Rambler said:
Southwold's a bit of a beer pilgrimage, yeah. There are one or two nice places up the river, you get to walk back along the beach, past all the fishing huts selling fresh sole.

I know this area well. The Harbour Inn in Southwold harbour keeps a wide range of excellent Adnams ales, including fisherman's and broadside. They also do the best fish and chips outside Aldeburgh. It's possible to walk along the shingle to Dunwich and another pub which specialises in Adnams. Can't remember the name of the place, but it has an excellent cat and apple trees in the beer garden.

Walberswick, just over the river, is worth a visit too, especially if you need to catch crabs.

About 15 miles from Southwolds is St Peter's Brewery, which has a restaurant as well as beer-spawning facilities. If you haven't tried the Honey Porter or Spiced Ale, you've missed out. Fortunately, the Jerusalem in Britton Street (just around the corner from Farringdon tube, near Clerkenwell Green) is one of three St Peter's pubs in the world. Probably the best pub in the blighted stinkhole that is Farringdon.

However, I think my favourite beer is St Austell's Tribute, as first tasted in the Lugger Inn at Polruan after a long walk along the cliffs from Polperro. I'm going to have to go and have one tonight now.
 
scottdisco said:
matt b:
>although the best Old Peculier i've ever had was down in Cambridge, just the other week,
weird.

Yeah? Where was that? I had a pint of Old Peculier in the Mill in Cambridge last weekend and it was pretty good. One of the best things about Cambridge is the range of good pubs - Live and Let Live, Salisbury Arms, Six Bells, Kingston Arms and the Mill are some of my favourites. Am I missing any?
 

Rambler

Awanturnik
The Harbour Inn - that's exactly the one I'm talking about! Agreed about the fish and chips.

Yeah, I've gone over to Walberswick once as well (with the bloke who rows you across for about 20p), don't remember any pubs. Must make a bid for Dunwich too when I'm next there.

Thanks for the Farringdon tip as well - I've yet to find any pub half decent near the Barbican, so I shall try this place.
 
Rambler said:
The Harbour Inn - that's exactly the one I'm talking about! Agreed about the fish and chips.

Yeah, I've gone over to Walberswick once as well (with the bloke who rows you across for about 20p), don't remember any pubs. Must make a bid for Dunwich too when I'm next there.

Thanks for the Farringdon tip as well - I've yet to find any pub half decent near the Barbican, so I shall try this place.

Walking along the shingle to Dunwich is a bit tiring, but the salt marshes on the other side of the sea wall thing remind me of the opening scenes of the original planet of the apes - arid, full of coppery algae - especially with Sizewell B on the horizon.

The pub in walberswick - it's set back from the river, on the 'high street'. Quite a big place, but otherwise unremarkable.

The Gunmakers on one of those roads running north of Clerkenwell road isn't a bad little pub, or wasn't while I worked around there.
 

scottdisco

rip this joint please
i just love it.

matt b:
>elbow rooms is a pool hall/bar/club that is far quieter than the above (you may get a seat)- utah saints run nights there

that actually sounds very good. in fact, you know what, i think i might have heard of that (purely from the saints angle).

thanks muchly for the linx.
north bar does actually look very nice, a definite weekday sort of place perhaps.
the arts cafe bar does sound good, despite it all.

i have never heard of mojo but the cocktails make it sound a must visit. if your girl comes up with any more, please feel free to impart.

Otley a surprise, i never knew that that particular part of the world is the best for boozers. is that w. yorks' finest do you think?
i've drunk a lot around the Featherstone area, one or two smashing old man pubs round there, but my happiest times in Yorkshire boozing probably have been in Hull (my younger brother went to uni there and his local, for a while, was the Gardeners Arms on the way out of town, a very nice pub).
i think York must surely be the most special town in God's Own though, for sheer jaw-dropping effect.

there's a lot of good folk festivals up around some of the small Lancashire towns around Burnley-way, just north of Mcr. i'm totally converted with you on that score.

