Your FREE guide to real ale and pubs in South Oxfordshire
Summer 2014
Issue 22 |www.soxoncamra.org.uk
Beer list and rally history inside
The Red Lion at Cholsey Come and enjoy the warmest welcome from the brand new team in our fully refurbished pub and restaurant
Four Rotating Cask Ales from the following breweries and many more Loddon • West Berks • Timothy Taylor • Jennings Woodforde’s • Butcombe • Ringwood • Theakston’s Marston’s • Adnams • St Austell • Everards • Brakspear Fully Refitted Cellar & New Pumps All our beers are temperature controlled for the perfect pint every time Front and Rear Beer Gardens • Walkers & Dogs Welcomed
CAMRA Members Always Welcome (We are members ourselves!) £2 discount on 4 pint jugs of beer Serving Fantastic Food Tuesday to Sunday Monthly Acoustic Nights and Supper Pub Quizzes Telephone : 01491 651295 hello@cholseyredlion.co.uk www.cholseyredlion.co.uk Follow us and get beer updates at: @cholseyredlion
facebook.com/cholseyredlion
The Red Lion at Cholsey, 39 Wallingford Road, Cholsey, OX10 9LG Cholsey BR – less than ten minutes walk • Regular buses from Wallingford
LOCAL NEWS The search for CAMRA’s Pub of the Year (POTY) 2014 is underway. This begins with individual branches then continues through county to regional level, until the national winner emerges later in the year. South Oxfordshire’s POTY is the Bird in Hand, Henley. The Bird has form in the POTY completion and there’s a more detailed article later in this magazine. The four competing Oxfordshire POTYs are: South Oxfordshire: The Bird in Hand, Henley. North Oxfordshire: The Chequers, Churchill. Oxford: The Nag’s Head on the Bridge, Abingdon. White Horse: The Shoulder of Mutton, Wantage. Four times a year the SOX Branch presents a Pub of the Season award. We recently made the Plum Pudding, Milton, the Spring Pub of the Season. Jez and Mandy Hill bought this pub from Greene King last year (it was previously the Admiral Benbow) and have already placed their stamp on it by serving four quality ales supported by a selection of good pub food. Some readers may remember Jez and Mandy from the days when they ran the Cherry Tree in Steventon. They went on to run another Good Beer Guide pub: the Blue Boar in Aldbourn, Wiltshire. Their successful model is now being applied to the Plum Pudding: they have already held their first beer festival of the year, which is where the award was made.
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
Tim and Alison Haworth recently left the Bear at Home, North Moreton, after manning the pumps there for more than eight years. SoxonAle readers will recall that under Tim and Alison the Bear was a Good Beer Guide regular, a three-time winner of the South Oxfordshire Pub of the Year, and Oxfordshire Pub of the Year in 2009. Their new venture is The Old Coach Inn. This is not another pub, but rather a Leyland Bristol Bus converted into a mobile bar for weddings, parties and festivals. The bus is over 30 Continued on page 4
CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale is an independent, voluntary organisation campaigning for real ale, community pubs and consumer rights.
