Yes, it’s your new favourites #PubMen again !
Tomorrow my in-laws return to Royal Tunbridge Wells (sorry, Paul) after fourteen (14) days on holiday in Sheffield, the longest ANYONE has ever spent on holiday in Sheffield.
Beyond the jokes, I’ve enjoyed taking them to some classic pubs and watching them drink more cask beer than all of Beer Twitter put together.
Though that second pint of Pale Rider in the Fat Cat (top) may have been a teeny mistake.
The Spoons in Hillsborough, one of 33 Timbo emporia they patronised, has one of those chart of all the pubs that can be bothered to pay £20 towards the production of a city pub map.
Looking at that I realise I still haven’t done Bloo ’88 (remix), Cavells Coffee House OR the two keg pubs up the hill from me in Walkley (first two on the second line). I’ll arrange to meet Sheffield Hatter there.
But I really need to get back to making inroads into GBG21., having belatedly finished my home county (still feels odd to say that) last month.
In the photo below, Simon “BRAPA” Everitt, Duncan “Pubmeister” McKay and myself are comparing Cornish travel plans to maximise ticks before the 2022 GBG dribbles out in late October.
Looking back I see in the last decade I’ve had a Run Rate (techie term) of between ten and a dozen pubs a week, which looked sufficient to finish the Guide by the time I reach 62 (like in the Beatles song).
But while Simon has been getting the green marker out for THIRTY-SIX ticks in a week, my own pubgoing since April 12th has seen much unprofessional drinking. i.e. a beer that doesn’t produce a new entry on the GBG spreadsheet.
Despite 130 pub visits since April, and a pub virtually every day since re-opening, only 50 have resulted in that satisfying pink tick. Last week was the first time I managed ten ticks in a week since November.
So what’s gone wrong ?, as the hotel bell boy famously asked George Best.
Frankly, I’ve just been enjoying pubs too much, particularly since the Heaventeenth. Visiting the famous pubs of Sheffield for the first time since we moved, trying out some classic keg boozers on my doorstep,
and sticking to PINTS. Lovely pints.
Pints are the killer, you try doing six pints a day and then a bonus strong one on a railway platform at the end. (oh).
But once you’ve spent five minutes checking in, downloading the App, running through a menu of identical pale beers with your “server” and fussing about that all-important CAMRA discount, it seems plain wrong to have a half. Pubs need our support, and they need pint drinkers.
And after all, you get far more satisfying lacings on pints.
*T’Other Martin (“Maltmeister”) is making tea and puns nearby.
Can’t beat the lacings of the pints in pubs in the North. Pints in some pubs down south look like squash.
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But I like those pints of flat grey orange juice as well TOO, Morten ! (See: Moor, Almasty).
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Has anyone cared to check the Staedtler share price this past year? Pubs need our support naturally, but Marker Pens must be struggling like never before. For my part I’m going to start ticking pub games in Arthur Taylors essential guide to the genre ‘Played At The Pub’ (NPGBSS 5).
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The Rose House and the Florist both have real ale, if you believe WhatPub. I agree that they both seem to be keg-oriented, though. I haven’t been in either of them for a decade (or possibly more), because there are so many pubs with good real ale around here, but I’d be happy to accompany you to either or both, for the purpose of research.
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No handpumps in evidence when I walked past, as is the case in a fair number of similar locals I’ve seen since re-opening (e.g. Pontefract). Don’t blame them.
A Guinness would be a decent bet though.
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I cannot imagine that having a second Pale Rider could ever be any kind of mistake!
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I was in the Fat Cat yesterday and my friends tried to persuade me to have a *fourth* pint of Pale Rider, which was drinking very well. I reckon that drinking it would have resulted in something very much like the above picture of Martin’s pa-in-law.
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It was drinking well because our family had ensured it was thoroughly pulled through for you. The Farm Brewery Jarl was also lovely.
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Some of us are less experienced than others !
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I envy the thought was supposed to be in response to Hatter.
To you(RM) I respond that I am very out of practice with beer drinking. And, it seems, responding on blogs.
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I envy the thought!
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There must be folk who have an annual Sheffield fortnight to watch ‘t snooker.
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True.
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You need discipline Martin. It’s no use being lured in by John Smith’s and sky sports
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I must take some lessons from you, mate ;-0
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😃😃
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