The Pub in the Woods

An overcast day at the end of January saw me travel to areas I'd not previously explored in Oxfordshire and visit two of our Good Beer Guide listed pubs...

The Black Horse (Checkendon, RG8 0TE)
This is a pub that has eluded me for some time, perhaps because it's relatively remote by Oxfordshire standards.  It's popular with walkers and cyclists, but in the end I took advantage of having the use of a car for the weekend to get there.
The Black Horse still tried to evade technology, with our sat-nav proudly announcing "you have reached your destination" when we were half way down a muddy, pot-holed, lane in the middle of nowhere. 
I resorted to asking passing horse-riders for directions and we pulled up at this wonderful rural pub on a gloomy Sunday afternoon.  

Black Horse, Checkendon, Oxfordshire

Retro lounge at the Black Horse

Taking us somewhat by surprise, we found it bustling with visitors.  One room was full of cyclists sporting mud-splattered bare legs and Lycra, the quirky lounge housed ramblers with pots of tea, whilst the locals hung out closest to the bar and a warming log fire.
The Black Horse has been in the same family since 1905 and is some 350 years old.
Beers are served straight from the cask and brought from the cellar, with two available from West Berkshire Brewery and one Rebellion beer.  I grabbed a 'Mr Chubb's Lunchtime Bitter' and we settled on a bench along the wall near the fire.
There's a cordial atmosphere around the bar, with talkative regulars and a chunky dog called Charlie doing the rounds on the hunt for any unwanted crisps.  The chap sitting on the other end of our bench told us he'd been coming here for 40 years and when you walked through the door it hadn't changed a bit.  Which is the real charm of this pub.
 

We'd started our day some 13 miles away at Chalgrove, south-east of Oxford.  With old cottages, thatched roofs and a brook running alongside the high street, it's a pleasant village.  It has a healthy total of three pubs: two Greene King houses and the Good Beer Guide listed Red Lion which we were headed to.   

Chalgrove Village Green

Red Lion (115 High Street, Chalgrove, OX44 7SS - website)
This village pub is owned by St Mary's parish church and dates back to the 16th century.  It's set back from the main street with a nice front garden and cracking traditional free-standing pub sign.  

Dark skies loom over the Red Lion, Chalgrove, Oxfordshire

Step inside and there are thick stone walls, a front room divided into three cosy areas plus a small restaurant extension to the rear.  To the left of the bar a wood burning stove in a large hearth warms the room on a winters day and the large round table next to this looks to be the locals table - the only one where a few folk sipped their pints.  All other tables were being used for Sunday lunch dining on this visit.

Beers on the bar were Butcombe Best and Fullers 'London Pride', with a guest ale from Rebellion: 'Contact', a 4.2% copper ale in a themed Aviator series.
Picking the Rebellion beer we grabbed a table to eat and stayed to enjoy a filling, tasty lunch. With us arriving at midday, they were still printing the menus and it took a while for the kitchen to get underway and the food to be served. But all was fresh-cooked and worth the wait.


We obviously saw the Red Lion with the kitchen in full-swing, but the food was drawing the punters in. With all tables occupied, this can't be a bad thing in these days of the beleaguered village pub. 
I would guess that it would a fine place to call into for just a beer at different times and it also has a large garden to the rear for the warmer months.


I plan to make a concerted effort to get to more Good Beer Guide entries for Oxfordshire in 2019.
Having discovered the Peyton Arms, Stoke Lyne and The North Star, Steventon in the past couple of years I can add the Black Horse to this list of slightly eccentric, historical and wonderful pubs in the county.
I just hope that there are more that I'm yet to stumble across.

East London Pub Crawl

South Central CAMRA Region London Crawl

On Saturday 19th January members from Berkshire, Bucks and Oxfordshire CAMRA groups gathered at midday in the 'Spoons at Liverpool Street station, ready to undertake an ale trail around some of east London's hostelries.
I hooked up with the friendly folk of South-Oxfordshire CAMRA, for whom I'm very grateful for letting me traipse around the pubs with them.
Leaving Hamilton Hall a little late, we were definitely bringing up the rear of the pub crawl as we ambled along Shoreditch High Street.

