Rugby Beer Fest, Tap Room and a BCA Duo

An afternoon spent in the town of Rugby, visiting a couple of pubs that were new to me, then popping my head into the beer festival.  And let's squeeze a cheeky Coventry tick in on the way home, why not?
Yep, having grumbled profusely about the Six Nations last week, here I was heading to the birthplace of the game...

  

My last visit here was in 2019 when I made an idiotic valiant attempt to get around all the Good Beer Guide entries in one go.
The one I missed that time around was the Raglan Arms, now under the ownership of Black Country Ales but out of the Guide.  Whilst the new entry (a closed pub in 2019) is The Windmill, also part of the Black Country Ales empire.
Anyone still with me?

The Windmill Inn (1 North Street, Rugby, CV21 2AB - web)
Three storeys with bay windows on one side; and a very different second half, with an old carriageway entrance.  All overshadowed by the mock-Tudor of The Crown next door.

This was a pretty big pub with a pretty small number of customers on my visit.  All of whom seemed to be local, several of them taking the time to tell me the barman was changing a barrel and would be back in a moment. 

From the usual wide BCA choice, I ordered a Weatheroak 'Keystone Hops', my decision based purely on name and pump-clip, like the beer professional I am.

Lots of beers, no bar man

Sturdy bench seating

Quick picture of the best building in town...

Then a short walk past the Rugby School and through an underpass to the second Black Country Ales pub of the day.  I'll do all 42 of them eventually, but by that time they'll probably have added more.

Raglan Arms (50 Dunchurch Road, Rugby, CV22 6AD - web)
There were another handful of locals hanging out at the bar in the Raglan, but it was very quiet other than that, probably due to being just out of the town centre, at a time when sensible people are at work or sitting at home watching Tipping Point.
There was a nice snug in a front room, Northamptonshire skittles and darts at the back, and seating in the window alcove on repurposed beer barrels.

I know I'm in a minority - but I like sitting on old beer barrels!

I enjoyed a half of Welbeck Abbey 'Admiral Keppel', peacefully sat on red cushioned bench seating, reading Inn Touch, the local CAMRA beer mag.  A completely quiet and uneventful pub visit, which suits me fine sometimes.
Back-tracking on myself, I decided to pop into the Rugby Tap Room as I passed by.

Rugby Tap Room (4 St Matthew's Street, Rugby, CV21 4BY - web)
The bottle shop next door seems to have gone since the last time I was here, leaving just the one room with the bar at the back alongside a shelf of funky cans and craft gins.  It's a decent micropub, with some proper seating on benches, friendly folk and a good beer selection.
Cask ales are all dispensed straight from the barrel and on this visit came from Brunswick, Byatts and Phipps NBC, whose retro-looking 'Diamond Ale' was my pick.  This was a tasty amber ale, brewed to an old 18th century recipe and most enjoyable. 

Beer festival, then?
2022 marked the 37th Rugby beer fest, offering 36 beers as well as ciders and several European bottles.
'Foreign Beer List' item number one was Tynt Meadow, from Leicestershire.  Crikey, I know we're a divided nation, but I missed the part when Leicester became foreign.

Beer fest venue

The festival was taking place in Arnold House, a former finishing school for girls, which was subsequently brought by the Masons in 1935.  Somewhere within is a temple, but it's beyond locked doors, sadly preventing tipsy inquisitive CAMRA members wandering into it, slopping beer from their festival glass.
Instead, all the action was in a hall and adjacent bar on the ground floor.  The tables had all been grabbed by the enthusiastic early arrivals, well on their way through ticking the list and scoring the beers.

Those beers came from Warwickshire and surrounding counties, plus a few which had traveled a bit further, with a selection from Liverpool, hometown of the festival organiser.
The Flagship Brewery coffee and orange stout, 'Strobe', was probably the best of my picks, whilst I also enjoyed a Church End 'Rest in Peace'.  The latter was listed in the programme as "our strong beer for the brave or foolish".   Aha - foolish - that'll be me!

On the same day, Blackpool Jane was at Wigan beer festival, providing Wigan with a comprehensive '20 minute read' write-up.  Rugby get the raw deal with my reportage - a couple of hundred words from this amateur drunkard.  But I did enjoy my short visit, this being the first indoor festival that I've attended since March 2020.

Deciding it was time to move on, I navigated back to the railway station and made the 10-minute trip to Coventry.  Where I figured I may as well break my journey and visit the one city centre Beer Guide pub that I hadn't yet been to. 

Town Crier (Corporation Street, Coventry, CV1 1PB)
I've passed this a fair few times and knew it had appeared in the Guide before, but had never set foot inside.
Built in the 80's by Banks's Brewery, this takes up a remarkable amount of city space for a pub, on land that is now probably being coveted by developers to build Coventry's 333rd student hall.

Stepping inside, it's one large open-plan room, with raised areas, low walls and pillars sort of dividing it up and giving it a bit of character.  On the bar was a choice of Tetley's, Pedigree or Hobgoblin.  A pint of the Tetley's 'Orignal Cask' for me - okay, but not a patch on the dark beers I'd be drinking at the beer fest.

Funky lighting, writing on the beams, and a group of ladies who you just know are gonna cause trouble later

Just needed to make sure I didn't get carried away and spend too long with my Tetley and  the poptastic soundtrack and miss the train.

If only there was somewhere I could keep an eye on the time...