Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Tag: Good Beer Guide

  • Farnborough – Prince of Wales Pub

    Farnborough – Prince of Wales Pub

    On my continued trek around pubs listed in the Good Beer Guide, the Prince of Wales is located around a fifteen minute walk from the centre of Farnborough, although is quite near to Farnborough North railway station.

    There’s a mixture of traditional and modern design in the pub, I think it all works well.

    The cask and keg options. There was a friendly welcome from the member of staff at the bar, with the surroundings being warm and peaceful.

    Some effort has been made with the bar snacks, I approve of this arrangement.

    The selection of real ales, a colourful and well presented bar. Interestingly, there are Siren Craft Brew and Brewdog bar mats, another touch of modernity.

    The Princely Porter from Ascot Brewing Company, a decent porter with a pleasant chocolate flavour, although I’m not sure that I got much of the dark berry fruits that the brewer mentioned. The Roast Ox crisps complemented it beautifully.

    I can’t say that the situation with dogs here is ideal, although it’s not really for me to criticise as pubs at the moment can’t really afford to turn away custom (I more mean dog owners rather than dogs themselves). However, the dogs here were being unruly, jumping on tables and barking loudly and for a prolonged period. The environment soon switched from cosy and welcoming to a place which was considerably less appealing. There was a craft beer that I was going to have from Brew York, but I decided to leave it as the environment lost its excitement for me.

    There were no particular problems with the pub, as the staff members were polite, the surroundings were clean and comfortable with the beer range being really quite decent for a pub on the edge of a town. They’re not currently serving food, but I’m not sure it would be ideal for customers trying to eat a Sunday roast whilst navigating around the dogs. It’s also well reviewed on-line, so they’re clearly consistently pleasing customers. They do seem to have abandoned their social media accounts though, leaving Twitter untouched and deleting Facebook, and they’re not responding to reviews, so it’s difficult to get an understanding of what is going on here in terms of events and menus.

    The pub is though not just in the Good Beer Guide, but it has been in for over forty years, it has won numerous local awards and their offering craft beer is a really positive development for such a pub with long cask traditions. Dogs aside, this is a very decent pub and I’m sure that it’ll remain in the Good Beer Guide for some time to come.

  • Basingstoke – The Angel

    Basingstoke – The Angel

    I didn’t have long in Basingstoke, but I made time to pop to one Good Beer Guide listed pub and the nearest was the JD Wetherspoon operated Angel. This is an odd pub, it’s really not that big and was at its capacity in terms of tables taken when I visited, so they were losing customers who couldn’t find a seat.

    Service was friendly and welcoming, I went for half a pint of the Lowry from Hydes Brewery, who are based in Salford and that came to the grand total of £1. Rather than rewriting the history, this is what JD Wetherspoon say about their pub:

    “This former Lloyds No.1 bar opened in 2002. In 2015, it was renamed The Angel after The Angel Inn which stood behind Barclays Bank, in Market Place. The historic inn was the venue for dances which were attended by the novelist Jane Austen. The Angel closed in the 1860s. A new Angel was built soon after, on the corner of Wote Street and Potters Lane, but was demolished in the 1960s, during the rebuilding of the town centre.”

    I stayed at the bar which was bright and colourful. I spent most of the time people watching, as it was hard to get lost in a world of reading when trying to ensure I wasn’t in the way of any customer. Although I carefully avoided standing near the real ale options, as a new pet hate of mine is when people sit there and block the view of those (terms and conditions apply, such as when the pub lists their beer on Untappd…..). Anyway, I digress again.

    The Lowry beer was fine, although unremarkable, a few Citra hops shining through an entirely drinkable beer.

    The reviews for the beer are around average for JD Wetherspoon outlets, perhaps slightly above average. I noted this review:

    “Enjoyable evening, having met up with friends, enjoying catching up laughing tell jokes. Bar staff than comes over and says, we are not serving you anymore your table is too noise too much laughter coming from it, we thought they were having a joke, but no they wouldn’t serve us because we were too noisy. Really!!”

    Good.

