Good afternooo
apologies for the slightly lame title -I was going to make it even more icky with "Family Christmas Meal Pub Crawl" until I saw sense. This is still a bit weak I admit but its a good reflection of the event that am about to describe....
We were meeting early this year - at noon. Initially this was to allow WF to drive back before 16.00 in the light but in the end WK picked him up in his car before dropping Dad at the pub, driving back to Crookes and walking back to the Sportsman at Crosspool. WF got a taxi later. Admittedly its an Ember Inns pub but they sell a few decent beers and the meal was. in comparison with town based offerings, a bit of a winner for twelve pounds. As always myself Matty and Tash were ever so slightly late - I walked down to Darnall to get twenty pound out and to buy a weekly pass but there was a problem with the cash machine. Although I knew I had sufficient funds in my account I got just two pounds out at the Post office and headed into town after a lengthy wait for 11.50. Luckily Tash and Matt picked me up at 11.58 on West Street in a taxi they had got and we were there by just gone ten past.
Ale wise there was a Black Sheep IPA, Moonshine, Thornbridge Jaipur and the excellent Fyne Ales Jarl. Always a favourite drop I had two pints of this as well as a a pint of Jaipur. all of which were delicious. WF complained about his Jarl to WK who asked me to come and try it - it tasted exactly the same as mine. It was when I told him this that he admitted it was too cold and that he didn't like cold beer. Am sure when he was drinking off Sam Smiths at the Abbey pub outside Derby the temperature hadn't been considered and I have to admit that pale hoppy beers do taste far better with a light chill. Mine was ace! Meanwhile the meal was OK and we were there nearly three and a half hours before M+M dove off and took the two Wees to WK's house for Dad to wait for a taxi. Me Tash and Matty walked back through the cemetery to Crookes where we popped in the Punch Bowl.
I have been reasonably impressed with its turn around since True North took it over but alas we found that they were trying to sell some rank and off Blue Bee Stout - Matty asked for a taste and pulled a deep grimace as he smelled it and tasted it - he pre-warned me but that didn't prepare me for the vile smell never mind the taste. When I pointed out to the girl behind the bar that the stout was off she didn't taste it instead claiming that "they always taste weird to me". An amazing response, which I would like to think is especially disrespectful to Josh and the others involved with the brewery. I did not check that they had taken it off when I left but am guessing that the person I pointed out the issue to neither cared about her clients or understood beer sufficiently to bother.
Nipping across the road to Two Sheds we bought Tash a couple of glasses of mulled Wine and I had an excellent pint of North Brewing Sputnik Pale, whilst Keet and Matty had the Janet Street Porter. I had two excellent pints of the Sputnik which was on fine form and the others enjoyed their drinks too. Matty and WK nipped back to his next whilst me and Tash headed into Town to pop in Cavells to use the loo, and to get Tash a large white wine and myself a pint of something about 5.5% After a quick catch up Tash got the tram home and I wandered down to Bar Stewards to have another pint of the 5.7% Blue Bee IPA on cask, and kept perfectly, along with a few halves on keg. As always I bumped into a few mates and caught the bus back at about 23.00. I may even have treated myself to a can of Pressure Drop when I got in, although, as with a number of happenstances, my memories remain unclear....
Overall though this was a great day out and despite the grimness of the Punch Bowl all the pubs involved kept excellent beers. Am out in Crookes again tonight for a couple to catch up with fab folk from the past as well as Wee Keefy and am really looking forward to a return trip to the Hallamshire House.
Cheers!
Wee Beefy
Showing posts with label Sportsman Crosspool. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sportsman Crosspool. Show all posts
Saturday, 28 December 2019
Monday, 23 December 2013
The good and the bad on the weekend of the mad
Hello,
against my better judgement and infused with a decent amount of surprise I found myself out on black Friday and Twaturday. I hadn't planned to do either, mot properly anyway. However, much like I "definitely" wasn't going out last Christmas Eve (I was in DAda for 3 hours) I seemed to inexorably gravitate to the pub - and in doing so waded through the sea of crapulent chaos that somewhat inevitably raged around it.
