Birmingham Real Ales – 12.6.07
Our Tuesday Birmingham quest for real ale started at the Anchor in Digbeth where we found 5 beers on that we had not tried before. We had Ramsbury Sunsplash, Blackwater Beelzebub, Elland Moonchild, Titanic White Sunday and Thornbridge Jaywick. Friends arrived, and we all went up to the Wellington on Bennett’s Hill and had Ossett Santium that we had drunk before, plus 7 beers new to us – All Gates Indecent Proposal, Full Mash Bolero, Alehouse Don’t Want to Talk, Westerham Special, Derby Wembley, Salamander Klondike and Holdens Jungle Jim. On our way down to the bus stop, we popped into the Briar Rose, a Wetherspoons, and had North Cotswold Sheeptown. A good night in good company as usual.
Ashfield Beer Festival and Nottingham crawl – 5.6.07
Our real ale week started on Tuesday 5.6.07 when we took our caravan to a new site for us at Allesley near Coventry. It was quite a large site, and there were American motor homes for sale on the site. We had to pay £25 for a barrier key as Ray was going to go to work from the site until we moved on to Newstead for the weekend, and the site was kept secure by the barrier after office hours. We were shown to a pitch near the toilet block, and set everything up.
The site itself was lovely. There was hard standing for the van and the porch awning was on grass. We had a corner pitch and were able to put the bird feeders up close by. There were loads of birds visiting.
On Wednesday I had a walk to the local pub, the White Lion at Brownhalls Green to see what real ale was available. There was only Bass and M & B Brew XI so I took a Brew XI into the garden. I walked back up to the caravan site, and sat outside watching the birds until Ray got home from work.
The weather was brilliant for the rest of the week, so I decided to stay on site instead of travelling round the area, and I had a lovely time relaxing in the sun watching all sorts of birds on the feeders, including a Greater Spotted Woodpecker.
On Friday when Ray finished work we packed up and moved on to a site at Newstead where we were meeting friends to go to Ashfield beer festival in the Miners Hall. Armed with directions for a short cut, we set off across fields to reach the village, but we had been given a right turn instead of left, and ended up spending about 20 minutes wading round the edges of fields in the stinging nettles. Ooooh the pain. Ray and I were in shorts. By the time we got to the festival we were ready for refreshment.
The Ashfield beer festival was great. There were 2 groups on, one folk and one rock. There was food and lots of lovely beer. Most of the beer we had was new to us, but we had one or two that we had drunk before. Those sampled were: Abbeydale Black Mass at 6.66 ABV, Amber Amber Bock and Imperial Pale, Castle Rock Common Blue, Crouch Vale Brewers Gold, Durham Cuthberts Cross, Full Mash Séance, Funfair Magic Mouse and Mighty Mouse, Holland Mad Jack Stout, Iceni Raspberry Wheat, Maypole Celebration and Ki Wi Pale, Nottingham Clayton’s Original and Spanker, Nutbrook Banter Bitter and Squirrel. We had a grand night, and walked back via the road!
Saturday saw us on the bus to Nottingham to do a crawl round some real ale pubs. We started at the Olde Trip to Jerusalem and that was fantastic. It was great to be able to wander round the various rooms carved into the rock by the castle as well as drinking their ales. We drank 2 Hardy and Hanson’s beers – Kimberley Mild and Olde Trip plus a Robinson’s Dizzy Blonde while wandering round. We set off along the canal to Fellows Morton and Clayton and had something to eat here while drinking Samuel Fellow’s Bitter, Mallards Quackerjack and Nottingham EPA. The Next pub was the Vat and Fiddle that looked a friendly community local. We had Castle Rock Nottingham Gold and Mighty Oak Malden Gold here. Our last pub in the centre was the Khean’s Head, a one room pub where we sat on one side using a counter/shelf as a table. We had Castle Rock Common Blue here. I wanted to go to the Alcazar Brew Pub, so a tram trip was made to the Fox and Crown. This was a popular pub with a central bar serving their own beers and we had Brush Bitter, Sheriff’s Gold, Nottingham Nog, and Vixen’s Vice before catching the tram to the Lion Inn. There was a large garden but we went to drink inside. We had Archers Strong Dark Mild and Derby Derby’s Pale Ale, but the Archers was off so I returned it. They would not give me my money back so I had Downton Quadhop.
This had been a lovely week in the caravan, and a super weekend with friends.
BRIGHTON ALE TRAIL – 29.5.07
Our caravan travelled south from Blenheim, and we went to a caravan club site at Sheepcote near Brighton. We were booked in for 5 nights, and would be seeing what real ale pubs we could find in the area. We were on grass here, a lovely change after the months of hard standing pitches. Due to the journey down, we decided not to venture out into town on the Tuesday night and just went to the local supermarket to stock up for our stay.
