Recent sessions

Good day,

      I wanted to cobble together some half remembers facts about recent sessions and other visitations  to local pubs. As always, facts are at best interpretative and often guessed at, some details will be plain erroneous, but the opinions expressed are genuine. After all, I don't have to remember opinions...

I have recently spent quite some time in the Three Tuns - indeed, this is where, whilst drinking with Tash, Matty and Richard at the beginning of the month, I discovered I had run out of funds...ha ha! The joy. We had been drinking the excellent Blue Bee Mango Number 5, a naturally hazy Mango IPA at 5%, which was on sparkling form. Other sessions here included one drinking West Pier by Brighton Bier Co, which was once again brilliantly hoppy, Blue Bee Oceanic Red, and their American Five Hop beer, numbered between 11 and 15684.

My last visit was en route to Shakespeares, and having seen Nate and Siobhan and the lovely Dave behind the bar, I was relaxing in the right hand part with Matty waiting for Tash to arrive, when who should turn up but the Ale Ambler. It was good to see the AA, and to briefly meet Tara and another lady from Mallinsons brewery, along with a young man with an A in his name from Huddersfield. Thanks for the pints AA!

Last night I had a proper session in the Bath Hotel. The wonderful Hopjacker Spanish Prisoners, a 5.9% Amber ale with Spanish marmalade in it, was on sale, and it seemed silly not to have five or six pints. So I did. The walk up West Street had featured numerous groups of entirely hammered men shouting abuse at one another and other random people so the Bath was a haven of almost tranquility. The excellent Hops and Dreams from Brew Foundation was also on on keg, although I did not try it.

In the past month I have been in the Hillsborough Hotel a few times. Once was with Matty after work when he was off and we had a good couple of pints of excellent but difficult to remember the name of beer, probably pale and hoppy, and very likely brewed locally. My next visit saw me pop in on a lovely sunny evening after work. There were only a few of us in and I supped another similarly obfuscately named beer which I enjoyed. Its a lovely place to relax in an evening and the beers are competitively priced as well. My last visit was last weekend with Tash en route to town where we sat outside, and then in as the sun went down, supping a beer which was made with beer. There is no point my even attempting to recall what it was alas.

A couple of weeks ago I met up with Fluffy and John in the Tap and Tankard after Fluff had run the Sheffield half marathon. The Brew Foundation hops and dreams was on as a guest and in excellent form, so  I had two pints in a short period of time. Afterwards we went to the Tuns for pints of Blue Bee before the Shakespeares and the Kelham Island Tavern.

This is somewhere I have been a few times recently as well. I remember going in with Matty and he had a pint of the 6.5% North Riding Anniversary beer and I a half of the Mikkeler Nuclear Hop at 8.0% on keg. Both beers were in impeccable condition, as were those that me and Tash tried recently, including pints of another North Riding beer and a Kernel beer on keg.

After which we went somewhere I have been in a tremendous lot this month - Shakespeares's. They have recently featured three or more Kernel beers, Simcoe, Cascade and a stupendous one with four hops in it, Ella, Simcoe, Centennial and Citra if memory serves. Other favourites have included the Cloudwater Black IPA on cask at 6.5% or similar, which was incredibly mellow but still a hoppy IPA at its heart, and the amazing Buxton Trolltunga Gooseberry sour pale ale on keg. Not sour enough if you love sour or hoppy enough if you are a hophead, instead a mesmerising blend of sour and bitter refreshment which went down superbly.

I went in with Dave H from work recently and we started sensibly on pints of Blackjack Devils's something, a 5ish percent pale, then slowly moved onto slightly less sensible options, including the last bottle of Schlenkerla dubbel rauchbier, a Cloudwater DIPA3, a Trappist Rochefort 10 as well as one of the Kernel pales on keg. A very enjoyable night was had by all, including Emily, who joined us half way through at a quite thirsty stage.

I will be paid on Friday so the week after next should be refreshing, in the meantime am having to cut back as have no more furniture to sell to fund supping. Drinking eh - what does it mean?. Like memories, we'll never know.

Hic!

Cheese


Wee Beefy