Hellabaloo,
so far in the last week I have received two large orders of tasty canned and bottled boohar. And although I still have plenty left I have to say that so far this experience has shown me the difference between the qualities and attributes of what I would describe as standard more mass marketed output, along with the delightful soupy happiness that I so enjoy.
I have, admittedly, never made the phrase in the title by the way - but I am well aware that although Asda near me sell a few good beers from BrewDog, FourPure, Vocation, Thornbridge and Harbour, the majority of their output is, as a large retailer, of cheap mass produced beers which people guzzle without any particular interest in how it is made or what it contains. I should point out as well that this is fine - I know that in the beer universe there is plenty of criticism of some people's choices - but that is not an issue that am explaining here. What am here to say is that my choice of beers this year especially, has shown me the benefits of the styles that I like, and alerted me to features in more traditional style beers that I like much less.....
I should first of all point out that I still like draught Bass and Marstons pedigree, especially if they are gravity dispensed from the cask. And when it comes to smaller breweries the list of favourites is never ending. In this case I should confirm that I have always liked Little Critters brewery beers in Sheffield. I know that some folks don't, and I admit that I have not really got on with their standard bitters, but their single hopped C Monster beers at 6% or similar, along with their excellent stouts and porters at 6.5 - 7%, have never disappointed. So whilst ordering a large number of brews from Dronfield Beer Stop recently I chose a can of Little Critters Incubus Series Vol 9, a pale ale at 5.6% made with Columbus, Citra and Waimea hops. Along with the other hoppy delights I had purchased from Turning Point, Pentrich, Pomona Island, Brew by Numbers, Northern Monk and the excellent Kernel, I fully expected this to be a cracking brew. But I noticed a specific difference in the hops, overall flavour and crucially the type of fruit and type of bitterness in the Incubus 9. And I realised that I was appreciating the outputs of other UK brewers far more....
I have recently tried a lot of other Sheffield brews by the way - including the wonderful Abbeydale Moonshine in a can. This is ironic because despite it's renowned lagery pale appearance, as well as it's excellent hoppiness, arguably in Abbeydale's portfolio this is one of the more traditional beers in their range. And having first drunk it in 1996 when not only my tastebuds, but also the expectations of the majority of other drinker's were different then, am happy to say that I still love it. I have also loved everything brewed at St Mars of the Desert in Attercliffe and they have often used Waimea and Citra in their excellent output, so this, along with firm favourite Columbus, persuaded me that I would enjoy this combination perfectly. Yet the beer was lacking any identifiable hop punch, and the fruitiness came out as a dry sweetness in the aftertaste. It seemed that it was a beer aimed, on the basis of this tasting, at a more traditional drinker. So overall I found it underwhelming.
I did think that this outlook may be explained away at once by the excellence of boohar produced by the firms listed above, but after receiving my second delivery, from Archer Road Beer Stop yesterday, featuring a gamut of the excellent Gamma, along with wonderful Abbeydale Voyager, I had to accept that I really appreciate smooth, cloudy, fruity and citrus bitterness, and that the ease of drinking in all such products inescapably satisfied my needs. Last night I finished my daily session on a can of Gamma Beep Boop Session IPA at 4% and found it had a simultaneously overwhelming but joyous hop and citrus mouthfeel. It was so easy to drink that I had to go to bed.....
I know that differences in appreciation of drinks are a natural response, and I have admittedly mocked myself for hardly ever drinking clear beers below 5%, but these two latest deliveries showed me the amazing abilities of different micro breweries and the possible intent of their produce. Am not criticising the ideas and intentions or indeed the output of Little Critters at all, and I hope nobody thinks that, instead am simply acknowledging that their current beer styles seem to lack the punch and mouthfeel of others. And that is fine, whilst also showing me the benefits of brewers such as the impeccable Gamma, producing quite incredible brews from their brewery in Denmark.
One of the few advantages of this lock down has been my available time and willingness to see what else is available online, as well as from excellent Sheffield stores and pubs to take out. Am thinking now that my choices have reassured me that some excellent beers are still available.
Lets hope that we can get back to the excellent pubs in Sheffield soon, in order that we can enjoy this and similar beers together in sunny beer gardens once again.
Cheers!
Wee Beefy
Showing posts with label Archer Road Beer Stop. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Archer Road Beer Stop. Show all posts
Sunday, 31 May 2020
Saturday, 8 December 2018
Doing the Heeley run
Hullabalo,
last Sunday I went out with my dear friend Vikkie for a short tour of pubs starting on Derbyshire Lane before making our way towards Chesterfield Road and who knows where after. Here are some details of what happened on that wander...
I started the trip by paying to catch a Stagecoach because the Wirst bus never showed up - we were catching the 18 at 12.35 in town so I left home at 11.30 and made it with 5 minutes to spare. The 18 was late after changing drivers, and then the new driver forgot the route. Chaos from the dreadful Wirst bus as always, but we got there on time.
From a range of real ales at the Mount Pleasant, our first stop, we both had pints of the Sadlers Drop Hammer at 4.1%. This was refreshing and easy drinking starter which went down well. The Pleasant remains an excellent traditional boozer serving 5 real ales, with a lovely view from the bench out the front and a lovely unspoilt interior.
We walked down to the Cross Scythes next where Vikkie enjoyed a bottle of the Thornbridge Versa, wheat beer, and I had a pint of their Rattlesnake. Am not sure whether my tastebuds have changed since the staff at the Bath Hotel brewed this, or whether its another less hopped weaker version of formerly excellent Thornbridge beers - which ever it was it was pleasant but underwhelming. The Scythes was a little quiet, and was also the place where I spotted my first pub Christmas tree of 2018. Mutter mumble....
From here we walked down to Archer Road Beer Stop, now owned by Richard. We had planned to go to the Ale House but information on the internet, which is a person, told me it didn't open til 16.30 so we had to miss it out. We bought some cans, and had a quick chat with Richard, before heading off down the road to the Broadfield. Here I had a half of the Brew York Hazy IPA on keg, whilst Vikkie may have had half a sour. We sat outside as the pub was boiling, but it was also packed. The Brew York beer was excellent.
We passed Hop Hideout next - ironically the windows displayed only four letters, that spelling out Hope...and then went to the Gin Bar next door. This wasn't a planned stop but it was nice to pop in for a look, and to have to halves of a beer with Shed in the name, on keg.
By now it was dark and we walked along Broadfield Road to the bridge over the river to come out on London Road - and our next stop was at Pour next to the White Lion. Here I had an excellent 8.5% DIPA from True North on keg for something like £4.20 a pint? An excellent beer, and one which accompanied our food perfectly. We both had pizza - Vikkie had the green spicy one with extra olives and I the ham mushroom and olive one. The bases were likely hand made but the dough used made them so light and incredibly tasty, they were very much appreciated. Definitely reasons for a return visit
Our penultimate stop was in the White Lion next door where we spoke to Jon and settled down in the snug on the right with what was likely pints of Abduction - always a go to fave beer of mine, although had we been staying longer am sure we would have tried some of the others. The music in the White Lion was excellent as always.
As time was getting on we caught a taxi to our final pub, the Beer Engine. In here we had beers, served in glasses, which we drank using our mouths. The beers would have been brewed by breweries and would have had names. We also saw Adam and Lucienne, although I didn't recognise her, and me and Vikkie left them to it after drunkenly thinking he was on a hot date....
Vikkie left me here to finish my quantum of liquid, after which I popped over to the Albion for a finisher, which was a can of Lupoloid from that brewery. It was nice, but slightly reflective of a poor line up of ales on offer.
We managed to miss out Guzzle, the Ale House, Tramsheds, Brothers, Sheaf View and Jabeerwocky so we may revisit starting on Woodseats on a Saturday to get them all in - in the meantime, this was a fab wander around some fab pubs selling unequivocally fab beer.
Your very best health!
Wee Beefy
last Sunday I went out with my dear friend Vikkie for a short tour of pubs starting on Derbyshire Lane before making our way towards Chesterfield Road and who knows where after. Here are some details of what happened on that wander...
I started the trip by paying to catch a Stagecoach because the Wirst bus never showed up - we were catching the 18 at 12.35 in town so I left home at 11.30 and made it with 5 minutes to spare. The 18 was late after changing drivers, and then the new driver forgot the route. Chaos from the dreadful Wirst bus as always, but we got there on time.
From a range of real ales at the Mount Pleasant, our first stop, we both had pints of the Sadlers Drop Hammer at 4.1%. This was refreshing and easy drinking starter which went down well. The Pleasant remains an excellent traditional boozer serving 5 real ales, with a lovely view from the bench out the front and a lovely unspoilt interior.
We walked down to the Cross Scythes next where Vikkie enjoyed a bottle of the Thornbridge Versa, wheat beer, and I had a pint of their Rattlesnake. Am not sure whether my tastebuds have changed since the staff at the Bath Hotel brewed this, or whether its another less hopped weaker version of formerly excellent Thornbridge beers - which ever it was it was pleasant but underwhelming. The Scythes was a little quiet, and was also the place where I spotted my first pub Christmas tree of 2018. Mutter mumble....
From here we walked down to Archer Road Beer Stop, now owned by Richard. We had planned to go to the Ale House but information on the internet, which is a person, told me it didn't open til 16.30 so we had to miss it out. We bought some cans, and had a quick chat with Richard, before heading off down the road to the Broadfield. Here I had a half of the Brew York Hazy IPA on keg, whilst Vikkie may have had half a sour. We sat outside as the pub was boiling, but it was also packed. The Brew York beer was excellent.
We passed Hop Hideout next - ironically the windows displayed only four letters, that spelling out Hope...and then went to the Gin Bar next door. This wasn't a planned stop but it was nice to pop in for a look, and to have to halves of a beer with Shed in the name, on keg.
By now it was dark and we walked along Broadfield Road to the bridge over the river to come out on London Road - and our next stop was at Pour next to the White Lion. Here I had an excellent 8.5% DIPA from True North on keg for something like £4.20 a pint? An excellent beer, and one which accompanied our food perfectly. We both had pizza - Vikkie had the green spicy one with extra olives and I the ham mushroom and olive one. The bases were likely hand made but the dough used made them so light and incredibly tasty, they were very much appreciated. Definitely reasons for a return visit
Our penultimate stop was in the White Lion next door where we spoke to Jon and settled down in the snug on the right with what was likely pints of Abduction - always a go to fave beer of mine, although had we been staying longer am sure we would have tried some of the others. The music in the White Lion was excellent as always.
As time was getting on we caught a taxi to our final pub, the Beer Engine. In here we had beers, served in glasses, which we drank using our mouths. The beers would have been brewed by breweries and would have had names. We also saw Adam and Lucienne, although I didn't recognise her, and me and Vikkie left them to it after drunkenly thinking he was on a hot date....
Vikkie left me here to finish my quantum of liquid, after which I popped over to the Albion for a finisher, which was a can of Lupoloid from that brewery. It was nice, but slightly reflective of a poor line up of ales on offer.
We managed to miss out Guzzle, the Ale House, Tramsheds, Brothers, Sheaf View and Jabeerwocky so we may revisit starting on Woodseats on a Saturday to get them all in - in the meantime, this was a fab wander around some fab pubs selling unequivocally fab beer.
Your very best health!
Wee Beefy
Monday, 28 May 2018
Verdant and Cloudwater do colab. World can now end.
Hello,
I worry that the title of this post may identify me as a Cloudwater or Verdant "fan boy". I recognise that by the associations of ideas and things I like, that I may have fallen into a category amongst some readers whereby I am not to be trusted on some more patina heavy issues due to my perhaps foolish love of "modern" and worse still "craft" beers. To which, I would say - what is Craft exactly? As many have found, its a liquid word. Its meaning changes per utterance. Am not a crafty darling. I just know what I like. And I don't like the term Craft.
So, having got all that out of the way, lets talk beer. At the beginning of May 2018, or other dates, a collaboration DIPA was released having been brewed by Verdant and Cloudwater Breweries. Naturally, regular readers will have correctly assessed that I had to have this. And I just have. Although it took a long time getting hold of a can....many thanks to Dave from Archer Road Beer Stop for my early birthday present!
The first thing I have to mention is Expectation versus delivery. Being a fan (not boy) of both breweries, I naturally assumed that this would rewrite the story of beer. That was my expectation. Luckily that was tempered. Expectation versus delivery always ends in disappointment I find. It was time to expect to be underwhelmed.
My other fear was that they would do something completely off kilter, and that I wouldn't like it. A marmite gose. an aubergine Hungarian IPA, a caviar stout. Luckily, and the reason that I rejoiced, they stuck to type and did an excellent DIPA. And that made me very, very happy. Because it was like all I love bout their two breweries output but slightly better. And that is all I wanted....
The label implied that the beer had been brewed at the Verdant brewery, and their signature sweet hoppy taste, maybe from the London Ale yeast they use, was prominent throughout. Despite obvious soupy orange and yellow hued comparisons in appearance, their beers are very different in how they are constructed. Verdant are sweeter, and less hoppy compared to Cloudwater. A tribute then that both of these characteristics featured strongly in Swifts or Swallows?, which is the name of the colab.
Having just drunk it I can report a lingering bitterness but also that lightly malt sweetness that frames their beers. They used Citrea and Columbus hops which may have added a lemony hint to the bitterness, along with Cloudwater standards of flaked oat and Dextrin, which are no doubt contributors to it being so easy to drink.
So two of my favourite breweries have made a highly acceptable soupy DIPA. And that makes me very satisfied. End of.
Goodbye!
Cheers
Wee Beefy
I worry that the title of this post may identify me as a Cloudwater or Verdant "fan boy". I recognise that by the associations of ideas and things I like, that I may have fallen into a category amongst some readers whereby I am not to be trusted on some more patina heavy issues due to my perhaps foolish love of "modern" and worse still "craft" beers. To which, I would say - what is Craft exactly? As many have found, its a liquid word. Its meaning changes per utterance. Am not a crafty darling. I just know what I like. And I don't like the term Craft.
So, having got all that out of the way, lets talk beer. At the beginning of May 2018, or other dates, a collaboration DIPA was released having been brewed by Verdant and Cloudwater Breweries. Naturally, regular readers will have correctly assessed that I had to have this. And I just have. Although it took a long time getting hold of a can....many thanks to Dave from Archer Road Beer Stop for my early birthday present!
The first thing I have to mention is Expectation versus delivery. Being a fan (not boy) of both breweries, I naturally assumed that this would rewrite the story of beer. That was my expectation. Luckily that was tempered. Expectation versus delivery always ends in disappointment I find. It was time to expect to be underwhelmed.
My other fear was that they would do something completely off kilter, and that I wouldn't like it. A marmite gose. an aubergine Hungarian IPA, a caviar stout. Luckily, and the reason that I rejoiced, they stuck to type and did an excellent DIPA. And that made me very, very happy. Because it was like all I love bout their two breweries output but slightly better. And that is all I wanted....
The label implied that the beer had been brewed at the Verdant brewery, and their signature sweet hoppy taste, maybe from the London Ale yeast they use, was prominent throughout. Despite obvious soupy orange and yellow hued comparisons in appearance, their beers are very different in how they are constructed. Verdant are sweeter, and less hoppy compared to Cloudwater. A tribute then that both of these characteristics featured strongly in Swifts or Swallows?, which is the name of the colab.
Having just drunk it I can report a lingering bitterness but also that lightly malt sweetness that frames their beers. They used Citrea and Columbus hops which may have added a lemony hint to the bitterness, along with Cloudwater standards of flaked oat and Dextrin, which are no doubt contributors to it being so easy to drink.
So two of my favourite breweries have made a highly acceptable soupy DIPA. And that makes me very satisfied. End of.
Goodbye!
Cheers
Wee Beefy
Sunday, 25 February 2018
A short Sheffield pub ctawl
Hello all,
don't worry, this isn't a post about short Sheffield pubs, its just the details of a short trip I had on Saturday to a few places to buy a small number of drinks. Being only yesterday there is a good chance I may even recall the details of all the beers I tried....
Having met relatives for a coffee in town earlier, and popped into Beer Central to pick something up, I headed for Hop Hideout, to wish Jules and Will a happy marriage (am not sure if that is what one says, but I said it to both!) and to have a couple of small drinks. I started on a half of the The Choice is Yours Export Porter, brewed by Blackjack, the Hop Hideouters and the Black Sheep Store at Blackjack Brewery in Manchester. Despite its strength of 6.7% the porter was really easy drinking - credit to all involved for a wonderful colab brew.
I also got a third of Magic Rock and Basqueland Brother Chucker IPA, a 6.7 colab with a wonderful aroma and a very satisfying taste. From here I caught the bus up to Archer Road Beer Stop. There were two real ales on, Wet Feb from Dancing Duck, and White Rose Blonde. As you may know you can't drink in but seeing as how I know Dave he invited me in for a catch up and very kindly bought me a couple of pints of the Dancing Duck beer, which was on top form.
From here I walked along Archer Road and up the road on the left Cawthorne Grove to come out and visit the Ale House. This is my third visit since it was taken over by new management last year and once more didn't disappoint. Here I had a pint and a half of Whitby IPA. I have never tried any of their beers before and so went for my default style, and the beer was served in a Whitby branded glass.
The IPA was hoppy, although not overly so, but was very well kept, and it was an enjoyable end to my rather short crawl of three Abbeydale and Woodseats venues.
Just a final note, and that is that next time am up in the area am going to pop in the White Lion which Jon and Mandy have now been running for three years! Congratulations to them on turning the pub round and making it into a top boozer once again.
Cheers!