    “We ordered 6 breakfasts and waited 1 hour 20 minutes for it. When it arrived it was cold, rubbery and tasteless. The portion of beans consisted of 18 – it was so funny we counted”

    I fear there might be a Facebook group about beans soon, as if the one about chips isn’t enough…..

    “Staff just out of nappies no social skills. Serve youths before more mature customers even when you been waiting longer just to get noticed”

    I can’t imagine why the staff ignored this customer…..

    “Our evening was spoilt by an over zealous manager….. Who got upset when we sang happy birthday to our friend. It put a dampener on the rest of the evening. It was not rowdy. It was a quick song song. You run a pub not a library…..”

    I’m liking the pub more and more….. Unnecessarily raucous.

    “Haha we got told to stop laughing . We’re in the world can’t you go out for a beer and have a good time . This is weatherspoon not the bloody Ritz”

    Marvellous. Anyway, I’ve got distracted again….

    There’s not much else I can note about the pub as I wasn’t there for long and everything was quite busy, but the staff were seemingly enjoying themselves, or as much as they could. I can see why the pub is listed in the Good Beer Guide as there were seven or eight different real ales and that’s enough to justify an entry, although the surroundings weren’t particularly cosy (but that’s often the case in these former Lloyds venues). There is another JD Wetherspoon outlet in the town, the Maidenhead Inn, and I suspect that the surroundings there are a little quieter and more sedate.

  • Reading – Weather Station

    Reading – Weather Station

    Formerly the Eldon Arms, this pub was renamed in 2019 after being taken over by the Wild Weather Ales brewery. It’s listed in the Good Beer Guide, although primarily for its relatively small collection of real ales, rather than for its very decadent selection of keg beers.

    There are some really quite exciting options there, with the member of bar staff being knowledgeable about their venue’s offerings, which inevitably had lots of Wild Weather Ales, but also a fair few Omnipollo beers although these were mostly in cans. This felt a grown-up sort of pub, entirely informal and actually a bit rough around the edges, but the quality of the drinks available had a maturity that I decided made it instantly deserve respect.

    Two things here, there was a decent selection of beers in the fridges, and that leads me to moan once again about how non-tied licensed premises should nearly always try and offer something similar. Secondly, I wasn’t a fan of the big chunky table that I was sitting at, as the surfaces weren’t entirely flat. With decadent beers, I don’t want to risk of a spillage.

    The star of this expensive show was the Mammut Barrel Aged from Omnipollo and this was a quite beautiful beer. There were flavours that would hit the palate at different times, giving tastes of bourbon, vanilla, Oreos (not sure I was meant to get that, but there we go) and some nuttiness to the whole arrangement. A complex and beautiful beer, this is really a dessert substitute that saves people having to eat cake.

    I was so excited to try the Mammut that I had it first, before the Maple Latte from Wild Weather, and that was evidently the wrong way to enjoy these. But like Theresa May running recklessly through a field, it’s time sometimes to throw caution to the wind. This beer was smooth with some pleasant honey flavours, although perhaps it was just very slightly artificial, but it was still a delight. It was like a little cup of really quite smooth coffee after the most luxurious and full of desserts. I think I’m one of my flights of fancy again here though, but it’s fair to say that I really could get into this beer thing…..

    Back to the pub, other from a very loud barking dog that I was pleased was moved to the other end of the bar quite promptly, the surroundings were peaceful. I browsed yet another book on my phone, which is all to the good as I’m making rapid progress through my little backlog of reading. The staff members were unobtrusive, but always helpful, and it was surprisingly not busy inside for a Friday evening, although my visit was on the day of the gales.

    The pub reviews are all as positive as a venue could really hope for, with no 1/5 feedback on Google Reviews at least. They did pick up this:

    “Would be good but loud metal music will mean this place won’t survive… unfortunately.”

    as a 2/5 shortly after opening, but I think that the reviewer has already been proved wrong. I can’t remember the music and that often is something that I fail to notice, but that means that it didn’t annoy me. If it was loud metal music then I would certainly be muttering about the place (well, to myself), so perhaps they’ve moderated the noise since this review. Someone complained that they were “too hipster for cash”, which is a sneer that tells me more about the reviewer, but it’s certainly an on-trend venue because of the quality of the surroundings. This is an unusual pub to be in the Good Beer Guide, but I’m very pleased that it is, this is the sort of venue that the book must include to ensure that it remains relevant, which means CAMRA needs to ensure it has members who visit pubs like this.

