Bass from the Jug in Bath

On a Friday morning I set out on the train to the city of Bath with the promise of fine pubs, good company and at least one pint of Bass.

This was a Southern outing organised through the Beer and Pubs forum.  It was all supposed to happen 3-weeks ago, but was scuppered as Storm Eunice was gathering pace in the Atlantic, forecast to batter the South-West.  So, attempt number two - just the rain this time, without the 80mph winds.

My last visit to Bath was at the beginning of November 2020, the day before Lockdown#2. 
I finished that trip in The Crystal Palace (10-11 Abbey Green, Bath, BA1 1NW), which just happened to be our starting point this time round.

The only two customers in the pub at 11:20 were pub crawl participants Martin and Jon.  The only person foolish enough to order a pint at this time of day was me (and I'd regret that later).
The bar gradually filled up whilst we were there as folk took advantage of the early opening and the chance to get out the rain.
On my last visit the London Pride was being sold off at a lockdown-imminent price of £2 a pint.   They made a bit more money from me today as I parted with my cash for a Fuller's 'Oliver's Island'.

Leaving the Crystal Palace, we wandered past the Abbey and through the narrow lanes to the north of Westgate.  There was a queue stretching the length of Union Passage, fortunately not all trying to get in our chosen pub, but taking advantage of Tortilla Bath's one-off Free Lunch offer.
No time to join the long line for free tortilla's, as we strode onward to Bath's smallest pub.

Coeur de Lion (17 Nortumberland Place, Bath, BA1 5AR - web)  
This was looking quite different from my last visit when myself and one chap reading his paperback were the only patrons sitting inside.  We found it was standing room only in the bar, so made the pioneering move of being the first customers to venture to the upstairs room where there was a bookshelf with a superb collection of Good Beer Guides to peruse.

The pub is an outlet for the local Abbey Ales Brewery, with 'Bath Best', 'Bellringer' and 'Cardinal Sin' on offer.  I opted for a half of the Cardinal Sin without realising it was 6% - after the early-doors pint this would be my second foolish beer choice of the day.

 

Paul and Mick joined us in the Coeur de Lion having made their journeys by train from Kent and Hampshire respectively, completing our small contingent for the day.
There was a brief bit of discussion about going somewhere else en-route, kyboshed by Martin who only had eyes for the Bass at The Star.  So up the gentle hill we went...

The Star (23 Vineyards, Bath, BA1 5NA - web)
This is a fantastic Heritage-listed pub that's an essential stop on any Bath pub crawl.  Dating back to 1760, it retains the fixtures and fittings from a Victorian refurbishment.  There's a little snug to the side of the bar and two dark, characterful sections to the back with wood panelled walls. 

 

We settled in the cosy front lounge, with red cushioned bench seating along either side and a fire burning in the hearth.  I figured it'd be good to nab the seat right next to the fire to dry off a bit, but managed to toast my left leg to medium-rare by the time we were ready to leave.

The choice on the bar was Abbey Ales 'Bellringer' or 'White Friar', Dark Star 'Hophead', Wye Valley 'Butty Bach', and Bass.
The Bass can be served in 3 or 4 pint measures into a glass jug, ready to be poured into your glass at the table. 

"I've got my jug - what's everyone else having?"

Was it better from the jug?  Well, the jury's out on that one.
Was Mick converted to Bass after initial flat beer skepticism? Possibly not!

Just a few minutes walk upon leaving The Star, swinging around the corner onto the next street down the hill, The Bell was our destination...

The Bell Inn (103 Walcot Street, Bath, BA1 5BW - web)

This 18th century coaching inn, and music venue since the '70's, was looking like it may be a lost cause when it's owner put it up for sale.  But the local community gathered together to save it, a co-operative of 536 folk raising the funds to enable them to buy The Bell in 2013.  It didn't hurt that Peter Gabriel and Robert Plant lent their weight to the campaign - although neither of them were drinking there on our visit, which was very disappointing.

We headed up into the long room to the left of the bar, with it's bench seating and proper pub stools.  The area right at the front of my picture transforms into the stage for regular live music, with an unprotected three-step drop at the edge which surely someone has tumbled off after one too many.  (Remarkably enough, not me on this occasion).

Here's the beer selection for your perusal...

I picked a decent porter brewed by Parkway Brewing Co, followed by the fine tropical haze and Bristolian trip-hop pun of 'Massive Azaac' from the always reliable Arbor.

We hung about in The Bell until the clock ticked past 4pm, when the doors opened just up the road at our craft diversion.