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Local News - continued
years old, and served and survived as a city bus in Belfast during the eighties before a stint as a film extra in both St Trinians 2 and Children of Men. Its new life as a pub on wheels will see it visit venues in and around Oxfordshire and Berkshire serving a full range of drinks, including cask ale from the West Berkshire and Loose Cannon Breweries. Tim says: “There are many people offering event bars, but the range of drinks is usually pretty limited and unimaginative. Alison and I will be offering pretty much everything we had in our bar at the Bear, including of course good beer, wines, champagne, spirits and some often neglected pub favourites such as pork scratchings and pickled eggs!” The Old Coach Inn will have an appropriately vintage feel to it, with many of the much loved items of décor from The Bear putting in an appearance to complement the charm and character of the vehicle. For more information on how to book The Old Coach Inn, email tim@oldcoachinn.co.uk, or call 01235 819125. The Miller of Mansfield, Goring, has recently been taken over by Mary and Nick Galer. Mary was formerly the general manager at the Goose, Britwell Salome. (The Goose has since reverted to its original name of the Red Lion.) Nick was sous-chef when the Goose was awarded a Michelin star in 2009. For the last four years Nick and Mary have worked for Heston Blumenthal’s Fat Duck Group. Nick was head chef in the Crown at Bray, whilst Mary was a core part of the management team at the Hinds Head, Bray. For more information go to http://millerofmansfield.com. The Flowing Spring, Playhatch, has always been vulnerable to flooding from the nearby river. This was particularly acute last winter when the pub car park was under water for three months, which put tenants Nick Willson and Hazel Lucas under severe financial pressure. But the pub owner, Fuller’s, has supported them throughout and is now planning an investment of £50k to raise the car park and prevent this happening again. There are also plans for a new function room at a cost of £25k. The main road into South Moreton is via Fulscot Bridge, which goes over the railway line from London. This modest bridge was closed by Network Rail last November, supposedly for three months, for modifications to allow the use of electric trains. Now, because of unspecified “ongoing design issues”, the earliest it will open is sometime in September. Not surprisingly, South Moreton’s Crown Inn has suffered from this – an unnecessary burden when many village pubs are already under a lot of pressure. It’s worth noting that in 1892 the entire track between London and Penzance was converted from broad gauge to standard gauge – a distance of 177 miles. Work started at daybreak on Saturday 21 May and was completed by 4am on Monday 23 May: less than 48 hours! 4
Local News - continued
The latest on South Oxfordshire’s threatened pubs is: Rose and Crown, Henley. Brakspear closed this pub last August and sought planning permission from South Oxfordshire District Council to turn it into a six-bedroom house. To its credit, SODC voted unanimously to turn the application down. Brakspear has said it will appeal against the decision. White Lion, Crays Pond. Well done, again, to SODC – the planning application to convert the White Lion to a house has also been turned down. The local residents have been fighting this very hard and have had their efforts rewarded. The fight isn’t over yet – an appeal remains very much on the cards. Queens Arms, Goring. Tesco intends to covert this pub into a convenience store, and it remains closed. Planning permission is not necessary for this, but is required for alterations to the frontage and signage. An application is currently being assessed. Bottle and Glass, Binfield Heath. This closed in July 2013. Campaigners registered the Grade II-listed pub as an Asset of Community Value with SODC at the end of last year. Campaigner Max Tilney is running a community group which hopes to bid for the freehold. If successful, the most likely approach will be to incorporate the group as an industrial provident society for community benefit and acquire the freehold through share sales, donations, grants and loans. Continued on page 7
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MILLER THE
OF MANSFIELD
OPENING TIMES Monday - Saturday Lunch 12 - 2.30 Dinner 6.30 - 9.30 Sunday Lunch 12 - 4 Supper Club 6 - 8
The Miller of Mansfield - An 18th Century Coaching inn with 13 Luxury Bedrooms in the heart of idyllic Goring on Thames.
Summer is here so come eat and drink in our courtyard garden with sun, shade and sumptuous seating!
Sunday Supper Club
ÂŁ12.50 set main course and a drink from 6pm-8pm. Dessert menu available
Sunday Lunch Roasts ÂŁ15 from 12pm-4pm.
Looking forward to the Goring & Streatley Festival?
We are holding a Jazz night, 29th June from 7pm (Secure your pre jazz Supper Club table now). Watch out for our take away hot dogs and pimms during the festival.
