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.
retiredmartin 
I’m glad my athletic prowess is finally being recognised…it’s not easy drinking these Low C beers and Campari/soda mixers you know!
Great piece and the Doom looks as good as the Bass!!
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Doom Bar and Bass are 99% the same beer as they both have water as the main ingredient #FACT
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And they are brewed in the same Wolverhampton factory..as Rich Coldwell might have said!
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All beer is brewed in Wolves, they just change the address on the back of the barrel.
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Apparently Nuno was sacked for drinking Bathams – not from Wolves
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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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Area 51?
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No, it was a traditionally-named pub, which I won’t identify – as TSM would perhaps say in response 😉
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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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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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You write likes Dickens.
It’s the Spoons in Aldershot, Paul.
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Queens Hotel a traditional name ? Yes.
I was thinking more the Three Horseshoes but that’s Brains not Doom Bar.
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I’m speechless.
The Three Horseshoes it is, Paul.
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…west of Barry.
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I have long, long since forgotten what this was about. Who is Barry ?
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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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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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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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