retiredmartin

That’s not me being sexist, by the way, I’m sure it’s a direct quote from Wordsworth. Or Burton Tourist Office. Women ARE allowed to drink Doom Bar rather than Babycham or Rochefort 10, even though Mrs RM turned down the amber nectar at Winchester in 2019.

You left me at Henry’s Record Shop, having just done the legally requied Bass tick at the Roebuck.

I’m guessing their No. 1 vinyl was Major Salt’s Love Hearts Orchestra, or failing that the visceral Marianne Faithful comeback from 1979.

It was only 15:30 so far too early for a curry at Balti Tower (it’s lost its “s”), if such a thing is possible.

Even worse, the Coopers wasn’t open till 5, either.

In fact, the Roebuck was the ONLY GBG pub open before 16:00 on a Thursday in December. What do all the beer tourists do ?

Well, go to the Bass Brewing Museum, I guess.

Then I saw it.

Yes, this is clearly the home of the UK’s favourite beer.

No ! Not Carling.

I went in search of Doom Bar, and found it in what used to be the Bass flagship in the days this was the Blue Posts;

The Crossing had just returned and then left the GBG after a 25 year absence. I considered my 1994 tick of the Blue Posts a job done, but was keen to go back and see if it was as “trendy” (in South Staffs terms) as it was back then.

Well, smart in a Smith & Jones way, I guess. The custom clearly came from folk who wanted a drink before dark in the UK’s home of brewing but didn’t want Spoons (or scary street corner local). A West Londoner (Chiswick, very specifically) was telling two locals how the National Museum of Brewing wasn’t really national as there was no mention of Fullers.

Or perhaps it’s the illustrations of fish in the Gents that draws them in.

I returned from the loos to find London Bloke still berating Burtonians with the line “They should be proud to be local, but it’s NOT a NATIONAL museum without Newky Brown“. Honest.

I’d have loved to have heard his views on Doom Bar. This was a dry version, nothing like the served-too-soon Spoons DB. It was decent, NBSS 3 stuff, but needed more turnover.

Someone came to the bar and asked for Bass, which seemed to create confusion. Pedi was seen as a tolerable replacement, and I tipped a half of that in my Doom Bar glass and felt a bit “meh”.

Somehow I’d had 2.5 pints and not delivered any ticks (XP = 2). Time to make up for lost time.

“It’s OK, but it’s local, it’s not National, is it ? Where’s the Guinness section ?”.