Contact Mary for any further enquiries
Miller of Mansfield
High Street, Goring, RG8 9AW t: 01491 872 829 m: 07702 853 413
email: mary.galer@millerofmansfield.com www.millerofmansfield.com Miller-of-Mansfield
TheMillerofMan
Local News - continued
Greyhound, Whitchurch. Punch Taverns has closed this pub and put it on the market at £475k. There seems little local support for keeping it as a pub, so there is the distinct possibility that it may be converted to a house. Four Horseshoes, Checkendon. This closed in October after going through a number of tenants in recent years. The owner, Brakspear, says it is looking at a number of options including a shop/post office and inevitably, homes. A point of interest: research by the Pub is the Hub pressure group suggests property values in villages with a pub are typically 10% higher than those without one. CAMRA-member Marisa Francini has been coordinating Henley in Bloom, the town’s campaign to win gold in the national award. Marisa had the idea of a special ale to support the campaign with the result that the micro-brewery at the Bull in Bell Street has produced a special ale Blooming Marvellous and 20p from every pint sold will go towards the campaign. The beer is a summer ale, golden with a suitably flowery character. Henley pubco Brakspear has been named the best tenanted and leased pub company in the country at The Publican’s Morning Advertiser awards. The SOX Branch holds a meeting on the first Wednesday of each month and a social evening on the third Thursday. We vary the venues to cover as much of the Branch’s (quite extensive) territory. For news and events take a look at the Branch website: www.soxoncamra.org.uk. Alternatively email us at contact@soxoncamra.org.uk.
THE RED LION This is the most popular pub name – there are six in the SOX Branch alone. It was originally derived from the symbol of John of Gaunt (1340-1399), son of Edward III, father of Henry IV and for many years the most powerful man in England. However, a red lion is also a heraldic reference to Scotland. When in 1603 James VI of Scotland acceded to the throne to become James I of England and Ireland he decreed that his crest – a heraldic red lion – should be displayed in public places throughout the land to serve as a reminder of his right to rule. To find out more about pub signs, visit www.innsignsociety.com.
Bird in Hand is Pub of the Year The Bird in Hand in Greys Road, Henley, was recently awarded Branch Pub of the Year. The couple who own and run the pub, Graham and Celia Steward, are no strangers to the award having won it in 2006, Graham and Celia receiving the POTY award 2008 and 2010. This achievement is all the more remarkable considering that Branch rules do not permit a pub to win the title two years in a row. We have been regular customers for all of the 20+ years that Graham and Celia have been in residence here. In this article we have tried to imagine what it must be like for a customer visiting the pub for the first time. Physically, the pub itself is unremarkable, nestling as it does mid-terrace on a main road leading out of town. The average tourist visiting Henley could easily miss it altogether. However, real ale enthusiasts will know it from the Good Beer Guide – it has featured in every edition since 1996, every edition that the current proprietors have been eligible for. Approaching the pub during the summer months, the first thing you will notice is the colourful display of hanging baskets and window boxes. The public bar is a single L-shaped room, with the bar occupying the far corner. However, another room to the rear serves as a family room, a meeting room, or as an overspill to the main room. As you walk through the front door Graham will have already spotted you from his vantage point behind the bar. If you are a regular he will greet you by name. If this is your first time in the pub you will still be met with a warm welcome and made to feel at ease. Usually, it won’t be long before you are drawn into whatever the topic of conversation is amongst the regulars sat nearest the bar. If an important sporting event is being televised, the 47" screen to the left of the bar will be showing it. But, as soon as the match is over, the TVs are switched off and the pub returns to its normal sound-track: the hubbub of good conversation. On reaching the bar, you will see five hand-pumps. Three of these have regular beers: Hook Norton Hooky Mild (Graham is always keen to promote this style of beer); Brakspear Bitter; and Fuller’s London Pride. The other two dispense guest ales. Often these are from local breweries (such as Loddon, Binghams, West Berks, Rebellion, etc) but could just as easily 8
