REAL ALE ! IN A CAN !

January 2025. Cambridge.

From the Eagle it’s about 28 minutes back to Cambridge station if you don’t stop in the Fitzwilliam to knock over a priceless Ming vase;

I reckoned I could do it in 18 minutes and get a half in the Old Ticket Office.

I did it in 17, then remembered this sign I’d seen on the platform last trip;

and I realised how rarely I have a train beer, compared to the traffic on the Sheffield-Manchester line (OK, mainly Bailey’s).

Look ! They’re trying to get me to have an alcohol free Lucky Saint on the train. It won’t work.

“Can I have a Broadside to take away, please ?“

“Er, we only do it in cans, we can’t serve it in open containers“

For a moment I thought I was getting an actual can off the Adnams tinning line, wherever that is, but chap goes away and (presumably) hand pumps a pint* into a mysteriously black container.

Presumably it’s black so as not to corrupt children or something**, but it looks elegant, even if it’s about to get told off as it doesn’t have a ticket for that seat.

The only problem with this train beer is that the train journey is all of 11 minutes, so I’m not going to open it till I’m home and have tucked Mum in bed, and as you’ll know beer deteriorates as soon as it comes into contact with Fen air.

So, while it’s full-bodied, it’s certainly not sparkling (NBSS 3). But, more importantly, it’s not being consumed in a pub with folk wearing pashminas complaining about the price of a latte in Gail’s.

* Don’t care

** Don’t care

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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.

6 thoughts on “REAL ALE ! IN A CAN !”

  1. “The only problem with this train beer is that the train journey is all of 11 minutes” with a cold beer can’t have been the problem I had with a (very) hot black coffee I bought on Lichfield Trent Valley railway station before remembering that I was only going to Lichfield City railway station, a journey of three minutes.
    I didn’t use the Old Ticket Office last September, only the Station Tavern for a Youngs London Original before the 9.40am 7 bus to Addenbrookes Hospital ( not with a fractured spine but with getting the 31 minibus to Newton ) and the next day the proper ticket office for an off-peak return to Sheringham.

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      1. Yes Martin, in Lincoln.
        London Pride was in most of the Sheringham pubs. I used the Crown, Fishmongers Tavern and Two Lifeboats.
        I’ve now remembered that I did use the Old Ticket Office for an Adnams Broadside on my way home with 44 minutes spare between arriving from Norwich and departing for Birmingham.

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    1. Paul, Or as flat as the surrounding Fens, but that’s what an eleven minute railway journey does to a Broadside. An eleven minute bus journey really would have rendered it as flat as a witch’s tit.

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