Do Not Touch the Dinosaurs

We caught the local train to take us the 9-miles from Cardiff to Barry on a glorious sunny Saturday.  The train announcer informed passengers that return services were expected to be super-busy as the crowds flocked to the seaside, whilst the ticket inspectors were out in force on the hunt for fare-dodgers.

Barry surprised me by being much bigger than I expected - it's home to some 55,000 folk, having absorbed the nearby villages, with three railway stations at the Docks, Town and Barry Island.
We stayed on board until the final stop at the Island.  This was once an authentic island, until the creation of the Docks in the late 19th century linked it to the mainland.

We strolled across the sandy beach, then around the bay onto the headland, which provided great views of the Severn Estuary.  Back to the hubbub of the promenade, I popped into the arcade to waste my usual allotted amount of 2p pieces on the amusements.

The cuddly toys you can win sure aren't what they used to be...

Barry's micropub was a 20-minute trek from the Island to Broad Street, near the Docks, so required a Greggs pasty to see us on our way.
Once we'd reached Broad Street, the Butterfly Collector didn't immediately jump out at us, the white lettering on pink signage not being the most prominent. 

The Butterfly Collector (50a Holton Road, Barry, CF63 4HE)
You'll find the 'Butterfly Collector' song on the b-side of The Jam's 1979 single 'Strange Town'.
All the Jam's LP's lined the wall under the blackboard in the pub.
And the gaffer is sitting at a table in a Jam t-shirt.
"Who are the Jam?", asked Mrs PropUptheBar.

The other unmissable feature is the collection of umbrellas over our heads, which is a novel way to improve the dull suspended ceiling of an ex-shop unit.

There was no bar, with the racked barrels and boxes of cider all on display at the back of the room and service at your table.  Quite a novelty in 2018 when this micro opened, but now having beers served to my table has lost its appeal forever.
Ales available (at £3.80 a pint) were 'Butty Bach' or two from the local Grey Trees Brewery, 'Mosiac' or 'Drummer Boy'.
The 'Mosaic' was in good form.  The only disappointment was that we had to listen to pop hits on the lunchtime radio, whilst all the memorabilia had put me in the mood for Eton Rifles.

When I'd looked up Barry online, I'd stumbled across the fact that it was home to the recently crowned Best Independent Craft Bar in the SIBA 2022 awards.
Well, we couldn't come so close to an award-winning craft bar and not visit, could we?

This was located a 15-minute walk from the Butterfly Collector, taking us back toward Barry Island.  It's in a new development called Goodsheds which also has crafty shops, artisan bakeries, a tiny record shop in a railway carriage, and a small farmers market.

The other nominees in SIBA's best independent city craft bar were:
The Pembury Tavern in Hackney, a well-known old favourite.
Dead Crafty in Liverpool, which we'd sat in earlier this year on a chilly January evening.
And The Colmore in Birmingham, nominated for their robust entry policy and keeping the riff-raff out, I suspect.

And here's the winner...

Craft Republic (Unit 1, Goodshed Lofts, Hood Road, Barry, CF62 5QT - web) 
A second venue with table service, this time with futuristic little buzzer thingies on the table by which to call for attention.
As it was lunchtime in a venue that was only serving drinks, the bar was quiet, with the outdoor seating proving more popular.

There was no faulting the tap list, with 14 beers covering a wide range of styles, described to us by the staff member with bucket-loads of enthusiasm.

I opted for a golden bitter from Pontypridd based Mabby Brewing Co, an easy drinking brew with such low carbonation that it could have come from a cask.
Then I pressed the little button on the table and ordered a Saugatuck 'Neapolitan Milk Stout'.  From Michigan - so much for drinking the local Welsh ales.

Just the two drinking establishments for us in Barry on this visit, as we drank up and headed to the train station, our next target a brewery tap in Cardiff.

I'll leave you with the shot from the headland, looking back toward Barry over Whitmore Bay.
And I've managed to get all the way through the post without mentioning that TV show!

Sunspots - St Julians and Beyond

Having conquered the centre of Newport, we headed off to explore what was on the eastern side of the river.  The plan was to walk the couple of miles to St Julians where there was a long-standing Beer Guide pub, then continue on to the neighbouring town of Caerleon.

We passed by the remains of the castle, then crossed Newport Bridge...

Muddy banks of the Usk

It didn't take us very long to divert from our original plan...
Oooooh!  Brewery Tap!
Yep, that's all it takes.

Weird Dad Brewery Tap (23 Carleon Road, Newport, NP19 7BU - web)
Opened in the autumn of 2021, there are two interconnected rooms in these former retail units which make up the micro-pub/brewery mash-up.  The bar is in the first room, shelves of bottles and cans in the second, plus a window looking through to the brewing equipment. 
We received a warm welcome from the boss and two local drinkers, all three of whom got chatting to us about the best local pubs to visit.

