Congratulations Again to the Dolphin!

Again, my congratulations go out to the Dolphin Inn (facebook), 11-12 Rock-a-Nore Road, Hastings TN34 3DW, for winning the 2019 SE Sussex CAMRA Community Pub of the Year, nice one! The award was presented yesterday evening, sadly missed by me, consequently no timely images, although I was there at lunchtime...

And, in addition to their 3 regular ales, Dark Star Hophead, Youngs Special, and Harveys Sussex Best, the 3 guest ales were all from close by, indeed, all three from Kent, and all very good. From Folkestone, Angels & Demons (website) 5% I Spy Dragon Fly, a very pale dry bitter, does what it says on the label, and I love it, but...

McCanns, a subsidiary of Angels & Demons, Folkestone Best, is a 4.0% traditional best bitter, and very good too, however... the Kent Brewery (website), from Birling, Tropic Ale (4.9%) is something very special, and I cannot get enough of this brewery's ales, I love them! Completely to my taste preference, and a hopfest in the mouth, they say a "Juicy IPA" and they aren't wrong. Another very pale golden bitter, tropical fruits and citrus aroma big time, grapefruit specifically in the taste, and beer of course, okay, it's getting boring, but like me, pale dry and bitter, quality!

Anyway, that's what the Dolphin is really about, Mark, Mo, family, and colleagues, serve up excellent real ales, not to mention great food too, and a truly 'community' public house, congratulations, yet again, and well deserved, cheers!

Back to Rye...

I hadn't visited for a while, so thought it best to take a trip to Rye, to the Rye Waterworks micropub (my first descriptive blog of this micropub), in Tower Street, corner with Rope Walk, TN31 7AT. Met by the friendly family staff of David and Eddie, and the usual pleasant banter with them and other customers, old, and always new as well. When I did leave to catch the train home, a 5 minutes walk to the station, there was a bit of a mess, this was on Friday, and the countrywide power problems seemed to have messed up signals towards Eastbourne. The train was stationary and very crowded so I decided to pop back for another drink, lo and behold Ulla had also turned up to work behind the bar, the pub-related working family all present now...

Anyway, to the drinking! I started off with the 3.8% Old Dairy (website) Uber Brew, always reliable, and I was not let down at all, as ever, refreshing, hoppy, grapefruity, pale, dry and bitter, excellent! I then tried the Old Dairy Gold Bullion, (4.3%) which I believe is a version of their Gold Top, a golden ale, easy to drink with more subtle hops. I then re-tried Romney Marsh (website) Romney American Pale, which at 5%, and with the use of hops from the USA, I am always a little disappointed by. It is pale and golden, a bit too sweet for me though, with a caramel taste, and nowhere near the amount of citrus I prefer in the flavour. Remember, like the ales I prefer, I am pale, dry and very bitter! But where would we be if everyone was the same, thankful for the variety of ales available to us!?!

Oh yes, I returned to the Uber Brew, as I also did when returning from the station, from where I later caught a lovely much quieter, and cooler train with working air-conditioning, and I had an extensive chat to the conductor, who also loves real ales too, nice one, cheers!

Long Live The Local!

Long Live The Local is a campaign backed by an alliance of pubs, brewers and industry bodies that form Britain's Beer Alliance, who are trying to prevent the closing down of local public houses. They have organised an online petition, that I have already signed, to ask for a cut in, or freeze, beer duty, here is the link to the petition and to their website, with also the opportunity to send an email to your Member of Parliament, as I have done as well. Remember, when we lose a pub, we often lose the hub of a community with it!

Ram Brewery Returns!

Many thanks to my brother for providing the information (Wandsworth Borough Council website), which tells us that brewing is returning to the old Ram Brewery site, now called the "Ram Quarter." The brewery will be installed in a restored grade II listed former brewery building and will include a tap room and off sales. Sambrooks Brewery (website) is the business apparently moving from Battersea into the heart of Wandsworth, although I couldn't find anything about this on their own website yet. I wish good luck to them in this venture!