Wee Beefy
don't worry, this isn't a post about short Sheffield pubs, its just the details of a short trip I had on Saturday to a few places to buy a small number of drinks. Being only yesterday there is a good chance I may even recall the details of all the beers I tried....
Having met relatives for a coffee in town earlier, and popped into Beer Central to pick something up, I headed for Hop Hideout, to wish Jules and Will a happy marriage (am not sure if that is what one says, but I said it to both!) and to have a couple of small drinks. I started on a half of the The Choice is Yours Export Porter, brewed by Blackjack, the Hop Hideouters and the Black Sheep Store at Blackjack Brewery in Manchester. Despite its strength of 6.7% the porter was really easy drinking - credit to all involved for a wonderful colab brew.
I also got a third of Magic Rock and Basqueland Brother Chucker IPA, a 6.7 colab with a wonderful aroma and a very satisfying taste. From here I caught the bus up to Archer Road Beer Stop. There were two real ales on, Wet Feb from Dancing Duck, and White Rose Blonde. As you may know you can't drink in but seeing as how I know Dave he invited me in for a catch up and very kindly bought me a couple of pints of the Dancing Duck beer, which was on top form.
From here I walked along Archer Road and up the road on the left Cawthorne Grove to come out and visit the Ale House. This is my third visit since it was taken over by new management last year and once more didn't disappoint. Here I had a pint and a half of Whitby IPA. I have never tried any of their beers before and so went for my default style, and the beer was served in a Whitby branded glass.
The IPA was hoppy, although not overly so, but was very well kept, and it was an enjoyable end to my rather short crawl of three Abbeydale and Woodseats venues.
Just a final note, and that is that next time am up in the area am going to pop in the White Lion which Jon and Mandy have now been running for three years! Congratulations to them on turning the pub round and making it into a top boozer once again.
Cheers!
Wee Beefy
Saturday, 13 August 2016
Abbey, Woodseats, reopens, and nearby pubs
Hello all,
first post for a while - mainly as have not completely fixed the virus I now have on the tomputer -so don't follow any links! Just a few details of the pre-launch night I went to with Matty at the Abbey pub on Woodseats on Thursday, and a couple of other pubs.
Matty had been invited as the CAMRA Sheffield young members wallah and had a plus one ticket - I was his choice. There was no expectation I would write about it, but I am anyway. The Abbey is potentially my least visited Woodseats pub - from those open in 1994. I think I have only been once and I can scarcely remember that. I did remember it has a bowling green, and it still does. And thats about it.
Arriving after 18.00 we went into the small room on the left with a small bar featuring two handpumps. From a choice of four real ales I opted for Abbeydale Moonshine and Matty Farmers Blonde. They will have two regular beers and two from the SIBA list, which I understand has some decent ales on it. The other two beers were Doom Bar and Greedy King Abbot - not an inspiring choice for myself, but I don't think O am the kind of customer they are targeting. The moonshine was well kept and on at £3.20 a pint.
The ticket entitled us to a tour with manager Wayne Morton (I hope I have remembered that right!) who showed us the three rooms, including an upstairs function room with a handpump. The room on the left retains its fireplace and is cosy and traditional in style, the right had room is much larger, likely previously having been two, and has the bar in the middle. It was in here we talked to Richard Short, a CAMRA fellow, and got to try samples of the free food.
One thing that makes the Abbey stand out from its near competitors is the food. A bit pricier than the Spoons and the Chantrey for beer, the food is of high quality and comprised excellent steak, calamari, garlic cheese mushrooms, pork pies, sweet chilli chicken and others. The staff were friendly throughout and this was an enjoyable visit. If their two guest ales become a little more adventurous I will definitely pop in again.
Down the road is Archer Road Beer Stop. They weren't selling any real ale, and,. despite being a long time friend of Dave I didn't ask him if this was a long term arrangement. Instead we had cans of Chorlton Brewing Amarello sour, Beavertown India Stout and a Fierce Panther IPA that might have been from Sonnet 43. As we know Dave we were able to sit in the back and chat with him and sample the beers, which were sold for about £2.00 each. The Beavertown is a very hoppy stout and was enjoyable, and the sour from Chorlton was OK, but the best beer was the IPA at 6.3%. An excellent visit to the ARBS as always.
From here we walked down to the Broadfield. Rammed, as it always seems to be, we had pints of Acorn Gorlovka and a Wiper and True Pale - as the barman said, the brewery were far too cool to tell them which beer it was, but it was a 5.something% pale and it was delicious. It was. Matty wanted to try the keg Gorlovka as he is a massive fan of the beer on cask - if anything, he didn't like it as much as he did on cask. Another example of why not everything that works on cask works on keg.
Our final stop was a short bus ride away at the Beer Engine. Winners of the pub of the month (award Tuesday coming) this is a place I have been going back to a lot recently. As per my last two visits I and Matty had pints of the excellent Fyne Ales Ragnarok, Imperial Jarl at 7.4%. A wonderful mellow but hoppy golden pale ale which slips down far too easily - we had another two halves before closing.
Overall all the venues visited were excellent, and as regular readers may know, there are numerous other pubs nearby worth a visit. Best of luck to the Abbey on their reopening (following a £550,000.00 makeover) and to the other premises. Four more places worth a visit in sunny, slaking, Sheffield.
Cheers!
Wee Beefy
first post for a while - mainly as have not completely fixed the virus I now have on the tomputer -so don't follow any links! Just a few details of the pre-launch night I went to with Matty at the Abbey pub on Woodseats on Thursday, and a couple of other pubs.
Matty had been invited as the CAMRA Sheffield young members wallah and had a plus one ticket - I was his choice. There was no expectation I would write about it, but I am anyway. The Abbey is potentially my least visited Woodseats pub - from those open in 1994. I think I have only been once and I can scarcely remember that. I did remember it has a bowling green, and it still does. And thats about it.
Arriving after 18.00 we went into the small room on the left with a small bar featuring two handpumps. From a choice of four real ales I opted for Abbeydale Moonshine and Matty Farmers Blonde. They will have two regular beers and two from the SIBA list, which I understand has some decent ales on it. The other two beers were Doom Bar and Greedy King Abbot - not an inspiring choice for myself, but I don't think O am the kind of customer they are targeting. The moonshine was well kept and on at £3.20 a pint.
The ticket entitled us to a tour with manager Wayne Morton (I hope I have remembered that right!) who showed us the three rooms, including an upstairs function room with a handpump. The room on the left retains its fireplace and is cosy and traditional in style, the right had room is much larger, likely previously having been two, and has the bar in the middle. It was in here we talked to Richard Short, a CAMRA fellow, and got to try samples of the free food.
One thing that makes the Abbey stand out from its near competitors is the food. A bit pricier than the Spoons and the Chantrey for beer, the food is of high quality and comprised excellent steak, calamari, garlic cheese mushrooms, pork pies, sweet chilli chicken and others. The staff were friendly throughout and this was an enjoyable visit. If their two guest ales become a little more adventurous I will definitely pop in again.
Down the road is Archer Road Beer Stop. They weren't selling any real ale, and,. despite being a long time friend of Dave I didn't ask him if this was a long term arrangement. Instead we had cans of Chorlton Brewing Amarello sour, Beavertown India Stout and a Fierce Panther IPA that might have been from Sonnet 43. As we know Dave we were able to sit in the back and chat with him and sample the beers, which were sold for about £2.00 each. The Beavertown is a very hoppy stout and was enjoyable, and the sour from Chorlton was OK, but the best beer was the IPA at 6.3%. An excellent visit to the ARBS as always.
From here we walked down to the Broadfield. Rammed, as it always seems to be, we had pints of Acorn Gorlovka and a Wiper and True Pale - as the barman said, the brewery were far too cool to tell them which beer it was, but it was a 5.something% pale and it was delicious. It was. Matty wanted to try the keg Gorlovka as he is a massive fan of the beer on cask - if anything, he didn't like it as much as he did on cask. Another example of why not everything that works on cask works on keg.
Our final stop was a short bus ride away at the Beer Engine. Winners of the pub of the month (award Tuesday coming) this is a place I have been going back to a lot recently. As per my last two visits I and Matty had pints of the excellent Fyne Ales Ragnarok, Imperial Jarl at 7.4%. A wonderful mellow but hoppy golden pale ale which slips down far too easily - we had another two halves before closing.
Overall all the venues visited were excellent, and as regular readers may know, there are numerous other pubs nearby worth a visit. Best of luck to the Abbey on their reopening (following a £550,000.00 makeover) and to the other premises. Four more places worth a visit in sunny, slaking, Sheffield.
Cheers!
Wee Beefy
Sunday, 31 January 2016
Further excellence
Hello,
over the first few days of 2016 I encountered some excellent beers. I posted about that. However, in keeping with that theme, I have encountered some other extra quality beers in cask, keg and bottle. Here is what I found...
I recently came across the Cloudwater Imperial stout. It was 10.1% and an eye watering £6.00 a pint on cask.
I naturally had a pint - and finished it in 20 minutes. This was not my most sensible move. Luckily, at Shakespeares, Matty was on hand to get another round, and after that he bought me another pint of the excellent Cloudwater. A fantastic beer to end any night - which I had a further (slower) two pints of at a later date.
Last night I was in the Bath Hotel. They had the excellent Cloudwater IPA on at 7.4%. It was chuffing lovely. In the end, I bought pints for Matty and Tash and had 4 or 5 pints myself. Accompanied by an excellent roast pork sandwich this was the perfect night out!
We later went into BrewDog Sheffield. Tash sensibly had a half of a keg beer whilst me and Matty had a bottle of Fantome Saison to share. Thirsty as we were for this excellent saison, we had another bottle - a fantastic way to finish...
Finally, and I apologise for the brevity of this post (as possibly justified hereafter) but tonight after excellent pints of the Blue Bee into the Void and Oceanic Red (along with Acorn Gorlovka for Matty) at the Three Tuns, we ended up once again in Shakespeares.
Here, as well as the Siren Orange Boom at 2.8%, an exemplary, refreshing, low gravity orange wheat, we also had, and I tried, a pint of the Double Ace from Buxton, an, at least, triple IPA based on the excellent Axe Edge, at 10.1%. This, in some ways, may explain the brevity of this post!
A fantastic IPA, this featured vanilla as well as hoppy citrus flavours as well as strong chocolate orange character in the initial and after taste - an astounding and hugely enjoyable beer.
The final beer is in bottle - Hitachino Nest Saison du Japon. Made with lemon and rice wine it is possibly the easiest drinking beer I have ever tried. Me and Matty drunk ours in about two minutes! A perfect but uniquely enjoyable palate cleanser in a line of stronger beers. We bought ours from Archer Road Beer Stop by the way....
And talking of which, tomorrow I will be out with Dave for a rerun of a previous pub crawl - I hope to , write that up soon....
Cheers!
(Hic - edited, as was a trifle refreshed when I posted the above....)
Wee Beefy
over the first few days of 2016 I encountered some excellent beers. I posted about that. However, in keeping with that theme, I have encountered some other extra quality beers in cask, keg and bottle. Here is what I found...
I recently came across the Cloudwater Imperial stout. It was 10.1% and an eye watering £6.00 a pint on cask.
I naturally had a pint - and finished it in 20 minutes. This was not my most sensible move. Luckily, at Shakespeares, Matty was on hand to get another round, and after that he bought me another pint of the excellent Cloudwater. A fantastic beer to end any night - which I had a further (slower) two pints of at a later date.
Last night I was in the Bath Hotel. They had the excellent Cloudwater IPA on at 7.4%. It was chuffing lovely. In the end, I bought pints for Matty and Tash and had 4 or 5 pints myself. Accompanied by an excellent roast pork sandwich this was the perfect night out!
We later went into BrewDog Sheffield. Tash sensibly had a half of a keg beer whilst me and Matty had a bottle of Fantome Saison to share. Thirsty as we were for this excellent saison, we had another bottle - a fantastic way to finish...
Finally, and I apologise for the brevity of this post (as possibly justified hereafter) but tonight after excellent pints of the Blue Bee into the Void and Oceanic Red (along with Acorn Gorlovka for Matty) at the Three Tuns, we ended up once again in Shakespeares.
Here, as well as the Siren Orange Boom at 2.8%, an exemplary, refreshing, low gravity orange wheat, we also had, and I tried, a pint of the Double Ace from Buxton, an, at least, triple IPA based on the excellent Axe Edge, at 10.1%. This, in some ways, may explain the brevity of this post!
A fantastic IPA, this featured vanilla as well as hoppy citrus flavours as well as strong chocolate orange character in the initial and after taste - an astounding and hugely enjoyable beer.
The final beer is in bottle - Hitachino Nest Saison du Japon. Made with lemon and rice wine it is possibly the easiest drinking beer I have ever tried. Me and Matty drunk ours in about two minutes! A perfect but uniquely enjoyable palate cleanser in a line of stronger beers. We bought ours from Archer Road Beer Stop by the way....
And talking of which, tomorrow I will be out with Dave for a rerun of a previous pub crawl - I hope to , write that up soon....
Cheers!
(Hic - edited, as was a trifle refreshed when I posted the above....)
Wee Beefy
Wednesday, 27 January 2016
A mooch round Abbeydale and Heeley
Hello,
last week I was out and about with Matty. Himself and my were out sampling a few pubs and the ales they sell. Its always good to take someone somewhere new, and Matty had not been to two of the intended pubs. Here's some details of what we found and saw and drank in Abbeydake and Heeley.
We started at Daves, better known as Archer Road Beer Stop. Despite rumours to the contrary, Davefromtshop is still selling real ales - he had Moonshine and Invocation on from Abbeydale when we visited. We were invited in the back for a chat and Dave insisted we try a couple of bottles between the three of us of Hambleton Thoroughbred Legend. This was a new beer, but which was a stronger version of the established golden ale but stronger and hoppier, around 6.5%. We all tried the beer, which was very tasty, and Dave intends to get the whole range in. It was good to introduce Matty to the shop, and was a great start to our night.
Down to Athol and then Little London Road next we were soon on Chesterfield and visited the Tramsheds. This is my second visit and the venue did not disappoint. Although, when we asked if there were any sour beers, I did have to name some, but they offered us a can of Magic Rock Salty Kiss which is excellent, so Matty had that, and I had a hop Oil IPA called Hophunter from Sierra Nevada which was delicious. Matty also got chatting to Alan behind the bar, who he knew from school.
We headed up to the Brothers Arms next, and lined our stomachs with two curried scotch eggs, in my first visit for months. I had a pint of the Blue Bee Ginger and am certain that Matty had something hoppy, perhaps from Revolutions brew. The Brothers was busy as always and we enjoyed sitting in he room on the left, catching up, making plans and watching a steady flow of people heading to and from the bar.
Just down the road is the Sheaf View. This was likewise busy, and we were surprised to find the room at the back virtually empty after we got our pints - a beer I can't remember the name of for me, and a beer I can;t remember the name of for Matty. We got chatting to Dave Staves and enjoyed our more memorable than this post would suggest, real ales. Another cracking visit.
Down onto Chesterfield Road was our penultimate pub the White Lion. We both had pints of Dancing Duck in here, and Matty also tried a strong dark beer which I think was a plum Porter. Details eh - who has them? The beer was reasonably priced as usual and we sat in the beautiful front snug, soaking up the atmosphere and chatting to the guy whose table we had joined.
We left here late on and went to meet Tash and Mr Scatt in the Bath Hotel. Alas we arrived after last orders but luckily halves of a beer had been bought for us. The pub was still quite busy despite it being late and we stayed here for a while before getting a taxi home.
As always, his could be part of a much longer crawl with many different pubs involved. And once again, the crawl demonstrates that there is a large number of different styles of venues selling an interesting range of beers in all formats very close to each other. Long may that continue!
Cheers
Wee Beefy
last week I was out and about with Matty. Himself and my were out sampling a few pubs and the ales they sell. Its always good to take someone somewhere new, and Matty had not been to two of the intended pubs. Here's some details of what we found and saw and drank in Abbeydake and Heeley.
We started at Daves, better known as Archer Road Beer Stop. Despite rumours to the contrary, Davefromtshop is still selling real ales - he had Moonshine and Invocation on from Abbeydale when we visited. We were invited in the back for a chat and Dave insisted we try a couple of bottles between the three of us of Hambleton Thoroughbred Legend. This was a new beer, but which was a stronger version of the established golden ale but stronger and hoppier, around 6.5%. We all tried the beer, which was very tasty, and Dave intends to get the whole range in. It was good to introduce Matty to the shop, and was a great start to our night.
Down to Athol and then Little London Road next we were soon on Chesterfield and visited the Tramsheds. This is my second visit and the venue did not disappoint. Although, when we asked if there were any sour beers, I did have to name some, but they offered us a can of Magic Rock Salty Kiss which is excellent, so Matty had that, and I had a hop Oil IPA called Hophunter from Sierra Nevada which was delicious. Matty also got chatting to Alan behind the bar, who he knew from school.
We headed up to the Brothers Arms next, and lined our stomachs with two curried scotch eggs, in my first visit for months. I had a pint of the Blue Bee Ginger and am certain that Matty had something hoppy, perhaps from Revolutions brew. The Brothers was busy as always and we enjoyed sitting in he room on the left, catching up, making plans and watching a steady flow of people heading to and from the bar.
Just down the road is the Sheaf View. This was likewise busy, and we were surprised to find the room at the back virtually empty after we got our pints - a beer I can't remember the name of for me, and a beer I can;t remember the name of for Matty. We got chatting to Dave Staves and enjoyed our more memorable than this post would suggest, real ales. Another cracking visit.
