Camra's Bristol Beer Festival

Here is a quick round up of the beers I tried at the opening night of Camra's Bristol Beer Festival (in alphabetical not tasted order). I'm no tasting expert, just a beer fan, so these are simply my impressions of the beers I tried. It's the first time they've held the event on a Thursday evening & it wasn't packed by any means, but there were enough there to ensure it didn't feel too lonely in Brunel's massive Old Station at Temple Meads. I suspect the Friday and Saturday evenings will be a lot less sedate...

The room was the original terminal station for the GWR railway. Designed by the great Isambard Kingdom Brunel, it was opened on 31 August 1840 to Bath and a year later to Paddington, with the Bristol and Exeter station being built a couple of years later at right angles to Brunel's. I love the interior, with it's huge roof and mock hammerbeams, designed to emulate Westminster Hall.

So, lets get down to business. The beer. The choice was stupendous, about 135 different beers and obviously I didn't try all of them or I would not be sat here writing this today, I would be throwing up somewhere in a gutter at the back of the station.

Here, then, is a quick rundown of the ones I did try. The glass you get when you come in is usefully lined (yay, lined glasses!!!) with pint, half and third measures, so I stuck to thirds on the basis I could try more beers. I also agreed with my companion that we would not try the same beers and taste each others to maximise the number of different beers we could try.



Chocolate Orange Stout from Amber in Wigan 4.0%
Yes - it really does taste like Terry's Chocolate Orange. Very yummy indeed although too sweet to drink more than a pint or ten.

Hop a Doodle Doo from Brewsters in Lincolnshire 4.3%

Ok, I'll admit that this was the last beer of the evening  - I was feeling a little tipsy and my tastebuds had taken a hammering. My tasting notes say 'jaunty'. I think it was nice.

Trade Winds from Cairngorm in Scotland 4.3%
I love this beer - I voted it my favourite beer of my Lands End to John o'Groats cycle ride. Lovely pale golden beer with lovely citrus and elderflower notes.

Ginger from Enville in Stourbridge 4.6%
Maybe I'm not very subtle but I like a ginger beer to really taste of ginger. This one doesn't. It was agreeable enough but lacked a punch.

Litehouse from Forge in Devon 4.3%
This was SIBA Champion South West in 2010 so hopes were high but I found it a bit flat and disappointing. Nice golden colour but tasted a bit - well - saggy and tired.

Windermere Pale from Hawkshead in Cumbria 3.5%
This was super - low gravity but not low flavour - fresh, hoppy taste and went down very well.


Wenlock Stout from Ironbridge in Shropshire 5.1%
A smashing stout this - very smooth. Malty without tasting burnt or bitter.

Riders on the Storm from Kelham Island in Sheffield 4.5%
Amber coloured, nice flavoured - can I taste orange in there somewhere?

Ginger from Marble in Manchester  4.5%
This is what I call a ginger beer! Strong ginger flavour and lots of bite. Liked it very much.

Oscar Wilde Mild from Mighty Oak in Essex 3.7%
Dark reddish beer with unusual flavours but rather overpowered by coffee which I wasn't terribly keen on - bit like drinking cold Nescafe.

Dark Island from Orkney in Scotland 4.6%
Consulting the beer index of Mud Sweat and Gears I see I tried the bottled version of this at John o'Groats. Dark beer with notes of chocolate, fruit and coffee but with none of the flavours overpowering the beer. Lovely. Easy to see why it's twice Champion Beer of Scotland.

Brewers Gold from Pictish in Lancashire 3.8%
Very fresh and fruity! Pale, hoppy beer which zings the taste buds.

Pure Gold from Purity in Warwickshire 3.8%
This beer apparently uses four different hops and two types of malt. Obviously used to good effect - a really quaffable beer at 3.8%.

Pure Ubu from Purity in Warwickshire 4.5%
Very tasty amber coloured brew wich is lovely to swill around the mouth. Pronounced caramel flavour.

Steam Spring from RCH in West Hewish 4.6%

Lovely, lovely fresh and zesty beer, one of my favourites of the evening. I cycled past the brewery the other day, I may call back and stock up on this one!

