Your FREE guide to real ale and pubs in South Oxfordshire
Issue 21 | Spring 2014
New CAMRA Pub finder website now live! see page 10 Also Inside:
Local and National News Facinating articles on all things beery CAMRA South Oxfordshire Branch
www.soxoncamra.org.uk
LOCAL NEWS The previous edition of SoxonAle was back in the summer of 2013. We had a few production and financing issues but we’re back! and plan to publish every three months, as before. Quite a few things happened while we were off-line, so let’s take a look at what’s been going on. South Oxfordshire CAMRA (SOX) presents five awards each year to pubs in our area. One is the Pub of the Year, which is the first stage of a selection process that culminates with the national award. (Incidentally, this year’s top UK pub is the Swan with Two Necks in Pendleton, Lancashire.) The other four are seasonal awards that we present to recognise pubs that are making a real effort to provide the people of South Oxfordshire with great places to drink. So last autumn we were pleased to make the Plough, Long Wittenham, Autumn Pub of the Season. The Plough is a lovely village pub with a spectacular long garden that backs onto with the Thames. Liam Carberry and his partner Kim took over the Plough last year and are really putting their personal stamp on it. Butcombe Bitter is the regular beer, plus two guest ales. And there’s good eating to be had in the restaurant too. Then earlier this year we made the Town Arms, Wallingford, the Winter Pub of the Year. The Town Arms had fallen on hard times and was a possible candidate for closure. Luckily however, Paul Davies took it on and has turned it into a real success story. It’s now a great town pub with two regular ales (West Berks Good Old Boy, and Loose Cannon Abingdon Bridge) plus three guests. The picture shows Paul (left) with SOX Branch Chairman Richard Starkey. Continued on page 4
Published every three months by the South Oxfordshire branch of the Campaign for Real Ale © CAMRA 2014 SoxonAle is produced and distributed by members of the branch in their own time. Views expressed in SoxonAle are not necessarily those of the editor, publisher or of CAMRA. Edited by: Paul Dixon Email: contact@soxoncamra.org.uk. Design & Production: Daniel Speed - Orchard House Media Ltd 01733 211933 Email: info@orchardhousemedia.co.uk Advertising: For advertising enquiries please contact Jane Michelson on: 07732 393 621 01733 211410 jane@orchardhousemedia.co.uk Distribution: 3,000 copies / four times a year Got a short pint? If you believe that you have been treated unfairly in a pub, club or bar, you should contact the Trading Standards service by writing to them at Oxfordshire Trading Standards, Graham Hill House, Electric Avenue, Ferry Hinksey Rd, Oxford OX2 0BY or call them on 0845 051 0845. A wide range of consumer information and advice is also available online from the Consumer Direct website at www.consumerdirect.gov.uk
CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale is an independent, voluntary organisation campaigning for real ale, community pubs and consumer rights.
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SOX is one of the branches that form the Central Southern region of CAMRA. The regional organisation makes an annual Club of the Year award. This is open to members’ clubs that allow entry on production of a CAMRA membership card or to anyone carrying a copy of the Good Beer Guide. We are pleased and proud to be able to say that Goring Social Club won this in 2013, having previously won it in 2011. It’s a great achievement to be able to maintain such a high standard over a number of years. The picture shows Club steward David Dean receiving the award from CAMRA Regional Director Sandie Gill. Publicans seem to move on more frequently than they used to, so it’s a great pleasure to be able to report that Graham and Celia have notched up an impressive 20 years at the Bird in Hand, Henley. The Bird, of course, is a Good Beer Guide regular and a previous Branch Pub of the Year. To mark this milestone the SOX Branch presented Graham and Celia with a special achievement certificate. Having spent the last few months under water, it’s not easy to look back to last summer and remember that was actually a pretty good one. The Woodcote Rally had been rained-off in 2012. But in 2013 the weather gods compensated by giving us fantastic week-end and the SOX