November 2023. Finningham. Suffolk.
Well, well, well. An absolute cracker in rural Mid Suffolk, but where has the White Horse in Finningham been all my life ?
Well, in Finningham I guess.
Nothing spectacular about the exterior,
but inside you get the “no nonsense village pub where conversation and good beer are the order of the day”.
Bare floorboards, quarry tiles and stripped pine panelling, and relics from Halloween (I hope that’s what they are).
Just a touch of the Brook in Great Cornard, a drinkers pub, lacking only drinkers.
Really nice to get a new Guide pub with Adnams, albeit in that dreadful glass.
I remember the description of the Broadside in Colchester’s Hospital Arms as having claws, and this was a pint with claws NBSS 3.5), which you can add to “chewy” as a beer description.
The other drinker was here for the duration, the landlady hummed along to the soundtrack,
and I explored a warren of rooms comprising pianos,
chess boards,
and a collection of reading material. I eschewed the CAMRA magazines in favour of the village newsletter,
which delightedly reported a 31 foot grass snake.
I bet that had claws, too.
retiredmartin 
Foot? How many Broadsides were drunk?
LikeLike
Sorry, should read metres.
LikeLike
Don’t get PubCurmudgeon or me going on this one…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yards ?
LikeLike
Tsk. Give ’em an ell and they’ll take a furlong…
LikeLike
You’ll be telling me that snake is 31 furlongs long next !
LikeLike
What’s that in rods/poles/perches?
LikeLike
I’ve not seen Earl Soham beer for over thirty years.
I’d have had the Broadside though.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Earl Soham beer pops up a couple of times a year in East Anglian pubs; the clip design remains distinctive.
Interestingly, the beer I hardly ever see these days is Adnams Southwold Bitter, it’s always Ghost Ship.
LikeLiked by 2 people
A shame, as Adnams Southwold is a far better, and much more balanced beer, than the citrus dominated Ghost Ship.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Whether “better” or not it’s the Bitter that’s distinctive and rarely seen (outside Southwold) . And don’t start me on the Extra !.
LikeLike
Yes,
I don’t see Adnams Southwold Bitter, a beer I really like, since it’s gone from the Holly Bush at Salt near me.
Ghost Ship and Mosaic are too citrussy for me and so only ‘a distress purchase’.
I really liked Adnams Extra, and remember it in the Red House, Leamington.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think that Adnams Bitter in Salt was the best I’ve ever had. There’s a romanticism about Southwold pubs but the beer is often average.
LikeLike
Yes, the Hollands kept very good beer and food at the Holly Bush but sadly both father and son died young.
It was an unwelcoming pub when I went a few weeks ago, and no Adnams, so i don’t intend returning.
LikeLike
Mine’s an Adnams Extra!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Mine too, Andy ! The Angel in Larling on the A11 had a sign for it long after production ceased, taunting me.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nethergate Augustinian was another Excellent Suffolk beer. No idea if that’s still around? Their Golden Gate was one of the early Golden Ales too.
LikeLike
The Nethergate brewery tap near Long Melford would be the place to start, Andy.
Last pub I saw it in would have been the Live and Let Live in Cambridge.
LikeLiked by 1 person
All these tears over one Adnams brew when Tolly Cobbold is gone for ay
LikeLike
Who ?
LikeLike
What don’t you like about the Adnams glass?
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s too thin; the wider the better for me (e.g. the Plum Porter glass). Probably psychological but I reckon I can taste the difference.
LikeLike