Local News - continued
be from further afield: Butcombe Bitter, Adnams Southwold Bitter, and Timothy Taylor Landlord all feature periodically. What you WON’T find are beers of over 5% ABV, or dark and heavy beers: Graham and Celia have found that these do not sell well. What you can be assured of is beer in tip-top condition. Sit down at one of the tables to enjoy your (full – you will never be served a short measure here) pint or half-pint and take a look around the room. In between the many pictures of birds that adorn the walls, you will see signs of Graham’s other abiding passion: sport of any kind. You will also see evidence of the generosity of the regulars in terms of supporting local charities: the pub has raised over £40,000 for charity in Celia and Graham’s time here. If the weather is nice you may be tempted to walk through the French doors at the far end of the family room and step into the garden. You’ll pass the aviary containing various tropical finches and cockatiels, a pergola covered with grape-vines and wisteria, a pond crammed with goldfish, and a dovecote. The garden is used to stage mini-beer festivals as well as occasional barbecues, and the ever-popular “Birdstock” – a day when local bands perform for the customers. Finally, as you prepare to depart, the ever-vigilant landlord will again spot this and thank you for your visit and wish you well. It is simple things like this: old-fashioned courtesy, attention to detail, and a friendly disposition towards the customer that keeps us returning again and again. The fact that Graham and Celia have been able to sustain this level of commitment for over 20 years, without becoming disillusioned and jaded is a credit to them and their pub. Long may it prosper! Keith Brown and Marisa Francini
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NATIONAL NEWS PRICE OF A PINT CONTINUES TO RISE CAMRA’s annual prices survey has revealed that the cost of a pint is still increasing. The survey of 916 pubs was undertaken by CAMRA branches between 13 January and 28 February. The average price of real ale was found to be £3.11: an increase of 8p from 12 months earlier. Drinkers will not be surprised to learn that there are strong regional differences. There’s a 60p gap between the most expensive region (London at £3.41) and the cheapest (the North West, £2.81). You can still pay under £3 if you live in the West Midlands, Yorkshire or Wales. But elsewhere it’s £3.04 in the North East, £3.13 in the South West, £3.28 in Scotland, £3.32 Northern Ireland. Of particular interest to SoxonAle readers is the South East, where it’s £3.33. The average price for a pint of cider was £3.40, up 16p from last year. But lager drinkers are worse off with an average price of £3.26. London was the most expensive at £3.55 a pint: Yorkshire’s the cheapest at £3.
PUB CLOSURES RISE TO 28 A WEEK On average, each week from April-December last year 16 leased and tenanted pubs, 11 freehouses and one managed pub closed. CAMRA wants the Government implement its plans for a Pubs Watchdog to protect licensees from high rents and beer prices charged by large pub companies. It also wants planning loopholes closed, to ensure pubs cannot be lost without planning permission. Pubs are closing unnecessarily as tied licensees struggle to make their businesses succeed thanks to increased rents and inflated beer prices.
THE OUTLOOK FOR PUBCO REFORM The Beer Orders were enacted 25 years ago to break up the dominance of the Big Six brewers; but a flaw in the Orders created a new monopoly by six large pub companies. In January last year, the government said it would introduce a statutory code of practice for the large pubcos. This would make it a legal requirement that a tied licensee should not be worse off than a free-of-tie licensee. CAMRA has been calling for a statutory code of practice to deliver a market-rent only option and the right for licensees tied to large pub companies to sell a guest beer. It had been thought by many that this issue was going to be kicked into the long grass, but the recent Queen’s Speech said: “Legislation will be introduced to provide for a new statutory code and an adjudicator to increase fairness for public house tenants.” The legislative programme for this government’s last year doesn’t seem too congested, so hopefully something will at last be done about this injustice.
