No Holsten Pils at Holstein Kiel

Bundesliga (2) and Beer

Kiel was just an hour and ten minutes on the train from my Hamburg base.  An hour and ten minutes of grumbling stomach for someone who got carried away at the DIY waffle station in the hotel breakfast room.

I'd brought train tickets the day before, waiting for an age in the reservation office.  However, this proved well worth it as it saved me €20 compared to the selections I would have made on the automated machine.  The guy serving me double-checked that it was Kiel I wanted to go to (maybe it's not a regular place tourists ask for).  I told him I was on my way to a football match so he asked who was playing.  "Ahh...Kiel vs Ingolstadt" he replied, "now that is a proper 2nd division match".
Yep, I was on my way to a proper 2nd division match.

I had a stroll around Kiel on arrival, trying my best to find the pretty bits.
By 10.30 I conceded that, even on a nice sunny day, there weren't a lot of pretty bits of central Kiel.  Sorry.
So at this early hour it seemed sensible to visit the brew pub, Kieler Brauerei (Alter Markt 9, 24103 Kiel).  



I wasn't the only one to have this idea - the place for bustling with revellers enjoying plates of eggs and bacon with their beer despite not having reached 11am yet. 
Grabbing a seat adjacent to the brewing coppers and enjoyed a couple of Kieler Biers, a 4.8% kellerbier which was pleasant enough.
Being so busy, service was a little unpredictable.  My attempt to order a dunkel saw another of the Kieler Bier arrives and I sat with an empty glass for some time waiting to pay.  This led to some checking of the watch and the realisation that it was a fair old trek out to the football ground and I'd left it a lot later than intended for a 1pm kick-off.

Completing something of a speed-walk through the northern suburbs I was relieved to see the sight of the tall floodlights.  I queued to collect pre-paid tickets at a porta-cabin, then found myself on the terrace behind the goal at the Holstein Stadion.  This is presently a three-sided ground as they've levelled the old Ost Kurve open terrace with plans to build an impressive new stand there.  The ground has the sort of character and quirks that attract me to the 2nd division - it's a mis-match of terracing, an old main stand straddling the half way line, make-shift VIP boxes and big traditional flood-lights. 
The most devoted fans in the middle of the West Kurve made a racket throughout, despite the home team trailing to bottom-of-the-league Ingolstadt for a large portion of the match.  They managed to snatch a deserved equaliser late-on to salvage a 2-2 draw. 

Football over, I strolled back towards the centre along Holtenauer Strasse, stopping for coffee and a sandwich, then swinging westwards in a risky search for a brewery.  It was risky because their facebook page and website didn't really make clear whether or not they would be open.  Not for the first time this weekend I found myself wandering around an industrial estate , but having corrected my initial wrong turn I spotted large glass windows with brewing equipment behind them and...yes!...lights on.

Entering Lille Brewery (Eichkamp 9c, Kiel) the only customers so far were three Holstein Kiel fans sat at the smart, recently installed bar.
Similar to Langang in Hamburg the evening before, this was a huge space, with the brewery equipment lit up with coloured lights.  They had a food truck parking inside there getting ready, so I guess that if I'd have been here later it would have been much busier.  I was just happy it was open.  As well as their own beers there were some varied guest ales on tap, so after trying the Lille stout I picked an intriguing 'Who Shot the Almond Brothers?', weighing in at 10.2% and brewed by the superbly named Sudden Death Brewery.

I walked back into the centre, contemplating that I'd clocking up around 10km today traipsing the pavements of Kiel.  Reaching the aldstadt and passing Kieler Brauerie again, just across the square is Tom Kyle Brauhaus (Alter Markt 16, Kiel).  I headed up the stairs into the Sports Bar section and grabbed a seat in front of the large screen where this evenings match was about to kick-off.  They also had a couple of smaller screens, one showing Arsenal v Liverpool in case I was missing the Premier League, plus a couple of pool tables and electronic darts boards.  