beer tent was a particularly popular place to be – note the clear blue sky and scorched grass in the picture! We almost ran out of beer by Saturday evening and our friends at West Berkshire Brewery had to deliver some emergency supplies on Sunday morning. Later in the year we presented the Woodcote Committee with a large cheque as our contribution towards their charity donations. The picture shows SOX Festival Treasurer Derek Graham (left) handing the cheque to the Rally supremo Pete Solomons. The June edition of SoxonAle will feature the beer-list for this year’s event, which will be held on Saturday 12th to Sunday 13th July. The Pack Saddle, Mapledurham, re-opened in December 2013 following a long closure for repair and refurbishment after the serious fire the previous February. Wadworth Brewery has relinquished the tenancy on this Mapledurham Estate-owned pub and it is now being run by local businessman Sean Valentine as a freehouse. There has also been a slight change to the name – it’s now the Pack Saddle at Mapledurham. The pub retains its inviting and welcoming environment and the layout is essentially the same as previously, with the upper bar area serving four real ales including two locally-brewed Loddon ales; Sharps Doombar 4
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and Fullers London Pride are the other current offerings. A range of events are planned throughout the year for the large outdoor paddock area, including a beer and food festival. The Admiral Benbow in Milton has been sold by Greene King. Happily, instead of immediately trying to turn it into a house or a mini-supermarket, the new owners have renamed it the Plum Pudding and are running it as a freehouse. Even more happily the owners, Jez and Mandy, have a first-class track record in running Good Beer Guide pubs having previously had the Cherry Tree in Steventon and the Blue Boar in Aldbourn, Wiltshire. The Plum Pudding’s first beer festival will be on 4th and 5th April: at least 16 ales plus a range of ciders. Good news too at the Sun, Hill Bottom near Whitchurch. The pub has been bought by local builder Richard Hazell who is running it as a free-house. On the down-side, along with many other parts of the country we continue to experience pub closures. In our area these tend to be in villages – town pubs (mostly) seem to be able to keep going. In the last six months: The White Lion, Crays Pond, was closed by Greene King in August and sold. The new owner has submitted a planning application to turn it into a house and has already removed the kitchen and other interior fittings. The residents are fighting this vigorously, and at the time of writing are awaiting a decision from SODC. The Bottle and Glass, Binfield Heath, closed in July and has been put on the market by Brakspear for £475k. Max Tilney, who used to drink there, is trying to get enough financial backing from villagers to buy it for the community and manage it himself. The pub has been Continued on page 7
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registered as an Asset of Community Value, and the villagers have until June to raise the cash. It could be the end of the line for the Sprat, Didcot. At the time of writing it’s still open, but planning permission is being sought to demolish it and build seven houses. Pubs that are closed at present and being advertised for sale include: the Barley Mow, Blewbury, and the Crown, Nuffield. Hopefully we’ll be able to report their reopening at some point. The Dog and Duck, Highmoor, has been closed and for sale for well over a year now and looks like a lost cause. The Queens Arms, Goring, is closed and Greene King has sold it. Tesco has been given an option to lease it and plans to convert it to a convenience store. This has attracted plenty of opposition in the town. A lot of pubs have been lost by this route because it doesn’t require planning permission for change of use. The SOX Branch holds a meeting on the first Wednesday of each month and a social evening on the third Thursday. We try to vary the venues and cover all of the branch’s territory. Speaking of which, SOX member Hugh Steele has created a handsome map of the Branch’s pubs and breweries which we have included in this SoxonAle as a useful pull-out centre-fold. Check out the Branch website for news and events: www.soxoncamra.org.uk. Alternatively, email us at contact@soxoncamra.org.uk.
