Berkshire Brewery Bonanza

In which we travel from Wokingham to Reading, taking in a quartet of breweries along the way.
Hopping off the train at midday we braved the walk through a sudden deluge of rain, making our way to the centre of town and the Outhouse Brewery. 

Outhouse Brewery (Unit 4, Southgate House, Alexander Court, Wokingham, RG40 2SL- web)
This brewpub opened on the 9th July 2021 - rather inconveniently for me as I was standing outside it two days before that date the last time I was in town.
It's owned by a chap called Peter Rhodes who starting brewing beer in the cellar of a Chichester terrace before moving to Wokingham and locating the brew kit in his outhouse.  Hence the name.  And - as you can see - he's now upgraded from the outhouse to a brewpub.

Top marks for the bright and enthusiastic staff who were keen to tell us which of the ten beers were their favourites, chatting cheerily to us and offering us tasters.
I picked the 'Big DIPA' - a dangerous 7.3% ABV to start the day.

We settled into the spacious side room, sat in front of bits of brewing kit, entertained by a soundtrack of Blur, Oasis and the Manics which was pure Q Magazine best of the nineties.

Wokingham has previous form in expanding its boundaries for Good Beer Guide entries listed under the town name.
The Oakingham Belle in 2022 as far out on the edge of town as you can get.
The Crooked Billet in 2021, a mile beyond the Welcome to Wokingham sign, surrounded by fields and farmhouses.
But Elusive Brewery is really taking the biscuit...  

It was a 5-mile, 30-minute trip from the town centre to somewhere that could more justifiably be listed as Arborfield, Finchamstead or Farley Hill. 
To get there we caught the Leopard 3 bus to the Robinson Crusoe stop - names which make it sound like a way more exciting journey and destination than it really was.

A few minutes walk through the twists and turns of the Hogwood Industrial Estate, the Elusive Brewery banners pointing us in the right direction, and we found ourselves here...

Elusive Taproom (Unit 5, Marino Way, Hogwood Road, RG40 4RF - web)
At a proper brewery tap, with an open shutter, brewing kit on view, and German beer garden style bench seating under gazebos.
Inside there are a handful of tables and a couple of video game consoles, the bar on one side with a plethora of framed awards hung above the beer taps.

I picked the tasty keg 'Assassin's Trail', brewed in collaboration with Roosters Brewery. 
Then thought I should really try the solitary cask ale - 'Serano Pale Ale' - being as you don't often find a hand pump at an industrial estate brewery tap room with limited opening hours.

Straight across the road from Elusive are the big boys of Berkshire brewing...

Siren Taproom (18 Marino Way, Finchampstead, RG40 4RF - web)
It was winter 2018 when I was here last during the Beast from the East, huddled against the chill clutching a stupidly strong DIPA.  
Marginally better weather this time, although don't bank on it in the summer of '23.

Inside the Tap House there were a trio of long social tables, with a decent crowd and a small queue to the bar when we arrived. 
Ten beers listed at the back of the bar, offering a great, varied selection, and Ricky Martin's 'Livin' La Vida Loca' playing in the background while we made our choices.

I ordered a trio of  beers:
A modern pale ale brewed in collaboration between Verdant and Rivington: 'Never Known Sharks Like It'.
The Siren/SALT collab 'Birthday Bourbon' - a great stout at a sensible strength.
And Siren 'Send Me More Sunshine' - a "massive mango sour".  Worth it for the craft photo opportunity...

We did much clock-watching, not wanting to miss the hourly bus for our onward journey to Reading.

Where we made a quick stop in the Alehouse - thereby spoiling the brewery theme, but worth it for a fabulous pint and the usual heavy prog rock soundtrack.

 
Then we set out on one last bus ride to reach the fourth and final taproom of the day.

To get there we took a bus up Oxford Road, hopping off at the Pond House pub.
Better pub bloggers than me would have called in to investigate...

But we had not time to stop for the £2.80 Fosters.

We strode on, taking a right at the roundabout and following the hubbub of conversation emanating from a dull-looking industrial estate.

Double-Barrelled Taproom (Unit 20 Stadium Way, Tilehurst, RG30 6BX - web)
Wow, this was busy.  Families, young folk, couples, craft beer geeks, loads of excitable dogs.
Lots of happy people.  In Tilehurst.

Double Barrelled are another brewery that started on a small scale in a Caversham garage.  They've made a fair leap in size as they now brew 1.3 million pints a year at this site.

There were 12 beers on offer, 9 of their own creations plus guests from Yonder, Bristol Beer Factory and Napton Cidery.
I picked a 6% ABV West Coast IPA called 'What's Your 20?'
What's that beer name mean?

We accompanied the ale with a pretty superb and wickedly spicy paneer wrap from the Desi Infusion food truck parked outside.

I'd wanted to hold on for food at Oxford Road's Polish pub, The White Eagle.
But it didn't seem to be serving the most traditional of Polish cuisine... 

So instead we predictably ended up in the Nags Head where I sampled the very peculiar 'Tzatziki Sour' by Orbit.  And several more besides.

A nice day out: three breweries in industrial units, a brewpub, and two top-notch Reading pubs.

