Exeter Pub Crawl

Weird things you find in pubs

This post finds me on a January day which leapt between rain showers and blue skies, setting about exploring a handful of the drinking spots that the city of Exeter had to offer.

I headed to have a quick look at the cathedral which was handy for the first bar of the afternoon...

With it's back door facing onto the cathedral yard, I headed to the Beer Cellar (2 South Street, EX1 1DZ).  This was originally a noodle bar, prior to being converted to corner the Exeter craft beer market in 2013.  It's micro in size, although doesn't fit the official description of a micropub.  There's just three tables and a handful of stools.

Bar at the Beer Cellar, Exeter

On my visit in 2017 I seem to remember they were featuring Irish breweries - this time around there is still plenty left over from a tap takeover by Gibberish Brewing. 
Starting out at the tail-end of 2017 and hailing from Merseyside, this is the venture of Mad Hatter brewer Gareth Matthews.  As Untappd only lists the Beer Cellar and the Gibberish brewpub as places to get the first batch of their beers, this is what I believe they call a 'scoop'. 

I tried the 'Chevalier' on cask, a 4.8% ESB brewed with coffee leafs, then couldn't resist the brightly coloured 'Eton Mess Sour'.  It would have been easy to stay longer and try all the offerings from this new brewery, or yield to temptation and grab the 11.7% barrel aged Cloudwater DIPA. 
But 11.7% in the first pub never bodes well for a pub crawl, so I moved onwards....


I headed westwards through the centre and out to the Imperial (New North Road, EX4 4AH).  I've gone through a bit of a grumpy phase with Wetherspoons pubs of late, but I will concede that I do have a fond spot for this impressive pub.  Built in 1810, it operated as The Imperial Hotel between 1923 to 1994 before the pub chain converted it and opened in 1996.  Inside there are a number of splendid rooms and an wonderful orangery which has a separate bar and is a great place to sit when the sun is shining through the panes of glass.  I picked a pale ale from Peerless Brewery, brewed in the Wirral, 
Local Devon beer sampling not not off to a flying start.

The Imperial, Exeter

Walking downhill from the Imperial brought me to St Davids train station, where I headed across to the Great Western Hotel (St Davids Station, EX4 4NU) which sits on a corner overlooking the station and its car park. 

Many years ago this used to be a regular point of call for me when I used to regularly catch the train from St David's and popped in whenever I had any time to spare before departure. 
So it's a nice change today that I don't have to keep looking at my watch and rushing my beer. 

The bar has had a make-over since the days I remember it - the signage on the front is smarter, the hotel has a proper reception desk, and the bar looks like a proper hotel bar with neat and tidy furniture.  I'm sure it used to pretty scruffy and.....I like scruffy! 

There were 9 hand-pumps along the bar, but only a choice of three beers on this visit.  I picked a Pitchfork Golden Ale - Western-Super-Mare - getting closer! 

Having picked up an Exe Drinker magazine, I'd spotted an advert for the recently reopened Iron Bridge Hotel (St Davids Hill, EX4 3RG), so made this the next stop.  It's been rescued after several years closed, which is great to see.  With a front and back room, this has been nicely and carefully refurbished with lots of mirrors and pictures covering the wall.  Amongst half a dozen hand-pumps  they stock Exeter Brewery's beers, so I'd finally got onto the local ales in the shape of a 5% winter ale, 'Falls Over'.

The Iron Bridge Hotel

Walking along the Iron Bridge that the pub is named after, you can see the buildings to the left that would once have been St Anne's Well Brewery.  I stroll on, back past the Beer Cellar and further down South Street to my second Wetherspoons outlet of the day - Georges Meeting Place (38 South Street, EX1 1ED). 
This was my first visit to this pub and it's one of those amazing Spoons conversions that make me go wow as I walk through the door.  This was an 18th century chapel and retains the pulpit at one end of the bar, stained glass windows and mildly precarious staircases to first floor balconies.  

Interior of Georges Meeting Place, Exeter

Hourglass, picture from their website as
mine didn't work and I figured they
wouldn't mind as I'm full of praise for
the place.   

