Bourne End, Marlow and Maidenhead

A Saturday trip to the Bucks/Berks borderlands, visiting a veritable variety of drinking establishments.

Reaching Maidenhead station, we changing onto the branch line on which a two carriage train trundles back and forth to Marlow every hour. 

One stop before the end of the line is Bourne End, on the northern side of the Thames.
Walking along the main street, past queues to the furniture recycling store and bustling coffee shops, this looked an unlikely location for a craft beer emporium.
But there it is...

KEG Craft Beer Tasting Bar (12 Oakfield Road, Bourne End, SL8 5QN - web)
What a fantastic place.
User-friendly opening hours.  A cheerful welcome.  A good beer selection.  And some cracking 70's LP sleeves displayed on the wall.

One tap dispensed a cask Stardust best bitter, ensuring qualification for the beer guide.
The other eight offerings were craft keg and offered a good enough variety to make choosing tricky.
I went for the murky pale ale from the brewery I'd never heard of: Makemake Brewery 'Solar Days'.  Finishing this, it was time to contemplate whether 1pm was too early for an 8% double IPA?  Nah, course it's not - the Verdant 'Further' was quite wonderful.

We timed our departure right to jump back aboard the train for the 7-minute trip to Marlow.
Marlow's entry into the Good Beer Guide is a club, right by the train station.
I'm always wary of clubs.  Walking in and having everyone stop and look at the strangers.  Bar staff asking 'can I help you?' in more of a 'what are you doing here' manner than 'what'll it be'.

Royal British Legion (Station Approach, Marlow, SL7 1NT - web)

That was exactly the first impression we had of the Royal British Legion.  But the lady behind the bar chuckled - "ha, beer-guiders" - and asked us what we'd like.
It didn't take long for one of the 10-or-so customers to get chatting to us and pretty much dismissing every pub in Marlow as not being worth our visiting.
Others joined in, giving their opinions.
"Probably best just have six or seven here" concluded one chap.
"They don't wanna do that, they're on a day out."

The most talkative fella was apologetic about the lack of beer choice, telling us that they'd have lots more in normal times.
As it was, I picked the Delphic Brewing Company 'Productivity Club' a 3.9% ABV traditional, chestnut coloured ale.  Which was absolutely fine and something different.

Among'st the public discussion of where we should go next, there had been mention of a new craft bar on the High Street.  So that's where we decided to head to, via a quick look at the river and Marlow suspension bridge.

Rare gap in the traffic

The Crafty Tap (77 High Street, Marlow, SL7 1AB - web)
This venture has been open since the tail end of 2019, taking over what was once Cafe Copia.
They offered up 8 keg beers, with some interesting and lesser-seen choices. 
Mrs PropUptheBar was in her element, happily picking a Pineapple Upside Down Cake ale, which will see her getting her CAMRA card revoked if word gets out. 
I went for a New England IPA by Jeffersons Brewery, before we decided to stay for another, meaning I could be decadent and have 'The Abysmal Zone', a 10% Siren Craft impy porter.

Strangest beer snack of 2020.

We were just in time to catch the train for the a return trip to Maidenhead, where we wanted to venture out to a couple more pubs.

The Maiden's Head (34 High Street, Maidenhead, SL6 1QE - web)
This proved to be a spacious town boozer, with several drinking areas and a long bar which, of course, we're no longer allowed to go and prop up.
The real ale on offer was 'Maiden's Head Copper Ale', the house beer brewed by local Stardust Brewery.

It all seemed a little quiet in the Maiden's Head.  Turns out everyone was in Spoons.

The Bear (8-10 High Street, Maidenhead, SL6 1 QJ)
We got just about the last table, with a queue formed outside by the time we left.
This was a pretty dull Wetherspoons experience, although to be fair it did what we wanted, nourishing us with a couple of bargainous burger n beer offers. 
There was very little in the way of guest ales, as we ended up with 'Kingsdown Special Ale' from Arkells Brewery.  Served too cold and pretty un-enjoyable.

Our route back toward the train station took us completely by chance past the Conservative Club, a beer guide mainstay.

I'd had absolutely no intention to visit there.
But we were fueled by several pints and strong craft ales and a sudden desire to tick-off all the Guide entries in the town.  We plucked up the courage to ring the door bell and blurt out that we'd got a beer guide when asked if we were members.

Maidenhead Conservative Club (32 York Road, Maidenhead, SL6 1SF - web)
The website points out that the club does have ties to, but "are not in any way managed or controlled by the Conservative Party."
It then goes on to mention that local MP Mrs Theresa May occasional visits.  Cripes.

We were led to a table in a large room, with the bar through arches to the side.  The choice of real ales was Doom Bar or Ghost Ship - not too inspiring, but the Ghost Ship was in fine form and thoroughly enjoyable.  After the lackluster pint in Spoons we both took a first sip and gave a satisfied 'that's better' nod of the head.

We bumped into Oxford CAMRA's finely-bearded pub-man Gareth on the train back. He proceeded to force us (note to self - must check if that's accurate) to spend the remainder of the evening drinking Plum Porter in the Royal Blenheim.

A great day out, with sore heads the next day to prove it!
Cheers!