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.

Dark Mild and Death Metal - More Bristol Pub Explorations

Further explorations of Bristol take in a spectacular riverside brew pub and a couple more beer guide entries, before we end up with thrash metal sound-tracking our final pint of the day.

We headed into the streets to the NW of Temple Meads, resisted popping into the Seven Stars, then found our way to Left Handed Giant's brew pub.  Unmissable when approaching from Castle Park, a little more challenging from the other direction.

LHG Brewpub (Compressor Building, Hawkins Lane, Bristol, BS1 6EU - web)

This was once the site of George's Brewery, founded in 1788 and expanding over the years until it dominated the whole area on the loop of the River Avon.

Courage took over in 1961, then eventually closed the brewery down in 1999.  It's been redeveloped into apartments, hotels, office space, bars and eateries, with  the old compressor building now housing Left Handed Giant's flagship site.

This was bustling downstairs by the bar - one of the busiest places I've been in some time.  Stairs led to two more floors with extra seating, where we found a table with views over the outdoor area and river.

The beer list advertised 12 of their own brews, plus 8 guests, ranging from low alcohol options to chocolate & vanilla stouts and Oud Beersel lambic.  I didn't spot half the available beers until looking back at a picture I took, otherwise I may still be there.


The single minimalist metal rod hand pump was dispensing a cask 'Dark Mild'.
Here it is looking foamy and delicious...

Such a sensible choice.  Except the 'My Paradise In Burning' 11% ABV imperial stout, in the glass next to the mild, is mine too.  I'll never learn.

There hasn't been a picture of shiny brewing equipment on the blog for a whole month!

We departed across the curving Castle Bridge which climbs upward as it crosses the river, leading to the pleasant park opposite the brew pub.  

Just around the corner was another Good Beer Guide 2022 entry, the Bridge Inn.

Bridge Inn (16 Passage Street, Bristol, BS2 0JF - web)
Eye-catching and unmissable with it's giant black and white mural - the first Hendrix pub appearance on the blog since the Kings Arms in Huddersfield.
The pub looks reasonably big from the outside, so it was quite a surprise to find just the one tiny room within.
"So small it feels like being in a fishtank" according to this Bristol Post article. 
Wouldn't it need to have huge glass windows for that? (Bag of Nails Pub Rule #6 "Sad pedantry is encouraged")

There were three available real ales on our visit, from Box Steam, Plain Ales and Quantock.
I always enjoy the Quantock beers, so picked the 'QPA', before we settled on bench seating in the corner, under some great framed retro posters from Bristol gigs by the likes of Led Zep, The Clash and Television.

A cosy, comfortable place with chatty customers, but we needed to drink up and move on.  We let Google guide us into the side-streets to our next pub, again picked from the Beer Guide...

The Volunteer Tavern (9 New Street, Bristol, BS2 9DX - web)
This is a 17th century pub, which still retains a little of it's historic character, but has kinda drifted into the hipster territory.
Too many fairy lights for my liking.  And whilst I'm all for pubs having local artists' work for sale on their walls, it was a bit disconcerting to have people peering over our heads as they decided which picture would look best in their living room.

Thumbs up for a lovely, well kept pint of stout from Moor Beer Company.

I was intent on getting to the rock pub, which involved a 20-minute trek across town whereas it would have made much more sense to visit somewhere closer to the Volunteer.  But off we went, navigating our way through the city centre streets.

The Gryphon (41 Colston Street, Bristol, BS1 5AP)
This is a great-looking triangular building on a street corner, with a bar in the front room and additional seating areas as it widens to the rear.
It's everything a rock pub should be - moodily lit, a bit battered round the edges, and noisy!

Upstairs is a small stage for live music - forthcoming bands playing include Visions of Disfigurement and Cuttered Flesh, names which suggest you're going to be disappointed if you come for the Ed Sheeran covers.

I was dressed completely wrongly for the occasion - not in black - although I did once see Slayer live, which I think is adequate credentials to feel at home in the surroundings.

 

There are probably a limited number of places featured in the Good Beer Guide where you're going to be entertained by a metal soundtrack.  It's in the Guide due to a dedication to real ales which can be seen by all the pump-clips adorning the ceiling.
And I liked it - more of this kind of thing please!

I ordered a 'Bastion Best Bitter' from Wrexham's Big Hand brewery.

Then set off to find the toilets - what's the worst that can happen if I pick the wrong door?...

 

And that brought our explorations of Bristol pubs to a close, for the time being.
With more sights to see, brewery taps to drink in, and Beer Guide pubs to get to, we'll be back soon.
Cheers! 🍻 

Cats, Cider and Craft - Bristol Pub Explorations

On a gloriously sunny weekend we began our day by strolling the streets of Bristol and popping our heads into the museum.  Then headed down through Cabot Park with a plan to walk around the harbour with a few refreshment stops en-route.
But before we reached the waterside, we came across an old favourite...

