Currently Drinking...

[Penlan]

...... it seemed rude not to take a few supplies along, so combining a trip to the Wincle brewery with an afternoon constitutional covered both objectives. I hoped that the 'Summer Lass' might be ready but alas not until next week...

But come Monday, the nights start drawing in, Summers over.. 

[AndrewC]

 

So how many square metres does he get for £3000 a month? I can see that the micropub is cheap to set up by comparison with the traditional lease but the overheads after that look high relative to the trade that can be done in a small premises.

 

 

.

 

Most of these micros are no more than about 20-30 square metres in size. That's all that is needed. Overheads are surprisingly low. Normally they are family or couple operated. No staff, no kitchen, no cellar or major infrastructure. Operating costs are basically beer, electricity, heat, water, and rates. Most have nothing more than a cool room with stillage and 3-4 gravity fed beers. Even the majority of the glassware is donated from local CAMRA beer fest surpluses. From what I've seen the average one goes through 2-3 casks per day. 4 or 5 on weekends. That's enough to pay the rent, operating costs, and generate a bit of profit. Remember, these aren't people's full time jobs. A micro pub in most cases is bordering on a hobby for the owners. Some are semi retired, others look at it as a part time job for a bit of extra £.

 

Can you tell I'm a big fan of them.

[Joseph_Pestell]

On the micropubs website, they state as one of the objectives that the premises should have good public transport. It just happens that the taxi firm has recently moved out of Gillingham (Dorset) Station. That could make quite a nice micropub if the rent was right.

[Joseph_Pestell]

Anybody keen on saving a pub may like to know about the attempted community buy-out of a very attractive pub at Gussage All Saints, Dorset. They need to raise the money by 15 August and are about 20% of the way there with their share issue.

[bike2steam]

I wish them all the luck at the Drovers, a nice little pub, but because of it's seclusion it needs a lot of promotion. I go that way regularly during the summer as a lot of the time it's quicker to go from Bere Regis to Ringwood via Horton Cross than via the A31, advertising boards should be on the Horton, and Salisbury Roads more predominantly than what they are(?)

Edited June 20, 2015 by bike2steam

[Worsdell forever]

Enjoying a pint or two of Belhaven Best in Perth, rather nice.

 

[Mark Forrest]

Enjoying a pint or two of Belhaven Best in Perth, rather nice.

 

20150628_205702-1.jpg

I had a couple of pints of that stuff when I was in Dundee recently; agree not a bad drink at all. However, better still when I found the Brewdog in the city centre.

[mark374]

Thought id post on here,  

 

 

Although im not much of a drinker i dont mind the odd pint of ale

 

But on saturday i helped out at a beer festivasl in workington, & got 3 tokens for some half pints, so decied i might as well use em,  & the first drink i got was Thirst falls from keswick & have to say is a rather nice

 

next was a stout & was rather strong for my taste,

 

and lasdt was a still cider,  which was like apple jucie,

 

had plenty more drinks but sadly by the time id finshed filming a local band the pumps dried up,

 

 

Another fav drink of mine is Spitfire Ale,  

 

 

Mark

[Jon Fitness]

Being a fan of the darker ales and the like, I saw this in Lidl. Not tried that many dark lagers before but as I like dunkel beers when visiting Germany occasionally, I thought I'd try a Czech one to compare .

 

 

Just opened the second one, very nice, not too rich and very easygoing too!

Cheers

Jon F.

 

[Joseph_Pestell]

Had a tour round Wadworth's on Thursday evening (oddly laid on for a panel of Masters of Wine!).

 

Their range has expanded a bit with regular seasonal ales. Very much liked their summer Golden. Waterloo was OK.

 

Also tried Corvus, their stout. Quite like a Guinness but a bit lighter. Really good at this time of year.

Being a fan of the darker ales and the like, I saw this in Lidl. Not tried that many dark lagers before but as I like dunkel beers when visiting Germany occasionally, I thought I'd try a Czech one to compare .

 

IMG_1026 (600x800).jpg

 

Just opened the second one, very nice, not too rich and very easygoing too!

