St Leonards With New Pub For Me - Hastings

I didn't actually walk these pubs in this order, but this is more of an order to walk, I'll explain as I go on. 😉 My mate Paul and I decided to have a short pub crawl around St Leonards as his wife was away for the day visiting her daughter and grandchildren, we visited 3 of these pubs, one twice, as one was closed that day. So, here I am starting off with the Grade II Listed, very nearly 200 years old, Horse & Groom, 4 Mercatoria TN38 0EB (facebook), with 4 handpumps, the one regular ale being the virtually ubiquitous Harvey's Sussex Best (website).

I drank 2 ales from the reasonably local (East Sussex), and certainly improving, Lakedown Brewing Co (website). First, their 4.5% English IPA Eddy, a light amber colour, brewed with English hops, although not divulged which hops are used. Not quite as dark or as bitter as a traditional IPA, but easy to drink, and I had a tasty cheese and red onion bap/sandwich too.

Then I went for a more interesting 4.8% American Stout Marquee, apparently brewed with Centennial (hopslist) and Golding (hopslist) hops. I'll write what I noted at the time first, "Pretty damn good, a wee bit fruity, hint of coffee in the taste with a dry finish" and less chocolate than I expected. The citrus fruitiness coming, presumably, from the Centennial hops, and the darker fruit flavours from the malt and Goldings. A 'light' stout and I liked it! 😁

Come out of the pub, walk down Norman Road a short distance and turn left and the next port of call is slightly newer (1830s) The Nags Head, 8-9 Gensing Road TN38 0ER (facebook) with 3-5 ales available, again including Harvey's Sussex Best as a regular I believe, where we drank the ale in the photograph below! Oh yes, and apparently Robert Croker, aka Robert Noonan, aka Robert Tressell who wrote The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists (Guardian), used to drink here when he lived nearby in London Road in the early 20th century. ✊

So we went for this ale from the East Anglian brewery Adnams (website), their Citrus Pale Ale Ghost Ship (4.5%). This is a pale sharp refreshing ale, brewed with Citra hops (hopslist), consequently, as you would expect, it has a subtle citrus flavour and a nice refreshing dry bitter finish, and, as I've said before, in my opinion Adnams best ale. 👍

Come out and return to Norman Road and turn left, carry on down and cross London Road, then turn left up Western Road just before you reach Warrior Square Gardens. Up on the left is the pub we missed out on (just me visiting a few days ago this time), because it isn't open on Mondays and Tuesdays, when it can be booked by local charities and community groups. The Prince of Wales, 15 Western Road TN37 6DG (website) is a similar age building to the others, but was a bakers before becoming a beer shop called the Coachmaker's Arms in the early 1850s (bsls) then being licensed as The Prince of Wales from 1855. 

If you've used my link to the pub's website page you'll realise that it was re-opened earlier this year, after being closed for 2 years, by the Hastings Project (website), a "community interest company which brews beer to raise money for local charitable and community projects." Hastings Project was set up by Ed (who I met and had an interesting chat with) and Robbie, who have been brewing as a 'cuckoo brewery' here and there. Tending the bar was a welcoming young woman called Adrien who patiently answered my numerous questions, and who has experience working with the public, but has only worked in licensed premises the last few months, cheers!

Here, I drank a couple of pints of Scottish brewery Fyne Ales (website) Jarl (3.8%), indeed Fyne Ales are one of the breweries whose ales I am never disappointed with, and on my older blog 12 years ago, I placed Jarl as my 'champion' session  bitter (blog). If you don't want to look back at it, here is how I describe it: "a crackin' dry, pale golden and hoppy ale, with plenty of citrus flavours, nice and bitter, and very refreshing" and brewed with Citra hops, nowt's changed!

The pub also has a good selection of bottled beers, including Belgian beers, and a number of crafty keg brews of their own, well worth the visit. 👍

The first and last place we visited was The Royal, 1 St John's Road TN37 6HP (website), which can be reached by coming out of the Prince of Wales and turning left to head up Western Road, and it's on the left on the corner at the top, opposite St Leonards Warrior Square railway station, so if you come by train, you can start here! 😉 When first built and licensed in 1876 this was called the Railway Hotel, then Campbell's Hotel (the name of the licensee), changing its name to the Royal Hotel after it was taken over by George Veness in 1884, closing briefly in 2019 it reopened later that year as The Royal.

