CAMBRIDGE GETS ITS BASS BACK

January 2024. Cambridge.

Well, I didn’t believe Dan;

Bass in Cambridge ? Nah ! You’ll be telling me it’s back in Sheffield next. And on my occasional walks down Kingston Street I’d peered in the window and failed to spot that distinctive red clip.

In fact, I hadn’t seen Draught Bass in Cambridge this century, since a late ’90s Greene King dalliance with exotic guest beers saw it in The Zebra opposite the Cambridge Evening News offices. Dan wasn’t born when the Zebra was killed off.

And now here it was, staring at me,

just when I needed it after a fairly rubbish day.

“Is it permanent ?” I asked, pre-empting the Wickingman’s first question.

“Well, it’s always on” said the young barman. Good lad, good lad. “I drink it myself”.

Young people drinking Bass ? The world is saved.

That first pint was good enough (3+), a fruity pint closer to Fagan’s than the Star or the Sun,

but I had to have another, just to be sure.

And that second was even better, cooler and crisper than the first (3.5). These things matter, whether Bass or Brewsmith or Bateman.

I suddenly realised I’d downed two pints in the time the gents opposite, discussing eco systems and 5 volts and pub trips to Brigg.

Pub trips to Brigg ?

I called across “Great pubs in Brigg, not just the Yarborough Hunt“.

In Sheffield, this interjection would prompt a coming together of tables, sharing of pub crawl notes and an invitation to their cousin Jim’s wedding. In Cambridge, the bloke just stares at me, horrified I’ve been listening in.

There’s your north and south divide, right there, folks.

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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.

9 thoughts on “CAMBRIDGE GETS ITS BASS BACK”

  1. I did suggest to a local pub, that if they made Bass a regular, then they’d clean up on the trade of the Bass devotees who now stumble aimlessly the highways and byways since the closure of the only Bass pub in the area. They ignored that and carried on with Changing-Beers-You’ve-Never-Heard-Of and now, sadly, they’ve closed down…

    If market research were done properly, then instead of asking pub goers what they like, they’d ask non-pub-goers who drink and could afford it why they don’t. I wonder how high up “no Bass” would come?

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      1. Aha! Thanks Rhys – it’s a bit further from the Butcher’s than the one which has just closed, but will take a look. Is it a regular beer à la Pilot or a guest?

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      2. Probably just a guest, but for a long stretch running up to Christmas as I saw the clip still on a while later. Pubs run by the same company in Newport always have it on, so a bit strange the QV doesn’t.

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      3. I’ll probably get one For Old Times’ Sake Rhys, but when it’s properly kept I could ask no more than good-old-session-strength Brains Bitter.

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  2. Imagine my surprise this lunchtime, the Waggon and Horses two miles from me for the first time in ten years and Draught Bass, “always got Bass on”.

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