Further away from the city centre, across a roundabout, I make my way on to The Hourglass (21 Melbourne Street, EX2 4AU), which I'd seen in the Good Beer Guide and on a 'Devon's best pubs' list where it was categorised as "Best for a cosy date with plenty of conversation starters". 
Which was unfortunate, as my date was 150-miles away back in Oxford and would be upset if I was here starting conversations with anyone else.  Besides there was only one gent busy reading his paper and the pub cat which was wholly uninterested in me. 
It was quiet on a Monday evening. 
That didn't detract from the wonderful surroundings - this is a characterful old pub, with a circular bar, the smell of the real fire in the air, dim lighting and barrels and dried hops decorating the bar.  It's a place I'd certainly recommend heading a short distance out the centre to visit and I enjoyed sitting here with my Exeter Brewery 'Avocet' ale.

Monday's suck for the pub-crawler - several places I'd otherwise have headed to on this visit were closed until later in the week.
Which just means I'll have to come back and do it again.
Cheers! 🍻

High Wycombe Pub Crawl

Bottle shop at the Beer Emporium

I hadn't visited Wycombe for many a year - since August 2011 for a midweek league cup football match to be precise, so it was a fine time to make the trip again and head off on some pub explorations.
On arrival we made a beeline from the train to the Mad Squirrel Brewery Shop Emporium (4 -5 Church St, HP11 3DE).  This is a craft beer fan's delight with 20 taps on the bar and an interesting bottle shop opposite - surely something to please everyone here?  Around 8 of the taps are devoted to Mad Squirrel's own beers, whilst the others feature notable breweries: Track, Electric Bear and Vibrant Forest on our visit, plus a couple of ciders.
This was a good enough selection for us to change our plans, realising that we couldn't do the place justice with a flying-visit.  The staff were helpful and friendly; the beer choice superb; the pizza delicious and the toilets very cold!  I thoroughly recommend a visit to the Emporium - perhaps too good a start to the crawl?

Bar at the Chiltern Taps with, horror of horrors, the 'countdown to Christmas'.

Next up was a swift half in the Chiltern Taps (120-123 Oxford Road, HP11 2DN) close to the bus station.  This is somewhere I can remember drinking pre-football in 2011 when it used to be the William Robert Loosley Wetherspoons.  In it's new guise sport rules with numerous TVs throughout, plus pool tables on the upper floor.  After the choice in the last venue the 4 ales were a little underwhelming, although there was a good selection of Lilley's cider as an alternative.

This is where my plans fell apart somewhat.  I intended to catch a bus out to West Wycombe, a couple of miles along Oxford Road, to visit a heritage listed pub The Swan.

Front room of West Wycombe's George & Dragon

It occurred to me on the bus that perhaps a village pub may not be open all day and....sure enough....of course it wasn't. Fortunately there are two other pubs in this village to prevent me having to hang around by the bus stop back being moody.  We opt for The George & Dragon Hotel (High Street, West Wycombe, HP13 3AB).  This proved a pretty good alternative destination, dating back to 1760, with a charming historic front room.  It's dimly lit with fire place and wooden beams and columns.  This is a Rebellion Brewery house and we choose the seasonal ale 'Braveheart'.  The George is reputed to be haunted by an 18th century serving girl, but we were too busy drinking-up and missing our bus back to spot any ghostly presence this afternoon.

After this diversion we make it back to the centre of High Wycombe.  My 'interesting fact' about the town is that it is the only place which carries out the tradition of 'Mayor Making'- weighing the mayor to ensure he hasn't grown too fat on taxpayers expenses.  Yep, wifi on and I'm Googling crap in Heidrun (14 Paul's Row, HP11 2HQ). Google tells me that Heidrun is a Norse mythological goat, which grazes on a sacred tree and produces mead for the fighters in Valhalla.  To accompany my trying to discover the origins of the bar name, there's a good selection of beers on 20 taps.  I opt for the only (I think) imported option - a New England IPA from German micro Fuerst Wiacek, which is a tasty tipple.

The next stop is Bootlegger (3 Amersham Hill, HP13 6NQ) very close to the rail station.  This is busy with a mix of football fans returned from Adams Park and rugby aficionado's bellowing at the League World Cup on the TVs.  We find a quieter spot by the bank of bottle fridges to the side of the pub and I'm happy to have found a pint of local ale available from Fisher's Brewing Co.  They set up in 2015 but have only moved into their own High Wycombe premises in 2017.