Blackberry Cascade from Saltaire in W Yorks 4.8%
I was expecting a reddish beer, in fact it is a blonde but with hints of blackberry and other fruits. Nice, fresh beer, lovely on a summer day in the pub garden.

Ginger Tosser from Skinners in Cornwall 3.8%
No ginger or anything else much in this one. The beer was flat (in flavour I mean) and didn't taste of anything much. Disappointing.

Cornwall's Pride from Tintagel in Cornwall 4.0%
Beautiful amber colour; this Cornish beer had plenty of rounded flavour and body.

Midnight Sun from Williams in Scotland 5.6%
I hadn't read the notes and expected a golden beer (cos of the reference to the sun), in fact it's a black, strong flavoured porter that packed a punch. Lots of malty, roasty, hoppy, gingery taste.

Old Trout from Worsthorne in Lancashire 4.5%
Middling colour, middling flavour. A reasonable session beer although it lacked any wow factor ,as far as I'm concerned.

Overall, a cracking choice of beers from across the country. I realised at the end of the evening that I had merely scratched the surface. I have much work to do if I'm going to try them all.

A Bristol pub crawl

An entirely subjective list of my favourite pubs in Bristol central/harbour area:

1. The Three Tuns

The Tuns used to be a bit of a dive. Actually that's not true. It was a lot of a dive. The Telegraph reports it was an 'honest boozer's pub.' Not sure about that, I remember it as the sort of pub one scuttled past on the way to Hotwells, ideally on the opposite side of the road. After a refit the Three Tuns re-opened three years ago under manager Mark Farrell, and soon became a favourite on the real ale circuit. The interior is plain - hefty pine tables and stripped wooden floor. No games machines or TV, a double plus on my marking system. A couple of managers on, the Tuns still serves superbly kept beer. One of two pubs owned by Kingswood brewery Arbor Ales, the Tuns gets it right on every count.

2. Bag of Nails

Just down the road from the Three Tuns is the Bag of Nails, which has long been a favourite of mine. Once known as the American Eagle, the pub got a refurb and change of name in the 1990's. Last year there was much consternation amongst the local real ale fraternity when the pub closed again - but it has since reopened, having been tastefully spruced up by landlord Luke. I like the record player and invitation to put on your own vinyl. I also like the ever changing choice of real ales on offer. Luke's Rules, chalked up on the central pillar have caused some discussion, especially the controversial Rule One.

3. Merchants Arms

A Bath Ales pub, it's a traditional boozer. The interior is painted cream and brown which sounds vile but actually works well. There's a separate room at the back popular if you fancy playing aboard game of which there are plenty. The pub has all the ingredients of a traditional boozer: friendly with good conversation, nice low lighting and good beer.



4. The Grain Barge

Two hundred and fifty years ago there were nine shipyards in Bristol. By 1976 there was only one, Charles Hill and Sons, who in that year, launched their last ship. The Grain Barge had been built at the Charles Hill Shipyard in 1936. The engineless 'dumb' barge used to be towed across the Severn from Bristol to Cardiff carrying barley and wheat. As Bristol docks declined as a working port, the barge sat rusting away on her moorings near the SS Great Britain until she was bought by Bristol Beer Factory in 2007 who restored and refitted her. She is now moored opposite the site of the yard where she was built. On summer evenings the Barge is a fabulous place to sit out on deck with a pint and watch the activity in the docks. Bristol Beer Factory produce some fine brews, my personal favourite is Sunrise, a lovely slightly citrus golden ale.



5.The Cornubia

The Cornubia was built as a Georgian townhouse in 1776 for a local wigmaker, Charles Cox. It became a pub in 1859 and has been so ever since. Sadly, all the surrounding buildings have disappeared, and it now sits incongruously amongst a sea of office blocks. Originally named the Rabbit Warren, 'Cornubia' is the old Latin name for Cornwall; it's likely that the pub was renamed after the SS Cornubia, a paddle steamship built in 1858 that used to run between Hayle and Bristol. In the American Civil War she was bought by the Confederate States and taken over to America to carry supplies as a blockade runner. (The ship not the pub.) The Cornubia was the brewery tap for Georges Brewery just up the road. After Georges was swallowed up by Courages it became a training pub for Courage managers, which is probably how it managed to hang on to so many of its original fittings. The pub is now run by Phil and Jackie who do a good job of having a regularly rotating choice of well kept beers. The only snag is Phil's dislike of cyclists - I'm going to work on that...