Brewed Boy (13 London Street, Bath, BA1 5BU)
I'd made an enjoyable visit to Brewed Boy in Frome back in November, so was happy to tick off another of their micro tap room locations.  They've also got outlets in Dartmouth and Sherborne, the latter housing the Imaginary Friends Brewery.  It was their 'Cafe Con Leche', a tasty milk chocolate stout, that was my first pick here.

This was a small place - one table in the window, which we grabbed, and a little more seating to the rear.  Ten beer taps lined the back of the bar, with nine of them in operation on this visit covering a wide range of styles.

We stayed for another half, whilst a can of super-sour blueberry weisse beer from Waterbeach was shared around.  We'd progressed on the beer hipster scale since the Bass in a jug!

Fine propping up of the bar, complete with craft murk

Just time for one more pub...

The Raven (6-7 Queen Street, Bath, BA1 1HE - web)
Back in the heart of the city, The Raven is located in old Georgian townhouses, converted into a wine shop, then later a pub in the 20th century.  It's a decent ale house, serving me a good quaffable Lister's Dark Mild.

Honesty is the best policy, and to be honest I was fairly tipsy by the time we reached the Raven.  It turns out spending the afternoon drinking without eating does me no good...

"Seriously!" admonished Mrs PropUptheBar when I got home, "five grown men and none of you were sensible enough to stop for food during a day out drinking".
To be fair, Paul did raise the issue of a lunch stop a couple of times and brought a cob in The Star, so did better than me.

I managed to fall asleep on the train home and spill my crisps down my front, whilst taking 45-minutes to realise I was listening to one song on my headphones on repeat because I'd fumbled the buttons.

Good day out then!

I'll finish with a random picture of a bin in Bath, complete with bird watching tips on the side for the cities international visitors.

Will steal your chips.

Lutterworth Pub Crawl

In which I spend a couple of hours visiting the pubs of Lutterworth, at the southern edge of Leicestershire.  There will be Bass.  And empty bars.  And Superman on the loo.

Hopping off the bus, I was just a couple of minutes along the road from the first pub of day, The Unicorn, open from 10:30am for breakfast and Bass.
By the time I was arriving at 11:45 there were half a dozen locals settled in the bar.

The Unicorn (29 Church Street, Lutterworth, LE17 4AE)
This is a solid traditional town pub, it's appearance slightly spoilt due to the original corner entrance being blocked up.  Instead, the way-in is through the door to the side, followed by the gamble whether to go left or right.
To the left is the public bar, log fire burning, golf on the TV, Northamptonshire skittles in the corner and picture of Jamie Vardy on the wall.  What more do you need?!

Real ales available at the bar were Greene King 'IPA', Sharpes 'Atlantic' and Bass. 
Not too much time needed to dither in this instance.

My clandestine pub photography is well and truly clocked

Half a pint sunk in the bar, I took a stroll through to finish the rest in the lounge bar, getting me a very suspicious look from the staff for choosing to sit in two different seats in one visit.
This side of the pub is a little more homely with some bench seating next to the bar, historic pictures of Lutterworth covering the wall in preference to Jamie Vardy.  Beyond the central fireplace were tables ideal for eating, and I really should have eaten - simple pub grub at brilliant prices.

Leaving the Unicorn, I strolled through the drizzle, around by the market square, then down the hill to the Fox, which was billed as the village pub in the town.
I could see some lights on, but not much sign of life, so was hopeful that the 'come in we're open' sign hanging on the front door was right.

The Fox (35 Rugby Road, Lutterworth, LE17 4BN - web) 
It was - I strolled in to find an open-plan lay-out with two different sides...
To the left was the bar, with it's pastel-shade wooden frontage and Six Nations flag display; a handful of small tables and stools along the wall.
To the right of the front door was the more restaurant-like section with chunky brown leather seats and cutlery laid out on the tables, deterring me from sitting there.
And not a customer in sight.

 

The landlord was on the phone to the internet provider for the duration of my visit, telling the IT helpdesk to hold on one second whilst he poured me a Bass.  More Bass!

I grabbed a dinky stool opposite the bar counter, where the TV showed the news with the volume up.
What fun!  Doom and gloom on the 24-hour news channel or earwigging a speakerphone conversation with the IT helpline.

I think I was happiest viewing the artwork in the Gents...

Mild Sailor Jerry smut in the Gents

As with most places I go, The Fox can't be judged properly by my visit at an unsociable hour and would likely be completely different another time.
The Bass was okay, but not quite up to the standard of The Unicorn.

Back up the hill along the ridiculously busy road, I took a quick tourist shot of the town hall, then onward to the next pub.

