Single Pub Of Contact

Afternoon,

    I'm noticing a bit of a trend to my drinking patterns lately. Not just obvious markers such as "to excess" and "recklessly" but more subtle patterns are emerging. I seem to be finding myself wanting to stay put once I get to a good pub.

This isn't exactly a groundbreaking outlook of course, but one of the things that has happened as a result of this blog is that I sometimes visit quite a few pubs in one "session" so that I have stuff to report. It's not like the blog owns me - because I enjoy tasting different beers, and soaking up different atmospheres in venues. And also, the walking between pubs probably does me good.

However over the last week the concept of a session, in its traditional sense of staying in one pub, has become more prominent. Staying put is the new crawl. I think it may catch on, much like other recent inventions, such as the wheel....

If you want to try out my new hobby,  you will need the following:
A : a good pub
B : a few good beers to choose from
C : some money
D : plenty of time

Last night I followed the above recipe with some success, as below...

I was heading to the Closed Shop and was meeting Wee Keefy for a few drinks. I knew he was only coming out for a couple, after which he'd likely be off home so I planned to wander down to the Uni Arms or the Bath afterwards. There was an exemplary range of beer on again at the Shop, and it was really busy when I arrived at about half 7. I got a grammatically accurate pork pie and a pint of the excellent Dancing Duck Dark Drake and awaited the arrival of the brother of mine.

The Dark Drake was on excellent form so when he arrived, and, as everyone does, went to the upper part of the bar to look at the beers on the top two pumps instead of reading the sign, I recommended it to him, and got another pint for myself. In the end he had a half of Robinsons Unicorn and half a Drake. We were soon ensconced with good beers surrounded by people enjoying good beers. This is a heady and largely irresistible cocktail.

I had half of the Welbeck Dark Horse next (two dark beers out of 6 - spoilt!) and half a blue Bee Tangled Up IPA, as did WK, and we continued chatting. At some point Father O-matic arrived with Pete Green from the world of writing. It transpired he was having some sort of birthday so once WK had sloped off home like a good lad I joined the party and spent a very agreeable few hours talking beer and pubs and, erm, other things. I also accidentally had numerous pints of Tangled Up IPA. I think this made me sleepy.

Alas the throng departed around 23.00 and I had to find the cash for another half to last me until I had to leave for the night bus. I'd been sat in the Closed Shop for about 4 hours and enjoyed every minute of it. And to be honest, once I was in, I never gave the idea of moving on a second thought.

A similar thing happened on Friday, although for reasons of mastication I did venture on from pub number one in the end. I'd headed for Shakespeares after work with Mr Howard from the world of music, and we sat in the beer garden, in defiance of common sense,  enjoying the echoes of sunlight that were imprinted on the scene from earlier. We were both on pints of the rather smashing Raw Mount Adam, a zingily hoppy, fruity, pale beer cramming in loads of flavour at 3.6%.

We were soon joined by Steve who went for old reliable Deception  whilst I had another Raw. As our conversation turned to that Woman the atmosphere became more charged and passionate and it was only right that my next pint was of Steel City Brewing Metal Fatigue, with just the right amount of bitterness to represent the feelings of the brewers toward the subject figure, and just enough hops to make its drinking  enjoyable and valedictory at the same time. A very good beer.

More Raw followed but alas Dave and Stave were off to get smashed on Buckfast and play gin rummy (have I remembered this right?!) so I stopped for a last one before heading on to eat. That last beer was a pint of the strong Arbor and Bristol beer factory English IPA, a surprisingly soupy but not unenjoyable concoction that may have been brewed with British hops.

My final and thus non session stop off was in the Bath Hotel, where I had one of their legendary hot roast pork sarnies, a half of Raw Pacific Gem and a pint of the Bristol Beer Factory Bitter Californian. There's been plenty of Brizzle stuff up in Sheffield lately and quite frankly that can only be a good thing.

So it seems that I have used the above recipe to end up in two cracking pubs drinking great  beer. Although, having left to go to the Bath, I think I've not completely nailed this new hobby. Here's to my getting plenty more practice at staying in pubs for a long time.....


Wee Beefy

New Commonside pub crawl launched.

I say launched....

      only really "launched" in the same way as I unveiled my evening meal an hour ago. That's not a euphemism. The meal wasn't a unique combination of ingredients never before thrown together, nor was it something I planned to invite a number of people to join me in eating. It didn't come with informative literature, an interactive map or a forum for comments. However, the link between my tea and the New Commonside pub crawl is that they are both a great way to enjoy a few things that you like. Reassuringly pleasant, if not groundbreaking.

The crawl officially starts where I didn't. I hadn't definitely decided to do the inaugural run last night, so I hadn't thought about where it might start. For info, and hitherto after set in stone, the starting point, or pub, is the Cobden View in Crookes. Like I say, I didn't start there though. Much like I didn't entertain having an appetiser or amuse bouche....

I did start with the main course, my second visit to the newly reopened Closed Shop. Mr Stephens was on hand to divulge facts for me to forget or misremember, and Megan was behind the bar to be bemused by our rambling conversation, and to help with the dispense of excellent beers. I very nearly started on a pint of the Townhouse Brewery Flowerdew, a hoppy Summery ale (yer know, coz its Summer...) but the lure of the Dancing Duck Dark Drake, an admirable (or admiral, as Alan Shearer would say) 4.5% rich oatmeal stout that was £2.85 a pint, was irresistible.
 

