Peterborough - A New City (for me) Visited...

A trip to Peterborough and dreams of Oakham Ales (website, and more later), base of one of my 2 favourite breweries, real ale bars, and maybe a point or three at football, fingers crossed... I had been looking forward to this day for ages! My first port of call was the Bumble Inn (website), close by the railway station at 46 Westgate, PE1 1RE, which opens at 12.00.

At the Bumble Inn I met three friendly Peterborough lads, 2 brothers and a son/nephew, who each had their own pub in their gardens, I kid you not, I was shown photographs... dead impressive and useful during the lockdowns no doubt! Anyway, this micropub sells 5 ever-changing real ales, 2 of which were from that excellent Yorkshire brewery, from Huddersfield, Mallinsons (website), and they, apparently, as I didn't partake, sell home-made pork pies, 'jumbo' sausage rolls and/or scotch eggs; 'pop-up' food events held on the third Thursday of the month.

I had a pint each of the 2 Mallinsons ales, both pale and hoppy, both 4.0%, their Denimes Denimes, and, my favourite of the two, the single hopped Kohatu (New Zealand hops), quite bitter with a dry crisp finish, not bad at all. As we decided, I press-ganged them really, I went along with the lads to my next port of call, the Oakham bar on a barge, Charters (website).

Charters Bar was packed, as was the bankside area next to it, which provides a huge outside area which must have been very useful during the first phase of returning to 'normal' last year. As usual at a bar near a football ground on match day, it emptied out between 2.30 and 3.00 pm, but not before we shared a few pints each, me of the excellent Oakham Citra (4.2%), a wonderful session pale bitter, like me, pale, dry and bitter, great company. Great ale at just £3 a pint ('special' regular deals), and 5 friends of mine (including my ex-wife) turned up here just before 2.30 (Noel and Ian in the photograph above, just as we were leaving to go to the ground).

After the match, sadly an upsetting last 10 minutes for me, but not for my new mates from Peterborough I imagine, 5 of us met up at The (Oakham) Brewery Tap (website), which is just a few minutes walk from the railway station in Westgate...

Here I drank, again at a bargain price, 2 or 3 pints of Oakham Inferno (4.0%), brewed with Sterling, Amarillo, Centennial, Cascade and Chinook hops, those who know me well will appreciate I approve of brewers using these hops from the USA 😉 - And again, great ale, again, pale, dry, refreshing and bitter, great company, and another decently priced ale too, thank you very much Oakham! The journey home was a wee bit rowdy, but not due to me guv...

And, just because I didn't take a photograph of a beer I was drinking, here's one I took earlier, last week at the Dolphin Inn in Hastings (website), my local, cheers! 

London Beer Flood 16/17th (?) October 1814

I was reminded the other week by a friend (cheers Rod!) of the London Beer Flood, which I have written about before. This was a distressing event that happened close by what is now the Dominion Theatre in London's West End, and occurred on the 17th of October 1814; however, with some reports recording the tragedy as happening the day before, but the evidence to support the 17th as the anniversary looks to be stronger.

In those days, London drinkers were supplied their beer by dozens of competing breweries, which resulted in some breweries building enormous vats in which to ferment and condition their ales. Indeed, the enormous porter vat of Maux & Company had a capacity of over a million pints! At about 6pm, on the 17th of October, 206 years ago, one of the steel restraining bands that enveloped that gigantic vat broke and released the contents. Together with the million plus pints of porter released from this vat, other vessels in the brewery were damaged and released even more beer into the flood. The resulting deluge damaged the brewery and a nearby pub, the Tavistock Arms and, sadly, flooded the basements of nearby homes...

Depending on which reports you read, between 7 and 9 people died as a direct result of the flood, most of them drowning in their own basements, and many more were seriously injured, including some of those who came to help rescue survivors... 

R.I.P. to those who sadly died... 😢

Images, with thanks to www.history.info, and I cannot find the source again for the photograph of Maux & Company brewery, my apologies to that source!

Proper Job in Cans, yes, honest!

Well, I've written about St Austell Proper Job before many times before, including cask and bottle-conditioned versions (eg blog), but I have been amazed to find out that they now sell it in cans! And it's at the same 5.5% strength that the bottle-conditioned version comes at, but, obviously, not can-conditioned, although still with a great flavour coming through.

The hops used are Williamette, Cascade and Chinook, providing an abundance of fruit taste in the flavour, citrus and forest fruits, notably grapefruit, with a hint of pineapple, pale and golden, and with a great dry bitter finish, loadsa flavour and not bad at all for a beer in a tin! 

If you see it, it is well worth a try, honest, cheers! 

Reasonable Priced Real Ale... Well, Plus an Update!

From my Steve on Hastings blog... Well, I've not been to many pubs since it became closer to 'normal' times (being careful), whatever that is, but, most appear still to be aware of the Covid-19 Crisis, and hand sanitizer seems to have become 'normal' in many, and many people continue to wear masks , not so worrying, in some, obviously., but not all, so please stay safe...  

And, I was surprised to find out that the best value real ale in Hastings, ignoring 'spoons, was sold at the Nelson at the bottom of The Bourne in the old town, a very decent pint of Fullers London Pride at just £3.20, I have been told, nice one, cheers!  