Cheers

Jon F.

 

I think I see a trip to Gillingham Lidl coming very soon.

[Jon Fitness]

Had a tour round Wadworth's on Thursday evening (oddly laid on for a panel of Masters of Wine!).

 

Their range has expanded a bit with regular seasonal ales. Very much liked their summer Golden. Waterloo was OK.

 

Also tried Corvus, their stout. Quite like a Guinness but a bit lighter. Really good at this time of year.

 

 

I think I see a trip to Gillingham Lidl coming very soon.

Corvus is nice for a smoothflow but I'll only have it at a pub if the cask stuff is off/poor.

JF

[Mark Forrest]

Picked up a few beers from my local beer & wine emporium this was my favourite enjoyed over the weekend while watching the Glastonbury coverage on the TV

[bike2steam]

Well the long slog back home to Dorset, from here in the Scottish Highlands, tomorrow, and looking forward to a good tasting session at our overnight stay at the Watermill Inn And Brewery in Ings in the Lake District, just hope they've got enough room when my two hounds ( and the trouble'n'strife) get settled, if I enjoy it, the wife will be driving Saturday, (edit) - no, Friday, having such a good time I'm losing track of the days of the week !?!? :-).

Edited July 3, 2015 by bike2steam

[Joseph_Pestell]

Well the long slog back home to Dorset, from here in the Scottish Highlands, tomorrow, and looking forward to a good tasting session at our overnight stay at the Windmill Inn And Brewery in Ings in the Lake District, just hope they've got enough room when my two hounds ( and the trouble'n'strife) get settled, if I enjoy it, the wife will be driving Saturday, (edit) - no, Friday, having such a good time I'm losing track of the days of the week !?!? :-).

 

If you enjoy it that much maybe it will be Saturday before you leave.

[45156]

Very strange, but I just mixed a bottle of Steinhauser lager (Aldi, but really Dortmunder Actienbrauerie) with about a quarter bottle of McEwans Champion, and the resulting mix tastes extremely good, very like a dry German Dunkel - very nice on a warm day, but a surprising one.

 

Another one that I liked as a mix, which was an error on the part of a barman once was a mix of a quarter pint of draught Guiness, and three quarters of a pint of Konig Ludwig Dunkel, and the Guiness took the sweet edge off the Dunkel, and again it made a surprisingly tasty drink, which I did try again, and again, for as long as the Sun in Lancaster kept the Dunkel, which was not too long, as I was one of the few to drink it - and it WAS pricey...But the odd thing was that in the Sun, I met Prince Luitpold, owner of Konig Ludwig, and I told him how much I admired his Dunkel, and that was part of the reason for its appearance.  He was a lovely guy, and not at all what you'd expect from the German nobility.

[Joseph_Pestell]

Very strange, but I just mixed a bottle of Steinhauser lager (Aldi, but really Dortmunder Actienbrauerie) with about a quarter bottle of McEwans Champion, and the resulting mix tastes extremely good, very like a dry German Dunkel - very nice on a warm day, but a surprising one.

 

Another one that I liked as a mix, which was an error on the part of a barman once was a mix of a quarter pint of draught Guiness, and three quarters of a pint of Konig Ludwig Dunkel, and the Guiness took the sweet edge off the Dunkel, and again it made a surprisingly tasty drink, which I did try again, and again, for as long as the Sun in Lancaster kept the Dunkel, which was not too long, as I was one of the few to drink it - and it WAS pricey...But the odd thing was that in the Sun, I met Prince Luitpold, owner of Konig Ludwig, and I told him how much I admired his Dunkel, and that was part of the reason for its appearance.  He was a lovely guy, and not at all what you'd expect from the German nobility.

 

Noblesse oblige - whatever the nationality.

[Joseph_Pestell]

Keystone Brewery (Berwick St Leonard, nr Salisbury) were at a business event we attended yesterday evening.

 

Lovely beer as usual. I was surprised to see what a range they are brewing these days. Still not available in bottle so far as I know.

