ABK REPLACES DOOM BAR ON THE GREAT OUSE

January 2025. Littleport

A bitterly cold night in the Fens, and I had to catch the 17:03 back to Waterbeach where I’d collect Mum’s Chinese takeaway 20 minutes later.

As Pubmeister noted last time, Littleport is no jewel of the Fens,

feeling as isolated as, say, Chatteris despite the railway. But then, Watlington has a station, and who’s ever been there ?

I thought I’d do the Plough & Harrow, which What Pub thinks has Pedigree, but it doesn’t,

and I wasn’t in a keg Doom Bar mood. So back past the mural showing the Littleport riots of 1816 (something to do with a shortage of Guinness),

and to the banks of the Ouse, where lies the town’s sole (sort of) upmarket dining option.

I had an average Doom Bar here 7 years ago, but now the Swan is a Proper Keg pub where the Untappd check-ins are all for the rare Bavarian hells.

It’s 4:30pm, there’s one other customer, the landlady is stoking the fire, the soundtrack is the modern country beloved of near Norfolk folk.

It’s pleasant enough, and I’m tempted by the squid bites but I’m about to order the real thing from Chung Hwa.

It’s 20 minutes to the station, and I’ve still made little impression on the icy, fizzy, ABK. That’s why you should always drink cask; the beer you can neck in 5 minutes and run for your train.

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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.

8 thoughts on “ABK REPLACES DOOM BAR ON THE GREAT OUSE”

  1. Martin very kindly once said that I had “anecdotes”.

    Well, heres; a thing.

    Mrs E and I spent an afternoon today around the Vale Of Glamorgan. We ended up at The Bush, at St. Hilary. They still had on two Christmas ales, Rocking Rudolph and Theakston’s Ho-Ho-Hopped, but also Greene King IPA, of which I asked for a pint.

    “I’ll give you a shout when it’s ready” said the young barman. Every five minutes or so he pulled a brief frothy squirt, which he left to settle down while he served other customers. “I haven’t forgotten” he called across, some twenty minutes later after several such episodes, and then proceeded – as it appeared – to tip the slops tray into my pint.

    I went over. “Are you tipping the tray into my pint?” I asked. “Yes” he said. “Well, I’m sorry, but I don’t drink slops, so could you pour me a fresh pint properly?” I asked. “Sure, no worries” he said, and started the procedure over again.

    When my drink – finally – arrived it was one of the best pints of GKIPA that I’ve ever had, I must say, and I commended the barman on the fact.

    “No problem” he said.

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      1. Etu,
        Well you don’t expect Autovacs in the Vale Of Glamorgan, do you ?
        Funnily enough Rocking Rudolph and Greene King IPA were the two cask beers on at Milford’s Barley Mow early yesterday afternoon. I was ready for a pint having walked from Stafford but one barmaid, all the other customers on hot drinks, drinks that needed mixing or a small bottle of wine she couldn’t open, then someone got served out of turn in front of me. During several minutes of waiting I remembered the CAMRA discount, which I’ve never used there, so that was 46p off my pint for the inconvenience. It was only ten minutes then to drink my pint before the 826 bus for Stafford and a couple of pints of Bass in the Railway.

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      2. Indeed, Paul.

        It was the first Theakston’s I’d seen in these parts for some time too.

        The staff were very pleasant, but under a rod of iron from “management” not to waste a single drop of beer, and tried very hard to sell me the Christmas ones.

        It took all my powers of restraint not to burst out laughing at the “no problem” though.

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      3. Etu,
        “but under a rod of iron from “management” not to waste a single drop of beer” – the tables mopped up with tea towels that were wrung out for returning the beer to the cask no doubt occurring after closing time. No, I think that was past times.
        “No problem” is as irritating as “See you later”. Never used to get any of that nonsense.

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  2. I’ve only heard of ABK through its sponsorship of rugby league, don’t think I’ve ever seen it on the bar in a pub.

    I’m always dubious about breweries which claim to have been operating in the same place/with the same ingredients since thirteen hundred and something, as Stella Artois also does. They certainly weren’t brewing a pale lager back then (and that bit of Swabia wasn’t even in Bavaria until 1803).

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