February 2024. Waterbeach.
You know The Sun, and if you haven’t been, you should. Waterbeach may be the dullest place on earth (sorry Mum, sorry Dad) but it does have one of the UK’s best Chinese takeaways, kebab vans, brewery taps, fruit breweries and pubs.
Helen at The Sun is making plans to restart the beer fest.
This is A Good Thing. Helen and Andrew’s beer festivals were the high point of village life, apart from Tony winning best dressed character at the village feast.
I feel guilty if I go “home” and don’t pop in the “local”,
and on Friday I was delighted to find both the public (TV sports, ribald humour) and the lounge (polite drinkers) absolutely packed.
“Good to see you so busy, Helen” I say.
“It’s cocktail night” says Helen, as a tray of coloured glasses emerge from the back and we hit peak ABBA.
And while the younger blokes stick to Boltmaker and (checks notes) Youngs Ordinary,
a crowd rarely seen in pubs work their way through a cocktail menu expertly curated by lovely Lancastrian Bev and Helen’s daughter Theresa. Folk who once worked their way through a card of a dozen cask beers now complete the cocktail set. There will be sore heads tomorrow.
You see, everyone wants to do the set. There’s probably a T-Shirt.
I stick to a pint of Mighty Oak’s dark “Old Man & The Sea”, an improbably good NBSS 4.
And then head to Chung Hwa.
retiredmartin 
Cocktails are a bourgeois irrelevance.
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Cocktails? I don’t even like mixers in my spirits.
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Spirits ?
I don’t even like plums in my beer.
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We will break down your resistance to Plum Porter eventually, Paul.
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Agreed
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In Addingham (a nearby village) each pub zealously guards its various “nights”. Darts and Doms night, Quiz night, curry night etc. Never heard of a cocktail night and suspect it wouldn’t play out too well in rural Yorkshire.
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It takes a lot to get Cambridgeshire folk out for the evening, certainly before the weekend, so if a cocktail night gets them in the pub and helps shift a few more pints of their excellent cask I’m happy !
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It’s Cambridgeshure innit?
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Shure
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Great posts here.
Isn’t “Chung Hwa” what Frankie Goes To Hollywood shout in “Relax”, incidentally?
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Only on the Greek DIsco Mix 12″.
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“It takes a lot to get Cambridgeshire folk out for the evening”
I blame Beer52.
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I’m getting you a Beer52 subscription for Christmas. You’ll never be able to cancel it 😉
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