I'll start with the good stuff. I was hoping to meet a refreshed Miss N in some undecided venue after a visit to the hospital but found she was orf home to recover, so ended up meeting Wee Keefy and his mates for some pints in the Dog and Partridge.
Slowly getting back to the kind of melee of punters that used to define any Christmas or New Year trip to the Dog, the pub is winning back drinkers who drifted away in the dark days when real ale disappeared and the developers got interested. A good range of local and further afield micro brewery guests along with Black Sheep are available, and the first beer I tried was the Okells St Nick. A pint of which was bought for me by Connor, who I'm not sure if I should describe as the landlord or manager (along with Sarah, who knows her bloggers....), to replace a tired half of some Cross Bay I'd had a few weeks ago. I said then on being offered a replacement that unfortunately I hadn't time for a replacement half on that occasion, so this was a pleasant surprise.
Wee Keefy and Mr Pre-wash were in residence along with other of WK's colleagues and we got sat down to continue making a dent in the real ale . Halves of Blackjack Ginger Stout and Tring Moongazer followed - I had been on the latter at the Three Tuns earlier. The stout was impressive if sightly overpowering and he Moongazer was a very enjoyable drop. So much so that further pints of it followed, and I should point out in the interests of honest and fair reporting, that I didn't pay for many of them, along with a whole pint of the fearsome but impressive stout.
As well as focusing on real ales, the Dog aims to be more of a locals pub, a move that quite apart from the geographical separation, would show it to be different from the throngs of West Street boozers that are as homely as a cactus settee. I can see a few more trips will be called for over the coming months to test out this claim...
The other plus point was my unexpected Saturday sojourn. Having been out for a cracking meal at the Sportsman at Crosspool we had repaired with Miss N to Wee Keefy's for some entertainment. At the Sportsman, beer of choice was Top of the Hops (which I thought was a Great Yorkshire Brewery beer?) but would, had it come on an hour earlier, have been Fullers and Steel City Steel. When I asked when it would come on the manager said "its still a bit cloudy" which elicited a wry smile and the word over-hopping from myself...
Later, having been persuaded to go out "just for one" we needed up in the maelstrom which is the Bee Hive with WK, Miss N, Carlos, Alison, Paddy, Jambon, Half Pint and Jack, and after an epic struggle made it to the bar to buy a pint of Bee Hive bitter, AKA Bees Knees. Despite this not being exactly my favourite venue I stayed for another, mainly because WK very kindly paid for it - after, it was suggested that we went for a pint in the Bath Hotel. So it was settled. The night was not yet finished...
Thornbridge Pollards was on the bar along with a few other tempting treats but as soon as I spotted the Burning Sky Saison I knew it was a no-brainer. It was going to be an enjoyable but rather expensive end to the night. We were probably in the pub for three hours, catching up and sharing great company and supping, in mine and Miss N's case, copious quantities of saison. This was a fantastic night with good friends which may even have got me into the Christmas spirit.
Alas there are two sides to black weekend or whatever its called. And so as not to ruin the joyous tales before it, I'll summarize the downside in a few lines :
A fight outside at least two pubs and inside one.
The already widely reported but no less horrendous damage to the last remaining full size Wards window at Shakespeares.
And a pint of 5.9% beer costing £4.60 at the Sheffield Tap, coupled with my not having looked at the price (or been warned of it) before asking for it. Not attributable to any particular event of course, just an unpleasant surprise for customers enjoying finishing their weekend with a couple of drinks.
Humph.
Anyway, there is a lot coming up over the next week or two so hopefully I can finally finish work for the year and get some blogging done, but in the event that I don't make to the keyboard, then I would like to wish everyone a very happy Christmas.
Cheers!
Wee Beefy
against my better judgement and infused with a decent amount of surprise I found myself out on black Friday and Twaturday. I hadn't planned to do either, mot properly anyway. However, much like I "definitely" wasn't going out last Christmas Eve (I was in DAda for 3 hours) I seemed to inexorably gravitate to the pub - and in doing so waded through the sea of crapulent chaos that somewhat inevitably raged around it.
