From the Perseverance to a Maidenhead Newbie

After a week of craft beers in Estonia and Latvia I was craving a pint of cask ale. So we headed to the eastern edges of Berkshire on a grey and overcast day to get one.  Or two.

Our first port of call was the village of Wraysbury, a few miles to the east of Windsor. It takes just under 10-minutes from Windsor on the slow train which was already busy with rugby fans making their way early to Twickenham.
We were the sole passengers to alight in Wraysbury, an historic village with a population of just over 4,000.  It's a delight for plane spotters, being on the western approach to Heathrow airport, although we found the novelty of a jumbo jet roaring by just over our heads wore off pretty quickly.

Wraysbury has two pubs and a club, but we just stuck to the Good Beer Guide listed Perseverance. 

The Perseverance (2 High Street, Wraysbury, TW19 5DB - web)
The front room is almost certainly the best of the seating areas in this pleasant village pub.  Wooden beams, piano, a dart board which would require some hefty furniture moving to make it usable, and a grand inglenook fireplace.
I'm not quite sure why we didn't sit in there: I think I was too nervous about being told off by the landlady for sitting somewhere which was reserved - I was already getting suspicious looks after taking a picture of the pump clip.

There were three ales on offer: an Otter bitter and two stouts.  I started with the J.W.Lees and Salt collaboration, a very tasty export stout named 'The Mighty Deep'.
Once we'd negotiated our way past the 'food for pre-booked reservations only' rule (a little odd, as it wasn't that busy) I followed the export stout with an Irish dry stout: Morrisman' from the local Elusive Brewery.  Another good beer on top form.

Suitably fed and refreshed in the Perseverance, we hopped aboard a train back to Windsor Riverside station, then passed through the centre of the town which was looking a lot busier with tourists compared to my last couple of visits here.
We were making our way to Good Beer Guide entry The Trooper...

The Windsor Trooper (97 St Leonards Street, Windsor, SL4 3BZ - web)
The rectangular front room of the Trooper looked great, with sectioned bench seating and tables designed for communal drinking and conversation.  No distractions here other than the plentiful collection of breweriana on the walls.
There's lots more space - and sport on TV - in a hall-like room to the rear and on a smart patio with covered and heated seating.

On the bar there was an Adnam's 'Southwold Bitter' and Oakham 'Citra', alongside four from Mad Squirrel.
Trust me to pick the wrong one. The 'Extra Squirrelly Bitter' was a dubious pint, not helped by the dispense method of sitting the glass on the drip tray and pumping the hand pull for ages with a bored expression.

Dubious beer.  Should really have taken it back.

Mrs PropUptheBar made a far better choice with the cider, the pub having won a recent local Cider Pub of the Year accolade.

We had a 20-minute walk ahead of us on roads less trodden by the average Windsor tourist.  Clewer Village is located just across the A332, midway between Windsor Castle and the  Racecourse.  The Swan is one of those Beer Guide location oddities, that really could just be listed under Windsor.

The Swan (9 Mill Lane, Clewer Village, SL4 5JG - web)
It's a community owned pub, brought back to life by local investors in 2019 after being closed for over 3 years.  The pictures on their website suggest it underwent some pretty drastic stripping back to bare bones, so no surprise that the single room is bright, airy and modern.  

A reasonable and varied Saturday afternoon crowd were mostly focused on the Six Nations on the TV.  Yes, it's that time of year again.  
Which means rugby themed beers - always best avoided - though for reasons unknown I succumbed to the Windsor and Eton 'Last Drop' here.

Our route back took us back through Alexandra Park by the riverside and up an old concrete staircase to station level.  But half-way up we spotted this in the railway arches...

Ooooh, we could always get a later train!

Two Flints Brewery Taproom (The Arches, 25-26 Alma Road, Windsor, SL4 1QZ)
Only open a matter of months, there was a decent crowd enjoying the crafty offerings from the bar and shouting at the rugby on a screen somewhere upstairs.  Seating was located on long benches on two levels, with the brew kit bathed in purple stretching into the depths of the place.
Twelve tap lines served a selection of their own beers alongside varied and interesting guest ales - a Two Flints murky 6.8% New England IPA named 'Cosmic Dance' for me, please.

 

I made a quick check to see if anyone had turned Keith's Shed at Windsor Central station into a micropub...

Nope, not yet.

Before we jumped aboard a train and made our way back to Slough, then onward to Maidenhead.
Apparently I'd neglected to mention to Mrs PropUptheBar that I intended to add a visit to Maidenhead onto the end of the day.
Her enthusiasm rose when taking on the not inconsiderable challenge of navigating the town's western housing estates; dipped quite low once we reached the pub; then rose again when we found a new craft bar.

Heck, it was a long way to the North Star...

