Warwick Pub Explorations

It's autumn, the temperature has suddenly dropped and the forecast for this weekend is wet and miserable.
But even down in the lower reaches of the Southern Central Counties Pub-Ticking league, rain can't stop play for the whole of November.

Brewing Kit

So it was we headed out to Warwick, hopping off the train at the town's underwhelming railway station and making a quick dash to the nearby Wild Boar pub.

The Wild Boar (27 Lakin Road, CV34 5BU - web)
This is Warwick's brewpub, housing the Slaughterhouse Brewery to it's rear, the two barrel plant visible from the snug and back corridor.
We received a friendly welcome at the Wild Boar, with recommendations to "grab the table by the fire", and a cheery "enjoy your drinks".

There are a hefty ten handpumps along the bar, five of which are dispensing the Slaughterhouse beers, the others Oakham and Everards.  I'm a sucker for a brewpub, so tried the two dark Slaughterhouse ales on offer: the lovely 'Mother's Milk Stout' and  'Wild Boar' which was a decent nutty, chocolatey beer.

Early doors at the Wild Boar

We planned to get around all of the town's Good Beer Guide listed pubs during the day, opting to make the journey to the Cape of Good Hope first, this being the furthest walk in the rain.

The Cape of Good Hope (66 Lower Cape, CV34 5DP - web)
And I'm chuffed that we made the effort.  Just look at that cracking location next to a lock on the Grand Union canal.  

Drawn to the brightest one - that'll be a pint of San Miguel then.

I was thoroughly happy sitting in the front bar of the Cape of Good Hope, the wood smoke from the barge moored outside wafting in every time the front door opened.

The Crouch Vale 'Stout Coffin' was a tasty pint and our lunchtime nourishment came in the shape of pie and pizzas.
And Chelsea were beating Crystal Palace on the TV, cheering up Mrs PropUptheBar and temporarily making her forget she could be tucked up in front of Netflix at home, rather than traipsing around the pubs of Warwick in the rain.

From the Cape, we made the walk back to the centre of town. 
Stopping to take the picture below, from beneath my umbrella, was about close as I came to sightseeing today.

But probably not many of those sightseeing tourists make it to Warwickshire's 2018 County Pub of the Year...

The Old Post Office (12 West Street, CV34 6AN - web)

Not real leg.

Warwick's micro pub has been open since the summer of 2018.

It has several ticks for micro pub top trumps -
Solitary toilet 🗹
Beers straight from the barrel 🗹
Stack of old Good Beer Guides 🗹
Quirky decorations 🗹 - exhibit A: leg through ceiling.

I liked it.  There were a handful of locals lining the bar, helpfully moving aside for me to get served, and a good choice of ales on offer.
Sadly I don't think I picked the best, going for an Oakham 'Got Tash' which failed to impress me as much as their beers usually do.
The pub had a few too many scatter cushions for my liking too, but this is definitely somewhere I'd visit regularly if Warwick were my home town.

Lots of signage on the Loo 

It  was just a couple of minutes walk around the corner from the Old Post Office to the next of Warwick's Good Beer Guide listed pubs.

Autumnal Warwick scene.

Old Fourpenny Pub (27-29 Crompton Street, CV34 6HJ - web)
Why's it called the Old Fourpenny, you surely want to know?
Well, it was apparently the price of a cup of coffee and a tot of rum charged to workers building the Grand Union Canal in the early 1800's.
Now it's multi-tasking pub diversity - shop, hotel, restaurant and pub.

MrsPropUptheBar dismissed the beer choice and instead brought a Tracklements 'Spitfire Chilli Mustard', from the shelf that constituted the shop part of the Old Fourpenny.
Her patience with best bitters and golden ales is limited - by the fourth pub she's demanding peach habanero pales or 12% marshmallow stouts.
No Brewdog or crafty murk outlet in Warwick to get these (yet), so we had to make do with Wetherspoons as our next point of call.

The Thomas Lloyd (3-7 Market Place, CV34 4SA - web)
I think we picked a good time to visit, early on Saturday evening, before any rowdy Warwick weekend crowds descended.  The service was fast and the staff cheery.  One of them wiping down the bar, from the customer side, was having fun trying to 'accidentally' spray her colleague from the cleaning bottle.
COSHH training must not be until next week, I guess.

Just one look at this 'Spoons on the market square and you know exactly what it's going to be like inside.  And you'd be right.

Outdoor seating empty.

From here we just had enough time to call in at the fifth and final Beer Guide entry on the way back to the train station.

Punch Bowl (1 The Butts, CV34 4SS - web)
"The Famous Old Punch Bowl" according to what's written on the front of the pub.
"Warwick's finest real ale pub" according to their website.
I have been here before in 2014, but if memory serves me right, it's much-changed since then.  Very sports dominated on this occasion, with screens in every direction on every wall.  Great if you wanted to watch Jamie Vardy scoring against Arsenal.
They're obviously doing something right, having made it to the Beer Guide for 7 years on the trot, and my dark mild, 'Nutty Slack' from Wigan's Prospect Brewery was a fine pint.

Leaving a dark, wet and chilly Warwick behind, we caught our train back to Oxford where a visit the newly re-opened Holly Bush ended the evening for us.