  • Reading – The Alehouse

    Reading – The Alehouse

    The centre of Reading was returning to normal after the winds of yesterday had rearranged the litter quite comprehensively around the streets of the town. The wind had nearly entirely dissipated, back to the more usual pouring rain that I’m used to in this country. As a lunchtime trip beckoned, I opted for the generally well reviewed Alehouse, but it was a little difficult to know what to expect as their web-site is down and they haven’t been engaging with their social media accounts for some time. I accept there’s more to life than social media (such as crisps), but it is useful to know a little about a venue in advance.

    The bar was quite busy and so I didn’t get any photos of the arrangements there, but it had quite a unique charm with pump clips positively raining down from the ceiling. It was all friendly enough, another customer made conversation with me, so my little tick box of a welcoming vibe was on offer here. The pub is listed in the Good Beer Guide, which is what drew me there in the first place, and there were five or so different real ales available. The choices weren’t immediately obvious to me, but the member of bar staff was happy to engage and find me a suitable dark beer.

    As the front bar was full I decided to go and investigate the back rooms and these are full of charm, with several nooks and crannies.

    Now that’s quirky, I like it. Some interesting books on the shelf and some effort with the decoration on the ceiling in here as well. Absolutely no phone signal, but plenty of charm. The toilets at the back of the pub feel quite old-school and they require some slight manoeuvring around some beer barrels, but that all adds to the character.

    I went for half a pint of the Black Crow from Longdog Brewery which is a microbrewery located a short distance away in Basingstoke. This was well-kept and what I would call a session dark beer (I think that’s a thing, although others might disagree), even if it is 4.5%, although it lacked the richness and decadence that I’d ideally like.

    As a pub though, this is the sort of quirky and interesting venue that the Good Beer Guide is really very reliable at pointing me towards. A comfortable and authentically welcoming pub, although this is another location that I imagine is quite hard to find a table at even slightly busy times. I very much liked my little booth arrangement at the rear of the pub and I was undisturbed during my lunchtime visit, ploughing through another book on my phone. I don’t know much about Belgian beers, but there were several of these available, and indeed I’d say there was a suitably broad range of drinks for most customers. All told, I’d recommend this place, but bring a book as this is the sort of pub that just lends itself to reading and conversation.

  • Reading – Nag’s Head

    Reading – Nag’s Head

    This Good Beer Guide listed pub looks fairly ordinary from the outside, but I was moderately surprised on entering to note that it was nearly full on a Friday afternoon. It’s clearly a destination pub that serves a community beyond its immediate surroundings, with one of the best web-site arrangements that I’ve seen, giving every bit of information I can think any customer would need before a visit. I was also once again pleased to note that the beer options were listed on Untappd, which saved me some time on arrival.

    The bar, with an impressive selection of bar snacks just out of shot to the right. It’s certainly quite a colourful arrangement. The service was polite and friendly, it felt like an welcoming and inviting atmosphere. It’s not the largest of pubs either, but they make use of the space well, which I imagine is essential given they must be at capacity for a fair chunk of the week judging by the number of customers on a Friday afternoon. They’ve also made space for darts as well in one corner and there are numerous board games dotted around the place.

    The keg list is sitting by a table a little out of the way, but I decided to then sit at that table so it became very accessible to me. More as an observation than a complaint, but there’s not a great range of beer styles here, with a fair chunk of duplication. There are no dark beers and they only had one dark beer on cask, which was a decent one, but which I’ve had numerous times before. The beer choices were of course much wider than most pubs, but I couldn’t see a beer that I thought would be standout, although I checked the list when writing this and they’ve rolled out four beers (including darker options) overnight and those choices look really very intriguing and include Siren’s Dark & Perilous Nights. I nearly went back today just to have that, but I have a limited time left in Reading.