6. The Seven Stars

Lurking down a dark, cobbled alley off Redcliff Street, The Seven Stars is another pub with a long history. The first known mention of the pub is in 1694 when Sir John Hawkins bought the pub from the Saunders brewing dynasty, at the same time as setting up what was to become Georges Brewery. Almost a hundred years later, in 1787, Thomas Clarkson came to Bristol as part of his investigation of the slave trade. The landlord of the Seven Stars befriended him, and he would sit in the Seven Stars secretly gathering evidence of the trade, and of the underhand methods which the slave ship owners would use to recruit sailors for these voyages. The evidence Clarkson gathered was key to eventually changing public opinion and getting the slave trade abolished twenty years later. Nowadays things are much jollier; the Seven Stars regularly has eight different beers on offer, and it won CAMRA Bristol and District Pub of the Year in 2010 and 2011. The decor is pretty basic, there's a pool table and some rough seats. It is - in short - a proper pub.



7. Commercial Rooms

The Commercial Rooms is a JDW pub opened in 1995. It's a Neoclassical building designed by Charles Busby, an architect working mainly in Brighton and Hove, and opened in 1810 as a club for wealthy Bristol merchants. Perched on the roof are three statues - the 'three commercial graces' representing Bristol, commerce and navigation. The interior is stunning, a large room which still has the boards listing the names of the club presidents and officials. The first president was one John Loudon McAdam, inventor of tarmac. Although Scottish, he had been appointed surveyor to the Bristol Turnpike Trust in 1816. Above the bar is a circular weather vane dial which told the merchants when ships were likely to be arriving in port. (Incidentally the clock dating from 1822 on the Exchange immediately opposite the Commercial Rooms is also unusual, in that it tells both Bristol and Greenwich Mean Time.) The pub always has a good selection of well kept real ales. The only downside is the counter is very high. At least its a downside for shorties like me. Sometimes, when it's busy, I have to jump up and down to be seen.


8. The Kings Head, Victoria Street.

Another historic pub dating, according to the sign on the wall, from 1660. It sits in front of Bristol's own leaning tower, Temple Church, built on marsh land and bombed in World War 2.

The interior of the pub is an odd and fascinating mixture, dating from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. It is the only Bristol pub on Camra's National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors and is worth a visit for that reason alone. The Tramcar Bar was installed in the early Victorian period, and indeed the whole pub, with it's narrow corridor and brown paint, reminds me of  a GWR train.

There is normally has a good choice of real ale on offer, including a regular appearance of TEA (Traditional English Ale) from Hogs Back Brewery in Surrey and Betty Stoggs from Skinners Brewery. The pub is on the expensive side though, at £3.40 a pint.


9. The Cottage

Owned by Butcombe Brewery the Cottage is a comparatively new pub by Bristol standards. The building dates to 1868 and was used for timber storage and later as the Harbour Masters Office. It opened as a pub in 1983 and was bought by Butcombes in 2009.

It majors in food (which it does very well) but remains a proper pub and often has Butcombe's less easily available brews on offer. When I visited recently it was offering Old Vic Porter and Adam Henson's Rare Breed. It is also in a superb location with lovely views across the harbour (or 'the Docks' as we Bristolians call it). Worth seeking out on summer days.

10. The Orchard Inn

Tucked away behind the SS Great Britain Spike Island, Bristol's artisan quarter, the Orchard is primarily a cider pub, in fact it won Camra's National Cider Pub of the Year Award in 2009. But it always has a few real ales on offer as well. It has a down-to-earth friendly feel about it and the clientele is an interesting mix of local arty types, stray tourists and cider heads. To soak up the booze there is proper pub grub - pasties and pies, and delicious filled rolls. The beer has got more expensive of late, but sadly, that seems to be the case everywhere.


11. The Shakespeare

I was going to list my top ten but it seems a shame to miss out the Shakespeare  Tavern on Prince Street. I mention the street as there are quite a few pubs called the Shakespeare in Bristol. I know this as I remember sitting in one of them for quite a long time on my own wondering why none of my mates had turned up. (This was pre-mobile phone so no way of phoning and saying 'where the bloody hell are you?') I was in the wrong Shakespeare.

