This is International Stout Day!

OK, I announced the other day that today is International Stout Day 2019, so I had to go and find somewhere selling a stout, or hopefully two, and I was really praying for an Iron Pier stout/porter (website) special, but no luck there... However, I walked up to The Tower in London Road (facebook) and drank, before drinking 2 excellent strong pale bitters (that will come out soon in another blog), a very nice dark bitter, virtually a dark mild/bitter, and a milk stout. 

You can guess the milk stout, but before that I drank, from North Yorkshire, Great Heck (website) Dave, a 3.8% deep dark red bitter/mild (oxymoron maybe, but drink it and you'll know what I mean!), roasted barley in the taste, hint of liquorice, so much flavour for such a session ale, virtually a weak stout, with a dry bitter finish, and very good indeed! 

Then it was the Sussex brewery Gun (website) Milk Stout (4.1%), which does what it says on the label, vanilla milky, hint of chocolate and coffee, so very smooth, and so easy to drink! What more can I say, but cheers... Happy International Stout Day! 😀

Congratulations to the Tower PotY 2019!

Congratulations again to The Tower for being chosen as CAMRA South East Sussex Pub of the Year 2019! The Tower is situated on the corner of London Road and Tower Road, Bohemia, Hastings & St Leonards TN37 6NB, and I revisited on Tuesday, during which I congratulated Louisa the landlady, and had a few pints, of course! 

6 ales, including 2 regulars (Dark Star 4.7% APA and 3.8% Hophead), and a similar number of real ciders, and usually a perry too, are available. I concentrated on the 2 guest ales in the photograph above, Manchester-based Bootleg (website) Cheeky Monkey (4.2%), and I could only ask for it using my standard 'Northern' accent, sadly not appropriate here as it is basically South Yorkshire, sorry peeps in other parts of the North! I've seen Cheeky Monkey described as a dark ale, but to me it appeared more like an old-fashioned best bitter with a nice deep colour, and quite a good bitter too. But I mostly drank yet another an old favourite, Oakham Citra (4.2% - website), regular readers will realise I love the Citra hop, and Peterborough-based Oakham Ales is an excellent brewer too, pale, grapefruit, dry and bitter, quality as ever!

The other 2 guest ales were both darker beers, the Staffordshire-based Titanic (website) Plum Porter (4.9%) is excellent, and North Yorkshire-based Great Heck (website) Voodoo Mild (4.3%) is pretty good too, though I didn't drink either on the day, but have tried them both before!

Full Pints!

The two regular ales are from local brewer Dark Star (website), though now owned by Fuller's of West London, whose brewing business is to be taken over by Japanese group Asahi (blog), so who knows what is going to happen to the Dark Star ales! At the moment, their Hophead (3.8%) is being brewed in London and all other Dark Star beers, including their American Pale Ale (APA - 4.7%) are still being brewed in Sussex; these cost a good value £3.10 and £3.20 a pint at the Tower; the other ales cost £3.20 a pint (Cheeky Monkey and Citra), £3.30 a pint for Voodoo Mild, and £3.50 a pint for the Plum Porter. Also, a you can see in the photograph immediately above, lined oversize glasses are used, so you always get at least a full pint, great value!

Once again, congratulations to Lou and The Tower, and cheers m'dear! 

Hastings: The Tower Beer Fest 2019

Last weekend I wrote a blog about the ale and cider festival being held this weekend at The Tower in London Road, Bohemia, Hastings & St Leonards TN37 6NB, and yesterday I put in a couple of hours voluntarily working at the festival bar. This is one of only 2 pubs I am aware of in Hastings that serve all their ales in over-sized lined glasses, which means a full half or pint every time, and, for their what is now an annual festival, they use bats with 3 thirds of a pint glasses, if you want to try a large number of the ales on offer, cheers Louisa! 

Sorry about the quality of these last 2 indoors photographs, but above is the pub's bar which had 6 of the stronger ales available, out of 18 being served at any one time, plus 7 real ciders and a perry. I only drank 1 of these yesterday, though I have enjoyed before the excellent pale dry hoppy bitterness of Burning Sky Aurora (5.6% - website), and the wonderfully full rich dark Gun Brewery Whisky Imperial Stout (7.4% - website), both from Sussex breweries. Yesterday I tried the Cwrw Ial The Apache Line (website), a 5% pale bitter, with a huge fruity aroma, mango and citrus in the flavour too, not so bitter and dry, but very easy to drink!

And at the bar where I worked as a volunteer for a couple of hours, 12 of the less strong ales were available, plus the excellent stew was served here too. I'll start with the weakest I drank, the 3.9% Salopian Push, and I have to admit a little disappointment, as I'm usually impressed by Shrewsbury based Salopian's ales (website), though for many others it appeared a favourite; exactly why drinking ale is so much fun, nearly an infinite number of possible recipes and something for most! Push is a quite dry bitter ale with hints of fruit and sweet to taste at first, though not quite enough flavour for me, though regular readers will appreciate that I am, and have been called, a "hop monster." Not enough hops for me, certainly not as many as expected.

I then tucked into Yorkshire based Great Heck Brewery Proverbs (4.5% - website), with 2 excellent hops, Citra and Mosaic, used in the brew, which provided a lovely fruity and citrus aroma and taste, and lovely dry bitter finish.  Sticking with the Mosaic hop I enjoyed drinking the single hopped Downlands Mosaic (4.8% and does what it says on the label - website) from West Sussex, a vegan friendly beer, so a wee bit hazy, as no finings used, and with a very BIG aroma, fruitiness bursting up into the nostrils! At first taste I caught a slight sourness to it, but this disappeared as I drank more of this pale golden ale with its lovely dry bitter finish.

The final 2 ales I tried were the Scottish Redcastle Brewery Tower IPA (4.8% - website), a new brewery for me, and apparently using a mix of hops from Britain and the USA; this had a slightly fruity and caramel aroma, with malted biscuit in the taste and a nice dry bitter finish, very enjoyable. The other was the local Sussex Long Man Brewery Special Tower APA Brew (4.8% - website), which I'm guessing was a dry hopped cask of their usual APA, with Willamette and Cascade hops used, hint of citrus fruitiness, and very dry bitter finish.

My favourite ale of the day? Close, but the Downlands Mosaic, cheers Lou!