Lest We Forget......

[pumbaa]

I love hunting out little 'micro breweries'. Was up in Stow on the Wold the other weekend and popped into this place for a pint of SBA......

http://www.donnington-brewery.com/beers.php

[ronnie21]

I love hunting out little 'micro breweries'. Was up in Stow on the Wold the other weekend and popped into this place for a pint of SBA......

http://www.donnington-brewery.com/beers.php

Actually owned by a couple of the Arkells family now I believe!

[suttonred]

Well i got a bottle of Fullers Honeydew whilst watching the pile of shite playing football, was ok after half a bottle, but made me full, lager is normally accused of being guilty of that , but doesn't do it to me, so i'm back on the lager. I'll try another one next time i go up the offy as not as bad as i thought it would be.

[Reg Smeeton]

I love hunting out little 'micro breweries'. Was up in Stow on the Wold the other weekend and popped into this place for a pint of SBA......

http://www.donnington-brewery.com/beers.php

Donnington brewery has  been there for a good few years now...there used to be a decent pub not too far from the brewery, which sold it's brew.  It's one of those strange things, that you don't see it in many places, but it still keeps going.

I really used to rate Hook Norton ale....not sure about its status these days.

[Sippo]

Well i got a bottle of Fullers Honeydew whilst watching the pile of shite playing football, was ok after half a bottle, but made me full, lager is normally accused of being guilty of that , but doesn't do it to me, so i'm back on the lager. I'll try another one next time i go up the offy as not as bad as i thought it would be.

Good places to get some real ale is garden centres.

[suttonred]

Good places to get some real ale is garden centres.

  Eh? Never seen any round ours, go on....

[Sippo]

Most garden centres have a food section, for example dobbies in ciren. Thet do a massive range of beer and wine.

[Ardiles]

Sutton

For a real ale novice, my recommendation would be to get yourself three or four different bottles brewed by Badger which are freely available at any branch of Tesco.  Badger is a Dorset brewery that has been able to hugely extend its distribution capability by winning the Tesco account.  And while, as the good CAMRA member that I am, I wouldn't want to push Tesco at the expense of your hard-pushed local, it would be a great intro.

There are some very varied beers there, including 'Blandford Fly' which has a ginger aftertaste.  Not to everyone's taste, but maybe to yours.  If you're in central London (as I know you often are), then London Pride (Fuller's) is everywhere - and it's acclaimed as well, despite being mainstream(!)  In fact, there is so much more in the way of variation when it comes to beer, that you're bound to find a style that suits you.  Whether it's IPA (great in the summer), heavy, stout, porter...you'll soon find your own favourite.

Don't want to sound like a snob.  There are some great lagers out there...but (and this is just my own view) very few of them are brewed or sold in this country.  Germany, the Czech Republic...they know how to brew good lager there...but it's a different brew to the mass produced Anglo-Aussie muck that people chuck down their necks here.

We don't have a lager tradition in this country.  We brew beer.  And we still brew it locally.  Walk in to a pub in Swindon, and they will sell you a pint of beer that's brewed there.  Likewise any other town or county.  There are not many other industries that still provide a great product and also support the local businessman.

(I'll climb off my soap box now!)

PS  And next time you're in the Market Porter (best f##king pub in central London, if you ask me), maybe try one or two of the dozen beers they have on draft there?

[axs]

I had 6 or 7 different oness last time I was in there, some very good stuff.

[donkey]

The best beer on the planet. I have a glass full now.

I did a Wychwood brewery tour a couple of months ago as my birthday present. There was an interesting beer tasting afterwards. Wychcraft (see above) featured, as did the bottle and draught versions of Hobgoblin. I didn't realise that the draught is a lot weaker than the bottled because publicans complained that they couldn't sell very much of the pump stuff as their customers were getting hammered 

Well worth a go:

http://www.wychwood.co.uk/tours.htm

The Blackwych is a top drop, absolutely love it...probably not much help for a migrating lager drinker, sorry.

[A Gent Orange]

Sutton,

Wise words from Ardiles there. Badger beers are a good stepping stone with their use of sweet syrups and flavours making a change from the brown beers that probably put you off ale in the first place. But if Honeydew was a bit sickly you might not like them.

The trick would be to find a really good real ale pub and just ask for a free aste of the beers. Almost all good ones will let you try a couple - and that way you an easily get a idea what you like. The Market Porter in London would be good for this, or the Wellington in Brum, The Royal Oak in Twerton, Bath but weirdly not The Gluepot in Swindon as they don't like giving tasters. Which is odd.

There are some British craft lagers that are very nice, Cairns of Liverpool do a pretty good one but you don't see it that often down south and isn't an area I know much about. I can't even remember the one I had and really liked.

[suttonred]

Ok plenty to refer to cheers all, I'm normally in the market porter every other week, so i'll try something when next in, and if sober enough post a review!

[Phil_S]

Best thread for ages this....... My staple is good old 6X but it does need to be kept properly by the landlord. My all time favourite I discovered in South Yorkshire in the 70's when I was a Student. Sam Smith's Old Brewery Bitter.
Imagine my delight before the Brissle Wovers game when I came upon a Pub in Brissle (in Queens Square I think) that was owned & run my Sam Smith's. The beer was as good as ever, & was £1.60 a pint. We almost missed the game. Talking to the land lady, she said that the owner of the brewery is very hands on, & owns the whole shebang, (brewery, transport & pubs). He has enough money for himself & rather than brewing for profit just wants to keep making a good honest pint.

I still find it difficult to believe that such an oasis exists in such a shit hole as Brissle.

As for Party 4's & Party 7's that used to be the standard entrance fee to a Party, but most of it would end up on the ceiling, which didn't really matter cos it was real crap.

Cider wise, if you are ever in South Sea try the Festival pub. They have a menu of 57 different Ciders draft & bottled, including the only cider I would drink in preference to a good pint of 6X would be Brothers Festival strength Pear Cider as sold at Glastonbury

[suttonred]

I love hunting out little 'micro breweries'. Was up in Stow on the Wold the other weekend and popped into this place for a pint of SBA......

http://www.donnington-brewery.com/beers.php

I used to live in Reading more or less opposite the Hop Leaf pub and brewery, that was always worth going into even if they did frown at me for drinking bottled lager.