Down onto Chesterfield Road was our penultimate pub the White Lion. We both had pints of Dancing Duck in here, and Matty also tried a strong dark beer which I think was a plum Porter. Details eh - who has them? The beer was reasonably priced as usual and we sat in the beautiful front snug, soaking up the atmosphere and chatting to the guy whose table we had joined.
We left here late on and went to meet Tash and Mr Scatt in the Bath Hotel. Alas we arrived after last orders but luckily halves of a beer had been bought for us. The pub was still quite busy despite it being late and we stayed here for a while before getting a taxi home.
As always, his could be part of a much longer crawl with many different pubs involved. And once again, the crawl demonstrates that there is a large number of different styles of venues selling an interesting range of beers in all formats very close to each other. Long may that continue!
Cheers
Wee Beefy
Monday, 28 December 2015
Cans.
Hello
in the 1980's and 90's people really seemed to like canned beers. Almost all breweries canned their beers, from Multinationals to regional family brewers and even some new, up and coming microbreweries. Cans were available in corner shops and supermarkets and were inexpensive. My first party aged...um...an age, where canned drink was bought, was memorable as much for the antics of the guests as the number of cans and PET bottles that I disposed of the next day.
At Hagueys on Crookes you could buy cans of beer with widgets in - Castle Eden, John Smiths, Guinness, Trophy being ones I remember. These produce a silky smooth, film-like, jet of foamy beer which had almost no taste apart from a slight malt and bitter aftertaste - sometimes a lingering pharmaceutical aftertaste. Probably as bad as smoothflow beers are now.
As soon as I got into real ale aged 18 (ish) I started drinking less cans and moved onto pints and bottles - most notable when I started going to Archer Road Beer stop. Pretty soon I stopped drinking crap cans of bowze. I mean, why would I?
In the US of A, am fairly certain that breweries producing hoppy, excellent quality beers, Sierra Nevada, Brooklyn and Anchor spring to mind in this respect, have been producing their wares in cans for a long time. However, its probably only five years ago in the UK, likely with London based Microbreweries, that high quality hoppy tasting UK beers have started to appear in cans - most noticeably, in my experience, in the last eighteen months.
Given the above memories, and the often sky high cost of such products, I immediately turned my nose up - just like I did with keykeg, before I understood what it actually was. Earlier this year I tasted a couple of UK cans, I think from CamdinBev and Roosters at Sheffield beer week, and really enjoyed them, And then later, Tom, or Barry Valentine at the Beer Engine, kindly gave me and Tash a can of Roosters baby faced assassin to try. I was amazed at how hoppy and distinctive it was. Granted, the beer itself is a hoppy easy drinking strong pale ale, so right up my street, but it tasted superb. What on earth was going on?
I have since tried Beavertown cans, and Magic Rock and think that as long as they are sold at a sensible price, the can is, or rather can be, a valuable means of dispense. A case in point is Magic Rock Grapefruit High Wire. Bought from Archer Road Beer Stop for £2.00 a can, which is a sensible price given its cost on keg, I was immediately struck by just how grapefruity the beer smelled and tasted. I have had this beer on keykeg, which I expected to love, (expectation versus delivery, I know...) and found it disappointing - the grapefruit was no more than a subtle hint in the background, perhaps overwhelmed by the carbonation?
In the can, the grapefruit is a complimentary but strong flavour at the forefront and again in the aftertaste. Supping a can last night I found it was refreshing and fruity and hoppy, as well as excellent value. Is this an example of the can being the best dispense method for a particular type pf beer?
Well, alas I can't say - I have not had the beer in a bottle or on cask so its not a fair comparison. What is a fair comparison is that cans from forward thinking innovative microbreweries now seem far better than the widget weary smooth foam of the nineties. If those selling such a product could be more realistic about pricing then I may start drinking more canned beers. And cans are after all, recyclable.
I would always prefer to drink real ale though, in case anyone is worried...!
Psssht click
Wee Beefy
in the 1980's and 90's people really seemed to like canned beers. Almost all breweries canned their beers, from Multinationals to regional family brewers and even some new, up and coming microbreweries. Cans were available in corner shops and supermarkets and were inexpensive. My first party aged...um...an age, where canned drink was bought, was memorable as much for the antics of the guests as the number of cans and PET bottles that I disposed of the next day.
At Hagueys on Crookes you could buy cans of beer with widgets in - Castle Eden, John Smiths, Guinness, Trophy being ones I remember. These produce a silky smooth, film-like, jet of foamy beer which had almost no taste apart from a slight malt and bitter aftertaste - sometimes a lingering pharmaceutical aftertaste. Probably as bad as smoothflow beers are now.
As soon as I got into real ale aged 18 (ish) I started drinking less cans and moved onto pints and bottles - most notable when I started going to Archer Road Beer stop. Pretty soon I stopped drinking crap cans of bowze. I mean, why would I?
In the US of A, am fairly certain that breweries producing hoppy, excellent quality beers, Sierra Nevada, Brooklyn and Anchor spring to mind in this respect, have been producing their wares in cans for a long time. However, its probably only five years ago in the UK, likely with London based Microbreweries, that high quality hoppy tasting UK beers have started to appear in cans - most noticeably, in my experience, in the last eighteen months.
Given the above memories, and the often sky high cost of such products, I immediately turned my nose up - just like I did with keykeg, before I understood what it actually was. Earlier this year I tasted a couple of UK cans, I think from CamdinBev and Roosters at Sheffield beer week, and really enjoyed them, And then later, Tom, or Barry Valentine at the Beer Engine, kindly gave me and Tash a can of Roosters baby faced assassin to try. I was amazed at how hoppy and distinctive it was. Granted, the beer itself is a hoppy easy drinking strong pale ale, so right up my street, but it tasted superb. What on earth was going on?
I have since tried Beavertown cans, and Magic Rock and think that as long as they are sold at a sensible price, the can is, or rather can be, a valuable means of dispense. A case in point is Magic Rock Grapefruit High Wire. Bought from Archer Road Beer Stop for £2.00 a can, which is a sensible price given its cost on keg, I was immediately struck by just how grapefruity the beer smelled and tasted. I have had this beer on keykeg, which I expected to love, (expectation versus delivery, I know...) and found it disappointing - the grapefruit was no more than a subtle hint in the background, perhaps overwhelmed by the carbonation?
In the can, the grapefruit is a complimentary but strong flavour at the forefront and again in the aftertaste. Supping a can last night I found it was refreshing and fruity and hoppy, as well as excellent value. Is this an example of the can being the best dispense method for a particular type pf beer?
Well, alas I can't say - I have not had the beer in a bottle or on cask so its not a fair comparison. What is a fair comparison is that cans from forward thinking innovative microbreweries now seem far better than the widget weary smooth foam of the nineties. If those selling such a product could be more realistic about pricing then I may start drinking more canned beers. And cans are after all, recyclable.
I would always prefer to drink real ale though, in case anyone is worried...!
Psssht click
Wee Beefy
Friday, 25 September 2015
Oktoberfest Social beer tasting
Now then,
last night I attended an event at the Archer Road Beer Stop and Hop Hideout specialist off licenses in Sheffield. Dave at Archer Road and Jules at Hop Hideout were co-hosting a tasting event with three German Oktoberfest Marzens and two American German style Oktoberfest beers.
The event started at Archer Road Beer Stop at 20.00. Jules explained to the guests that she had wanted the Archer Road Beer Stop to be involved as it was Sheffield's longest established specialist real ale off license - that said, Dave himself was not sure if it opened in 1981 or 1982. Either way, it was a co-hosted event between one of Sheffield's new off licenses and its first.
I was joined by Spence, who I met at the Three Valleys and SIBA beer festivals, Skippy, or Mike as he is actually known, Laura who is involved with Sheffield CAMRA and a couple who I think knew Jules. Dave had cleaned up the back room behind the shop (to the extent that it echoed!) and had 6 chairs around a somewhat rickety plasterers table with a beer stein, water biscuits and beer mats on it. Soon we were tasting our first beer.
Hacker-Pschorr Oktoberfest Marzen was the weakest of the German beers at 5.8%. Dave told us some of the history of the brewery, which originally was two rival brewing families. When one brewery was bombed during the second world war the other let them brew on their plant a couple of days a week until in 1974 they became Hacker-Pshcorr. This was a traditional Oktoberfest Marzen style since it was a chestnut brown in colour. It was slightly sweet and malty with a hint of orange in the mix, a caramel and burnt sugar aftertaste and was incredibly easy to drink.
Next up was one from Munich's oldest brewery Spaten. Their Oktoberfestbeir is 5.9% but much paler in colour. It was suggested that they had changed the colour due to the populariyu of pale lager like beers to meet custoer demand. This had much more of a lager style taste, and was once again very easy drinking. Whilst we did so Dave provided details about the Oktoberfest itself. Apparrently, 75% of those attending are Bavarians,with Americans, Australians and the British in 4th. Despite many of our misconceptions about levels of drunken revellery, on average guests only drink 1 litre of ale. Dave also explained about the tapping ceremony performed by the Mayor and showed us a web cam shot of the festival.
Our final German beer was the one which was receiving the most points on rating sites, that being the Paulaner Oktoberfest Bier at 6.0%. This was lighter still and much less malty, very much a lighter tasting strong lager than the original Marzen that we tried. Not everyone appreciated this beer, some feeling it lacked the distinction of the traditional recipe, but Laura really appreciated it - as the youngest person there, it was interesting to see which beers she preferred.
We walked down to Hop Hideout next to find Will waiting for us and to sit down with glasses and more water biscuits, and a beer contained full of water, to have Jules talk us through the two beers there. The first was the Brooklyn Oktoberfest, brewed in the US but with wholly German ingredients. The malts, Bavarian Heirloom, Munich and Pilsner, were apparently malted especially for the brewery in Bamberg in Germany, and the hops used were Hallertauer Perle and Hallertauer Mittelfrueh. The beer was more rounded than I expected, and not overly carbonated. It was 5.5% so the weakest so far but held its own well against the Germans beers.
Our final tipple was the Flying Dog Dogtoberfest. This was brewed to 5.6% and featured artwork inspired by Hunter S Thompson who apparently lived near the brewery when it started up. The malts used were Light Munich, Munich 90 Munich 100 and Vienna. This was Laura's favourite beer of the 5 and was once again a good beer compared to those brewed in Germany, but I thought the spiciness described on the label detracted from its authenticity, and it was somehow, despite using all German ingredients, noticeably American!
After the event finished we all had a further drink, myself a bottle of the Cantillon Gueze, and Jules, whose birthday it was, drank an amazing sour beer which I think was from Brooklyn. Or maybe Buxton! Whilst we drank Jules showed us original 1950's Pathe news footage of the Oktoberfests, which was amusing and fascinating at the same time.
The event was well run and very informative, and it was great to meet up with fellow drinkers to share the drinking and tasting experience. Well don to both Dave and Jules for their hard work and research and for delivering an excellent, joint-run Oktoberfest Social.
Cheers!
Wee Beefy
last night I attended an event at the Archer Road Beer Stop and Hop Hideout specialist off licenses in Sheffield. Dave at Archer Road and Jules at Hop Hideout were co-hosting a tasting event with three German Oktoberfest Marzens and two American German style Oktoberfest beers.
The event started at Archer Road Beer Stop at 20.00. Jules explained to the guests that she had wanted the Archer Road Beer Stop to be involved as it was Sheffield's longest established specialist real ale off license - that said, Dave himself was not sure if it opened in 1981 or 1982. Either way, it was a co-hosted event between one of Sheffield's new off licenses and its first.
I was joined by Spence, who I met at the Three Valleys and SIBA beer festivals, Skippy, or Mike as he is actually known, Laura who is involved with Sheffield CAMRA and a couple who I think knew Jules. Dave had cleaned up the back room behind the shop (to the extent that it echoed!) and had 6 chairs around a somewhat rickety plasterers table with a beer stein, water biscuits and beer mats on it. Soon we were tasting our first beer.
Hacker-Pschorr Oktoberfest Marzen was the weakest of the German beers at 5.8%. Dave told us some of the history of the brewery, which originally was two rival brewing families. When one brewery was bombed during the second world war the other let them brew on their plant a couple of days a week until in 1974 they became Hacker-Pshcorr. This was a traditional Oktoberfest Marzen style since it was a chestnut brown in colour. It was slightly sweet and malty with a hint of orange in the mix, a caramel and burnt sugar aftertaste and was incredibly easy to drink.
Next up was one from Munich's oldest brewery Spaten. Their Oktoberfestbeir is 5.9% but much paler in colour. It was suggested that they had changed the colour due to the populariyu of pale lager like beers to meet custoer demand. This had much more of a lager style taste, and was once again very easy drinking. Whilst we did so Dave provided details about the Oktoberfest itself. Apparrently, 75% of those attending are Bavarians,with Americans, Australians and the British in 4th. Despite many of our misconceptions about levels of drunken revellery, on average guests only drink 1 litre of ale. Dave also explained about the tapping ceremony performed by the Mayor and showed us a web cam shot of the festival.
Our final German beer was the one which was receiving the most points on rating sites, that being the Paulaner Oktoberfest Bier at 6.0%. This was lighter still and much less malty, very much a lighter tasting strong lager than the original Marzen that we tried. Not everyone appreciated this beer, some feeling it lacked the distinction of the traditional recipe, but Laura really appreciated it - as the youngest person there, it was interesting to see which beers she preferred.
We walked down to Hop Hideout next to find Will waiting for us and to sit down with glasses and more water biscuits, and a beer contained full of water, to have Jules talk us through the two beers there. The first was the Brooklyn Oktoberfest, brewed in the US but with wholly German ingredients. The malts, Bavarian Heirloom, Munich and Pilsner, were apparently malted especially for the brewery in Bamberg in Germany, and the hops used were Hallertauer Perle and Hallertauer Mittelfrueh. The beer was more rounded than I expected, and not overly carbonated. It was 5.5% so the weakest so far but held its own well against the Germans beers.
Our final tipple was the Flying Dog Dogtoberfest. This was brewed to 5.6% and featured artwork inspired by Hunter S Thompson who apparently lived near the brewery when it started up. The malts used were Light Munich, Munich 90 Munich 100 and Vienna. This was Laura's favourite beer of the 5 and was once again a good beer compared to those brewed in Germany, but I thought the spiciness described on the label detracted from its authenticity, and it was somehow, despite using all German ingredients, noticeably American!
After the event finished we all had a further drink, myself a bottle of the Cantillon Gueze, and Jules, whose birthday it was, drank an amazing sour beer which I think was from Brooklyn. Or maybe Buxton! Whilst we drank Jules showed us original 1950's Pathe news footage of the Oktoberfests, which was amusing and fascinating at the same time.
The event was well run and very informative, and it was great to meet up with fellow drinkers to share the drinking and tasting experience. Well don to both Dave and Jules for their hard work and research and for delivering an excellent, joint-run Oktoberfest Social.
Cheers!
Wee Beefy
Saturday, 3 January 2015
Drinking beer in 2015
Hello,
this post is not, as you may perhaps expect, an assay of the factors involved in drinking in this sparkling new year, instead it is a detailed reporting of beers I have supped so far. In 2015. Self explanatory really....
New Years day I finished off the last 5 or 6 pints of Abbeydale Absolution in my polypin which I had saved for me and Tash. I poured most of into the fantastic Shepherd Neame glazed beer jug she had given me for Christmas in 2013 and placed that in the fridge then drank the rest. Being an unfiltered polypin it was now nearly 10 days old and a little cloudy at the end, which is perhaps the fault of my polypin, but tasted fine, now with an extra hint of nuttiness. It washed down our very extensive meal very well.
Later we opened a bottle of Bad Seed Brewing Saison which I bought from Hop Hideout back in September. This bottle conditioned beer was on fine form but the saison really came into its own when the yeast at the end was added. What a sensationally refreshing ale! It met all my expectations, which is not something that happens very often, and was a perfect accompaniment to our evening listening to the Damned and Tom Waits.
Yesterday I met up with Carlos in Crookes. We started our beer tour in the Ball Ale House, where I had a very enjoyable pint of Belgian Blue from Bradfield. Had I stayed for another I could perhaps have found out how the Dukeries Sno wonder should have tasted, since the bottled version was vile and much was tipped down the sink - alas we did not stay for another, but did bump into Dan Baxter, who was there for beer. Good choice!
Down the hill next we made our way to the Cobden View. The Belgian blue was my choice again and it tasted superb. Carlos mentioned that lots of people had been mentioning it and trying it recently - perhaps they have brewed more this year? As always the atmosphere was great and there were plenty of families out enjoying a beer in this traditional back street local.
Next to the Closed Shop on Commonside. As usual a good range of real ales was on and I opted for the Blue Bee Amarillo IPA, which was on fine form. We also had much needed food in here - a cheesy chip butty for me and southern fried chicken for Carlos. Wee Keefy joined us and had a delicious rib eye steak at £12.00 which he loved. He also loved his pints of Ringwood xxxx porter. We stayed here to meet Tash and Matty and I had three or four pints of the Amarillo, and Keith and Matty the 4x, and Tash joining me on the Amarillo.
Carlos and WK didn't fancy walking to the Bath so we went across the road to the Hallamshire House pub for our last beers of the night. Me and Tash had pints of Jaipur and alas it escapes me what WK and Matty had but Keith kindly bought us thirds of the excellent General Sherman from Thornbridge, which I think was aged, at 8.4%.
It was great to catch up with Keith, and Carlos especially, and Tash and Matty, and also to find great real ale in 4 pubs only a few minutes walk away from each other. Lets hope 2015 continues in the same vain!