Beer-wise it was disappointing - I tried to order a Flensburger weiss beer, but was told it was unavailable.  "Just for today" the waitress added helpfully, although I wasn't about to make the trip back the next day to find out.  Likewise, the dunkel was unavailable, so I had to settle for Flensburger Pilsner, a let-down after today's earlier beers. 
But I'll give the place it's credit - a super spot to watch football and, in great contrast to the Kieler Brauerei, service superbly attentive.  One staff member passed by a couple of times just to check everything was okay, which made me wonder if I was doing anything weird, but I was reassured to see that he checked on every other table as well.

Time came to catch the train back to Hamburg.  It was a day with a few brilliant beers and a great bit of nostalgia standing on the terrace behind the goal at a football match again.
Kiel Ahoy!

Taproom tour of Hamburg

Another year, another autumnal trip to Germany, promising beer, football and sightseeing.

The city of Hamburg offered the chance to catch a Hamburger SV match, plus check out what has been described as a revitalized beer scene.
With a raft of recently opened small breweries, I was prepped with a list of venues, vague google map print-outs and a tourist leaflet picked up at the airport: ready to explore the city.

Ironic then that with Hamburg having discovered micro-breweries and craft beer, the first place I found myself in was a traditional German brew pub.

Trad times at Block Brauerei, Hamburg

Block Brauerei (Bei den St Pauli, Landungsbruken 3a, Hamburg 20359).
As you can see from the picture, it's an impressive place: regimented tables full of folks tucking into schnitzels and other German-fare; brewing equipment taking pride of place; two floors plus a terrace for nicer weather; and a small stage where a man with a guitar is due to come and entertain the crowd later.
Unlike some brew-pubs I've been to around the country there is little concession here to the drinker.  I timidly asked the staff at the door if I was welcome to just have a beer and was directed to take a stool at the bar, but there's very limited space.
The frustrating thing is that, despite sitting at the bar in front of the barman, you still have to wait for the waitress to come and take your order.  Then inevitably struggle for an age to catch her attention again for either a re-fill or the bill.
Just the one beer on today - a  5.2% pilsner, at just under £5 a pint. 

Bunthaus Shankraum (Kurdamm 24, Hamburg-Mitte, 21107).
This seemed a little more of an adventurous trip - catching the S3 train southbound from the centre and jumping off at Wilhelmsburg. 
I never like having to resort to the phone for maps and directions - I'm old-fashioned and believe I should be able to find things without being glued to a smart phone.  But on the search for Bunthaus, way off the edge of my map, I was grateful for technology.

I couldn't understand that the marker seemed to be in a park and I was dubious ambling into the barely lit paths in the dark. But it turned out the tap room is located in what was once the Inselpark waterworks. They opened in September 2017 with bar and seating in what would have once been square water tanks and it's an intriguing location.

They had 7 beers available this evening.  I started with an 'Alpaca IPA' - easy drinking & okay - before going DOUBLE IPA with the 8.5% 'Hopp Koop' - my notes (yes, I'm that sad) say "alcoholic Tropicana - wonderful, could drink this all night". I then finished with a pleasant 6.4% peanut & chocolate porter.

I could just fit one more stop in on a Thursday evening whilst remaining sensible and finishing at a respectable hour.  

This would be at Bar Oorlam (Kolhöfen 29, Hamburg 20355) in the quiet streets of the business area of the city centre. 
Previously a smoky street-corner pub, it was converted and re-opened in early 2018 as the Buddelship brewery tap.
And what a cracking, homely little bar it is, with an enticing selection of 15 beers from which I picked the 'Mr B' a 6.7% New England IPA.

On the barman's advice I also tried the 'Meppener Moorbrand Stout Laphroaig', 9%, a strong and downright super whisky barrel-aged stout.

Warning - this is how you can end up on the way home after trying to visit to too many 
bars and picking the stupidly strong beers.

Day 2:With some fantastic blue skies I spent the morning doing some of the Hamburg tourist stuff. Then for the afternoon I'd booked onto a tour of Ratsherrn Brewery. The brewery is housed in a complex which also contains their sizable craft beer shop and bar/restaurant Altes Mädchen.

