5.9% Jaipur first. I came upon this brewery's ales when I was up in Sheffield and they'd just started up, I seem to recall that my old boss at Kelham Island Brewery (Dave Wickett R.I.P.) was involved somehow. Anyway, many stories and anecdotes about this fine ale, including once drinking it, cask-conditioned, at the University Arms in Sheffield, when Mike Pigeon was manager there (I believe he has since worked for Thornbridge as area manager, but haven't seen him for quite a few years), anyhow, the story here is that it was dry-hopped in the cask, and marvelous!

So how did it compare from the can? Well, as I said, it seems like eons since I have been drinking cask ale, and maybe even 2 or 3 months since I've had Jaipur cask-conditioned at The Tower in Hastings/St Leonards/Bohemia, so difficult to really compare to memory, but... well, let's first look at how it is brewed, and the 6 varieties of hops included! Ahtanum, Cascade, Centennial, Chinook, Columbus and Simcoe is the wonderful group of hops used for this pale golden ale. It has a fair amount of body, as you would expect, a big fruity citrus aroma and taste, with a dry bitter finish that makes this an excellent and refreshing beer.

Like Jaipur, the American brewery Lagunitas (website) beer is described as an IPA (India Pale Ale), but not the traditional IPAs that were sent out to the Raj in India, when English hops were used in strong bottled ales, no, both of these use American hops, so really in the more modern APA style ('American Pale Ale'), paler and fruitier, but still usually strong and gorgeous!

I have written about Lagunitas before (eg this blog a couple of years ago), but I've usually only had it in bottles, but it was okay in cans too. It is reckoned that 43 hops are used in the brewing, I'm presuming they pick from 43 different types of hop for each brew length, because the tin only mentioned 5 hops, ie Cascade, Emperor, Eroica, Horizon and Pathetique, and there was plenty of flavour from that lot, I can tell you! A golden IPA, with a big fruity aroma, a nice full body, dominated by a citrus flavour with a hint of malt, starts off slightly sweet, but quickly bringing in bitterness and a lovely crisp dry finish, and another refreshing beer indeed!

Maybe I shouldn't be enjoying drinking beer at home, but I really did enjoy both, cheers!