Peanut's at the Vat and Fiddle!

Yes, literally, a cat called Peanut keeps turning up at a pub and brewery 33 miles away from his home, he loves the ambience and company, apparently... He first turned up there on the 9th of July, after being missing from his home in Lincolnshire for 6 days already, apparently enjoying his first birthday at the pub, the Vat and Fiddle in Nottingham (website). He was reunited with his owners after it was realised that he was 'chipped' but he returned to the pub again within 3 days of going missing a second time (BBC). It is a complete mystery how he travels between the 2 places, but he certainly remembered the way back, don't be surprised if he returns yet again! 

I have a long history with Tynemill and Castle Rock Brewery (website) going back to well before I started blogging, indeed my local pub 25 years ago is one of theirs, the New Barrack Tavern in Sheffield (website), although it wasn't owned by Castle Rock on my first visit there 30 years ago, but acquired since. I got on really well with their manager and his wife, and have a Castle Rock polo shirt given to me by them, without having the necessary points (they run a loyalty scheme). And I first visited the Vat and Fiddle towards the end of the last millennium, before going to a football match at Nottingham Forest with my then wife, where on that occasion we met another friend we've both kept as a friend since, Paul. So, Castle Rock, and I have mentioned their ales before, have made quite an impression on my life, a bit like Peanut's life! 🐱

Castle Rock Brewery do brew some excellent cask ales, including the 2 you are most likely to see around the country, Harvest Pale and Elsie Mo, and I have written about their ales before, for example on my older blog. The Harvest Pale (3.8%) is a very light and very drinkable citrussy session ale, brewed with Centennial (hopslist), Cascade (hopslist) and Chinook (hopslist) hops. The Elsie Mo is a stronger 4.7% golden ale, still very citrussy but more complex, and very drinkable too, and brewed with First Gold (hopslist), Challenger (hopslist), and Slovenian Aurora (hopslist) and Bobek (hopslist) hops. Look out for them, cheers! 😁

Image from the Vat and Fiddle facebook page.

Excellent Tonbridge Cask Ales & Real Cider

I hadn't visited for a while, and yesterday I decided it had been too long! So I caught the train to Rye and had a few drinks in the Rye Waterworks micropub, Tower Street (corner with Rope Walk), Rye, East Sussex TN31 7AT (website). If you know nothing about the Rye Waterworks (ales and ciders available yesterday shown in the image above, although another ale filled that gap, but I forgot to make a note of it, apologies), and the building's 300 years history, please read this blog I wrote soon after the pub opened 6 years ago. 

I drank 2 beers I hadn't had before from the getting better and better in my estimation, Tonbridge Brewery (website), starting off with their 4.2% Blonde Ambition, well, 2 pints of it actually, it was that good I had to make sure. 😉 All their ales are vegan friendly, and clear as a bell, I thank you Tonbridge for being yet another brewery showing that you don't have to be lazy to brew suchlike! Tonbridge tend to use English hops a lot, in this instance First Gold (hopslist) and Challenger (hopslist), providing just a hint of orange to this pale dry bitter ale, very good indeed!

The second new ale to me from Tonbridge Brewery was their Velvet Raven, a 5.2% Stout, which is certainly what I would call a stout, despite its deep red colour suggesting a porter (see blog). Again, bewed with English hops, Northdown (hopslist), Fuggle (hopslist) and Kent grown Bullion (hopslist). There was a subtle aroma of coffee, with a spicy/fruity taste, and hints of liquorice, coffee and chocolate, finishing off quite dry and bitter, good stuff! 👍

I finished off with a cider from Biddenden Vineyards (website), their 8.0% Dry Cider, made from culinary and dessert apples; it looks a wee bit below a pint because the glass had been brim filled nd I didn't want to spill any! 😉 This is what a cider should taste like, but so smooth, gorgeous!