 

Their one tied pub, The Benett Arms, is within easy walking distance of Tisbury station and, handily, downhill back to the train.

[Shadow]

Had to go away for work tonight.
Hotel bar has this

 

Think it's going to be more than one. Purely for quality checks of course!

 

Edited July 3, 2015 by Shadow

[Joseph_Pestell]

Had to go away for work tonight.

Hotel bar has this

 

IMG_20150702_195436.jpg

 

Think it's going to be more than one. Purely for quality checks of course!

 

(Broom Hall Hotel, Saham Toney, Watton, Norfolk)

 

As I was saying last week to one of our MWs, strange how Norfolk used to be the worst beer desert in the country but now has amongst the best range of small breweries.

[45156]

As I was saying last week to one of our MWs, strange how Norfolk used to be the worst beer desert in the country but now has amongst the best range of small breweries.

When I lived in Norwich, the change was starting, and it was sometimes a push to get a decent lunchtime pint.  I do remember doing a business trip there in the 80s and struggling to find any good beer in the city.  When I was an early CAMRA member, a few of us used to do beer hunts to find what we could, and we used to draw the line for East Anglia at Ipswich, as beyond that point there was very little to be had.

[pH]

Son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter turned up at short notice for dinner tonight. Wife performed her (usual) culinary miracles. They brought a growler of Old Jalopy Pale Ale from Powell Street Brewery in Vancouver.  It was excellent. I find I'm being very selective about IPAs these days - microbreweries sometimes seem to be in a competition to see who can get most hops into an IPA, and I find them too bitter. I'd now rather have a pale ale, which taste to me like the majority of the IPAs did maybe 5 years ago.   

[Torper]

I'm just back home after being south of the border for 10 days or so.  Now two of the great pleasures in visiting England are English beer and English pubs and I like to take in a few of these on my travels.  Fortunately I was able to visit several pubs - Morgans, The Armoury and the Three Fishes in Shrewsbury, The Sun in Welshampton, The Sun in Leintwardine, and the Three Tuns in Bishops Castle.  I also went to the Ellesmere Regatta where the town's Black Lion Hotel was making an excellent job of running the beer tent.  During the course of these visits I tried (ie drank pints of) the following beers:

 

Shropshire Gold (Salopian Brewery);

XXX;

1642;

Solstice; (all Three Tuns Brewery)

Old Prickly;

Best Bitter; (both Hobsons)

Golden Arrow (Cottage Brewery)

Station Bitter (Stonehouse Brewery, Oswestry)

Shropshire Lad

Shropshire Lass (both Woods of Wistanstow)

Timothy Taylor Landlord (an old favourite I cannot usually resist).

 

There may have been one or two others.......   For the most part the weather was swelteringly hot and while all the beers I sampled were good, I think that in these conditions Shropshire Gold was probably just about my favourite.

 

DT

[Torper]

Now back at home I'm having to resort to bottled beers, usually a second best alternative to cask ales.  It's quite difficult finding something with the flavour and character to stand out from the rest.  However, here's one:

 

 

I hadn't previously come across Tempest Brewing Co from Galashiels in the Scottish Borders, but this really was a very interesting find.  Both the bottle and the flavour remind me very much of Brewdog products, although Tempest would no doubt say that they have been much more greatly influenced by their experiences in American and New Zealand brewing.  Anyway, a great summer beer, loads of citrus and soft fruit, and a nicely bitter finish.  I've also got a bottle of their Long White Cloud - suspect it'll go this evening.

 

DT

 

 

[melmerby]

The Square Peg ('spoons) in Brum has been running a local mini-fest featuring Burton Bridge brewery.

 

Tried a  "Festival Ale" (5.5% and standard price)

Not a bad pint

 

Keith

[andyram]

Just got back from the Derby festival. An enjoyable afternoon where my wife and I signed up to a joint CAMRA membership. We had an enjoyable afternoon with a couple of halves of the excellent Castle Rock "Screech Owl" which is one of my wife's favourites. The Loch Ness brewery had a good presence with some fine offerings. InverNess and LightNess being a pair of lovely golden / light ales.