The shiny new buildings of the City encroach upon the Crown and Shuttle

🕐 Crown & Shuttle (226 Shoreditch High Street, E1 6PJ)

The downfall of arriving late here is that we find all three pump-clips turned around and the cask ale drunk dry by those before us at the Crown & Shuttle.

We settled for some of the quality kegs on offer - in my case a pale ale by The Kernel brewery.  
The pub features lots of exposed brick-work with a ramshackle, half-finished look to it.  To the rear was a large garden with an array of multi-coloured benches - not a feature we could really appreciate on this cold day. 
Whilst we were standing in the front room the barman diligently cleaned the lines and pulled through the next two real ales.  Which put us even further behind time as we decided we should stay for a half-pint of the freshly-tapped beer.  One was Windsor & Eton's 'Kohinoor', the other a Hammerton 'N7' which I picked and which was worth the wait.
From here we headed a short way further up the road, then swung right at the shipping containers that make up Shoreditch Box Park.  Heading along Bethnal Green Road we soon reached out next destination...

🕑 Well & Bucket (143 Bethnal Green Road, E2 7DG -  website)

The Well & Bucket was a pub between 1818 and 1989, at which point it closed, became a Chinese restaurant for a short time, then turned into a shop called Leathertex.

Great news for pub fans (not so good for purveyors of East End fashion wholesalers) it returned to life as an ale house in 2013.  And they've done a splendid job.  As much of the grand Victorian tiling as possible has been restored, looking somewhat battered, but that adds to the character.  An island bar sits in the middle of the one large room with an elegant glass shelving centrepiece full of spirit bottles.  Unsurprisingly for a rejuvenated Shoreditch bar, craft beers featured heavily with a good range (Mondo, Stone, Mikkeller and Thornbridge were just some of what was on offer on this visit).  

We didn't stop at Lady Dinah's Cat Emporium.  But it was certainly proving a popular attraction along Bethnal Green Road...

Cats.

We then deviated from the pre-planned route and headed to the Kings Arms. 

🕒 Kings Arms (11a Buckfast Street, E2 6EY - website)
This is a well respected drinking establishment that I'd visited several times in the past.  At first glance it looks like an old-school corner boozer, tucked next to housing blocks just off the main road.  But inside it's a smart, modern craft ale bar. The beers are listed on a large board to the back of the room, beyond the central bar providing an impromptu eye-test - with the beer taps themselves being un-badged.
For those who'd suspect a CAMRA pub crawl would be full of weird, beardy, odd-bods who'd shun anything that's not cask conditioned real ale, you'd be wrong.  Some of us were weird, beardy odd-bods who were quite keen on a brilliant craft ale list too.  And there were some treats here including Siren Crafts' 'Mind on my Honey' (too strong for this afternoons pub crawl at 10.1%, but I'd been blown away by it at the Nags Head a few weeks earlier).  Instead I opted for a slightly weaker 'Steady Rolling Man', a 5.2% hoppy pale ale from Gloucestershire's DEYA brewing company.

From here we walked for just over 10 minutes to reach the eastern outlier of the crawl:
🕓 The Camel (277 Globe Road, E2 0JD - website)
This is a historic pub that was ear-marked for demolition at the start of the millennium. Stiff local opposition and a 500-strong petition saved it from being converted to flats.  On this Saturday afternoon it is a buzz of activity with plenty of folk in.  It's the only pub of the day to have a TV in it - channel-hopping erratically between showing snooker, tennis and Final Score.  At the opposite end of the narrow pub is a large mirror giving the illusion the room is bigger than it really is.  We grab a couple of tables underneath this and enjoy this bustling and cosy pub.  The pick of the ales on the bar was 'XPA' from Five Points, a wonderful tasty 4% American pale that was a contender for beer of the day.