They had 2 cask ales, Courage Directors Directors Bitter (4.8%), which I believe is brewed at the Eagle Brewery in Bedford, but not so sure since Marston's was taken over/merged (CAMRA), and yes, the ubiquitous, at least hereabouts, Sussex brewery Harvey's (website) 4.0% Sussex Best Bitter! Harvey's do not divulge which hops are used, but they claim it is a "blend of four local hops" 😒 and I always say, they could do better by using more hops! Very easy to drink when you want a refreshing pint after a long walk, slightly malty, hardly bitter, needs more hops, cheers!

 

Welcome to Hastings!

Here are 3 pubs/bars that are either new, or have newish licensees, and are all close to where I live, in the centre of Hastings. Now, if you visit Hastings by train, as you walk towards the town centre, the first pub you'll see is opposite you, that is, The Seadog, 32 Station Road TN34 1NJ (website), giving you a big WELCOME TO HASTINGS! Under its original name, the Royal George, this first opened as a beer house in 1851, it became Grace's Wine Bar in the 1980s, The Priory in 1990, closed for 4 years then reopened as Frank's Front Room for a couple of years, then closed again, reopening back to its original name as the Royal George in 2017, then closed again, but reopened last year as The Seadog; for an excellent history read at Hastings Pub History, to whom many thanks for information, cheers!

The building looks well refreshed from the outside, and the inside is bright and clean too, the pub has 2 rooms, though easy to traverse between. There is a small bar in the middle, with 2 handpumps, I was told usually 1 cider and 1 ale. The day I visited I was told they had trouble with the cooling system in the cellar, so no cider, just the one ale, which on the day (regularly changes) was from Manchester brewery, Marble Beers (website), a brewery that used to be inside the Marble Arch Inn round the corner from where it now is, and which I have written about before, eg blog. Anyway, the Marble Mild (4.1%) does what it says on the label really, it's a very decent not too dark mild, which could have been cooler (2nd pint was better), but not unexpected with their cellar temperature problem. It just means that I'll have to visit again soon. 😉

4 or 5 minutes walk away is The Prince Albert, 28 Cornwallis Street TN34 1SS (website), which used to be a Shepherd Neame pub for years, but has recently been sold by them, and now is a genuine free house. The first time it was a licensed premises was in 1867 (David Russell, Register of Licensees for Hastings & St Leonards), I haven't found out which brewery was first involved with them, but it's been run by a couple of new licensees recently, after being closed for a couple of years. The current licensees reopened again earlier this year.

They do change their ales regularly, and I had heard they had one of my favourite ales on Friday (Kent Prohibition), but for my visit yesterday, they had a 'tap takeover' by Anspach & Hobday of London SE1 (website). Many keg beers were theirs too, but I went for the 3 cask ales (above), starting off with The Ordinary Bitter (3.7%), weaker than a 'best bitter' but, again, it does what it says on the label really. Brewed with East Kent Goldings and Chinook hops, it's malty and bitter, and a very quaffable 'ordinary' ale, which is not denigrating it, but obviously brewed with traditional tastes in mind, similar to Young's Ordinary, but a bit maltier.

Then I moved onto the paler ales, my second pint being Bermondsey Pale (4.0%), unsurprisingly, a paler ale, the label says English hops, but I can't find which, although I'm guessing including East Kent Goldings. A wee bit fruity, but essentially a very decent pale dry bitter. Then I went for the big one, The IPA (6.0%), essentially billed as a West Coast of the USA style APA, brewed with Summit and Ekuanot hops from the USA, and Australian Enigma hops. A big fruity aroma and taste, with an enigmatic taste too that I couldn't work out, 😉 but a full-bodied golden bitter, with a nice dry finish, nice one! 👍

Finally, a new bar, very recently opened, and a minute or so walk away from The Prince Albert, that is the Smoke Shack Bar & Grill, St Andrews Market TN34 1SJ (facebook). No cask conditioned ales here, but I had to put in a visit, and they do sell 2 crafty keg beers. I had a pint from Cornish brewer Verdant (website), their 4.5% Light Bulb, an extra pale bitter brewed with Magnum, Simcoe and Centennial hops, producing a fruity beer, as you'd expect from these hops, very refreshing, just a wee bit too cloudy for my personal taste though.

Their second beer was from a much more local brewery, Lakedown (website) and their 5.3% NEIPA, brewed with Citra, Mosaic and Centennial hops. Unfortunately I did not try this beer, so can offer no opinion this time, maybe that's for another visit, cheers folks!