Great company and staff... Cheers folks! 🍎🍏🍺

AwRye Visit and Ale & Cider at the Waterworks

Awrye, because my visit was meant to be on Thursday, which became Friday (& pun), but visiting Rye is always a pleasure, and Friday is a more likely day than Thursday to see David the landlord in situ at the Rye Waterworks micropub, Tower Street, corner with Rope Walk, Rye TN31 7AT (website). I first visited the Waterworks soon after it opened 5 years ago (blog), always worth visiting! Also Lotte and Morgan working at the bar is always excellent too, and 2 other members of staff popped in as well, and chatting to Paul is always a good craic, so a happy day.

I decided to drink the top 3 pale ales listed in the wall menu pictured below. From the top, first, and remembering that they only stock local beers and ciders, from Hythe based Hopfuzz Brewery (website), their 3.6% 'session ale' Fall Out. This is brewed with Bullion hops from Kent and has a zesty fruitiness to the aroma and taste, and is very light and easy to drink, nice one!

Second, from Brede based Three Legs Brewing, but soon to be moving a little further west to Bexhill (website), their 'vegan friendly' 3.7% Pale. Again, does what it says on the label, very pale with a dry bitter finish, very drinkable. Then, from their own microbrewery Waterworks (website) IPA (their pun I Pee Alot - the building used to be a public convenience amongst other things, see history @ blog). IPA (4.4%) is brewed with Challenger, Goldings and Ernest hops providing a big fruity aroma and taste, pale, and with a dry bitter finish. My first quaffing of this ale was about 6 weeks before, and I wrote 'heavy on the hops' but apparently too bitter for some of the locals, so it has been toned down a wee bit, but still nice, but not as memorable for me.

Then, as ever when I visit Rye, I finished with cider, indeed, on this occasion, 2 ciders from Biddenden Vineyards near Ashford (website), not just a wine producer, but ciders too, and much more! First their 5% Red Love (pictured above, showing its blush pink/red colour) made with red skinned and red fleshed apples, unsurprisingly called Red Love.😉 A medium dry real cider, very refreshing and with a nice dry bitter finish.

Then their more demanding 8.4%  Biddenden Dry, (above image and a more traditional colour for cider). Pale golden and made with Kent grown culinary and dessert apples, with more body and depth of flavour, and much more dry as soon as you take a mouthful, impressive!

That's all for now folks, but I will be back, cheers! 🍻

Rye Waterworks & Happy (Chinese) New Year!

Indeed, today celebrates the beginning of the Chinese Year of the Rabbit (British Council), so Happy New Year! And what has this to do with the Rye Waterworks micropub (website)? Well, exactly a year ago today I wrote about my new year visit to the pub (blog), a favourite haunt of mine since I first wrote about it soon after it opened, getting on for 5 years ago (blog). Oh yes, and on Friday I visited for the first time this year, which meant I said 'Happy New Year' to the folks there... A roundabout way of linking my latest visit to the Chinese New Year, cheers! 😉

Anyway, like a year ago (blog), Friday was a lovely crisp day with a clear blue sky, and well worth the trip over. I started off with a few ales, 2 from Tonbridge Brewery (website), and the other brewed by the pub at their own microbrewery (blog), although this was one of the last firkins from before their brewery started functioning, when they were still a cuckoo brewery; ale from their own brewery will be available here very soon, I was assured by David. To the ales, I started off with the thirst quenching 3.9% Tonbridge Easy Street Pale, brewed with Northdown, Ernest and Fuggles, all 3 hops grown in Kent. It's a pale golden bitter with a light floral and spicy aroma, plenty of flavour considering its strength with a hint of citrus, and a lovely sharp bitter finish.

The other 2 were more traditional session bitters, the first being, appropriately, the 3.6% Tonbridge Traditional, brewed with Kent Golding and Challenger hops. I really rate this beer, indeed, I've not drunk a bad Tonbridge ale of any style recently, that I can remember, my notes say it does what it says on the label, hints of malt and citrus, very good! And the very local, also 3.6%, Waterworks Ureynal, a pun on the fact that in one of its more recent earlier lives the pub building was a public loo (blog with its history). This is another very good traditional session bitter brewed with Pilgrim hops, and, as I suggested above, I had a chat with David about this beer, and I am very much looking forward to my first taste of this, and other ales they are brewing, a pale and a darker ale too, when they are being served at the Rye Waterworks. 👍

