Wednesday and Thursday exploits

Last night yielded a relaxing visit to the Jekyll and Hyde, for a couple of buckets of Jaipur and some great falafel.

I don't usually indulge in beer and food tasting - I'm not really refined enough.  However, on this rare occasion, it seemed very civilised to grab a plate of grub and follow the example of my older, wiser drinking buddies.  Generally speaking, I find that food buggers up a good pub sesh - one becomes sleepy, bloated and valuable time is wasted.  But last night, it just felt right.  The falafel was delicious, as were the quesadillas, although I can't remember what was in the latter.

The J&H is a pretty cool (unlike me), but I felt quite comfortable there.  Any fan of Purity is well served, but a fan of gin would be even better off.  Unfortunately I know absolutely nothing about gin or indeed any other spirit.

After the evening's fun, I swiftly popped into the Square Peg en route to the bus stop.  [Blimey, I'd forgotten how big the bar is in this pub, but that's by the by].  Even having sworn I would not be sucked in by JDW's Spring real ale festival, I could not resist a quick peek.  This latest fest runs from 14 March until 1 April and features a rather uninspired line up.  However the one undoubtedly tempting item = a bitter brewed by Norwegian masters Nogne O.  As Wetherspoons generally do for their fests, they flew over the head brewer of a renowned foreign brewery (in this case Nogne O) and had him brew a real ale interpretation at a friendly UK brewery (in this case Batemans).  Soooooo, was it any good?  No. No flavour.  I was supremely bummed.  But at least I have a bottle of Nogne's #100 barley wine in my cupboard - one of the best beers I've ever tasted, and it's reassuring to have it sitting there, waiting to be drunked.  Actually it doesn't just sit there, it talks to me.  Every day.  "Drink me Dan - you deserve it".  I deserve a prize for having resisted thus far.  I also sampled quick halves of Caledonian Coffee Porter, Otter Pilgrim and Zululand Blonde (another of the foreign brewer guest beers).  All the beers were average or worse.  Oh dear.

Still, there's no fool like an old fool, so on Thursday afternoon I legged it over to Halesowen, for a super quick nose around their Wetherspoons venue, the William Shenstone.  I sampled 3 x thirds there - two of which were other foreign brewer efforts - Murrikan Mild from US-based Smuttynose and John Martin's Pale Ale from Belgium. Both were reasonable, so that was cheering.  The Martin's in particular had a very gentle, fresh and tasty hop signature.  After 10 mins it was time to head home, but I did manage a 20 min visit to the Waggon and Horses anyway (I'm a weak man and the W&H is irresistible).  At the Waggon, I necked an Art Brew Art Nouveau (leafy and pleasant) and half an Ename Dubbel - a Belgian beer on tap in Halesowen!??!  Yes that's right, and very nice it was too, thanks for asking.

Then it really was home time.

A quick sortie: through gin palace and seat of learning

Today, unable to sit idle on an afternoon of annual leave, I plunged headfirst into some Birmingham pubs that I rarely get to - all in the name of my Birmingham Pub Map project, which is now nearing the completion of phase 1.

My first port of call was The Gunmakers Arms, located in, wait for it, the Gun Quarter now officially to be renamed St.George and St.Chad.

But here's a sordid confession: upon arriving, I daren't go in.  You see it was the middle of the afternoon, the windows were covered from the inside and it's not exactly in a busy area.  So I took the coward's way out and declined to push open the door and enter.  This is apparently a Slovakian run pub, which advertises it's National affiliations with a flag on the outside, and lists it's drink prices on a blackboard outside, including real ale.  If you have been in, please let me know what it's like, but as an ungregarious, solitary boozer, today was not the day for me to peer inside.  Not that I have anything against Slovakia you understand, in fact if a dyslexic currency salesperson at Marks and Sparks had had their way, I may almost have gone there on holiday once.

So, scuttling briskly from the Gunmakers, I ducked into the always lovely Bull, which is 5 seconds away.  This pub is a marvel of homespun, traditional charm and always has einen well presented bit of booze on tap, in this case Acorn Barnsley Bitter, which was as rugged and lovable as Gene Hackman.

Next up was the Sacks of Potatoes, located fairly and squarely in the centre of Aston University's campus.  I last came here when I was an actual student, which was an eye-wateringly long time ago.  I admit that I expected this to be full of trendy herberts supping WKD and snakebite or something, but clearly today's student is much more savvy than I ever was/am.  6 real ales were on offer here including 4 guests.  I felt like a bit of an old letch propping up the bar, so I necked a tasty Sadlers Honey Fuggle and an odd Wentworth Rock-Spalt and slung my hook.

This was all happening mid-afternoon, sadly too early for the Wellington beer fest, which was kicking off at 5.00; so I consoled myself with a brief nosey inside the Jekyll and Hyde.  This place is quite smart, a bit trendy and therefore probably demands a slightly cooler clientele than what I am.  Unfortunately my visit coincided with zero Thornbridge beers being on, even though I know that they have been offering 3 err offerings from that brewer during the week.  I nursed a half of Freedom Stout, whilst marvelling at the range of gins/gin cocktails and gin-tasting events which the J&H offer.  I tell you, if I liked drinking gin, I would certainly gravitate to this place and drink some gin.

After that I headed homeward boundish.

Kings Heath and Moseley beckon tomorrow, for some concluding beer map visits.