But at least a perusal of their website confirmed it offered everything we needed:

The North Star (91 Westborough Road, Maidenhead SL6 4AP - web)
A two-room backstreet local, we headed through the main door into a steamy and busy main bar with the England rugby match on the big screen being watched by an enthusiastic crowd.
With no hand pumps in sight I had to ask after the ale and was given a choice of Timothy Taylor or Rebellion.

There was nowhere to sit, or even feasibly stand, in the main bar we headed through to the empty side room which is where they hide the real ale, local CAMRA magazines and weirdo pub tickers (that'll be me).

It was a little odd knowing one half of the pub was heaving whilst we sat in peace and quiet, but not entirely unpleasant.
Helped a lot by a cracking cheese & onion cob and the Rebellion 'Adventurer' being a decent traditional dark ale on good form.

Leaving the North Star we trekked the streets on a different route back to the centre and found our way to A Hoppy Place.  This is located on the ground floor of brand new smart housing blocks which were a building site when I was last here.  The town is regenerating as folks relocate to be within 30-minutes of London by the Elizabeth Line and 5-minutes walk from Doom Bar in the Maidenhead Conservative Club.
Or, if they're really lucky, living just above A Hoppy Place...

A Hoppy Place (Units 1-3 Trinity Place, Park Street, Maidenhead, SL6 1TJ - web)
Opened in June 2022, this is an expansion of the bottle shop/bar in Windsor.  But unlike the Windsor branch, this is a spacious place with a range of seating options and large bar counter.
There are cask ales - making this a shoe-in for the next Beer Guide, surely - plus 14 keg lines and a fridge full of cans and bottles.

So after setting out in the morning for fine pint of cask ale, I ended the evening back on the craft beer.
Next you'll be telling me it's all the rage!

Riga Pub Explorations

My third (and very delayed) post covering our trip to Riga, where we were forced to shelter in lots of pubs and bars to escape the chilly winter temperatures.

The picture at the top of the post is the Colonel Brewpub, which was the first place we visited in the Latvian capital: attracted by the words 'Brew Pub' and the jolly drunken soldier on a barrel.
Picturesque from outside it may be, but inside it was dull, geared more towards dining, and featured the odd choice of big-wave surf videos on giant TVs (which were actually pretty mesmerising and hard not not to watch).  Disappointingly, both the light and dark versions of the home brew were pretty dreadful.

I remember the days (before the invention of craft beer) when the local brew pub was my highlight of many a European trip.  They were always hit & miss, but presented a chance to drink something other than the local big-brand beer (almost inevitably owned by Heineken) and to pick up a unique beermat to add to the collection.

So on day three we wondered if we'd have more joy at the barn-like Stargorod Brew Pub, just beyond the northern edge of the old town.

Stargorod Riga (Republikas Laukums 1, Centra rajons, Rīga, LV-1010 - web)
Stargorod is billed as Riga's Czech brewery, although it's actually part of small Ukrainian chain.  
It's a cavernous multi-roomed place, with pictures in the reception area of cheery revellers dancing to live music suggesting it can be quite a raucous experience at times. But not if you visit in the middle of the afternoon like we always do.

It was a waiter service - an overly serious young man seating us near the bar which had a bank of TVs above it showing women's wrestling.

Before our beers arrived an egg timer was mysteriously delivered to the table.

Drinks served, the waiter explained to us that the beer was brewed on site, so was kept in optimum condition through to the point it was poured. 
But look out!  As soon as it's in the glass it has to be drunk speedily before the quality can lapse.  Hence, once the egg timer runs out your beer is no longer at its best.

This is definitely true and not a ruse to get you to drink quicker and buy more beer. 

The timer ran out awfully quickly.
Much more quickly than I could quaff my beer.

My photography skills have let me down and I haven't really captured the full glory of the toilets at Stargorod.
At the back of the urinal behind a screen was a row of TV screens showing the sports channel to ensure you don't miss any of the action.

Then there was the addition of a boxing arcade machine in the toilet.  A bit sexist, I thought, putting it in the gents on the assumption that no ladies will want to test the strength of their left hook at some point during an evening out.

Departing from Stargorod, we made a quick call into Kakis Maisa (Torņa iela 4, Centra rajons, Rīga, LV-1050).  This is located in a cellar room of the old Jēkab's Barracks - a photogenic building which was constructed along the old city fortifications.  It's worth a visit to try the beers from Teika Brewery, which the bar is connected to.  

But some places really need a crowd of folk to make them work, and this was one of them.  Turns out even the Riga tourists don't head out to drink craft beer mid-afternoon, midweek, as we had the place all to ourselves.

The rest of our planned destinations for the evening were a mile or so from the old town.  Our first point of call was Beera Bar, in the basement of an elegant building...