Wee Beefy
this post is not, as you may perhaps expect, an assay of the factors involved in drinking in this sparkling new year, instead it is a detailed reporting of beers I have supped so far. In 2015. Self explanatory really....
New Years day I finished off the last 5 or 6 pints of Abbeydale Absolution in my polypin which I had saved for me and Tash. I poured most of into the fantastic Shepherd Neame glazed beer jug she had given me for Christmas in 2013 and placed that in the fridge then drank the rest. Being an unfiltered polypin it was now nearly 10 days old and a little cloudy at the end, which is perhaps the fault of my polypin, but tasted fine, now with an extra hint of nuttiness. It washed down our very extensive meal very well.
Later we opened a bottle of Bad Seed Brewing Saison which I bought from Hop Hideout back in September. This bottle conditioned beer was on fine form but the saison really came into its own when the yeast at the end was added. What a sensationally refreshing ale! It met all my expectations, which is not something that happens very often, and was a perfect accompaniment to our evening listening to the Damned and Tom Waits.
Yesterday I met up with Carlos in Crookes. We started our beer tour in the Ball Ale House, where I had a very enjoyable pint of Belgian Blue from Bradfield. Had I stayed for another I could perhaps have found out how the Dukeries Sno wonder should have tasted, since the bottled version was vile and much was tipped down the sink - alas we did not stay for another, but did bump into Dan Baxter, who was there for beer. Good choice!
Down the hill next we made our way to the Cobden View. The Belgian blue was my choice again and it tasted superb. Carlos mentioned that lots of people had been mentioning it and trying it recently - perhaps they have brewed more this year? As always the atmosphere was great and there were plenty of families out enjoying a beer in this traditional back street local.
Next to the Closed Shop on Commonside. As usual a good range of real ales was on and I opted for the Blue Bee Amarillo IPA, which was on fine form. We also had much needed food in here - a cheesy chip butty for me and southern fried chicken for Carlos. Wee Keefy joined us and had a delicious rib eye steak at £12.00 which he loved. He also loved his pints of Ringwood xxxx porter. We stayed here to meet Tash and Matty and I had three or four pints of the Amarillo, and Keith and Matty the 4x, and Tash joining me on the Amarillo.
Carlos and WK didn't fancy walking to the Bath so we went across the road to the Hallamshire House pub for our last beers of the night. Me and Tash had pints of Jaipur and alas it escapes me what WK and Matty had but Keith kindly bought us thirds of the excellent General Sherman from Thornbridge, which I think was aged, at 8.4%.
It was great to catch up with Keith, and Carlos especially, and Tash and Matty, and also to find great real ale in 4 pubs only a few minutes walk away from each other. Lets hope 2015 continues in the same vain!
Wee Beefy
Wednesday, 10 September 2014
Beers in the Brothers and others
Hello all,
its not surprising that having not blogged since June I have been beaten to reviewing the newly reopened Ye Olde Shakespeares Inn on Well Road Heeley by another Sheffield blogger. Its also not a problem since I have now met one of the Two Beer Geeks and wish them all the very best in blogging about Sheffield. As "regular" readers will note, the Sheffield beer blogging scene has been somewhat quiet of late with the exception of the beer geeks duo. What better reason then to change that situation....
I'm on day three of my holiday at home and have decided today that I will not go out drinking. Having drunk every night for the past fortnight that is a sensible health and cost inspired move. This trembling, shivering, naked splash into the icy waters of sobriety has afforded me the perfect opportunity to write about some of the drinking I've done lately, starting with last night.
I went to Archer Road Beer Stop to see my long time grind and former employer Davefromtshop. We decided to walk to the Mount Pleasant Inn and then head for the Brothers Arms. This pub used to be the Ye Olde Shakespeare as mentioned earlier and has been leased by the Everly Pregnant Brothers from Punch and refurbished. They have a Facebook page here which I hope you can access, and the Two Beer Geeks review is theer - do take a look once you have read my review.
We started at the shop and walked up Cawthorne Grove and Fraser Crescent and up Cobnar Road, which is steeper than I imagined, and out onto the main road to spot the Mount Pleasant Inn, looking very much so in the evening light. It was not sunny, but orangey and gold tinted clouds were hanging heavy over the city. Inside there were 5 beers to choose from, and we both opted for excellent Welbeck Abbey Harley, 4.2% and £3.20 a pint.
Sitting in the room on the right we talked about history - Davefromtshop is a big fan of the subject and helped us through the topic of Sir John Franklin, who died seeking the Northwest passage, and has three statues to him in the world. See, you didn't know that did you?*
Moving on we made our way to the much improved beer range at the Cross Scythes. Its worth noting that both these were first visits for Dave and both pubs serve quality real ales. Here we had half a Navigation brewery gold for Dave and I had half a Redemption porter which was excellent. I probably mentioned it before but I used to drink in the Scythes 21 years ago when I worked at nearby Scarsdale House. It was a large Tetley pub selling a decent pint of that, and we used to sit in the garden in the sunshine (it was always sunny, remember?) at lunchtime. The garden is smaller now but much nicer and the beer range is much improved. This leads us nicely on to The Brothers Arms....
Getting there took half an hour walking to Gleadless and carying on until we spotted the pub lights. The pub has kept its stone writing on the front proclaiming its former name, while the Brothers Arms signs are subtle but effective. Inside up the front steps you are immediately hit by the light - its a lot brighter than it used to be! The refurbishment is very well done, the layout appears not to have changed but the main difference is the bar, now sporting 8 handpumps including one for cider.
Dave had a pint of a Nelson Brewery pale which had a very dry finish after a noticeable Lancastrian malty body, whereas I went for a pint of the excellent Blue Bee Tangled Up IPA. This had the old Blue Bee label design and it may therefore have been brewed to the original recipe. I understand Blue Bee aren't going to change the Lustin for Stout recipe (this was also on) so maybe Tangled Up will stay the same? Either way, it was on fantastic form, and a bargain at £2.90 a pint for a 6% beer.
The pub was busy and we soon went for a second pint, this time both on the Blue Bee, and I also bought a sausage roll to soak up the alcohol. There are noticeable areas in the pub with slightly different atmospheres. The area behind us is the snug with the views across the city and that seemed very vibrant and looked very enticing. The area to our left was where the dart board was and that was being used, there is also a seating area to the right where we were and to the far left which seemed quieter.
Its clear where the internal walls were but the fact that the pub still has different areas to sit in is a bonus, and no doubt when its sunny the outside seating areas will be very popular. I first came to The Shakespeare when it won a CAMRA pub of the month in the 90's. It was run very well by an older licensee who I think retied soon after and who kept Tetleys and and Burton and similar guests to the Red Deer at the time. The pub was packed on that night, but suffered after the licensee left, and my last visit 4 years ago saw an attempt to revive it with Tetley the sole real ale on. It will be interesting to see what impact some real competition ale wise, will have on the nearby Sheaf View.
Which was our penultimate stop. A pint of Blackjack which then ran out was mine, plus Dave had a pint of the beer brewed for the Sheaf, the name of which sadly escapes me! We found somewhere to sit and discussed this pub's past as well, before opting to finish on two halves of the Axholme Sandtoft Stout which was gloriously smooth and tasty.
We finished the night back at Archer Road Beer Stop. I know I may sound biased but Dave really has got an amazing range of UK bottled beers in at present. We tried one of the Bavarian beers, and a Mexican micro brewery beer but its fair to say I was ready for a snooze by this time so I won't attempt to guess what they were.
The main thing about the night was catching up with Dave and resitting the pubs I drank in when I first started working at the shop in 1995. The good boozers remain good and the poor boozers are now also good.
Refreshing to report a positive change of fortune for some urban Sheffield pubs.
Cheers!
Wee Beefy
its not surprising that having not blogged since June I have been beaten to reviewing the newly reopened Ye Olde Shakespeares Inn on Well Road Heeley by another Sheffield blogger. Its also not a problem since I have now met one of the Two Beer Geeks and wish them all the very best in blogging about Sheffield. As "regular" readers will note, the Sheffield beer blogging scene has been somewhat quiet of late with the exception of the beer geeks duo. What better reason then to change that situation....
I'm on day three of my holiday at home and have decided today that I will not go out drinking. Having drunk every night for the past fortnight that is a sensible health and cost inspired move. This trembling, shivering, naked splash into the icy waters of sobriety has afforded me the perfect opportunity to write about some of the drinking I've done lately, starting with last night.
I went to Archer Road Beer Stop to see my long time grind and former employer Davefromtshop. We decided to walk to the Mount Pleasant Inn and then head for the Brothers Arms. This pub used to be the Ye Olde Shakespeare as mentioned earlier and has been leased by the Everly Pregnant Brothers from Punch and refurbished. They have a Facebook page here which I hope you can access, and the Two Beer Geeks review is theer - do take a look once you have read my review.
We started at the shop and walked up Cawthorne Grove and Fraser Crescent and up Cobnar Road, which is steeper than I imagined, and out onto the main road to spot the Mount Pleasant Inn, looking very much so in the evening light. It was not sunny, but orangey and gold tinted clouds were hanging heavy over the city. Inside there were 5 beers to choose from, and we both opted for excellent Welbeck Abbey Harley, 4.2% and £3.20 a pint.
Sitting in the room on the right we talked about history - Davefromtshop is a big fan of the subject and helped us through the topic of Sir John Franklin, who died seeking the Northwest passage, and has three statues to him in the world. See, you didn't know that did you?*
Moving on we made our way to the much improved beer range at the Cross Scythes. Its worth noting that both these were first visits for Dave and both pubs serve quality real ales. Here we had half a Navigation brewery gold for Dave and I had half a Redemption porter which was excellent. I probably mentioned it before but I used to drink in the Scythes 21 years ago when I worked at nearby Scarsdale House. It was a large Tetley pub selling a decent pint of that, and we used to sit in the garden in the sunshine (it was always sunny, remember?) at lunchtime. The garden is smaller now but much nicer and the beer range is much improved. This leads us nicely on to The Brothers Arms....
Getting there took half an hour walking to Gleadless and carying on until we spotted the pub lights. The pub has kept its stone writing on the front proclaiming its former name, while the Brothers Arms signs are subtle but effective. Inside up the front steps you are immediately hit by the light - its a lot brighter than it used to be! The refurbishment is very well done, the layout appears not to have changed but the main difference is the bar, now sporting 8 handpumps including one for cider.
Dave had a pint of a Nelson Brewery pale which had a very dry finish after a noticeable Lancastrian malty body, whereas I went for a pint of the excellent Blue Bee Tangled Up IPA. This had the old Blue Bee label design and it may therefore have been brewed to the original recipe. I understand Blue Bee aren't going to change the Lustin for Stout recipe (this was also on) so maybe Tangled Up will stay the same? Either way, it was on fantastic form, and a bargain at £2.90 a pint for a 6% beer.
The pub was busy and we soon went for a second pint, this time both on the Blue Bee, and I also bought a sausage roll to soak up the alcohol. There are noticeable areas in the pub with slightly different atmospheres. The area behind us is the snug with the views across the city and that seemed very vibrant and looked very enticing. The area to our left was where the dart board was and that was being used, there is also a seating area to the right where we were and to the far left which seemed quieter.
Its clear where the internal walls were but the fact that the pub still has different areas to sit in is a bonus, and no doubt when its sunny the outside seating areas will be very popular. I first came to The Shakespeare when it won a CAMRA pub of the month in the 90's. It was run very well by an older licensee who I think retied soon after and who kept Tetleys and and Burton and similar guests to the Red Deer at the time. The pub was packed on that night, but suffered after the licensee left, and my last visit 4 years ago saw an attempt to revive it with Tetley the sole real ale on. It will be interesting to see what impact some real competition ale wise, will have on the nearby Sheaf View.
Which was our penultimate stop. A pint of Blackjack which then ran out was mine, plus Dave had a pint of the beer brewed for the Sheaf, the name of which sadly escapes me! We found somewhere to sit and discussed this pub's past as well, before opting to finish on two halves of the Axholme Sandtoft Stout which was gloriously smooth and tasty.
We finished the night back at Archer Road Beer Stop. I know I may sound biased but Dave really has got an amazing range of UK bottled beers in at present. We tried one of the Bavarian beers, and a Mexican micro brewery beer but its fair to say I was ready for a snooze by this time so I won't attempt to guess what they were.
The main thing about the night was catching up with Dave and resitting the pubs I drank in when I first started working at the shop in 1995. The good boozers remain good and the poor boozers are now also good.
Refreshing to report a positive change of fortune for some urban Sheffield pubs.
Cheers!
Wee Beefy
Tuesday, 24 December 2013
The first beer of Christmas
Now then.
firstly: I know, I know. Its supposed to be the first beer of Christmas on December the 1st. Yet, its Christmas Eve. What is wrong with this man, you ask? Why is he reviewing a "Christmas" beer on day 24?
Well the simple answer is, because I can.
Also, my Christmas 2013 beer stash wasn't collected until last night and its only now that I have started to tap into it. There are 18 pints of sedimented Abbeydale Absolution and 12 bottles of rather excellent and at times expensive beer to get through. Not that my supplier, Archer Road Beer Stop is expensive - its just I bought a couple of strong Durham beers and a bottle of Fantome Saison. Which is approximately a million pounds....
So, after an hour of festively moshing to Cathedral and Acid Reign, what better way to cool off than in a spare room chilled to below room temperature (although arguably am in said room and erm...well, its the temperature that it is?....) with a cold-ish bottle of excellent beer.
The first of my box, part of a series of potentially two reviews of the 12, is Blue Monkey Bludolph. Its 5% and an orange hued golden colour and it smells rather fab. Dave told me in the shop that its three lots of three types of hops which are chosen by the brewer every year. It's been a very long 24 hours since yesterday however so you may be better off looking at the link here from real ale store - since he brewery are. um, too busy to update their website....
It has a lovely tangerine kick with some dry bitterness, a hint of lemon and a pleasing soft malt in the background which means the bitterness settles back into the beer rather than jarring at the forefront throughout; although the aftertaste is lingeringly bitter, after the more calming malt has dissipated.
Obviously better than your average brown spiced nonsense, it wins plaudits foe being umpologetically hoppy and not remotely interested in Christmas pudding or berry fruit.
In conclusion, a great example of a Christmas beer that doesn't taste of sherry and rum and raisin chocolate with treacle, like so many of the ilk have a tendency to do. And it was so good that I didn't take a picture.
This is virtually anti blogging.....
Merry Merry Christmas!
WB
firstly: I know, I know. Its supposed to be the first beer of Christmas on December the 1st. Yet, its Christmas Eve. What is wrong with this man, you ask? Why is he reviewing a "Christmas" beer on day 24?
Well the simple answer is, because I can.
Also, my Christmas 2013 beer stash wasn't collected until last night and its only now that I have started to tap into it. There are 18 pints of sedimented Abbeydale Absolution and 12 bottles of rather excellent and at times expensive beer to get through. Not that my supplier, Archer Road Beer Stop is expensive - its just I bought a couple of strong Durham beers and a bottle of Fantome Saison. Which is approximately a million pounds....
So, after an hour of festively moshing to Cathedral and Acid Reign, what better way to cool off than in a spare room chilled to below room temperature (although arguably am in said room and erm...well, its the temperature that it is?....) with a cold-ish bottle of excellent beer.
The first of my box, part of a series of potentially two reviews of the 12, is Blue Monkey Bludolph. Its 5% and an orange hued golden colour and it smells rather fab. Dave told me in the shop that its three lots of three types of hops which are chosen by the brewer every year. It's been a very long 24 hours since yesterday however so you may be better off looking at the link here from real ale store - since he brewery are. um, too busy to update their website....
It has a lovely tangerine kick with some dry bitterness, a hint of lemon and a pleasing soft malt in the background which means the bitterness settles back into the beer rather than jarring at the forefront throughout; although the aftertaste is lingeringly bitter, after the more calming malt has dissipated.
Obviously better than your average brown spiced nonsense, it wins plaudits foe being umpologetically hoppy and not remotely interested in Christmas pudding or berry fruit.
In conclusion, a great example of a Christmas beer that doesn't taste of sherry and rum and raisin chocolate with treacle, like so many of the ilk have a tendency to do. And it was so good that I didn't take a picture.
This is virtually anti blogging.....
Merry Merry Christmas!
WB
Sunday, 28 April 2013
Beer in South West Sheffield and beyond
Eh up,
this weekend has seen me visit a few venues not usually on my radar. It wouldn't be a day with a letter A in it if I hadn't been to at least one of my regular haunts but it was nice to get out and sample something a bit different.
On Friday I had to have some important documents signed and witnessed, as did Chala, so we traipsed over to the wilds of Woodseats to have Davefromtshop perform this noble task. Obviously being an alcoholic,. sorry, genius, this important legal process also afforded us the opportunity to have a beer or two.
There were three real ales on at Archer Road Beer Stop, Concertina One Eyed Jack, Howard Town Wrens Nest and Cross Bay Zenith. I started with a pint of the Howard Town, which I haven't seen for a long time, and it was sufficiently crisp and bitter to taste to meet my expectations. Chala meanwhile was disappointed not to find any dark beers on draught, despite the tally of such a beer type being on the bar in the shop being about 2 in 30 years, so she opted for a bottle of Beowulf Smokestack Lightning Stout. A decision she admitted was based largely on the label...
