A surprise Friday pub crawl

Evening,

   owing to a sudden surprise discovery in my bank account I decided to take my mate Mr H out for a pint after work. Here are the details of how that and the rest of a refreshing night panned out. Please accept my apologies for further photo free posts - stupid arse B.T download limit is putting paid to any such ideas until Tuesday am afarid....

Shakespeares

We got to the pub about 18.30 and both had delicious halves of Cotswold Spring Brewery Old Sodbury Mild, a luscious malty not overly sweet creamy mild which went down a treat. After this though we wanted hops.

Next we had a pint each of the excellent Summer Wine Brewery Gambit Golden Ale. A bit of a misnomer this, its only very slightly less pale than other 4 or 5% SWB beers and for all its claimed colour differences tastes very similar to their Zenith Pale ale. Not that this is a bad thing - lots of hops to quench the thirst plus some extra ones to tingle the tastebuds and the tongue, a very enjoyable pale beer.

In between having an important "evening meal" (a pork pie and a pack of crisps) we ended up having 3 of the Gambit each. All the time the pub was filling up with punters, and before we knew it, not only was it 21.00 but Wee Keefy was in with his work colleagues. Mr H had to escape home but I stayed for another half, this time the Revolutions Overkill Rhubarb Wheat beer. I had eyed this up with caution even though I rate Revolutions, but I needn't have worried - this was a fantastic quenching not too chewy not too sweet fruit beer which I wished I'd had enough "real money" to have a pint of.

Wee Keefy departed for fuel and I headed into town and caught the bus up to West Street (very lazy of me) to pop in the Bath Hotel

The Bath

Here as you know I was interested in quizzing Brian about recent news and also had chance to chat to one or two regulars, neither of whom seemed impressed by the revelation (that the Bath was to be run by Thornbridge, not that I intended to talk to them...). Beer wise, crucially, I had a pint of the ever reliable Deception. Given that one of my lasting concerns about Thornbridge is how much their beer will cost, it was imperative that I remembered how much my pint cost. I didn't.

Red Deer

I was headed Harrisons way but they had a private function on so I went for a quick half in the Red Deer. I remember that I fancied a half of the Wharfebank Tether but I went for something else instead. As was a feature of the night, I didn't think to record what this tipple was - it was one of the last 3 pumps on the right looking at the bar. I never stay long in the Deer when am on my own so hotfooted it off to Dada.

Dada

Here, irony took over to an extent, given that I had halves of two Thornbridge beers - now, I know its my fault, but I didn't make a note of the new Thornbridge offering because I knew I could find out what it was (it was dark and called something with three words in!) on their website. Except I can't - it won't load (perhaps flooded with enquiries about the Bath).

Anyhoo, it was very enjoyable, possibly smoked, and I had 3 halves of it altogether. I also met a group of  ladies from a Sheffield office who were out enjoying themselves, and let me join them for an hour or so. Much chat was had, little remembered, but I do now have a new blog to follow out of it.  Alas all too soon they were all off somewhere else and a quick trip to the loo meant I lost the whole party! This was a little disconcerting since the barstaff took my bag and coat away thinking it had been left by them, so I was temporarily bag, wallet, companion and coatless. I was soon reunited with m,y possessions however.

On reflection it was probably best that this was the end of the night's entertainment as I had become a trifle tired, so I headed off home on the night bus in a relaxed state.

All in all a great unexpected night out with excellent beer and company.

Wee Beefy