I'll start with the good stuff. I was hoping to meet a refreshed Miss N in some undecided venue after a visit to the hospital but found she was orf home to recover, so ended up meeting Wee Keefy and his mates for some pints in the Dog and Partridge.
Slowly getting back to the kind of melee of punters that used to define any Christmas or New Year trip to the Dog, the pub is winning back drinkers who drifted away in the dark days when real ale disappeared and the developers got interested. A good range of local and further afield micro brewery guests along with Black Sheep are available, and the first beer I tried was the Okells St Nick. A pint of which was bought for me by Connor, who I'm not sure if I should describe as the landlord or manager (along with Sarah, who knows her bloggers....), to replace a tired half of some Cross Bay I'd had a few weeks ago. I said then on being offered a replacement that unfortunately I hadn't time for a replacement half on that occasion, so this was a pleasant surprise.
Wee Keefy and Mr Pre-wash were in residence along with other of WK's colleagues and we got sat down to continue making a dent in the real ale . Halves of Blackjack Ginger Stout and Tring Moongazer followed - I had been on the latter at the Three Tuns earlier. The stout was impressive if sightly overpowering and he Moongazer was a very enjoyable drop. So much so that further pints of it followed, and I should point out in the interests of honest and fair reporting, that I didn't pay for many of them, along with a whole pint of the fearsome but impressive stout.
As well as focusing on real ales, the Dog aims to be more of a locals pub, a move that quite apart from the geographical separation, would show it to be different from the throngs of West Street boozers that are as homely as a cactus settee. I can see a few more trips will be called for over the coming months to test out this claim...
The other plus point was my unexpected Saturday sojourn. Having been out for a cracking meal at the Sportsman at Crosspool we had repaired with Miss N to Wee Keefy's for some entertainment. At the Sportsman, beer of choice was Top of the Hops (which I thought was a Great Yorkshire Brewery beer?) but would, had it come on an hour earlier, have been Fullers and Steel City Steel. When I asked when it would come on the manager said "its still a bit cloudy" which elicited a wry smile and the word over-hopping from myself...
Later, having been persuaded to go out "just for one" we needed up in the maelstrom which is the Bee Hive with WK, Miss N, Carlos, Alison, Paddy, Jambon, Half Pint and Jack, and after an epic struggle made it to the bar to buy a pint of Bee Hive bitter, AKA Bees Knees. Despite this not being exactly my favourite venue I stayed for another, mainly because WK very kindly paid for it - after, it was suggested that we went for a pint in the Bath Hotel. So it was settled. The night was not yet finished...
Thornbridge Pollards was on the bar along with a few other tempting treats but as soon as I spotted the Burning Sky Saison I knew it was a no-brainer. It was going to be an enjoyable but rather expensive end to the night. We were probably in the pub for three hours, catching up and sharing great company and supping, in mine and Miss N's case, copious quantities of saison. This was a fantastic night with good friends which may even have got me into the Christmas spirit.
Alas there are two sides to black weekend or whatever its called. And so as not to ruin the joyous tales before it, I'll summarize the downside in a few lines :
A fight outside at least two pubs and inside one.
The already widely reported but no less horrendous damage to the last remaining full size Wards window at Shakespeares.
And a pint of 5.9% beer costing £4.60 at the Sheffield Tap, coupled with my not having looked at the price (or been warned of it) before asking for it. Not attributable to any particular event of course, just an unpleasant surprise for customers enjoying finishing their weekend with a couple of drinks.
Humph.
Anyway, there is a lot coming up over the next week or two so hopefully I can finally finish work for the year and get some blogging done, but in the event that I don't make to the keyboard, then I would like to wish everyone a very happy Christmas.
Cheers!
Wee Beefy
Sunday, 10 February 2013
Crookespool
Now then,
having grown up on the main road in Crookes, and earned my drinking stripes in the now sadly lost Olde Heavygate Inn, its nice to get back over there to catch up with Wee Keefy and others, and to go drinking in "the old places". Here's what I've found on a couple of visits of late.
