SHORT POST ALERT !!!
Finally, as dark descended, we descended to the Quayside, home to Douglas‘s rowdiest pubs and greatest concentration of hen parties (sadly absent from the photos below but keep reading).
Duncan convinced one group of hens that moth mithering in Motherwell would be a better bet for future hen dos, offering perfect prep for married life*. And cheaper Wu Wus in Spoons.
It’s not quite Newcastle Quayside yet, more like Falmouth mixed with Dumfries, which suited us fine.
Next stop was one of two GBG newbies for me, and the Hooded Ram flagship that looked the smartest place in town. Grief, they even have shuffleboard !
Despite a soundtrack including Stealer’s Wheel, it was a bit quiet at 10pm, and we took the average age of customers up a decade or two. But it lacked any pretensions and seemed to be shifting a healthy volume of cask.
I don’t know if it’s dramatic handpump styling, or lack of keg alternatives, but I’d like to think the cool, chewy quality of the beer helped, even at an eyebrow-raising £4.50 a pint for the Mosaic. That was our beer of the trip.
I’d certainly search out the Mosaic if it popped up in the UK.
Hooded Ram are so trendy they’ve opened a branch in Wolves. which I visited this year, with mixed results. Perhaps Wolverhampton is just not ready for ManxCraft, (or SlatersCraft) but I’m back there a week Monday and might well do a revisit once I bore of Banks’s.
*This may be fake news.
retiredmartin 
Did you have curry?
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We always end with a curry in Wolves ! The Indian food in Hooded Ram was spot on.
https://retiredmartin.com/2018/04/12/wolves-it-ends-with-a-curry/
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The Hooded Ram in Douglas is connected to a curry house, you can go upstairs to the curry bit and get cask beer with your meal.
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Vaguely (bit drunk) remember that now. If it’s as good as the curry in Wolves it’s worth a go. I didn’t notice loads of restaurants in Douglas.
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Can’t recall saying that but certainly wished I had. It sounds very sage advice indeed. By my reckoning you still have a few to go that night but suspect your photo memories may be a little erratic by now!
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Erratic is very kind. Most of the greatest things ever said weren’t actually said, Duncan. e.g. CAMRA never really said “Drink craft keg”.
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Oh. So that’s the same place where you ate in Wolvo?
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That’s it.
https://whatpub.com/pubs/WLV/5084/hooded-ram-wolverhampton
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I only noticed three things wrong with Wolverhampton’s Hooded Ram –
(a) only a ten minute journey on the train means I miss out on a proper boat trip overseas to experience it,
(b) it’s nothing like as good as the Proper Pubs like the Great Western and the Stile and
(c) the strong cask beer was only served in third pints – and that’s even worse than halves in the Baker’s Vaults..
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Nothing wrong with Stealer’s Wheel, or Mosaic come to that.
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“moth mithering in Motherwell”
I had to look up mithering. (blush)
“Amazingly none of us fell in”
I take it none of you were logging ins at the time. 😉
“Collaboration alert”
We get those over here. 😉
Cheers
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