The Camel - photo-bombed by members of South Oxfordshire CAMRA.

We headed back from here by tube to Liverpool Street, then walked to Brick Lane. Which may not have been the best option as we temporarily lost half our group in the station; then found the one member of the party who had chosen to take the bus standing at the bar half way through his pint.  Next time: follow Bob on the bus.

🕔The Pride of Spitalfields (3 Heneage Street, E1 5LJ)
This is a long-standing Good Beer Guide entrant that hasn't changed much over the years.
My picture in the dark of the pub came out a bit rubbish, so here instead is a photo of Lenny, the pub cat.

Lenny, resident cat at the Pride of Spitalfields,  Relaxed.

Maybe that's the secret of blogging success?  More cat pictures.  
Just look how popular the Cat Emporium was earlier.

I first visited The Pride of Spitalfields some twenty years ago when I'd just moved down to the capital.  And I don't think it's changed a bit since then, other than the price of a pint going up a fair bit.
It's a wonderfully convivial little traditional pub where a wide variety of punters from all walks-of-life rub shoulders.  There's standing room only this evening as I enjoy a pint of Crouch Vale 'Brewers Gold' - Champion beer of Britain in 2005 and 2006.   

As most of our group were calling this the last stop of the day, I headed off in the effort to reach one more of the crawls destinations:

🕕 The Mahogany Bar - Wiltons Music Hall (1 Graces Alley, E1 8JB - website)
And I was really pleased to have made it to this unusual venue.

Wilton's music hall is located in a building dating back to 1690.  Originally houses, it later became an ale house trading under such names as The Albion Saloon and The Prince of Denmark. In 1828 it was furnished with a magnificent mahogany bar and luxurious fittings earning it the nickname 'The Mahogany Bar'.
Sadly this building spent the last half of the 20th century derelict until the Wilton's Music Hall Trust reopened it in 2009 with final repairs to make it structurally sound completed in 2015.
Rather than being returned to a pristine state it has been left with rough walls, bare bricks and occasional battle-scarred bits of plaster-work - all reminding visitors of the derelict state it's been saved from.    

Whilst this last point of call was very different to the other pubs we'd been to today, I'd recommend each and every one of the venues on this great pub crawl.

I missed one - the Dog & Bucket, so couldn't claim ale-trail completion.  Thanks again to those who devised this crawl and all who were so welcoming on the day.

Nags Head Reading

& Two Further West Reading Pubs

In my humble opinion, the Nags Head in Reading is the best pub within less than an hour of my front door.  I reckon it ticks all the boxes for what brilliant pubs should be.
Yet I've never gotten around to covering this or any of the other good drinking establishments in Reading in this blog.  Early January saw a Nottingham Forest fixture at Reading so with tickets booked for this I decided I'd focus on three pubs across the A33, just to the west of Reading centre.

The Nags Head, Reading 

I've dug out an old picture of The Nags Head  (5 Russell Street, RG1 7XD - website) - we didn't have nice blue skies like this on our January visit.

Hopcraft Stout and the football news

Arriving early, I settled down and grabbed one of the daily papers from the rack.
The news had broken on Friday morning that Aitor Karanka had asked to leave his role as Forest manager, propelling the club into a bit of disarray yet again. 

This only made a small corner in the paper's sports section of course, with anything outside the self-styled 'Greatest League In The World' being largely inconsequential.

I pondered whether all the upheaval yesterday would effect the team's performance on the pitch this afternoon?
**Spoiler**
Yes. Of course it would.

But before having to endure 90 minutes of football, I had 120 minutes to enjoy the Nags Head.  So why's it so great?

