Recent travels

Two superb pints in the Great Western Hotel, Exeter, the result of engineering a train trip back from Hampshire to Cornwall with an hour-long stop in the middle. An array of eight or so real ales, any number of which I would have been happy to sample given more time, but I plumped for two corkers. Stonehenge Spire Ale (3.8%) is a refreshing, clean, smooth, summer session beer, golden in colour. A super hop flavour from, I discovered later, a mix of First Gold and a new variety called Pam. At the other extreme, Royal Oak (5%) is a classic, strong, best bitter, an initial sweetness giving way to a good bitter finish. Originally brewed by Eldridge Pope, this beer has been lovingly recreated by O'Hanlon's brewery at Whimple, near Exeter. In Andover, earlier, I has been completely unadventurous: Ringwood Forty-Niner (4.9%) in the John Russell Fox (Wetherspoons) and Wadworth 6X (4.3%) in the greatly-improved Town Mills. Two great favourites well dispended.

Islay Ales

While cruising around a few brewery websites, my eye alights on some jolly yarns on the Islay Ales site. I'm a great fan (as I hope my own site illustrates) of a website content over design, so I'm intrigued with the news section of www.islayales.com which reads like a chatty, informative everyday tale of brewing folk. Well done, guys, for keeping the site bang up to date and 'sticky'.

Everard's Tiger

Everard's Tiger (4.5%) in a bottle with dinner tonight. Ratatouille, since you ask: not a natural combination, I grant you, but the beer was fine, especially at the end of a busy family Saturday. A copper-coloured, well-balanced brew - dry-hopped if my memory serves me correctly and with a hint of biscuit in there. Maris Otter barley and Crystal malt used.

Elgood's Black Dog Mild

Mild, of course, does not have to be dark to be great, but Elgood's Black Dog Mild (3.6%) ticks both boxes. And nowhere will find it in better condition than it was in the Star today. I'm told it will be gone by tomorrow: shame. Black Dog presumably because it has a little bite in the taste, unlike some so-called milds I've encountered that are quite watery and tasteless (how I always imagine those supermarket, own-brand, four-packs of mild to be - the ones that retail for about £1.50 with a strength of 3%).

City Inn, Wednesday

A fine selection in here today, and some good 'uns in the cellar too! Butcombe Blond (4.3%) to start with; very refreshing, clean and hoppy and, as the name suggests, very light in colour. Then on to Cottage Southern Railway (3.7%), a worthy winner of the bitter section at the recent Maltings festival at Newton Abbot. It has an initial tartness which turns maltier then leads to a bitter finish, but its triumph is being able to pack so much taste into a 3.7% brew. Again, a very clean tasting beer. Then on to Cotleigh Barn Owl (4.5%), an excellent, darkish premium bitter with excellent malt and hops flavour. A great way to spend a midweek lunchtime.

Rising Sun, Truro

Good selection in here today, including Thwaites Liberation (5%) and my lunchtime tipples, Everard's Beacon (3.8%), a good bitter bitter, of you know what I mean: an archetypal session bitter.
On the way to the railway station tonight I stopped off at Bunter's bar and had the best pint of the new Skinner's Davy Jones' Knocker (5%) I have tasted so far. Steve Skinner insisted there was more complexity to this beer than I had tasted in it before and he was right. An earlier pint had seemed quite sweet - well, sweet for the normally very hoppy Skinner's portfolio, anyway. Today's was much more characterful, a light, summery, quaffing ale served exceptionally well. And £1.90 too, which is excellent value in Truro.

So, where ...

... has your correspondent been for the best part of two weeks? Hither and thither. Drinking back at the City Inn, of course: Weymouth Best Bitter (3.9%) and varied Palmer's brews among the many delights -– every one a gem.

Then I'’ve been back to Andover where, apart from the usual attractions of the Wetherspoons (the John Russell Fox) and my old local, the Anton Arms, I have particularly enjoyed some fine Wadworth beer in the Town Mills, including the new, improved ('‘even hoppier'’) JCB (4.7%). It must have been pretty malty before because it'’s nicely balanced now.

Then there was the inaugural Combined Universities in Cornwall beer festival, which attracted a good number of students and a few more, er, mature visitors. Full selection of Skinner'’s beers, minus my personal favourite, Betty Stogs, and a couple of Doghouses (brewer Steve Wilmott and I took in the atmosphere and later caught a bus up to Truro where a quick inspection of the Famous Old Globe revealed that a change of hands had left it … pretty much the same as before, in the beer dept at least. But you can'’t argue with decent Cornish Knocker on gravity.

City Inn, Friday

Had to return, didn't I, as the Gales HSB was still on and, not going there at the weekends, I thought I'd get in before it got seen off at the weekend (probably). Beforehand, a very nice pint of Palmer's IPA (4.2%) - a decent style, not like those weedy 3.5% jobs masquerading as something that wouldn't have survived the trip to port, let alone India.

City Inn, Wednesday

Those who know me as the sentimental guy I am know that I find beer from Hampshire, the homeland, difficult to resist. To Andy Tyler's City Inn, Truro, then, where Gales HSB (4.8%) was on a good menu. This is a malty, robust beer, with notes of dried fruit on the taste and finish. For me, to be sipped in halves, rather than downed by the pint. A rare treat.
I also had a pint of Dorset Brewing Company's Weymouth Best Bitter (3.9%), which was a good lunctime beer. Good malt/hop balance and a nice amber colour - had it been session time, this would have been a contender. Also on the guest list, Cotleigh Barn Owl (4.5%), which was looking good and, I was told, in good condition.

Star, Tuesday

An impromptu afternoon off gives me the chance of catch up with the beer menu in the Star. Beer of the day is definitely Lizard Ales' Kernow Gold (3.7%), a very smooth-drinking, well-balanced golden beer that is going to be a real treat come a hot summer's day (seems a long way away, doesn't it? I've had Lizard Ales before and they've not been my favourites, but this was good beer in very good nick.
Also on the menu, two much stronger ales which, stupidly, I had before the Kernow Gold. There was the latest cask of the St Austell Admiral's Ale (5%) - as good as ever, but seeming more malty than it did when I first tasted it back at the Falmouth beer festival in October. It's now widely available in bottles - try the St Austell website for more details or a contact number.
Also on my tasting list was England's Glory (4.5%), brewed by Titanic, which went down well. Not dissimilar to the Admiral's Ale, but not quite so malty, with more hop balance. Brewed, I assume, to celebrate St George's Day.

Seven Stars, Stithians

To the Seven Stars, Stithians, on the way back from Falmouth. Rare these days that I'm in a car passing through Stithians and this pub is a real ale lover's delight. Unusually, there was a choice of just two beers (there' usually four, plus Weston's Old Rosie cider on handpump too), but what a pair: Skinner's Spriggan Ale (3.8%, not seen as often as Betty Stogs - it has more malt than the Stogs and is a great session pint) and Cotleigh Tawny (also 3.8%), a favourite at my own local. The Seven Stars is a proper village local, at the heart of the community and home from home for the local rugby club, but also very welcoming to visitors. Worth searching out, it is on the Truronian T1 Truro to Helston bus route.

Whoops ...

So which idiot originally dated all his website news for today April 31, 2005? Er...