Plenty of choice

Ratscherrn Brauerei (Lagerstaße 30, Hamburg 20357)
I'd struck lucky with my visit coinciding with an English language tour, so I joined 19-or-so other folks from as far-off as Miami and as close as Denmark, to poke our heads around the brewing equipment.
It's gotta be said that once you've toured a couple of breweries you don't really need to see any more.   Plenty of shiny brewing equipment, an explanation of the brewing process, sniff some hops and so on. 
But to be fair, it's always nice to see behind the scenes.  
And we spent a proportion of our tour sitting in a small tasting room where we were served up a 5.2% Zwickl, then a 5.5% winter amber ale called 'Lumberjack', followed by their regular 5.6% 'Pale Ale'.
All were fine, but I'd love to have tried some of the more experimental creations which Ratsherrn brew on their smaller brewing plant, just to the side of the shop.  

The brewery have a website with info about brewing in Hamburg, their beers, the shop & bar and the chance to book your own tour.

Learning about beer in the tasting room at Ratscherrn

ŰberQuell Brauwerkstӓtten (St Pauli Fischmarkt 28-32, Hamburg 20359).
Heading directly southwards through St Pauli took me to this brew pub, separated from the banks of the Elbe by a busy 4-lane highway and set in an intriguing building. 
They were having a beer launch event this evening so ushered me away from the section to the left where the brewing equipment was visible. Through a short corridor to the side was a more restauranty part of their complex. 
This was a nice place, with a spacious terrace outside and a good pizza menu for the peckish.  You can get a platter of 5 x 0.1 litre beers to sample the range here.

UberQuell - no idea what the colourful installations
in front of it are.

Langang Brauerei (Beerenweg 12, Hamburg 2276)
I caught the train to Diebsteich station and trekked the 15 minutes or so towards Langang Brewery.
On a dark unlit turn-off from Beerenweg a pot-holed track led to a bunch of parked camper vans and in the distance to the left was a small door and big iron shutter which could just be my destination. 
A little off the beaten path.
Entering through that small door, I had to concede that Landgang was uber-cool. 

Landgang - making breweries sexy.

The warehouse unit was HUGE - so vast that the brewing equipment, itself pretty big, just took up a corner of the room. The bar itself was in a converted shipping container to one side.  The whole place was dimly lit with coloured spotlights turning the stainless-steel brewing equipment purple.  Customers called in to take bottles home, a good crowd sat on stools chatting and drinking, whilst a German-language tour set-off to explore the far reaches of the brewery.
There was an impressive selection of beers on offer: 10 beers in total covering a range of styles, with stouts, pale ales, IPAs, lager and a sour beer.
I tried an interesting smoked porter and a Tabasco pale which could have been brilliant if they'd spiced it up a little more.

The bar in a shipping container at Landgang.

After all that, still Kiel, St Pauli and a Hamburger SV match to go.  Phew.

Red Cat Brewery & Winchester Pubs

It was mid-October and t-shirt weather, with the sun shining and glorious blue skies over Winchester.

And the reason I'd chosen to visit here today was that the local Red Cat Brewery were opening their doors to the public.  
It's around a 15 minute walk from the city centre to the industrial estate that the brewery is situated on.  It may have been early doors but there was a good crowd sat on make-shift furniture in the yard outside Unit 10.

The Red Cat Brewery - it may not be the prettiest location, but look at that lovely blue sky.

Red Cat Brewery (Unit 10, Sun Valley Business Park, Winnall Close SO23 0LB - website)
There was a good line-up of beers on, ranging from bitter to grapefruit IPA to coffee pale to stout.  In addition to this there was a Scottish chap in a kilt who'd paired a whisky for each of the beers on offer.  Now I may occasionally not follow the recommended safe alcohol consumption advice of the UK Chief Medical Officer, but I know what a messy conclusion a tot of whisky with each beer would come to for me, so I opt to avoid this. 

A Red Cat Brewery chap called Andy welcomes
all and recommends we "all get pissed".

What I did enjoy, beer-wise, was 'Moon Sugar', a 5.4% hazy pale ale brewed in collaboration with Elusive Brewery; the super-hoppy 'Prowler Pale'; and a 2-year barrel-aged version of 'Mrs M's Porter'.

Fun as the Red Cat open day was, I left with plenty of time to explore some of the cities pubs that I'd missed on a visit earlier this year.
The first of these certainly had an enviable location, overlooking the cathedral grounds.

