“The Doom Bar has replaced the Bass”

Blimey ! More pictures of beer as my blog header, what’s going wrong.

Back to Rushcliffe (aka Kenneth Clarke country) for a second tick. I’m really speeding up now.

East Leake is neighbours with Gotham, Zouch, Bunny, Sutton “Chris” Bonnington and the ultra-mysterious West Leake.

Sadly, it was raining intermittently, despite my presence, and the best photo I can bring you is not especially representative of a large village I thought I’d seen the last of in 2018.

Or perhaps it IS representative.

Life After Football was here recently, but I don’t think that’s his scooter (his is posher).

LAF loved the Nag’s Head, even though he was confined outside and missed a cheery if modern interior with deodorant helpfully placed next to the candle.

LAF had Bass, but sadly that had gone by the time I arrived and I had to have a foamy Dancing Duck (NBSS 3+). Obviously I accepted the loyalty card; my collection of those now exceeds 3,709.

There was a good mix of custom, and particularly nice to see the gentlefolk back arguing about ribeye and Brentford FC over the sound of Stereophonics (ugh).

Then the Brentford fan ordered a Doom Bar, the way you’d order a Duchesse de Bourgogne on draft.

Wait, what ? Doom Bar ? I asked the genial young chap at the bar about the Bass and he admitted they only had one Proper Beer (it may have been “National Brand” actually) on at a time.

I had a half, which was rather good and would have been even better if he hadn’t whipped my pint glass away before I could decant the amber nectar into it.

“What’s special about Brentford’s old ground” asked the Doom Barster.

“Pub on every ground, mostly London Pride” I offered on the way out.

It’s nice to have my pub knowledge recognised, but even nicer to follow up a Doom Bar in a GBG pub with fish, chips and curry sauce from the East Leake Fish Bar for £5.49*.

LAF seemed to miss out on that deal, but then he’s an athlete.

*I see I had an excellent Chinese takeaway here in 2018 so perhaps a house move is in order.

Published by retiredmartin

Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.

20 thoughts on ““The Doom Bar has replaced the Bass””

  2. I actually ordered a pint of that Doom Bar yesterday.

    I didn’t finish it.

    To be fair to Sharps, it was in a pub not far from a military establishment, which, I find, is seldom a good sign, and it did seem rather tired.

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    Reply

      1. No, it was a traditionally-named pub, which I won’t identify – as TSM would perhaps say in response 😉

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      2. Area 51 reminds me that I briefly laboured on a building site at Stafford Park in the mid 1970s and “not far from a military establishment” reminds me that I went to the Army base nearby at Donnington several tines about twenty years ago, but neither of those helps me identify Etu’s pub selling a tired pint of Doom Bar.

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      3. Dearly as I loved Guess The Pub, I don’t mean to start one here, Paul.

        I don’t think that anything that I might say could yet be reliably representative of the normality, towards which we all hope to be heading.

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      5. Queens Hotel a traditional name ? Yes.
        I was thinking more the Three Horseshoes but that’s Brains not Doom Bar.

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      9. Barry Malone was a great bloke, an active CAMRA member in Shropshire and kept the Royal Oak at Ellerdine Heath for many years. I attended his funeral 12½ years ago.

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      10. Thanks, Paul. I remember the Royal Oak.

        Incidentally, I met a chap of similar youth and style to you in a micropub in Eastwood yesterday, where we had a fascinating conversation about Mansfield Brewery. I didn’t understand a word of it, but that was no fault of his.

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      11. I remember Mansfield as unusual in donating to the Labour rather than Conservative Party, but it was a mining area, and all their beer being bright.
        They took over the Hull Brewery in 1985 and were taken over by Banks’s in 1999.

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