Just past the market square, on the main road, is the fairly impressive looking Greyhound, an old coaching inn dating back to 1758.

The coaching archway led to a charming courtyard where someone's obviously got green fingers...

Greyhound (9 Market Square, Lutterworth, LE17 4EJ - web)
Heading through the door, there's the hotel reception desk which was enough to make me briefly wonder if I was in the right place.  The bar is in the front room to the right, with the receptionist hopping out their seat to relocate behind the counter ready to serve me.

Just the one other punter, who didn't take long to quaff his Guinness and leave after I bowled in disturbing the peace.

Doom Bar and Citra on the hand pumps, alongside a welcome Leicestershire-local, Dow Bridge Brewery 'Acris', making for something a little different.  And very nice it was too.
I did like the bar of the Greyhound, with some grand old rustic furniture and classic paintings.

Not fully capturing the matching cushions and curtains in this shot

I left the Greyhound and had a quick wander to check the micropub in the vague hope that Facebook's opening hours may be the right ones.  No such luck.
All other sources of information suggested I'd need to hang around two hours, possibly three, for the Real Ale Classroom to open it's doors. That wasn't going to happen on this grey and rainy day.

So, a quick check of the bus times led to confirmation that I could squeeze in a half pint at the Shambles...

Shambles Inn (10-12 Bell Street, Lutterworth, LE17 4DW - web)
This old inn looks the business with thatched roof and whitewashed frontage complete with wooden beams running through it.  Yet I managed to take the least appealing picture possible.
Then did the inside no justice either by taking one solitary photo of the beer range.

The Shambles was spacious, with multiple areas - pool table to the back, cosy spots just inside the front door, dining tables to the side.  It had a fairly mixed crowd and was by far the busiest place of the day.
The chap who'd departed the Greyhound earlier was settled in an armchair in the front and gave me a nod - "On a pub crawl are you?" he asked, "Good on yer!"

With my Banks's Bitter, I perched on an uncomfortable high stool near the bar and contemplated a fairly successful visit to the town.  
As a teenager, I spent four years being ferried back and forth to Lutterworth on the school bus (and based on the number of factual and grammatical errors in my average blog post, a fat lot of good that did me!)  So this had been a bit of a walk down memory lane.  
The Real Ale Classroom (opened by a couple of ex-teachers) would have given me the chance of a smart school days orientated blog-post title, had it been open.
Oh well, suppose I'd better just call it 'Lutterworth Pub Crawl' then...

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...

Battersea and Wandsworth Pub Crawl

A sunny weekend trip to the capital, in which we venture south of the river and find ourselves in breweries in railway arches alongside some real pubs in Battersea and Wandsworth.

After a long coach journey into London we set off on foot from Victoria to Chelsea Bridge, then across to the Battersea Power Station development.

When I lived in London you could get nowhere near the crumbling remains of Battersea Power Station, the Thames Path diverting you around hoardings which hid a site that nobody quite knew what to do with.
The building was constructed in two phases starting in 1929 and competed in 1955.
At one point it was generating a fifth of the capitals electricity, although in a list of achievements keeping the lights on in the House of Commons is secondary to featuring on the cover of Pink Floyd's 1977 LP 'Animals'.

Many years of head scratching as to what to with the listed building followed its closure in 1983.  Theme parks and a home for Chelsea FC were suggested at various points, although in the end luxury London living is the route they've gone down.
Yours from just £881,000, but you won't want to be messing around with pocket change and will probably just go straight in for the 6-bed, 7-bath, 11th floor apartment at £18 million.
And for that much money you get a brewery tap next door...

Battersea Brewery Tap Room (12-14 Arches Lane, Battersea, SW11 8AB - web)
The railway bridge running alongside the development provides the venue for food and drink outlets and an intriguing small cinema.  And for Battersea Brewery, which opened here in 2018.  As the bar occupies one arch and the brewery another, it's not your typical industrial estate tap room, and feels like quite a smart venue.

There's a run of varied and adventurous keg beers plus two handpumps with everything priced in pint, schooner or half pint measures.  Is a schooner the cool measure to have your mild in now?
I wanted the home-brewed cask ale, but this sputtered out the tap and ran out before filling the dimpled mug.  Not fancying the rugby-themed Hogs Back brew, I had to stick with the Battersea keg, with a respectable stout and a half of the decadent, uber-malty 8.5% scotch ale.

Most of tables were reserved for England later, but the bar was pretty busy for the first Six Nations fixture of the day.  It did take me a while to get served, but I had some sympathy for the staff, pouring the beers and keeping a toasted sandwich production line going.

