Author: iknoweno

CAMRA Elysian Winter Beer Festival, January 2016, The Maltings, Ely

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The attractive riverside Maltings in Ely was the venue for the 7th Winter Beer festival. The 1868 building was sympathetically converted to a multi-purpose entertainment and conference centre in the 1980s and is a fine place for a warming winter pint.

Two sides of the crowded main hall were lined with rows of barrels, an agreeable sight. There were tables in side rooms and upstairs, where families were welcome. It was all very easy, buying a bingo type card in the foyer to pay for beer at the bars kept service swift and as always at these festivals the volunteers were knowledgeable and friendly.
There were plenty of heavier seasonal brews for the connoisseur but it was a long day so I stuck to the delights of Calvor’s ‘Lodestar’ (3.8%, “refreshing golden ale”) and local Moonshine Brewery ‘Heavenly Matter’ (4.1%, “golden with a citrus and tropical fruit aroma and taste”).

It is a popular festival, full to capacity during the afternoon, and well worth the train trip up from Cambridge (the station is just five minutes away… and micro-pub The Drayman’s Son is just up the hill….)

http://ely-camra.org.uk/

Drayman’s Son, Forehill, Ely

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Formerly the Liberty Belle, Ely’s micropub has changed its name to Drayman’s Son and is now run by Jo and Andrew Pearson.
It was reviewed previously at https://cambridgepubreviews.com/2015/04/05/liberty-belle-fore-hill-ely/

I was very impressed on earlier visits. The good news is, it is even better now! They were happy to allow us in 15 minutes before the opening time, it is that sort of place. The décor is largely unchanged, there is now a map to add pins showing how far you have travelled. Beer is still dispensed straight from the barrel and now brought to the table, a nice touch.
The beer choice is displayed in detail, we sampled Elmers bitter which is a golden ale at 3.8% from Flying Monk Brewery in Malmesbury (there was a real flying monk there apparently..) and 4% White Elephant Golden Mild(!) from Elephant School Brewery Co in Brentwood. Both were excellent. They also dispense a range of locally produced gins.

They still serve proper pub food; pork pie, gala pie, cheeseboard, charcuterie…all at reasonable prices-what more could you want?
The number of micropubs in the UK continues to grow, Ely has some attractive pubs but this is the prime destination for the real ale enthusiast.

The Royal Standard, Mill Road, Cambridge

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Against the national trend of closures, another pub re-opens its doors in Cambridge; judging by the amount of people in there on Saturday evening it is already proving popular.
Although it is described on their website as ‘Mill Road’s Beer and Gin House’ there are no Hogarthian ‘Gin Lane’ excesses on show here, more a very civilised large-ish single bar and small paved and fenced outside area. This is unfortunately lacking tables at the moment and we ended up standing in it on a mild November evening as all space was taken inside.

As well as some appetising food (most customers seemed to be dining) there is a big range of gins and Belgian beers and fortunately some delicious Bradford Brewery Hockney Pale, an amber 3.6% session beer, nestling next to the ever reliable Adnams 4.5% Ghost Ship.
It is an imposing traditional building with an impressive frontage and from the side road the restoration makes it look as though the new adjoining flats have direct passage into the pub (I don’t think they do but it could be a good arrangement).

It is another attractive addition to the further reaches of Mill Road, perhaps as a starting point for evening music at Relevant Records and last orders at The Empress..

http://royalstandardcambridge.com/

The Kingston Arms, Kingston Street, Cambridge

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The sign on the end of the building says the Kingston is a railway tavern, and although a reasonable distance from the current location of the railway station it provides a warm welcome to visitors and locals. It has established a good and widespread reputation for its food but as a Free House its beer offering is extensive and of high quality.

Amnesiac from the Tydd Steam brewery is a 4.9% Ale, ‘Hopped with unique Nelson Sauvin hops giving a soft white wine background and crushed gooseberry aroma’. Very nice too. As is Oscar Wilde(3.7%), a prizewinning darker beer from the Mighty Oak Brewing company. The face on the beer tap label resembles Bryan Ferry from his late 70s suave solo sojourns which is surely a good reason to give it a try.

The bar staff always seem friendly and a beer price discount to CAMRA members is always a plus, (they were the first pub in Cambridge that offered this. And free internet. And free WiFi….)

It is a cosy pub, interestingly filled with un-matching furniture, pictures and signs. The bike parking problems have been resolved with some racks directly outside the attractively decorated frontage of the pub. The tables in the front window are always in demand and despite the coolish evening when I visited recently the back beer garden with covered area was very full too.

