Wee Beefy's Beer Bites, new bar, old new bar

Mornin,

     find below a hopefully brief recount of a few beer facts...

Harrisons 1854

Just a quick note that the Farmers Blonde, despite my reservations but lately lass then magnanimous appreciation, was on fine form, replacing the for now missing Deception as the star ale on offer. Moonshine was back on but, even with a slight chill haze (which cleared soon enough) I have to say that the 54 has got hold of an admirable batch of the Blonde, and as a result, it comes to you highly recommended.

Red Deer

Pleasing but maybe a tad overdue changes int Deer, with about 3 new real ales on offer yesterday. St Peters Best Bitter (rarely spotted on draught), North Cotswold Winter Solstice and Wharfebank Camfell Flame. The St Peters was left til another visit, the Flame was an unusual but not perhaps rounded winter beer, and the Cotswold offering was very palatable, giving exactly the kind of malty and roasted flavours expected of a winter beer. Top marks.

Dada reappraisal.

Don't get the idea I am not interested in detail, after a fuzzy recollection on Wednesday night I, erm, "forced myself" in last night to find out which key keg I had drank in Dada's. Mercifully all looked unchanged, and having tasted the weird and how shall we say unique Flying Dog offering, I knew it wasn't that, and realised I had tried the Thornbridge Chiron.

Better news was to arrive with the fact that I had another delicious pint of the Pollards, a touch less cool then the other night and now, just that little bit more perfect. My final taster here was the Tzara Kolsch which retained an impressive amount of flavour for a key keg offering. That said, who thought that a head height copper tube was a good idea? As you can see above, you can't make eye contact with the bar person, unless you are both tall enough to see over the pumps....

It was also interesting to catch up with the staff, 1 from and 1 not from, Trippets. It was enjoyable getting their outlook on the operation and the subtle differences between the two venues. "No TV's!" (unq) was one comment, which I realised I had never considered before, but immediately recognised this as advantageous. A great stop overall.

Maggie May's

As I was hurtling up to West Street to cut through Leopold Square to catch the bus I noticed he dour edifice that was Alibi had changed its name. In a moment of rash recklessness I ran in expecting to see a maudlin tide of disappointment, but to my amazement, a real live handpump was on show.

Further unexpected Euphoria came from the fact that it was on and was hoped to be a permanent rather than a test of the market feature. The Abbeydale Deception was £2.80 a pint, which is more than reasonable for the area, and I can confirm gratefully that it was in fine form. The idea appears to be a sort of late retro theme ("no music after 1989") which I suppose if nothing else nails the era OK, remembering that its seventies as well, but also succeeds in making me feel incredibly old.

I only had time for the briefest of visits, bizarrely it was precisely the drab selection of continental draught and bottled offerings that kept us out of Alibi, but Chala can have Peroni and I am happy with the sensibly priced real ale so it may require a return visit.

thats all the gen for now, more details soon.

Good health!

Wee Beefy