Me and Wee Keefy went to the Sportsman in Crosspool for a meal yesterday, and, erm, due to my legendary memory, a fruitless anticipation of a meal on Friday.
We walked over to Crosspool, and within 15 minutes were at the Sportsman. The Sportsman is now an Ember Inns pub, but used to be a traditional watering hole, in the sense of being a pub selling real ale as well as food, the beer being Stones, Bass and at some point I probably spotted a guest.
The thing is Crosspool is an area that basically doesn't do, and never did, wet led boozers. The Crosspool Tavern is somewhere that used to sell Bass, but I haven't graced its doors for twenty years. The Kings Head was a more regular destination for family meals (possibly a Beefeater?) but that was demolished, to much anger, many years ago and the spot is now residential buildings.
The Hallamshire on Lydgate Lane was also flattened in the last few years (and still hasn't been replaced, although work is ongoing) and the Bell Hagg was abandoned around the turn of the century. So against that backdrop, the Sportsman is the only pub in the area. And it pains me to say this about an Ember Inns pub - it isn't that bad.
Obviously there is the irritation of branding and needlessly chunky furniture in the internal decor, but overcome that and there are treats. There is a range of real ales, up to 6, consisting of a core of Tetleys and Abbeydale Moonshine. Confusingly those handpumps facing you when you walk in are beers that are on - but the other 6 round the other side are merely advertising whats to come on. To be fair the staff seem to be keen on making that clear, so that removes potential annoyance.
I had a pint of Green Jack Trawler Boys and WK a pint of Itchen Valley Dana. I think this came to £4.80. To be honest, any pub selling two unusual for the area real ales at under a fiver has really got the right idea. And, on both visits, the beer was in excellent condition, accompanied by Taylor Landlord, and the Tetley and Abbeydale Moonshine. The food aint bad as well.
Heading back along Lydgate Lane brings you to the Grindstone in Crookes. Previously a traditional Wards pub with an interesting history regarding its beer, long ago opened out but for many years retaining a separate snooker room, this pub has seen quite a lot of changes. An ill thought through stint as a Sports Bar nearly resulted in its closure but its reopened as a pub selling real ale and food, and it was busy, when we visited on Friday.
Last time I was in the interesting Brains and Nottingham Brewery guests were not ready, but at least there was the chance of a guest beer. Now, I wonder if it might have changed hands again, although still in the grip of Greedy King, as it sells three real ales form them - IPA, Abbot and St Edmunds. We went for the latter since its not that often you see it, but even then its not that different from any other Greedy King beers - as bemoaned by Wee Keefy.
Its strange to consider that the two pubs on that side of Crookes Road are both large Greene King pubs selling food, yet only one has guests. Is the lack of choice harming one pub or the other? Well , next stop, the Ball was a good illustration of which might be the case. On both Friday and Saturday night it was heaving. The food side at the Ball seems to be quite a new thing so it was an admirably wet led boozer for many many years. The branch out to nosh doesn't seemed to have impacted on its beer sales.
There's three handpumps of Greedy King beers as you enter then 4 handpumps of guests round the corner. WK, with his maltier palate, was on pints of Hooky best both times, and both times I was on the excellent Abbeydale Ships Biscuits. Both times we managed to find a seat (tip - there is a love of perpendicular drinking in the Ball, so always try and go past the swathes round the bar, you usually find a space) and enjoyed a couple of well kept pints in a busy but not overly crushed pub.
Crookes is an interesting contrast to Crosspool, not only because very few pubs have closed, but also that many still thrive on wet sales - The Cobden and Princess Royal being great examples (as well as great pubs). Its a shame that just a mile away in the leafier suburbs you have to drink in an eatery, or not at all, when Crookes has such a lot of drinking pubs, but that mainly serves as a great advert for drinking in Crookes.
Cheers!
Wee Beefy
having grown up on the main road in Crookes, and earned my drinking stripes in the now sadly lost Olde Heavygate Inn, its nice to get back over there to catch up with Wee Keefy and others, and to go drinking in "the old places". Here's what I've found on a couple of visits of late.