 

Beera Bar (Ģertrūdes iela 39, Centra rajons, Rīga, LV-1011)

This was a pleasant and comfortable L-shaped bar: a bit of street art on the walls, fridge full of beers, and digital menu above the counter. And the best soundtrack of the week, featuring Bowie, T-Rex, Magazine and Talking Heads.

There were 12 taps with Polish brewers Pinta and Stu Mostov alongside the local offerings.
I picked the BEERA bar 'Flight 611' pale ale - a collaboration with Alchimistis Beer Bar in Athens - flight 611 being the direct service between Riga and Athens.

We grabbed some superb Indian food from the extensive vegetarian buffet in Rāma, before heading just down the road from Beera Bar to another craft hotspot...

Alus Muiža (Ģertrūdes iela 45, Centra rajons, Rīga, LV-1011 - web)
Finally we'd found somewhere that was a little bit busy, even though I managed to take a picture of the dark interior which makes it look almost empty.  There were a number of drinkers gathered around the bar, some young folk around the corner engrossed in a complicated board game, and a steady procession of locals popping in to fill up growlers.

Sat at the end of the moodily lit room on chunky stools we enjoyed the our murky Latvian pale ales here, with a good choice at much more reasonable prices than the bars of the Old Town.

A 15-minute walk took  us further out of town into much quieter streets until we found our way to a brewery tap...

Alus Rūme Trofeja (Avotu iela 74, Latgales priekšpilsēta, Rīga, LV-1009)
This proved to be a great little place, lots of wood, quirky decorations, a friendly fella behind the bar, and a few locals nodding along to the post-rock soundtrack.
It's the taproom of Trofeja Brewery with around eight of their beers on offer.  I must have been feeling a little homesick as I picked the 'Anglu Kents' mild (absolutely nothing like an English mild, but never mind).  Before popping back to the bar for a 6% herbal winter stout - they do like their herbal beers in Latvia.

A speedy ride in a Bolt (the Latvian Uber) took us back to the city centre. 
Where we conceded we'd had enough beer, but hadn't had enough cherry liquor.
Piana Vyshnia draws the tourists in with it's spectacular ceiling made of bottles and illuminated by red light.  And the traditional Ukrainian cherry tipple isn't half bad!

And with that I'll bring my explorations of Riga to a close.  We'd sampled Baltic ciders, weird spirits in wacky basement bars, and craft beers...oh so many craft beers.
If I'd been a more cultured blogger I'd have shared my pictures of the wonderful architecture of the city.  But no.  I'm signing off with a Baltic porter and garlic black bread picture.

Uz veselibu!

Looking for Labientis in Riga

On our first full day in Riga we headed out for a morning of sightseeing and an afternoon mission to find our way to the Labientis brewery tap.

The tap itself is a couple of miles into the suburbs to the west of the old town, but Labientis also have two central venues.
Including one in the foody section of the market hall which, as their own website says, is a "convenient location" and "the destination of the gourmand".

Labientis Centralmarket (Gastronomijas paviljons,Centrāltirgus iela 3 k-2 Rīga - web)
The central market was constructed between 1924 and 1930, utlisiing relocated WW1 German zeppelin hangers from the Latvian Vaiņode Air Base.  There are only nine zeppelin hangers remaining worldwide, and five of them are here housing Riga's market.

The Labientis bar is great for folk who want to have a beer in a UNESCO-listed building.  Not so good for anyone who covets the comfort and warmth of a cosy bar.
This is all about drinking beer with your coat on whilst sitting on precarious stools and watching the comings and goings at the food stalls.  The member of staff was super-friendly, describing the four beers on tap (lots more in bottles if the tap lines don't take your fancy) and offering us tasters.  

I picked the 'Ferdinand Chestnut Bock', a 6.5% brew which was okay, but very light in body and - the folly of craft beer in chilly venues - served too cold for me to really enjoy.

After leaving the market we had to visit the shopping mall to go shoe shopping.
I know how to enjoy myself on holiday.

Replacement for my rapidly disintegrating boots procured, we headed out on the walk to the Labientis tap.
Everyone will quite rightly tell you to visit Elizabetes iela to get carried away taking pictures of the stunning colourful Art Nouveau buildings.  But I'm gonna be different and bring you pictures of the lesser heralded suburban Riga architecture that we passed on our walk.

 

And the street art...

Our destination was located off Aristida Briāna, through the archway with statues of Hermes and Dionysus on top of it.

This whole block was once occupied by Štricka Brewery, producing 12 different types of beer, porter and malt liquor from the 1880's until the First World War, when the brewing kit was taken to Russia.
The mansions either side of the gate in the picture above were once the administrative buildings of the brewery.  Nowadays they house a nightclub and music venue.

A little further into the complex is Labientis...