Green Tiny Rebel in the Nags Head

The arrival of Tiny Rebel's 11th birthday beers at the Nags Head provided Mrs PropUptheBar with an excuse to make a rare midweek excursion to drink 11% triple IPA's.
And an excuse for me to set out early and visit a couple of Beer Guide pubs either side of Reading beforehand.

First up:The Wheelwright's Arms, located around 5-miles from Reading, within walking distance from Winnersh station which was, on this occasion, being served by rail replacement buses.   Somebody had managed to search out the most decrepit double-deckers in the Thames Valley to ferry the handful of passengers through the suburbs...Gaffer tape covered the rips in the seats and possibly held the rest of the bus together too.

Once I'd made it to Winnersh it was a walk up Robin Hood Lane, across the motorway, then a left turn into a quiet lane which took me to the pub.

The Wheelwight's Arms (Davis Way, St Nicholas Hurst, RG10 0TR - web)
Being a Wadworth house, the real ale options on the bar were 'Horizon', Henry's IPA', 'Swordfish', or '6X', with two hand pumps for each making it look like there was more choice than there really was. 

It's a fair trek from Reading for a pint of 6X.
Yet I was quite content sitting next to the unlit fireplace, reading the paper and sipping my beer.  The old 18th century building was once a wheelwright's shop - hence the name.  It has been extended to the rear to provide more dining space, but the front section has wooden beams and chunky stone walls, retaining a little bit of a country pub feel to it.  

I doubt they'd pick the cricket-themed wallpaper for the gents again.  Looks like some wag decided every cricketer needed additional detail adding in the crotch region, before somebody else has followed them around with an eraser, trying to restore some decency...

With the pub tick done in St Nicholas Hurst, I headed back into Reading and hopped aboard the Purple 17 bus to take me out through the wild west of town.
This deposited me in Tilehurst and within a housing estates walk of 2023 Beer Guide re-entry, the Royal Oak.

The Royal Oak (69 Westwood Glen, Tilehurst, RG31 5NW)
Now completely surrounded by the expansion of Tilehurst, in times gone by it would have been a walk across the fields to get to this old pub.  A Greene King sign marks the bottom of the steep driveway leading up to the inn.
The two main rooms, each with their own bar counter, are quite different: cosy upstairs, more spartan downstairs.

It's a wet-led pub serving two real ales from anonymous pumps with no clips attached.  Further investigation revealed a blackboard advertising Windsor & Eton 'Guardsman' and Greene King's seasonal six nations brew 'Scrum Down'.

Picking the rugby-themed beer again!
GK 'Scrum Down' served in a Wild Weather glass.

I was under strict instructions from Mrs PropUptheBar to get to the Nags Head early and make sure that nobody drank all the Coffee and Popcorn Stout before she arrived.
But I gambled that the Tiny Rebel craft wouldn't be selling quite that fast on a midweek afternoon and that I could make one more random pub visit in Tilehurst.
The Plough - that'll do...

The Plough (78 School Road, Tilehurst, RG31 5AW)
This was very much a locals pub, an open plan room stretching around a long bar counter.  All quite recently smartened up, but long enough ago for the tub chairs to acquire all manner of dubious stains.
Pints of Carling looked to be the norm for the locals sat at the bar, although the lone cask hand pump was serving a Loddon 'Hocus Pocus' which was a nice surprise.  And not a half bad pint of dark ale either.

I sat in the window alcove on the far left of the pub, with the bus stop just a few meters away, wondering if it was possible to neck my pint when I saw a bus coming down the road and get out in time to catch it. 
No.  It's not.  You can just about make it in time to see the back of it disappearing towards Reading, but luckily they're pretty frequent.

After waiting a short while in the cold, the bus took me down along the chaos of Oxford Road where I hopped off and made the familiar trek to the Nags Head.

Nags Head (5 Russell Street, Reading RG1 7XD - web)
It's tough to find a happy medium in the Nags - head down on a sporty Saturday and it can be uncomfortably busy - Thursday late afternoon was perhaps a little too quiet.  But at least it meant I got to settle in my favourite seat next to the framed game of Risk on the wall, which must mean something to someone.

The keg lines had been dedicated to Tiny Rebel who'd concocted 8 new beers in various styles to celebrate their 11th birthday.
All with colourful pump clips depicting traditional beer ingredients such as doughnuts, ice cream, pineapple and shortbread fingers.

The letters page in the Metro covered the major issue that W.H from South Gloucestershire can't get a decent bag of crisps in the pub.
I was quite happy with my Jalapeno Real hand cooked crisps, accompanying the Tiny Rebel beers that I'd brought two at a time and gotten mixed up as to which was which.

 

It turned into quite a long day.
We got hooked on the Europa league footy on the TV and accidentally tried all eight of the Tiny Rebel birthday beers before we remembered we had a train home to catch.

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!

Belgian Blue in Bracknell

On a crisp cold December day I took the chance to visit the Berkshire town of Bracknell, calling in to the two current Good Beer Guide pubs, as well as popping to neighbouring Binfield for a pint of London Pride.

