Red Cat Brewery & Winchester Pubs

It was mid-October and t-shirt weather, with the sun shining and glorious blue skies over Winchester.

And the reason I'd chosen to visit here today was that the local Red Cat Brewery were opening their doors to the public.  
It's around a 15 minute walk from the city centre to the industrial estate that the brewery is situated on.  It may have been early doors but there was a good crowd sat on make-shift furniture in the yard outside Unit 10.

The Red Cat Brewery - it may not be the prettiest location, but look at that lovely blue sky.

Red Cat Brewery (Unit 10, Sun Valley Business Park, Winnall Close SO23 0LB - website)
There was a good line-up of beers on, ranging from bitter to grapefruit IPA to coffee pale to stout.  In addition to this there was a Scottish chap in a kilt who'd paired a whisky for each of the beers on offer.  Now I may occasionally not follow the recommended safe alcohol consumption advice of the UK Chief Medical Officer, but I know what a messy conclusion a tot of whisky with each beer would come to for me, so I opt to avoid this. 

A Red Cat Brewery chap called Andy welcomes
all and recommends we "all get pissed".

What I did enjoy, beer-wise, was 'Moon Sugar', a 5.4% hazy pale ale brewed in collaboration with Elusive Brewery; the super-hoppy 'Prowler Pale'; and a 2-year barrel-aged version of 'Mrs M's Porter'.

Fun as the Red Cat open day was, I left with plenty of time to explore some of the cities pubs that I'd missed on a visit earlier this year.
The first of these certainly had an enviable location, overlooking the cathedral grounds.

The Old Vine (4 Great Minster Street, SO23 9HA)
Quite satisfyingly, the pub's frontage is indeed covered with old vines. This is an 18th century Grade II listed inn. It's a smart, well-heeled and respectable pub, which means that it's busy with tourists and tables of diners sipping the wine-of-the-week. There was a respectable range of beer though - Timothy Taylor 'Landlord', Ringwood 'Thumper', an Upham Brewery beer and the Longdog 'Golden Poacher' which I went for.
But next to these they've got a cake-stand with a tower of scones.
Not a recognised pub snack.

Longdog Golden Poacher, at the Old Vine                                             Chequered diamond 'art'

It's a little walk into the northern suburbs of Winchester to get to my next pick... 

The Fulflood Arms (28 Cheriton Road, SO23 5EF).

The Fulflood is a street-corner local, half brick half green-tiled frontage, looking majestic in the sunshine today.  It's a Greene King house, but rather like the nearby Queens Arms the beer range extends way beyond their usual offerings.  On this visit there were beers from Yeovil Brewery, Wild Weather and a couple of XT ales on gravity at the back of the bar.  Spotting me spoilt for choice, the landlord recommended 'Ethelred' from the local Winchester Brewery.  
He saved his joke for the next customer who ordered it... "Not ready.  The Ethelred, it's unready".  I reckon that one may come out a few more times before the cask runs out.

Glorious

Heading back centre-wards, I reached the Westgate, a medieval fortified gatehouse which houses a small museum on the first floor.  It's free to visit, so I had a look around and climbed some mildly treacherous stairs to the roof for a view.

Westgate Hotel, Winchester

Opposite is a pub of the same name, the Westgate Hotel (2 Romsey Road, SO23 8TP). 
The Telegraph give it a flattering hotel review, noting the bar has "grey painted walls with black framed pictures of local historic scenes...while wood panelling and exposed brickwork varies the look".  Hmmm, that's not selling it to me.  Three types of wall is a sign of the 21st century pub interior designer at work.  

There was a fine line-up of Red Cat beers on cask when I visited here earlier in the year, but on this Saturday afternoon three of the pump-clips were turned around.  Across on the keg lines they had Red Cat's 'Fafu' coffee pale ale (one I missed at the brewery earlier). 
The girl who served me corrected my pronunciation when I ordered it.  Which was wrong because it is not fah-fu, or faf-u - it's not a real word, so it can be pronounced however I like!

The final pub of the day is exceptionally handy for the train station.  And brilliantly it's down-to-earth, full of life, serving great frothy pints of Flowerpots ales and my favourite of the day.

The Albion (2 Stockbridge Road, SO23 7BZ) is a traditional corner boozer with one room curved around the bar.  It was busy on an early Saturday evening, with most tables taken.  There's no modern trappings of games machines and TVs here, just a convivial, relaxed drinking hole.  Beers come from Flowerpots and I savoured the hefty 6% IPA which struck the right chord as final beer of the day before the journey home.

The end of the evening and the light fading at the Albion, Winchester.