Just to prove I do occasionally read your comments on here, this post follows a recent suggestion from the mysterious hedgenerd about Draught Bass in Grantchester. To be fair, I’d want to remain mysterious if I lived in Grantchester or Trumpington. “I just had a nice pint (two actually) of Bass at the Green Man… Continue reading A BASS FOR “MR BRIGHTSIDE” OUTSIDE THE ARCHERS
Author: 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.
UP BRANDON CREEK WITHOUT A (BEER) PADDLE
A welcome return for Mrs RM in today’s post. Yes they sent her back first class from the Rifle Drum in Northampton. Also a return for pies, and our beloved campervan, which is about to get its big trip out. You’ll know who or what you’ve missed most. It must be more than a decade… Continue reading UP BRANDON CREEK WITHOUT A (BEER) PADDLE
GOOD BEER GUIDE STOCKTAKE – CALM BEFORE THE STORM
“Show us yer spreadsheets” demands reader Mr D Mackay of Paisley, Renfrewshire. You may recall that Pubmeister is the chap who has nowhere to go now he’s finished the Guide (several times), and is resigned to photographing plastic phalluses in South Shields and setting up a nudist colony on a remote Scottish island. Anyway, here’s… Continue reading GOOD BEER GUIDE STOCKTAKE – CALM BEFORE THE STORM
THE SURPRISING BISHOP’S STORTFORD
Just to prove to you I do occasionally encounter good beer as well as politically incorrect toilet art on my travels, here’s a break from writing about drain pours. Actually, it took a couple of days at home to recover from the deep trauma of finding my last Gloucestershire tick inexplicably closed for Summer,… Continue reading THE SURPRISING BISHOP’S STORTFORD
PERFECTING THE DRAIN POUR
It gives me no pleasure to bring you diary extracts recording my adventures in dull or undrinkable beer this summer. Not much pleasure, anyway. Better news is on the way; everything I drank in Blackpool last night was cool and tasty last night, even in the recently maligned Pump & Truncheon. High turnover is… Continue reading PERFECTING THE DRAIN POUR
MUMS WHO CRAFT
Bristol’s suburbs take a bit of getting used to, which I like. Better to be lost in a dangerous part of town than to know where you are, any day. It turns out the Greenbank isn’t actually in St Pauls, it’s in Easton, or possibly Stapleton Road, where I get off the train. Anyway, this… Continue reading MUMS WHO CRAFT
HELLO CHUMS
Next up, a Bristol micro. Yes, another one. Micros aren’t just for run down seaside towns, you know. Chums is in the heart of gentrified Redland, Bristol’s Gwydir Street . Stockport has no equivalent, though “Where The Light Gets In” may be the equivalent of Redland’s famed “hunter gatherer” restaurant Wilsons. I love this area;… Continue reading HELLO CHUMS
BRISTOL GBG TO A FINISH (VOL I – VIEW TO A PILL)
Lots of variety now, as I spend a day ticking Bristol pubs on the way to the glory that is completing Gloucestershire for the very first time. One day, BRAPA will know how this feels. Some questions for me to answer; Would I be the only afternoon customer ? (not quite) Would the beer… Continue reading BRISTOL GBG TO A FINISH (VOL I – VIEW TO A PILL)
TOP 100 PUBS – THE BOAT INN, PENALLT
Pubmeister has just completed all the Good Beer Guide pubs in England, again. Well done, Duncan. The GBG tick remains just as tough a task as when first undertaken by Sir Richard Francis Burton in 1852, 120 years before CAMRA invented real ale. NB A reminder that signed photos* of Duncan in shorts are still… Continue reading TOP 100 PUBS – THE BOAT INN, PENALLT
CINDERFORD – IT’S UNBELIEVABLE
Well, unless I really am ghost-writing this rubbish, I clearly survived Cinderford. No joking; I’d had more warnings about this place than anywhere I’ve ever been. And I’ve been to Coatbridge. And Panama. It was hotter than Panama at Christmas as I arrived in town on Thursday night to find the 8,000 souls enjoying… Continue reading CINDERFORD – IT’S UNBELIEVABLE
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