I'd consider I've explored Berkshire reasonably well over the years: completed the Reading Ale Trail; walked the Thames path, taken in the sights of Maidenhead; risked frostbite at the Siren Brewery fifth birthday party during the 'Beast from the East'; even watched Lewis Capaldi at Reading Festival by mistake once.
But I'd never set foot in Bracknell, so off I went on a maiden voyage. 

Bracknell spent most of its existence as a market village before being designated a new town at the end of the 1940's.  Over the years it expanded to incorporate nearby villages, topping 100,000 residents and attracting an impressive roster of tech firms to make this their home.

Hopping off the train at 11:30 on a Saturday morning I strolled through a recently redeveloped busy shopping centre.
Lots of modern buildings...

And underpasses which I needed to navigate to find my way to Wetherspoon's...

Which is housed in one of the few old buildings in town, a grand Tudor manor house next to the ring-road...

Old Manor (Grenville Place, Bracknell, RG12 1BP -web)
It's a bit of a cracker.
There was a choice of various rooms to sit in, two bars, grand old fireplaces, wooden beams and low doorways complete with 'please mind your head' signs.

The real draw is the characterful old hall, surely one of the most impressive rooms in a Wetherspoon pub anywhere in the country.  There's a priests hole beside the fireplace, plus stories of secret tunnels used by highwaymen evading the law - all the kind of stuff I'm a complete sucker for.

Having been a private residence, club and residential hotel in the 20th century, the Old Manor is now a regular Good Beer Guide entry serving the best selection of real ales in the town.
The choice on my visit included two local breweries: Rebellion and Stardust, as well as a blueberry bitter by Coach House Brewery or a Brewsters pale ale.
But I only had eyes for the seasonal Bradfield 'Farmers Belgian Blue', a bit of a rarity round these parts.  Guaranteed to generate small talk with the bar staff about it's unusual colour (more purple than blue).

Mmmmm!

Moving on from the Old Manor, Google told me it was going to be a 25-minute walk to my next destination in the suburbs.  The route took me south of the centre, through a housing estate, across some parkland called 'The Parks', and onto a fantastically named street: Ralphs Ride', where I'd find a new Beer Guide entry...

Newtown Pippin (Ralphs Ride, Harmans Water, Bracknell, RG12 9LR - web)
This is something a bit different: a two-room 1950's flat-roof estate pub.
According to a local news article this was named the worst pub in town a few years ago and had a rotten reputation, before being recently revived by new tenants.

I picked the right hand bar where there were a couple of old boys furrowing their brows over their crosswords, a hi-viz trio on the high tables, and a couple of ladies perusing the laminated menus.

I settled down with a pint of Rebellion 'Overthow' (the other choices being Black Sheep bitter or Youngs 'Special').  A good beer considering no-one else was on the cask and the chap behind the bar took the opportunity to teach his colleague how to pull a pint when I ordered.

I checked the bus times, spotted a local service was due to pass the pub in a few minutes time, and quaffed the last quarter of my pint...  Then decided to take one last picture outside at which point the bus whizzed straight past me.
Oh well, at least some quality chips from Churchills next door fueled a walk back to Bracknell bus station.

Once there I hopped aboard the 150 service for the 20-minute journey to Binfield.   All was quiet in this village on the northern edge of Bracknell, as I ambled down the road on my way to the Victoria Arms.

Victoria Arms (Terrace Road North, Binfield, RG42 5JA - web)

A large central bar has counters looking out into three different drinking areas, the largest being the extension to the right with its beams being home to an impressive display of beer bottles.
Extra TVs had been dotted around to ensure no-one missed England being knocked out the World Cup later in the day.  The clientele mostly seemed to consist of various varieties of blokes from the village, all seeming quite cheery as they got behind Morocco in the afternoon quarter final.
I grabbed a seat by the fireplace and settled to watch the first half of the match, supping a  decent pint of London Pride.  The other cask options were familiar Fullers pub fare: ESB, Hophead and Seafarer.

Loving the bottle collection.

Upon leaving the Victoria, the bus that I aimed to catch didn't materialise.  During a chilly sub-zero wait as the sky began to get dusky I conceded that plans to pop into Wokingham or out into more housing estates to the Canny Man would have to be curtailed today. (I'd promised to get back to Oxford at a sensible hour).

But there was still time for one last pint thanks to a delayed train.
The Market Inn sits handily across the road from the bus and train stations and nowhere near a market.

Market Inn (Station Road, Bracknell, RG12 1HY - web)
This is a one-time Firkin brew-pub, now a Stonegate boozer, offering drinks promo's, good value food, and TVs for the football in every direction. 
Not a great deal of choice on the real ale front...

That'll be a Landlord then.

This pub seemed to be doing a good Saturday afternoon trade, with most tables occupied, leaving me with a choice of sitting conspicuously under one of the TVs or on a bench between the entrance and Christmas tree.
It was never likely to be my favourite pub of the day, but the 'Landlord' was passable and I was comfier sat in here than spending half on an hour on a freezing station platform watching a departure screen.

And just to show I'm not a complete Grinch at this time of year, here's a picture with the Christmas tree in it to bring the post to a close...