'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! 😉

Mini Pub Crawl around Hastings Old Town

I walked to the Old Town from Hastings Town Centre, and started at the Dolphin Inn, 11-12 Rock-a-Nore Road TN34 3DW (website), because it's open by 11.00. This pub is in the heart of the Hastings Fishing Industry, with a balcony facing the famous tall black net huts. The Dolphin has returned to having 3 regular ales, 2 brewed in Sussex, Harvey's Sussex Best and Dark Star Hophead, and Young's Special, now brewed in Bedford, and I refuse to call it what they've re-badged it as 'London Special' as it's not been brewed in London for years now! Anyway, this recent visit saw 3 quite local guest ales too, that is, 2 from Sussex brewers, Lakedown (website), their 4.2% Pale, and Gun (website), Project Babylon, a 4.6%  American Pale Ale. I drank the third guest ale, from Kent Brewery (website), their rather easy to drink 4.2% The Quiet American, a light refreshing APA style with subtle flavours, noticeably grapefruit, nice one. 

I walked out of the pub to the right, and turned first right and walked up to the Crown, 64-66 All Saints Street TN34 3BN (website), which also opens at 11.00. Since the Covid-19 lockdowns they have reduced the number of their cask ales to 2. On this visit they had 1 from a Sussex brewery, that is Battle (website), and their 4.5% One Hop Wonder, not sure which hop, but a quite subtle APA, and not bad at all. The other ale was from Kent brewer Pig & Porter (website), their Slave to the Money, a 4.1% bitter, using Bramling Cross hops. They also have a regular keg stout from Sussex brewery Only with Love (website), their 4.9% Halland Oatmeal Stout, which uses Columbus, Magnum and Willamette hops.

If you go straight down Courthouse Street opposite the pub, cross The Bourne main road, continue up Courthouse Street and it leads you to the Jenny Lind Inn dead opposite (website), 69 High Street TN34 3EW. The Jenny Lind was built on the site of a much older pub that dated back to the early 17th century, The Bell, but with a gap whilst not a pub of 200 years, before the Jenny Lind started trading in the 1850s. It's named after the Swedish Nightingale, the famous opera singer who, under the wing of the German composer Felix Mendelssohn, became widely followed throughout Europe, including by Queen Victoria; she moved to England in 1855, where she lived until her death in 1887.

The Jenny Lind, which opens at 12.00, usually has 6 ales available, but with room and handpumps available for quite a few more ales for special events. Their 2 regular ales are from Sussex brewery Long Man (Best Bitter - website) and Greene King (Abbot Ale - website). They had 4 guest ales including 2 from Sussex brewery Only with Love (one was their Halland Oatmeal Stout cask-conditioned and Grizzly RYE IPA - website). Also 2 from Kent breweries Pig & Porter Skylarking, a 4.0% Session IPA, and the one I drank, from Kent Brewery (website), their 4.8% The New Black, a Black APA, an oxymoron perhaps? I have written about Black IPA/APAs for my older blog, where I briefly explain how 'Black' IPA/APAs are brewed. Anyway, The New Black really is, surprisingly maybe, light and citrusy, and very tasty indeed!

Then, I continued down the High Street to the seafront and turned left to reach the Jolly Fisherman, 3 East Beach Street TN34 3AR (website), which opens 14.00 weekends, 16.00 weekdays). They had 2 ales available, a 5.0% milk stout from Pentrich Brewing (website) Glass Half Empty, and the ale I drank, from Verdant Brewing (website), their 4.4% Where Can I Find Friday, a collaboration with Fyne Ales (website). Brewed with Mosaic and Strata hops, this was a very drinkable golden bitter. There was also a keg stout from Kent brewer Time & Tide (website), and they have 6-8 real ciders and perry available, usually including a couple from local cider makers, on this day, from Nightingale Cider Co (website), their 6.0% Discovery.

I then walked back westwards towards Hastings town centre, soon reaching the Albion, 33 George Street TN34 3EA (website), but with an entrance on Marine Parade opposite the seafront too, and which opens at 12.30. They had 4 cask ales available, all from Sussex breweries, Harvey's Sussex Best (website) is their regular, and there is usually an ale from Bedlam too (website), which, on this day, was their Phoenix, a 3.9% APA. Labelled an Extra American Pale Ale, and brewed using hops (Cascade, Citra and Amarillo) and a yeast from the USA, indeed, a nice refreshing bitter. Also, there was Yacht Rock, a 3.8% 'extra pale ale' from Only with Love (website) and the 4.2% Pale Ale from Lakedown Brewing (website). Please note that you do need to pay electronically here as they do not take cash.

If you are inspired by this blog and decide to visit Hastings soon, cheers! 🍺