Me and Wee Keefy went to the Sportsman in Crosspool for a meal yesterday, and, erm, due to my legendary memory, a fruitless anticipation of a meal on Friday.
We walked over to Crosspool, and within 15 minutes were at the Sportsman. The Sportsman is now an Ember Inns pub, but used to be a traditional watering hole, in the sense of being a pub selling real ale as well as food, the beer being Stones, Bass and at some point I probably spotted a guest.
The thing is Crosspool is an area that basically doesn't do, and never did, wet led boozers. The Crosspool Tavern is somewhere that used to sell Bass, but I haven't graced its doors for twenty years. The Kings Head was a more regular destination for family meals (possibly a Beefeater?) but that was demolished, to much anger, many years ago and the spot is now residential buildings.
The Hallamshire on Lydgate Lane was also flattened in the last few years (and still hasn't been replaced, although work is ongoing) and the Bell Hagg was abandoned around the turn of the century. So against that backdrop, the Sportsman is the only pub in the area. And it pains me to say this about an Ember Inns pub - it isn't that bad.
Obviously there is the irritation of branding and needlessly chunky furniture in the internal decor, but overcome that and there are treats. There is a range of real ales, up to 6, consisting of a core of Tetleys and Abbeydale Moonshine. Confusingly those handpumps facing you when you walk in are beers that are on - but the other 6 round the other side are merely advertising whats to come on. To be fair the staff seem to be keen on making that clear, so that removes potential annoyance.
I had a pint of Green Jack Trawler Boys and WK a pint of Itchen Valley Dana. I think this came to £4.80. To be honest, any pub selling two unusual for the area real ales at under a fiver has really got the right idea. And, on both visits, the beer was in excellent condition, accompanied by Taylor Landlord, and the Tetley and Abbeydale Moonshine. The food aint bad as well.
Heading back along Lydgate Lane brings you to the Grindstone in Crookes. Previously a traditional Wards pub with an interesting history regarding its beer, long ago opened out but for many years retaining a separate snooker room, this pub has seen quite a lot of changes. An ill thought through stint as a Sports Bar nearly resulted in its closure but its reopened as a pub selling real ale and food, and it was busy, when we visited on Friday.
Last time I was in the interesting Brains and Nottingham Brewery guests were not ready, but at least there was the chance of a guest beer. Now, I wonder if it might have changed hands again, although still in the grip of Greedy King, as it sells three real ales form them - IPA, Abbot and St Edmunds. We went for the latter since its not that often you see it, but even then its not that different from any other Greedy King beers - as bemoaned by Wee Keefy.
Its strange to consider that the two pubs on that side of Crookes Road are both large Greene King pubs selling food, yet only one has guests. Is the lack of choice harming one pub or the other? Well , next stop, the Ball was a good illustration of which might be the case. On both Friday and Saturday night it was heaving. The food side at the Ball seems to be quite a new thing so it was an admirably wet led boozer for many many years. The branch out to nosh doesn't seemed to have impacted on its beer sales.
There's three handpumps of Greedy King beers as you enter then 4 handpumps of guests round the corner. WK, with his maltier palate, was on pints of Hooky best both times, and both times I was on the excellent Abbeydale Ships Biscuits. Both times we managed to find a seat (tip - there is a love of perpendicular drinking in the Ball, so always try and go past the swathes round the bar, you usually find a space) and enjoyed a couple of well kept pints in a busy but not overly crushed pub.
Crookes is an interesting contrast to Crosspool, not only because very few pubs have closed, but also that many still thrive on wet sales - The Cobden and Princess Royal being great examples (as well as great pubs). Its a shame that just a mile away in the leafier suburbs you have to drink in an eatery, or not at all, when Crookes has such a lot of drinking pubs, but that mainly serves as a great advert for drinking in Crookes.
Cheers!
Wee Beefy
Sunday, 29 January 2012
Wee Beefy's beer bites - bars and pubs and front rooms round up
Good afternoon,
Burns o beer
on Wednesday 25th January I went up to celebrate Burns Night with Wee Fatha, as is customary.