The Old Vine (4 Great Minster Street, SO23 9HA)
Quite satisfyingly, the pub's frontage is indeed covered with old vines. This is an 18th century Grade II listed inn. It's a smart, well-heeled and respectable pub, which means that it's busy with tourists and tables of diners sipping the wine-of-the-week. There was a respectable range of beer though - Timothy Taylor 'Landlord', Ringwood 'Thumper', an Upham Brewery beer and the Longdog 'Golden Poacher' which I went for.
But next to these they've got a cake-stand with a tower of scones.
Not a recognised pub snack.

Longdog Golden Poacher, at the Old Vine                                             Chequered diamond 'art'

It's a little walk into the northern suburbs of Winchester to get to my next pick... 

The Fulflood Arms (28 Cheriton Road, SO23 5EF).

The Fulflood is a street-corner local, half brick half green-tiled frontage, looking majestic in the sunshine today.  It's a Greene King house, but rather like the nearby Queens Arms the beer range extends way beyond their usual offerings.  On this visit there were beers from Yeovil Brewery, Wild Weather and a couple of XT ales on gravity at the back of the bar.  Spotting me spoilt for choice, the landlord recommended 'Ethelred' from the local Winchester Brewery.  
He saved his joke for the next customer who ordered it... "Not ready.  The Ethelred, it's unready".  I reckon that one may come out a few more times before the cask runs out.

Glorious

Heading back centre-wards, I reached the Westgate, a medieval fortified gatehouse which houses a small museum on the first floor.  It's free to visit, so I had a look around and climbed some mildly treacherous stairs to the roof for a view.

Westgate Hotel, Winchester

Opposite is a pub of the same name, the Westgate Hotel (2 Romsey Road, SO23 8TP). 
The Telegraph give it a flattering hotel review, noting the bar has "grey painted walls with black framed pictures of local historic scenes...while wood panelling and exposed brickwork varies the look".  Hmmm, that's not selling it to me.  Three types of wall is a sign of the 21st century pub interior designer at work.  

There was a fine line-up of Red Cat beers on cask when I visited here earlier in the year, but on this Saturday afternoon three of the pump-clips were turned around.  Across on the keg lines they had Red Cat's 'Fafu' coffee pale ale (one I missed at the brewery earlier). 
The girl who served me corrected my pronunciation when I ordered it.  Which was wrong because it is not fah-fu, or faf-u - it's not a real word, so it can be pronounced however I like!

The final pub of the day is exceptionally handy for the train station.  And brilliantly it's down-to-earth, full of life, serving great frothy pints of Flowerpots ales and my favourite of the day.

The Albion (2 Stockbridge Road, SO23 7BZ) is a traditional corner boozer with one room curved around the bar.  It was busy on an early Saturday evening, with most tables taken.  There's no modern trappings of games machines and TVs here, just a convivial, relaxed drinking hole.  Beers come from Flowerpots and I savoured the hefty 6% IPA which struck the right chord as final beer of the day before the journey home.

The end of the evening and the light fading at the Albion, Winchester.

Tackling Rugby

Visiting the Good Beer Guide Pubs of Rugby

It's the birthplace of the game of rugby; Frank Whittle tested his invention, the jet engine, in this neck of the woods; Lewis Carroll and Neville Chamberlain attended Rugby School and Hungarian Dennis Gabor invented holograms whilst at local engineering firm BTH.  Not a bad roll of honour for a mid-sized market town.
And according to Wikipedia - "The town centre is noted for its large number of pubs; in the 1960s it was recorded as having the second-highest number of pubs per square mile in England" .  Ah, that'll be what brings me here. Of course.
So, with no more ado, first stop...

...the Rugby Tap (3 St Matthews Street,CV21 3BY)

Micro

This local award-winning venue consists of a bottle shop to the right and the Tap Room micropub to the left.  I entered to a warm welcome and a pick of 6 local beers served on gravity (on this occasion from Northants locals Phipps NBC and Gundog Ales).The two customers took my arrival as their cue to leave so I had the place to myself for a short while.  Being as it follows the micro rules of no TV or music, the "just good conversation" dictum doesn't work so well when you're on your lonesome. The friendly owner was keen to talk to me though and, upon discovering I was exploring the town pubs, passed on recommendations and found me a Rugby CAMRA real ale guide leaflet.  

