Archive for the ‘Somerset’ Category

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Pale but… not so interesting

Tuesday, November 15th, 2011

At some point between when we started taking an interest in beer and now, the niche ‘golden ales’ had found in the market got taken over ‘pale and hoppy’ ones.

A few weeks ago, we had a bottle of Summer Lightning for the first time in a while and, although we enjoyed it, we were taken aback at how sweet and yeasty it tasted. It was one of our first loves and, in our minds, was a super-hoppy, crisp, clean beer. Not so. The same day, Neil Chantrell of Coach House Brewing, said almost exactly the same thing on Twitter.

Exmoor Gold was even more of a shock when we drank it at the George Inn at Middlezoy a fortnight ago: like golden syrup and, sadly, not that enjoyable. We dumped it: “It’s not you, it’s us; we’ve moved on, but you’ve stayed the same.”

We don’t think either beer has changed, though. It’s just that we’ve come to expect a certain lightness and much more bitterness from yellow-golden ales. At the George, our second pint, Glastonbury Ales Mystery Tor, hit the spot: tropical fruit and almost-but-not-quite puckering bitterness were present and correct.

Where does this leave the previous generation of golden ales? Should they change to keep up? And will the same fate befall the current crop of pale and hoppy beers in ten years time?

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Posted in Beer styles, real ale, Somerset | 12 Comments »

The Golden Lion, 1946

Monday, May 3rd, 2010

This photo was in the local paper in Bridgwater recently. It shows a queue for hot cross buns outside a bakery in 1946. Of course we were more interested to see the livery on the Starkey, Knight and Ford pub in the background.

The pub’s not there anymore, but my parents remember going there the day after they were married to keep warm during a power cut.

Bailey

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Posted in Beer history, Somerset | 2 Comments »

Moor Half and Half with the Old Man

Sunday, December 27th, 2009

The George at Middlezoy is the country pub I’ve been trying to find for some time, not least because it’s one of the few pubs in Somerset I’ve come across that actually sells beer from the Moor Brewery at Ashcott.

On Boxing Day, it was lively and cosy. The landlord and landlady went out of their way to make us feel welcome — there was none of the Slaughtered Lamb atmosphere I’ve become used to in Somerset village pubs. There was some quiet live music and a huge stack of boardgames to keep us entertained. If they hadn’t closed at 4pm, we’d have stayed all day.

Tip: Old Freddie Walker makes a cracking half-and-half with Butcombe Bitter!

Warning: JJJ IPA (9%) is too strong to drink by the pint. Hurgh.

Bailey

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Posted in pubs, Somerset | 2 Comments »

Gourmet night at Fawlty Towers

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009

We had been reliably informed that, if we drove across the Somerset levels to a particular pub in the middle of nowhere, that we’d be able to try some beers from a well-regarded local brewery. It looked nice on the website — smiling landlord and landlady, appealing lunch menu and a very enticing beer list — so we went for it.

From the off, things didn’t go well.

The cask ale on offer was just about OK, but none of it was from the local brewery whose beers we so wanted to try. We shrugged — you win some you lose some, right?

But things didn’t look up when our attempts to engage the landlord in conversation saw him respond with a scowl and a very unappealing brand of mild sarcasm. For example, he seemed positively annoyed when asked if he served wheat beer and his helpful reply was: (snort) “Sometimes.”

A very pleasant and possibly rather put-upon young waitress showed us into a dining room which reflected in every detail an idea of classiness c.1985.  There wallpaper was pink and chintzy, the seats were faux-velvet and flowers were plastic. Pride of place went to a certificate showing that the pub had been  “highly commended” in the Guinness/Sunday Express pub food awards. In 1989. So vivid was the sense of having travelled back in time, we expected to look out of the window and see a car park full of Austin Maestros and Mini Mayfairs.

The food wasn’t actually that bad, although the menu was worryingly long (as we’ve learned from Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, if the menu is too long, it’s probably all frozen) and melted yellow cheese had been applied in a inch-thick layer to any food item with a flat top.

We left feeling a little jaded.

We’re not the only ones to have been given the cold shoulder in what should have been a friendly country pub — see Tandleman and Adrian Tierney-Jones for some other tales of woe.

Posted in pubs, Somerset | 5 Comments »

Pubs and class

Friday, March 13th, 2009

Inspired by an interesting post at Tandleman Towers (which was itself kicked off by this one over at Garrard’s gaff) I just rang my Mum and Dad and asked them: “Why don’t working class people go to the pub so much these days?”

Now, I should explain that, although I am now terribly middle class (I nearly bought a cheese dome in Peter Jones the other day) my folks are and always have been working class.

I live in London; they live in a small industrial town in Somerset. So, we have very different experiences of and feelings about going to the pub these days.