Anyway, this Shakespeare is one of a block of three Georgian townhouses designed by John Strachan in 1725. Fashionable with local wealthy merchants in the eighteenth century, the area fell out of favour after the construction of the New Cut which slowed up the flow of the river (into which everyone chucked their sewage) and the place began to stink. It doesn't stink now though. The Shakespeare is a Greene King pub although there is usually a guest ale on as well. For a city centre pub it has a nice, solid feel to it - lots of wood, and the beer has always been in condition when I've been here.


Well that's my top eleven pubs for Bristol central/harbour/Hotwells. No doubt there are many gems I have missed so if you know of any that should be added to the list please let me know and I will conduct an inspection visit. It's a hard job but someone's got to do it...

And because I'm feeling nice, I've drawn a map with a suggested route from and to the train station, showing where all the pubs are.


View Bristol pub crawl in a larger map

My Favourite Pubs - Helgi's, Kirkwall

Window at Helgi's

How far are you willing to go for a decent pint? If the answer is a few hundred miles and a ferry or two thrown in then you might want to check out Helgi's in Kirkwall, Orkney. (Unless you're Orcadian, of course, and then it may only be a short walk/bike/bus ride.) Or - if you've got to John o'Groats and spent 15 minutes there, you'll have had enough - so why not hop on the ferry and try Orkney instead?

Kirkwall Harbour

 Helgi's is right on the harbour in Kirkwall, lovely for gazing out of the window at the fishing boats on the quay, especially on summer evenings when the days are long and the nights practically non-existent.

It majors in food and I suppose you could call it a gastro-bar which I normally hate, but this one gets the balance right. I did try the food one evening - haggis lasagne which was interesting  - and surprisingly good.

Helgi's has a Nordic feel to it, as does much of Orkney, not surprising really as for centuries Orkney was part of the Kingdom of Norway. In 2009 Alistair Carmichael, the MP for Orkney and Shetland, when asked to name his nearest mainline railway station on an expenses form allegedly wrote 'Oslo'.

Orkney is also packed with megalithic monuments including the awesome Ring of Brodgar.Orkneyjar is an excellent website on the Islands and their history if you're interested in finding out more.


Beer is supplied by Rob Hill's Highland Brewing Co. at Swannay Brewery. My favourite is Scapa Special, which is bloody gorgeous. It's a Pale Ale and at 4.2% is my ideal strength. It has a hoppy flavour, and was always lovely and fresh.

I believe Helgi's has made it into the CAMRA Good Beer Guide again in 2012, if you should find yourself that far north, it's well worth a visit.

Kirkwall Harbour

Ring of Brodgar

Standing Stone - Ring of Brodgar

My favourite pubs - The Angel Inn, Grosmont

Cycling from Land's End to John o'Groats a couple of years ago, my companion and I had wearly dragged our bikes up the hill to the little village of Grosmont in the Welsh Marches. (We were taking the scenic route.) I will confess that there was a modicum of bad language spilling forth as we had been unable to get into the campsite at the bottom of the hill.

But at the top of the hill we miruculously found The Angel Inn. And what a find it was.

Like The Old Crown at Hesket Newmarket, The Angel is a community owned pub. When the pub was faced with closure in 2005, half-a-dozen regulars at the pub formed a consortium and bought the pub between them. It now forms part of what appears to be a thriving little village community. We were welcomed into the pub and bought pints of beer to wish us on our way. It was a most convivial evening.

The pub became The Daffodil for the 2007 film The Baker, a brilliant comedy filmed in Grosmont starring Damian Lewis as a hit man experiencing a mid-life crisis, hiding out in a small Welsh village.

There was an excellent choice of beers and I tried three delightful ones that I had not tasted before:

Cwrw Haf from Tomos Watkin in Swansea. Being English I couldn't pronounce it of course. Pointing at the pump I said: 'Erm, one of those please.' Apparently it is pronounced 'koo-roo hàrve'. Anyway, it tasted very nice and refreshing.