CLOSE LOOPHOLE NOW TO SAVE OUR PUBS Two pubs were converted into supermarkets every week during 2012 and 2013, despite local opposition. Supermarkets are continuing to exploit a loophole in planning law, which allows pubs to be converted to other uses without planning permission. According to research by CAMRA members, 208 pubs have been turned into supermarkets since January 2012. In South Oxfordshire the Queen’s Arms, Goring, is currently being converted, by Tesco. Tesco is by far the largest pub converter - 110 in the past two years. Sainsbury’s comes second with 29 and the Cooperative third with 23. Until the loophole is closed CAMRA is encouraging communities to show their support for their local by nominating them as an Asset of Community Value (ACV), which can help prevent the closure. 10
LISTING PUBS AS ASSETS OF COMMUNITY VALUE Speaking of which, the previous issue of SoxonAle carried a detailed article by SOX member Chris Hill explaining the process and advantages to be gained by registering a pub as an ACV. Listing a pub as an ACV gives communities six months to explore ways to buy it should it be put on sale within five years. This not only buys a community much-needed time but puts a brake on developers keen to progress a change of use without the consent of the community. More research by CAMRA shows that over 50 pubs are now being run by their communities. At least ten were listed as ACV and facing closure before being saved. This represents a growing trend of communities looking to save their pub by buying and running it themselves. Some examples are: In the SOX Branch area there is the Plough, Great Haseley. The Norton community pub in Cold Norton, Essex. The Norton was the first community pub to be included in CAMRA’s Good Beer Guide yet was threatened with permanent closure in 2007. Shares in the pub were sold and raised more than £100k (£20k more than the original target) with 70% of the share uptake coming from villagers and the remaining 30% from CAMRA members from Essex and further afield. The Old Crown Pub in Hesket Newmarket, Cumbria, believed to be the first co-operative pub in the UK when it was established in 2003, is owned by 100 nearby residents. Details of community-owned pubs are given in www.camra.org.uk/communitypubs.
CIDER AND PERRY Every year in the first week of May at the Reading Beer Festival a panel of experts tastes ciders and perries from across the UK in the final round of judging for CAMRA’s National Cider and Perry Championships. This year Taunton-based Sheppy’s took the gold in the cider category with its Medium (6%ABV). The judges described the new champion cider as having “a rich apple aroma, dry yet well-balanced flavour and a clean, refreshing, moreish finish.” The full list of winners is: CIDER – Gold: Sheppy’s, Medium; Silver: Dove Syke, Ribble Valley Gold; Bronze: Wilce’s, Cider. PERRY – Gold: Oliver’s, Perry; Silver: Kent Cider Company, Perry; Bronze: Raglan Cider Mill, Snowy Owl. More information on CAMRA’s cider and perry campaigns can be found at www.camra.org.uk/cider
HOP SHORTAGE ON THE HORIZON? In the last SoxonAle we discussed the current fashion for so-called “craft” beers, and came to the conclusion that the term essentially describes a heavily-hopped keg beer. Now news is emerging that hop growers are struggling to meet demand and the reason is craft beer, which has come from nowhere to claim 8% of the US beer market making their price in the US double in 10 years. Far more hops go into craft beer than the equivalent produced by the large corporate brewers - roughly six times more. This has lead to a shift from high-yield alpha hops to the "aroma" varieties responsible for the striking citrus notes in many craft beers. So more hops are needed but they are of the varieties that are less productive, and fears are growing of a hop shortage. By next year, the acreage in the US will be planted 60/40 in favour of aroma varieties: it used to be 70/30 the other way. But the US situation is rather different to that in Europe. The price of hops in the UK and Germany has not surged in the same way as in America. But even in the UK things will get difficult if last year's bad weather were to be repeated - the 2014 crop is pretty much sold out. 11
Woodcote Rally
Over fifty years ago, when far away London was starting to swing and Mods and Rockers were settling their differences in previously quiet seaside resorts, a group of people living on top of the Chiltern Hills in an insignificant village named Woodcote staged an event which laid the foundation of a tradition. The first Woodcote Rally featured a number of steam road engines together with some other elderly transport exhibits, all gathered together in a field for the public to admire at a one day event. The whole affair was very much like an up-market village fete. The object was to stage an enjoyable event, raise some money for village use (with particular regard to the village hall) and to foster the preservation of veteran transport. These objectives were so successfully achieved that it was almost inevitable everyone should want to do it all over again the following year, and the following year, and... The intervening years have been kind to Woodcote: the story of the Rally has been one of continuing success with only a few lean years. In the very early days the Rally soon became a