Here's the beer list, with much neater whiteboard-marker writing than I could ever manage...

There was a fine varied selection of beer and cider, surely with something to please everyone, including two cask ales from Ainsty and Pitchfork breweries.
I felt I should try the homebrew, picking the 'Mine's a Dark'.  A fine dark mild at 3.5%, which was served from a keg but I'd never have known it.

As the folks in Weird Dad had warned us, it was a fair old trek to our next destination, much of it through housing estates, then across the motorway and onto a road that followed the river.
So it was good to see the pub in the distance as we rounded a corner... 

The St Julians (Caerleon Road, Newport, NP18 1QA - web)
This white and blue painted roadside pub has appeared in 28 consequetive editions of the Good Beer Guide, so must be doing something right.

Our first impressions were fantastic as we strolled in to find a band in full swing playing New Orleans jazz.

The bar counter faces the rear of the pub, looking out over the river, with cosy seating areas to either of side of it, including wood panels salvaged from an old ocean liner.
Enjoying the balmy good weather, I took my Bath Ales 'Prophecy' out onto the terrace.
Here's the view - not bad is it?

It was just ten minutes further along the B4596 to reach the town of Caerleon.
Coming toward the bridge we got a glimpse of the Hanbury Arms across the other side of the river, complete with Norman tower attached to the side...

Hanbury Arms (Uskside, High Street, Caerleon, NP18 1AA - web)
The pub is the oldest inhabited building in Caerleon, with a cracking riverside location.

I'd expected it to be much busier on a lovely warm weekend evening, but I suspect we missed the peak craziness, the evidence of which was the enormous stack of dirty glasses covering half of the bar.
Perhaps it quieted down because the evening sun leaves the riverside terrace in the shade, tempting folk across to the Ship Inn on the other side of the bridge for their evening pub garden antics.

Two cask ales were available from the big Cardiff brewer here - Brains 'Gold' or 'Bitter'.
Made more appealing by the fancy curved pump clips...

The 'SA Gold' was in good form and enjoyable enough, plus the pub gets extra points for serving us a very sensibly priced jacket potato.

We thought we'd missed the last bus back to Newport, consigning ourselves to a long walk.
So it was a pleasant surprise to see Google change it's mind, reporting on a bus 2-minutes away as we were leaving.  Unusual good luck.

Alighting a short while later, we still had one more pub from the current Beer Guide to visit on the east side of the river.

The part of town where the craft beer connoisseurs live...

The weekend revelry looked well underway in the nightlife venues along Chepstowe Road.  What would Wetherspoon's have in store for us? 

The Godfrey Morgan (158 Chepstow Road, Newport, NP19 8EG)
I do like a Wetherspoon's cinema conversion, so was chuffed to see the grand frontage of this building as we approached, even if Little India have set up in one side of it and spoiled the symmetry.
This was once the Maindee Cinema, opened a few weeks after the declaration of war in 1939.  It boasted state of the art facilities, but can't have been a roaring success as it only survived as a picture palace for 22 years.

This was much quieter than expected.
I think all the 'action' was just down the road at the Maindee Hotel and Scrum Half Bar.
The front section of the pub with high ceiling was the most characterful part, whilst the bar counter and more seating was in the duller rear section which was Spoons-by-numbers.

There were a couple of guest beers to compliment the usual range with 'Jemima's Pitchfork' from Glamorgan Brewing Co being my pick.
Nice enough beer, but it took me ages to drink having thoroughly worn myself out.

We'd been to a good selection of pubs, done our mileage for the day.
Next up, after a good nights rest: Barry

Lovely Day for a Tiny Rebel

We headed for a long weekend on the South Wales coast, where we'd decided to make Newport our base.
We perhaps didn't take full advantage of everything on offer for the tourist in Newport - every morning I threatened to get up early and walk to the transporter bridge, and every morning I failed to do so.
But I think we did a pretty good job of exploring the best of the local pubs...

It didn't take us long, after hopping off the train, to find ourselves sat with a pint in the Pen and Wig...

Scaffolding is my business and business is good

The Pen and Wig (22-24 Stow Hill, Newport, NP20 1JD - web)
This is a pub that I really liked.
It reminded me of a few long lost places that I used to drink in during the '90's.  Just a no-frills room with the choice of sitting in the middle of the action or tucking yourself away on a table in one of the areas to the side.
Lots of TV's, although I was a little grumpy that they deemed Sky Sports news and the dismissal of Sean Dyce by Burnley to be of more interest that the lunchtime Championship match.

The Pen and Wig is a lone outlet for Bass in this part of the country, but the barrel had just run out when we arrived.  That left an interesting choice of Welsh brewery beers, including plenty of dark stuff.

