Preston Crawl, Friday 22nd April 2022

[arthurchappell]

All booked! Arriving Thursday and off on Sunday. Might as well have a potter somewhere interesting on the Saturday seeing as I've made the effort to get up there. Bolton? Rochdale? Somewhere like that.

There are stagecoach buses out to much of central lancashire, including Blackpool, Blackburn, and firther afield Skipton and Clitheroe as well as Bolton & Wigan - trains too

[Brainypool]

Here's another idea: Hopwoods Tap House is due to open in a couple of weeks, according to their Facebook page. It would fit in nicely between Hinckley Street and Black Horse.

Hopwoods is now open and I can report that it is eye-wateringly expensive and the cask is nothing to write home about. Nicely done inside though.

[Tris39]

Hopwoods is now open and I can report that it is eye-wateringly expensive and the cask is nothing to write home about. Nicely done inside though.

This is beyond eye-wateringly expensive. Over the last two days I've had six halves of cask from small-scale brewers at the following pubs. I can't remember what I had where, but it was a wide variety of styles and ABVs from 3.7% to 6.00%, the prices taken from my phone's payment log:

Earl of Essex - £2.60

The Myddleton Arms - £2.35

Old Fountain - £2.60

Southampton Arms - £2.35, £2.88

The Wenlock Arms - £2.40

[Mobyduck]

This is beyond eye-wateringly expensive. Over the last two days I've had six halves of cask from small-scale brewers at the following pubs. I can't remember what I had where, but it was a wide variety of styles and ABVs from 3.7% to 6.00%, the prices taken from my phone's payment log:

Earl of Essex - £2.60

The Myddleton Arms - £2.35

Old Fountain - £2.60

Southampton Arms - £2.35, £2.88

The Wenlock Arms - £2.40

I would say given It's London thats within the going rate and Wenlock and Southampton Arms not too bad assuming the £2.88 was the 6%er. Also the venues suggest decent beer.

[Tris39]

I would say given It's London thats within the going rate and Wenlock and Southampton Arms not too bad assuming the £2.88 was the 6%er. Also the venues suggest decent beer.

Yup. Little Critters - Nutty Ambassador Hazelnut Milk Stout at 6.00% (too sweet to have more than a half). The point is, these pubs are in relatively pricey areas, so £2.88 is not bad compared with keg 'craft', but better priced than the £3.00 half had in Preston.

[Mobyduck]

but better priced than the £3.00 half had in Preston.

Agreed, I hadn't read the £3.00 Preston review.

[Brainypool]

To clarify, the cask in Hopwoods is ‘only’ £5.50 a pint, I think the half that Peter Ashworth had was a keg beer. Still pretty extortionate for Preston.

[Mobyduck]

To clarify, the cask in Hopwoods is ‘only’ £5.50 a pint, I think the half that Peter Ashworth had was a keg beer. Still pretty extortionate for Preston.

£5.50 is London prices.

[Tris39]

£5.50 is London prices.

Not bad for keg, but outrageous for cask; I've paid £3.85 for a half of Neck Oil. I can get a pint for under £4.50 at the Southampton, Admiral, Cock and the Railway Porter last night at Railway Tavern was £4.30, though they were using some pretty coercive pricing measures, with a half costing £3.00; the Five Points XPA was also £4.30 but £2.20 for the half.

[Mobyduck]

Not bad for keg, but outrageous for cask; I've paid £3.85 for a half of Neck Oil. I can get a pint for under £4.50 at the Southampton, Admiral, Cock and the Railway Porter last night at Railway Tavern was £4.30, though they were using some pretty coercive pricing measures, with a half costing £3.00; the Five Points XPA was also £4.30 but £2.20 for the half.

Absoloutley, there are still some proper pubs in London (with proper prices), but probably about 75% or more are rip off merchants.