Firstly they have a fantastic drinks selection, once billed as a "beer festival every day" and pretty much living up to that promise.  Twelve cask ales are lined up along the bar from a mild on the right, increasing in strength to the dark stuff on the left. 
Should nothing take your fancy in that line-up, a keg-wall was added a couple of years back offering up all manner of crafty delights, as well as lots of boxed cider and Belgian bottled beer being available.

Sports fans are catered for with all major football, cricket and rugby fixtures shown across two screens. 

And when the volume isn't turned up for sport the musical soundtrack isn't too bad either.

And there's a roaring log fire on grey winter days like today.

And there's some old Elm Park memorabilia...

The pub became progressively busier, with a pretty limited demographic of middle-aged blokes with Reading tops & scarves this afternoon.  Arsenal were on the TV screens being beaten by West Ham.  My pick of the beers was the 'A.W18 Bitter' from Cloudwater and 'Campania' a milk stout from one of my favourite breweries Hopcraft, but we got through a few more than this and all were good.

There's a special match-day bus from the Nags Head to the football ground, so at a quarter-past two we drank-up and climbed on board.

The Nags Head Football Special

.....
  .....
So, let me go back a couple of months to a visit to this part of town at the tail-end of 2018.
Trust me, it's better to reminisce from last year than to report on the turgid football that we endured at the Madejski Stadium this weekend. 

Foresters Arms, Reading

Foresters Arms (79-81 Brunswick Street, RG1 6PE)
This is a Good Beer Guide listed pub that I'd somehow completely missed, so I set out to rectify this.

Impossibly white trainers.

It's located on the outskirts of town, around a 25 minute stroll from the centre.  Along a residential street it's unmissable with a prominent emerald green tiled front wall.  
We were the only customers when we entered, disturbing the lady behind the bar from tinkering with her iPad. 
There was a simple choice of two ales on the bar: Palmers IPA or Tim Taylors 'Landlord'. 
We sat in the peace of the front room, with rugby on the TV, supping our pints.
And then a third customer came into the bar wearing impossibly white trainers.
Here was a no-nonsense punter: pint of Fosters and a whisky chaser, quick fag outside then back in for another pint.  He propped up the bar and asked for the TV to be changed to ITV4 for the horse racing.
Nooooo...horse racing on TV.....it's almost always a signifier that you've found yourself in a 'certain type' of pub.

The Foresters is a real back-street local, serving up a decent pint of ale and I appreciate it would probably be a different experience when busier.

Back to the present, and we'd witnessed a miserable 0-2 defeat at the hands of Reading (not so miserable for the home fans on the bus back though).  Two red cards and an awful display - I really should have stayed in the pub.

Post-match we were looking for somewhere to watch the evening kick-off between Chelsea and Newcastle - to see how proper football teams played.
Much as I love the Nags, it's never busier than when the Madejski bus disgorges it's passengers on a Saturday afternoon, so we headed just around the corner to....

The Butler (85-91 Chatham Street, RG1 7DS)
This crept in the GBG in 2018 but seems to have lost it's place this year.
Towered over by a multi-storey car park to the right, it's got a stand-out frontage of many colours.  Inside there is a side room to the left with sofa's and a trad cosy section just to the rear of the bar, where we found a seat in good view of the smaller TV screen.  To the right there is a bit of an empty-looking area where bands set up, then a back section with the focus on the TV.
Beers available on this visit were a 'Proper Job' from St Austell, Tim Taylor's 'Landlord' aand, my pick, 'Crouch Hold Engage' from Andwell Brewery.  A reminder that the Six Nations is just around the corner again.

The Butler, possible one of Reading's best-looking pubs?

Outside toilets are a bit of a rarity these days, although often the mark of a great pub.  The gents at the Butler are out the back through a small yard and are bitterly cold this evening.
But this may be soon to change.  There is currently a planning application to add upstairs rooms for bed and breakfast use and move those chilly loos to the first floor.