Wednesday morning, we caught the bus into town and had a look for some Good Beer Guide pubs. As it started to rain however we dived into the Royal Standard and had our first Harvey’s Sussex Best Bitter. Even at this early hour this one roomed pub near the station seemed popular. Next was the Basketmakers, a Fullers house that was quiet. There was the full choice of Fullers beers with a couple of Gales and a guest. We had Gales Butser and Thwaites Lancaster Bomber here. It was an interesting pub to look round with all sorts of tins adorning the walls. Next was the Lord Nelson where the bar served three areas and a gallery. We ate here while drinking their excellent Harvey’s beers. We had 4 in toital, Copperwheat beer, Hadlow bitter, Armada Ale, and Olympia. We had been advised to try the Prince Albert where they brewed Hepworth beer, and had Prospect here. From there we found the Evening Star with its wide range of micro beers. We had Maypole Mayfair, Bartrams Red Queen, Hidden Pleasure and Dark Star Meltdown. It was here we found the Ale Trail booklet where there were 40 pubs listed and some goodies on completion of the trail I decided to have one even though we had no chance of completing it as it covered a lot more areas than Brighton and we only had 4 days there. We finished the day at the Spoons Bright Helm where we had WJ King Five Generations before finding the miniture railway back along the coast to the marina near our campsite.
On Thursday we bought all day tickets on the bus and went out to Hove. We had a long trek up to the Downsman where we sat in a lovely garden with Sharps Doom Bar and Harvey’s Sussex BB. We found a bus back down to Hove and walked to the Romans at Southwick where we had Elgoods Cambridge and St Austell Dartmoor. I wasn’t impressed with the cleanliness of this pub with ants running round the windowsill among crumbs of food. A bus then took us to Shoreham where we tried the Red Lion, a very old pub with low beams. We had Weltons Old Harry and White 1066 Country Ale. Back down to the Buckingham we found a great choice of beers and had Traditional Scottish Ales Scotch Mist, Archers Par 5 and Hogs Back Spring Call. Needing food, we caught the bus back to Shoreham where we had a carvery at the Royal George, but no drink as there was no real ale. We finished the day off in Portslade where we found a lovely local, the Stanley Arms with excellent choice of beers. We had Triple FFF Rock Lobster and Whitstable Naval Reserve here before heading back to the caravan.
On Friday we caught the bus into Lewes and first tried the Brewers Arms. This was a nice clean looking pub with a fire escape leading down to a garden area. We had Northumberland Legend of the Tyne No 6 here and Shardlow Mayfly. The Gardners Arms was next with Tring Shaw Thing and White Gold. There was a game called Toad in the Hole here – strange one. It was also a popular pub for visiting CAMRA members with lots of mags from all over the country. The Elephant and Castle was an interesting pub to walk round with its animal heads – one of which still had Xmas bells on. We had Wychwood Hobgoblin here. The Lewes Arms was a multiroomed pub from a small bar leading to a long wait for service, and I didn’t like the fact that a pint was £2.55 and the half was £1.35. We had Otter Ale here. I wished I had known the history of the pub at my time of visit though as they had got Greene King to climb down over the stocking of Harveys beers. From here we bussed to Shoreham as someone had recommended the Duke of Wellington. This was a friendly local serving Dark Star beers and was being renovated. We had Dark Star India Pale Ale and Dark Star Sunburst here. A bus along the coast took us back to Hove where we found the Neptune and more Dark Star – Hophead and Sunburst. This lovely pub was packed but we managed to find seats. The walls were adorned with photographs and I particularly liked the wall with the Stones photos. It reminded me of my bedroom wall in the 60’s. The Hove spoons had been recommended so we called and had Itchen Valley Winchester Ale. At the Sussex Cricketers we did not have any ale as there was not a lot of choice and we did not know what we would fing at our final call the Hand In Hand. This was a lively pub brewing their own Kemptown beer. We had 4 of their beers: Kemp Town Bitter, Sunshine, Ye Olde Trout and Dragon Blood that turned out to be a red beer. We made our way back to the caravan and I had only collected 6 stamps from the ale trail pubs, so we planned our last day to make 14 pubs to bring the total to 20 and qualify for a tee shirt.
Saturday we set off with the objective to get the remaining stamps needed to get a tee shirt. We knew we would have to do some again but with limited time we wanted to stick around Brighton and Lewes. We also had to finish visiting a couple of Good Beer Guide pubs. As there are so many I will just list them. I can’t even remember where we had lunch now, but we would have it on the route somewhere.
The Bugle – Harrveys Olympia. Prestonville – Gale HSB and Gale Butser. Cobblers Thumb – Wells Bombardire and Harveys Sussex Best Bitter. Basketmakers – Gales HSB. Lord Nelson – Harveys Sussex XX Mild. Battle of Trafalgar – Hop Back Summer Lightning. Evening Star – Dark Star Summer Solstice and Ballards Nyewood Gold. Wagon and Horses – Harveys Sussex BB. Greys – Harveys Sussex BB. Dover Castle – Shepherd Neame Early Bird. Sir Charles Napier – Gales HSB. Horse and Groom – Hop Back Summer Lightning and Taylor Landlord. Mitre – Harveys Knots of May. Black Horse Lewes – Brains Rev James. Elephant and Castle Lewes – Wychwood Hobgoblin. Dorset Lewes – Harveys Cliffe Quarter Ale. Gardners Lewes – Goddards Fuggle de dum, Hampshire Wild Thing and Weltons Summer Gold.
We had a brilliant 4 days of ale drinking.
CARAVAN CLUB NATIONAL AT BLENHEIM – 25.5.07
We took our caravan to Blenheim Palace for the Caravan Club National Rally on Friday 25.5.07. We were booked in to the Tuesday, but had not booked the entertainment as we thought it was too expensive at £10 each per night, even though there were some good acts booked for this special 100 year weekend.
We found our pitch with the Midland Centre, and got set up and put the porch awning up. We decided to have a wander down to the main arena to book in and get our goody bag. We looked round the bars but NO REAL ALE…. We left the bar in disgust and went back to the caravan to drink some of the bottled beers we carry with us.
A lot of the weekend is geared around competitive sports, and at our age we are not into that any more. The teams were having early starts over Saturday morning, so after breakfast we had a wander down to see what was going on around the main arena. We wandered round the trade area, then after the opening ceremony watched the Spitfire give a superb display. We watched displays in the arena for a while. There was a Civil War Pageant and a motor bike stunt rider. The team that set up It’s a Knockout put on a brilliant show with about 5 groups going in for it. After a wander round the trade and a bite to eat we made our way back to the caravan to our own bottles of beer.
On Sunday we went out to Witney to look for pubs selling real ale. We called into the Angel where we had Brains SA Gold. Next we found a Good Beer Guide pub, the New Inn and had Exmoor Stag. There is a lovely fishpond outside by the toilets. We also found the House of Windsor where we had Hyde’s Golden Brown before driving up to the Windrush for a carvery. A bonus here was that they had real ale on, a lot of carvery establishments only serve creamflow. We had Vale Haddas Spring Gold and enjoyed both the meal and the beer.
Monday was wet – very wet. We did not stray from the caravan and watched cars struggling to leave the site as the ground was cutting up badly. We were pitched close to the roadway being used for the exit to the Red Gate, so were in a prime position to watch what was going on. 4 wheel drive cars were towing motorhomes, and also complete car and caravan units in an attempt to get them clear of the mud. Some car owners were idiots in the way they tackled the mud to get away and although we found it entertaining to watch, we knew we had to face it with our Skoda Estate on Tuesday.
We packed up on a dry Tuesday, although the porch was still soaking from the previous day’s rain. We were leaving around 10 as we were driving down to Brighton, and watched the routes being taken by the towing vehicles to get through the mud. As spaces were clearing, we found the easiest way was through the caravan lines, and we were lucky enough to get off site without being towed ourselves.
It had been a good weekend, and the next years National had been announced as at Houghton Hall in Norfolk.
CHESTERFIELD RAIL ALE BEER FESTIVAL – 18.5.07
On Friday 18.5.07 we took our caravan up to Old Brampton to stay on a 5 van site there in order to catch public transport into Chesterfield on the Saturday for the beer festival. We had been to this lovely site before, and there were hens and a duck wandering round as we got onto our pitch.
After setting up, we walked to the local, the George and Dragon, and although the landlord has just taken over recently, we were able to purchase some lovely toasted sandwiches to have with our excellent real ales. We had Adnams Bitter and Marston Pedigree. He was putting another one on for the Saturday due to the football being on his telly.
Saturday morning we caught the local bus into Chesterfield, and went to the Portland, a Wetherspoons pub, for breakfast. We also had a couple of Wentworth beers here – Gun Park and Best Bitter. There were a lot of beer tickers doing the same, and after eating, we went to the station. A special bus was running from there to Barrow Hill where the beer festival was being held.
This is a lovely venue as it is in the railway sheds, and has a lovely smell of the old steam trains. The beers are set up in front of one of the steam trains and there were plenty to see as we were drinking our beer.
The beer list did not disappoint us, and we had the following beers: Ashover Malthouse Mild, Beartown Bjorganic, Burton Bridge Jubilee, Church End Rising Star, Dow Bridge Lockkeepers Bitter, Downtown Bandits Gold, Newby Wyke Black Funnel Mild, Peak Ales Derbyshire Pale Ale, Peak Ales Mervs Chopper, Pot Belly Crazy Daze, Shugborough Lordships Own, Toll Gate Dog House, Tower Made Um Cry, Tower Coopers Special, Townes Black Five, Wood Shropshire Lass, Wood Hopping Mad, and York Sovereign.
We still popped into the George and Dragon on the way back to site and had Milestone Rich Ruby before going back to the caravan.
Sunday was a lovely morning, and we had a lazy time feeding the birds and watching the antics of the chickens and duck. The owner came over and we must have spent nearly an hour chatting to him along with another couple staying on the site. He was an old merchant seaman, and had loads of stories to tell, both of his travels and farming when he was a kid and horses were used for most of the work. I would love to read his memoirs if he ever writes them.
This had been another brilliant weekend away.