Here’s my perspective: I don’t bat an eyelid at paying £3.40 for a pint. I’m very blase about pub closures (“The ones that are shutting are probably horrible anyway, so who cares?”). I’m spoiled for choice, with loads of great pubs within an hour of my house on London’s excellent public transport system.

And here are the reasons my folks gave for their gradual abandonment of pubs in the last few years:

1. It costs too much — a pint should cost less than £2, surely?

2. The traditional pubs in town are cold, unfriendly and have a poor range of beer. Sometimes, says Dad, “it’s like walking into a hostile Wild West saloon”.

3. The newer pubs are almost like nightclubs, with DJs, dancefloors and offers on alcopops. To note: young working class people are going to those in some numbers, because they can get drugs and pull there, unlike at the distinctly unerotic Rose and Crown or Bunch of Grapes.

3. The nice pubs in the area are out of town, in the surrounding villages. Drink driving’s now taboo and there’s no public transport to speak of. Cabs are too expensive.

4. Working class homes are nicer now than they were in the 60s and 70s; it’s easier to get quality beer and spirits these days; and it’s relatively cheaper than it used to be. So, staying at home isn’t necessarily a compromise — it’s quite nice!

5. As it happens, they are going to the pub for the first time in a while tonight, and the draw is free live music from a local blues band. Otherwise, they wouldn’t bother.

Interestingly, they didn’t think the smoking ban was an issue, although my Dad smokes and my Mum used to, and actually thought it had improved some of the local pubs.

Food for thought. I need to digest it.

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Posted in pubs, Somerset | 18 Comments »

Country pubs and Butcombe IPA

Saturday, January 17th, 2009

sunshapwick

As we’ve mentioned before, the pubs in my home town aren’t much to get excited about, but there are some nice places hidden out in the countryside.

The Red Tile at Cossington, for example, is a perfect cosy country pub. On Boxing Day, it was busy with diners (there’s an unpretentious pub menu) but I managed to find a corner in which to enjoy a pint of Butcombe Brunel IPA. I’m a fan of Butcombe’s beers but I’m happy to admit that regional chauvinism makes it hard for me to be objective. Butcombe ‘ordinary’ is brown, very bitter and slightly sulphurous. The IPA is quite different — less bitter, if anything, but with a warmer orange colour and pronounced flowery hop aroma. A good example of the English session IPA.

Also worth a look is the Burtle Inn. This pub is even cosier: dark, but not gloomy, with light from wonky 18th century windows and several fierce wood fires. Although the staff looked exhausted and the pub’s supplies were depleted (“We’ve only got parsnip crisps left”) the real ales were in good nick and were also available hot and spiced! In London these days, we take it for granted that a pub will have Czech lager, wheat beer and Leffe on tap, but it’s less common in the depths of the West Country.

Finally, there was Crown at Catcott, which my Dad called “old Fred Vernon’s place” after a landlord he remembered from his youth. It’s up a winding track on a particularly windy spot on the Somerset levels, so its burning fires and low ceilings were very welcome. There was a selection of West Country ales on offer from larger brewers like Sharp’s and Butcombe. The Butcombe ordinary was, well, extraordinary — perfectly fresh and in such good condition that the head didn’t move even in the stiff breeze whistling under the old wooden door.

In short, if you’re in Somerset, ditch the towns, get yourself a designated driver and go on a crawl across the levels. It’s likely to be a lot more fun than Bridgwater, Taunton or Yeovil.

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Posted in pubs, Somerset | 7 Comments »

Brewing in the 1960s

Friday, August 8th, 2008

As happens every now and then, someone has come across an old post and left a fascinating comment which we wanted to bring everyone’s attention to.

Tony used to work for Starkey, Knight and Ford, the West Country brewers, in the 1960s, working in the keg shop and later delivering beer. He says:

As a student I worked for Starkey`s each summer betwen 1965 and 1967. The first two years at the Fore St. site in Tiverton and the last at the new site. Bridgwater had closed by then and Tiverton was the only brewery still in action but under the aegis of Whitbread. I used to start off in the keg shop before fiddling my way out onto the lorries. In my last year our route covered from Ivybridge to Rooksbridge and from Seaton to Barnstaple the lorry was DPF 473B and still had the Bridgewater address on the side. As I remember Starkey`s had depots in Barnstaple and Plymouth, a firm called Norman and Pring were involved. When I was in the keg plant we mostly dealt with Tankard with occasional runs of mild. Each artic trailer held 187 10 gallon kegs and the 6 wheel Dennis 150 (I had to load these on my own!) I also remember during their independent days Starkey`s brewed a keg beer called “Tantivy.” Some years before I delivered papers to Tom Ford the Chairman. He drove an old Ford(!) V8 which used to misfire every so often.

Fascinating stuff — thanks Tony!