There's just time to clock up another pub before heading homewards.  A five minute walk from the Bootlegger takes us to the Belle Vue (45 Golden Row, HP13 6EQ).  This is a pleasant, relaxed corner boozer, regularly appearing in the Good Pub Guide.  I finish the day on a Rebellion IPA, straight from the barrel in the tap room, reflecting that this has been an interesting and varied pub crawl.  Easily accessible by train, I think I'll be back for another day here, maybe checking the opening times for The Swan next time and visiting some of the good looking pubs that I couldn't fit in today.

More Oxfordshire Pubs by Bus

Several weeks on from our last trip south of Oxford on the buses, it's time to grab a Thames Travel day pass again with a couple of new destinations to make for.

Beer garden weather has passed and the nights are drawing in as we catch the X32 down to Milton.  Milton lends its name to a sprawling business park, but a few minutes walk up the road leads you to the peaceful village.  What brings us here is the Plum Pudding (44 High Street, Milton, OX14 4EJ) where an autumn beer festival is underway.  This is a great traditional village pub.  Inside it has stone floors, tables and pews of different styles and sizes and a lovely log fire burning away.  It's named, as the pub sign gives away, not after a seasonal dessert but after a local breed of pig - the Sandy and Black.  It's the beer festival bar, set up under canvas in the back garden, which has attracted us here on this occasion.
There is a cracking selection of 16 ales, most of which are unusual finds in the county , with one - Ferry Ales from Lincolnshire - being a new brewery to me.
Halloween themes are dominant - a 'Fright Night', a 'Pumpkin Ale' and a superb 'IPA of the Dead' from Kelham Island.  We also grabbed a bite to eat here and I can thoroughly recommend the Plum Pudding for tasty home-cooked food.

Catching the bus again, it's a short trip to the centre of Didcot. From here we make a 1½ mile walk south to East Hagbourne.  It may only be separated from the edge of Didcot by a few fields, but the main street of the village is charming and historical with thatched roofs, red-bricked Georgian manor houses and fine cottages lining the road.
In East Hagbourne is the Fleur De Lys (30 Main Road, OX11 9LN), a characterful pub consisting one long room with low ceiling and black wooden beams.  It has a cosy feel even without the fire-place lit.  We were promised dogs in the Fleur and we weren't disappointed!  This is a very dog-friendly pub.  On the bar were three real ales on tap, two from the usual Greene King stable and the third, which I opted for, a Purple Moose Madog Ale.

Dog-friendly Fleur De Lys, East Hagbourne, Oxfordshire

Coming back out of Didcot, with dark skies threatening rain, we jump on the bus and make the 30 minute trip to Abingdon.
First stop here is The Broad Face (30-32 Bridge Street, Abingdon, OX14 3HR) just a couple of minutes south of the Town Square, towards the river Thames.  This is one of the more unusual pub names in the UK and it's origin seems uncertain.  Possibly the bulging, broad face of a villain hanged at the old gaol across the road, or the bloated face of someone drowned in the river.  Or maybe a more dull explanation that the wide side of the building presents a 'broad face' as you approach from the bridge.  It seems we'll never know.  Inside one half is set up for dining whilst the other is more of a bar.  There's an impressive 8 beers on hand pumps from which I pick a hoppy pale ale from the always reliable Oakham Brewery.

A brisk trek around the corner leads us to the Kings Head & Bell (10 E St Helen St, Abindgon, OX14 5EA).  This has some history attached to it, dating back to 1554 when it was a coaching inn named just The Bell.  Much of it is renovated and is 'modern and stylish', to quote their website,  but we grab a seat in the tiny front room with a large hearth and stone floors which feels more traditional.  I'm not the most modern and stylish fellow, to be honest.  A pint of the local Loose Cannon ale, Falconet on this occasion, brings the day to a close.

The bus routes south of Oxford have made me aware that there are a number of towns and villages to easily explore.  I've found a number of lovely pubs in two days-out in the area but there are more to visit and more directions to head off in.