.410 from Golden Valley Ales in Peterchurch, Herefordshire, a golden coloured, slightly fruity beer. I just asked for four-one-oh, missing out the dot. It's called this because it's 4.1% and is also a reference to the .410 shotgun - as seen on the label.

Finally, Butty Bach (Little Friend) from the Wye Valley Brewery at Stoke Lacy in Herefordshire. I loved this beer. Golden in colour it was not too strong, either in flavour or in ABV, and went down extremely well.

The Three Castles Walk , also here, is a popular 20 mile circular route.I think I may have to make it my business to head down here pretty soon.

My favourite pubs: The All Nations Inn, Madelely

The story of brewing in the UK in the twentieth century - or at least the first three quarters of it, was the story of increasing concentration in the hands of a few large brewers. Brewpubs - where beer is brewed on the premises were once common but by the early nineteen-seventies there were just four. Thankfully, the situation is now vastly improved, there are now well over a hundred brewpubs in the UK.

Quiz question: one of the original four was the All Nations Inn, where were the other three? Answer at the bottom of the page. :-)

The All Nations Beerhouse opened in 1831 and began brewing the following year. Except for a brief hiatus from 2001-2003 it has had a brewery on the site ever since. In 2009 the brewery was rebranded as Shires and supplies the All Nations with its house bitters, Dabley Ale and Dabley Gold and Coalport Dodger Mild. There is always at least one other guest ale on offer, usually another local beer, and a cider (not that I drink  that stuff).

The All Nations is a pub that has not been mucked about with. It's one long room with a real fire in the grate in winter and a small central bar and solid wooden tables and benches. It is, in short, a proper pub. I also like the fact it displays its prices on one of those price boards from the seventies. I always thought it was the law that pubs should display their prices clearly, but these days hardly any seem to do so.

It is the perfect place to spend a peaceful weekend afternoon, reading the papers and supping on one of the always excellent beers, with one of the pub's excellent cob rolls or toasties to soak it up. A trip to the loo involves stepping over the dogs which can almost always be found stretched out across the floor or in front of the fire and then a trot (or a sprint if it's raining) across the back courtyard to the outside toilet.  The pub is popular with locals and visitors alike, being just a step up the hill from Ironbridge Gorge and opposite the 'Victorian Town' at Blists Hill.

Its situation, on the opposite hill also makes it the perfect place to view the very popular Blists Hill firework display in November, I had a fantastic evening here watching the fireworks and enjoying the hotdogs and burgers offered by the pub, and in the summer the courtyard is used for live music entertainment.

Shropshire, in my opinion, is the best county in the country for decent pubs, and the All Nations is up there with the best of them. It came as no surprise to me that it won the local Camra pub of the year award, even with such excellent competition in the area.  As I've just bought an annual ticket for the Ironbridge Museums, I have an excuse to visit the pub a few more times over the next few months, not that any excuse is needed...

Iron bridge Ironbridge

Sign in Blists Hill

Blists Hill

Quiz Answer:

The other brewhouses still in existence in the seventies were:
The Blue Anchor, Helston
The Three Tuns, Bishops Castle
The Old Swan, Netherton

History of the All Nations and other brewpubs

My Favourite Pubs - The Old Crown, Hesket Newmarket, Cumbria

Here is the second in my mini-series  'My Favourite Pubs.' If you have any suggestions for other ones I can try please leave a comment or tweet and let me know. I am willing to travel in the interests of research!

The Old Crown - Hesket Newmarket

Hesket Newmarket is right on the northern edge of the Lake District,and I first visited about five years ago. This was not an accident. A friend of mine Dave, when hearing I was heading that way, informed me I should not miss The Old Crown as it was his favourite pub in the country. Dave knows his onions when it comes to beer, so this was not advice to be easily ignored. So, after a thrilling day of terror on Striding Edge, we headed up to Hesket in the camper van to see what was so good about it.

There are some pubs that when you walk in them, you know immediately you have made a mistake. The chattering of the customers dies away and they silently watch as you make your way nervously to the bar to order a pint. You can feel their eyes boring into you as you peruse the pumps and a cold sweat breaks out. You order a half, down it in one and get out of there.

