Pub of the Year

My first visit (1/4) to judge four of the last sixteen of pub of the year was to Chequers at Little Gransden, Bedfordshire, the East Anglian winning pub.

First and foremost, the beer quality here was first class. The pub is home to Son of Sid Brewery and three of its beers were available. Muck Cart Mild, Spud and Gransden Weiss. I had been impressed with two of their beers I tried at Chappel beer festival last week but all three here were even better.

The pub itself is a classic, three bar, rural community pub. On a quiet Friday lunchtime the atmosphere though was somewhat lacking and the style and decor could be described also as rural.

The service and welcome was excellent with friendly customers and bar staff.

Clientele mix was good albeit slightly difficult to judge at a quiet time. Mainly custom from the local farming community but we were also joined by a small group of young-uns playing pool (but drinking cherry cola).

CAMRA aims were well publicised. The usual posters, newsletters and certificates all ticked the box but in addition, locally brewed beer, a permanent mild and a discussion about the St Ives beer festival meant this category scored particularly highly.

Altogether good value, beer at £2.60 - £2,75. An enjoyable visit to a classic pub.

One disappointment was that the saloon bar was in darkness and we sat in the "rough and ready" public bar area. We would never have guessed the brewery was next door; apparently it can be viewed from the saloon bar. As visits are anonymous, I chose not to ask to have a look but I can't help thinking that scores for service and welcome in particular would have improved had they at least turned the saloon bar lights on.

This was close to a perfect pub for me - great beer in basic but friendly surroundings - that's pretty much all I ask for. However, my wife was less than impressed with the lack of comfort and the door left open by smokers.

This has set my benchmark for the remaining three pubs at a fairly high level.

Pub Signs

Not one from Young's this time but I spotted another more modern version of the traditional pub sign on my way to The Bricklayer's Arms Cumbria beer festival in Putney.

Around London in 80 Beers

Around London in 80 Beers

A copy of this new book was thrust into my hand at Earls Court this year in the hope that I may find something nice to say about it in London Drinker.

Anyone who has seen Chris (aka Podge) Pollard and Siobhan McGinn's previous book, Around Bruges in 80 Beers, will be familiar with the style. That book was so successful that it is now out of print with an update due later in the year.

This book is a collection of 80 beers available in London matched with 80 different places to try them. From the quaint old ale houses that we all know and love to more quirky establishments such as a cinema, a bowling alley and even a bookshop.

The beer choices are just as eclectic, from the darkest porter to the lightest pilsner, from our favourites such as Fullers Chiswick to rarities such as Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier traditionally hard to find in the capital.

As CAMRA members it is easy to be blinkered and take little notice of beers and bars that are not real ale. This volume includes many beers and bars that are missed by the usual CAMRA guides which by definition cover real ale only. There are German, Belgian, Czech and American beers and bars - even Scottish, Irish and Cornish ! There is plenty here to keep one refreshed and I look forward to taking a stroll around town to seek out some of the more unusual places and their delicious beers.

It really is an excellent book, thoroughly researched and well presented in glossy style packed with photos.

It is published by Cogan & Mater and available at www.booksaboutbeer.com for £7.99 and is also likely to feature at London CAMRA beer festivals throughout the coming year.

Pub of the Year

The Good Beer Guide launch brings with it the next phase of the 2008 CAMRA Pub of the Year competition. In the spring each branch put forward their favourite pub for judging at their regional level and the regional winners are now declared and set out below.

It is now my pleasurable duty to judge the next level - the super region. The CAMRA regional directors visit their 4 nearest pubs before 31 October and the winner of each of the 4 super regions goes through to the final.

My first visit will be to the East Anglian entry, The Chequers in Little Gransden.

Regional Winners:

Central Southern -
Royal Oak Inn, Newbury Street, Wantage, Oxfordshire, OX12 8DF

East Anglia -
Chequers, 71 Main Road, Little Gransden, Cambridgeshire, SG19 3DW

East Midlands -
Arkwright Arms, Chesterfield Road, Sutton Cum Duckmanton, Derbyshire, S44 5JG

Greater London -
Trafalgar, 23 High Path, Greater London, SW19 2JY

Greater Manchester -
Crown, 154 Heaton Lane, Stockport, Greater Manchester, SK4 1AR

Kent -
Butcher's Arms, 29A Herne Street, Herne, Kent, CT6 7HL

Merseyside, Cheshire & North Wales -
Blue Bell, Rhosemor Road, Halkyn, North-East Wales, CH8 8DL

North East -
King's Arms, Beach Street, Deptford, Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, SR4 6BU

Scotland & Northern Ireland -
Marine Hotel, 9-10 Shorehead, Stonehaven, Grampian, AB39 2JY

South & Mid Wales -
Tafarn John y Gwas, Drefach-Felindre, West Wales, SA44 5XG

South West -
Tom Cobley Tavern, Spreyton, Devon, EX17 5AL

Surrey & Sussex -
Royal Oak, Friday Street, Rusper West Sussex, RH12 4QA

Wessex -
Red Lion Inn, Kilmington, Wiltshire, BA12 6RP

West Midlands -
Beacon Hotel, 129 Bilston Street, Sedgley, West Midlands, DY3 1JE

West Pennines -
Manor Arms, Princes Street, Broughton-in-Furness, Cumbria, LA20 6HQ

Yorkshire -
Kelham Island Tavern, 62 Russell Street, Sheffield, Yorkshire, S3 8RW

Good Beer Guide

Today sees the official launch of the 2009 Good Beer Guide, CAMRA's flagship annual. No jolly this year for the journos, just Roger Protz encamped at HQ fielding up to 20 radio stations for interview. The press coverage on the back of press releases issued yesterday seems strong with even The Sun city pages (sic) covering the guide together with our new sat-nav and text services.