HMGovt:
>...but it has an excellent cat...

this reminds me that Tony Martin's local in deepest Norfolk (yes that Tony Martin) has a wonderful - very fat - cat in the grounds. cracking little thing.
HMGovt, you really are blessing us with the insights there, i'd really love to know where the other two St Peter's pubs are?

it's something i've heard of but never tasted their wares, a shame.
it sounds very special.

i think i want to marry your posts :)

oh, re. your Old Peculier in Cambridge query, i can't remember the name (oh and btw i don't get too much Old Peculier so my claim isn't all that special, but it was clearly very well kept, gorgeous).
it was an old pub, just past a bridge over the Cam, five or ten minutes walk away from the Alma (not exactly a haven of real ale that place, but it seemed to be full of rowdy locals, us lot enjoyed it, we went in because it seemed to be only one of two boozers in town we could find with Sky and we wanted to see Gooners-Pompey).
i realise that description is piss-poor, sorry!
er, the only other thing i can think is that it was multi-roomed, old wooden tables, some low ceilings, we enjoyed the Oban there too which was quite nice.
it was a very good pint.

that day in Cambridge started, incidentally, with a poor pint of Hen (or it might have been Abbot - i forget which - one of the GK stable anyhow) at that famed boozer where the American servicemen and RAF sorts used to drink - the Eagle?
i remember being impressed with the interior and the fact they had several mulled wine pumps (bit of a rarity in the north-west y'see) but the beer was shoddy.

there was one very nice pub, quite a small one, again i can't remember the name, where we had something of a supper around tea-time, and i had a quite sublime sausage butty. huge loaves of a doughy white bread encasing big bespoke bangers. really quite impressive. they had Jura in there, i think. however the beer could have been better (we had some fine fine beer that day and one or two dodgy pints so no harm done).

ooh the Salisbury Arms, i like that.

i remember a big lash weekend coupla years ago in which a local (student) who knew a mate was showing our party round. we'd been on the piss around Norwich and Kings Lynn for the previous two days (this was a Saturday arvo) and were getting a train into London that night to go clubbing ap west.
the news came through on the videprinter or whatever that Sunderland had just been relegated and i remember proposing a toast to the Mackems. just as we'd downed our whisky a cabbie came in, asking after our lot, to whisk us to the train station.
think that was the Salisbury.
oh moments.

Dunwich sounds a bit special...

...am impressed, btw, with this shouting of the odds for Aldeburgh/Southwold fish and chips.

as a rule, the best fish and chips from a chippy (posh restaurant/pub fare a different thing i realise - glad i didn't go for the pun then...) are encountered in a kind of arc across the north, from Blackpool to Barnsley, Scarborough and Whitby (although avoid the Magpie in the last town, purely for the money issue).
i like me fish and chips, so will have to hit it down there (mushy peas are known as 'manchester caviar' after all).
P.S.
on an Adnams tip:

was drinking in the Crown, Gayton, west Norfolk recently (wonderful, popular pub - very well kept full range of Greene King, as you might expect).
got rather excited reading the local CAMRA freesheet as it was the first time i'd ever seen adverts for the full Adnams range. before then i didn't know about e.g. Fisherman coming out just in December, that sort of thing.
was beside myself...
 

Randy Watson

Well-known member
With crisps in Art and Beer in politics there must be room for a food forum. World of Stelfox used to drop the odd recipe last summer and it would be great to see some more of that. They weren't just recipes but evocations of hot summer days in London before I fled to the coast and not the oppressive summer days but the ones with warm breezes, sunshine, friends and Beer.

I stopped drinking large quantities of lager in my late 20's cos it made me froth at the gills after 2 pints. At that time I started to drink more bitter until I gradually stopped drinking draft lager altogether (except with spicy food) and stuck with ale and stout. More recently I prefer wine but face the problem I always had that prevents me from drinking spirits in the pub; I guzzle and you can't guzzle wine without dreadful repercussions.

I think your palate changes as you get older and you prefer, and can discriminate between, different things.

I am currently rocking Guiness original (needs to be left for a few minutes to let the fizz die down). I wouldn't touch draft Stella in the UK anymore cos that shit is full of chemicals, and not the good ones :). It is brewed under licence and may not be the same drink you get in the US or even in mainland Europe. Bottled Stella is alright but tastes a bit burnt to me. Of the big boy premium brands I'd rather Kronie or Lowenbrau. I saw a Kronie wheat beer on draft at the Glassblower - has anyone tried it?

I like the belgian beers, sweet and pungent. I remember drinking kwak in a bar in france from a round- bottomed glass which came with it's own wooden stand. Much drunken laughter about being kwakheads and doing kwak.
 

scottdisco

rip this joint please
Randy Watson:
er, everything you said!