Congratulations to The Tower!

Alexandra Park

One of the advantages of walking up to The Tower from the centre of Hastings, or from the seafront, in addition to the reward of great ales on arriving of course, is the journey through one of 2 wonderful green spaces. Walking up from the seafront at St Leonards and you can ignore the roads, mostly, and come up through St Leonards Gardens (blog). So I don't really need an excuse to visit The Tower, but yesterday, following the pub's CAMRA award presentation earlier in the week, I took advantage of walking up via the alternative route, through the gorgeous Alexandra Park (older blog) from near the town centre.

So, not far from the park, across Bohemia Road, and down Tower Road to The Tower, on the corner with London Road, indeed, at 251 London Road, Bohemia, St Leonards, Hastings, East Sussex TN37 6NB, where I received a warm welcome from the landlady, Louisa...

As I suggested, earlier in the week Louisa and her colleagues had received the award from the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) South East Sussex Branch Pub of the Year 2019. So, congratulations to Louisa and her colleagues, and many thanks to Louisa for allowing me to use the photograph above (I had been unable to attend on Tuesday evening), cheers m'dear!

So, 6 local (ish) ales, although Dark Star Hophead (3.8%) is not now brewed in Sussex, but up in Chiswick, presumably for more volume since Fullers took over Dark Star, and subsequently their brewing interest was taken over by Asahi (see earlier blog). Of the 4 above, I had a pint of Weltons (website) Horsham Pale (3.7%), a pale golden bitter, aroma and hint of citrus from using hops from the USA, for its strength quite a big flavour and certainly a very bitter finish.

Then I got onto the other 2 ales, apologies for the intrusion of the sun on my photograph above, but next I had a pint of the Gun Brewery (website) Zamzama IPA (6.5%), so going up significantly in strength, and CAMRA South East Sussex Branch Beer of the Year for 2 years running. More hops used from the USA, many more indeed! With tropical and citrus fruit in the aroma and taste, much more body, as you would expect, a slightly sour, dry and bitter finish, 'twas very nice! In addition, this is a 'vegan' ale, and consequently unfined; the brewery states "naturally hazy" but yesterday this was well conditioned and really quite clear, so vegan friendly doesn't necessarily mean cloudy... 

I then ventured on to a pint of the Gravesend based Iron Pier (website) 7.3% Speyside Whisky Barrel Aged Porter, possibly the longest name for an ale that I've ever drunk. What can I say, incredibly dark, a 'near-stout' (OK, I have written about this before, eg blog), opaque, with a light brown head, body +++, hint of whisky (Speysides are my favourite Scottish whiskies), roasted barley, I wrote "bl**dy gorgeous!" So there you go, I must have loved it, but I had to drink another half before I wandered home, just to make sure though. 😉

Again, congratulations to Lou and The Tower, cheers m'dears!!

Congratulations to Rye Waterworks!

David welcomes me!

I recently discovered that the Rye Waterworks micropub, which opened little over a year ago (more details at last years blog), had been presented with the South East Sussex CAMRA Runner Up for Cider Pub of the Year 2019 award, congratulations! So I had to visit asap, and did so yesterday, and what a fine day it was too...

The ever-changing furniture

At opening time, 12.00 noon, there was David and Ulla working at the Waterworks, and local teacher and part-time bar steward Josephine (or Jo to friends), started at 14.00. As ever, a friendly welcome (see first photograph, for example) and warm banter and discussion with people both sides of the bar, including customers new and not so new.