Award-winning, family Cider makers since 2006 sales@tuttsclumpcider.co.uk www.tuttsclumpcider.co.uk Tel: 0118 974 4649 or 07836 296996
Ever seen a hexagonal pool table before? Me neither, but here’s a picture of one. It was taken in the bar of the Haywain in Bramling, Kent. The idea is that it can be fitted into a corner and takes up less space than a conventional one. The table has a central pivot so that you can rotate it to wherever you want to take your shot. The landlord said that this one dates back to the 80s when it was a popular concept, though certainly not anywhere I’ve been. But we live in a small world these days. A brief Google search reveals that not only are these tables available to buy from Rotapool in Manchester but appear to be relatively common throughout the pool-playing world. Who knew? Paul Dixon 7
CRAFT BEER – Some Rambling Incoherent Thoughts From The Editor You hear “craft beer” being mentioned quite a lot these days. Unfortunately it’s a tricky thing to pin down because there’s no generally accepted definition of what “craft beer” is. The people at the Brew Dog brewery (www.brewdog.com) believe that they make craft beer and they’ve offered their take on it. This is actually a Europeanised version of a definition produced by the US Brewers’ Association, and goes like this: A European Craft Brewery is: 1) Small. It brews less than 500,000 hectolitres annually. 2) Authentic. It brews all its beers at original gravity and does not use rice, corn or any other adjuncts to lessen flavour and reduce costs. 3) Honest. All ingredients are clearly listed on the label. The place where the beer is brewed is clearly stated too. All the beer is brewed at craft breweries. 4) Independent. It is not more than 20% owned by a brewing company which operates any brewery which is not a craft brewery. One can take issue with some aspects of this definition. If my calculations are correct 500,000 hl is 370,000 barrels, or over 100 million pints – that’s more than 1% of the beer drunk in the UK in a year. I’m no expert, but that actually sounds pretty big to me. And point 3 is a bit of a circular argument – it’s a craft brewery if the beer is brewed in a craft brewery. But you can see where they’re coming from and most people won’t object too much to the overall philosophy; but it’s not that much help as a definition. CAMRA had a go at discussing this at its AGM in 2012. It ducked the issue of trying to come up with a definition but noted that a beer labelled as “craft” can refer to craft keg or craft real ale. It recommended that in the majority of cases the term “craft keg” (i.e. pasteurised and served under CO2 pressure) should be used when appropriate. And “real ale” should be used for “craft real ale” since the majority of real ales are craft. Fiona Beckett, writing in the Guardian a couple of weeks ago, suggested that craft beers have bridged the gap between beer drinkers and wine drinkers. This implies that craft beers are something you have instead of wine when out for dinner. Her article reviewed some bottled so-called craft beers – but, to be honest, they were just bottled beers. Because the term “craft” has achieved a certain cachet there are signs of it being appropriated by some brewers as a marketing ploy – a bit like “artisan”. Which means it could end up losing whatever meaning it has now and become another word for “hoppy”. So I suppose what constitutes craft beer is to a large extent down to personal opinion. For me, “craft” tends to mean either bottled or keg beer and is frequently (though not always) pale in colour and highly-hopped, often with citrusy American hops. Which is another way of saying that it’s keg beer, but tastes nicer than the keg produced by most big brewers. Anything that stimulates interest in beer and encourages people to experiment is to be welcomed. This interest has been driven largely by the steady increase in the number of breweries which has resulted in a huge increase in choice. Craft brewing (however you want to define it) has certainly played a part in this. But it’s quite clear what real ale is, and traditional ales already deliver the complete range of beer flavours and types. So why not just stick with the real thing? Paul Dixon 8
NATIONAL NEWS CAMRA membership continues to rise! Nationally, the big news of the last few months is that CAMRA’s membership crashed through the 150,000 barrier in September, and is currently a whisker under 160,000! It seems that the steady increase in the number of micro-breweries over the last 15 years or so has driven a corresponding increase in interest in beer. Decades ago CAMRA stopped being a fringe organisation and is now a force to be reckoned with. Regular readers will remember CAMRA’s successful mass-lobby of Parliament last year that resulted in the beer-duty escalator being scrapped. Pressure for pubco reform In April last year, as part of an overall aim to secure a healthy pubs industry, the Government launched an 8-week consultation into reform of the large pub companies. The consultation closed in June and the Government published a full list of responses in December 2013. In the consultation the Government proposed to establish: • A statutory Code and independent Adjudicator. • An overarching fair-deal provision in which the core principle, that a tied tenant should be no worse off than a free-of-tie tenant, is enshrined in law. Despite the campaign being actively supported by 206 MPs, and 96% of the people who responded to the Government’s consultation survey declaring their support for an independent adjudicator, the Government is still hasn’t acted. To call on Government to act quickly and implement legislation to help struggling publicans before it is too late, CAMRA has launched an online petition to show the high level of public support for reform. CAMRA demonstrated its campaigning power by securing more than 31,000 signatures on the Pubs Watchdog petition in just six days. But after an opposition motion on the issue was defeated, CAMRA members have been urged to keep the pressure on to secure pubco reforms. With 26 pubs being lost in the UK every week, CAMRA agrees a watchdog is needed to prevent big pub companies putting many individual publicans’ pubs under threat due to unfair practices. Go to www.pubscandal.org.uk to sign the petition. WhatPub Hopefully you noticed this issue’s cover featuring WhatPub, another great innovation from CAMRA. This is an online guide to the nation’s pubs where all the information is provided by thousands of CAMRA volunteers. Go to http://whatpub.com and simply type a place name or pub and immediately get loads of information. If you’re a CAMRA member you can log in and submit beer scores for any pub that you’ve visited. Local CAMRA branches use this information for keeping abreast of developments in their patch and to make informed decisions about Good Beer Guide selections. If you’ve got a smartphone you can do it before you’ve finished your pint! If you want to be part of CAMRA (and let’s face it – why wouldn’t you?) you can join online at www.camra.org.uk. If you pay by direct debit, membership is £23 a year. One of the benefits is that you’ll get £20 of Wetherspoons vouchers each year – so membership is almost free!
