Walkley Talkie

Hello,

     yesterday I received some rather annoying news and decided to turn to poetry to soothe my bruised soul. Luckily, I made up the following rhyming recipe - "bitter for bitterness, ales for ailments". Jesus wept. I don't know why my self justification for supping needs to be so damned convoluted, but anyway, we can pretend this was my reason for heading out on the trundle tractor after work to Crookes. Apologies in advance that none of the information in this post directly pertains to Walkley....

I alighted at Crookes to walk down School Road because I intended to do the Commonside Crawl. Like all good plans however, not everything I intended to do happened. Here's what did.

I started at the Cobden View. It was pretty quiet, apart from a couple in the left hand bar and a small group watching the footy. I got myself a very palatable pint of Copper Dragon Bitter and sat in the room on the right, beneath the impending beam of doom, by myself, so I could be annoyed in exclusive seclusion. A quick read through Beer Matters made me adjust my plans slightly. I coveted an aged Blue Bee Tangled Up so decided after the next two pubs on the crawl I'd go to the University Arms.

I walked down to Commonside to find the Closed Shop bathed in darkness. Probably an oxymoron I realise, but it still conveys that no lights were on. The ever helpful A board on the street claimed it was closed due to unforeseen circumstances. Well, it was dark...

Across the road in the Hallamshire House, where I'd been going anyway, I bumped in to the Man of Ash and ended up with a decent pint of Jaipur. As the later events would attest, most people still agree that Jaipur isn't what it used to be, and certainly isn't back there yet, but the wet hop version was a welcome tease about just how good it could be again. Incidentally, I understand The Closed Shop is shut because they had their electricity cut off - something to do with Punch forgetting that they had to tell the utility supplier that the property was no longer empty. If that's the case, that's just poor.

Having missed a pub I felt it was only right that I popped into one on the crawl not yet visited. The Springvale was lauded by Ianfromtshop for its cheap Bass. Not an obviously complimentary statement, I decided to see for myself.

After a recent refurb the pub is less grim than it was previously, and they do at least sell Bass - now from one of 2 hand pumps, having perhaps sensibly admitted that they couldn't sustain the throughput before. That shouldn't be an issue anymore I think, with Bass on at £2.10 and Hobgoblin slightly less tempting at £2.50. Indeed, I think all the beers were a maximum £2.50. A great way to get the punters in, but the downside is there seems to be a correlation between cheap booze, big screens, loud music and really loud people. Not my most relaxing half - but one of my recently least expensive.

Walking down the hill I noticed the Hadfield was closed - this may be the end of the pub, although there is either still to be or just has been, a last gig in there, but Sainsbury's are determined that the area needs a third expensive supermarket. Alas the shameless way the pubco made little attempt to support the business (and allowed it to lurch embarrassingly from one defunct and unsutainable theme to another) makes the counter argument difficult to win. So no one does.

I popped in the Star and Garter on Winter Street next because I noticed a cask marque sign - never an indication of interesting beer choice but at least the suggestion that real ale was on sale. From 4 handpumps only two had clips and the Doom Bar was off, so I had a half of Tetley, which sells for £2.00 a pint. Am not blinkered enough to claim that the appearance of real ale alone will turn the pubs fortunes around but the pub was busy and friendly, and worth another visit.

Arriving at the University Arms I noticed flyers everywhere for the Roger Protz talk and beer tasting. Its clash with the first night of the SIBA BeerX appears to have slightly impacted uptake so I was able to get a late entry and join in the evening with two beers left to try - although, I was so late, I sat drinking the Gorlovka I bought at the bar whilst everyone drank and discussed the Jaipur! This subject prompted many comments, most alluding to the fact that its sweeter and less bitter now, and less well balanced. We can't all be wrong Thornbridge...

Its the first time I've done this sort of thing and I found it really interesting. Mr Prose (do you see what I did there?) clearly knows his stuff and regaled us with a manageable mix of facts and anecdotes about the styles we were drinking, and encouraged questions from the audience. He even managed to remain professional and inclusive in the face of two chattering attendees who seemed a little the worse for wear, and came "from 9 miles darnt road in Chesterfield", as one of them told us only 67 times.

The final beer to taste was Gorlovka Stout from Acorn, which all but one of us seemed to really like. More debate and questions followed about oyster stout and imperial Russian stout and the ingredients in the beer. Much of the talk was held together by landlord Tom who is a very good speaker himself. All in all, despite the brevity of my attendance, I thoroughly enjoyed the talk and would consider going on one again.

After it officially finished I got chatting to the fine gents from the Sheffield Real Ale Trails, and a guy called Julian who writes about city centres and urban communities. We sat with the Maharojah for a while discussing yet more beer related topics before Tom joined us and very generously sent up a huge bowl of the crunchiest and most delectable chips I've ever tasted.

After the bar closed I opted to pop in the Red Deer for a last one - and found it deserted. The two blokes behind the bar were very accommodating as I ordered a pint whilst they cleaned up, and commented that the emptiness of the pub was due to it being half term - only this morning did I consider that it was more likely influenced by the SIBA fest, which I would have been at had procrastination not robbed me of a a ticket. The beer in here was a pint of Chantry Black Diamond, a great pint and a surprising fixture in this Punch pub, although the gents inform me that they are on the better Punch guest beer scheme, so can get beers from SIBA direct delivery, which is great news.

So ended a great night with some surprising venues and beers along the way that I don't usually drink. Its good to have a change every now and again and do something a bit different. Lets hope tonight's BeerX visit continues the theme of rarely tried ales.

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