The stout was bottled conditioned but didn't turn into a fountain on opening and was as smokey and roasty a stout as you could hope for. After the paperwork was dealt with, I had a quick catch up with Das Beer Man (his name's not Darren, which suggests he's missing a trick....) about London brewers and the new fashion for German Brewers to make American style IPA's and super strength Imperial Stouts. It was then time to replenish and I went for a pint of the admirable Cross Bay Zenith, which was on top form. I didn't take note of the prices but the Archer Road beer Stop has been consistently a good 50p a pint cheaper than most pubs so I expect this is still the case.
We had hoped to head for the Broadfeld next but we wanted to eat and they advised they were fully booked so we headed for the Robin Hood. However, we cleverly worked out that we could buy an inexpensive, or morally dubious, fast food product, and use the money saved on beer instead.
So we took the vile conglomerate's egast on board and afterwards went to cleanse our palates, and souls, in the Ale House on Fraser Road. Slightly contradicting my claim that its always shut, by not being, it was quite busy in the left hand side with people presumably planning on doing the quiz. Having had the questions read to me as a test before now, I considered hat even free entry was a price not worth paying. It was probably likely we wouldn't have made it to double figures. Best not to risk that ignominy.
Chala had a half of Lancaster Black, not a beer I've seen in these parts before, and I had a pint of Dark Star Hophead which was, if I remember correctly (i.e. not) a very reasonable £2.70 a pint. We got chatting to a couple doing the picture quiz and tried to help them out with answers, which am not sure is strictly the plan but no-one seemed to mind, before I went back for a half of Chantry Iron and Steel, which was very agreeable.
We headed back into town after this and Chala had to get back so I walked to Shakespeares for a last couple. I had a Half of the Grantham Dark and a pint of the Arbor "Its brown, dammit " which I had high hopes for - it was described as a traditional brown bitter coloured beer with the addition of high alpha hops. Unfortunately, having bought a pint, I realised that they had also added a slightly old nectarine and some brown fruit. It wasn't off, it wasn't unpleasant, that much, but it wasn't good. I'd have preferred a traditional brown bitter to be honest...
I finished on a pint of Otley O3 which had gone up in my estimations since I'd last had it, and was a great antidote to the fruity weirdness of the Abor.
Today I have been even further South West and attended the Ridgeway Farmers Market. Wee Fatha had invited me on the promise of their advertised real ale, which I admit I found a little surprising since its not mentioned in their online advert, but still, I figured it would make a nice change from lounging around doing nowt.
It was quite busy featuring plenty of stalls with varying degrees of desirable products, including some rather ace sausages and bacon from Moss Valley Meat, some rather tasty jerk chicken from a stall also serving fried dumplings and roast sweet potatoes, not to mention the apostrophe-gate gourmet snack makers at Kevin's Pies. Strangely there was no real ale though. There is a bar in the village hall but it just sells keg Tetley and mass produced lagers, which was a shame, since they could easily have got hold of a pin or mini keg from one of the Derbyshire breweries to pop on the bar.
What we did find though was a stall selling Welbeck Abbey Brewery products, cheaper than at the farm shop they claimed. I grabbed a Henrietta since I don't think I've ever had it, whilst WF and WK both bought a selection of 4 bottles - not bad at £2.50 a go.
We headed to old haunt the Swan next for a pint and were pleasantly surprised to find more than one real ale on offer. For years it was strictly Bass only at something astronomic. Now all 3 Handpumps are in use, 1 for Cider (Gwynt Yr Draig Happy Daze) and Courage Best and Kelham Easy Rider, at £3.20 a pint.
The "Best" was Wee Keefy's choice but am not sure even his delicate tastebuds could have found much flavour in the uber bland Courage, but the Easy Rider was fresh and and in good nick, so, whether because of the contrast or not, it was a very enjoyable pint indeed.
The pub is very old and retains quite a lot of interesting features and even though I'd guess the right hand room is extended, it does still have separate rooms, with one comprising seating in front of the bar. If it turns out the Queens Head up the road (which I've still never been in) does real ale as well, it may be worth a walk around the area sometime. You know, for the exercise. Or something.
All in all this was an enjoyable trip out which demonstrates that you can still get good beer in great pubs even if you leave the Don or Crookes Valley of beer.
Cheers!
Wee Beefy
this weekend has seen me visit a few venues not usually on my radar. It wouldn't be a day with a letter A in it if I hadn't been to at least one of my regular haunts but it was nice to get out and sample something a bit different.
On Friday I had to have some important documents signed and witnessed, as did Chala, so we traipsed over to the wilds of Woodseats to have Davefromtshop perform this noble task. Obviously being an alcoholic,. sorry, genius, this important legal process also afforded us the opportunity to have a beer or two.
There were three real ales on at Archer Road Beer Stop, Concertina One Eyed Jack, Howard Town Wrens Nest and Cross Bay Zenith. I started with a pint of the Howard Town, which I haven't seen for a long time, and it was sufficiently crisp and bitter to taste to meet my expectations. Chala meanwhile was disappointed not to find any dark beers on draught, despite the tally of such a beer type being on the bar in the shop being about 2 in 30 years, so she opted for a bottle of Beowulf Smokestack Lightning Stout. A decision she admitted was based largely on the label...
The stout was bottled conditioned but didn't turn into a fountain on opening and was as smokey and roasty a stout as you could hope for. After the paperwork was dealt with, I had a quick catch up with Das Beer Man (his name's not Darren, which suggests he's missing a trick....) about London brewers and the new fashion for German Brewers to make American style IPA's and super strength Imperial Stouts. It was then time to replenish and I went for a pint of the admirable Cross Bay Zenith, which was on top form. I didn't take note of the prices but the Archer Road beer Stop has been consistently a good 50p a pint cheaper than most pubs so I expect this is still the case.
We had hoped to head for the Broadfeld next but we wanted to eat and they advised they were fully booked so we headed for the Robin Hood. However, we cleverly worked out that we could buy an inexpensive, or morally dubious, fast food product, and use the money saved on beer instead.
So we took the vile conglomerate's egast on board and afterwards went to cleanse our palates, and souls, in the Ale House on Fraser Road. Slightly contradicting my claim that its always shut, by not being, it was quite busy in the left hand side with people presumably planning on doing the quiz. Having had the questions read to me as a test before now, I considered hat even free entry was a price not worth paying. It was probably likely we wouldn't have made it to double figures. Best not to risk that ignominy.
Chala had a half of Lancaster Black, not a beer I've seen in these parts before, and I had a pint of Dark Star Hophead which was, if I remember correctly (i.e. not) a very reasonable £2.70 a pint. We got chatting to a couple doing the picture quiz and tried to help them out with answers, which am not sure is strictly the plan but no-one seemed to mind, before I went back for a half of Chantry Iron and Steel, which was very agreeable.
We headed back into town after this and Chala had to get back so I walked to Shakespeares for a last couple. I had a Half of the Grantham Dark and a pint of the Arbor "Its brown, dammit " which I had high hopes for - it was described as a traditional brown bitter coloured beer with the addition of high alpha hops. Unfortunately, having bought a pint, I realised that they had also added a slightly old nectarine and some brown fruit. It wasn't off, it wasn't unpleasant, that much, but it wasn't good. I'd have preferred a traditional brown bitter to be honest...
I finished on a pint of Otley O3 which had gone up in my estimations since I'd last had it, and was a great antidote to the fruity weirdness of the Abor.
Today I have been even further South West and attended the Ridgeway Farmers Market. Wee Fatha had invited me on the promise of their advertised real ale, which I admit I found a little surprising since its not mentioned in their online advert, but still, I figured it would make a nice change from lounging around doing nowt.
It was quite busy featuring plenty of stalls with varying degrees of desirable products, including some rather ace sausages and bacon from Moss Valley Meat, some rather tasty jerk chicken from a stall also serving fried dumplings and roast sweet potatoes, not to mention the apostrophe-gate gourmet snack makers at Kevin's Pies. Strangely there was no real ale though. There is a bar in the village hall but it just sells keg Tetley and mass produced lagers, which was a shame, since they could easily have got hold of a pin or mini keg from one of the Derbyshire breweries to pop on the bar.
What we did find though was a stall selling Welbeck Abbey Brewery products, cheaper than at the farm shop they claimed. I grabbed a Henrietta since I don't think I've ever had it, whilst WF and WK both bought a selection of 4 bottles - not bad at £2.50 a go.
We headed to old haunt the Swan next for a pint and were pleasantly surprised to find more than one real ale on offer. For years it was strictly Bass only at something astronomic. Now all 3 Handpumps are in use, 1 for Cider (Gwynt Yr Draig Happy Daze) and Courage Best and Kelham Easy Rider, at £3.20 a pint.
The "Best" was Wee Keefy's choice but am not sure even his delicate tastebuds could have found much flavour in the uber bland Courage, but the Easy Rider was fresh and and in good nick, so, whether because of the contrast or not, it was a very enjoyable pint indeed.
The pub is very old and retains quite a lot of interesting features and even though I'd guess the right hand room is extended, it does still have separate rooms, with one comprising seating in front of the bar. If it turns out the Queens Head up the road (which I've still never been in) does real ale as well, it may be worth a walk around the area sometime. You know, for the exercise. Or something.
All in all this was an enjoyable trip out which demonstrates that you can still get good beer in great pubs even if you leave the Don or Crookes Valley of beer.
Cheers!
Wee Beefy
Wednesday, 2 January 2013
Conundrum saisonale
Hello,
in the run up to Christmas I was asking Davefromtshop what delights he had for me to buy. Knowing I was a fan of the style he told me about the Fantome Saison. Apparently it was considered a classic, and had orgasmic and worshipful rave reviews on Ratebeer, which comes as a surprise what with reviewers on there being so shy of scaturient outpourings....
Then came the caveats. I listened carefully. Reviewers had almost unanimously noted it smelled really unpleasant (but tasted nothing like its aroma). Also, it was strong, and heart-stoppingly expensive.
Despite these warnings, I decided to buy a bottle, since I got the feeling it was a bit of a coup for The Archer Road Beer Stop (where I used to work, and whose owner I am a good friend of, just to provide full disclosure!) to stock it. I bought two of this enormous bottle of 8.0% beer, and tonight I'm tasting one.
The first surprise comes from the fact that on opening the cap there's a cork underneath. What is this, radioactive material! How likely is it that the contents will escape? Once I got the cork out, with a satisfying pop, I got to encounter the aroma, or, erm, smell, for myself. Hmmm. Its not foul but its a bit vegetably and tart and reminds me in some ways of compost, or more worryingly, off beer. Luckily the taste is unrelated to the above description. However, the taste is my next screwed up face making puzzle....
I should point out that I'm drinking this as I write. Its almost less hassle than making notes and then typing them up, and also stops me from constantly taking photos. My gut reaction is that I think the taste is the beers most surprising element - and I'm not sure if I think that's a good thing.
One thing's for certain - this is a strong beer and it needs to be chilled. Carbonation and sharp flavours and that lovely Belgian yeast don't need to be served at room temperature. As I have a lovely Orval glass, at least half the bottle is back in the fridge. I suspect that may restrain the flavours slightly so they meld seamlessly together. At the moment I am drinking three beers in one. Its a very confusing experience for my palate.
The first hit is yeast. Its that recognisable sweetish Belgian affair that really should be in a saison. Then there is orange, and bitterness, almost like a Fullers Vintage Ale. Its not terribly easy to drink either, but its 8% and not cold. I don't think its trying to ape the refreshingly light farmhouse style that I seem to lean towards, but equally I'm not sure what its trying to be.
The other element in here is a sweet and sour battle between barley sugar and astringent almost bitter fruit flavours. In one mouthful it goes Corsendonk Pater (note have not had this in years, this is an unreliable taste memory), gueze, Buxton Rye and an aftertaste of orange boiled sweets and the Popperings Hommelbier. To be honest, it could be described as fruit salad sweets, Kriek, Magic Rock High Wire, Marmite and Gulden Draak. That's far less accurate and a bit silly, but it performs the task of bamboozling your expectations and (on drinking), your taste-buds in a similar way. Why won't you make sense unusual saison thing!
I've took the glass out of the freezer now and poured slightly more chilled beer into it, and noted that the list of ingredients includes spices. Not which ones of course, that wouldn't be sufficiently "artisanal", but maybe there could be a clue in there? Other than that, the temperature exercise has achieved nothing. Where Urthel Saisonnaire and Saison Dupont have a refreshing lemony edge, this has a slightly jarring sour bitterness, more like earthy lime than zesty lemon. Its easier to drink now its cold but I'm not getting that must have, super refreshing palate cleansing mouthfeel that my favourite saisons have had.
Despite that, an hour after pouring I'm sort of warming to the ascorbic aftertaste, and liking the sour fruit that goes with it. Its complex, slightly unbalanced and surprising. Much like a lot of people I know and care about.
In conclusion then, I like this beer, but its nothing like what I expected. Its acidic bitterness is odd yet not unpleasant, but its aroma is hardly enticing and its probably not worth the price. If you had never tasted saison before I'm not sure you'd try it again after this - but if you had, I fear like me you'd spend all your time wondering why it wasn't as good as the Urthel for example - or the stupendous Dark Star cask Saison, which was epic.
The answer to the conundrum then? Now I think I know less about saison and more about expectation than I did before. I thought all saisons were meant to be fresh and lemony and delicately sweet and were brewed for farm workers (apologies if I have walked into some obvious beer writers in joke here!). Fantome is none of those things. And I have no confidence in the idea that the previous statement means this is not a proper saison beer either!
Wee Beefy
Sunday, 23 December 2012
Final flourish, and best wishes
Now then,
one of the usual gripes about Christmas drinking is that pubs are "filled up wi twats oo dornt drink normle-h". Well, thats sort of true. Half slurping, G&T snorting, table hogging bores who get shit faced on a pint and a half and then ruin everyones night by puking and groggily stumbling about before being ejected, arrested or left to die in the street. An all too familiar blight, but one avoided by A: drinking in real ale pubs away from the town centre, and B: not going out Christmas or New Years Eve.
Against that backdrop, this year I intend to follow my own advice and so am now officially "done" for Christmas. The house is full of booze (more details to follow), the polypin of Deception has settled clear in 24 hours, the decorations are up, the warm lighting is set, and the food is bought in readiness. The last thing I want to be doing is fannying around in a pub.
However, to keep me from going insane without its social interaction, here's a round up of my pub visits and other booze news from the last week.
Wednesday saw me and Mr P meet for our last sup before the festival of lies. We headed straight for the Rutland where, mercifully, the excellent Raw/Steel City collaborations were still on the bar - not that we were tempted to risk our sobriety on them, as we had bigger plans ahead.
We opted instead for a pint of Blue Bee Nectar for Mr P and a pint of the excellent Foxfield Dark Mild for me. The mild is a decent strength at around 4.2% and was very roasty and smooth and malty, always a good sign in a dark mild. Unfortunately, a distinct but not unsurprising lack of relaxing space (although we did get a table) meant we opted to only stay for one. So erm, Merry Christmas to the Rutland, who is a person. Hope to see you before the new year....
Our next final Christmas stop was at the Sheffield Tap, although I had planned to return, but things didn't pan out. The Internet had told me that Oakham Green Devil IPA, seemingly a large number of peoples fave beer of 2012, was on the bar. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it had run out long before we got there. So I had a pint of the Ilkley licorice porter, which was excellent, and Mr P an Oakham JHB.
Despite knowing that people also rate JHB, I was surprised at just how fruity and bitter this was - perhaps its widespread availability has led to some less than careful stewardship because its been fairly disappointing whenever I've tried it recently - but this was tremendous. Mr P opted to stick with the JHB for the next round whilst I went for the big one. One whole half, at £4.20, of Magic Rock Bearded Lady. I also had a mitigating refresher - of Sunny Republic 5 malt hibiscus pale ale, which was, interesting, but needfully refreshing.
The Bearded Lady was just as extravagantly glorious in its sheer mass of flavour and alcoholic strength, and still, thankfully, as well balanced and rewarding as the bourbon aged epiphany that was the highlight of my birthday weekend. It still took 50 minutes to sup, but was pleasing and satisfying to the last drop. A spectacular beer.
We parted ways at this point and after refuelling I found time to have a quick half of Thornbridge Yule in DAda, a warming pagan potation that finished off the night nicely.
Yesterday was me and Wee Keefy's trip out to Derbyshire to buy a couple of last presents. After stopping in a ludicrously packed Bakewell to purchase whisky for Wee Fatha we headed for the Three Stags Heads at Wardlow Mires so that WK could pick up some bottles of Abbeydale Black Lurcher. This turned out to be a fantastic visit, not least because it was quiet and so allowing me to get a few pics of this excellent pub, which is on the national inventory of unspoilt pub interiors, but also because we got chatting to the barman and the landlord and a couple who had come to see his renowned pottery.
Coupled with being sat in flickering dim light opposite the open fire drinking excellent beer this was a great way to fill in an hour. And on the subject of ale, it was just a half for delicate flower WK, of Deception, and two pints (in the end!) for me - Brimstone at £2.60, and a very well kept Absolution at £3.00. Nicely dispelling the myth that the Three Stags is expensive into the bargain.
Alas we had to get on because we were off to Archer Road Beer Stop to pick up my Christmas polypin of Abbeydale Deception, and some bottles. Highlights included a bottle of bottle conditioned Ilkley Cranberry milk stout, 2 bottles of the legendary Fantome saison, a Thornbridge Thorny Goat, a Blue Monkey Fat Ape and Durham Temptation, which is now a firmly established Wee Beefy tradition.
Dave very kindly invited us in for a pint but we'd arrived at a busy purple patch so try as we might we couldn't make our respective pint and half of Bradfield Belgian Blue last long enough for him to get to talk to us. Still, it was nice to sample the Belgian Blue and briefly see Dave into the bargain.