    There’s a snacks menu and they sell sausage rolls, which is something that in an ideal world every single pub would sell. They seem to acquire them from a local butcher I understand, so I imagine that the quality is high. I had already eaten so didn’t partake, although as usual I was quite tempted.

    I went for two halves, the Snow Cafe from Polly’s Brewing and the Silver Strand from Siren, both very acceptable beers and the prices were moderate. The atmosphere was comfortable (and the beers were nicely comforting) and I only slightly lost track of time reading a book on my phone.

    The pub is well reviewed online, with the only real negative being a worrying one since it’s about the sausage rolls:

    “Don’t order the sausage roll, it’s just a joke. The size was like 10cm sausage roll. If you are starving it’s not the better place to eat. The most important…£4.. they actually went to coop, got the left over of the day and sold it to me.. absolutely ridiculous! When I mentioned this to one of the waitress, she laughed and said ahah oOK, and left.. service is also a big joke”

    I suspect that might be something of an exaggeration, although they did upset an American who had sat there for twenty minutes without buying a drink. Some reviews note how good the pies are in the pub as well, although they seem to have stopped selling them.

    Anyway, a perfectly decent pub, and although it was quite hard to see what they sold when standing at the bar, I’ll forgive that as it’s all clearly listed on Untappd. The choices veer across ciders, real ales and keg beers, although I’d definitely have preferred rather more dark beer options in an ideal world (although, to be fair, that ideal world appears to have arrived today), but at least there were numerous other interesting selections to opt for. This is another pub which is on-trend, but solely because it has a modern and well curated choice of beers, not because it’s trying to be formulaic or pretend to be something that it’s not.

  • Reading – The Retreat

    Reading – The Retreat

    On my little tour of Good Beer Guide listed pubs in Reading (and any others recommended to me en route) I popped into The Retreat after dodging the flying wheelie bins in the area. I had been stopped a few minutes before by a woman who told me that a chunk of a tree had fallen off in the gales, although I’m not sure what she expected me to do about it. She asked me if she could have this lump of wood, but I didn’t feel that it was really my place to decide that either way. I couldn’t work out whether she wanted half a tree for some purpose at her house or whether she was worried that it would fly off and hit a car or pedestrian. Anyway, she walked off looking happy with her tree acquisition, but I’m not sure that I aided much.

    As is evident from my never ending posts about pubs, I nearly always decide that the service in them is friendly and welcoming, and that was indeed the case here. But, it’s much more rarely that I decide that a pub goes further and that the customers are also keen to engage with anyone coming in. I’m always heartened when this happens, as it’s apparent to me that if someone had just moved into the area and come in here, then they’d be made to feel comfortable and keen to become a local. As is likely evident from where I’m going here, this is true of this pub. Indeed, it reminded me of the welcome offered by the Hop & Vine in Hull a few years ago, which has seen me divert to the city on numerous occasions to go back.

    This pub is not just listed in this year’s Good Beer Guide, it was first listed in the book in 1974, showing some considerable beer heritage. And, as another one of my flights of fancy, I noted the owners have made the effort to write a comprehensive history of the pub, something which I always think is a delight and done far too infrequently. Pubs so often have a long heritage and so often there is nothing mentioned by the owners about their history. Anyway, I digress.

    I went for half a pint of Harvest Pale from Castle Rock Brewery, which was well-kept and tasted as it should do. There were several real ales available, all reasonably priced. I didn’t opt for Woodforde’s Wherry, although it reminded me of my visit to their brewery a few months ago. I needed to eat elsewhere, but I was tempted by the bar snacks here, but that’s often the case.

    The recommendations of pubs that I asked for from a nearby customer transpired to be excellent suggestions, although I’ve still got a few more to go. Thanks to one of the pub’s customers, I’ve also discovered how to get rid of pigeons, although I won’t go into that too much. I very much liked the inviting atmosphere that they had going on here and if I had more time I would have likely lingered for hours.