Kronie wheat beer i've heard of but never supped and rarely encountered at the bar. i suppose if you do see it at a bar it's going to be the sort of bar that has a lot of good stuff, so distraction is inevitable.

your Stella explanation would make sense, perfect sense.

after all, who knows what shit Interbrew pump into it down in Luton?
whenever on my local news we have their CEO or whatnot come on to mouth off (i'm referring to the 'controversial' Boddies brewery thing of course) he always comes across really badly. ah well, you can't win 'em all...

Lowenbrau is always a pleasure. that and Krony are definitively far preferable to Artois.

second the Stelfox recipes-style plea, and must say that one of my favourite Belgian glasses is the Kwak one, for sure, i love the wooden stand, like being back in GCSE Chemistry... ...also the spellbinding and alchemical nature of a good Belgian bar can only add to the sorcerous/chemistry analogies...
 

scottdisco

rip this joint please
looking back over sufi's wondrous visuals posts, reminded me i only recently learnt Tusker was Hemingway's favourite beer, apparently.

who'd a thunk?!
 

luka

Well-known member
'With crisps in Art and Beer in politics there must be room for a food forum. '

plus i'm waiting for the right moment to start the cheese thread on nature.
 

sufi

lala
1/2 remembered urban legends of havana

did hemigway invent the mojito?
or was it some other cocktail?
 

sufi

lala
mmmadagascar

thb.jpg

"THB" (tay-ash-bay) -antananarivo

i remember meeting folk in south mad who only knew 4 words of english...

beer.gif
"...is good for you"
 

mind_philip

saw the light
I used to drink in hi-lo too... my favorite pub in Oxford though was the Harcourt Arms, in Jericho near the Radcliffe Arms... nice pint of pedigree or even better, a good malt and a half pint of pistachios. Gah, please, you're making me all nostalgic.
 

scottdisco

rip this joint please
half a pint of pistachios?

sounds superb.

i have never been on the tap in Oxford.
as per, if any Oxford-types who know the score would care to throw any more recs my way, i'd be most grateful (the alehouses already mentioned all sound fucken world-class mind, esp the hi-lo and the harcourt; oh, also the fish and chips place too please).

my favourite pub snacks tend to either be of the hot, nutty variety, or proper scratchings and similar.

one of my locals, the Faulkners, has about four bitters and a mild, and lots of really old-skool Black Country-quality pork products behind the bar.

it's all the more impressive when you consider the nearest licensed premises (there's a lot in a small area in the town centre) to the Faulkners are a Slug and Lettuce, a shit and trendy cocktail bar, a 'Spoons, a terribly over-priced wine bar (what is it with fashionable wine bars? i'll grant you get good wines in wine bars, but the ones that do the mark-up thing? what's that about? not every wine bar does it, so the ones that do it blatantly get on my wick), a tatty Irish boozer, a Litten Tree, what was once a Hogshead and is now an even worse chain pub, and some trendy cafe-bar.
 

matt b

Indexing all opinion
scottdisco said:
Otley a surprise, i never knew that that particular part of the world is the best for boozers. is that w. yorks' finest do you think?
i've drunk a lot around the Featherstone area, one or two smashing old man pubs round there, but my happiest times in Yorkshire boozing probably have been in Hull (my younger brother went to uni there and his local, for a while, was the Gardeners Arms on the way out of town, a very nice pub).
i think York must surely be the most special town in God's Own though, for sheer jaw-dropping effect.

there's a lot of good folk festivals up around some of the small Lancashire towns around Burnley-way, just north of Mcr. i'm totally converted with you on that score.

i've only lived round these parts for a year, so am still discovering it really. w. yorkshire in general seems to have loads of small towns w/old-skool pubs which haven't changed in 100 years. otley is just the nearest town to us. they had a victorain market just before christmas, which involved an evening of drinking mulled wine and watching various morris dancing teams go for it. brilliant.


oxford pubs: there are various EXCELLENT summer drinking pubs down by the river- the fishes, the perch the trout, isis, many of which are typical 'inspector morse' establishments (though non the worse for it)- good beer (even since the death of morrells)- locally produced stuff.

on st. giles you have the eagle and child, where tolkein, cs lewis etc used to meet, over the round is the lamb and flag which was wicked in my youth. gardeners arms on north parade can be good.