Labietis (Aristida Briāna iela 9a, Centra rajons, Rīga, LV-1001 - web)
This isn't your average brewery.  On their website they've colour-coded their beers into 'families' and quickly manage to confuse me with brewing alchemy.
They like their herbal and spiced beers, and recipes from hundreds of years ago.

Here's the taproom beer list..

Just like at the market, the staff member here was brimming with enthusiasm about the beers, explaining how stuff was brewed and all about the foraged ingredients that went into some of them.
After imparting so much information about their experimental beer styles, he was probably quite disappointed that I just picked the Imperial IPA.

I popped back to the bar for another beer and was given a (very generous) taster of the 15.6% bronze age braggot.  A really interesting and unusual brew, although the sample measure was all I needed.

Great soundtrack - Mahavishnu Orchestra and Black Country New Road entertained us whilst we sat in the corner, trying to work out how to get to our next destination.
Valmiermuiža Beer Embassy was puzzling us, as it had exactly the same address as where we were sat, and Google refused to accept that it existed.
It does - and it looks like this...

Valmiermuižas Beer Embassy (A. Briāna iela 9a, Rīga)
This is actually located pretty much back-to-back with Labientis, in the same building with a frontage overlooking the Rimi supermarket.
There's a beer kitchen and a beer boutique here - we sat in the plush surroundings of the boutique where there was a beer wall with 17 taps, plus shelves of local bottles and cans.

On the walk back we popped into Taka (Miera iela 10, Centra rajons, Rīga, LV-1001), which gave us a bit of shelter from a brief flurry of snow.

   

Taka consists of a simple L-shaped room which is effortlessly laid-back and cool without even trying.  There are sofas to sink into, moody lighting, murals, a fine soundtrack, and a projector showing a moving depiction of how beer is brewed.

Six beers on tap, from which I picked a sensible and easy-going IPA,  'Arhiteks' by the Manufaktura brewery.

This part of town has been marketed as the Riga Beer District, something we only scratched the surface of, but worth further exploration to find the other breweries and Pagan heavy metal bar. 

Labientis also have a smart craft bar at the southern edge of Riga Old Town, Miezis + Kompanija, which we visited on the last day of our trip.
Sensible prices and an extensive beer list of their own creations alongside other Latvian craft breweries - this is somewhere I wouldn't hesitate to recommend.

Just one more Baltic post to go, in which I discover the best pub toilets in Riga, a couple of superb small craft bars, more weird herbal brews, and unwisely end up on the cherry liquor.

Do you really need to go to Brewdog when you've travelled all the way to Estonia?

No, not really. 

To be fair, I'm not sure you really need to go to the German beer hall either, but curiosity got the better of us.
And if we hadn't visited, I'd never had seen these fantastic washroom hand basins...

The Beer House (Dunkri 5, 10123 Tallinn - web) is a large German-themed eating and drinking establishment in the heart of the Old Town, made up of multiple rooms, much of which was hidden away behind closed doors when we visited at an off-peak time.

It's everything you'd expect:  shiny brewing coppers, large chunky tables, serving staff in dirdls, Bavarian beer hall music.
Stuffed animal diorama.  Of course... 

And all your favourite trad beer styles brewed on site - 7 in total at tourist-trap prices.  Half a litre of Märzen for €6.50, whilst a small plate of chips was a whopping €7.00.

I could just about cope with the beer price - this was an enjoyable, moreish, full-bodied amber ale.

It was that beer hall music I was struggling with - after hearing the Oompah band version of 'Roll Out the Barrel' for the third time in a row I was eyeing the exit and planning an escape.

Our final point of call in Tallinn was back in the Telliskivi Creative City area, where we made out way to the Purtse Tap Room (Telliskivi 60m, 10149 Tallinn - web).
Purtse brewery itself is located in the industrial region of Ida-Virumaa in the north-east of Estonia.  Celebrating the part of the country they hail from, the bottle labels feature industrial scenes and rugged coal miners.
Their tap room in the capital is welcoming and well set-up - with some nice bucket light shades...

There was a great choice on the taps and in the fridges at Purtse, from their very good 'Industrial' DIPA that I picked first, to the very weird 'Plaadimeri' tomato and chilli sour.

I grabbed a stubby bottle of 'Tuhamagi', an 11.5% imperial porter, as a takeaway.

 

"Do you really need that?" asked Mrs PropUptheBar, doubtfully.
No, not at all - a bottle of Lehe 'Cantognake Buffalo Trace BBA', purchased on day one from Uba Ja Humal, was waiting to be drunk back at the hotel.

A mere lightweight of a beer at 21%...

It was a much nicer tipple than you'd expect for such a stupidly strong beer.
But it left a nagging sense of worry about just what effect it would have on me and whether I'd be in a fit state the next morning to get up and catch the bus to Latvia...