Rochester

My exploration of the Garden of England continued last weekend with a visit to Rochester. This was the first time I'd visited this quaint town on the banks of the River Medway. I was meeting friends there and we managed to cram in a few tourist attractions including the cathedral for tea, a look around the castle and the Guildhall Museum, a free museum detailing the history of the town which was worthwhile. It was all very pleasant and with the sun shining, the lovely market town scenery and the castles and cathedrals I felt like I was on a actual holiday, even though I was only a half hour train ride away from my house.

I wasn't there just there to look at the tourist sights, pubs were also on the agenda. First up was The Eagle Tavern, located on the high street and near the main attractions. This is a live music venue and the furnishing reflected this - very basic so it won't be too expensive to replace should a old rocker get a bit too excited and start smashing up tables and chairs in wild abandon. The beer selection was basic, no craft ales here, but my pint of St Austell Tribute was in good condition and was very refreshing. There was a simple food menu and a plate of chips soon arrived on our table. Although the atmosphere was a little dead at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon, I can imagine this place would be good fun at night when the live music kicks off.

Next up was supposed to be a pub called the Britannia Bar Cafe, but I was warned by my friends that this pub was getting too close to Chatham for comfort, which apparently is a place best avoided by middle class wimps like myself who get nervous and cross the road when they see a young bloke in a hoodie heading towards them. Instead we went off the beaten track to a pub called The Good Intent. From the outside I did not have high hopes for this place - it looked like a generic council estate pub and not particularly appealing. If it wasn't in the Good Beer Guide I would have avoided it entirely. But with my sternest face I made my way in and was pleasantly surprised. A friendly bunch of locals were in and behind the bar were three gravity dropped casks of beer on offer. I went for the Skinners Spriggan Ale, which was a refreshing pale ale if a little light on flavour. I wouldn't make a special journey to this pub but it did exceed my expectations and for that I'm glad.

A pint and a game of pool done, we moved on to the final pub, the Man of Kent. I'd heard good things about this place. Walking in the place was packed, far busier than the previous two pubs we'd visited. A large number of handpumps were on display, all with beers from the Kent area. This is the CAMRA LocAle scheme taken to the extreme. Incidentally I really hate using the word LocAle - it just seems wrong to me and I just want to pronounce it as "Lock Ale."

First beer up from the wide selection on offer was a Goachers Extra Mild which wasn't the best example of a mild I'd had - it was a bit limp and the coffee flavour usually associated with a mild just wasn't coming through strong enough. It was definitely suppable, just not a knockout. The next beer, Golden Braid from Hopdaemon, was a disaster. Flat and lifeless, I had to choke this one down. Hopdaemon are usually very reliable so I don't know if it was supposed to taste like a muddy mess or if it was off. The pub itself was great - friendly service, comfy seating, jovial customers and even a dog. But I didn't particularly enjoy the beer I had there.

With the Man of Kent done and dusted it was back to sunny London for a visit to The Gowlett for a friends birthday. I haven't got much to say about this pub except that it's in the middle of nowhere nestled between East Dulwich and Peckham Rye, and that the beer selection was surprisingly boring considering the trendy area it's in. My pint of Moorhouse Black Cat and Harveys Best Bitter were fine but I was hoping for a bit more rather than the sub-Wetherspoons offering of ales. The pizza being served was magnificent though.

If all goes well I'll be writing about Maidstone pubs next Sunday, if not I'll be warbling on about some nonsense. See you soon.

And a Happy New Year

I hope you had a good Christmas. Mine was pretty good, thank you for asking. I'm lucky that I didn't have to go to work between Christmas Eve and New Years Day, which meant I had plenty to catch up on some of my favourite activities:  stuffing my face full of chocolate, watching terrible TV, and drinking some fine ales. I only got one ale gift this year, a Dutchy Original Old Ruby Ale which came with a fetching tankard. Although branded as Waitrose own, it's actually brewed by the Wychwood Brewery. This was a perfectly suppable brew with some nice caramel and citrus undertones. I certainly enjoyed it and the gift tankard was pretty good with a very attractive sparkly bottom.

Over the Christmas I ended up Southampton to visit The Lovely Jemma's Nan. While we were down there we visited the Hampshire Bowman, a delightful country pub that is located in the middle of nowhere. I don't know how people found this pub before the days of Sat Nav - presumably it was just pure chance. After a endlessly winding road through empty fields the pub magically appeared, like driving into a boozy Twilight Zone. This comfortable boozer has four changing real ales, most of them from the local area. I tried the Bowman Brewery Wallops Wood, a satisfying best bitter with a lovely hoppy finish. I also went for a pint of Alliance Best Bitter, which unfortunately wasn't as good and had a rather insipid taste.

The pub has a strong food focus so I ordered a Fish and Chips. It was both bad and good. The batter for the fish tasted delicious. It was made using the Wallops Wood ale which really boosted the flavour. The texture of the batter was all wrong, doughy and not at all crispy. I didn't know whether to like it or hate it. However I had no problem shoving the fish into my gaping maw so I guess it can't have been that bad.