The guide is available here for £10 + postage for CAMRA Members against the usual cover price of £14.99.

However, I have already been alerted to this by a prudent fellow hop head.

Chappel Beer Festival

A visit today to Chappel & Wakes Colne beer festival hosted by Essex branches of CAMRA. This festival is held at the East Anglian Railway Museum and as you can see the beer is stillaged among vintage railway carriages and other stock.

The best facility is a victorian, cast iron, 2 bay, open air, urinal. While taking a visit, I was somewhat disconcerted to be sharing my wee with a slightly well-to-do lady of mature years. "Oooh, I just came around to have a look", she declared. "No comment" said I !

London Drinker

I don't get much correspondence for the attention of the London Drinker editor but this one arrived in my inbox recently.

Dear Mr. Geoff editor Sir,

I wish to take this opportunity to ask you as to how the very name for you're publication came about and if you think it portrays a positive image to the pub going public at large? I have to say that for me at least as well as others to whom I have spoken, the name conjures up rather unfortunate images of old homeless on the proverbial park bench of life as well as young loutish tearaways on buses abusing their use of liberty as well as other transport users. I guess that this is merely an oversight of some sort on the part of the organising committee and for all I am aware the magazine itself may have been in existence for many years (I've now been reading it with pleasure for five point five of those) but in light of the current political climate concerning the issues of 'drink', I wonder if a change of 'branding' would not be slightly more apropos of caution? as I for one would hate the very thought that some may (mis?)construe the name as portraying a negative image of the ale drinking populace as a whole.

As it is many of the ale drinking faces that I see and rub shoulders with do not to my own mind at least seem to be portraying a particularly what I would describe as positive image of the community that are likely to read and probably contribute to the London Drinker as a whole due very much of the unclean or unwashed appearance that so many of them seem to want to live up to. This I have to say is particularly prevalent in the older generation (s?) of beer drinkers whereas those of a much younger age group that I see at some of the beer festivals (fashionable facial stubble aside, rather than mandatory facial OVERgrowth)seem to laugh quite audibly at their elder counterparts because of this. I am one who sits back with my pint and observes the world passing by with interest and sometimes concern at those things in which I have a vested interest.

So on that note of corporate if that be the correct turn of phrase image I wonder what the thinking is or was behind the naming of such a platform? Maybe a competition could be featured in the LD to guess this as in "win a case of....." or such. Or perhaps one to rename the future of it. Hoping and trusting that I have not and am not causing any offence in any way or means by making these light hearted suggestions and enquiry.

Yours with indifference.

Cnt. Arthur Strong esq
Reader

London Drinker magazine receives various rants over the course of a year and it is often hard to spot the spoofs from the real nutters. However, a quick google unearths the following :

"Count Arthur Strong is a fictional comedy character created by English comedian Steve Delaney. He is an elderly pompous out-of-work deluded thespian from the North of England who is challenged by attention deficit disorder and memory loss. He is apt to use malapropisms in his attempts to sound educated"

Hang on, that sounds just like ..... nope probably best not to go there !

Good Beer Guide

The 2009 Good Beer Guide has landed and is the usual beefy tome at 900 pages.

However, the first deletion arrived in my inbox earlier this week. The Wheatsheaf on Putney Bridge Road in Wandsworth, SW18 is to be closed by Youngs.

Described in the Guide as ...a fantastic unspoilt pub ....a little gem ... welcoming.....worth seeking out, The Wheatsheaf made it into the book for the first ever time in 2008 and is retained for 2009. This is of course, no mean feat for the licensees given the abundance of excellent pubs in the Wandsworth area.

The Wheatsheaf is a tiny pub, a legacy of a bygone age, where the beer drinker was king, and after work drinking holes were always full.

My favourite memories of it will be after visits to the brewery or agm on the usual tour of Wandsworth. There used to be a large pub dog, doberman type, who , given the slightest invitation, would disconcertingly choose to sit on your lap.

The pub will be closing on Saturday 27th September.

However, every cloud has a silver lining and I am pleased to report that the licensees of The Wheatsheaf are moving to their nearest other pub, the Crane, Armoury Way. This has been a pub fraught with problems for years. Flooding was the latest but Youngs have now invested in yet another refurbishment, this time to include flood protection and the pub will be opening on 28th or 29th with hosts who now have a reputation for one of the best pints in town.

The Crane has not been in the Good Beer Guide for approaching 25 years so there is clearly a job to be done on the real ale side. I look forward to a visit in the interests of research.

Cask Ale Seminar

This week's Morning Advertiser reports on a Cask Ale Seminar hosted by Wells & Youngs. It was the "Top Tips" section that caught my eye, offered by the managing directors of 3 small pub chains :

"If you are putting on a cask ale for the first time, put it on at a good price. It is difficult to push up prices later."

"Install an extra handpump, even if it isn't connected. It makes people think you run a real-ale pub"

"Don't turn the pump clip round when the barrel is empty. It gives the impression the beer is off. Instead, put a sign on the handpull saying : the beer is being conditioned."

Top tips indeed !

Tales from the Riverbank (2)

My wife dragged me along to the Barnes Wetlands Centre the other day for a little wildlife spotting. Not much to offer for the beer lover but I did learn that Pedigree is named after the French for a crane's foot - pied de grue.

Spotted a couple of griffins in the local pub, The Red Lion. (Is a griffin a bird ?) but also spotted a cuckoo in the griffin's nest. Nestled alongside the London Pride and the ESB was the lesser spotted Timothy Taylor Landlord Bitter surely a stranger in such surroundings.