So, that's its folks! Barring an amazing nugget of info or a life changing bottle crossing my path I won't be updating the blog now until after Christmas.
So I hope you have a fantastic festive period, and in case I am otherwise engaged in between times, a fantastic new year.
Cheers!
Wee Beefy.
one of the usual gripes about Christmas drinking is that pubs are "filled up wi twats oo dornt drink normle-h". Well, thats sort of true. Half slurping, G&T snorting, table hogging bores who get shit faced on a pint and a half and then ruin everyones night by puking and groggily stumbling about before being ejected, arrested or left to die in the street. An all too familiar blight, but one avoided by A: drinking in real ale pubs away from the town centre, and B: not going out Christmas or New Years Eve.
Against that backdrop, this year I intend to follow my own advice and so am now officially "done" for Christmas. The house is full of booze (more details to follow), the polypin of Deception has settled clear in 24 hours, the decorations are up, the warm lighting is set, and the food is bought in readiness. The last thing I want to be doing is fannying around in a pub.
However, to keep me from going insane without its social interaction, here's a round up of my pub visits and other booze news from the last week.
Wednesday saw me and Mr P meet for our last sup before the festival of lies. We headed straight for the Rutland where, mercifully, the excellent Raw/Steel City collaborations were still on the bar - not that we were tempted to risk our sobriety on them, as we had bigger plans ahead.
We opted instead for a pint of Blue Bee Nectar for Mr P and a pint of the excellent Foxfield Dark Mild for me. The mild is a decent strength at around 4.2% and was very roasty and smooth and malty, always a good sign in a dark mild. Unfortunately, a distinct but not unsurprising lack of relaxing space (although we did get a table) meant we opted to only stay for one. So erm, Merry Christmas to the Rutland, who is a person. Hope to see you before the new year....
Our next final Christmas stop was at the Sheffield Tap, although I had planned to return, but things didn't pan out. The Internet had told me that Oakham Green Devil IPA, seemingly a large number of peoples fave beer of 2012, was on the bar. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it had run out long before we got there. So I had a pint of the Ilkley licorice porter, which was excellent, and Mr P an Oakham JHB.
Despite knowing that people also rate JHB, I was surprised at just how fruity and bitter this was - perhaps its widespread availability has led to some less than careful stewardship because its been fairly disappointing whenever I've tried it recently - but this was tremendous. Mr P opted to stick with the JHB for the next round whilst I went for the big one. One whole half, at £4.20, of Magic Rock Bearded Lady. I also had a mitigating refresher - of Sunny Republic 5 malt hibiscus pale ale, which was, interesting, but needfully refreshing.
The Bearded Lady was just as extravagantly glorious in its sheer mass of flavour and alcoholic strength, and still, thankfully, as well balanced and rewarding as the bourbon aged epiphany that was the highlight of my birthday weekend. It still took 50 minutes to sup, but was pleasing and satisfying to the last drop. A spectacular beer.
We parted ways at this point and after refuelling I found time to have a quick half of Thornbridge Yule in DAda, a warming pagan potation that finished off the night nicely.
Yesterday was me and Wee Keefy's trip out to Derbyshire to buy a couple of last presents. After stopping in a ludicrously packed Bakewell to purchase whisky for Wee Fatha we headed for the Three Stags Heads at Wardlow Mires so that WK could pick up some bottles of Abbeydale Black Lurcher. This turned out to be a fantastic visit, not least because it was quiet and so allowing me to get a few pics of this excellent pub, which is on the national inventory of unspoilt pub interiors, but also because we got chatting to the barman and the landlord and a couple who had come to see his renowned pottery.
Coupled with being sat in flickering dim light opposite the open fire drinking excellent beer this was a great way to fill in an hour. And on the subject of ale, it was just a half for delicate flower WK, of Deception, and two pints (in the end!) for me - Brimstone at £2.60, and a very well kept Absolution at £3.00. Nicely dispelling the myth that the Three Stags is expensive into the bargain.
Alas we had to get on because we were off to Archer Road Beer Stop to pick up my Christmas polypin of Abbeydale Deception, and some bottles. Highlights included a bottle of bottle conditioned Ilkley Cranberry milk stout, 2 bottles of the legendary Fantome saison, a Thornbridge Thorny Goat, a Blue Monkey Fat Ape and Durham Temptation, which is now a firmly established Wee Beefy tradition.
Dave very kindly invited us in for a pint but we'd arrived at a busy purple patch so try as we might we couldn't make our respective pint and half of Bradfield Belgian Blue last long enough for him to get to talk to us. Still, it was nice to sample the Belgian Blue and briefly see Dave into the bargain.
So, that's its folks! Barring an amazing nugget of info or a life changing bottle crossing my path I won't be updating the blog now until after Christmas.
So I hope you have a fantastic festive period, and in case I am otherwise engaged in between times, a fantastic new year.
Cheers!
Wee Beefy.
Sunday, 22 April 2012
A Premier Cru bottled beer
Afternoon,
the title, you will be relieved to discover, is not a reference to some dreadful over-concept "craft"(?) bottled beer made with wine, instead, its simply a wine term used to afford compliment to an excellent British bottled beer, from an excellent local brewery.
Brampton Brewery in Chesterfield produce a regular range of really very good beers. Impy dark is a classic, and a personal favourite of mine, and the Stout and session bitter "Best" are worthy features in a commendable portfolio. Interestingly though, it seems like they haven't branched out much into stronger beers yet, or at least, not until the end of last year.
Winter Bock
When I went to buy my Christmas beers from Archer Road Beer Stop, Davefromtshop told me that, despite its rather exclusive price tag, Brampton Winter Bock was one of the best beers he'd tried for a long time. Curiously, seeing its tempting livery of mucky white and black in a flip top 750ml bottle I assumed it was really strong. I was actually a little disappointed to discover that it was "only" 6%, so accustomed had I become to stouts being of imperial strength when packaged so well. Dave reassured me that despite its strength, it was still a brilliant beer. And then, I was bought one for Christmas.
I was going to patiently store it until my birthday in June but caved in last night and offered to share it with Chala - after all, at the sharp end of a refreshing night, the last thing you want is to munch your way through a wine bottle sized slab of beer, no matter how delicious it is. As it turned out, it was so good that I could easily have sunk the lot on my own. A good job then that it wasn't a gorilla baffler.
I should confess now that I didn't make notes. I couldn't be arsed to be quite honest! I didn't want to impinge on the event by thinking carefully about what flavours I could pick out, so here are some rambling vaguely useful notes about this wonderful bottled beer that I have managed to more or less remember.
Brampton Winter Bock is 6.0%, numbered 063 from a limited edition of am not sure how many and, possibly due to an identified degree of refreshment last night, I thought it was bottle conditioned, whereas the label makes no such claim. No spine chilling "CAMRA says this is real ale" vinegar portent to be seen. The label also proudly proclaims that its a barley wine. This is in fact, the only thing that I could find fault with - I think barley wine does it a disservice, since its much more drinkable and well balanced than most barley wine offerings. And really, at 6.0%, its too weak to be a barley wine. But I digress....
It pours a glorious black and smells straight away like a a Belgian Dubbel, but that is quickly knocked into touch by a familiar Brampton dark beer aroma. Aside from this, Brampton do three dark beers - Impy, Mild and Stout. I swear if you tried every one of them one after another you'd soon recognise that Brampton waft. Is it the yeast they use perhaps, or do they always prefer to use specific malts in their dark beers? I don't know, but why change something that works - if they continue to all have that appealing sweet and roast malt aroma I'll continue to enjoy drinking them.
The taste is the same as the aroma, in that there is a definite dark Belgian or possibly German, perhaps Andechs Dopplebock taste, giving way to a glorious blend of roast malts. This is a surprisingly refreshing drink for a strong beer - the label describes it as dangerously drinkable and I think that's spot on. There is some bitterness, it kind of appears with the malt in the second part of the taste, and lingers subtly in the background when you finish each mouthful.
The primary feature though is its lustrous creaminess, the sort of smooth palate caressing warm satisfaction that could never be achieved by filling beer with Nitrogen or other crap. Its smooth in a good way. And tremendously enjoyable.
Labouring under the illusion it was a BCA I actually poured it in to 4 glasses - a near full pint for me, a small measure for Chala who also loved it, another small measure leaving what I thought would be yeast in the bottom, and then a mug containing the last of the bottle contents. In the end this interesting but needless exercise served me very well as it drew out the drinking experience that little longer. Its just a shame that mild befuddlement means I am not 100% certain it wasn't bottle conditioned, and so will now have to buy another to find out - which depending on its limited edition numbers, will either be extremely expensive or impossible.
Overall this was an example of a recommendation deserved. It was fantastic. If you find one buy it; if you own one, drink it.
Cheers!
Wee Beefy
the title, you will be relieved to discover, is not a reference to some dreadful over-concept "craft"(?) bottled beer made with wine, instead, its simply a wine term used to afford compliment to an excellent British bottled beer, from an excellent local brewery.
Brampton Brewery in Chesterfield produce a regular range of really very good beers. Impy dark is a classic, and a personal favourite of mine, and the Stout and session bitter "Best" are worthy features in a commendable portfolio. Interestingly though, it seems like they haven't branched out much into stronger beers yet, or at least, not until the end of last year.
Winter Bock
When I went to buy my Christmas beers from Archer Road Beer Stop, Davefromtshop told me that, despite its rather exclusive price tag, Brampton Winter Bock was one of the best beers he'd tried for a long time. Curiously, seeing its tempting livery of mucky white and black in a flip top 750ml bottle I assumed it was really strong. I was actually a little disappointed to discover that it was "only" 6%, so accustomed had I become to stouts being of imperial strength when packaged so well. Dave reassured me that despite its strength, it was still a brilliant beer. And then, I was bought one for Christmas.
I was going to patiently store it until my birthday in June but caved in last night and offered to share it with Chala - after all, at the sharp end of a refreshing night, the last thing you want is to munch your way through a wine bottle sized slab of beer, no matter how delicious it is. As it turned out, it was so good that I could easily have sunk the lot on my own. A good job then that it wasn't a gorilla baffler.
I should confess now that I didn't make notes. I couldn't be arsed to be quite honest! I didn't want to impinge on the event by thinking carefully about what flavours I could pick out, so here are some rambling vaguely useful notes about this wonderful bottled beer that I have managed to more or less remember.
Brampton Winter Bock is 6.0%, numbered 063 from a limited edition of am not sure how many and, possibly due to an identified degree of refreshment last night, I thought it was bottle conditioned, whereas the label makes no such claim. No spine chilling "CAMRA says this is real ale" vinegar portent to be seen. The label also proudly proclaims that its a barley wine. This is in fact, the only thing that I could find fault with - I think barley wine does it a disservice, since its much more drinkable and well balanced than most barley wine offerings. And really, at 6.0%, its too weak to be a barley wine. But I digress....
It pours a glorious black and smells straight away like a a Belgian Dubbel, but that is quickly knocked into touch by a familiar Brampton dark beer aroma. Aside from this, Brampton do three dark beers - Impy, Mild and Stout. I swear if you tried every one of them one after another you'd soon recognise that Brampton waft. Is it the yeast they use perhaps, or do they always prefer to use specific malts in their dark beers? I don't know, but why change something that works - if they continue to all have that appealing sweet and roast malt aroma I'll continue to enjoy drinking them.
The taste is the same as the aroma, in that there is a definite dark Belgian or possibly German, perhaps Andechs Dopplebock taste, giving way to a glorious blend of roast malts. This is a surprisingly refreshing drink for a strong beer - the label describes it as dangerously drinkable and I think that's spot on. There is some bitterness, it kind of appears with the malt in the second part of the taste, and lingers subtly in the background when you finish each mouthful.
The primary feature though is its lustrous creaminess, the sort of smooth palate caressing warm satisfaction that could never be achieved by filling beer with Nitrogen or other crap. Its smooth in a good way. And tremendously enjoyable.
Labouring under the illusion it was a BCA I actually poured it in to 4 glasses - a near full pint for me, a small measure for Chala who also loved it, another small measure leaving what I thought would be yeast in the bottom, and then a mug containing the last of the bottle contents. In the end this interesting but needless exercise served me very well as it drew out the drinking experience that little longer. Its just a shame that mild befuddlement means I am not 100% certain it wasn't bottle conditioned, and so will now have to buy another to find out - which depending on its limited edition numbers, will either be extremely expensive or impossible.
Overall this was an example of a recommendation deserved. It was fantastic. If you find one buy it; if you own one, drink it.
Cheers!
Wee Beefy
Tuesday, 13 March 2012
Wee Beefy's pubs round-up (and some bottle news)
Ay up,
its going to be a slightly shorter post than normal (who am I kidding? Every time I start a post like that its still a minimum 5 paragraphs long....) as it pertains to some brief pub visits over the past week, which I have lumped together into cumbersome slabs of gen.
Friday
After my Kelham visit on Friday evening I embarked on a tour of a few more local hostelries with Mr Robbery. First stop was the FAT CAT where we had an essential and excellent pork pie, and a half each of the Thornbridge Pica Pica stout. Mores the shame that I seem to have missed this years run of the Bete Noire, my favourite Kelham beer.
This was followed by a walk round to the SHIP INN (see wonkily lined up door plaque pic right) for a fantastic pint each of the Abbeydale Dark Angel. There was a distinct Sheffield slant to the beers but there was still a dark offering, which is a mark of thoughtful beer choosing, given the dominance of pale hoppy beers in Sheffield's Breweries output. Also of note, myself and Mr Robbery both like dark beers, which is a convenient situation when there is such a good range on offer in Steel City pubs. I have now taken 3 people to visit the Ship, and have yet to hear a word of criticism.
Next was a jaunt on the tram up to the UNIVERSITY ARMS. It was busy but not rammed and we again chose the same beer (this may be open to question!). We both had pints of a Revolutions Brewery offering that could have been Beat Red or Devolution. To be fair, it could have been one of about 10 of their beers since my "innate" journalistic eye recorded the beer as "45". A quick look at their website proves the folly of this notation....
We also had time to pop in HARRISONS 1854 to sit in the beer garden with pints of Abbeydale Deception. It was getting late and I know we weren't in long. Mr R had designs on going to a number of places, but I was set on another dark brew....
Our final stop was in THE OLD HOUSE, for, you guessed it, Bradfield Farmers Stout (in unspecified quantities). This really was my last venue of the night. Reports of my having been "ready for bed" appear to have been greatly accurate, and it was therefore a night beer waggon for me at just gone 01.00.
Disgraceful...
Monday
Talking of disgraceful, its hard to be able to put a spin on going out for a goodly session on a Monday, especially if you have partaken of a "refreshing" weekend. However, this time I had the excellent excuse of taking Chala with me for an enjoyable riposte in a couple of venues. This involved ending up back in THE OLD HOUSE again for some Bradfield Farmers Stout, which was a bit tired, and some refreshing, pale, Spotland Gold from Phoenix Brewery. A few good wines were also sampled here, leading us to embark on a rash second venue...
So it was we ended up in DAda (daDA?) where the Pica Pica was once again available, and some excellent Magic Rock. Chala settled down on the comfy leather seat with an ominously large Pinotage and I had a pint of the excellent Magic Rock Curious. We Finished with a bottle of the Trappist Rochefort 6, principally as I had never seen it anywhere before (only their tiring 8 and their stupendous 11), and also because it was meant to be a shared finisher. Not that Chala exactly partook, but it was a nice find, even though regrettably its carbonation and lighter flavour made it less god than the similar strength Westmalle Dubbel.
And finally some over the off counter news...
The ARCHER ROAD BEER STOP is selling some Dunham Massey bottled beers. Among those offered are Cheshire IPA (review coming soon) Cherry Stout and a new beer, Obelisk. Personally I rate the Dunham bottled beers very highly, I would recommend you give them a try (but remember that they aren't hop forward, all their beers to date have been traditional and more malty affairs - hopheads can always peruse the offerings from the likes of Summer Wine Brewery though...).
See. That wasn't too long.....
Wee Beefy
its going to be a slightly shorter post than normal (who am I kidding? Every time I start a post like that its still a minimum 5 paragraphs long....) as it pertains to some brief pub visits over the past week, which I have lumped together into cumbersome slabs of gen.
Friday
After my Kelham visit on Friday evening I embarked on a tour of a few more local hostelries with Mr Robbery. First stop was the FAT CAT where we had an essential and excellent pork pie, and a half each of the Thornbridge Pica Pica stout. Mores the shame that I seem to have missed this years run of the Bete Noire, my favourite Kelham beer.
This was followed by a walk round to the SHIP INN (see wonkily lined up door plaque pic right) for a fantastic pint each of the Abbeydale Dark Angel. There was a distinct Sheffield slant to the beers but there was still a dark offering, which is a mark of thoughtful beer choosing, given the dominance of pale hoppy beers in Sheffield's Breweries output. Also of note, myself and Mr Robbery both like dark beers, which is a convenient situation when there is such a good range on offer in Steel City pubs. I have now taken 3 people to visit the Ship, and have yet to hear a word of criticism.
Next was a jaunt on the tram up to the UNIVERSITY ARMS. It was busy but not rammed and we again chose the same beer (this may be open to question!). We both had pints of a Revolutions Brewery offering that could have been Beat Red or Devolution. To be fair, it could have been one of about 10 of their beers since my "innate" journalistic eye recorded the beer as "45". A quick look at their website proves the folly of this notation....
We also had time to pop in HARRISONS 1854 to sit in the beer garden with pints of Abbeydale Deception. It was getting late and I know we weren't in long. Mr R had designs on going to a number of places, but I was set on another dark brew....