He usually manages to get an all Scottish beer selection but even combining the beer choice of Sainsbury's and Morrison's there were few to be found. That said, I was very much impressed with the ones that he did get from Sainsbury's, a few details of which are below.
Wolf Brewery Battle of Britain ale 3.9% (RAFA) RAFA bottled beer
Williams Brothers Caesar Augustus Lager/IPA hybrid, 4.1%
Ridgeway Bad King John Black Ale, 6.0% BCA Ridgeway brewery info courtesy of Quaffale.org
Innis and Gunn ale, 6.0%
Brewdog Hardcore IPA 9.2%
I would have put a link on for the Williams Bros beer but they seem reticent to say much about it, and reviewers were almost exclusively supportive yet underwhelmed. I did find one review from another beer blog which is here : Folk & Ale review Sainsburys beer challenge beers. I liked it though, it was a nice beer to have with the meal (haggis, neeps and tatties, what else?) but my one gripe was that the cold filtering or lagering process succeeded in creating a lager flavour and texture but the hops added at the end failed to make it anything like an IPA - 5.6% and twice as many hops would have worked better perhaps.
The Innis and Gunn was quite warm as we'd had it out in the room for a while and this suits the creamy honeyed flavour perfectly.
The Wolf was a very average beer am afraid, admittedly I can't think of any charity beer that's been really nice - remember those ale by numbers Tolly Cobbold offerings from the nineties? I suspect the beer is marketed with almost anyone in mind, so the taste is wilfully safe and inoffensive in order to be mildly enjoyed by anyone purchasing it.
The Ridgeway was a real strong dark ale, very malty but with such a giant flavour it didn't really matter that there was little trace of hoppiness.
The Brewdog Hardcore IPA, was, well, as you'd expect, an awesome orangey explosion of dry biting bitterness and warm citrus that demanded you drink it slowly.
Overall WF pulled off a great Burns evening and the beers were the perfect compliment throughout. It appears that the lager/IPA was one of the Sainsbury's beer challenge winners so they may be selling it for a while yet, but the range is very good, so it may be worth taking a look for your self.
Note - Morrison's did have a Scottish beer - McEwans/Youngers Champion Ale. Its OK for what it is but its been around so long and is so widely available that I'm glad WF went with the other options instead.
Sportsman Crosspool
I was in the above on Thursday for a meal with family, and selected a few of the ales on offer. I had pints of Thornbridge Pica Pica oatmeal stout, and Top of the Hops, which despite no information to support this, am sure is a Cropton beer. Both were well kept and really enjoyable ales. Wee Keefy went for the Wooden Hand Pirates Gold from Cornwall, which was as sweet and malty and uninspiring as I remember it in bottle, but its good to see it so far from home.
Harrisons 1854
As usual I had an inevitable stop off at the 1854 where my tipple of choice was Deception again. It was a bit lively so I had it served without the sparkler - its always interesting to see how a beer changes its character without a foam topping and I was ccertainly able to detect more of the floral and citrus hop notes which I think are intended to be prominent, but are sadly, often lacking in this beer. A pleasant change.
Dada
I also found time to prop up the da-bar in da-da (etc). Pub Scrawl was on good form and I also got chance to sample a Raven IPA and Kill Your Darlings on keykeg, which made a nice change. I was quite smitten with the Darlings, but its notable that the Raven was less of a nice drop. Interestingly, I preferred the Raven in cask - the colder and more carbonated keykeg version lacked some of the balance of the cask version and was a little harder to drink. Barkeep Jamie suggested that some beers are better suited to keykeg dispense, a view shared by a few of the newer micro brewers for instance Camden Town.
Personally, I enjoy the chance to try the more lager and Belgian style beers on keykeg, and also to compare the contrasting versions. This means I will have to try a half of Jaipur on keykeg, which I have to say is not something I am hopeful of enjoying, having had some that was stood in Dave's cellar for 6 weeks before now, and some when it first came out and was regularly cloudy, both of which still remain the best versions I ever tasted.
More beer news later kids!
Wee Beefy
Burns o beer
on Wednesday 25th January I went up to celebrate Burns Night with Wee Fatha, as is customary.