Abingdon's peculiarly named The Broad Face - a great real ale spot since it's latest landlords took charge in 2016

A Thames-Travel-Bus South Oxford Crawl

On a bright, sunny, September weekend we decided to head south of Oxford on a trip to the historic North Star at Steventon, which I'd been meaning to get to for some time.  

We grabbed a Thames Travel Day Ticket and set out on the X40 from St Aldates .
The plan was to explore and tick off a couple more pubs as we made our way to the North Star.   
We hopped off the bus at Dorchester on Thames (well, a lay-by on the A4074, a short walk from there).  My plan here was to visit the George Hotel but this was scuppered by a gathering wedding party, among'st whom I would have stood out as quite a scruffy bugger. 

Plan B, then. A walk across the fields to Long Wittenham.  Plan B wasn't researched to the extent of checking distances properly and it turned out to be a much longer trek than intended.  At the end of our (oops) 3 mile walk we were rewarded with arrival at the Plough (24 High Street, OX14 4QH), a pleasant 17th century inn.

We only had a brief glimpse of the interior - one small bar with wooden beams to duck under - with the large garden being a big draw today.  There were three beers on cask and I opted for the guest from Milestone Brewery (I have a flawed superstition that drinking a Nottinghamshire beer on a match-day will lead to a Nottingham Forest win - flawed because it doesn't work).  

The beer garden at the Plough is huge.  It's a riverside pub where you can't see the river from the pub - the garden stretches on past a kids bouncy castle, down a couple of hills to eventually get to the Thames, a couple of hundred meters from the bar - one hell of a trek if you wanted to carry a tray of drinks to sit by the river bank.  

A ploughman's lunch just about provided the energy to make the trek back, and eventually we were back on the X40 on our way to Wallingford.

The Dolphin (2 St Mary's Street, Wallingford, OX10 0EL).  

Tucked in a pedestrian side street off the main square, this is a comfortable and welcoming boozer, affectionately nick-named the 'Dolly in Wally'.  

Despite being a Greene King house, they offer up a couple of interesting guest ales - this time both from the West Midlands.  We arrive as all interest is focused on the Saturday afternoon football results, showing on the main bar's TV.  

I happily noted that Forest had won: job-done with the Milestone Hoptimism earlier! 🍻

Wallingford is somewhere I need to explore a bit better and I'd definitely make a return trip to the Dolphin.  On this occasion though it was a flying visit, with a quick dash to catch the bus to our next destination.  

The X2 took us just over 5 minutes out of town before we rang the bell and alighting at the historic village of Brightwell-cum-Sotwell.  

The place we were headed to here was the Good Beer Guide listed Red Lion (Brightwell St, OX10 0RD).  It's a 16th century thatched village pub with a cosy rustic interior and a peaceful sun-trap beer garden to the rear.  It's a lovely spot, although quiet at 6pm in the evening and I was a little disappointed that they didn't appear to have any real ciders, despite winning a cider-pub award not so long ago.  

Back on the bus, it was a 30 minute ride westwards to Steventon.

A walk down the Causeway took us to the wonderful North Star Inn (Stocks Lane, Steventon, OX13 6SG).  

The North Star Inn, Steventon. 

The garden was a hive of activity with a band setting up to entertain the Saturday evening crowd, but for me it's the interior that I wanted to experience.  There would once have been many rural pubs like this, but now it's a rarity.  There's no bar - service is from a stable door along the passageway or a hatch looking out to the garden if you're outside. 
The small main room has a settle facing a fireplace, with iron fittings attached to it which would have once had curtains to draw to make the handful of seats next to a fire even more cosy.  A cheerful local insisted on taking us on a tour of the other two, less remarkable, rooms and then chatted away to us about the pub and village in general.  
The beer was straight from the barrel on stillage.  I enjoyed a pint of White Horse 'Village Idiot'.  
My theory that pubs with outside toilets are always great is maintained here, but the solitary gents WC could become frustrating and involve some queuing if staying for longer.

Main room of the North Star Inn, where my photographic skills
let me down a little to really represent this amazing pub interior

As we have a gap until the next bus, we call in to The Cherry Tree (33 High St, Steventon, OX13 6RZ) up on the main road opposite the bus stop for a final beer of the day. This is a sprawling Wadworth pub, with multiple rooms, wooden beams and a warm, welcoming atmosphere. It has a huge car park which harks back to past times when this would have been the main road prior to the dual-carriageway A34 being built.

