The Lord Clyde
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Went down to my local to watch the Brentford game but thought fancy a pint of hophead for a change.Went to a Fullers pub on the river at Chiswick ice cold cask,thin hopless beer and £5.45 .
Brentford got battered.
I've mentioned this place a few times, Crown, probably in this thread, an old favourite but no longer.
Went to pot when big Steve left (a different one Mick!) with the new guy reducing beers in favour of, say, huge guinness fonts and suchlike, and reducing custom from vibrant locals to.. errm, no-one. Then it closed.
Now reopened, but I now hear that the bouncer (need for which speaks volumes) was punched out by a young guy Sat before last, followed by girls kicking off, hair dragging across floor etc, and windows reported as put through come Sunday morning.
I don't think I'll be paying a visit anytime soon, despite staying nearby later this month.
Went to The Pembury Tavern last night - a half of Five Points Best for £2.15 and very nice too.
The [Long] Good Friday? :whistle:
The Bees on their knees? :evilgrin::ninja:
Foiled by the owner of the Little r'Ale House, Wellingborough, deciding on Tues that he wouldn't be opening on Weds anymore, starting the following day, yesterday, when I was due to meet a mate there. Also meant that logistics of a return to the station from pub a mile away for relaxed drink pre-train would be fruitless.
We moved on to Olde England which was also disappointing with only 3 beers (a little flat) instead of an expected 11 or so, they did half half a dozen ciders.
But things improved greatly with a visit to the Little Ale House (yes, different from the first mentioned), which really was a quality micro with four good beers, very friendly stewardship, handful chatty clientele, one of the best if not the best of this genre I have been to, deffo potd and will be potw. Also lovely to listen to business being done with a local brewer coming in for a chat, telling them that week's brews etc, I love that! They were wondering if anyone would pay more than £4.80 per pint(!!) for an 11.5% Russian Imperial Stout, hahaha, wow, bless 'em!
Btw, the Locomotive is open, or re-opened, but I think an admin has to make the correction on that? It sadly no longer has 11+ beers, or the train running around the bar canopy, but had a nice fire and local chatty vibe, bit of a stretch from other target pubs in town, and the station.
Just been through the list provided by a search of 'Bristol'. HUGELY disappointed to now find that many pubs are inexplicably excluded from the list - why would the likes of Barley Mow, Hillgrove Porter Stores, Highbury Vaults, to name but three, NOT show on a Bristol search? This really does render PG quite useless as a reliable pub search database...
Ok, I see that Hillgrove may be further out and excluded from 'bristol central', but Barley Mow is nearer to temple meads than many pubs listed and is excluded.
Going through a list of 'bristol county' is hardly helpful for a crawl.
I'm getting your point Jim and not just Bristol-wise, but areas are areas and I suppose you have to draw a line somewhere but they don't always make logical (pub crawl) sense. The Barley Mow is a glaring abnomaly , given its location but a Bristol central search gives you a lot despite also missing out some nearby gems.
When I'm planning a crawl I now open up the map and click on outlying pubs to see where the 'town' or 'central' area ends in the hope of not missing any. It's a bit of a pain, but some towns have been split too much imho.
I know Brighton very well, so a few years ago when I put the pubs in the correct areas I also kept them all in 'Brighton Central'.
I note that PG pub profiles carry a distance from various travel hubs/stations. Without wanting to replicate the discredited dark side, the facility to look at pubs within a distance of a station, and even defining those by user ratings (eg 6+), was very useful, and would avoid the problems that location framing/limiting has shown here...
Dave actioned this quite a long time ago, albeit in a slightly different way to the servants of Sauron, if you click on the station name under the map for one of the nearby pubs, e.g. London Paddington.
Great Western
One of my all time top 10 ,now downgraded from full marks due to some bright spark in the Holden's marketing department making "improvements".A dumbed down ale range didn't help,but the earthy ,lived in feel has been replaced by an antiseptic atmosphere. For a Friday it was suspiciously quiet by 6.30pm.A crying shame.