By Monday lunchtime Martin O'Neill had been appointed as Forest manager.  A success or another ex-player sullying his reputation in the managers hot-seat?  Only time will tell.
As long as both clubs stay in the same league I'll be back next season for my annual grumble as we lose to Reading, but at least I'll be guaranteed a few good pints beforehand.

Wrocław Beer Explorations

The tail end of 2018 found me in the south-west of Poland for a couple of days in the pleasant city of Wrocław.  Situated on the River Oder, this is the fourth largest city in the country.  Here we had to brave some pretty persistent rain and dark skies as we explored the sights of the historical centre. 

Grey skies over Wrocław.  Looking down over the Rynek and Christmas Market from the tower of St Elizabeth's Church

So in this kind of weather...straight to the pub!
Located on the corner of the large market square is Browar Złoty Pies (Wita Stwosza 1-2, website).  This translates as the Golden Dog Brewery and is on the first floor of a spectacular building. It's a bright and modern L-shaped room with the brewing equipment proudly on display adjacent to the bar.  In homage to their name all beers are canine orientated, which is how I ended up sat with a 'Setter Stout'. We also sampled a plate of potato pancakes to fill us up nicely for the evening ahead. This is a thoroughly pleasant brewpub, right in the middle of the city, bright, comfortable, welcoming and well worth a visit.

Złoty Pies Micro Brewery, Wrocław

Navigating the Christmas Market to get around to the other side of the square, there is a second brew-pub to visit...
MiniBrowar Spiz (ul. Rynek 9; website - Look out! Trad Polish folk music assault included in website experience).
Stairs lead down to the subterranean restaurant and beer hall in this historic building.  With cellar-like corridors and rooms; displays of glasses and drinking mugs, brewery signs on the wall and the brewing coppers next to the bar, this is reminiscent of a multitude of middle-European beer halls.
But around the walls were five flat-screen TVs showing music videos which seemed somewhat out of place in the surroundings.
The bar was busy with just a couple of tables left, but what I liked here was that it was self-service, so none of the palaver of hoping that a waiter spots you in the corner and remembering to pay before you leave.
They offered a pretty wide range of brews although we only tried the one, a 5.3% dunkel which was mediocre at best.

MiniBrowar Spiz, Wrocław

The next day we undertook some sightseeing in the rain.  We visited the Racławice Panorama, which the Poles get very patriotic about, climbed the 300 steps of the tower at St Elizabeth's Church and explored the University.  Because, y'know, we've not got enough of those at home in Oxford. (Incidentally twinned with Wrocław).

For a bite to eat we called in to Miṥ milk bar for some traditional cuisine at incredibly good value prices.  Under 12 złoty for 2 bowls of soup and 2 plates of kopytka potato dumplings - that's less than £2.50 and less than fools like me were paying for a glass of beer in trendy new beer bars.
First you need to decipher the menu though...

Intimidating menu.

As daylight was fading at a frightfully early hour we made a plan to head a short way out the city centre to Browar Stu Mostów Taproom (Jana Długosza 2, website).
To get here we caught Tram 6 riding it for around 15 minutes until we crossed Warszawski Bridge.  From here it was a short trek on foot to the brewery.  Opened in 2014, Stu Mostów have gained a reputation for good beers.  You know they must be doing something right when they're collaborating on beers with notable European breweries such as De Molen, HaandBryggeriat and Northern Monk.
The bar is situated on a mezzanine level with a great view over the brewing kit.  Most of the tables were reserved for later in the evening, so it's obviously a popular place.  The beer menu was fantastic, with most styles covered by either their own brews or guests.  
I stuck to the quite pedestrian Stu Mostow 'Salamandar AIPA', before diverting from Polish brewers to try one of their guest beers 'Hot Smokey Sanchez' by Madrid's La Quince Brewery.
Smoked Jalapeno chilli beer?  Not a chance I was going to miss that!