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Brewer For a Day “Give a man a beer, waste an hour. Teach a man to brew, and waste a lifetime!” Bill Owen I’ve struggled sometimes to find a suitable present for my husband David, so for his last birthday I decided to buy him a memorable experience involving beer. After some research I found Nutbrook Brewery, just outside Derby, where Dean Richards and his team offer what they refer to as ‘The Brewing Experience’. This is a day spent designing and brewing your own beer. The end result is 72 bottles with your self-designed label. For a small additional charge guests can come along to the brew-day to watch. We travelled to Derby on a wet and windy Thursday in January and stayed at a boutique B&B called Hayeswood Lodge, which is recommended by Nutbrook and didn’t disappoint. Nutbrook recommend that you tell them the type of beer you want to brew a few days in advance; this enables them to ensure they have the necessary ingredients ready. David was keen to have a beer which ‘tastes like a porter but is a better session beer’. We arrived at Dean’s house at 8.30am with David ready to create his masterpiece. The first hour or so was spent with Dean using a bespoke computer programme they have developed to enable anyone to make a unique beer. David and Dean agreed the porter idea but needed to lighten it to be more quaffable as a session beer. The name chosen was ‘Pitter Bitter’ with an ABV of 3.7 %. Dean took David through the process choosing his malts – base of Maris Otter Pale Ale with a smattering of Crystal, roasted barley and malted wheat. He then showed David the options for hops. There is a choice of around ten, but you only select a couple. David chose Fuggle, a good bittering hop and I chose Progress, a spicier American one. Once the profile of Pitter Bitter was complete, Dean went through the heath and safety issues, printed off the brewsheet and they went to work. Dean runs the Brew Days from his home garage, which has been retro-fitted as a micro brewery. The envy of any home brewer! He has a full set-up from mash tun through to brew tubs, with hot water on tap. David weighed out and created his malt brew in the mash tun first, which required some heavy lifting and weighing, plus a lot of stirring. It was then left for a period of time to mash. The next stage was to drain the mash tun and sparge (or wash) the grain to ensure all the sugars went into the beer. The wort (the beer before it’s fermented) was heated to a rolling boil in the copper, which took about another half hour. Under Dean’s supervision, David 14
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then weighed his initial and secondary hops. Dean explained that there would be two lots of hops added. The first would be left for over 90 minutes to add flavour, and the second would be added shortly before the brew was transferred to give the aroma. During the first boil, we adjourned to a local pub for lunch nearby. Dean was very knowledgeable about beer and explained that he had shadowed a head brewer some years ago after having mediocre results making home brew. From this initial exposure to the brew process, he and his son Chris had developed their beer range and moved into local stables to increase production. We met Chris several times during the brew day as he was popping in to drop off hops and malts. We were also taken down to see their main production brewery and sampled several of their range including Banter (a bitter) and a delicious porter called Black Beauty. When we returned from lunch, the brew was nearly ready. David measured out the yeast and prepared a yeast starter using warm water. He then added the secondary hops, in a different proportion to the first batch. Once they had drained the wort from the copper into the fermenting vessel, they added the yeast and folded it in. Dean explained that it was very important to make sure that the mix did not rise above 21°C. He had a heat exchanger to make sure that the temperature was correct. The final part of the day was to clean everything that had been used. David was employed for most of this task but I also helped in getting the grain out of the mash tun which was given to the stables next to the brewery for cattle feed. The hops were removed from the copper, destined for Dean’s garden. The beer was to be sent to us in about 4-6 weeks, after the fermentation and bottling. David said that the best part was Dean’s enthusiasm and knowledge about beer making: the worst was having to wait to try your beer, but that’s the nature of brewing …. He felt that it was a good practical experience of how beer is made, including cleaning out – ‘if you use it you clean it’. With all the barley and hop choices the recipe combinations are practically endless. In fact he couldn’t think of anything about the day that could be improved. The Brew Day gives a novice or keen amateur the proper experience of designing and making their own beer with professional equipment, and offers a personalised and individual gift for beer lovers everywhere. Nutbrook Brewery Beer Experience www.nutbrookbrewery.com Hayeswood Lodge Boutique Bed and Breakfast, Hayswood Lodge Farm, Common Lane Stanley Common, Ilkeston, DE7 6GG www.hayeswoodfarm.co.uk Janet Humphrey