Legend has it that in 1823 William Webb Ellis, a student at the public school, picked up the ball during a football match and started running with it, hence creating rugby.  If it'd had been me I'd probably have been reprimanded for cheating.  It's a story that has often been discredited, but I bring it up because my next pub is centred around the game.

The Merchants Inn (5-6 Little Church Street, CV21 3AW) 
According to the Merchants website, the Melrose Seven's club voted this the "best pub in Britain to watch rugby".  Which perhaps explained why I had the front section, where you couldn't see the Champions Cup match on any of the screens, all to myself.  
I was happy in this front room, with my half of Lytham's Golden ale, surrounded by Bass mirrors and old brewery signs.  The Merchants is sizeable, with several different sections and plenty of afternoon custom giving it a lively buzz.
I was enjoying this pub but my experience was sullied by an incident with the soap dispenser in the lavatories. There seemed to be nothing happening when pressing the nozzle, but exerting a little more pressure resulted in a projectile globule of milk & honey hand-wash, fired 45cm over the sink and straight into the middle of my shirt. 

Alexandra Arms (72-73 James Street, CV21 2SL)
Smelling somewhat fragrant, I made the short walk past the church and into the side streets to my third destination, a pub which houses the Atomic Brewery in its back garden.
The back room of the Alexandra seemed great, with a pool table, rock jukebox and doors leading out to seating out in the garden.  I sauntered back round to the front with my beer though and sat in solitary in the front lounge bar. 
I felt it apt to choose the local brew here, a 3.7% pale ale called 'Strike' with a pump-clip which appears to mix football and nuclear armageddon.  They've also got a couple of tempting Abbeydale beers on the bar, but I need to push on if I'm to make it around all the pubs on my list.

Keeping myself company in the front bar of the Alexandra Arms

Club life in the Town & Country

Town & Country Club (12 Henry Street, CV21 2QA)
This club is a new addition to the just released 2019 Good Beer Guide.  It seems to have edged out the London Calling cafe bar.  I have some trepidation entering club venues - "CAMRA members welcome" the guide says - but will I be?! 
Will there be suspicious looks? 
Will I have to explain my presence, clutching my CAMRA card?  
No.  It's an instantly friendly and welcoming place, fairly busy for a Saturday afternoon, with four beers on offer.  
The gent being served before me picked the Church End 'Grave Diggers Ale'.  "Ooh, good choice" the cheery lady behind the bar told him, "just on and fresh out the barrel".  So I went for the same too.  A lovely pint of dark mild.  And a veritable bargain at £2.55 a pint.
Great retro touches here: red upholstered bench seating around the walls, shiny formica table tops and leather cushioned panels on the front of the bar.

Moving on, I headed to the 2018 Rugby CAMRA Pub of the Year, the Seven Stars (40 Albert Square, CV21 2SH).
As Albert Square is a little further off the beaten track, this is a quieter location with just a few locals and one chap settled with the rugby being projected onto a big screen exclusively for him.  They have a great selection of beers on offer.  I'm struck again by the fantastic choice that I've found everywhere I've been today.  I picked a treacle stout from Derbyshire's Brunswick Brewing Co and grabbed a seat in the window alcove next to the bar.
The landlord came and sat nearby talking to a couple of locals: "We're putting on a 6-course dinner for the Ireland game - 5 pints of Guinness and a potato".  In politically-correct Britain I'm still trying to work out if I'm allowed to chuckle at this?



Squirrel Inn (33 Church Street, CV21 3PU)

This was the pub that had been recommended to me by anyone I'd chatted to today, so somewhere I was looking forward to.  It was originally three cottages which were joined together to form the pub.
Of the beers on offer I was drawn to the oddly named Hippy Killer brewery.  Sadly this ran out mid-pour for me, so I had to fall back on a brown ale by Cotleigh.  

Once I grabbed a table the barman brought me the third of a pint of the Hippy Killer that he'd managed to pour, stating it looked okay and that he "knew how much I wanted to try it".  Wow!  I must have looked really disappointed when it ran out.  I guess the cask sells well here as,even though it's the last of the barrel, this is still very drinkable and I rated it highly.
There was some entertaining conversation from the drinkers propping up the bar here and a convivial atmosphere.  Somewhere else that I would've been more-than-happy to spend more time.