And on to ciders... I had a couple of pints, including one of the excellent 5.8% Earl's Reserve Still Cider, made from Russet apples grown on their own 100 acre farm in Matfield, near Tonbridge in Kent, and where they've been growing apples since 1964, that is Charrington's (website). This is crisp and refreshing and so easy to drink, now this is apple juice, and one of my 5 a day! 😉

The second of my 5 a day (pictured above), and my final drink before departure to catch the train, was the slightly stronger, and crystal clear, 6.9% Perryhill Orchards Double Vision Cider (website). This is a more complex cider, with a dry bitter finish, and very good indeed, nice one; they also have a less dry version. Cheers m'dears, Happy New Year! 

'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! 😉

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!

Visit to West/South West London

So what were we doing drinking in a Wetherspoons pub? Well, historically, as in the last few years, I've considered the Bricklayers to be my pub of choice in Putney, sadly, they've gradually descended into the abyss, it's freezing out of the summer season, I've been there and they've had no beers at all, recently very few ales available, and on our last visit we were served up a very poor pint from the usually reliable Twickenham Ales, and at £4.40 a pint... I've given up! So, to The Rocket, Putney Wharf Tower, Brewhouse Lane, Putney SW15 2JQ (website), it has a great view of the bridge and down the river (Thames), and is next door but one to St Mary's Church (website), who's 15th century tower is visible, and the church where the Putney Debates were held by the Parliamentarian forces during the English Civil War, proper historic!

Also, as I'm a member of CAMRA I get another 50p off a pint of real ale there with a voucher, and during my recent visit, that was off an already low £2.29 a pint, so just £1.79 each for a few very different decent ales, instead of £4.40 a pint plus for poorly conditioned/dead ale, no competition, and there's not much else in Putney for real ale these days either! My brother Dan, really liked the 4.9% Romsey brewery Flack Manor (website) Hedge  Hop, a traditionally copper coloured bitter, slightly sweet biscuit flavour, with hints of fruit and spice the result of the use of Cascade, Pilot and Challenger hops, not bad and Dan kept returning to it...

But I prefered, from the much more local Wandsworth brewer, Sambrook's (website) Powerhouse Porter (also 4.9%). I have to admit I wasn't too impressed with Sambrook's in their early days, but their ales seem to get better every time I try them, and this one is a gorgeous example of a Porter! Brewed using a variety of malts, and producing a smooth deep dark red ale with plenty of body, and a hint of chocolate in the taste, very nice, cheers!

The next day we walked a circuitous 18 mile route to Richmond and back, via Wimbledon Common, Richmond Park, and the Thames footpath (mostly Middlesex side). In Richmond we visited The Victoria Inn, 78 Hill Rise TW10 6UB, our new 'favourite' pub there, with excellent service from the Cornish 'maid' (oops! My history of living in Devon and Cornwall coming out there, sorry, all women down there are called 'maid' and all men are called 'boy', so 'young boy' or 'old boy' etc!). Anyway, here we both drank the Suffolk brewer Adnams (website) Ghost Ship (4.5%), more expensive, oh well, you can't be paying £1.79 a pint everywhere, sadly... This is a pale sharp refreshing ale, with a slight citrus flavour from the Citra hops used (and other unspecified hops from the USA) and a dry bitter finish, their best ale, I believe.

When we got back to Putney we dropped down in strength at The Rocket, but what a great brewery to find an ale from, Oakham of Peterborough (website), and again at £1.79 for CAMRA members, still great value at £2.29 though for others! Jeffrey Hudson Bitter (JHB, 3.8%) is a wonderful pale golden ale, with citrus in the aroma and flavour provided by the Challenger and Mount Hood hops used, quite sharp and refreshing, with a dry bitter finish and, indeed, one of the best session ales brewed!

I usually prefer to drink at smaller local ale houses, but the manager/cellar manager appears to be keeping their ales in very good condition, and, although quite a busy pub, The Rocket has an appropriate number of staff working to keep the drinks flowing and the till ticking, cheers!