Beers to the Left, Ciders to the Right

The Rye Waterworks doesn't just sell 8 local real ales, but many local gins and very nearly local wines (this isn't the place for that story), but, and very likely why they won the award so early in the pub's existence, they also sell 14 or so local real ciders (including 3 in bottle), usually a perry, and even a 22% locally produced mead! Also, food-wise, and we're talking traditional, and not so traditional, bar snacks including locally made pork pies and scotch eggs, for the vegetarians locally produced vegetable somosas and pickled garlic cloves, and the Roder's neighbour supplies home made spicy chutney and jam to accompany the excellent food on offer.

 

As I've said before, if it's not nailed down, virtually everything you see, inside and outside, that is furniture, curios, pictures/posters, pewter tankards et al, is for sale, which is why it looks a little different every time you visit... And, of course, what's on offer to drink and eat changes here and there too, hence the number of different beer pump clips seen in the above photograph!

Yesterday, as I often do, I mostly drank the excellent session pale golden bitter from Old Dairy Brewery (website), their 3.8% Uber Brew, pale, dry and bitter, refreshing and, indeed, excellent! I also tried a pint of the Goachers (website) Silver Star (4.2%), another golden ale, sweet at first taste with a hint of honey, but with a dry finish and bitter aftertaste, very complex and not bad at all. I also tried a half of Brumaison (website) 1770 London Porter, a 4.7% porter (with not just a small part stout; I've written a stouts and porters blog before!), which was excellent too...

I'll be back... Cheers!

Belfast:

A Guest Review by my friend Sam, cheers Sam!

Kitchen Bar

I was born in Belfast but have lived in England for 46 years. When I stopped going back regularly in 1983 there was no Real Ale to be had in pubs in the centre of Belfast. In fact, very few people went into the city centre. Imagine my surprise when I returned for the first time in 30 years, 5 years ago, and attended the Belfast Beer Festival! Going over for a couple of days at the end of May, I determined to see the state of play with real ale in Belfast City Centre. All visits were in the afternoon.

The first pub I tried was The Kitchen (website), near the main shopping centre in Victoria Square. It is a modern looking pub with half used for food service and sport on the TV. There was one handpump, serving Whitewater Maggie's Leap, a full bodied bitter at 4.7%. Priced at £3.80, was an enjoyable pint. 

Later in the afternoon I tried The Bridge House (website). This is a typical Wetherspoons pub. Prices were very reasonable, but I was disappointed that there were no local beers on. I had a pint of Pickled Mouse from the Arundel Brewery. At 4.1% it was the weakest beer apart from Doom Bar and Ruddles. 

On the second day, after a visit to my old neighbourhood, I visited The John Hewitt (website). This is a small pub in the Cathedral district. Lunchtime is geared for food, but they do have music advertised in the evening at weekends. Again there was only one handpump, serving Yardsman American Pale Ale, a light and refreshing beer brewed by the Hercules Brewing Company in Belfast. 

I then tried McHughs (website), a pub in the oldest building in Belfast. This building is the back room of the pub, and the rest is fairly modern. This pub also had only one handpump serving Whitewater Maggie's Leap. As with all the beers tried, it was in good condition. 

On the third day, I had some time to kill before getting the bus to the airport, so I went in The Crown (website) on Great Victoria Street. This pub is famous for it's interior with original booths. It also has a fine selection of real ales. I tried another Whitewater beer, Copperhead, a hoppy beer with a touch of citrus at 3.7%, although at £4.70 a pint it was on the expensive side.

The Crown tends to get very busy at lunch times, so I went next door to Brennans (facebook page), which had no real ale, but served Maggie's Leap on tap at £4.30 a pint! This is a Typical Belfast pub serving traditional Irish food. 

At Belfast International Airport, I went to one of the bars through security. They were selling Maggie's Leap on keg for £6.30 a pint! I suppose that is one way to counter air rage!*

Overall, I was disappointed by the choice offered, although I only visited city centre pubs. There are a number of breweries in Northern Ireland brewing real ales, so it is a shame more are not repreented in Belfast.

Cheers Sam, and many thanks, Maggie certainly leapt at you plenty!

*Or cause it! (ed) 😉