two-day event, slowly growing in size but always retaining modest proportions so that the whole event could comfortably occupy a single field. Right up until the 25th anniversary celebrations it managed to retain its village fete flavour. Then, suddenly, it was all change. The old guard among the organisers stepped into the background and a new crew stepped forward. Riding a wave of enthusiasm the Rally simply grew and grew. Within a few short years it took on all the characteristics of a county show, though still retained the transport theme as its inspiration. In short it became the biggest, best organised, fun-filled, value for money, annual event in Oxfordshire. These days there are around 600 exhibits. The only real disaster over the years was in 2012 when the 49th Rally was cancelled because the incessant summer rain had completely flooded the exhibition areas. However, the organisers went into overdrive to minimise losses, coming up with fund-raising ideas and appeals to the business community. This was rewarded in 2013 with a gloriously hot weekend that encouraged record attendances and huge quantities of beer to be drunk. In the fifty years of the Rally some £400k has been raised. SOX CAMRA’s beer tent is one of the main contributors, and 2014 will be no exception. A great range of beers, lager and wine has been ordered and CAMRA’s volunteer staff look forward to welcoming thirsty rally-goers. The Rally runs over the weekend of the 12th and 13th of July. See www.woodcoterally.org.uk for details of all the events. 14
Anspach & Hobday's entrace, with the Shard in the background
Bermondsey Beer Mile The SOX Branch is one of 11 branches that constitute CAMRA’s Central Southern Region. Each January, Central Southern runs a London pub crawl. The 2014 crawl was centred on Bermondsey, and the previous edition of SoxonAle included a detailed account. That crawl kicked-off in the Kernel Brewery, a micro that has been around since 2009 and brews some pretty impressive bottled beers. They are part of the so-called “craft beer” movement which is currently having its moment with microbreweries springing up across the capital and hipsters supping enthusiastically at their hoppy pints. But while pioneers such as Greenwichbased Meantime and the Camden Town Brewery can claim to be at the trend’s forefront, it’s Bermondsey that has found itself the unlikely home of this growing scene. Six microbreweries are now based in the area: all but one occupying arches under the railway between south Bermondsey to London Bridge. All six open their doors to the public every Saturday. This has effectively created a set-piece crawl - the Bermondsey Beer Mile (though it’s actually about 1½ miles.) The Beer Mile run starts at 11am on Bermondsey Trading Estate, home to Fourpure, and ends at Druid Street where Anspach & Hobsday and Bullfinch Brewery share equipment. SOX is very much at the cutting edge of fashionable drinking, so inevitably we had to get there quickly because it can’t be long before un-cool types like American tourists move in. (At this point it’s worth mentioning that there is a distinct south London hipster look. It involves a full beard, short-back-and-sides, a low parting and the hair slicked back with an optional modest quiff. Your humble correspondent rather stuck out from the crowd: there was no time to grow a beard and having a choice of hair-style is, sadly, a long-distant memory.) Anyway, the place to start is ...... 16
Bermondsey Beer Mile
Fourpure seating area
FOURPURE BREWERY: 22 Bermondsey Trading Estate, Rotherhide New Road, SE16 3LL This is the only one of the breweries not to be situated under a railway arch. It’s in a unit on a small industrial estate, though it is very close to the railway. Founded in 2013, the name is a reference to the four traditional ingredients of beer – grain, malt, hops and water. The brewery is a quite reasonable 20-barrel plant. The sales outlet and public drinking area are right next to the brewing plant. You sit on benches and drink off trestle tables, with the beer menu chalked on a blackboard resting on a pile of malts sacks nearby. On this particular Saturday there were six (keg) beers on offer, plus bottled beers. I tried the Session IPA at 4.2% ABV. I guess this is a take on American IPA – not bad, but a bit average really. Like all these breweries, the beer is sold by the 330ml glass – not in pints. www.fourpure.com
PARTIZAN BREWING: 8 Almond Street, SE16 3LR Founded in 2010 this brewery uses kit previously installed in Partizan Brewing entrance the Kernel Brewery. It’s a smaller set-up than Fourpure. In fact the customer drinking area is outside: on benches (again) near some pallets and bins. The beer-list here was written on a piece of cardboard and taped to the door. Only one keg beer was on sale – the heavily hopped Hommelbier at 5.1% ABV. Regular SoxonAle readers will recall the account of last year’s Branch trip to Poperinge in Belgium, which is the home of Hommelbier. Again, this version was ok, though didn’t really match up to the Belgian original. www.partizanbrewing.co.uk Continued on page 19
is pretty 17th century public house offers a warm friendly service; home cooked food; well kept real ales and good sensibly priced wines. We have attractive pub gardens with wonderful views to enjoy in the Summer months and well behaved dogs are welcome.
