Was in Leeds yesterday and forgot, again!
Was in Leeds yesterday and forgot, again!
A pub is for life not just for Christmas
East Sussex-beers from the Hastings hinterland.
Three Legs:Pale#2 3.7%abv: Autumnal fruit.A good'un.
Rother Valley:Level Best 4%abv:I used to drink gallons of this back in the 90s.Mellower than I recall.
Cellar Head-Festival Pale 4.8%abv: Just a taster.Conserved fruits,bit too much for me on the day.
As I gave Three Legs Pale#2 the nod earlier this month,and for old time's sake, my BOTW is Rother Valley-Level Best.
"At that moment I would have given a kingdom, not for champagne or hock and soda, or hot coffee but for a glass of beer" Marquess Curzon of Kedlestone, Viceroy of India.
Almost no pub visits this week due to my usual festive illness but I did manage to drink a fair amount of my BOTW in a vain attempt to drown the lurgi in alcohol.
Sarah Hughes again.JPG
A couple of pubs in Lytham on Christmas Day provided nothing special, neither did four in Preston on Boxing Day. So the Jaipur in York Tap wins.
A pretty good week.
Nethergate Mosaic Christmas
Hop Kettle Old Town Pale Ale
Northdown Merry Margate
Luna (White Horse) Mission
Beartown Bluebeary
Phantom Feeling This
Waen St Clements
Elusive Charlie Big Potatoes
Thornbridge Christmas Pudding Lucaria
Weird Beard Black Christmas
Vibrant Forest Cacaophony
Vibrant Forest Metamorph
Stockport Pale
Wantsum S.S. Richard Montgomery
Flowerpots Perridge Pale
Some great contenders in there but not for the first time BOTW is Vibrant Forest Metamorph, stunningly good in The Nags Head.
"Everybody's got to believe in something. I believe I'll have another beer."
-W.C.Fields
A few visits to the local Rose & Crown produced this :-
Otter Bitter 3.7%
Beatnikz Republic 2am Poet 3.8%
Salopian Firkin Freezing 4.1%
Mad Squirrel Resolution Golden 4.2%
Reunion Frost Fair 4.5%
Elland Winter Wonderland 5.0%
Three Sods Smoked Brown 5.2%
Mad Squirrel Big Sea 5.5%
Robinson's Old Tom (keg) 8.5%
Dark Star Imperial Stout 10.5%
The winner is the Dark Star Imperial Stout (£6.00). I understand that this years offering is from last yearan tasted great.
BOTW Dark Star Imperial Stout
"Everybody's got to believe in something. I believe I'll have another beer."
-W.C.Fields
They have up to six casks on at a time. One of these is normally an ELB beer but wasn't this week, possibly as they're waiting to put on an Imperial Stout when the Dark Star one goes off. Non mainstream kegs noted this week were Old Tom, ELB Pearly Queen, Purity Longhorn IPA & a Helles lager and 2x Pillars lagers.
There's also the new Signature place Collab on the way from the station but the prices put me off.
In the week it opens before 12:00 for coffees as they get a few in to rehearse at the Theatre above.
It's very unusual for it not to open at 12:00.
A really heavy, chesty cold put the kibosh on a decent run up to Christmas. Nearly three weeks without a visit to a pub. Finally managed a quick session on Boxing Day. Needless to say, the first one didn't touch the sides.
North Riding - Mosaic.*
Round Corner - Melton-on-Sea.
De Ranke - Amer Amer.*
Quantock - QPA.*
I was praying that Mosaic would be the beer on rotation on the North Riding pump, in Harry's Bar and luckily it was. Just the job. An honorable mention for the Amer Amer, which is a Belgian take on an American IPA, made with Cascade and Centennial. Not one for glugging, at 6%, but a fine beer.
'And where he supped the past lived still. And where he sipped the glass brimmed full' John Barleycorn, Carol Ann Duffy.