It’s always good to sample Sam Smiths OBB close to source, and the Old Star in Clifford is about as close as you can get without braving Tadcasters dead-end (bridge re-opening next week I hear).
I was visiting fellow blogger Richard Coldwell (Ouhouse), who knows about quality beer judging by the Clifford Beer Fest (Sat June 24).
Clifford, and the Wetherby area in general, hasn’t troubled the Beer Guide for ages, and we know how hard it is for a one-beer pub to get CAMRA recognition, outside Stockport anyway.
I may have been lucky, but the OBB in the Old Star was as good as in the Boar’s Head. Great beer can’t be sold for £3.50 apparently, but it can be sold for £1.90 in the home of Sir Geoffrey.
Smooth, cellar cool, and sunk in ten minutes. One of us stopped in the public for a second pint, I explored the other three immaculate rooms, restored from a previously opened-out monstrosity by Sir Humphrey.
A new landlord in the Star apparently, escaped from Frodsham. He already seemed intimate with the foibles of the regulars, and was happy to take the mick out of me for trying to order a half.
Shame it doesn’t open till 4pm, but that’s modern Yorkshire pub life for you.
retiredmartin 
Escaped from which pub in Frodsham – Golden Lion or Belle Monte?
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Red Lion, if I recall, though since he mentioned Burtonwood it may have been a while ago. Wasn’t a Sams.
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The Red Lion is another pub that brings back memories from the late 70s. It used to be a big crown green bowling pub with its own green, although I don’t know if that’s still the case. It was recently in the news as being reopened under an Enterprise Inns “Beacon” managed tenancy.
The Burtonwood pub in Frodsham was the Cholmondeley Arms. I wonder if our American friends know how that is pronounced 😉
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It’s just not the same when you don’t visit a lingerie department.
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If you want to read invented hilarious goings-on in pubs there are plenty of other blogs out there Dave….. (joking). I’ve missed you and Dick, by the way.
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It’s nice to be missed! We are out here hanging on every word. A very busy 10 days trying to sort out what has hit us. A leaky drain between floors leaving two rooms to patch up, has been the least of my worries.
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Oh, and that OBB looks wonderful. I need a close up view.
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I’ve been buying a lot of bottles from Sam…. Not the same though. You can’t get that ambiance from a bottle.
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Can’t you go on Skype (has that been banned yet) and abuse Dick for an hour while you drink it. No swearing though.
You would love the Star, and I know there’s plenty of village Sams pubs just like it.
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Just reading about him drinking it is abuse. I am going to run out today and buy some.
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If you ask Simon nicely he’ll do one of his drunken periscope things where you get to see LIVE pub life. Is Persiscope banned yet in the States though ?
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Everything is now banned here! Except Twitter. If he is willing to Periscope, we are in. I do not think it will happen at the George and Dragon, West Haddlesey.
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I’ll ask him
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Fair play to Bernie the landlord. He has got the OBB (and everything else) on absolutely top form, which in my opinion is quite a feat. OBB is like Rugby Union, it is either exceptional or as dull as ditchwater, no in-between. Mine host Mr Galsworthy, ran the Red Lion in Frodsham a good few years ago when it was a Burtonwood house. He has now returned to the land of his birth to dispense excellent ales, something many of us in the village are very appreciative of. A good landlord or landlady, ever present, is something in decline, in many boozers.
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Spot-on, as was the OBB. As you note, Richard, there are other good drinks in the Sams range, though it was heartening to see so much OBB being drunk in a village pub at 4.30.
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Cholmondeley and Featherstonehaugh are good tests, in Stoke as well as the US of A.
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Is that West Featherstonehaugh, or East ?
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Upper.
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I did a post on my Never Ending Pub Crawl blog about my pub crawl of the area around Wetherby and Boston Spa which i did on the 20th August 2016, did five Samuel Smiths tied house on that day and liked all of them.
A great day out using the 770 771 Leeds to Harrogate bus service there and back picking up quite a few villages,the Swan and Brabham was a top notch pub in my opinion and the village also had a Samuel Smiths tied house to put the icing on the cake,an unplanned visit to Thorner was really good three pubs and two decent.
If the GBG does not like listing pubs in this area it is their loss.
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I’ve just put the link to that post on my Twitter account Alan, I’d forgot you did all those. The landlord at the Star changed after your visit (I think).
By the way, I’m having problems leaving comments on your blog but it doesn’t mean I’m not reading it !
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Thanks for that Martin,
Still not on twitter and seeing what a twitter user does over the pond puts me off even more.
I have slowed down on my blog as trying to catch up with my own pub book and planning my pub crawl down Bristol for Saturday the 4th February my first proper pub crawl this year,but i have picked up some new openings in my area and a few other others new pubs,but a slow start to the year up to now.
I am having big problems adding photos to the Pubs Galore site at the moment,my Son says it is because my lap top is almost clapped out after 8 years use.
Keep up the good work.
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You should find plenty of pubs to do in Bristol, quite a few new ones in the centre. Enjoy that.
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Alan, love your comment about the over the pond twitter user!
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It’s all Virtual Reality isn’t it ?
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