Red Cat Brewery & Winchester Pubs

It was mid-October and t-shirt weather, with the sun shining and glorious blue skies over Winchester.

And the reason I'd chosen to visit here today was that the local Red Cat Brewery were opening their doors to the public.  
It's around a 15 minute walk from the city centre to the industrial estate that the brewery is situated on.  It may have been early doors but there was a good crowd sat on make-shift furniture in the yard outside Unit 10.

The Red Cat Brewery - it may not be the prettiest location, but look at that lovely blue sky.

Red Cat Brewery (Unit 10, Sun Valley Business Park, Winnall Close SO23 0LB - website)
There was a good line-up of beers on, ranging from bitter to grapefruit IPA to coffee pale to stout.  In addition to this there was a Scottish chap in a kilt who'd paired a whisky for each of the beers on offer.  Now I may occasionally not follow the recommended safe alcohol consumption advice of the UK Chief Medical Officer, but I know what a messy conclusion a tot of whisky with each beer would come to for me, so I opt to avoid this. 

A Red Cat Brewery chap called Andy welcomes
all and recommends we "all get pissed".

What I did enjoy, beer-wise, was 'Moon Sugar', a 5.4% hazy pale ale brewed in collaboration with Elusive Brewery; the super-hoppy 'Prowler Pale'; and a 2-year barrel-aged version of 'Mrs M's Porter'.

Fun as the Red Cat open day was, I left with plenty of time to explore some of the cities pubs that I'd missed on a visit earlier this year.
The first of these certainly had an enviable location, overlooking the cathedral grounds.

The Old Vine (4 Great Minster Street, SO23 9HA)
Quite satisfyingly, the pub's frontage is indeed covered with old vines. This is an 18th century Grade II listed inn. It's a smart, well-heeled and respectable pub, which means that it's busy with tourists and tables of diners sipping the wine-of-the-week. There was a respectable range of beer though - Timothy Taylor 'Landlord', Ringwood 'Thumper', an Upham Brewery beer and the Longdog 'Golden Poacher' which I went for.
But next to these they've got a cake-stand with a tower of scones.
Not a recognised pub snack.

Longdog Golden Poacher, at the Old Vine                                             Chequered diamond 'art'

It's a little walk into the northern suburbs of Winchester to get to my next pick... 

The Fulflood Arms (28 Cheriton Road, SO23 5EF).

The Fulflood is a street-corner local, half brick half green-tiled frontage, looking majestic in the sunshine today.  It's a Greene King house, but rather like the nearby Queens Arms the beer range extends way beyond their usual offerings.  On this visit there were beers from Yeovil Brewery, Wild Weather and a couple of XT ales on gravity at the back of the bar.  Spotting me spoilt for choice, the landlord recommended 'Ethelred' from the local Winchester Brewery.  
He saved his joke for the next customer who ordered it... "Not ready.  The Ethelred, it's unready".  I reckon that one may come out a few more times before the cask runs out.

Glorious

Heading back centre-wards, I reached the Westgate, a medieval fortified gatehouse which houses a small museum on the first floor.  It's free to visit, so I had a look around and climbed some mildly treacherous stairs to the roof for a view.

Westgate Hotel, Winchester

Opposite is a pub of the same name, the Westgate Hotel (2 Romsey Road, SO23 8TP). 
The Telegraph give it a flattering hotel review, noting the bar has "grey painted walls with black framed pictures of local historic scenes...while wood panelling and exposed brickwork varies the look".  Hmmm, that's not selling it to me.  Three types of wall is a sign of the 21st century pub interior designer at work.  

There was a fine line-up of Red Cat beers on cask when I visited here earlier in the year, but on this Saturday afternoon three of the pump-clips were turned around.  Across on the keg lines they had Red Cat's 'Fafu' coffee pale ale (one I missed at the brewery earlier). 
The girl who served me corrected my pronunciation when I ordered it.  Which was wrong because it is not fah-fu, or faf-u - it's not a real word, so it can be pronounced however I like!

The final pub of the day is exceptionally handy for the train station.  And brilliantly it's down-to-earth, full of life, serving great frothy pints of Flowerpots ales and my favourite of the day.

The Albion (2 Stockbridge Road, SO23 7BZ) is a traditional corner boozer with one room curved around the bar.  It was busy on an early Saturday evening, with most tables taken.  There's no modern trappings of games machines and TVs here, just a convivial, relaxed drinking hole.  Beers come from Flowerpots and I savoured the hefty 6% IPA which struck the right chord as final beer of the day before the journey home.

