retiredmartin

November 2024. Ashford.

Two (2) successive posts about Kent’s most beleaguered town (blimey, even Rainham is better these days), can Paul Bailey and I make Ashford the new beer destination ?

Well, no, obviously not, but the Spoons is half decent, the flashy Curious Brewery by the station is plain curious, and that GBG sports bar will no doubt be the subject of a heritage listing soon.

And across from Matches there’s a genuine craft bar.

Honest.

The multitude of names that Low Key has had says a lot about Ashford;

What Pub reckons it’s got cask, but whether that’s Key Keg, or occasional hand pump, or the real cider, I neither know nor care.

Ignore for a second the high tables,

the ceiling decoration,

and the inflatable guitar,

and take a look at a beer board that might have been curated by Blackpool Jane.

“What would Mrs RM do ?”.

Well, the strongest one, Low Key’s own barley wine, a quite magnificent third (wimp). “Tonka Maple Pancake Stack” says my tasting notes.

Sadly, apart from one young couple drinking pints of what I hope was a weaker beer, singing along to Canadian indie rock,

it was just me, in sharp contrast to the packed bar showing the Prem across the road.

But a look at Untappd shows a fair trade over the week, so perhaps Sunday is just a quiet day.

“Thanks for coming in” says the lovely young barman as I leave to the first bars of “Everybody Wants To Rule The World“, and suddenly life all makes sense. Only six pubs in an afternoon with a barley wine at the end can do that.