We’re imagining Tony’s experiences to have played out to a soundtrack of Green Onions by Booker T and the MGs, although we might be confusing reality with an episode of Heartbeat.

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Posted in Beer history, Somerset | 1 Comment »

Have Moor ever done a bad beer?

Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008

pembury.jpgThis is the question I ask myself in a semi-sozzled state, having had to try all of their beers currently available in the Pembury Tavern.

Moor Beer is a microbrewery based just outside Bailey’s old manor in Somerset. Their website paints a picture of a charmingly amateur set-up, but there is nothing amateur about their beers. The Peat Porter is a lovely drop, sour and roasty in all the right places. Milly’s Mild, at 3.9%, slips down extremely easily but without being watery — a fault of some other milds.

But the piece de resistance is undoubtedly the 7.3% “old Freddy Walker”, champion winter beer of Britain in 2004. This is a staggeringly complex beer that I feel defies classification. I say that because I was convinced I was drinking some kind of imperial stout, only to find that Roger Protz classifies it in the “Old Ale, Barley Wine, Vintage Ales” section of “300 beers to try before you die“.

It smells of sherry, fruit and coffee. In the mouth — rum and raisin fudge, with a coffee finish. Sounds a mess, and if any of the components were changed, it probably wouldn’t work at all. But it’s absolutely gorgeous. You can have a sip, and still taste it 10 minutes later. Having now had this a few times, including at the Great British Beer Festival, I can say for sure that it would certainly be in my top 20, were I foolish enough to draw up such a thing.

The intriguing sounding JJJ IPA was “coming soon”. Moor say:

Double IPA was just not good enough – we needed a triple IPA. Triple the gravity, triple the colour, and more than triple the hops.

Sounds exciting. Has anyone tried it?

Boak

Posted in beer reviews, Somerset | Comments Off

Mild is dead, long live mild?

Sunday, February 10th, 2008

westquay.jpg Having posted yesterday about the decline of mild, we went out to the Fountain Inn, Bridgwater, only to find… mild on tap.

The mild in question was called “Pint-sized brewery mild”, and was a mere 3.3%. The Pint-sized brewery in question turns out to be a microbrewery on Wadworth’s premises, at least according to this old press release from 2004. The idea being that they develop new products and test them on the market on a small-scale first.

Anyway, the mild itself was rather drinkable, but not particularly exciting in terms of flavour or aroma. No hops and a very subtle toasted malt flavour. Probably quite true to the original milds, or at least their incarnations by the late seventies..?

It’s strange — on the one hand, it’s nice to see the resurgence of a British style, especially one you can drink pint after pint of with no ill effects. It’s also positive to see the Camra campaign having an impact — they’ve really done a lot to promote mild and other endangered styles in the last few years, and I do think you see it around more frequently.

On the other hand, what if its sole selling point back in the day was that it was weak (therefore cheap) and inoffensive, taste-wise? Did it pave the way for keg?

There are some great milds out there — Oscar Wilde, from the Mighty Oak brewery, is a regular favourite of ours — but are these new generation milds particularly representative of the mass-produced stuff that was being downed in the post-war period? Is something like Wadworth’s pint-sized mild a more “authentic” version?

I think I’ll take flavour over authenticity.

Notes

The Fountain Inn is at 1 West Quay, Bridgwater TA6 3HL. It’s a Wadworth house, but was also serving an excellent pint of Butcombe bitter. It’s a very friendly place, but in no way “poncey”, and worth some of your time if you’re in the area.

The picture is the old logo of the Starkey, Knight and Ford brewery, which used to own the Fountain.

Boak

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Posted in breweries, pubs, Somerset | 5 Comments »

A good pint of Timothy Taylor Landlord

Wednesday, January 30th, 2008

postll.gifA while back, I moaned that it had been a while since I’d had a good pint of Timothy Taylor Landlord. Well, I’ve broken my run of bad luck — the Nag’s Head in Walthamstow, east London, served me a beauty this week. It was fresh, full of flavour and, just as important, bursting with exciting aromas.

The ale in the Nag’s Head hasn’t always been on great form, but  in the last year or so has seemed to be much more reliable. And we’ve never had anything but a cheery “thanks” when we’ve taken a dodgy pint back.

There are usually four or five cask ales on offer, including Mighty Oak Oscar Wilde Mild and Sharpe’s Cornish Coaster and/or Eden.

This comes hot on the heels of my parents excitedly reporting that they’d enjoyed TTL at the Vintage in Wellington in Somerset a couple of weekends ago. My Mum isn’t a big fan of real ale, but she says a pint that good could win her over. My Dad is a fan of ale and a former pub landlord. He says it was in perfect condition — “perfect temperature, long lasting head, a really good pint of beer”.

So maybe it does travel after all.

Posted in beer reviews, london, real ale, Somerset | 3 Comments »

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