Constellation Brewery

Having been passed this nice little collection of beers from Mo, many thanks, I had to try them, of course, beers, including lagers, true (!), from the reasonably new brewery, Constellation Brewery, Unit 21 Orchard Business Centre, Sanderson Way, Tonbridge, Kent TN9 1QF (website). Noting the name of the brewery you can guess that the theme of their beers' names is constellations, consequently, I shall also share the extra information about the constellations that they provide on the cans in addition to my tasting notes...

I'll start with Lupus Lager, 4%, and I was surprisingly pleased by the taste, apparently brewed using a French hop variety, preceded by a big aroma, with wheat malt prominent, indeed, I was surprised to see that wheat malt is included for all these beers! Golden coloured, refreshing, with a subtle flavour from the wheat, and a nice dry finish... this was my favourite of the lot! 

"Lupus is a constellation located in the deep Southern sky. It's name is Latin for wolf. Lupus was one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy, and remains one of the 88 modern constellations., although it was previously an asterism associated with the neighbouring constellation Centaurus. Symbolism: The Wolf. Brightest Star: a Lup."

Staying with the lagers, the 4.7% Hydra is brewed to be a Czech Pilsner style. This one has less aroma than the Lupus, guessing less wheat malt is used, but what do I know?!? My notes say "basically a lager" and OK, I'm not an expert on lagers, sorry, that's as good as this gets...

"Hydra is the largest of the 88 modern constellations, measuring 1303 degrees, and is also the longest at over 100 degrees (OK, I don't understand, but they're sharing this, so I am too!). It's southern end abuts Libra and Centaurus and its northern end borders Cancer. I was included among the 48 constellations listed by Ptolemy (above). Symbolism: The Sea Serpent. Brightest Star: Alphard."

I'll now deal with the ales/bitters, first, the session bitter Indus (3.9%) is brewed using English and new world hops, producing an easy to drink dry refreshing pale ale with a dry bitter finish, not bad at all, I wrote...

"Indus is a constellation in the southern sky first professionally surveyed by Europeans in the 1590s, namely Dutch astronomers, and mapped out on a globe by Pieter Platevoet by early 1598 and thus included in Bayer's keynote, consolidated sky atlas of 1603. Symbolism: The Indian. Brightest Star: The Persian." 

And my final review is of the American Pale Ale styled Cassiopeia (4.5%), 'heavily hopped with mainly American varieties' and comes out cloudy... I know it's fashionable to produce cloudy beers, but knowing brewers who produce 'vegan friendly' beers that are clear, eg Marble (website) has been brewing 'vegan friendly' beers for years, clear as a clear beer can be, well, anyway, to this beer. Not bad, big fruit aroma and grapefruit in the taste and a dry bitter finish, it would be interesting to drink a cask version, if they produce one, but preferably clear. 😉

"Cassiopeia is a constellation in the northern sky, named after the vain queen Cassiopeia in Greek mythology, who boasted about her unrivalled beauty. Cassiopeia was one of the 48 constellations listed by Ptolemy, and remains one of the 88 modern constellations. Symbolism: The Seated Queen. Brightest Star: a Cass."

Cheers Mo! 👍

Beers from Black Tor Brewery, Devon

Friends of mine were lucky enough to enjoy a holiday, during the recent sunny week, in Brixham in Devon, and brought back a nice wee presentation box present for lucky me, and many thanks to Mark and Mo! The bottled beers they brought me (above) were from Black Tor Brewery (website), Unit 5&6 Gidleys Meadow, Christow EX6 7QB, on the edge of Dartmoor, and a wee village I used to drive through regularly on my way back into Exeter from walks on Dartmoor back in the days I used to live down there.

The 4.0% Pride of Dartmoor, described as an Amber Ale, was a lovely refreshing ale with a fruity aroma, slightly sweet at first taste, but with a slightly bitter aftertaste and dry finish, and not bad at all, very enjoyable!

The 4.2% Raven, a Best Bitter, was a deep chestnut/red hue, with a slightly malty aroma. This is very much a traditional best bitter brewed with English hops, again, a bit sweet to start with, but with a nice nutty bitter finish, very decent again...

The 4.5% DPA, or Devon Pale Ale, was a golden bitter brewed with hops from the USA as well as England used in the brewing process. There were hints of tropical and citrus fruits in the taste, but subtle, and a smooth refreshing drink, slightly dry finish. Mark drank this one 'cask conditioned' and, apart from Devon Dumpling (which he didn't realise was 5.1% 😉 - Bays) was his regular and favourite tipple down there.

Cheers again to Mark and Mo! 👍

A Book I Must Read, and I shall review it!

Weird, Wondrous and Historic Pubs of the UK by Mikey Swann looks to be a decent read, especially as it has a photograph of Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem beneath the castle in Nottingham (website) on its cover; the photograph above of this crackin' historic pub is my own. A great place to visit anyway, I shall post again when I get hold of a copy of the book!

Haven't been writing much recently as haven't been to more than just the one pub with everything that's (not) going on, hopefully travelling again soon, cheers!