    Doing some work on mental health for another organisation, I’m reminded by pubs such as this just how much they serve the communities in which they are based. I am convinced that anyone lonely, unsure or in need of company would be made entirely welcome here, and that’s the best praise I think that I can give The Retreat. So very lovely and an outstanding pub that I suspect I’ll be diverting back to come and visit again, perhaps on the day of the Pickled Onion Contest…..

  • Reading – Greyfriar of Reading

    Reading – Greyfriar of Reading

    Cask (eight options) and keg (fourteen options) meet here, a Good Beer Guide listed pub which is also an Untappd verified venue (wooooo – another venue badge…..) and is well reviewed on-line. I’m not sure that the quality of the experience is evident from the exterior, but I had high hopes after reading about it. The advantage of having beer options listed on Untappd is that I’m excited before entering, or at least my expectations have been moderated if the choices aren’t very decadent.

    It was quite dark inside, so I struggled to get a clear photo, so this will have to do. There are plenty of cask and keg options, with the service being efficient and polite, with the far wall off to the right being covered in pump clips to add a little decoration to the arrangement. This pub seemed to have a bit of everything in terms of customer demographic, young and old, male and female, quiet and loud, all fitting together well, so I’d suggest that this is very much a pub at ease with itself.

    The Inner-City Sumo from the formidable Turning Point Brewing Company, memorable for me as they brew the Yellow Matter Custard beer. This beer was delightful, a heap of passionfruit and orange and aroma to mach. It’s actually also got guava, but I have no idea what that tastes like, as I’m not a fruit expert. It’s a shame that more beers aren’t designed to taste like crisps or chocolate bars, as I could add an element of knowledge to my comments there…..

    The Night Lapse, also from Turning Point, which was perhaps a bit too roasty (as they put it) for me, but a well kept cask beer which had a depth of flavour and no shortage of coffee notes.

    I very much liked this pub and am pleased that it has reached the Good Beer Guide, although I assume that’s primarily because of the quality of their real ales. I liked the keg options, I liked the environment and I suspect this will be one of the best pubs that I visit in Reading. How lovely.

  • Reading – Allied Arms

    Reading – Allied Arms

    There are more Good Beer Guide listed pubs in Reading than I had expected, over ten in the centre (or within easy walking distance of it) and I’ll try to get to as many as possible. This is the Allied Arms, one of the few pubs that doesn’t serve food (other than bar snacks) and it has some history to it, which I might as well quote from their web-site:

    “The Allied Arms has been a pub since 1828 but the building dates back to the 16th Century. Over the years it has been used as a butchers and brewery as well as a pub. The inside decor is warm and cosy and includes old beams which likely came from the ruins of Reading Abbey after the dissolution by Henry VIII.”

    I liked a building with some heritage to it and it’d be good to think that the old beams theory is true.

    Unfortunately, the stout I ordered ran out as it was being poured, so I switched to the Loddon Hullabaloo which was adequate and at the appropriate temperature. I had hoped for something darker and the pub will usually have that offer available, I was just slightly unfortunate today that the barrel ran out. Nonetheless, there were a range of beer styles, and although nothing exceptional, it was entirely adequate. Pricing here, which I knew about in advance from reviews, is a little expensive and I suspect that might cost them some custom, although it’s not unreasonable.

    The interior of the pub, all bright and feeling historic. There’s a front and back room, both served by the same bar, as well as a large outdoors garden. I can imagine that on most weekends the seating gets taken quickly, so the extensive external area must be quite handy.

    The Loddon Hullabaloo, which is the pub’s house ale, produced by the Loddon Brewery who are based on Dunsden in Oxfordshire (I thought that sounded quite a long way away, but I’ve realised how near Reading us to the border of Berkshire and Oxfordshire).

    It’s a nice enough little pub, with the staff member being friendly and welcoming, so there was an inviting and quite cosy atmosphere. They’re still requiring masks to be worn, which I’m happy with that their being choice and I had one ready, so all was well. Given the building’s heritage and the range of real ales, I can see why it’s in the Good Beer Guide.