The patrons in the Old Crown, on the other hand, go out of their way to be friendly. On my first visit and on all my subsequent ones, I have never failed to easily fall into conversation with the other customers and the bar staff are always friendly.

Maybe this has something to do with the fact that The Crown is a co-operative, formed in 2003 when 125 customers clubbed together to buy the pub. The brewery behind the pub had become a co-operative a few years earlier so it made sense. Prince Charles has visited the pub a couple of times and was served a complimentary drink as he apparently doesn't carry any money with him. Maybe I'll try that next time!


The beer is supplied by Hesket Newmarket Brewery, also a co-operative and situated rihgt behind the pub. They range from Scafell Blonde, a pale golden beer which uses some lager malts - to the dark, maltiness of Great Cockup Porter, and many other delicious brews including Blencathra, Skiddaw Special and the legendary Doris' 90th Birthday Ale.

My personal favourite is the Skiddaw Special, which slides down exceedingly well with one of the Old Crown curries.

Old climbing equipment and signed pictures of various climbers are around the walls, including Chris Bonington  who downed the first pint of 'Doris' back in 1998.

And at the end of the evening its just a short stagger along the road to Greenhill Farm which offers camping facilities in the field behind the farmhouse. Hopefully some forward planning will have taken place and the tent erected before a session in the pub - or working out just which pole goes where may be something of a trial...

Well appointed facilities at campsite

My Favourite Pubs - Hunter's Lodge Inn, Priddy

I was supposed to be out walking with Yvonne today but am confined to the house with a horrible lurgy.  I'm sat shivering under a quilt, a blanket and a four seasons sleeping bag. I should be using my involuntary confinement to write my Christmas cards. I need to sit down and get on with it. Soon. In a minute. As a displacement activity, I thought I would begin to compile a list of some of the favourite pubs I have come across in my beer travels. I know I have only scratched the surface and that there are many fine pubs out that I don't know about, so any suggestions are most welcome.

Today's top pub:

Hunters Lodge Inn, Priddy

I love this pub. It's an effort to get to, sat on a lonely crossroads a couple of miles outside the ancient settlement of Priddy at the top of the Mendip Hills. This is Bronze Age barrow country, Roman lead mining country, folk festival and sheep fair country. It's also caving country. On the side of the pub in the carpark is a low square stone structure with a metal gate at the top. It looks like it might contain a well. In fact it is the entrance to Hunters Lodge Inn Sink, one of the many caves on Mendip. And just the other side of Priddy is Swildon's Hole, the longest cave on Mendip.

The exterior is unprepossessing, like many buildings up on Mendip it is faced with a grey pebbledash, and the pub sign hasn't been painted for many a year. Nor has the inside. This is one of those joyous discoveries, a pub which hasn't been mucked about with. It is clean and homely, in winter the fires will be burning in the grates, and the flagstone floors have been polished by countless boots crossing the threshold. No jukebox or faux Olde Englishe decor here, this is the real thing. I particularly like the ancient wallpaper, pre-historic figures hunting, which must be at least 50 years old.

The landlord and his wife, Roger and Jackie, are diamonds. Many the time my friends and I have staggered over the threshold after a mis-timed caving trip, mud splattering our faces, fifteen minutes before closing time and starving hungry.

'You' want some food?' Roger gives one of his half smiles and Jackie goes off to the kitchen to sort us out. None of the usual 'the kitchen is only open between 6 and 9' bollocks. Hearty bowls of chilli, pasta, macaroni cheese and other delights are all served with huge doorsteps of the most delicious fresh bread. As for the beer, I have been visiting this pub for years and have never, never, had even a slightly out of condition beer. It is always tip top. Dispensed by gravity from barrels lined up behind the bar, the local Cheddar Ales Potholer is always available, as is Butcombe. I don't know how Roger does it, but the Butcombe Beer here is the best I have tasted. There's generally one or two other guest ales and cider as well.

Local farmers and villagers, walkers, cavers and cyclists rub shoulders here. As long as you are not a prat (Roger doesn't suffer fools gladly) and as long as you turn off your mobile phone in the pub, you will love it.


See also my blog entry for 25 March 2011 Mission Abandoned

By the way, don't try and find a website for the pub, you will be wasting your time!

Beer

Just Kidding