Accordion display at the Squirrel 

In the end, all paths lead to Wetherspoon's...  
The Rupert Brooke (8-10 Castle Street, CV21 2TP) was my next stop, veering off my GBG list.  Peckishness had caught up with me and I was enticed by the pizza and pint deal.
Not a bad Spoon's - a cavernous place, converted from an old market hall.

Just time for one last tick this Saturday, and that's a second pub owned by the Atomic brewery, The Victoria (1 Lower Hillmorton Road, CV21 3ST).  This is a short walk out of the town centre, but certainly well worth the effort.  However, at this point I've got last pub of the day fatigue.  This was a great Victorian-era corner pub that I would have enjoyed a lot more if I'd started here.  I also sat in the wrong room, picking the first door which led to a bar with pool table and dart board.  It was only when I was leaving that I realised the period lounge was superb, with more people and more atmosphere.

So, in the end, from the 8 places listed in the Good Beer Guide, I missed the Raglan Arms and didn't quite manage a full-sweep.  
But there is the small matter of getting home on the train without falling asleep and missing my station.

Yum Yum World - a giant sweet emporium - ensuring that the dentists of Rugby do a roaring trade..

Old Red Lion, Tetsworth

One new Oxfordshire tick in the Good Beer Guide for me, on a short Saturday afternoon trip.  We headed down Oxfordshire's bumpiest stretch of road (possibly) - the A40 to Tetsworth.
The 700-or-so residents of this village, 12 miles south-east of Oxford, have a choice of a few places to drink...
There's the sports and social club - no real ale, but proudly advertising their Sky and BT Sports.
And there's the Swan, an Elizabethan coaching inn, now a bar, restaurant and antiques centre.

The Swan in the background & the type of car that I imagine antique enthusiasts drive.

I was going to visit the Swan, but the patrons in the garden included gentle-folk taking afternoon tea and chaps in tweed jackets sipping wine and smoking cigars.
I decided to give it a miss.  They probably wouldn't even have let me in.

My much preferred option, on the main road through the village was
The Old Red Lion (40 High Street, Tetsworth, OX9 7AS - web)

The Old Red Lion, Tetsworth, Oxfordshire

Job available for good all-rounder.

As you walk through the door there's an odd partition and door dividing the bar into two sections and creating two drinking areas.  I thought it would be better as one single room, but WhatPub tells me it's been put in place to create a pet-free area for allergy sufferers.  

The partition serves the chap who comes in after me well.  Not avoiding pesky pet hairs, but in order to pretend not to see me on the other side and claim he was there first when the bar lady arrives back behind the counter.

The choice of two ales is 'Old Speckled Hen' or XT 'Four'.  My XT was the last one from the barrel, still drinkable but a little past peak condition.  

The pub is unusual in that it also houses the Village Store, just to the rear of the right hand room, complete with revolving greetings card rack outside the door.
They also offer food, with a range of £5 breakfast options, a cafe menu and specials board.
And bed & breakfast.  Pub diversification.

The Village Store, at the rear of the pub.

I'd once have taken it for granted that any reasonably sized village would have a shop and a pub, but these days they're a rarity.  The Old Red Lion serves as a community asset by multi-tasking as cafe, store and pub, which can only be a good thing.

Just a one-pub micro-post.  Usual pub-crawl craziness will surely resume shortly.  

North Oxfordshire Pub Rambling

A pub walk?
A ramble? 
Perhaps even a bit of a slog?
A few weeks back I had the idea of a walk between villages just north of Bicester.  And this is how the day panned out:

🕕12:00 - We've been waiting at the bus stop for 28 minutes - which is odd because the timetable says buses to Bicester leave every 15 minutes.  Almost inevitably a second one pulled up right behind the first...
45 minutes later, we'd made it to Bicester and were the only people in the shopping centre wrestling with an Ordnance Survey map.  To the best of my knowledge there is no avoiding traipsing along concrete pavements for some distance to get out of central Bicester, so that's what we ended up doing.
Destination: Stratton Audley...