 

As it was close to our accommodation, we called in more than once...
"I can't believe we've been in here three days in a row" said Mrs PropUptheBar with a frown, on Day 3 of the South Wales trip.
Well, we had to return and check the Bass had come back on, didn't we?

It was just a short walk from the Pen and Wig to the Tiny Rebel bar.
This well-known Welsh craft brewery began in 2012 with two brothers-in-law upgrading from home-brewing in a garage to rented an industrial unit and marching forth on their way to winning Champion Beer of Britain.
Their first bar, Cardiff's Urban Tap House, opened in 2013, with Newport hot on it's heels in 2015.

Tiny Rebel (22-23 High Street, Newport, NP20 1FX - web)
In a great location, this is pretty much what we've come to expect from craft bars the length and breadth of the country - a bit of street art chiseled out of the old brickwork, canteen-style furniture, industrial ceiling with all the ductwork on show, and a hip soundtrack pumped out the music system.

The clientele included footy fans on their way to Rodney Parade and families munching down burgers and fries as they supped their Juice Bar IPAs.

I opted for the Tiny Rebel cask 'Press Start', an unusual smooth, nutty black IPA, whilst Mrs PropUptheBar ordered the 10% 'Peppermint Candy Cane' imperial stout and got tutted at by the staff who thought she wanted a pint of it.
(The question was actually 'can we order a 3rd?', not 'we're beer monsters and demand our 10% stouts by the pint!')

A couple sat down at the next table with a shared glass of coke, propped their phone up against the wall, then both sat chuckling at animals doing funny things on video clips.

Maybe Sam Smith's non-digital policy isn't such a bad idea after all.

I meant to get another picture later of the Olde Murenger House without the Newport constabulary outside, but completely forgot...

Ye Olde Murenger House (52-53 High Street, Newport, NP20 1GA)
This is the ideal building for a Sam Smith's pub, having been taken over by the Tadcaster brewery in the early '80's.
After admiring the Mock Tudor frontage, the entrance led to several dimly lit wood paneled rooms within.  I was about to take a picture of the fine display of football club mugs in a cabinet at the side of the bar, before remembering that Humphrey has outlawed photography in his pubs.
So I instructed Mrs PropUptheBar to take the interior picture, knowing that she won't be especially upset if she receives a Sam Smith's ban.
Not enough craft y'see.  Meanwhile, I was quite content with my 'Old Brewery Bitter'.

As pub names go, this is amongst the more unusual ones.
'Murenger' is an ancient term for a tax collector who collected the money for the upkeep of the town walls.  And his house used to be on this site.
The building foundations date back a long way, whilst the current building was constructed in 1816.

There's a decent bit of variety in the pubs so far today - let's squeeze in a micro-pub!

Honey I shrunk the A-board!

The Cellar Door (5 Clytha Park Road, Newport, NP20 4NZ)
Opened in 2017, this micro is just a short walk from the train station, headed away from the city centre.
For a Friday evening it was frightfully quiet - a bit of merriment coming from the rear area, but just the one lady sat by the bar chatting to the boss about people's ailments and woes.

Everyone had been warned I was coming...again.

Superb beer though - my Bristol Beer Factory 'Cinder Toffee Stout' was a delicious beer on good form, with a Quantock pale being the other option.
 
Oooh - Welsh Cider Pub of the Year 2018.  Enough to tempt me it was a good idea to stay for another drink and switch to the apple stuff.  Quiet it may have been, but we were content to skip Newport's livelier bars with bouncers on the door and end our evening comfortably settled under the fairy lights in the window of the micro pub.

Tiny Rebel Addendum

Jumping forward a couple of days since our initial pub visits in Newport, we made the effort to get out to Tiny Rebel's brewery and tap room.
Located at Rogerstone, around 3-miles west of the city centre, this was an easy bus ride away, the only other passengers turning out to be going to exactly the same place as us. 
Spotting the colourful grain silos in the distance provided a clue we were walking the right way...

Tiny Rebel Brewery (Cassington Road, Wern Industrial Estate, Rogerstone, NP10 9FQ - web)
This modern tap room opened it's doors in the summer of 2017.  It's an impressive building - an industrial-style, high ceilinged beer hall, with a mezzanine level and views through to the brewing equipment to the side.

Perhaps surprisingly, there had been a wider choice of beer in the Tiny Rebel Bar in Newport centre.  Here at the tap, a run of shiny handpumps went mostly unused, with just three in operation serving 'Cwtch', 'Press Start' and 'Peloton Pale'.
Oh well... the 'Cwtch' is the award-winner and was in good condition and very tasty.

More from Newport on the next post - when we wander east of the river, discover a nano-brewery and get mildly disappointed by some Roman ruins.
Cheers!