Bag of Nails (141 St Georges Road, Bristol, BS1 5UW - web)
I'm not especially a cat fan, so I shouldn't really like the 'Cat Pub'.
But I do enjoy a quirky pub, and anywhere your beer is served over a sleeping cat in a box on the bar is a little bit quirky.

You also don't get pillars with 22 pub rules chalked onto it in your average Greene King dining pub.

Music is on vinyl from a record player in an alcove.  Nashville country from Margo Price whilst we visited (Rule#11 No interrupting a record once a side has begun).

But there's more to the Bag Of Nails than watching the cats roam around and examining all the odd decorations and artwork.
There was a cracking beer selection of five tempting cask ales, with Newcastle's Northern Alchemy 'Harambee Pasadia' being my choice.  A "hard ginger ale", the description of which I only read after selecting it - I kinda wished I'd just had the best bitter.

There were four good lookin' keg options too, nicely described on the beer blackboard as "cold, fizzy, expensive".

It was just a few minutes stroll across onto the harbour-side path, then along to the Grain Barge.

Grain Barge (Mardyke Wharf, Hotwell Road, Bristol, BS8 4RU - web)
Built in 1936, this barge transported barley and wheat across the Severn estuary between Bristol and Cardiff.  In 2007 it was converted into a floating pub and moored on the northern side of the harbour, opposite the SS Great Britain.

Unsurprisingly it was proving popular on a sunny lunchtime, particularly the outdoor seating on the upper deck. We grabbed one of the last available tables inside, watching the sail boats breeze by, whilst the bar got gradually busier and more chaotic.

The Grain Barge is run by Bristol Beer Factory, with three of their cask ales on offer, Fortitude, Notorious and Independence.  I had a pint of the the 'Notorious', a nice sensible-strength session pale, packing in plenty of hops and flavours for it's 3.8% ABV.  

We stayed here for a bite to eat from a menu of locally sourced & sustainable seafood and veggie options.  For me, a hand-made pie from Five Acre Farm, with mash and greens (wot, not mushy peas!).

We could have made quite the pub crawl of the harbour had we picked more stopping points.  The Pumphouse, The Cottage and the Ostrich were all en-route, but two of these required the patience to queue up to gain entry, with the waterside seating proving a huge draw. 

Here's the view from Underfall Yard, as we looped around the western end of the harbour...

And here's the next pub...not the best picture due to some dazzling sun from any other angle, but you do get a man in an Ajax shirt, which you don't see everywhere.

Orchard Inn (12 Hanover Place, Spike Island, Bristol, BS1 6XT - web)
For the beer drinker, three ales (Otter, Bewdley and Bristol Beer Factory) were being served straight from the barrel at the back of the bar.
But The Orchard was CAMRA's cider pub of the year in 2009 - which is recent enough, as time moves slowly in the world of scrumpy.
So I figured I had to switch to the cider, picking from the list below...

Oof..5.5% upward, there could be trouble ahead.
I rather randomly picked the Harry's 'Scrummage' from the mid-point on the list.  Tasty and super-easy to drink. 
Which makes a nice change - I normally manage to pick the really challenging ciders that taste like they've been strained through a farmer's underpants.

I really liked the Orchard - if there weren't so many other places I wanted to explore in Bristol I could have just settled here for the rest of the day, working through the list and getting increasingly tipsy.  It was a thoroughly comfortable back-to-basics pub.  Most customers had taken their drinks across the road into the sunny bit of the street, but it gradually began to fill up inside whilst we were there.

It's Bristol, so the post is required to contain some street art - in this case, quite a famous one...

Our next point of call, a little further along the redeveloped harbourside, was a Craft Beer Diversion...

Wild Beer at Wapping Wharf (6-8 Gaol Ferry Steps, Bristol, BS1 6WE - web)
Wild Beer started brewing in rural Somerset in 2012 with a passion to do something a bit different, including wild fermentation, dabbling with unusual yeasts and foraging ingredients.

The decision today was whether to stick with the familiar, but lovely, 'Millionaire Stout'; try one of the collaboration beers they'd concocted for the Six Nations; or go completely left-field.
Left-field sounds good - I went for 'Zintuki' a 7.3% blend of saison, sour beer and apple juice.

Odd...but strangely enjoyable

Because the weather was nice the outdoor tables were at a premium (the deckchairs weren't proving popular though).  This left more room inside, where we grabbed a good spot in front of the bar.  It's a typical modern place where fans of ventilation systems can study the exposed ductwork.  I personally liked the unusual mural at the end of the room.

Four very different venues on our route, all enjoyable, all making me realise I should journey out this way more often.

More from Bristol in the next post, when we head to the big modern brew pub by the river and stumble into the heavy metal bar.
Cheers!