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Registering a Pub as an Asset Of Community Value One of CAMRA’s key campaigns is called List Your Local. It has a target to register 400 pubs as an Asset of Community Value (ACV) by the end of 2014. This process has been available as legislation since the 2011 Localism Act. The campaign is progressing well: over 300 have already been registered. What is an ACV? It’s a piece of land or a building that has a special value for that community or local area. For instance it could be a Methodist Church: one has already been registered in the South Oxfordshire District Council (SODC) area. But if it’s a pub it should be one that has a distinctive local value. To succeed in achieving registration it is more likely to be one of the last remaining of its type in its area. The following text is taken from a Ministerial Foreword in the Government’s own guidance for local authorities on ACVs, which begins: “from local pubs and shops to village halls and community centres, the past decade has seen many communities lose local amenities and buildings that are of great importance to them.” Pubs represent the very essence of a community asset, providing a meeting place where social networks are strengthened and extended and where people can mix with others from different backgrounds to their own. Pubs host a wide variety of community-orientated events and activities that add considerably to local civic life. As well as injecting an average of £80,000 into their local economy each year, pubs play a key role in raising money for local charities: it has been estimated that the average pub raises around £3000 a year. The Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) has used ‘Social Return on Investment’ methodology to quantify the wider social value which pubs generate for their communities, and which cannot be captured in financial terms. These wider community benefits range from the amount of money the pub raises for charity to the reduced risk of social isolation through opportunities for pub-goers to make new friends and strengthen community ties. The IPPR’s research found that each pub generates between £20,000 and £120,000 of wider social value to their communities. How can you list your local? First, visit the local council website (SODC or Vale of White Horse for most of us) and search on “Assets of Community Value” or “Right to Bid”. The standard nomination form is nine pages long and is in Adobe Acrobat format. (If you can’t write or edit this programme format you can request a Microsoft Word version that is much easier to complete and amend.) Parish councils can nominate any community asset, including pubs. Alternatively, groups of individuals can nominate their local pub in what is described as an Unincorporated Group: i.e. a group of at least 21 individuals in the pub’s catchment area who are on the Register of electors for your area district council. The council uses this to check that the names put forward are genuine. 16
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What features of your local should you list? There are plenty of examples on the CAMRA website - here is just a few. Perhaps the pub is used for quizzes, or meetings of sports teams, community groups or charities. It may be the venue for darts, pool, Aunt Sally or dominoes teams. There may be regular music events at the pub and open-mic nights. Other relevant factors which determine viability are the potential catchment area of the pub including how many adults live in a one mile radius and whether the pub is in a well-visited or popular location, such as in a picturesque area or near a popular walking route. And has the pub been in the CAMRA Good Beer Guide? The process can take up to eight weeks to complete and if successful lasts for a period of five years. For any questions on nominating an ACV you can call the Government funded Locality advice line on 0845 345 4564, or email the CAMRA Campaigns Team at campaigns@camra.org.uk. What happens when you have registered your local pub? Well, nothing unless the owner wishes to sell the property. In this case the Local Authority must be informed by the seller and the local group (not necessarily the nominees) has six months to put together a Right to Bid for the pub on the open market at the “going� rate. A list of approved ACVs can be viewed on the SODC website. They include pubs, an allotment, a Post Office and a chapel. For the record, the SOX pubs are currently: the Perch & Pike, South Stoke; the FleurdeLys, Dorchester; the Sun Inn, Hill Bottom; the White Lion, Crays Pond; the Vine, Long Wittenham; the Bottle & Glass, Binfield Heath. Chris Hill
Modern British cooking Authentic tapas and paellas All produce cooked to order and sourced as locally as possible Large family garden with childrens outdoor play area Real log fire • Three guest ales
Fresh Fish Friday Two fish main courses and a bottle of wine.
