[This is one of a series of posts about a group trip in 2018, which was rather designed for a specific audience at the time. However, I’ve reposted it to fix the broken image links and to ensure that the trip is preserved for posterity….]
I can’t take the credit for locating these craft beer pubs in Seville as there is a map which is distributed in the city which has the names on them. It’s an excellent idea, and in the time we had left, we tried to visit as many as possible.
If I do go back to Seville, I will do my very best to visit all of the remaining locations. I was surprised how quiet a few of the bars were though, I hope that the number of customers looking for craft beer is on the up so that these businesses can thrive.
Address: Beerhouse, 76 St Marys Road, Market Harborough, Leicestershire
Local Council: Harborough
I haven’t yet visited this pub, but maybe sometime soon….. When I do, this text will disappear and my ‘fascinating’ comments about the pub will appear instead.
I also don’t have an interview with anyone from this pub, but if they want to take part then please do contact me. It’ll also be an effort to update this database with pub closures and updates, but I’ll change the details of anywhere that I’m contacted about. I’m updating on a regular basis new pubs and also removing venues which are clearly more restaurants than pubs. And the pub that I’m saddest about closing is Goose Island in London which shut its doors in late 2022…..
This project is I accept entirely unachievable, namely trying to visit not only every Good Beer Guide pub in the country but having a fair crack of trying to visit as many pubs as I can. But, I have to start somewhere and here is where we’re starting. The image in the photo is from the Phantom Brewery Tap in Reading.
I don’t normally write blog posts in this manner (list type ones), but since I was asked, I’ll oblige. My friend Ross and I managed to visit every Good Beer Guide pub in central Leicester this week, and I’ll eventually write about them all on my little Good Beer Guide page.
In reverse order (I like adding to the anticipation for my five readers)……
3 – The Blue Boar – A winner of CAMRA’s Leicester pub of the year in 2018, 2019 and 2020, there was a friendly and immediate welcome from the staff member behind the bar even though they were busy. A clean and comfortable environment, but it was the quality of the beer options that really stood out. Helpful staff, excellent beers and a really well curated beer list.
2 – The Real Ale Classroom – A bit of a walk outside of the city centre, but absolutely worth it. This is a micropub with quirky decoration themed around education, namely because the owners swapped a career as school teachers for running a bar. I thought that the beer options were some of the best curated that I’ve seen, I wanted to try most of the beers listed on the clearly displayed blackboard. Pro-active and enthusiastic staff, with a new beer garden to help deal with the number of customers who want to go here.
1 – The Two-Tailed Lion – This was my stand out pub of the week, another with an Untappd screen with numerous interesting and intriguing beers. A clean environment, perfectly well-kept beers and an informal atmosphere. The customer service was excellent, close to the levels that are offered by the Hop & Vine in Hull (my benchmark of the perfect pub), with the barman here being conversational and engaging. I liked his genuine welcome and farewell to every customer and also his help in explaining which he thought the best pubs in Leicester were when I asked. It transpired that the ones he mentioned as the best were also the ones that I liked the most, and I’m grateful he recommended the trip out to the Real Ale Classroom. I can forgive a pub having faults if the staff make me feel really welcome, but this one didn’t have any faults. Quite wonderful.
There are fourteen pubs in Hull which are listed in the 2020 Good Beer Guide, which is my go to guide for exploring pubs in a new town or city. I didn’t reach all of them unfortunately during my visit to Hull, but I did get to some of them and I’ve linked to those below. My favourite was the Hop and Vine…..
When I was in Bath, I thought it would be sensible to tick off a few more Good Beer Guide pubs in my ever failing quest to visit them all. I didn’t pick a great time to do as it was hot, it was a Saturday, Bath were at home playing their rugby thing and so the city was busy. But research requires bravery at times, and I am nothing if not heroic when faced with the possibility of sitting indoors with half a pint.
Anyway, before I get further distracted, this is the Raven on Queen Street which has four bars across six different rooms and although the upper floor is more for dining, drinkers are welcome throughout.
The Raven’s history stretches back from uncertain Roman and pre-Roman origins to a site that was part of Barton Farm’s farmland in the 17th century, before appearing on a 1735 map as a narrow garden, apparently lower than the surrounding streets and now forming part of the building’s underlying structure, in a pleasingly Georgian “just build upwards and hope nobody asks too many questions” arrangement. By 1800 the site was occupied by tradesmen including John Jarvis, a calenderer, and Thomas Trendell, a grocer, before the Carnall family butchers were associated with the address in the early 19th century.