Yes we found the same, definitely not the same pub at all. On our last visit, every single ale was Holden's. We popped in before Christmas last year to find Black Iris Endless Summer as the guest - a miracle! Kept us there for a while, as Holden's definitely wouldn't float my boat. A shame indeed.
Wenlock Arms
In for a session last night and confronted by ale not in good condition and no attempt to bring on fresh barrels as the evening wore on .Once the NBSS 1.5 Oakham Green Devil IPA was withdrawn,the choice was down to 4 ,with two very similar low strength beers (Thornbridge Astryd NBSS 3,Dark Star Hophead NBSS 2) and two very similar best bitters Mighty Oak Nirvana and North Brewing Seasons Reverse both NBSS 3.No sign of any dark beers and a lot of handpumps unused.
Maybe I was unlucky visiting on a Friday before a long bank holiday weekend,but it was noticeable that the pub was not that busy once the after work crowd moved off,and the customer base then was almost exclusively younger drinkers paying little attention to the real ale.
After reading Blue Scrumpy's most recent review I did wonder if the focus at this pub is now moving away from ale excellence.We pushed off to get a better drinking experience in the Old Foutain,another pub in this area which has slipped down the rankings over the years but which at least offered a decent pint of Oakham Citra..
Can anyone offer any salvation about the Wenlock ? Were we just unlucky ?
Was in a couple of weeks ago and was served up a pint of Marble Manchester Bitter that was decidedly hazy, not normal for this beer but actually really tasted fine, I saw the governor glance at it a couple of times from behind the bar but he never said anything but did take the beer off, clearly end of barrel but actually tasted excellent so I kept with it. I've long thought though that the landlord has lost interest in the pub.
A visit yesterday found two unused clips, one reversed the four pale ales, one best and the very fine Mighty Oak's Saxon Strong. Not a great selection by any stretch but perhaps it picks up from Thursday. I was in there with a friend on a Tuesday and all pumps were in operation with us sampling just the Five Points Railway Porter in fine condition.
I was back in for a couple this afternoon, a reletively deserted pub, three punters plus myself, nine of the ten handles in use but mostly low strength session pales apart from the Saxon Strong, I did however enjoy my hour here with a good soundtrack featuring JJ Cale, George Harrison , David Crosby, Buffalo Springfield and Traffic amongst others. Beers sampled , on cask, Siren Mesmerist and Marble 1874.
I thought I'd give the place an hour's road test yesterday from 9.30pm 'til 10.30. Including those outside (who would have been indoors if but for the weather) the place was essentially full with a mixed crowd (some on the oche), a younger group of five arriving around 10.00.
Aside from an unused pump, ales amounted to;
Mighty Oak - Oscar Wilde Mild.
Marble - 1847 (vegetarian pale ale).
Siren - Mesmerist.
Five Points - Gold.
Dark Star - Hophead.
Mighty Oak - Saxon Strong.
Mighty Oak - Burntwood Bitter.
Brew York - Bitter.
Derby Brewing - Penny’s Porter.
Apart from the porter (4.6%) and Saxon Strong (6.5%) all the others were 4% or lower, so not a great selection in terms of strength but a reasonable choice of styles and with 9/10 pumps on with a full crew and good atmosphere, the place didn't really disappoint; a half of Allsopp's IPA (5.9%) had next door at the newly reopened William IV would have been a good addition here on the unused pump, but the Brew York Bitter and the Saxon Strong were in faultless condition.
Looking forward to two fat ladies but ended up with a cup of tea at The Nightingale on the Green. It's strange how things can change in over a decade and not always for the better.
It's simply not good enough any more
The Wenlock Arms
I won't be back until there's a change.
On paper, this should be one for the Pub Annoyances thread, but I'm always in awe of interactions like this. I almost feel like giving a round of applause if someone manages to process the full, end-to-end transaction without saying a single word and I always mention it in reviews because I can never quite believe that it happened!
Have never understood the hype around the Wenlock, having visited a few times over the years, all disappointing. Maybe just unlucky, I don't know :confused:
It's on the list for a revisit in late November ,so I will keep an eye on the reviews just in case I need a plan B.