SO CLOSE TO CORNWALL, I HAD TO HAVE A DOOM BAR IN PLYMOUTH

It’s not fair.

Simon goes to Plymouth in June and it’s like the last days of Sodom and Gomorrah (has it ended ?); students snogging (close your eyes, Colin), vomit in the Barbican,

8 pint Towers of Beer (almost a gallon, folks) on every corner.

I go a month later and the most exciting thing is the cloud formation over the astonishing edifice which is (checks notes) Plymouth Primark.

The Brass Monkey, a rare new Guide entry in the centre of town (the dreadful student bit) is obviously relying on the rare combo of World Cup and Wenceslas to boost the coffers.

That’s a long way off. On this Tuesday night all was quiet, all was still.

Even a stunning draught collection couldn’t edge the number of punters above staff.

Yes, five (5) of those flavoured ciders beloved of Hitchin John.

Only one choice, and not just because it was £2.25 (and Prescott score about as highly as their neighbours Donnington on my beer league table). It’s possible my Aldershot Beer Fest T-Shirt outed me as one of those camras and I got a discount without asking, who knows ?

“This place is simply not refined enough to be a ‘Spoons.” said Si. And he’s right, the sticky tables were quite something though I suspect he’ll in due course find worse Spoons in Scotland.

And I quite enjoyed a bit of culture rather than the Sound of Spoons silence. A rare outing for U2’s “Lemon”; a less rare outing for the Bandits.

Oh, yes, the Doom was gorgeous, and the bloke on Discourse who said he could never score DB more than NBSS 3 should come here, immediately.

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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.

14 thoughts on “SO CLOSE TO CORNWALL, I HAD TO HAVE A DOOM BAR IN PLYMOUTH”

  2. You don’t like Prescott? I’ve only had their Hill Climb but I always enjoyed it. (Then again, I liked Donnington last time I had it, over 20 years ago)

    You’re right about Scottish Spoons, some of them are dog rough. But if you want a really rough-arsed Spoons, you need look no further than Wrexham, God bless it.

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      1. Looks like I owe you an apology Martin, see also my response to bill051, below. It still doesn’t detract from the beer being blandness personified.

        Also, how can you dismiss provenance, when the very title of your post makes a big play of Doom Bar’s Cornish connections?

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  4. Sharp’s website claims “Our brewery in Rock is on the north coast of Cornwall and is where we still brew 100% of our cask beer – including the UK’s no.1 cask beer, Doom Bar. ” Is that no longer true? It tastes like beer to me.

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    1. Yes, apologies, bill051. I’m not sure where I got my facts from about Doom Bar’s “provenance,” (see reply to Martin above), but the Rock Brewery must be working around the clock to turn out sufficient volumes of the UK’s No.1 cask beer, to satisfy the nation’s thirst.

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  5. There seems a lot of concern at the moment, over the future of cask, with a number of recent initiatives launched to try and turn its fortunes around. I’m not sure how much of this is filtering down into local CAMRA branches though.

    I’m sure you are correct about packaged versions of both Doom Bar and GK IPA, outselling cask, which reinforces the points made above.

    For the record, I do quite like some of Sharp’s other beers, such as Atlantic Bay Pale, plus the odd specialty bottled brew, they turn out from time to time.

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