An essential stopping off point on the way to the further beer delights of Mill Road, this unassuming back street pub is another well-hidden gem.

http://www.kingston-arms.co.uk/

The Pubs of Derby

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Derby has been referred to as ‘The Real Ale Capital of the UK’, so it had to be worth a trip to see what the offering is compared with Cambridge. Initial research showed there are many highly regarded pubs within walking distance in the centre area and spread through the city.

The Flowerpot is a pub with three large rooms and a terrace, featuring music on many evenings. There is plenty of beer choice, a pint of their excellent Black Iris Sunflower (4% Golden Ale) was very easy to drink, especially to accompany their in-house ‘gurkha’ curries on Tuesday evenings.

So the standard was set high from the start, but where to next? Given Derby’s links with trains it seemed logical to head for the station area. In amongst some railway workers cottages the Brunswick pub can be found, with its interesting interior and own brewery, White Feather (3.6% pale session beer) and Triple Hop (4% Bitter) were superb examples produced on site.

Around the corner to the Alexandra Hotel, Derby CAMRA pub of the year 2015 and I was beginning to sense there was something a bit special about these places, apart from the excellent selection of beers and CAMRA member discounts on top of cheap prices (compared with Cambridge), there seemed to be a real buzz and atmosphere.
The pubs were busy with a varied clientele; there were fans on the way to the match, people who had just finished work and discerning diners especially in the Exeter Arms, a free house with ‘Dancing Duck’ beers among many others and a formidable food reputation. Also worth a mention Ye Olde Dolphin Inne (dating back to 1530) has small rooms and original beams and the nearby Silk Mill Ale and Cider House has a mural on the side illustrating the 1833 Silk trades lock out, part of the origin of the Labour movement.

This visit was to a fraction of the 25 pubs on the CAMRA ‘Real Ale Trail’. As well as all of these delights Derby sustains three large Wetherspoons, the most notable being the Babington Arms, featuring an electronic ‘scoreboard’ of the varied beer range.

Derby Cathedral may have been closed for refurbishment, but luckily the pubs were open and welcoming….

http://www.derbycamra.org.uk/derby-pubs/

Blue Ball, Grantchester, Cambridge.

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As Rupert Brooke memorably wrote, ‘But Grantchester! ah, Grantchester!
There’s peace and holy quiet there,……..Stands the Church clock at ten to three?
And is there honey still for tea?’

There may well be a spot of tiffin at the Orchard Tea Garden, but there is also a splendid pint of Adnams Bitter (3.7%,’beautiful copper-coloured beer, late and dry-hopped…’) at the Blue Ball pub on the other side of the village. There are three other pubs in Grantchester that each have their own attractions and do a good job of absorbing the visitors, the numbers increased no doubt by fans of the James Runcie detective books and the TV series based on the stories of a vicar turned sleuth.

The Blue Ball is a small traditional pub, part of a terrace of houses next to the quiet ‘main’ road back to Cambridge. The interior is welcoming and unchanged over the years with pleasant clutter including newspapers, always a good sign. The beer offering is limited but well kept; mainly a reliable selection of brews from Adnams. Food is low key, crisps and nuts and rumours of sandwiches at lunchtime. You can sit on the sunny front terrace or a very well hidden walled garden out back, with an open shelter containing books and grapevines growing along the roof. It is all small and compact inside and outside there is hardly room to park a car or even a bike.
It is a good place to be, on a summer afternoon the pub and village are as timeless as the church clock in the poem.

Walk across the field opposite and you are at Granchester Meadows, a pastoral haven for walking, cycling or punting from Cambridge, immortalised in the title of a Pink Floyd song and the jewel in the crown of the local countryside, recently thankfully saved from the threat of possible developers.

The Free Press, Prospect Row, Cambridge

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The Free Press is one of three pubs concealed in the interestingly named Prospect Row near to Parkers Piece, each with a different ambiance and beer offering. In recent history The Free Press had limited fame as a non-smoking pub long before they all were. Having occupied the site for 120 years it has not changed much in the time I have visited (don’t ‘refurbish’ it please…), the Greene King beers are supplemented by many other temptations, on this encounter Skinner’s Betty Stogs (4%,’an easy drinking copper ale’) had survived the journey from its Cornish brewery very well.

The bar staff seem friendly and polite, dealing with a large age range of locals and visitors. A reasonably sized terrace beer garden is squeezed into a deceptively small open area at the back, all very pleasant and has the look of a provincial branch line station where there is one of those hidden micro-pubs. There are also tables outside the front next to the traffic free-ish road, all perfect for a summer evening. A proper snug behind its own door adjoins the main bar area and dark furniture and features add to the timeless atmosphere.