ÂŁ26.00 (for two)
Telephone David or Cristina on 01235 847446 www.theswanfoodhouse.co.uk or email reservations@theswanfoodhouse.co.uk 18
Beers In Bermondsey, January 2014
The Kernel Brewery
CAMRA’s organisation starts off at branch level, ours of course being South Oxfordshire. Each branch is part of a regional group. SOX is one of 11 branches in the Central Southern Region, covering Oxfordshire, Berkshire, and part of Buckinghamshire. Each January the CS Region runs a pub crawl in central London. This is invariably well-attended; typically 40-50 members turn out. It’s not practical to herd such a large number of people around in a single group – particularly later in the day. So overall target times are set and it’s down to groups or individuals to navigate themselves around.
The 2014 crawl was held in Bermondsey. Now, back in the stone-age when I was a lad growing up in south London, Bermondsey was always viewed as a lawless place where no one in their right mind would venture during the day, let alone at night. Consequently, until now I’d never set foot in the place. However, things change and Bermondsey has too. Like some other parts of London (such as Hoxton) where fear and terror once stalked the streets, fresh pasta and balsamic salad dressing now rule. Bermondsey is only a few minutes’ walk from Southwark and Borough Market, a regular hunting-ground for the Capital’s foodies. So the population is noticeably young (late 20s to 30s) and reasonably prosperous-looking. The pubs we visited are rather different from those found north of the River, in that they don’t go in much for the extensive wood and glass. They also seem to feature craft beers quite a lot – presumably a reflection of the people that now live in the area. The 2014 crawl was something of a departure from previous years in that it kicked off with a brewery visit. The Kernel Brewery [SE16 3SF, www.thekernelbrewery.com] is located in couple of arches under a railway bridge. Given the comments above it’s no surprise to learn that it’s next door to an artisan butcher and that there’s a specialist chutney shop round the back. The brewery is open to the public on Saturdays from 9am to 3pm for carry-outs and drinking-in. It’s a fairly basic set-up with bench-seating at trestle tables and no heating. Which I suppose again fits in with the new Bermondsey. The beer isn’t exactly cheap: £2.50 for a half pint. However, it is top-weight stuff. There are several IPAs in the range of 5%-7% ABV. The Export India Porter Continued on page 20 19
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is very good at 6.5% ABV. And over all of them is the Imperial Brown Stout at 9.9% ABV. This is not exactly a sensible way to start a lengthy pub crawl, but frankly is too good to pass by. The first pub on the programme was the Shipwrights Arms [SE1 2TF, www.shipwrightsarms.co.uk]. This is in the current Good Beer Guide, and is apparently a traditional locals’ pub with nautical theme and central island bar. I say apparently because some of the SOX group spent too much time sucking down Imperial Brown Stout in the Kernel Brewery and missed out this pub altogether. The beer selection is pretty mainstream, so no real regrets about that. Next up was the Woolpack [SE1 3UB, www.woolpackbar.com]. Three handpumps here – I had Hackney Brewery’s American Pale Ale 4.5% ABV; ok but not great. Some of the more commonly-available US bottled beers are available, if you like that sort of thing. Seating is on green leather benches in the form of open booths around a central bar.
The Rose [SE1 3ST, www.therosepublichouse.co.uk] is a new venture by the owners of the Woolpack, and sells beers from Red Squirrel on two handpumps and keg. I plumped for Fubar at 4.4% ABV from Tiny Rebel. This is a pale hoppy beer, in the modern way: not bad but a bit bland. (FUBAR is an acronym unsuitable for spelling out in a family publication.) There is also an interesting British bottled beer and cider list. The pub features a lot of dark wood panelling with a slight Victorian feel. Those on a budget should note that beer is priced at more than £4 a pint. Simon the Tanner, [SE1 4PR, www.simonthetanner.co.uk] is another Good Beer Guide pub. It’s a Grade II listed building (mainly for the exterior) and has a more boozer-ish vibe. There are four handpumps, one of which is for cider. The other three are for local microbrewery beers. Kernel beer is on keg and in bottles. There is a bottled beer list on the tables. I tried Trumans Emperor, 4.2% ABV. Trumans was once the archetypal London brewer. It was established in 1666, swallowed up in the merger-mania of the 1980s and then disappeared in 1989. It’s been resurrected in Hackney Wick and brews using the original yeast strain that had been preserved in the National Collection. Emperor is a seasonal beer, apparently in the style of American Brown Ale – I never knew such a thing existed, but there you are. It’s not a bad drop – reddish and nutty. I also had Mighty Oak’s Maldon Gold, 3.8% ABV, and a previous Champion Golden Ale in 2007. 20
