Another year, another trip to Englefield Green, for a fourth GBG pub in a village you’ve never heard of.
Don’t lie, you’ve never heard of it, though the legions of beer “tickers” (ugh !) will no doubt be familiar with Egham and its infamous United Services Club with a gazillion different hoppy beers to taste.
Englefield looks like an Egham suburb, and it’s only 20 minutes from the station, but feels a different world.
To the south, perhaps our finest looking University;
and to the north, the vast spread of Windsor Great Park.
Not a place you’re going to find a Sam Smiths, or a Courage boozer, but to be fair some decent enough pubs in the Windsor mould.
Some way from the eponymous central green, the Bailiwick has me fearing the worst, as the word “Phoenix Original” stare out at me from the WhatPub description.
Yes, a Brunning & Price dragging Rochdale’s finest kicking & screaming into suburbia.
I went local.
Having told you I never go for the tiny brewery, I went for the Guardsman. That’s the subliminal impact of a little hat on the pump clip. Works for Rosey Nosey as well.
Hilariously, the bar towel reads “Banter & Pints“. A less suitable slogan I couldn’t imagine. “Brokers & Prosecco” would work.
Lunchtime was winding down, and inevitably a large group chose to stand around at the bar, rather than a) sitting down or b) getting out of the pub.
I found a table (with beer mat !) near gentlefolk in jumpers, and waited for the inevitable “splitting the bill” fun.
My pint was everything you expect, and nothing that you hope for (NBSS3) So it’s cool, well presented and without haze, but lacks the sparkle of the best, and fastest selling, cask.
Here’s a close up for the purists among you.
So let’s be clear.
- Brunning & Price have some of the highest customer service anywhere
- They make a real effort to put local beer on, which is nice..
- If you like people who say “Excuse me” unnecessarily, you’re in for a treat.
- I hardly ever see anyone actually buy a pint while I’m there.
- They’re not pubs.
retiredmartin 
Those jars and bottles containing samples of beer on the bar top are beginning to irritate me.
They remind me of people who used words as decoration in their homes.LOVE.RESPECT.And that sort of nonsense.
Unless of course it says SOD OFF which I imagine Mudgie has in his mansion.
You see,I told you about the fun you could have with Chipping Sodbury.
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You should always just wait until the staff have their backs turned and give them a shuffle, see if anybody notices.
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Go straight to hell for that, Scott.
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Well can you tell the difference between any of them in your first picture?
Perhaps they should be banned if there is no perceivable difference in the beers displayed.
Not sure why I have to visit Airdrie though.
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If Aidrie is hell, what is Carluke ?
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Hopefully somewhere you don’t send Mrs RM.
What would your trips be like without the inspiration of William Roy though?
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Oh yes. My life would be pointless without Scottish inventions (I have a Linn record player).
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Once you’ve finished all the GBG entries, you could spend your time renovating Hillman Imps.
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Although I realise that completing the Guide may take a bit longer once all these pubs with BBB are removed and replaced with exciting cutting edge keg bars in Hemel Hempstead, Seilebost and large swathes of NW London along with the Puff Inn on St. Kilda
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I think you’ll find Brad from Tiny Rebel will have renamed that St Kilda craft bar the “Puft Inn”.
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Thought it was Pedro?
Is he trying for the Chelsea vote?
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“you could spend your time renovating Hillman Imps.”
Is that like Terry Pratchett’s camera Imps?
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In Martins case almost certainly. But far less fit for purpose.
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The banning of jam jars is the main plank of the joint BRAPA/retiredmartin but for the Presidency of CAMRA (aka spend all the CAMRA reserves before they’re wasted on rubbish beer fests).
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The entirety of CAMRA funds will have been spent on a keg of barrel aged Tiny Rebel Barley Wine (5 litres) and an exhaustive research effort to recreate Watney’s Red Barrel (circa 1971, and henceforth to be officially referred to as the “pinnacle of brewing excellence”), long before you will have had the time to implement any policies.
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Well he gets my vote, anyway. I do like reading 23 page manifestos. And discounts on keg.
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Well reading that, it sound like he’d fit in with most of the current NE.
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It looks like a proper pub to me.
I like to see small jars on the bar with beer in them,it gives me a clue as to what type of beer it is as i know sod all about beer,i when i can just drink it.
I always were a jumper,could i be a gentlefolk in a jumper,i am sure i would fit into the stockbroker belt quite well.
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Just like Brexit and Derby/Forest supporters in the same family, the issue of jars on the bar is one that tears whole families apart Alan.
#BanTheJar
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What does # mean. Martin.
Never used it in my life.
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It’s a hashtag, Alan. If you put it before a phrase you use a lot then if people search for that phrase your comments or post appear on Google. So you might put #Home or #Wards on a post you did about a particular pub crawl. I just use it to be annoying though.
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By the way, it’s not a daft question. I found out what they were two years ago !
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I think you’re gentle but I doubt you’re like folk unlike Jake Bugg counts, Alan.
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I have indeed heard of Englefield Green. But then I live about ten miles away so no great achievement really.
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There’s always someone from Woking who spoils it ! (that’s a wild guess).
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Brunning & Price aren’t pubs but they’re more like pubs than TRG’s other brands which include Chiquito, Frankie & Benny’s and Garfunkels.
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That really is damning with faint praise, Paul, but agree !
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I’ll be controversial here and say that the jam jars, while a bit naff, can be useful, particularly in pubs where the staff are busy or ignorant of what they’re selling, and where there’s idiots blocking your view of the pumps (or no description on the pump clip). I like pale, hoppy beers, and the jars can be useful in not accidentally selecting something a long, long way from that.
Banter & Pints, though? Burn it to the ground.
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Can’t make any fun of map names as I’m on my phone in the nearby pub hiding from some of my wife’s relatives. 😏
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I’ve never been in a Brunning and Price pub ever! Looks like a decent pint though
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“Decent” is the word. They’re the Pizza Express of pubs.
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Hmmm that sounds relatively farmhouse inns!
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Love that – but you should have tried the Happy Man. Much better selection of ales.
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The clue is in your name, Beer Hunter. I go out of my way to avoid being the first of the day to try beers no-one else has had that day.
I take the opposite approach with food; I’ll always go for something I haven’t had before.
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Tremendous blog (and banter in the comments).
That ‘Royal Holloway’ thing is a fantastic building.
“This way to the Royal Wedding” – Really pleased to see that the queue for the Royal Wedding hasn’t reached Englefield yet.
“…but lacks the sparkle of the best, and fastest selling, cask.”
Nope – I’m not going to take the bait 😉
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Not much of a Brunning & Price fan, but rather liked this one. Perhaps the setting seduced me.
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Same here. Looks like a proper pub rather than a country hotel. Great setting.
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Because I like all beers I don’t and never have used the visual indicators to make a choice on what beer I have.
One massive problem is a lack of info on the initial pump clip…
…or blackboard if you’re in a micropub with weird beer engines that clips can’t fit on.
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That’s spot on. pump clips tell you next to nothing now about the beer, despite being big enough for a daft name and a description.
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