He usually manages to get an all Scottish beer selection but even combining the beer choice of Sainsbury's and Morrison's there were few to be found. That said, I was very much impressed with the ones that he did get from Sainsbury's, a few details of which are below.
Wolf Brewery Battle of Britain ale 3.9% (RAFA) RAFA bottled beer
Williams Brothers Caesar Augustus Lager/IPA hybrid, 4.1%
Ridgeway Bad King John Black Ale, 6.0% BCA Ridgeway brewery info courtesy of Quaffale.org
Innis and Gunn ale, 6.0%
Brewdog Hardcore IPA 9.2%
I would have put a link on for the Williams Bros beer but they seem reticent to say much about it, and reviewers were almost exclusively supportive yet underwhelmed. I did find one review from another beer blog which is here : Folk & Ale review Sainsburys beer challenge beers. I liked it though, it was a nice beer to have with the meal (haggis, neeps and tatties, what else?) but my one gripe was that the cold filtering or lagering process succeeded in creating a lager flavour and texture but the hops added at the end failed to make it anything like an IPA - 5.6% and twice as many hops would have worked better perhaps.
The Innis and Gunn was quite warm as we'd had it out in the room for a while and this suits the creamy honeyed flavour perfectly.
The Wolf was a very average beer am afraid, admittedly I can't think of any charity beer that's been really nice - remember those ale by numbers Tolly Cobbold offerings from the nineties? I suspect the beer is marketed with almost anyone in mind, so the taste is wilfully safe and inoffensive in order to be mildly enjoyed by anyone purchasing it.
The Ridgeway was a real strong dark ale, very malty but with such a giant flavour it didn't really matter that there was little trace of hoppiness.
The Brewdog Hardcore IPA, was, well, as you'd expect, an awesome orangey explosion of dry biting bitterness and warm citrus that demanded you drink it slowly.
Overall WF pulled off a great Burns evening and the beers were the perfect compliment throughout. It appears that the lager/IPA was one of the Sainsbury's beer challenge winners so they may be selling it for a while yet, but the range is very good, so it may be worth taking a look for your self.
Note - Morrison's did have a Scottish beer - McEwans/Youngers Champion Ale. Its OK for what it is but its been around so long and is so widely available that I'm glad WF went with the other options instead.
Sportsman Crosspool
I was in the above on Thursday for a meal with family, and selected a few of the ales on offer. I had pints of Thornbridge Pica Pica oatmeal stout, and Top of the Hops, which despite no information to support this, am sure is a Cropton beer. Both were well kept and really enjoyable ales. Wee Keefy went for the Wooden Hand Pirates Gold from Cornwall, which was as sweet and malty and uninspiring as I remember it in bottle, but its good to see it so far from home.
Harrisons 1854
As usual I had an inevitable stop off at the 1854 where my tipple of choice was Deception again. It was a bit lively so I had it served without the sparkler - its always interesting to see how a beer changes its character without a foam topping and I was ccertainly able to detect more of the floral and citrus hop notes which I think are intended to be prominent, but are sadly, often lacking in this beer. A pleasant change.
Dada
I also found time to prop up the da-bar in da-da (etc). Pub Scrawl was on good form and I also got chance to sample a Raven IPA and Kill Your Darlings on keykeg, which made a nice change. I was quite smitten with the Darlings, but its notable that the Raven was less of a nice drop. Interestingly, I preferred the Raven in cask - the colder and more carbonated keykeg version lacked some of the balance of the cask version and was a little harder to drink. Barkeep Jamie suggested that some beers are better suited to keykeg dispense, a view shared by a few of the newer micro brewers for instance Camden Town.
Personally, I enjoy the chance to try the more lager and Belgian style beers on keykeg, and also to compare the contrasting versions. This means I will have to try a half of Jaipur on keykeg, which I have to say is not something I am hopeful of enjoying, having had some that was stood in Dave's cellar for 6 weeks before now, and some when it first came out and was regularly cloudy, both of which still remain the best versions I ever tasted.
More beer news later kids!
Wee Beefy
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)