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Dean Swift [SE1 2NE, www.thedeanswift.com] has four handpumps for microbrewery beers, plus craft keg beers and a bottled selection featuring five London breweries, others from around the UK, two Orchard Pig ciders and some Belgian German and US offerings. I tried the Dean Swift Pilsner, 4.2% ABV and brewed by the Swifty Brewing Company. It was certainly drinkable, but rather bland. Quite a nice pub – busy and friendly. Finally, the Draft House [SE1 2UP www.thedrafthouse.co.uk]. Like the Dean Swift, this operates mainly in craft beer territory. There are microbrewery beers on handpump, craft keg beers, British and foreign bottled selection. It’s a large pub just south of Tower Bridge, with a central island seating area, seating around the perimeter and a separate dining area. I tried Sambrook’s Powerhouse Porter, 4.9% ABV, which was excellent. I tried some of the bottled beers too, but my notes on this are illegible so sadly the record has been lost to history. Overall then – quite a good area for a session. The Kernel Brewery is definitely worth a visit. The pubs are not classic London in the way they are over the River, but very pleasant drinking venues with a lot of different beers to try. Paul Dixon
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Sox Visit to Belgium For the third year running the SOX Branch spent an October weekend in Belgium. The 2013 visit kept away from the big cities, instead opting for the rural delights of Poperinge. This area is actually quite popular with Brits, partly because it’s so easy to get there – just an hour’s drive from Calais. Poperinge is a very pleasant town, about the size of Wallingford. This area accounts for around 80% of the hops produced in Belgium, so it’s no surprise that such an important crop features prominently around the town. The national hop museum is here and at the end of October there’s a beer festival to celebrate the hop. Even the tourist trail around the town is marked out with little brass plaques, embossed with a hop, let into the pavement. The local brew is Hommelbier (hommel means hop in the West Flanders dialect) made by the Van Eeke brewery in Watou (www.brouwerijvaneecke.be). This is a pale top-fermented beer at 7.5% ABV – the bottled beer seems noticeably hoppier than the draught. A very drinkable beer we drank mostly in the Cafe de la Paix in the town main square. Previous trips have been in cities and featured a relentless programme of visits to classic Belgian bars. This time the visit was dominated by two brewery visits. The first was to De Plukker, just to the north-east of Poperinge (www.plukker.be). This is a microbrewery that produces organic beers using only self-grown hops. Their beers are the pale Keikoppenbier (6.1% ABV), the brown ale Rookop (6.5% ABV) and the very limited-edition seasonal amber Single Green Hop (5.5% ABV). The De Plukker team is a very friendly crew and like a chat. The picture shows Graham Hards (SOX Membership Secretary), Paul Dixon (SOX Branch Secretary), Joris Cambie (hop grower), Richard Starkey (SOX Chairman) and Kris Langouche (brewer). The brewery shop is open on Saturdays from 2pm to 5pm, but if you want some carry-outs it’s probably best to phone first to check the stock. This is good advice with regards to the other brewery we visited – the legendary Westvleteren Trappist brewery at the Saint Sixtus abbey (www.sintsixtus.be). The Westvleteren beers are world-famous, but production is severely limited and they can only be obtained directly from the brewery shop. The three beers are: Blond (5.8% ABV), 8 (8% ABV) and 12 (10.2% ABV). (Regular readers may recall SOX member Ian King’s article about his delight on stumbling across a single bottle of 12 in a Brussels bar.) You can buy crates of 24 bottles but must order by phone first. The system is such that the same car can’t do more than one pick-up every 60 days; neither will the phone system accept calls from the same phone more than once in 60 days. If you’re lucky you can buy a couple of six-packs at the brewery shop – but we had to make two visits to achieve this. However, you can drink it in the large cafe next to the shop – but be aware that it does get very crowded. The picture shows a glass of the delicious 12, partly consumed. Paul Dixon 22
the Bear at Home North Moreton
Patrick and Lucy invite you to visit us at this popular village pub in North Moreton. Dating from the 16th Century, you can be sure of a warm welcome, a range of good quality ales and excellent food. Opening Times Weekdays: 12 - 3pm lunchtimes, and 6pm -11pm in the evenings. Saturday and Sunday: All day from 12 noon during the summer months. To book, please phone Lucy on 01235 811311
South Oxfordshire CAMRA
PUB OF THE YEAR 2013
The Bear at Home, High St, North Moreton. OX11 9AT
Tel: 01235 811311
www.bear-at-home.co.uk