The end of the evening and the light fading at the Albion, Winchester.

Tackling Rugby

Visiting the Good Beer Guide Pubs of Rugby

It's the birthplace of the game of rugby; Frank Whittle tested his invention, the jet engine, in this neck of the woods; Lewis Carroll and Neville Chamberlain attended Rugby School and Hungarian Dennis Gabor invented holograms whilst at local engineering firm BTH.  Not a bad roll of honour for a mid-sized market town.
And according to Wikipedia - "The town centre is noted for its large number of pubs; in the 1960s it was recorded as having the second-highest number of pubs per square mile in England" .  Ah, that'll be what brings me here. Of course.
So, with no more ado, first stop...

...the Rugby Tap (3 St Matthews Street,CV21 3BY)

Micro

This local award-winning venue consists of a bottle shop to the right and the Tap Room micropub to the left.  I entered to a warm welcome and a pick of 6 local beers served on gravity (on this occasion from Northants locals Phipps NBC and Gundog Ales).The two customers took my arrival as their cue to leave so I had the place to myself for a short while.  Being as it follows the micro rules of no TV or music, the "just good conversation" dictum doesn't work so well when you're on your lonesome. The friendly owner was keen to talk to me though and, upon discovering I was exploring the town pubs, passed on recommendations and found me a Rugby CAMRA real ale guide leaflet.  

Legend has it that in 1823 William Webb Ellis, a student at the public school, picked up the ball during a football match and started running with it, hence creating rugby.  If it'd had been me I'd probably have been reprimanded for cheating.  It's a story that has often been discredited, but I bring it up because my next pub is centred around the game.

The Merchants Inn (5-6 Little Church Street, CV21 3AW) 
According to the Merchants website, the Melrose Seven's club voted this the "best pub in Britain to watch rugby".  Which perhaps explained why I had the front section, where you couldn't see the Champions Cup match on any of the screens, all to myself.  
I was happy in this front room, with my half of Lytham's Golden ale, surrounded by Bass mirrors and old brewery signs.  The Merchants is sizeable, with several different sections and plenty of afternoon custom giving it a lively buzz.
I was enjoying this pub but my experience was sullied by an incident with the soap dispenser in the lavatories. There seemed to be nothing happening when pressing the nozzle, but exerting a little more pressure resulted in a projectile globule of milk & honey hand-wash, fired 45cm over the sink and straight into the middle of my shirt. 

Alexandra Arms (72-73 James Street, CV21 2SL)
Smelling somewhat fragrant, I made the short walk past the church and into the side streets to my third destination, a pub which houses the Atomic Brewery in its back garden.
The back room of the Alexandra seemed great, with a pool table, rock jukebox and doors leading out to seating out in the garden.  I sauntered back round to the front with my beer though and sat in solitary in the front lounge bar. 
I felt it apt to choose the local brew here, a 3.7% pale ale called 'Strike' with a pump-clip which appears to mix football and nuclear armageddon.  They've also got a couple of tempting Abbeydale beers on the bar, but I need to push on if I'm to make it around all the pubs on my list.

Keeping myself company in the front bar of the Alexandra Arms

Club life in the Town & Country

Town & Country Club (12 Henry Street, CV21 2QA)
This club is a new addition to the just released 2019 Good Beer Guide.  It seems to have edged out the London Calling cafe bar.  I have some trepidation entering club venues - "CAMRA members welcome" the guide says - but will I be?! 
Will there be suspicious looks? 
Will I have to explain my presence, clutching my CAMRA card?  
No.  It's an instantly friendly and welcoming place, fairly busy for a Saturday afternoon, with four beers on offer.  
The gent being served before me picked the Church End 'Grave Diggers Ale'.  "Ooh, good choice" the cheery lady behind the bar told him, "just on and fresh out the barrel".  So I went for the same too.  A lovely pint of dark mild.  And a veritable bargain at £2.55 a pint.
Great retro touches here: red upholstered bench seating around the walls, shiny formica table tops and leather cushioned panels on the front of the bar.

Moving on, I headed to the 2018 Rugby CAMRA Pub of the Year, the Seven Stars (40 Albert Square, CV21 2SH).
As Albert Square is a little further off the beaten track, this is a quieter location with just a few locals and one chap settled with the rugby being projected onto a big screen exclusively for him.  They have a great selection of beers on offer.  I'm struck again by the fantastic choice that I've found everywhere I've been today.  I picked a treacle stout from Derbyshire's Brunswick Brewing Co and grabbed a seat in the window alcove next to the bar.
The landlord came and sat nearby talking to a couple of locals: "We're putting on a 6-course dinner for the Ireland game - 5 pints of Guinness and a potato".  In politically-correct Britain I'm still trying to work out if I'm allowed to chuckle at this?