The move into licensed trade came in 1864, when Thomas Toleman took over the Bazaar Wine Vaults from Charles Wright, who was described as a wine merchant to the Royal Family. The premises later became Fuller’s Wine Vaults, then Hatchett’s Wine Lodge, with Second World War pilots from a nearby airfield said to have used the pub and left messages on the upstairs ceiling, sadly painted over in the 1960s. It later became a city centre pub favoured by Goths and bikers, opened as The Raven in 2004 and expanded in 2022 by taking over the adjoining building.
There were ten real ales available including their house beers of Ravens Gold and Ravens Ale, brewed by Blindman’s Brewery. There were also beers from Stonehenge Brewery, Exeter Brewery, Frome Brewery, Otter Brewery, Sandstone Brewery, Goffs, Bowland and Wharf Brewery, so that’s a fair number.
I went for the Lyra’s IPA from Sandstone Brewery and it was citrusy, well rounded and had a decent flavour. I hadn’t had a beer from Sandstone before, but they’re based in Wrexham and have been brewing since 2008.
The food menu has pies and sausages at its heart, which is never a bad start. There is also quite a broad selection beyond that, and the pricing wasn’t unreasonable for the location. The team members were friendly, the service was efficient and it wasn’t quite as busy inside as I had expected. Certainly, in my humble view anyway, a well deserved entry in the Good Beer Guide with its beer, history, character and atmosphere.
After visiting ten pubs with Roy and Jen, it was time to plan the week’s adventure which was to work out how to get to Warsaw Beer Festival. This will be my third time going and my first challenge was to find a £8.99 with Wizz Air’s Multipass. Fortunately, there was a flight to Wrocław on Monday evening and Liam kindly agreed to take me to Luton after I had a quick hour rest in Norwich which gave me time to think about packing.
And the journey was suitably luxurious with Liam’s decadent car ensuring that my seat was chilled, whereas his was heated for reasons unknown. Safely in Luton after faultless driving, although I could perhaps have done without the ten minutes standing at the reception desk waiting for a team member to come and check me in. I also had a strong suspicion, for reasons I won’t go into here, that the team member had been asleep, but, I can’t imagine being the night porter at a Travelodge in Luton is always the more inspirational place to be.
Anyway, there were no issues with the hotel, it was a cheap Sunday night room and I woke up ready for the three mile walk into the heart of Luton.
This was pretty much the highlight of the three mile walk, it’s not really the most scenic. Listening to podcasts makes it just fly by though.
Then, after a quick free meal and also a heap of coffee at the White House, which is the JD Wetherspoon pub in the town, it was time for the forty minute walk to the airport. Arriving five hours early for the flight felt just right in terms of timing….. Another adventure begins.
It’s always a delight to spend the day with Roy and Jen, and on this occasion we decided to tour some pubs in West Norfolk. Jen, who promised to be on her best behaviour all day, offered to drive which was very helpful to Roy, who is always on his best behaviour, and myself, again also always impeccably behaved. I won’t comment whether she was on her best behaviour, as I’m not one for gossip, but I very much appreciated the excellent driving she provided.
The reason for the pub choice is that they’ve appeared in previous Woodforde’s pub trails and Roy and Jen are merrily ticking them off. I like these completionist type challenges so I was very engaged with the whole logic of their project. I did wonder whether or not the pubs would be ones which surprised and delighted me, but I’m delighted to say that they did. It was also a bonus to visit some Good Beer Guide pubs to tick off my own list, which is entirely unachievable in its scale.
It’s fair to say that there were some great publicans behind the pubs that we visited, it’s a very difficult time for pubs at the moment and country pubs in particular are finding this challenging. All of the pubs offered a friendly welcome and some were just exceptional, such as the beer choice in the White Hart at Ashill and the warmth from the staff and customers at the Chequers Inn in Thompson. It would also be wrong for me not to mention the landlord Barry from the White Horse in Longham, he’s clearly an institution in his own right and that was another highlight.
I’d note that Roy managed a pint in each venue, which shows just how tough he is. I went for half a pint in each venue, but I had snacks at just about every pub in order to compensate slightly. He’s very rufty tufty is that Roy.
The Indian is in what was the Mill pub, it was very welcoming although excuse that I’ve written a bit at length about the food as I get excited visiting new Indian restaurants and feel the need to comment. We also visited the Artichoke in Norwich for a few post-event drinks, but I frequently write about that and will do so even more in the future.
Roy and Jen were once again great company and I’m looking forwards to the next little adventure.
After the bravery that Liam and I showed at the mud run, I partially limped to the beer festival as I’m brave like that.
Ivan, once again, demanded to be in a photo. But, he’s the Social Secretary of the local CAMRA group, he loves the publicity. And I can remind my loyal blog readers that he leads coach trips for members (and non members) to see pubs around Norfolk and not just those in Norwich.