It was excellent of course, indeed so much so that I had to have three pints of it, whilst I was joined briefly by Ianfromtshop, and set about finding out the latest largely unsubstantiated information, AKA gossip, from the world of pubs.
 

Linked to which is Andy's explanation for this week's reopening and then closing hobby, for which you will need a weak lemon drink (apologies for quoting obscure mid nineties BBC2 comedy).

Luckily I definitely remember what he told me, which my brain reckons sounds like this : if the pub lease had been taken on after the refurb had been planned and funds sought to pay for it, there would have had to have been an interim manager in the pub before it was taken over by Andy and his business partner. Better then to get in, keep trading, increase trade, and make money prior to the refurbishment.
 

Please note, this is pint 3 information. If you inconveniently require facts, you are probably better off visiting the pub and asking a member of staff what I should have written. Bang goes my investigative journalism career....

Anyhoo having run out of physical funds I went to the Hallamshire House which was heaving. I knew I could pay on card here, and a double whammy of brilliance played out - not only was the Thornbridge Imperial Oatmeal Stout still on, but also, I could get cash back. I win! So I got a half of that and an "ironic" half of Wild Swan along with a glass of water and headed off to find seating. It was then that I bumped into Simon from the Manchester trip, and long lost relative Keith. Not Wee Keefy, and not demonstrably an actual relative. But still, it mattered more that these were now my pub crawl testers.

 

As soon as we had finished our beers we all went over the road to the Closed Shop - and straight onto pints of the excellent Dark Drake. We had a good chat and a sense of being sightly more drunk, before making the decision to wander down to the Blake. Its worth pointing out that before the coffee at the end which is the Blake, you could pop in a cheeky pudding - i.e the Springvale. Ianfromtshop tells me it serves a very palatable and cheap pint of Bass. Surely worth investigation?

We didn't have enough time to fanny about with that though, and went straight to The Blake where they had Great Yorkshire Brewery Blackout on. It was excellent basically, so we had a couple of pints each, gleefully watching the time of the last bus pass by whilst supping and chatting about life. And pubs. What else?
 

The crawl officially finished here - but if you are attempting it yourself, there's no reason to shy away from The Hillsborough Hotel, Gardeners, New Barrack and every other pub on the Don Valley Ale Trail. It's just that we didn't really have the time or flexibility to achieve that having reached the Blake at 22.45. Still, none of this should dissuade you from embarking on any version of this exciting new pub crawl. Apart from the Closed Shop being shut in April. Regarding which, they are on Twatter and Friendface so you should be able to find out when that event will happen.
 

Here's to many more night's in the Crookes Valley of beer!
 

(think I need to work on the slogan...)
 

Wee Beefy

  

Three not out - Rutland Arms celebrates birthday

Evenin,

    last night I had the pleasure of being personally invited to attend an exclusive celebration at the Rutland Arms, Brown Street, Sheffield. Unfortunately my exclusive invite was hijacked by the a hundered or more of the great and the good of the drinking world, but I overcame my disappointment to attend and write this...

Arriving to find the pub unsurprisingly rammed, the first thing that caught my eye was the pumpclips. Every last one had been redone for the evening, with a variety of eye catching, bizarre and frankly ridiculous designs. The only minor downside to this was that you couldn't tell which beer was which - and even had I seen the list on the wall, it was far more fun asking the staff what each one was, with varying levels of success.

Luckily I quickly sniffed out a Dark Drake from Dancing Duck brewery, a favourite of mine lately, and one which went down pretty well. I saw Andy briefly, and got to meet nano-andy (babies are lost on me, seriously, although this is the first one I have looked at which hasn't cried, so that's a feather in my cap) before I eventually spotted the authoress K E Page, from the world of the Internet.

We managed to find a seat at the end of a table at which sat the loudest people on earth, and set about supping beer and catching up. In between times I got to the bar for more beer and spotted Dave U and Shaz, allowing me to get my blanket apology out of the way in case I'd said anything too boring or more likely heinously offensive on the train journey home. Seems am in the clear.

Pass the parcel followed, after a fashion, and I also departed from common sense and only went and bough a half of a Keykeg offering, on this occasion Bitches Brewing Graduate IPA, which was very hoppy and had a dry bitterness but with some redeeming balance in the aftertaste. It was far better once it had warmed up as well.

After a lengthy speech by Andy and everyone being given a piece of another flawless Rutland cake courtesy of Mike,  came the bizarrest feature of the night - Joe standing on a chair whilst young folk batted a carrier bag with sticks until lots of sweets fell out. That really did happen, I kid you not.

Further sweets were handed out in bags during the rumbunctious revelry, and the celebrations got slightly more haphazard as the night wore on. Meanwhile Rich from Blue Bee arrived to squeeze into the corner I'd found to hide in, as I made my way through several more pints of delicious Drake, before finishing on a half pint of the Marble Ginger.

This was a great night out wih everyone being in high spirits without being idiotic, and it nicely symbolised whats weird and likable about the Rutland - odd occurrences, a sense of humour, excellent beer and food, along with great customers and staff. Roll on the glorious 4th!

Wee Beefy.