I think we made great value of the day pass on the buses and had a pleasant day out exploring some new places not so far from home, even though I did incorporate a 6 mile ramble by mistake.

Den Hague

With a population of just over half-a-million, Den Hague is the third largest city in the Netherlands and the seat of the countries government and courts - where all the important stuff goes on whilst Amsterdam concentrates on entertaining its multitude of visitors.
It's home to a couple of micro breweries, which I headed to check out.

Right in the heart of the city, at Riviervismarkt 1, is the Fiddler brew pub.  This is a great place for anyone with a tinge of nostalgia for the Firkin pub chain from the UK in the '80's and '90's.  It's a large place, with wood dominating inside, upturned casks used as tables and a brew-kit visible through a glass screen - all reminiscent of some of the Firkin pubs that I drank in years ago.
A few too many Dog Bolter ales were probably sunk at a regular spot, the Fourpence & Firkin in Leicester, at a time when I hadn't worked out how lethal 6% beers could be.  So perhaps my fond memories are a little blurred, but I liked the lived-in, scruffy feel of the pubs and the numerous on-site breweries that the chain operated played a big part in me always heading to a brewpub whenever a place I visit has one.  Sadly the Firkin chain was brought in 1999 by Bass who ceased brewing then gradually changed the sites into O'Neills, Goose or, worst of all, Scream pubs.
Here at the Fiddler things are distinctively British, from the beers on handpulls to a red telephone box.  Seven beers are brewed, 5 in cask and 2 for keg dispense.

Heading down towards the railway station, De Paas (Dunne Bierkade 16a) is a traditional beer cafe, on a quiet canal-side street.  With the sun shining, I grabbed a table on the barge that is moored just across from the bar and drank a wonderful Rodenbach Caractere Rouge, a sour red ale which worked well in the warm weather.  With a pleasant white-tiled interior and a list of some 180 bottles, De Paas is a must for beer fans who find themselves in Den Hague.

Next for me was an epic hike through the industrial wilderness of the cities suburbs to get to Kompaan Brewing (Saturnusstraat 55, 2516AE Den Haag).  It's around a 30 minute walk from the rail station and requires a map.  The last thing I expected after walking along almost deserted streets was to find a party in full swing at the brewery, with hundreds of folks along the quay of these old docks, a band playing and multiple food vendors cooking for the masses.  It looks as though this is a regular occurrence with posters advertising something special each weekend.  

The bar (very cool, made from an old shipping container)

had 20 taps on it with a mix of their own brews alongside a number of small breweries from the Netherlands and beyond.  With a 15 minute queue for the bar when I arrived, I figured I'd just stay for the one,  but queues subsided as the evening wore on and those smoked beers and hefty imperial stouts on a fantastic beer list looked more irresistible.  Just the one, turned into ticking off half the beers, staying until the food vendors had run out of food and being a little less clear-headed on the walk back to the train station. Kompaan may be busy and off any beaten tourist track, but it's well worth making the effort for.  (Beware, open from Thursday to Sunday only, currently 15-22hrs and no cash at the bar - card only).

http://www.fiddler.nl/
http://www.depaas.nl/
http://kompaanbier.nl/uk-loves-kompaan

Eindhoven: Brewery Taps & Salted Beer

My travels took me to Einhoven, en-route to a music festival in nearby Tilburg. The downfall of my bar crawl around the fifth largest city in the Netherlands was that all the bars I encountered had far too many appealing beers on offer, reducing me to checking out a paltry three places.

First up was the brewery tap of 100 Watt, Eindhoven Stadsbrouwerij (Bleekweg 1). This is pretty new 10hl brewpub set up in an old factory. They have 12 of their own creations on tap, with more available in bottles, covering most styles, from Pilsner to Belgian triple to stout. I had a tasty, hoppy American Pale, followed by a dangerously drinkable 8% Dutch dubbel, '75 Watt', which completely disguised its strength.