It had been a busy Saturday and they’d taken the decision to stay open throughout the day, rather than having two separate sessions. There was also the surprise and delight to the glasses team that the credit card machines stopped working. I picked an opportune moment not to be there….
And thank you to the lovely Paula for sorting out food for me.
Thanks Paula! The turkey Yorkshire pudding wrap with gravy on the side, very nice. And paired marvellously with the Electric Currant from Mikkeller, a gentle, blackcurrant and smooth little sour.
There’s the cider bar set-up, although I didn’t manage to actually have a single cider during any of the beer festival. Next year I hope to do better in that regard.
Ivan, making farmyard animals out of blu-tac, with the wonderful and formidable arm of Jen to the right hand side.
And really is the end of Norwich Beer Festival 2025 now, unless there are some fringe events still lingering on that I don’t know about. It was a marvellous volunteering experience, I enjoyed it all and it was wonderful to meet some new people as well as old friends (literally old in some cases). Hopefully we’ll be back at the Halls next year as I hear that there will be some exciting changes, so I must actually get to some of the planning meetings.
I was delighted that there were no complaints about my summary of the first part of Norwich Beer Festival, so I thought what would happen if I started writing a daily update about the second stage at the Waterfront (it’s on the Waterfront from 28 to 30 October 2025). Here’s the pre-opening set-up of Ivan, offering advice, Roy, who doesn’t need advice, and Andy, who is quite demanding.
The state of affairs before the trade session.
In terms of the amount of beer, the Waterfront is the main event for the beer festival this year. Although there will be lots at Castle Social as well.
Some of the cellar team visible, they’re part of a large volunteer effort which makes all this come together. It was at this point that Roy decided that he wanted to rearrange quite a lot of the glasses and token stand, which Craig was delighted to hear but everything was moved efficiently and effectively. Apologies I didn’t get any photos of Craig, our brilliant festival organiser, but he once again delighted me with the beers that he had purchased. He even went completely rampant at the end and had a 3.9% beer, so I hope he’s OK today.
It looks simple from the front, but there’s a lot of cooling going on here.
Ivan, ready for action but just having a little break.
Whilst I was looking for a real ale, I actually stumbled upon the curiosity bar with its exciting keg options. Chris had read the first part of this blog series about Redwell and I was surprised and delighted to find someone so competent with regards to what beers he likes. I’ve decided that Chris seems to be as talented as the glasses & token team, so anyone coming to the beer festival should perhaps head towards his section for at least one beer. And pastry sours are absolutely proper beers.
And my friend Mark, a director of CAMRA and one of the most knowledgeable people in the world of saving pubs. He’s up against a lot, but he battles on tirelessly and we need more campaigners like him in the organisation.
After letting in the customers for the main session, I went for my pie which today was chicken and mushroom. Very lovely with the chips and gravy. Thanks also to the staffing team for looking after my supply of crisps and cheese straws for the day. I’m looking forwards to the pies on days two and three, I don’t get bored of such fine cuisine.
Ivan on his break.
Behind the bars during a quieter period.
It’s like Rodin’s ‘the Thinker’.
Sue came to help at the glasses and token stand and she’s been helping at Norwich Beer Festival since around 1984 she confirmed. She’s really growing in confidence recently and has been declared by Roy and myself as a team member of great competence. We don’t do that lightly.
Ivan on a break with Oli, Ian and Mark in the background.
And that’s it for the first day. It was lovely as ever to see Oscar, the shy landlord of the White Lion, or it was until he jumped on me. Nathan has got him on a new health and fitness regime for the last few games of the bar billiards series (Oscar doesn’t know this yet) so we’ll see how that goes.
I stayed late on this one as it’s not an onerous walk home. This was a really marvellous first day, lots of happy punters and some great volunteers to work with.
During the weekend, Ross and I visited all of the pubs that were in Christchurch (or the central bit anyway) and there’s a fair variety of them available including food-led, loud, quiet, real ale led and craft beer led.
Dirty Gerties [less of a pub and more a function venue]
Railway, The [We visited here, but I’ve decided not to write about it]
The only Good Beer Guide listed pub is the Saxon Bar and that has the widest range of craft beer alongside several real ales. This is a micro-pub and perhaps the best in terms of beer selection. The Snug is quieter but has several real ales available, there’s much more quirkiness here. The Thomas Tripp is louder and busier for those who like that kind of atmosphere, whilst the Ship is food-led although drinkers are very welcome. The Ye Olde George is more expensive but has a pleasant beer garden, whilst the Smugglers is a little further out and is more of a community pub.