It was a Six Nations day, which meant the rugby dominated many of the places we visited.  The first match of the day hadn't started in the Battersea Tap Room, but they still felt the need to have the volume on the TV to be turned up to the deafeningly-loud end of the scale to listen to the pre-match build-up.

We moved on to the nearby Mason's Arms pub, although it was frustratingly further than it should have been due to all the closed routes around the new housing developments.
You can't park your car in front of London pubs on busy roads, but there are other ways to scupper the photographic ambitions of pub bloggers...

Mason's Arms (169 Battersea Park Road, Battersea, SW8 4BT - web)
This Fuller's pub has had a refurbishment in 2019, stripping it back to basics with an open-plan layout.  Nice chunky pillars holding the ceiling up and nice floor tiling around the bar. 

Being Fuller's, the cask choice was a familiar 'London Pride', 'ESB' and Dark Star 'Hophead' selection.  But the Hophead was the best beer of the day, perfectly served and eminently drinkable.
That said, I do wish I'd spent a bit more time perusing Tom's Beer Board which listed an impressive choice of craft beers.

Well-fed with Mason's burgers 'n' chips, we made a walk southbound toward Wandsworth Road overground station, with (yet another) brewery tap the target.

Distortion Brewery Tap (647 Portslade Road, Battersea, SW8 3DH - web)
Back in the railway arches again.
This is a relatively new brewery, a little off the beaten track, which was most probably why it was much quieter than anywhere else we'd been.
The bar counter stretches part-way across the middle of the arch, basked in sunshine which was thoroughly dazzling and annoying the staff.  It's a tank bar, with beers being served from the six shiny vessels behind the bar, each with a snazzy electronic display screen.

Distortion gets the usual extra marks for having beer mats.  Immediately deducted for only using them to sit water bottles on and offering them for sale as merchandise along with their t-shirts and tote bags.
It is just possible that I may have stolen the one from our table that the water bottle was sitting on.  Expect that in a small segment of Crimewatch.

We decided to travel a little further for our next destination, hopping aboard a bus to take us down Wandsworth Road.  We were making our way to the one-time site of Young's Brewery and their old brewery tap.

Ram Inn (68 Wandsworth Hight Street, Wandsworth, SW18 4LB - web)
Well, it's pretty impressive isn't it?  Three layered floors stretching around the corner of the road, with a fine chimney taking pride of place above the Ram Pub Co logo.  Behind it are the remaining buildings from Young's Brewery which operated until a move to Bedford in 2006.

When the brewery shut, so did the pub, not re-opening until 2019.
It's home to the Sly Beast microbrewery and as I'm always drawn to shiny brewing kit, we sat by the internal window which looks onto the brew room.

We were perched on some dreadful white leather high stools that seemed out of place, although, according to WhatPub, Punch have taken over the freehold and plan to evict the brewery and jazz the Ram up into more of a nightclub venue.

On cask was a Slybeast 'Beam Engine Bitter' or '4ft2' stout, with kegs serving up SlyBeast lager, IPA and specials.
My bitter was...so-so. Sorry.

Pretty much next-door neighbours of the Ram is Sambrook's Brewery.  They were one of the first of the 21st century wave of small brewers in the capital, originally operating out of an industrial estate until recently relocating into part of the historic Young's site.

Sambrook's Brewery Tap (40 Ram Street, Wandsworth, SW18 1UD - web)
As made blatantly obvious in this post, I'm not a fan of the Six Nations in pubs.  Here there were two floors, packed to the rafters, standing room hard to come by, all attention directed to England on the big screen.  I squeezed in to the bar, made the foolhardy choice of the Imperial Stout, then escaped with it to the peace and quiet of the courtyard.

I suspect I would have been won over by Sambrook's had we actually been able to get in.  Four of their beers on cask alongside the kegs and good looking pizza, in a swanky modern set-up within the historic buildings. 

There was just time to fit in one more pub visit before heading homeward...

Old Sergeant (104 Garratt Lane, Wandsworth, SW18 4DJ)
We arrived here just after the rugby had finished, into a pub full of raucous drunken souls and the occasional bit of bizarre fancy dress. All in all, a chaotic mess.

The Ram Pub Co look after the Old Sergeant, so it was the Slybeast bitter as the sole cask on offer when we visited.  Looking for a change I went for the same breweries' 'Swamp Donkey' keg IPA, which was a decent tipple.

And with that we bade south west London farewell.
A varied bunch of places; beers middling to great; no bargains; much grumpiness about the Six Nations taking over the pubs, and much undocumented grumpiness and frustration about London buses and traffic.