Looking down at the brewing equipment from the bar, Browar Stu Mostow

I hadn't realised beforehand that Wrocław had so many great beer bars and has become a quality destination for the beard-stroking ale-aficionado.
I couldn't visit them all, but below is a rundown of the drinking establishments that we did get to:

My beer bar selection in Wrocław

Kontynuacja (ul. Ofiar Oświęcimskich 17, Facebook Page)

Kontynuacja, Wrockław

There's a branch of this craft beer bar in Katowice as well, although I felt the Wrocław location has a bit more character to it, in a more traditional room with vaulted ceilings.  Beers are displayed on a blackboard at the end of the bar, with around 15 available from Polish micros and a couple of international offerings.  There are a lot of small breweries popped up in Poland in the past few years and the choice overwhelmed me a bit on arrival - I plumped for a black IPA - 'Galaktyka Piwnix' by Browar Podgórz.  This was absolutely fine, but a dull pick in comparison to Mrs PropUpTheBar's Cocoa and Peppermint Double Milk Stout, which was served on one of the two hand pumps at the bar.
Beer jealousy.

AleBrowar Wrockław (Pawła Włodkowica 27, website)
AleBrowar were set up in 2012 and are based up in Lȩbork in the north of the country, close to Gdańsk.  They run two bars, one in Gydnia and this one in Wrocław.  And it is predictably cool and an essential stop on any crawl through the cities beer hot-spots.
This has a light and airy cafe/bar feel to it.  Beers are listed on colourful boards at the back of the bar and the selection on this visit had something to suit most tastes.
I went for strong & hoppy with 'Kiss the Beast' - an 8.5% DIPA followed by a palate- cleansing 'Apricot New Wave Gose'.

Bar at AleBrowar, Wrocław

Szynkarnia (Ṡwiętego Antoniego 15, website)
Just along the road from AleBrowar we chose this place on the basis of being able to get a casual bite to eat, whilst still having the pick of the beers.  It has a deli counter at the front, with the bar just around the corner and seating on three levels.  With a busy crowd on a Saturday evening, we were led to a small table on the mezzanine with a birds-eye view of proceedings.  We filled the table with rustic potato wedges and local flat-breads, washed down with a 'Holiday IPA' from Langier Bir.  

4Hops (ul. Ofiar Oświęcimskich 46)
Definitely a contender for the best of the beer bars that we visited, this place had lots of cool design touches, a good crowd, a bit of street-art and a nifty-looking racing bike hanging from the ceiling next to our table.

Hanging bike at 4Hops - picture nabbed from their Instagram page

We faced another spectacular beer-list to make selections from.  I was ill-advisedly veering towards the strong-ABV stuff at this point in the evening and picked out 'Łokietek' by Browar Kazimierz a strong DIPA weighing in at 8%.  Then returned to the bar for something even more lethal in the shape of 'Echo' a 9.3% imperial Baltic porter by Nepomucen which fortunately was available in sensible 0.1litre measures.  These were pretty expensive beers, but nothing like the prices you'd face for similar offerings in a UK craft bar.

Marynko Pivo I Apertivo (Kazimierza Wielkiego 39)
This was the last of the places that we visited on our trip to the city and, if I'm being perfectly honest, one place and one beer too many for a feeble lightweight like me on a long day out.
To get to the bar you need to pass through a building from the street and you'll find Marynko Pivo in the backyard.  The courtyard would surely be a nice spot in warm weather, but on this chilly night it was just home to a pizza van, offering up food for the peckish.  Inside the bar stretches through a couple of characterful dimly-lit rooms with vaulted ceilings and exposed brickwork.
Yet again, a great selection of beers.  I seemed to remember someone recommending Pracownia Piwa as one of the countries best breweries, so I picked their 'Crack', a sensible strength 'American' stout.

And that brings to an end my boozy explorations and recommendations for Wrocław.  It's a great place, very worthy of a city-break and brilliant for eating and drinking.
For up-to-date info check out the invaluable In Your Pocket guide and enjoy!