Kenilworth Pub Explorations

In which we explore the Warwickshire town of Kenilworth, where the Beer Guide delivers a trio of very different pubs to visit.

Kenilworth is a town of two halves, with a park in between.
To the north is the stuff for day-trippers to coo over: the castle, views over the Abbey Fields, thatched roofs, and tea shops in Tudor houses. 
The southern part of town is more functional and modern: housing estates, shops, a busy main road, and the kind of local's pubs that I'd have visited if I was half as good as Life After Football.

Our planned route for the day would take us around a good cross-section of the town, starting at the micropub, handily close to the bus stop...

Ale Rooms & Gin Bar (7 Smalley Place, Kenilworth, CV8 1QG)
Didn't micro-pubs once used to be ramshackle affairs?   The first I visited had no bar counters, furniture knocked together by a mate of the landlord who does a bit of carpentry, and signs stating 'no, we don't sell Carling'.
The Ale Rooms is of the smart micro-pub variety.  Here there was art work adorning the walls, pastel shades, plush beige cushioned seating, Beavertown craft and fancy gins.

I warmed to the place a bit more when the other customers, two track-suited lads, finished their midday Estrella's and departed, after which the chap behind the bar got chatting to us. We learnt that this is part of a small chain and that they're linked to Leicester's Framework Brewery.

We told the barman we'd come to visit the town's Beer Guide pubs.
"Ah, we get that quite a lot - you're not the only ones", he reassured us.  Nice to know!

Leaving the Ale Rooms, we strolled up the road until we reached the castle.
Can't cover Kenilworth and not include a photo of the castle...

Our route around the picturesque ruins was curtailed by a few spots of rain, so we headed along the High Street on our way to pub #2, the Olde Worlde one...

Virgins and Castle (7 High Street, Kenilworth, CV8 1LY - web)
Not so olde worlde prices though, as I did a double-take looking at the menu with it's pie and mash for £15.50.  Crikey, everything's expensive these days - I told Mrs PropUptheBar that we'd be sneaking in bags of Wotsits on our pub visits from this point onward.

It was a very good pie though, washed down with a pint of the 'Terminus' golden bitter from Chesterfield's Brampton Brewery.

This is the oldest pub in Kenilworth, dating back to 1563.  It became the Sign of Two Virgins in the 18th century, then merged with another pub, the Castle Tavern, in 1828.  Hence the unusual name.
It's a nice place - a fair few rooms, lots of nooks and crannies, and suits of armour watching over you as you ascend the stairs to the loos.

 
It was just a hop across the road to The Old Bakery...

The Old Bakery (12 High Street, Kenilworth, CV8 1LZ - web)
Okay, so if I thought the Ale Rooms was a bit smart, I was definitely gonna be out of my comfort zone here.
An Elizabethan building, the one-time bakery has been converted to an hotel ('14 airy rooms with luxurious yet understated furnishings').  In front of the hotel is a small two-room pub, which I'd figured would be foody, but is actually wet led.

The decor was old wooden beams, rugs and pot plants.  Gentlefolk supped white wine in the window seat.  A very civilized place.

They did have a fine choice of ales (Wye Valley, Salopian, Rudgate and Goff's) and beer mats advertising Coventry Beer Festival. And I did enjoy my Goff's 'Jester 17', even though I'm surprised I picked beer that advertised rose hips as an ingredient.

Beams!

Leaving the Old Dairy, we made our way down past the church and across Abbey Fields.

Veering westward from the main shopping street, we walked through the housing estate until we reached Oaks Precinct, where you can get a haircut, a tattoo and a bronze tan prior to heading into the pub next door.

The Gauntlet is of course named after the 80's home computer game series which frustrated the hell out of me on my ZX Spectrum.
Or perhaps the glove of a medieval suit of armour - who knows?

Forget all these new-fangled video consoles - this is when graphics were great!

The Gauntlet (8 Oaks Precinct, Caesar Road, CV8 1DP - web)
"Oh, it's actually alright", said Mrs PropUptheBar who'd judged the book by it's cover and contemplated going to the tanning salon instead of coming in the pub.

A sprawling central bar with plenty of open-plan space around it, booth seating, pool table, and a handful of punters dotted around keeping their distance from one another. 

Robinson's 'Trooper', Proper Job, Butty Bach or Landlord were the four ales available.
I picked the Iron Maiden curated 'Trooper' because I've been in the Gryphon in Bristol and am still feeling very heavy metal.  But it wasn't on great form.

Three cyclists arrived and returned their pints of Proper Job as being unfit to drink. 
So, bad day at the Gauntlet for the beer, then.

With four pubs under our belt, it was time to leave Kenilworth.  We caught the bus back to Leamington Spa, a town which would provide a few more beer distractions before the day was over and needs a revisit and a post all to itself in the near future.