Next on my list was Van Moll (Keizersgracht 16A), top-rated spot in the city on many beer lists. Wow! This is a great place, set in an old office with the brewery in the basement & bar above. The selection on tap consisted of 12 Van Moll beers and 12 guests, with a superb bottle list for those uninspired by the 24 taps.
'Black Metal Manilla' jumped out at me, a great black IPA from Van Moll, whilst I also sampled a more mellow beer in the same style from Estonia's Pohjana Brewery.

After moving on for a spot of pizza and a bit of Euro football on a big screen, I stepped into Drinkers Pub (Kerkstraat 11). This is a narrow but cavernous place with a really, really long bar.



Scribbled names on the beer engines were tough to read, but the beer menu was amazing, with pages set aside for beer writers recommendations. First choice here was a brown ale from local brewer Oldskool, a cuckoo brewer using local breweries spare capacity to make their beers. This particular brew, 'Ja, ik wil', was a wedding special and a pleasing, malty, bitter brown. Then, with a combination of infantile attraction to a bit of bad language and intrigue for an unusual style, I spotted the salt beers from the Fuck You Brewing Co. They came with a little sachet of 'craft' salt attached to the bottle neck, each of three beers utilising a different worldwide salt. The barman's enthusiasm about these tempted me straight into the saltiest, 'This ain't Salt Lake City'. 

And I really can't decide if I liked it or not... I reckon a 15cl sample would be great, but my fondness for it wore off as I worked my way through the bottle. I began to wonder why I picked the saltiest one... I think I was looking a little green and queasy by the end of it. Great, interesting idea, but I think next time I come across salt-enhanced beer I will share it and perhaps try it before I've got a bellyful of other ales and pizza. 

Cairngorm Brewery

My Scottish road trip had taken me up the country to the northern shores, then back down again, as I rolled into the Cairngorms.

The route looked a little bit like this...

I was over-the-moon at having made it on to the Orkney Isles (albeit, not for long enough...)
I'd sat contentedly with a pint of Swannay 'Scarpa Special' in the Ferry Inn, Stromness...

Top Joe's in Thurso had also been an interesting spot - the sole cask ale outlet for the town, lively and entertaining on the evening of the Scottish Cup final.

Traveling back southbound, my first stopping point was at Carrbridge, just north of Aviemore, where I stayed in the Cairn Hotel (Main Road, Carrbridge, PH23 3AS, top picture). 
The hotel-part was attached to a comfortable, country pub bar, serving up three real ales from a Scottish trio of Cromarty, Orkney and Cairngorm breweries.

I explored a handful of gentle trails and took the obligatory photo of the bridge that the village is named after - still standing but you wouldn't want to clamber onto the middle of it and jump up and down.

As we were just seven miles from the Cairngorm Brewery, I thought it was only right to make a visit.

Cairngorm Brewery (Unit 12, Dalfaber Industrial Estate, Aviemore, PH22 1ST)
The Aviemore Brewery was started in 1997, before being expanded and renamed in 2001 to reflect the beautiful region (now national park) that it lies within. They have a 20 barrel plant, capable of producing 6,500 litres of beer a day.

Two brewery tours are run each day at 11:30 and 14:30 for the price of £5.
I'm hesitant to say 'tour', as this just comprises an introductory talk, then a stroll into a room with six fermentation tanks in it, from where you can see the copper through a glass screen. Not much of an access-all-areas, but I understand it's a small working brewery that isn't designed for members of the public to wander around. There's a generous tasting session next, working the way through the range of bottled beers that Cairngorm brew.

                                 
Their beer seems to make it to Wetherspoon's outlets quite frequently, so I'd tried a couple before, but there were plenty of new beers for me here. The guide explained how their Sheepshaggers Gold was a big seller in Australia and t-shirts did a roaring trade, whilst the beer had to be badged as Cairngorm Gold so as not to offend UK supermarkets it was sold in. This was met by a blank look from my fellow tour participant from the Netherlands, who asked "what is sheep shagger?" Our guide was prepped with all the answers about the brewing process, but he was stopped in his tracks trying to find a way to politely answer that one!

I think the Highland IPA (5.1%) was my favourite (I'm so predictable with loving my IPAs....), with the Black Gold (a 4.4% easy-drinking stout) being very good as well.



That's it for the time-being for my Scottish beer exploration - I will be back to explore the Western isles another time, and perhaps be looking out for another beer festival up this way. For now, it's homeward-bound...