The pub was full of children and dogs at lunchtime but luckily most of them were fairly well behaved. There's also a £1 charge if you use your mobile phone in the pub so I spent the majority of time after eating my lunch nervously twitching, desperate to record the ales I had consumed on to the Untappd app on my phone, but not wanting to pay a quid. Eventually I could stands no more and popped out "for a wee." Once safely outside the pub, I feverishly pulled out my phone, the familiar glowing brick feeling warm and comfortable in my hands. It then turned out there was no mobile signal anyway so I couldn't really do much. 

Strangely all the children appeared to be on their smartphones and weren't charged a penny. Maybe it's different for the kids - at least it keeps them quiet. Overall the Hampshire Bowman is well worth a visit if you are in the area, perhaps after parachuting out of a plane or chasing a naughty dog through the fields as those are the only ways I could see people getting to this pub by chance.

I've been a bad beer blogger and not tried many Christmas ales at all. The few I have tried have not really been any good. I tried a pint of Skinners Jingle Knocker which sadly was as average as Christmas beers come. I can't write much about it as it was completely forgettable. The same goes for Batemans Rosey Nosey, which although pleasant to drink was not particularly noteworthy, hence why I have no notes about it. Sorry for these essentially useless descriptions of the ales but I really can't think of much to say about them. Not that this will stop me typing this inane drivel in my blog anyway.

My New Years resolution is to remember to take photos for this blog, so expect the next update to be a photo filled extravaganza. As a IT man it's also my duty to say that my other New Years Resolution is 1440x900. Apologies. So far I've managed to avoid signing up for "Dryathlon" so there may even be some beer chat. I wish you all a very happy and prosperous new year!

Edgware, Harvesters and Betty Stoggs

For my sins I live in a town called Edgware in North London. Edgware is pretty much like every other faceless commuter town on the outskirts of Zone 5. Its only notable feature is that it's the last stop on the Northern underground line. This means every time I take the tube home I get to hear the automated voice say “This train terminates at Edgware” which makes me think Edgware is so depressing even the trains want to end it all once they get there. To be fair the high street isn't too bad with a fair mix of chains and independent restaurants and shops. Sadly a Cash Converters has recently opened in place of a Pizza Hut, perhaps reflecting the downturn in Edgwares fortunes in the past few years from “slightly shit” to “quite shit.” Still economy wise Edgware is probably doing better than Italy.

Great pun there guys (does it even
count as a pun?!)

One thing Edgware is severely lacking is a decent boozer. The only pub on the high street, The Edge of Town has an admirable score of 1.6/10 on beerintheevening. Needless to say I've never been in there. It looks like the sort of place which would be filled with racists, sexists and xenophobes. Every time I've got a glimpse inside my assumptions appear to be correct, at least about the racists and sexists. I'll admit I'm not sure what “xenophobe” means. I just wanted to sound clever by using some stupid foreign word that I don't really like. There is another pub on the high street, The Railway, which unfortunately has been closed for years.

It's sad that in my formative years there wasn't a nice friendly pub to waste my youth in. I'd sometimes meet my mates at the Harvester for a pint which is not only desperate but terribly middle class. I'd sit there enjoying my pint of fizzy Fosters (I was young OK) while next to me sat young parents who had realised they had ruined the rest of their lives as they fed spitroast chicken to their screaming, puking loinspawn. Speaking of vomit I once puked so hard in the Harvesters toilets that vom shot out my nose, ears and possibly my eyeballs. As I surveyed the horrific state of the cubicle I had to admire that the body could hold so much rancid fluid, before desperately starting to panic about how I could clear this disgusting mess up. In the end I did the right thing: I cleaned up my trousers to look vaguely presentable before darting out of the place.

The rest of the crowd was usually the type of people who would consider a visit to the Harvester “a treat.” You can see the glee in their eyes and the stomach sticking out their T-Shirt as the bored 17 year old server asks “Have you been to a Harvester before?” The correct answer to this by the way is to shout out “SALAD BAR!” before grabbing a bowl and loading it full of saggy tomatoes and crinkly lettuce, and piling on the tasty but probably artery destroying salad dressings.

But I digress. This is a beer blog so I should probably mention something about ale. Last Saturday I ended up in the Wetherspoons in Victoria Station while I was waiting for The Lovely Jemma to be delivered. For a station pub it's not too shabby. The inside may have all the atmosphere of a tramps fart and the clientèle look like they've probably seen better days, possibly back when you could buy a pint of Watney's Special Mild for 2d. However the ale on offer is usually quite good, and sometimes very good. I enjoyed a lovely pint of Skinners “Betty Stoggs,” a warm, charming Cornish ale. This has won awards from CAMRA and rightly so, with a delicious malty taste and a fine finish. A pleasure to drink, and the pub isn't a bad place for a tipple if you find yourself stuck waiting for a train.