As well as wall-mounted collections of tickets, corks and other ephemera there are many newspaper cuttings from the 20th Century on display, Marshal Timoshenko in World War Two and a Daily Telegraph from 1981 commemorating the wedding of Charles and Diana that looks even older…

http://www.freepresspub.com

Queen Edith, Wulfstan Way, Cambridge

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When the Queen Edith opened in April 2015 it was the first newly-built pub in Cambridge for over 30 years. A cause for celebration and a challenge for the Milton Brewery; how do you create a completely new pub rather than adapt an existing, often older and character-filled building?

Well the good news is they have done a good job, an attractive frontage with tables outside and covered cycle racks draw you into the central entrance porch, you then have a choice of the larger public bar or a more intimate side room with high backed booths. Choosing the more spacious area you can see the beer taps, mainly Milton Brewery of course (the ever delightful ‘Justinian'(3.9%) included) and some interesting additions, such as Tolly Roger (4.2%) from Cliff Quay Brewery of Ipswich, described as ‘intensely fragrant aroma of citrus fruit and floral notes, complex flavours of malt, sweetness, bitter oranges, and honeysuckle’.

Even more poetic are the prices, £3 and £3.20 for the pints I sampled, good value for Cambridge.

Sitting in leather armchairs, with part of the Bayeux tapestry on the wall, watching the fish tank and looking through the retro books (eg ‘Biggles, Foreign Legionnaire’?) it is a comfortable and contemplative place to be, an after work stop-off or starting point for heading into town. It could be an ideal place for bands to play, and I should think that once established it should do very well.

In this pub-dry area of Cambridge(nothing else within at least a one mile radius?), it is a definite oasis.

https://twitter.com/queenedithpub
http://www.cliffquay.co.uk/
http://www.miltonbrewery.co.uk/

Corner House, Newmarket Road, Cambridge

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Emerging from the newly opened sterile budget hotel blocks in a strange town you might be very pleased and surprised to find traditional furniture shop J.H. Cooper and a pub like the Corner House on your doorstep.

There are loads of gigs at the Corner House, according to local music folklore all bands play the venue twice, once on the way up and once on the way down…… If you are lucky you can catch some excellent musical nights, though in my experience it can be difficult to track down exactly what is on and when. Not a problem last Saturday, it was free entry to see two highly regarded Cambridge bands (Psychic Lemon and The British IBM)

The stage is at one end of the pub, a bit like the knocked-through front rooms in seventies semis. There is also a smaller public bar with pool table and large TV, not usually on. Outside there are ‘two beer gardens’, these comprise a covered back area and then a more exposed decking section.

It is not an obvious real ale pub but at the front of the cluttered bar there are some delights, Robinson’s Brewery ‘Dizzy Blonde’, a 3.8% amber ale was a very drinkable choice. It was £3.70, not cheap but more than compensated for by the quality of the free music. Books on the mantlepiece, an armchair just inside the back door, all nice touches that add to the comfortable feel.

It always seems a very casual and laid-back place, with a core of locals and a varying cast of band members and their supporters passing through. Long may it continue!

 

CAMRA Beer Festival 2015, Jesus Green, Cambridge

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A highlight of the Cambridge summer calendar (along with Strawberry Fair), the Beer Festival becomes more popular as the years pass. It has moved venues; a while ago it was at the Corn Exchange, then the Cambridge City Football ground and now the giant marquee being put together on Jesus Green over the preceding week is a sign that summer is nearly here.

If the weather is good it is absolutely heaving with people; like the Great Wall Of China the queue to get in on a warm Friday must be clearly visible from space.

So what is the attraction? Well to me the beer range is superb, always very well kept and served and described clearly in the free programme, such as my randomly chosen ‘Elderflower Blonde’ (4%) from Saltaire Brewery which was delicious and fruity. The ritual of glass buying or renting, looking at the hardly ever changing stalls, deciding on which food offering to try or just sticking to the legendary cheese counter, these are all reliable and reassuring. CAMRA members get in free for all sessions and can go in through a separate usually queue-free entrance.

The ‘Cambridge’ branding for the logo and poster is another nice touch; this year it is the 42nd festival so the theme is ’42’ from Douglas Adams’ Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy. In 2011, it was the anniversary of the invention of the jet engine and that was the entertainment…looking at the jet engine and hearing it being switched on for short bursts! There has been music too in the past, but this was not needed as bands just take up space and limit conversation.

This brings me on to another attraction of the festival….simply that I see old friends there that I have not seen all year (since the previous festival). I know of many ex-residents who make a point of returning to the city to visit in beer festival week and also some who have seen the light and been converted to the cause of real ale following a visit to this cathedral of beer.

 

http://www.cambridgebeerfestival.com/