Squirrel Inn (33 Church Street, CV21 3PU)

This was the pub that had been recommended to me by anyone I'd chatted to today, so somewhere I was looking forward to.  It was originally three cottages which were joined together to form the pub.
Of the beers on offer I was drawn to the oddly named Hippy Killer brewery.  Sadly this ran out mid-pour for me, so I had to fall back on a brown ale by Cotleigh.  

Once I grabbed a table the barman brought me the third of a pint of the Hippy Killer that he'd managed to pour, stating it looked okay and that he "knew how much I wanted to try it".  Wow!  I must have looked really disappointed when it ran out.  I guess the cask sells well here as,even though it's the last of the barrel, this is still very drinkable and I rated it highly.
There was some entertaining conversation from the drinkers propping up the bar here and a convivial atmosphere.  Somewhere else that I would've been more-than-happy to spend more time.

Accordion display at the Squirrel 

In the end, all paths lead to Wetherspoon's...  
The Rupert Brooke (8-10 Castle Street, CV21 2TP) was my next stop, veering off my GBG list.  Peckishness had caught up with me and I was enticed by the pizza and pint deal.
Not a bad Spoon's - a cavernous place, converted from an old market hall.

Just time for one last tick this Saturday, and that's a second pub owned by the Atomic brewery, The Victoria (1 Lower Hillmorton Road, CV21 3ST).  This is a short walk out of the town centre, but certainly well worth the effort.  However, at this point I've got last pub of the day fatigue.  This was a great Victorian-era corner pub that I would have enjoyed a lot more if I'd started here.  I also sat in the wrong room, picking the first door which led to a bar with pool table and dart board.  It was only when I was leaving that I realised the period lounge was superb, with more people and more atmosphere.

So, in the end, from the 8 places listed in the Good Beer Guide, I missed the Raglan Arms and didn't quite manage a full-sweep.  
But there is the small matter of getting home on the train without falling asleep and missing my station.

Yum Yum World - a giant sweet emporium - ensuring that the dentists of Rugby do a roaring trade..

Old Red Lion, Tetsworth

One new Oxfordshire tick in the Good Beer Guide for me, on a short Saturday afternoon trip.  We headed down Oxfordshire's bumpiest stretch of road (possibly) - the A40 to Tetsworth.
The 700-or-so residents of this village, 12 miles south-east of Oxford, have a choice of a few places to drink...
There's the sports and social club - no real ale, but proudly advertising their Sky and BT Sports.
And there's the Swan, an Elizabethan coaching inn, now a bar, restaurant and antiques centre.

The Swan in the background & the type of car that I imagine antique enthusiasts drive.

I was going to visit the Swan, but the patrons in the garden included gentle-folk taking afternoon tea and chaps in tweed jackets sipping wine and smoking cigars.
I decided to give it a miss.  They probably wouldn't even have let me in.

My much preferred option, on the main road through the village was
The Old Red Lion (40 High Street, Tetsworth, OX9 7AS - web)

The Old Red Lion, Tetsworth, Oxfordshire

Job available for good all-rounder.

As you walk through the door there's an odd partition and door dividing the bar into two sections and creating two drinking areas.  I thought it would be better as one single room, but WhatPub tells me it's been put in place to create a pet-free area for allergy sufferers.  

The partition serves the chap who comes in after me well.  Not avoiding pesky pet hairs, but in order to pretend not to see me on the other side and claim he was there first when the bar lady arrives back behind the counter.

The choice of two ales is 'Old Speckled Hen' or XT 'Four'.  My XT was the last one from the barrel, still drinkable but a little past peak condition.  

The pub is unusual in that it also houses the Village Store, just to the rear of the right hand room, complete with revolving greetings card rack outside the door.
They also offer food, with a range of £5 breakfast options, a cafe menu and specials board.
And bed & breakfast.  Pub diversification.

The Village Store, at the rear of the pub.

I'd once have taken it for granted that any reasonably sized village would have a shop and a pub, but these days they're a rarity.  The Old Red Lion serves as a community asset by multi-tasking as cafe, store and pub, which can only be a good thing.

Just a one-pub micro-post.  Usual pub-crawl craziness will surely resume shortly.