PAUL MUDGE FINDS MILD IN CAMBRIDGE

September 2024. Cambridge.

“Is there a Craft Union pub in Cambridge ?”.

Er, no, Paul. But there is an exciting range of keg at The Cheesemonger d’Arry’s aka Stolen Liquor Loft aka Rattle & Hum,

though like me Paul remembers a once characterful Cambridge Arms selling exotic Greene King ales.

And next door, what looks like a steampunk gin bar,

but may be a bike shop for all I know.

The sun shines on the righteous (though I don’t know how Paul qualifies having just admitted he’s spent 38% of his year at home not saving pubs), and the blue skies returned for our short trip through Hobson Court,

named after the old adage that “one cask beer is plenty, take it or leave it“,

with me giving Paul a quite unnecessary history lesson on the crimes done to Tatties baked potato restaurant over the years.

And then to Market Passage, home to McMullen’s Town and Gown.

“This used to be a cinema where I watched arty French films” I tell Paul, who is immediately questioning whether it would have been best still showing movies rather than as a gin and shuffleboard bar (a very quiet one too given its prime location near the market place).

But Paul wants to try the wares of the regional brewers, and not only are there McMullen handpumps, there’s also the first AK Mild I’ve seen since (checks own blog) 2022, though the George IV in Sawbridgeworth is rather more pubby.

I’m dubious that anyone else has asked for the AK that day, but this drone shot capturing Mr Mudge contemplating his NBSS score suggests it wasn’t undrinkable, exactly.

The very definition of a 2.5, insufficiently crisp to make you stay for another, but glad that they still brew it (for now).

Perhaps it would have tasted a bit better in that proper pub seating in the middle ?

I took no notes, so I have no recollection of the thought process that led us to our third and final pub, picked from Paul’s meticulously curated list,

but rest assured that it will all make sense, somehow.

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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.

12 thoughts on “PAUL MUDGE FINDS MILD IN CAMBRIDGE”

  1. Yes, the “Cambridge Arms selling exotic Greene King ales” fifty years ago. GK had the most Cambridge pubs then but virtually all of them with the beer fizzed up by top pressure rather than properly served by “exotic” handpumps to the easterners who were about as familiar with gravity dispense.
    It was a great shame that looking after hens for a holidaying farmer friend meant missing the “Pub Curmudgeon and West Suffolk’s Andrew in 2019” trip with its Greene King XX Mild but I was very pleased to find here the McMullens AK Original Mild especially as I thought it was drinking well.
    Your drone shot tells me how ‘thin on top’ I am now, not that that’s any surprise though in my seventieth year.

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  2. Not sure how I missed this post…when at Jesus 1976-9 the Cambridge Arms was our local, run by ex Plymouth policeman Les Roper. For someone raised on Courage keg beers (Tavern,anyone?) the GK IPA was a revelation.
    I’d go as far as to say that Cambridge pub experiences persuaded me to enter the world of work via Allied Breweries. Whether that was the right call, will I ever know?

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