lots of pubs are frequented by students, but get much better out of term time- the bear (lots of ties all over the place), turf tavern (fire burns in the courtyard all yaer round), kings arms.

my local before leaving was the star, just off the cowley road, but when i went in over christmas it seems to have become a bit of a generic 'alternative' pub


the best places (again) are those in the villages around oxford (stadhampton etc). i have beautiful memories of summer evenings spent at the william IV pub near wallingford holding a pint of brakspears bitter (based in henley- lovely stuff) straight from the barrel, looking over rolling hills whilst owls start to hunt. makes you want to weep
 

Triple-M

Member
On the Otter

Wow. Good beer knowledge here. After skimming the posts, I don't think I've read anyone bigging up Otter Ale. Comes from the South West of England, slight cherry colour to the brown, always keeps a foamy head, 4.2%, perfect session beer. Big up the Otter!
 

red_shift

Member
oxford pubs (long)

a lot of pubs in oxford have gone through pretty hard times over the last few years, since the morrells family, who owned many local pubs, sold out to a venture capitalist. whoever this was decided that what oxford needed was a mcdonalds-ized chain of identikit 'olde english alehouses'. the prince of wales, which used to be a scruffy locals pub on the cowley road (which showed scottish football on sky, a godsend for the exile) was changed into the prince of ales, and stuffed with ersatz tat, lost all of its regulars and closed within 6 months. it's now a horrible nando's chicken restaurant. The Fir Tree on Iffley Road, which used to have a regular pianist playing jazz standards on sunday nights was renamed the The Olde Ale House and had it's heart taken out. (It's now the Fir Tree again, and more like it used to be.) In Jericho, Jude the Obscure's legendary landlord, Noel, was forced out, taking the atmosphere and occassional ragtime jazz tapes with him. :mad:

Things are getting better again, though. Noel now has a new pub, Far From the Madding Crowd, and while it's unpromisingly squeezed down an alleyway between borders and debenhams, he's managed to transplant enough of the people and the ethos of his old Jude to make a success of the place. And as it's a freehouse, he can get a wider selection of beers in. There's always a two or three of guest ales in, along with regulars Timothy Taylor Landlord, and Black Sheep. They've also recently added Paulaner on tap. All the former morrell's pubs are greene king now, and they're doing a decent job of maintaining good, unflashy pubs.

Around where I work, the lamb and flag is our regular haunt, though it's prone to flooding in heavy rain. The eagle and child seems to be finding it's feet again after going through a few changes in landlord, and the royal oak on woodstock road, previously a spit and sawdust sort of place, has been pretty tastefully modernized, and now has an excellent selection of continental beers and regular guest ales.

Further out, the Rose and Crown is the best pub in Summertown (there's not much competition, but even if there was it'd still be great), and in old Headington the White Hart isn't quite as good as it was, but there's still good beers and wood fires. In Iffley Village, as well as the Isis over the lock on the river, there's the Prince of Wales.

Don't know if I'm just looking for different things from pubs these days, but I rarely go to most of the pubs on/around Cowley Road these days. The exception is the Brickworks, a funny wee place which is kinda shabby/hip, very friendly, and has relatively cheap budvar on tap. Near Cowley Road on St Clements is the Angel and Greyhound a young's pub (big up the chocolate stout, and their vanilla-ish pilsner lager), where i was recently and embarrasingly trounced 3-0 at connect4, and which has a bar billiards table.

And I haven't even started on the surrounding villages ...
 

matt b

Indexing all opinion
interesting stuff about oxford- cowley road has changed beyond all recognition in recent years. gone are the days of squatting the PPP etc; its all trendy bars- doesn't baby have pole dancing?????? the best thing now is probably the bully for late nights (although the done up/renamed dolly is quite nice if you're in town).


red_shift said:
The exception is the Brickworks, a funny wee place which is kinda shabby/hip, very friendly, and has relatively cheap budvar on tap.

used to be the water-rat, or ratty's (or similar) many years ago- i think it was a kind of private members club, but its now bright orange. they have a reggae night there which i attended and quite enjoyed- budvar euphoria :)
 

Pearsall

Prodigal Son
scottdisco said:
sorry for going on everybody i'm a bit hyper...

No need to apologize, this has probably been the best thread yet on Dissensus (imo) and you've played a major part in it!
 
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