Legless in Derby 1
Quarter past 12 on a very wet Wednesday in November my phone receives a text “they've got Hobgoblin and Deuchars what do u fancy” followed by the immortal words “I'll get them in”. My stride instantly increased as I texted back “Deuchars Please” . A few moments later I pushed open the door of the Station Inn in Derby to be greeted by the sight of Soup Dragon clutching a pint of Hobgoblin as if his life depended on it and guarding my pint of Deuchars. Initial pleasantries dispensed with we set to on the serious business of the day, a grand pub crawl of Derby's finest boozers - as a grand as a couple of beer geeks could manage anyway. Deuchars is not normally my favourite but in here it was well kept and very welcome after suffering the worst the railways could chuck at me that morning. With only the landlord and his wife in the plain Victorian pub we drank up and went up the road to the nearby Brunswick. First time for both of us in here but as soon as we saw the dark wood, lincrusta and traditional fittings not to mention the 16 handpumps we knew this was a pub in a different league. It is also home to a microbrewery. Much deliberation followed with Soupy settling on two halves, one dark one light, I plumped for the Nethergate Holy Smoke as their beers are usually excellent. Neither of us were disappointed at our first tastes as we made our way to find a seat in one of the many rooms. Stumbling into one with what looked like an old fellers lunch club we made our excuses as we moved to the next room. Seated on proper chairs at brittania tables enjoying some fine beers and admiring the old pub ambience of the place we were reluctant to leave but time was moving on so we did too. Next port of call was the Alexandra just round the corner, then disaster struck – pub closed till 3pm, :eek: calamity!! but as resourceful drinkers we soon were off towards the city centre and the Olde Dolphin with the church tower as our marker. Crossing the ring road and passing some interesting and some dreadful looking pubs, Soupy was the first to spot the Old Silk Mill so we instantly decided on a detour across the road as it was open and it would have been churlish not to. Besides which we were both hungry and a nice bite of pub food would be welcome. Another battery of handpumps, eight this time, so there was much debating on which microbrewery to try first. We both decided that a half of this and a half of something else was in order, I told you we are beer geeks. No food on sale so that would have to wait. We both went for the Brentwood Hope and Glory while I had a Blue Monkey Cathedral Quarter and Soupy had Cairngorm Stag Stout. All very good beers, the Hope and Glory especially so, a nice fruity bitter with the Blue Monkey being a Golden Ale in style. I later learned the Blue Monkey is brewed up the road at Ilkeston and the Cathedral Quarter is a special for this pub. Briefly admiring the thirties and Victorian fittings and we were off to the Olde Dolphin a short step over the road. Billed as the oldest pub in Derby it still has a lot of old timber and is dark and low inside. Gently bobbing barmaids and a range of regional ales plus a couple of micros on the eight pulls, another first for me was Morfe's Ales and a beer called Y Not, this was certainly a winner in the taste stakes. No food on sale here until 4 so we still continued to starve and took a seat to discuss our favourite subject, well history rather than beer. One of the locals joined us in our wide ranging discussions, that's one of the great things about the pub, someone will always put you right with their own view of things. Sadly we had to leave in search of the Flowerpot.
To be continued :glass:
