Alton's Pride

Friday 25th July.  Hook's finest pub afficionado, Mick Citra, had put together an intinerary for a Pubs & Beer forum/Camra Discourse 'pub research' trip to the towns of Alton and Farnham.  For me, this was two destinations I hadn't previously explored.  Plus good company, a brew pub, lesser-seen ales, and craft beer in a coverted 16th century guild hall. 
All of which sounded like a fine day out...

I made my journey to Alton from Oxford, remarkably managing to select the right Alton and not ending up in Staffordshire riding the Oblivion all day.
Oxford > Reading. Reading > North Camp. Ten minutes on foot to Ash Vale. Ash Vale > Alton.
A fiddly trip, but smooth-running until things went a little wrong on the last leg.  That put me 30-minutes behind schedule and meant I missed the town museum which Martin would later tell me shouldn't be missed.

It also meant I didn't really have sufficient time to make a pre-noon visit to Spoons, but I still marched down the High Street determined not to let train confusion scupper my JDW tick.
The The Ivy House (88 High Street, Alton, GU34 1SS)
An unusual looking Spoons, I thought on first glance. To be fair, my picture has cut off the 19th century family home that was the original Ivy House. That later turned into a medical practice, presumably lost any ivy coverage that gave it its name, then was converted to a Wetherspoon's in 2015, incorporating the neighbouring office building too.
Inside it's bright and airy and big with two sections of seating on different levels across the two buildings.

The guest beer selection wasn't the most exciting on this visit, although I was happy with my Sambrook's 'Powerhouse Porter'. Not that my half-pint lasted long - that later-than-planned arrival gave me around 5-minutes in Spoons as I met up with Mick and a couple of today's other pub crawlers researchers who were just getting ready to move on to the first venue proper of the day.

A five minute walk down the HIgh Street and a left turn into the shops and eateries of Westbrook Walk took us to the Ten Tun Brewery and Tap House.

Ten Tun Tap House (1 Westbrook Walk, Alton, GU34 1HZ)
We met up with the rest of today's group, including a couple of familiar faces alongside some new ones, at the bar.  Enough of us to generate a queue which the cheerful and chatty sole staff member dealt with admirably and which I somehow ended up at the back of.

There were two cask ales on offer: bitter in Iron Pier or Marble varieties.  I opted for the Iron Pier from Gravesend, Kent, a deep golden trad ale, brewed with English hop varieties.

The Ten Tun opened as a micro bar at the - highly unfortunate - time of March 2020.  They busied themselves with home deliveries during lock downs, then went from strength-to-strength when normality returned (depending on your definition of 'normality').  Expansion into the neighbouring units provided a second seating area, then a brewery which began production in October 2023.

Their own beers are keg only, so I'd skipped them by stickng to cask on arrival.
I suffered a sudden fear of missing out moment, drank the rest of my bitter, then popped to the bar to ensure I'd tried one of the on-site brews.

I returned with a very tasty, very murky, half of 'PizzaJumpScare'.
We were pondering at the time how they'd come up with such a beer name.  Looking at it now I had a thought that it could be related to What 3 Words navigation?  Pizza/Jump/Scare lands you on a Dorset beach, so maybe not.

That What 3 Words website is fascinating.
Right, drinks finished in the Ten Tun Tap, we were off to Redefined/Table/Mermaids...

The Eight Bells (33 Church Street, Alton, GU34 2DA)
It's not the most photogenic of pubs, especially on a cloudy day, with a rather non-descript white-washed frontage on the curve of Church Street, crying out for some hanging baskets.  But step inside this Grade II listed building, which has been a pub since the 1840s, and it's a cracking place.
With a traditional carpet...

Traditional opening hours...

And a traditional beer range...

Three cask bitters available from Bowland, Black Sheep, and Flowerpots.  So what sort of numpty would ask for 'half a bitter, please' without specifying which one.  Ah, that'd be me.
I also have a feeling that the pick of the bunch was the Flowerpots 'Peridge Pale' which was fetched from a room to the back of the bar where it was poured straight from the barrel.  That was certainly getting the thumbs-up from all those who'd picked it.

The longest walk of the day between pubs followed, as we navigated the side streets to reach the Railway Arms.

The Railway Arms (26 Anstey Road, Alton, GU34 2RB)
This is a pub that I really liked as soon as we walked through the door.  Actually, as soon as I saw the train-coming-out-the-tunnel signage on the outside.  The main U-shaped room has a back-to-basics feel to it, with a fair bit of clutter, a range of different seating options, wooded floorboards, old advertising signs, and a Watney Red Barrel on the wall.

This is a Tripple fff pub which had three of their own beers on offer: 'Sundown', 'Moondance', and Alton's Pride', plus a guest in the form of Glamorgan 'Flow Rider'.  There's also a tower of boxed ciders on one side of the bar, should those take your fancy instead.
My half of 'Altons Pride' was a bit ropey to be honest and would have been returned to the bar by someone with a better beer tasting palate than mine.  To make up for it the 'Sundown' was superb - a wickedly bitter pale ale which went down a treat.

So, a good start to the day in Alton.
Just gone 2pm and we were ready to make a short hop to the station and catch the train to Farnham.
A final bit of advice from the Railway...

...and we were off.