Opening Hours Mon to Sat 12 to 3pm Food served 12 to 2.15pm Evenings 6.00 to 11pm Food served 7pm to 9.15pm Sundays 12 to 3pm Food served 12 to 2.15pm Evenings 7pm to 10.30pm The Rainbow Inn, Middle Assendon, Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire RG9 6AU Phone: 01491 574879
Award-winning, family Cider makers since 2006 sales@tuttsclumpcider.co.uk www.tuttsclumpcider.co.uk Tel: 0118 974 4649 or 07836 296996
The Lamb Inn
High Street, Little Milton OX44 7PU
Tel: 01844 279527
Summer Beer Festival Friday 18th to Sunday 20th July 2014 A wide range of real ales Live music on Friday evening BBQ on Sunday A�ernoon
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Bermondsey Beer Mile - continued
THE KERNEL BREWERY: Arch 11 Dockley Road Industrial Estate, SE16 3SF This is Bermondsey’s original microbrewery, being founded in 2009. It’s pretty obvious that Kernel is the model that all the others are trying to copy, right down to the use of trestle table and benches. Kernel’s drinking area is larger than the others, having its own railway arch. There were eight keg beers available plus a range of bottled stuff. I started with the Oak-Aged Saison, at 4.1%ABV. This is slightly Kernel's cheery noisy drinking area sour, like a milder version of the Belgian geuze beers it is based on. Quite drinkable and certainly less of an ordeal than the full-on Belgian beers. The Table Beer (3.4%ABV) was good too – with a lemon/citrus flavour. The Imperial Brown Stout (9.8%ABV) is top quality stuff but not exactly a session beer, so I bought a couple of bottles for later. www.thekernelbrewery.com BREW BY NUMBERS: 79 Enid Street, SE16 3RA Started in 2012, unusually this brewery’s beers are specified by two pairs of numbers. The first pair denotes the style of beer and the second the recipe used. Six draught keg beers were available. 03/03 proved to be a very nice traditional porter at 6.5%ABV. 02/08 (5.5%ABV) was an equally drinkable golden beer, yeasty and zesty. Seating this time was mainly on pallets, outside on the pavement. www.brewbynumbers.com
ANSPACH AND HOBDAY/BULLFINCH BREWERY: 118 Druid Street, SE1 2HH This is the first brewery in the UK to be financed through the crowdfunding website Kickstarter, in 2014. Bullfinch Brewery shares the equipment and space. A&H’s Smoked Brown Ale came recommended and is supposedly a cross between traditional English brown ale and German smoked beer. To be honest I thought it was OK but rather undistinguished - likewise the Pale Ale. Both were cloudy; presumably by design. This brewery actually has a proper facade, not just a roller-shutter door, and inside seating (the ubiquitous benches). www.anspachandhobday.com / www.thebullfinchbrewery.co.uk So, in summary. For beer quality The Kernel is still well ahead of the newcomers, though Brew By Numbers is a very creditable second. The others need to do some work to catch up. As an event, the Bermondsey Beer Mile is a very entertaining way of spending a Saturday afternoon and is thoroughly recommended, though it’s probably advisable to try and pick a dry day. Paul Dixon 19
Henley Brew House pub and microbrewery tour In a previous SoxonAle we reported on the return of brewing to Henley, when the Henley Brew House pub and micro-brewery opened in what used to be the police station. Happily, the initial popularity has been maintained and the pub is thriving, with a range of in-house beers available. A few weeks ago brewer Chris Flavin invited SOX along to take a look at the brewery and try some of the ales. Chris started life as a lager drinker. But his father Brewer Chris Flavin of the Henley Brew House and brother have always been passionate and discerning ale drinkers and finally got him along to some real ale beer festivals. After visiting some micros such as Flower Pots and Shotover to buy beer, he started home-brewing, took