🕜1.30pm. The Red Lion (Church Street, OX27 9AG)
This is just like I remember village pubs should be. It's set up to serve both diners and drinkers and feels like a proper pub rather than somewhere that's had the interior designers come in and sterilise every corner.  At the bar I opt for a Tim Taylors 'Landlord', whilst they also had 'Hooky' and Sharpes 'Atlantic' on offer.  Drinks were supped in sunshine in the pleasant stone-walled garden to the rear of the pub.

We had roughly 2½ miles ahead of us and set off on a footpath which ran around the back of the village, past some ponds then northwest towards Fringford.  Across the A4421 the path delved into fields that looked as though they hadn't been walked through by anyone so far this year - there was a crawl through a tiny partition in an overgrown hedge, then some beating down of nettles and brambles to get to a precarious, rickety stile.  Covered in bits of hedge, sweating, and huffing & puffing, the sight of our next pub was a delight....

Colourful

🕒3pm The Butchers Arms (Main Street, OX27 8EB) is picturesque and in a lovely setting next to the village cricket pitch.  Somewhere underneath all the foliage is a 17th and 18th century building and a pub name on the frontage.  
Ambling around looking for the best angle to take a photo, the fella sitting on the tables out front offered to move his car so I could get a better shot.  Really friendly, I thought.  Before reflecting on it later and wondering if he was taking the piss?
There was a reasonable selection of ales on hand-pull at the bar, but we opted for the cask Lilley's cider.  Great for the sunny weather.  With the slight downfall of being a top attraction for any wasps in the vicinity.

From here we had an easier, less overgrown and straightforward walk across the fields the short distance between Fringford and Hethe.

Garden Weather at the Muddy Duck, Hethe

🕜4pm The Muddy Duck, Hethe (Main Street, OX27 8ES).
It's great that the set of villages I was visiting today all still had their own pub.  Hethe very nearly didn't - formerly known as the Whitmore Arms, the pub was under threat of closure before being rescued and renovated in 2011.  So almost inevitably everything is smart and shiny with pastel-colours, polished wood floors and scatter cushions.  In these upmarket surroundings, looking scruffy (as per usual) I was happy to be able to retreat into the rear garden with my Phipps NBC IPA.  The Malthouse restaurant is set to the rear of the pub and the front bar is laid out more for drinkers, so at least you don't feel like you're in the way just calling in for a pint.  There's a good choice of well-served ales and food has an exceptional reputation.
Two miles to go then, to the final village on the schedule, Stoke Lyne.

🕠5.30pm The Peyton Arms (Stoke Lyne, OX27 8SD)
I'd saved the best 'til last (not by great planning, but by necessity - the Peyton Arms doesn't open until 5pm).
Made up of two 19th century properties it was originally a village shop and simple bar, back then called the Royal George.  Hook Norton acquired it from the Peyton estate in 1954.
One building has a date stone 1806, although the first record of it as a pub is 1856.

No need for a pub sign at the Peyton Arms, Stoke Lyne

The Peyton Arms is on CAMRA's list of pubs with historic interiors.  It consists of one room with a handful of tables and small bar counter (there is a second room to the side, but this seemed to be out of use on our visit).
Behind the bar we're given a warm welcome by landlord Mick 'The Hat' who insisted on hearing where we'd been on our pub walk and chatted with us at length about the pub and his favourite drinking spots in Oxford.  "All friends here" he proclaimed, dishing out complimentary bags of cheese and onion crisps to everyone in the bar.
Beers on offer were from Hook Norton, served straight from the casks stored in a room beyond the bar.  I enjoyed a pint of 'Haymaker', which in my opinion manages to taste twice as good from a dimpled mug, on gravity, in great surroundings.
This is an absolutely brilliant pub, full of character, charm and quirkiness.  It goes straight into my Top 10 Oxfordshire pub list.  I don't have a top 10 Oxfordshire pub list, but it's inspired me to start one.
Mick insists on giving us a caramel wafer for the trek back to Bicester, which was much appreciated as the miles clocked up throughout the day were catching up on me and the last 4 miles proved to be a helluva long stretch.

Displays of drinks behind the bar the last thing on the landlords mind at the Peyton Arms

Four very different pubs in pleasant, quiet, Oxfordshire villages.  Plus time for a couple more beers in Bicester.  All-in-all, I'm declaring this a successful day of pub rambling.