Our final stop was in THE OLD HOUSE, for, you guessed it, Bradfield Farmers Stout (in unspecified quantities). This really was my last venue of the night. Reports of my having been "ready for bed" appear to have been greatly accurate, and it was therefore a night beer waggon for me at just gone 01.00.
Disgraceful...
Monday
Talking of disgraceful, its hard to be able to put a spin on going out for a goodly session on a Monday, especially if you have partaken of a "refreshing" weekend. However, this time I had the excellent excuse of taking Chala with me for an enjoyable riposte in a couple of venues. This involved ending up back in THE OLD HOUSE again for some Bradfield Farmers Stout, which was a bit tired, and some refreshing, pale, Spotland Gold from Phoenix Brewery. A few good wines were also sampled here, leading us to embark on a rash second venue...
So it was we ended up in DAda (daDA?) where the Pica Pica was once again available, and some excellent Magic Rock. Chala settled down on the comfy leather seat with an ominously large Pinotage and I had a pint of the excellent Magic Rock Curious. We Finished with a bottle of the Trappist Rochefort 6, principally as I had never seen it anywhere before (only their tiring 8 and their stupendous 11), and also because it was meant to be a shared finisher. Not that Chala exactly partook, but it was a nice find, even though regrettably its carbonation and lighter flavour made it less god than the similar strength Westmalle Dubbel.
And finally some over the off counter news...
The ARCHER ROAD BEER STOP is selling some Dunham Massey bottled beers. Among those offered are Cheshire IPA (review coming soon) Cherry Stout and a new beer, Obelisk. Personally I rate the Dunham bottled beers very highly, I would recommend you give them a try (but remember that they aren't hop forward, all their beers to date have been traditional and more malty affairs - hopheads can always peruse the offerings from the likes of Summer Wine Brewery though...).
See. That wasn't too long.....
Wee Beefy
Sunday, 12 February 2012
Wee Beefy's beer review bites
Good evening again,
on Friday, having recovered from my arctic trek, I had the chance to visit Davefromtshop at Davefromtshop's shop, to sample a few beers or 10. Arriving about 10 minutes before closing meant we could quickly get down to the serious business of reviewing the handpicked selection of offerings, which were shared between me Davefromtshop and Andrew, which meant we could have a few more than usual.
Starter for 10PM.
We began with a sensible pint of real live actual real ale from the handpumps in the shop. Alas the tasty Thorne Pale Ale had run out so it was a toss up between Farmers Brown Cow and something from Cottage. This posed a little dilemma for me - am not overly smitten with brown ale at all, and despite Dave's encouraging promises, I refused to believe that I would like the Cottage beer, since their output is so unfailingly poor or odd. In light of which, I decided to "go brown". (this is not a euphemism)
The Cow was in decent form, and being served slightly flat it allowed some of the flavours which may otherwise have been hidden in the foam to come through. This whetted our appetites for an eclectic selection that, relying on my decision to draft text the beer list being a sensible one, should be written below (Bottle conditioned ales are marked BCA):
Moor Brewery Somerland Gold 5.% BCA
Coors White Shield 5.6% BCA
Summer Wine Brewery Covenant Aromatic Red Ale 5.2%
Holsworthy Muck & Straw 4.4% BCA
Isle of Mull Terror of Tobermory 4.6%
Oban Bay Skelpt Lug 4.2%
Harvey's Imperial Stout unknown corked vintage 9% BCA
Summer Wine Brewery Teleporter 5%
Chiltern Anniversary Ale 6.1% BCA
Summer Wine Brewery Cohort Double Black Belgian Rye PA 7.5%
Durham White Stout 7.2% BCA
Nogne Porter 7% BCA
Its worth pointing out that the Holsworthy beer was a gift from a mysterious stranger, so its not on sale in the shop, which is a shame. Also, the Harvey's is a survivor from a long ago delivery - more about that in a bit.
Top beers were possibly the Holsworthy, the White Shield, the Teleporter, the White Stout and definitely the Nogne, somewhat expensive but price worthy porter from deepest Norway.
The devils in the (lack of) detail
The Somerland was also nice but not really what I was expecting, in that it had a very light bitter flavour that I hadn't really expected of a West Country Ale. That doesn't make it a bad beer, just a surprise. The Shield was a very well rounded but slightly less hoppy than I remembered beer, but scored well on the night owing to it having been brewed with impeccable malt balance, and also for containing very palatable drinking yeast which ironically you were always meant to keep aside with White Shield.
The SWB Covenant was a red ale (I think!) and was as bitter as you'd expect for one of their beers but it may be that I was expecting more identifiable red malt flavours. Instead I was slapped in the face by the hops and then spent time waiting for another layer of flavour to appear and make itself known, but it just never happened. Which was a shame. Mind you, this was the first beer displaying uncompromising hops that night so the change was noteworthy at least.
The muck and straw would likely horrify any hophead,citrus fiend or Simcoe addict but it was more West Country than the Moor offering whilst managing to be very drinkable, and if you forgive an understandable reliance on malt, was a very refreshing session beer.
The Isle of Mull offering was much anticipated, especially since I thought they had closed down, but alas this was a very weak flavoured one dimensional beer which failed to really have any winning characteristics. There was a hint of peat in the malt but no hops and it was, an overriding, really thin brew. A terror indeed.
The Oban Ales was memorable only for having a really strange malt flavour, and by simply failing entirely to be a dark ale - Bradfield Yorkshire Farmer is probably the same colour - not that I am sure now the cloud of grog has cleared where exactly I got the idea it was a dark beer from! It won a few extra points for having ensconced some peaty malt notes hat may have been present in a bottle of Islay ales, but again failed to carry much flavour, and it was the deceit of its alleged dark character that let down its score.
Not Grimstad but Grim stuff
By this time I was desperate for a real live dark beer, so we dusted off the last ARBS stock bottle of Harvey's Imperial Russian Stout, Gales brewery corked, with a label proclaiming that it was from 2001 but a 2002 brewing awards reference on the back label, meaning we have no idea when its actually from. Suffice to say however, what we do know is that this is one from a batch of Harvey's Imperial Stout that were sold at the shop, 6 of which me and Dave bought between us based on the ultimate excellence of previous vintages. Every one so far has been flat, with no life or work from the yeast, and sour, tasting of yeast and molasses only. Suffice to say they have been poured down the sink.
And, quelle surprise, this one was also a container of foul flavours. If you fought through the grim sour yeast and nasty bullying molasses you could detect a hint of how the beer should, have tasted, but it was too small a reward for such hard work.
What's incredibly frustrating is, I wrote to Miles Jenner at the brewery in 2008 after bottle number 3 came out crap and he confirmed that there was an identified problem with the yeast, that it hadn't worked or started or done something, and the beer had therefore not developed or indeed, remained drinkable. Which is great, but even considering that he took my address and promised to send me two of the new batch of bottles (now out, as per Boak and Bailey at : Harveys Imperial Russian Stout new crown capped brew ) no recall of the known duff beer was mooted, no replacements were sent to me, and all the customers who bought bottles from ARBS will have opened them at any stage after purchase and found them crap, with Dave and myself's rigorous and passionate endorsements ringing in the ears no doubt.
A hugely disappointing show from Harvey's, and one which affords them no credit at all.
Our next offering was thankfully very nice, and it was a dark beer - it was the excellent Teleporter from Summer Wine Brewery that I have reviewed before. Have a look at the tags list down the side to find my sober review of this ale!
The paper wrapped Chiltern Anniversary Ale was next up and was a trifle disappointing. Much had been said at the brewery shop about the might of its taste and how it was a true celebration ale, in honour of the brewery's anniversary. Except, when we poured it out and drank it down it lacked much oomph. It was a pleasant palatable pale beer. Like an IPA. There is nothing wrong with that, except that their Beechwood on draught and the 300's Old Ale we had last time are eminently better beers.
Next we had our final Honley Heaven, the Summer Wine Brewery Cohort, described as a Double Black Belgian Rye PA. This was not a beer fearful of hops and had sacks of the buggers in it, making it a very astringent bitter beast. My only gripe however was the very ascorbic dryness presented, which was not mellowed by other ingredients, which is a facet I have noticed in a few SWB bottled beers. I concede I may have made a dumb schoolboy error in thinking it was a dark beer exhibiting all the warming characteristics of a traditional burnt roast flavoured porter or stout - when its clearly another take on the Black IPA. That said though, I don't think I was in the mood for another hop demon and this may well have tainted my review. It was like the initial taste of Brewdog Physics, but followed by their Punk IPA. That is not a good combination, however clever it may be, or however impressive the hopping may seem. I think I need an SWB night to sort this out!
The End of all beers?
Our penultimate tipple was the eagerly anticipated Durham White Stout. As per much sales blurb and innovative media coverage it has been made clear that this is an old style of ale - in that, any strong flavoured and high alcohol beer used to be called stout, irrespective of the colour or nature of treatment of the malts used. I intend to post a full review of this beer in the coming weeks so will say only that it packed in a lot of hop flavour, and was replete with oily resonances from hop resins.
Finally, as the night and to some extent cogent thought and consciousness ebbed away, we had our final beer, Nogne Porter from deepest Norway. Their porter, a product which attracts an authentic Norwegian take on alcohol pricing, is labelled as an English style porter. It certainly ticked all the boxes, and was, even if you may wish to discount my appreciation based on the tumult of ale and alcohol that forwent this sampling, one of the most enjoyable beers of the night. It was a North European take on the glorious UK/Baltic dark beers of the past, but not as strong, and was as rich, rewarding, unctuous, creamy malty and vinous as I had hoped. For more information about this beer see : Nogne with that "o" I can't do, blog. .
At this stage young Andrew had gone home and I was ready for a long sleep so it was the end of beer tasting that day. I would certainly go back and try some more of the SWB bottles and a couple of Nogne's, plus a Durham White Stout as implied above. In the meantime, I can recommend you get to the ARBS and take a look yourself. There are huge numbers of UK and European bottles to choose from, plus very reasonably priced real ale on draught to take away.
And if you want something special, even though the Nogne - O, Moor, the Brampton Bock and some of the new French beers are sold at a premium price as a result of the idiot-hate-fest of HSBD, you should still ask Dave about the product and you'll find that there are always treats to be had. This is a completely independent praise fest driven by a desire to preserve one to one retail I should point out.
So, that's all for now, enjoy your haul of bottled beers from wherever they may emanate, and I will be back on soon with more info on the beautiful drink.
Wee Beefy.
on Friday, having recovered from my arctic trek, I had the chance to visit Davefromtshop at Davefromtshop's shop, to sample a few beers or 10. Arriving about 10 minutes before closing meant we could quickly get down to the serious business of reviewing the handpicked selection of offerings, which were shared between me Davefromtshop and Andrew, which meant we could have a few more than usual.
Starter for 10PM.
We began with a sensible pint of real live actual real ale from the handpumps in the shop. Alas the tasty Thorne Pale Ale had run out so it was a toss up between Farmers Brown Cow and something from Cottage. This posed a little dilemma for me - am not overly smitten with brown ale at all, and despite Dave's encouraging promises, I refused to believe that I would like the Cottage beer, since their output is so unfailingly poor or odd. In light of which, I decided to "go brown". (this is not a euphemism)
The Cow was in decent form, and being served slightly flat it allowed some of the flavours which may otherwise have been hidden in the foam to come through. This whetted our appetites for an eclectic selection that, relying on my decision to draft text the beer list being a sensible one, should be written below (Bottle conditioned ales are marked BCA):
Moor Brewery Somerland Gold 5.% BCA
Coors White Shield 5.6% BCA
Summer Wine Brewery Covenant Aromatic Red Ale 5.2%
Holsworthy Muck & Straw 4.4% BCA
Isle of Mull Terror of Tobermory 4.6%
Oban Bay Skelpt Lug 4.2%
Harvey's Imperial Stout unknown corked vintage 9% BCA
Summer Wine Brewery Teleporter 5%
Chiltern Anniversary Ale 6.1% BCA
Summer Wine Brewery Cohort Double Black Belgian Rye PA 7.5%
Durham White Stout 7.2% BCA
Nogne Porter 7% BCA
Its worth pointing out that the Holsworthy beer was a gift from a mysterious stranger, so its not on sale in the shop, which is a shame. Also, the Harvey's is a survivor from a long ago delivery - more about that in a bit.
Top beers were possibly the Holsworthy, the White Shield, the Teleporter, the White Stout and definitely the Nogne, somewhat expensive but price worthy porter from deepest Norway.
The devils in the (lack of) detail
The Somerland was also nice but not really what I was expecting, in that it had a very light bitter flavour that I hadn't really expected of a West Country Ale. That doesn't make it a bad beer, just a surprise. The Shield was a very well rounded but slightly less hoppy than I remembered beer, but scored well on the night owing to it having been brewed with impeccable malt balance, and also for containing very palatable drinking yeast which ironically you were always meant to keep aside with White Shield.
The SWB Covenant was a red ale (I think!) and was as bitter as you'd expect for one of their beers but it may be that I was expecting more identifiable red malt flavours. Instead I was slapped in the face by the hops and then spent time waiting for another layer of flavour to appear and make itself known, but it just never happened. Which was a shame. Mind you, this was the first beer displaying uncompromising hops that night so the change was noteworthy at least.
The muck and straw would likely horrify any hophead,citrus fiend or Simcoe addict but it was more West Country than the Moor offering whilst managing to be very drinkable, and if you forgive an understandable reliance on malt, was a very refreshing session beer.
The Isle of Mull offering was much anticipated, especially since I thought they had closed down, but alas this was a very weak flavoured one dimensional beer which failed to really have any winning characteristics. There was a hint of peat in the malt but no hops and it was, an overriding, really thin brew. A terror indeed.
The Oban Ales was memorable only for having a really strange malt flavour, and by simply failing entirely to be a dark ale - Bradfield Yorkshire Farmer is probably the same colour - not that I am sure now the cloud of grog has cleared where exactly I got the idea it was a dark beer from! It won a few extra points for having ensconced some peaty malt notes hat may have been present in a bottle of Islay ales, but again failed to carry much flavour, and it was the deceit of its alleged dark character that let down its score.
Not Grimstad but Grim stuff
By this time I was desperate for a real live dark beer, so we dusted off the last ARBS stock bottle of Harvey's Imperial Russian Stout, Gales brewery corked, with a label proclaiming that it was from 2001 but a 2002 brewing awards reference on the back label, meaning we have no idea when its actually from. Suffice to say however, what we do know is that this is one from a batch of Harvey's Imperial Stout that were sold at the shop, 6 of which me and Dave bought between us based on the ultimate excellence of previous vintages. Every one so far has been flat, with no life or work from the yeast, and sour, tasting of yeast and molasses only. Suffice to say they have been poured down the sink.
And, quelle surprise, this one was also a container of foul flavours. If you fought through the grim sour yeast and nasty bullying molasses you could detect a hint of how the beer should, have tasted, but it was too small a reward for such hard work.
What's incredibly frustrating is, I wrote to Miles Jenner at the brewery in 2008 after bottle number 3 came out crap and he confirmed that there was an identified problem with the yeast, that it hadn't worked or started or done something, and the beer had therefore not developed or indeed, remained drinkable. Which is great, but even considering that he took my address and promised to send me two of the new batch of bottles (now out, as per Boak and Bailey at : Harveys Imperial Russian Stout new crown capped brew ) no recall of the known duff beer was mooted, no replacements were sent to me, and all the customers who bought bottles from ARBS will have opened them at any stage after purchase and found them crap, with Dave and myself's rigorous and passionate endorsements ringing in the ears no doubt.
A hugely disappointing show from Harvey's, and one which affords them no credit at all.
Our next offering was thankfully very nice, and it was a dark beer - it was the excellent Teleporter from Summer Wine Brewery that I have reviewed before. Have a look at the tags list down the side to find my sober review of this ale!
Next we had our final Honley Heaven, the Summer Wine Brewery Cohort, described as a Double Black Belgian Rye PA. This was not a beer fearful of hops and had sacks of the buggers in it, making it a very astringent bitter beast. My only gripe however was the very ascorbic dryness presented, which was not mellowed by other ingredients, which is a facet I have noticed in a few SWB bottled beers. I concede I may have made a dumb schoolboy error in thinking it was a dark beer exhibiting all the warming characteristics of a traditional burnt roast flavoured porter or stout - when its clearly another take on the Black IPA. That said though, I don't think I was in the mood for another hop demon and this may well have tainted my review. It was like the initial taste of Brewdog Physics, but followed by their Punk IPA. That is not a good combination, however clever it may be, or however impressive the hopping may seem. I think I need an SWB night to sort this out!
The End of all beers?
Our penultimate tipple was the eagerly anticipated Durham White Stout. As per much sales blurb and innovative media coverage it has been made clear that this is an old style of ale - in that, any strong flavoured and high alcohol beer used to be called stout, irrespective of the colour or nature of treatment of the malts used. I intend to post a full review of this beer in the coming weeks so will say only that it packed in a lot of hop flavour, and was replete with oily resonances from hop resins.
Finally, as the night and to some extent cogent thought and consciousness ebbed away, we had our final beer, Nogne Porter from deepest Norway. Their porter, a product which attracts an authentic Norwegian take on alcohol pricing, is labelled as an English style porter. It certainly ticked all the boxes, and was, even if you may wish to discount my appreciation based on the tumult of ale and alcohol that forwent this sampling, one of the most enjoyable beers of the night. It was a North European take on the glorious UK/Baltic dark beers of the past, but not as strong, and was as rich, rewarding, unctuous, creamy malty and vinous as I had hoped. For more information about this beer see : Nogne with that "o" I can't do, blog. .