a brewing course and then started looking towards brewing as a career. The biggest selling in-house beer is Jail House. This is a 3.9%ABV bitter at the biscuit/malty end of the spectrum, named after the building’s previous function. The second most popular is Temple – at 4.5%ABV this is a pale ale, quite heavily hopped to give a floral/citrus aroma. The Henley Brew House is now supplying other well-known real ale pubs such as the Bird, Knowle Hill, and the Bell, Waltham St Lawrence. Three beers were supplied to the recent Reading Beer Festival. Chris’s vision for the brewery is to continue brewing more interesting and ever-changing range. He’s keen to get the occasional 5%-plus beers brewed, and is hoping to brew a new hop of the month series of single-hop beers. A wheat beer is planned for later this year. Henley Brew House runs a beer club, the Henley Hopheads, which is free to join and is still open to new members. The next open evening and tasting session will be 16th July. Also in the pipeline is a competition to design a beer, and there is likely to be a beer festival in the pub later in the year. http://thehenleybrewhouse.co.uk Paul Dixon
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Cask ales in Cataluña CAMRA member Ian King is justly famous for his learned articles on Belgian beers that have appeared in previous SoxonAles. He recently discovered that the irrepressible human need for decent beer is now emerging in Spain... Your roving and sun-tanned reporter Ian King recently spent a week in Spain: Cataluña to be precise, on a wine-tasting tour of the Penedés region (serious scientific research, you understand). This area is renowned for a fizzy grape-based beverage drunk by the locals when they can’t find decent beer. Some of it is even spontaneously fermented, rather like those sour Belgian beers whose virtues I like to extol. After a hard morning’s work tasting many vins (in the local Catalan lingo), a heavy lunch and a siesta, it was time to spend the evening in search of the amber nectar. The narrow alleys of Sitges seemed to offer nothing but Estrella and San Miguel when all of a sudden a sign with the magic word “artesanal” hove into view and I found myself in La Sitgetana microbrewery, and outside a couple of their tasty offerings - all unpasteurised and unfiltered. First to be tried was Art Fosca stout at 5.8%ABV and 20 IBU. Next was Edge Brewing Flor de la Vida American Pale Ale at 40 IBU. This proved too bitter for the Irish party I had fallen into conversation with, and who moved on to the milder Toc D’Espelta Weiss wheat beer at 5.1%ABV and 10 IBU. (Incidentally, they reported good things happening in the Emerald Isle with lots of microbreweries popping up - My goodness, My Guinness!) La Sitgetana had barely been open a month, but was doing a brisk trade (carry-outs available in glass bottles filled at the pump). The brewer’s brother was pleased to give me a quick tour of the brewery. Well worth a visit at Sant Bartomeu 10, Sitges, should you be spending a beach holiday in the area. Details on www.lasitgetana.cat, but give them a chance to build the website first. Ian King
The Plum Pudding in Milton A great example of a proper village pub serving at least four real ales from local and regional brewers. The menu is based around good fresh local ingredients and features pork from the Plum Pudding pig, also available is a great selection of specially made sausages served with different mashes and succulent onion gravy. The pub is in the heart of the village and is easily accessible from the A34 and two minutes from Milton Business Park. OPENING TIMES Monday to Thursday Lunch: 11:30 to 14:30 Eve:17.00 to 23.00 Friday and Saturday All Day 11:30 to 00:00 Sunday All Day 12.00 to 22:30 Kitchen closed Sunday evening
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