Propping Up the Bar in Cheltenham Spa

This was my first visit to Cheltenham since coming for the football in 2006.  I was surprised that absolutely nothing in the town centre looked familiar to me, which means my memory isn't what it used to be, or that I imagined my 00's ground-hopping and Forest being in the third division.

The day started - as all the best days do - in 'Spoons before midday.

The Moon Under Water (16-24 Bath Road, Cheltenham, GL50 7HA)
A bit of a photography fail on this, the second JDW branch in the town.  It's basically an old car showroom with a greenhouse on the front of it - unlikely to win any awards for most spectacular Spoons architecture.

Inside, it's spacious, stretching a fair way back, with the bar in the middle, and some nice decking overlooking a narrow bit of the River Chelt at the very back.  The Moon Under Water still bills itself as a Lloyds No1, with glitter balls, a dance floor, and adverts for DJ Rob suggesting this wouldn't be the ideal place to settle with a paperback for a quiet Saturday evening pint.

A limited menu due to some kitchen issues was probably the reason we found this place very quiet at midday (the more central Bank House Spoons had been packed when we passed it).

I was impressed by the line-up of cask ales - beers from Oakham, Wolf, Salopian, Kirkstall, and Glamorgan breweries on this visit.
I picked the Salopian 'Time Machine', starting the day at a sensible strength of 3.9%.  Let's see how long my beer choices remain 'sensible'.

Two great value pints later, we departed from Spoons and made a short walk from the Moon Under Water onto the High Street and out to the town's best known beer drinking pub.
A previous National Pub of the Year, winning the CAMRA award in 2015.

Sandford Park Ale House (20 High Street, Cheltenham, GL50 1DZ)
Entering through the front door, you can circumnavigate the whole pub.  There is a staircase to some upper rooms in the middle, a pleasant snug to one side, bar billiards in the next room, and the bar counter in the corner by the doors to a decent back garden.

The beer selection was pretty spectacular: 9 ales on cask making it tricky to pick one.  I decided it was cloudy and chilly enough for the dark stuff, ordering a Hop Shed 'Phoenix Porter'.

We had a bit of a pub food fail here, with the wrong items arriving at the table.  We got extra fries to compensate, but that was far more fries than I needed.   To top this off, I went back to the bar for an unwise half of the 8.4% Verdant 'What Are Dreams Made Of?'

We should really had have a good long walk to aid the digestion after the Ale House.
But instead we bowled into our next venue, The Strand, just a couple of hundred meters along the road.

The Strand (40-42 High Street, Cheltenham, GL50 1EE)
The beers in this bright, airy bar were listed on a giant mind-boggling wooden board to the side of the counter.  It looked like they had a Red Willow takeover, with all 4 cask beers and 7 of the keg picks coming from the Macclesfield brewery.
I ordered a Red Willow 'F200 Nelson Idaho 7', because I love a catchy name.

If I'm going to pick faults with The Strand, I'll grumble about the uncomfortable high stools.  But it serves a purpose as a modern craft bar; the beer was on decent form; and there was a good range of folk in the L-shaped room, tucking into plates of food and enjoying a wide range of drink options.

 

We moved on before Mrs PropUptheBar could spot the rum and caramel boozy shakes on the drinks menu.

Next up, we decided to venture a little further outside the town centre to visit the Kemble Brewery Tap, a 2024 Good Beer Guide entry, although it has dropped out in the new edition.
Our route took us past some impressive street art...

We found our route to the pub through some tranquil side streets (thanks Google, I'd have struggled in the days when I relied on a hand-scribbled inaccurate map of inconsistent scale). 

The Kemble Brewery (27 Fairview Street, Cheltenham, GL52 2JF)
Disappointingly, it's not a brewery at all.  What a fiddle.
In fact, it was originally built as a butchers shop in 1845, before becoming a pub in 1847.  At one point, a landlord produced cider in the back yard, which seems to be where it got the name from. 
It's a single narrow room, pretty traditional, with various instruments hung from the walls.

I ordered a half of Salopian 'Lemon Dream' - other options being Salopian 'Darwin', Wye Valley 'Butty Bach' and 'HPA', the latter two billed on a small balckboard as "Kemble Inn favourites".
A good quality beer, in a reasonably comfy pub, although I'm not sure we really needed to make the trek out of town to it.

Our next destination was the Bath Tavern.

The Bath Tavern (68 Bath Road, Cheltenham, GL53 7JT)
I do believe that this was once an unspoilt trad city pub, run by the same family for some 130 years.  Although I've arrived a bit too late, with it now under new management and having had a bit of a refurb and smartening-up.
That said it was still a pleasant place to sit and while away 30-minutes and sheltered us from a sudden rain shower.
The Wye Valley 'HPA' was the sole cask option, and was on reasonable form.

I'd promised Mrs PropUptheBar craft beer in Cheltenham.
So let's put the remaining GBG pubs on hold for a future visit and delve into some stupidly strong keg murk in Planet Caravan - not just a Black Sabbath album track.

Planet Caravan (25 Bath Street, Cheltenham, GL50 1YA)
Somewhat dangerously, this bar in a converted estate agent was hosting a Left Handed Giant tap takeover on our visit.
Just pick something easy-going and sensible.
Ooooh! 'Blender Celebration' - a 12% imperial stout concoction.  Doh!

It was probably for the best that this small bar was uncomfortably busy whilst we were there, lest we decide to stay and work our way through more of the LHG beers.  Even the upstairs room was full - and upstairs rooms in micros never get full.  My dinky wooden stool was situated on the dog-leg of the route through the bar, necessitating acrobatic movements to avoid being clobbered by folk on their way to the WCs.

Right.  We'd switched from the cask to the craft, so we may as well continue the theme.
We headed into the bustling Brewery Quarter, where there is little left of the old West Country Brewery, closed in 1998 and demolished (with the exception of the main brew house) in 2004.
In this entertainment quarter you'll now find Brewhouse & Kitchen, the Botanist, Alchemist, Cosy Club, and all those sorts of things.
And Brewdog, who opened this branch in February 2022...

Brewdog Cheltenham (Unit 3, The Brewery Quarter, Henrietta Street, Cheltenham, GL50 4FA)
I know it has been a while since Brewdog were hip and trendy, and this was a serious distraction from ticking off the beer guide pubs.  But we've got a little collection of those Brewdog venue postcards and wanted a Cheltenham one.

The branch of the chain is situated in a former restaurant - one big square room with a high ceiling with some odd foliage hanging from it.  Plenty of people on the high tables closest to the bar, although the half set aside for eating was looking painfully quiet for a Saturday evening.

I do appreciate the choice of beers at Bewdog, displayed on the giant white illuminated beer board, especially their guest options.  A Fuerst Wiacek 'Feral' double IPA was the beer that threatened to send me to sleep on the train journey home.

And it was toward that train home that we headed.
With a quick stop at the Railway en-route.  

Thank you, Cheltenham, for a pleasant day out.
We will be back, as we forgot to do any sight-seeing, have another Wetherspoons to call in to, and several more pubs to visit.  And it's a much easier train trip from Oxford via Worcester than I'd previously thought.