At this stage young Andrew had gone home and I was ready for a long sleep so it was the end of beer tasting that day. I would certainly go back and try some more of the SWB bottles and a couple of Nogne's, plus a Durham White Stout as implied above. In the meantime, I can recommend you get to the ARBS and take a look yourself. There are huge numbers of UK and European bottles to choose from, plus very reasonably priced real ale on draught to take away.
And if you want something special, even though the Nogne - O, Moor, the Brampton Bock and some of the new French beers are sold at a premium price as a result of the idiot-hate-fest of HSBD, you should still ask Dave about the product and you'll find that there are always treats to be had. This is a completely independent praise fest driven by a desire to preserve one to one retail I should point out.
So, that's all for now, enjoy your haul of bottled beers from wherever they may emanate, and I will be back on soon with more info on the beautiful drink.
Wee Beefy.
Wee Beefy's beer crawl bites - Dronfield Woodseats and Heeley
Afternoon be alikers
See below details of a pub crawl by bus using the 43 Sheffield to Chesterfield Service
on Thursday 9th February I used up some of the last of my annual leave to embark on a days drinking in that Dronfield, where, legend has it, whilst most pubs were almost always uniformly disappointing, there are now a few good boozers these days. It sempt like a good time to venture out to put this theory to the test. With me was Mr M, a doughty alesman with a healthy interest in pubs.
Hallowes be thy name
Of course "a good time to venture out" is a purely personal interpretation. In reality, it was only a good day based on the fact that I had secured leave to do so. It was chuffin freezing on Thursday, and much like when me and Christingpher had ventured out the other weekend, the ne-ersayers were quick to warn me of the meteorological perils ahead. As it turned out, initially the most perilous aspect of the trip was the ball aching trundle through standing traffic on Woodseats en route to pub 1.
The obvious choice was a pint of one of my favourite Spire beers, Dark Side of the Moon, while Mr M had a pint of Barlow Heath Robinson. Having recounted my experience to a few folks who have been, it has been confirmed that the pumps at the Tuns are a bit rubbish, with really very short pulls that make you think the beer is running out. This is a potentially unhelpful feature since the second my Dark SOTM didn't taste exactly as I remembered I convinced myself it was the end of the barrel - but it probably wasn't. Next time I may ask them to take the sparkler off...
Soon we were warming up, and after a quick trip to obviate via the nice looking 1930's style toilet doors (you notice the small details in 1930's pubs I find) I was ready for another half. This turned out to be a quite significant one, since I wanted to try almost all of the rest of the beers on offer.
In the end I narrowed it down to and plumped for the Barlow Ebeneezer Scrooge porter, so had that, along with a half of Intergalactic from Black Iris brewery with its beautifully designed pumpclp. Alas, the extravagance of the writing hid from me its true strength, 6.0%, so I insisted Mr M partake of some as well. This hoppy bitter pale ale was the best of all the beers we tried in the Tuns.
Siding with the Dronny Arms
Next we trudged in the damp sapping cold through sleet to the Dronfield Arms, another first visit for me, and Mr M. Its an odd shaped long establishment not unlike a turn of the century Scottish bar in layout, but with a sleek modern blue and pale wood interior. All the handpumps, I think there were 4 beer and 1 cider, were at the end of the pub, and there was a board listing the ales on offer. Mr M opted for a safe Farmers Blonde and even though I suspected the Dronfield Arms bitter was likely from Thornbridge I opted for the sensibly weak Thwaites Nutty Black, which was £2.10 a pint, and thus £4.60 for the round.
We sat at the end of the pub listening in on a chat about the Three Valleys festival and the pubs of Holmesfield (theres another crawl, maybe in addition to the festival) and admiring the comfy surroundings and light airy space in which to drink or eat. The barman/landlord told us they were opening up the bottom floor.cellar bar room which was to be a restaurant. This fits in with what some people had told me about the former Sidings pub which I think this used to be. A pleasant visit, with a surprisingly tame beer range, but a warm relaxing place to drink.
Swan
Our penultimate Dronfield stop was to have been the older White Swan across the road. Still showing scars of Whitbreadifying in the early nineties I suspect, the maroon sign board mentioning traditional ales and the gold letters of th pub sign told me instantly that Sherwood Inns had clasped their grubby fingers round this venerable old building in the past.
Inside is a really old bar, alas laden with multiple shiny gas filled fonts, but affording space for two handpumps. Mr M lost control of his senses and ploughed straight into a reckless and unwise pint of Bombardier, and me a half of the strangest Adnams Bitter I ever tasted. It wasn't off, but just tasted of malt and fatigue. It didn't even appear to be the right colour. That said, it was still better than the dread horror of trying to enjoy Bombardier, the asinine homogenised beer by numbers which you must have to work really hard at to sell in a condition that would attract compliment.
We sat under a Sky Sports screen grimacing at the interchangeable images of Fabio's blind cobblers thumb and Redknapp's melted landslide faces as reaction to the former's acquittal and Capello's resignation was raked over tediously by "faces" from the world of the beautiful gane. Welcome to the brain poison world of repetition which is Sky Sports. The pub was quiet, but crucially, warm, and very comfortable. There was quite a lot of pub to look at actually and had we had more time I would like to have seen one of the other rooms. Alas we had to press on to our next destination down the main road.
Coach and Horses - now replaced by bus.
We arrived at the coach before 15.00 assuming as any rational person would that being a Thursday not a Friday or weekend they would open restricted hours like 12 til 15.00. Alas, the Coach opens at 17.00 or some random hour so we met neither our thirst or toiletry needs. We skulked around at the bus stop for a while instead, the only brief highlight being that the beer carriage turned up earlier than it said on my up to date timetable.
Chantrey Chuntering.
Fifteen minutes later we were in Woodseats and heading for the Chantrey. The last time I had visited it had been, erm, well at least 1997, and there had been Tetley on, and a club singer who was so "club", that we had to leave half way through from laughing. Now the pub has a slightly more adventurous approach to beer, although I can't say what the entertainment promises.
Mr M once again plumped for Bombardier, which was a trifle better than in the Swan, and I had a very nice pint of Kelham Island Easy Rider in a Kelham branded glass. My only gripe was that the Easy Rider seemed to be lacking hops, but I think this is actually how its meant to taste - like Pale rider with the hops and alcohol reduced. It was in good condition though, so were able to warm up in here, trying to ignore the radio being played over the pub speaker system (always a bad sign), before venturing out once more.
A view of the Sheaf.
We decided to take the opportunity to grab some snap before we headed for the Ale House on Fraser road which was to open at 16.00. We got our supplies then called the pub to make sure we were on track to find it open - unfortunately they were going to open at nearer 17.00 due to a deliveries mix up so we spent a rather long stint cowering in the bus shelter eating our food, although this of course did keep us dry.
Eventually we headed off slowly for the pub and found that Tony's love of Saltaire had continued unabated, with 4 of the 5 cask ales on offer being from that brewery. Not that we were complaining, but I really fancied a stout, and there was none in the range to be found. Instead we both opted for a pint of the Cascade which was once again on good form.
Conversation soon drifted to the pub quiz. Tony was mortified that the wining score in the last one had been 11. Really, we should have taken this as a hint that it had been really difficult, but bravado got the better of us and we unwisely agreed to be read the questions, have an aimless pop at answering them, before he gave us the actual answer. Estimates of our tremendous score were between 4 and 6 out of 20. I think Tony should simply accept that questions about betting odds and the name of the band the father of an upcoming act was in are just a little too difficult. But what do I know...
Well, that diversion did at least mean that we had another in here, this time I had the fantastic Saltaire Challenger which was a lovey dark strong bitter with a very defined hop character. This went down a treat, although, once again, with snow now starting to fall, we had to move on.
Archer Road Beer Stop.
En route to pub 6 we popped into the ARBS, which regular readers may recognise as Sheffield's premier bottled and draught real ale off license. Davefromtshop was welcoming as always and invited us in for a wee snifter in the back before we gilded ourselves for another chilly wander. There were 3 draught beers on offer and we both opted for the excellent Thorne Pale Ale, which was in good form and had a very pleasant lingering hoppy taste. Alas we could not stop long catching up, not least because I was coming back the day after for a beer tasting.
Broady
Just like the popular England cricketer of the same name the lovable old Broadfield is not without its flaws. Still there is a surfeit of seating, still no cask beer list and on this occasion am not even sure there was a dark beer to tempt me. Both me and Mr M grabbed two stools and a tiny table near the door and had a pint each of the Acorn USA Northern Brewer IPA. This was a nice drop but despite its name was still a slightly astringent bitter rather than a gloriously hoppy IPA, but we didn't let that trouble us. Since we had to change course at this stage to get over to Heeley it became clear that we could stretch to a re run at some point, starting at the Sheaf and taking in the Broady en route to the Union, Cherry Tree, Greystones and Lescar.
Tap route
Having also finished my Jaipur I caught the 43 using my cheap all day ticket to get off near the Sheffield Tap for a couple of last halves. There was a noticeable Marble theme again, so I had half of Lagonda 4th IPA (this is based on my "eclectic sloping and wavy writing style that I adopt whilst processing alcohol) and Thornbridge Black Harry. The Tap was mercifully quiet which meant i didn't have to hide away in a back room,. but it was a brief visit on account of my having a pressing need to get home and lie down.
Overall we got to 9 pubs if you count ARBS and tried a number of beers from a diverse range of breweries, all at sensible prices, i.e below £3.00 a pint (apart maybe from the Black Iris, but it wouldn't be overpriced since it was 6.0%). Its a shame that we couldn't get to the Coach and Horses and that we didn't have time for the Sheaf View but all in good time, we can always do this again sometime. A highly recommended pub selection.
Cheers!
Wee Beefy.
See below details of a pub crawl by bus using the 43 Sheffield to Chesterfield Service
on Thursday 9th February I used up some of the last of my annual leave to embark on a days drinking in that Dronfield, where, legend has it, whilst most pubs were almost always uniformly disappointing, there are now a few good boozers these days. It sempt like a good time to venture out to put this theory to the test. With me was Mr M, a doughty alesman with a healthy interest in pubs.
Hallowes be thy name
Of course "a good time to venture out" is a purely personal interpretation. In reality, it was only a good day based on the fact that I had secured leave to do so. It was chuffin freezing on Thursday, and much like when me and Christingpher had ventured out the other weekend, the ne-ersayers were quick to warn me of the meteorological perils ahead. As it turned out, initially the most perilous aspect of the trip was the ball aching trundle through standing traffic on Woodseats en route to pub 1.
Eventually I stepped off the bus across from the Three Tuns, formerly the Hallowes, a pub I had never visited before. I had heard that the new owners Spire had retained or maybe restored some of the original features and there were still one or two subtle nods to its 1930's origins, in addition of course to its mock Tudor frontage. Inside, they had sought to make the pub naturally atmospheric by making it as chuffin freezing as it was outside - an interesting touch. I was briefly warmed however by the sight of 12 handpumps in front of me (2 for Zoider), and decided I wanted to start dark.
Soon we were warming up, and after a quick trip to obviate via the nice looking 1930's style toilet doors (you notice the small details in 1930's pubs I find) I was ready for another half. This turned out to be a quite significant one, since I wanted to try almost all of the rest of the beers on offer.
Siding with the Dronny Arms
Next we trudged in the damp sapping cold through sleet to the Dronfield Arms, another first visit for me, and Mr M. Its an odd shaped long establishment not unlike a turn of the century Scottish bar in layout, but with a sleek modern blue and pale wood interior. All the handpumps, I think there were 4 beer and 1 cider, were at the end of the pub, and there was a board listing the ales on offer. Mr M opted for a safe Farmers Blonde and even though I suspected the Dronfield Arms bitter was likely from Thornbridge I opted for the sensibly weak Thwaites Nutty Black, which was £2.10 a pint, and thus £4.60 for the round.
Swan
Our penultimate Dronfield stop was to have been the older White Swan across the road. Still showing scars of Whitbreadifying in the early nineties I suspect, the maroon sign board mentioning traditional ales and the gold letters of th pub sign told me instantly that Sherwood Inns had clasped their grubby fingers round this venerable old building in the past.
We sat under a Sky Sports screen grimacing at the interchangeable images of Fabio's blind cobblers thumb and Redknapp's melted landslide faces as reaction to the former's acquittal and Capello's resignation was raked over tediously by "faces" from the world of the beautiful gane. Welcome to the brain poison world of repetition which is Sky Sports. The pub was quiet, but crucially, warm, and very comfortable. There was quite a lot of pub to look at actually and had we had more time I would like to have seen one of the other rooms. Alas we had to press on to our next destination down the main road.
Coach and Horses - now replaced by bus.
We arrived at the coach before 15.00 assuming as any rational person would that being a Thursday not a Friday or weekend they would open restricted hours like 12 til 15.00. Alas, the Coach opens at 17.00 or some random hour so we met neither our thirst or toiletry needs. We skulked around at the bus stop for a while instead, the only brief highlight being that the beer carriage turned up earlier than it said on my up to date timetable.
Chantrey Chuntering.
Fifteen minutes later we were in Woodseats and heading for the Chantrey. The last time I had visited it had been, erm, well at least 1997, and there had been Tetley on, and a club singer who was so "club", that we had to leave half way through from laughing. Now the pub has a slightly more adventurous approach to beer, although I can't say what the entertainment promises.
Mr M once again plumped for Bombardier, which was a trifle better than in the Swan, and I had a very nice pint of Kelham Island Easy Rider in a Kelham branded glass. My only gripe was that the Easy Rider seemed to be lacking hops, but I think this is actually how its meant to taste - like Pale rider with the hops and alcohol reduced. It was in good condition though, so were able to warm up in here, trying to ignore the radio being played over the pub speaker system (always a bad sign), before venturing out once more.
A view of the Sheaf.
We decided to take the opportunity to grab some snap before we headed for the Ale House on Fraser road which was to open at 16.00. We got our supplies then called the pub to make sure we were on track to find it open - unfortunately they were going to open at nearer 17.00 due to a deliveries mix up so we spent a rather long stint cowering in the bus shelter eating our food, although this of course did keep us dry.
Eventually we headed off slowly for the pub and found that Tony's love of Saltaire had continued unabated, with 4 of the 5 cask ales on offer being from that brewery. Not that we were complaining, but I really fancied a stout, and there was none in the range to be found. Instead we both opted for a pint of the Cascade which was once again on good form.
Conversation soon drifted to the pub quiz. Tony was mortified that the wining score in the last one had been 11. Really, we should have taken this as a hint that it had been really difficult, but bravado got the better of us and we unwisely agreed to be read the questions, have an aimless pop at answering them, before he gave us the actual answer. Estimates of our tremendous score were between 4 and 6 out of 20. I think Tony should simply accept that questions about betting odds and the name of the band the father of an upcoming act was in are just a little too difficult. But what do I know...
Archer Road Beer Stop.
En route to pub 6 we popped into the ARBS, which regular readers may recognise as Sheffield's premier bottled and draught real ale off license. Davefromtshop was welcoming as always and invited us in for a wee snifter in the back before we gilded ourselves for another chilly wander. There were 3 draught beers on offer and we both opted for the excellent Thorne Pale Ale, which was in good form and had a very pleasant lingering hoppy taste. Alas we could not stop long catching up, not least because I was coming back the day after for a beer tasting.
Broady
Just like the popular England cricketer of the same name the lovable old Broadfield is not without its flaws. Still there is a surfeit of seating, still no cask beer list and on this occasion am not even sure there was a dark beer to tempt me. Both me and Mr M grabbed two stools and a tiny table near the door and had a pint each of the Acorn USA Northern Brewer IPA. This was a nice drop but despite its name was still a slightly astringent bitter rather than a gloriously hoppy IPA, but we didn't let that trouble us. Since we had to change course at this stage to get over to Heeley it became clear that we could stretch to a re run at some point, starting at the Sheaf and taking in the Broady en route to the Union, Cherry Tree, Greystones and Lescar.The Lion
Next Mr M unexpectedly showed me a brilliant shortcut over the Sheaf to come out at Heeley almost at our next destination the White Lion. To our surprise the pub was busy (wait, that's not where the surprise emanates) but the snug was free - so we went in there and settled down to a pint and a review of the days events. I had a pint of Jaipur and Mr M sensibly a pint of Abbeydale Daily Bread. It was here we worked out that my up-to-date timetable supplied by Wee Fatha was, in fact, printed in April 2010. Which explained why the 43's had been a little early throughout our visit. This did however afford us enough time to dispatch our beers at a sensible pace, in fact Mr M was awaah before me, having decided he'd had enough and needed the safety of his home.
Tap route
Having also finished my Jaipur I caught the 43 using my cheap all day ticket to get off near the Sheffield Tap for a couple of last halves. There was a noticeable Marble theme again, so I had half of Lagonda 4th IPA (this is based on my "eclectic sloping and wavy writing style that I adopt whilst processing alcohol) and Thornbridge Black Harry. The Tap was mercifully quiet which meant i didn't have to hide away in a back room,. but it was a brief visit on account of my having a pressing need to get home and lie down.
Overall we got to 9 pubs if you count ARBS and tried a number of beers from a diverse range of breweries, all at sensible prices, i.e below £3.00 a pint (apart maybe from the Black Iris, but it wouldn't be overpriced since it was 6.0%). Its a shame that we couldn't get to the Coach and Horses and that we didn't have time for the Sheaf View but all in good time, we can always do this again sometime. A highly recommended pub selection.
Cheers!
Wee Beefy.
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