  • Luton – The White House

    Luton – The White House

    I wasn’t in Luton for very long today, but I had chance to pop to the JD Wetherspoon outlet as it’s listed in the Good Beer Guide. The company did have two pubs in the town, with the London Hatter being open between 2011 and 2016, but it couldn’t have done well for them given the short amount of time that it was open. The venue is still closed, clearly it doesn’t tempt any other operator either.

    But back to the White House, which I think is a marvellous name for a pub given my surname (I’m easily pleased). It’s a cavernous venue with two different bars, both of which were staffed when I visited just before lunchtime. As for the reason for the pub name, this is what the company say:

    “In the late 19th century, the Crown & Anchor Brewery stood on the site of this Wetherspoon pub, a short walk from the site of Luton’s first brewery. Founded by Thomas Burr, in 1780, it stood next to his family home, known as The White House.”

    The brewery isn’t noted on this map from the late nineteenth century, the pub is located just above where the PH is indicated on the map, so it’s nice that the site is still used by a beer selling venue.

    This is an odd JD Wetherspoon insomuch that the toilets aren’t upstairs, as they’re usually tucked away in the furthest corner of the pub. Despite being a modern building, there’s been some effort with decorative features and I liked the number of power sockets that were available. Plenty of books on the shelves upstairs as well, they add character to pubs and I approve.

    I went for a half a pint of the Devon Darkness from Hanlons Brewery who are based in Exeter, the same place that Tim Martin lives (I mean the city, not that the owner of the company lives in a brewery). The beer was well kept and at the appropriate temperature, and keenly priced at £1 for a half so there’s nothing much to complain about there. There was nothing of particular note about the beer, but it was an acceptable enough dry stout.

    The pub has about the same review score as the average JD Wetherspoon outlet, so it seems to be running as efficiently as most others, and I felt that the staff were friendly enough. There was a good choice of real ales, seven different ones across a variety of beer styles, all keenly priced. There’s nothing exceptional that I can note, but the pub seemed to be well managed and I can see why it’s been listed in the Good Beer Guide.

  • London – Hounslow (Borough of) – Tabard Pub

    London – Hounslow (Borough of) – Tabard Pub

    This is a Greene King pub, so I obviously didn’t come here for the beer, but instead because it’s listed in the Good Beer Guide and it was designed by Norman Shaw. There’s also the bonus that this was a building that Nikolaus Pevsner thought was “especially attractive”, so what could Greene King possibly mess up? Firstly, they make no effort to mention the history on the pub’s page on the Greene King web-site, the usual lack of effort they make in so many ways.

    There’s a corridor type entrance, with doors to the left and right. Food is served throughout the day and there’s a menu board visible on entry, next to the rather nice pillars. CAMRA have some information about the pub’s history on their Historic Interiors pages.

    That’s the other side of the door that’s on the left in the previous photo. There’s a Wikipedia page about the pub at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tabard,_Chiswick#Pub.

    And the same door, but my phone’s wide angle makes it look much wider. The central bar is visible at the rear, just behind my well travelled bag. The atmosphere was a bit excitable for my liking with staff members singing away, but there’s nothing wrong with that as this is a pub which is keen on its music.

    The beer was half a pint of the XX Mild from Greene King, which was served too warm, I think because of the temperature of the glass. The beer was adequate, about as good as Greene King manage to churn out. The service was verging on rude at first with staff members just standing about talking, but the staff member who served me was friendly and helpful enough.

    This building is exceptionally interesting and there’s even a theatre on the first floor. I can understand why it’s in the Good Beer Guide as it’s an historic pub and that makes it worth visiting in itself. There were five different real ales available, mostly generic and none that particularly interested me. However, it’s nice to see a mild, so I’ll credit that with being the most exciting option that they had.

    The reviews of the pub on-line are a little below average, mostly about unfriendly staff and food that didn’t surprise and delight. That probably seems to fairly sum the pub up, but they do respond professionally to all reviews that I’ve seen, so it’s positive that they’re keen to engage. I can’t help but feel that this pub would be lifted if it wasn’t operated by Greene King though, this is something that Fullers or Nicholsons would handle a lot better, but ideally it could perhaps do with an independent operator.