Getting damp in December

Last weekend I was back in Langdale with a mountaineering club. Despite the horrors of the M25 we managed to make it to the Watermill for last orders, and to my delight Stringers beers were on. As I take my desires for reality because I believe in the reality of my desires I had a pint of No. 2 stout. It was an excellent beer.



Under the paving stones, the beach

Our plan for Friday was to go climbing in Borrowdale. After one look out the window in the morning these plans were quickly downgraded to scrambling in Langdale. Then it started raining so the plans were downgraded again to hill walking in Langdale. At this rate it was looking like all we'd be doing was shopping in Ambleside if we didn't get out soon. So we headed up the blue route and wandered towards Pavey Ark and Sergeant Man. Then we dropped down towards Easedale tarn.

It's grim up north.

By this point daylight was starting to run out and horizontal sleet was being blown into our faces. Defintely time to return. When practicing night navigation I've gone back this way before and if you can't find the path, which is quite tricky once it's dark, it's a right horror. When we were back on the ridge we were too far over for the path and I was starting to despair of finding it. But truding back, with about half an hour of daylight left, we spotted it: a green snake of salvation slithering silently through the bracken to the valley floor.

Thing went a bit more smoothly on Saturday. Past red tarn and the three shires stone to wet side edge and then down to little Langdale. We were able to stop for refreshment at the Three Shires Inn. This pub has a scarily large number of signs ordering you not to do things but once you're inside it's very pleasant. Or it was until some wet cyclists turned up and started drying their sweaty socks on the log burner. Perhaps another sign is needed.

As I'm now an old man I had a pint of Coniston Brewery Old Man ale here. Now it's winter my beer tastes are definitely turning to the dark side. Once it had stopped raining we headed on to the Wainwright's in Chapel Stile.

The excellent Cumbrian Legendary Ales Grasmoor was on so we had to stop for a couple. Then it was back to the hut for dinner and refreshments.

Mostly drinking in Coniston

Last week the lovely Lisa and I were mostly drinking in Coniston. Mainly we stuck to the two pubs in the good book, particularly as the dreaded word 'Robinsons' was displayed on the outside of the others.

Our favourite was the Sun Inn, it has a fine range of reasonably priced ales, a beer garden with a great view, and good food. Generally we went with Cumbrian Legendary Ales Loweswater Gold. It's not our favourite of the brewery's beers but still good stuff and in the absence of Langdale and Grasmore we had to make do.

The other tick in Coniston in the Black Bull, home of Coniston Brewery. It's only a short walk from the Sun but is on the main drag so looked busier. They had a good range of beers here which we did our best to work our way through. The cask beers weren't always on top form and the first time we tried Old Man ale it was definitely not right, which was a shame as we climbed the mountain on this trip. We weren't taken with their (proper real?) keg lager either, it had less flavour compared to its bottled form. I suppose it's no real surprise that keg lager isn't up to much. But having said all that the Black Bull is a nice pub and we had more than a few pints in it so it definitely has its good points.

We did also trek a bit further to continue our researches. On a damp day we called in at The Church Inn in Torver, I think we had more Loweswater Gold in here.It's a pub with an excellent old fashioned look that I approve of, complete with a much needed log fire to dry us out.

The Rake Cumbrian beer festival

The lovely Lisa spotted that one of her favourite beers, Cumbrian Legendary Ales Grasmoor, was going to be on at the Rake so a research trip was in order.

We sat outside where a range of beers were on stillage. The Grasmoor was a bit flat, but the Loweswater Gold worked a treat quenching my thirst. We were a bit stumped for what to try next as the beers tended towards the strong side. There was only one thing for it - we switched to drinking halves.

We were disappointed that Thurstein pilsner wasn't on, as it's practically named after Lisa. So American Invasion (5% ABV) and Hawkshead Citrillo (5% ABV) were next for us, both of which were at the beer that tastes like grapefruit juice end of things. More hoppy ones were up next, a couple from Stringers: Victoria IPA (5.5%) and Hop Priest (6.5%). We preferred the Victoria as the taste was a bit crisper.

After that we abandoned any attempts at pacing ourselves and I had a Mutiny double stout (9.3%) and Lisa had Infra Red (6.2%). The syrupy delights of the stout did it for me and the lovely Lisa enjoyed the way Infra Red gets better with each sip.

We're a bit undecided on the Rake. There was a good beer range if you like stronger beers but I prefer to sit somewhere relaxing where I can settle in for an evening drinking beers of more modest strength.

It was time for some food after that so we went to the Southwark tavern for a unique food experience. Well, I hope it was unique as the food was dire so I don't want to do it again.

Back to Braithwaite

The lovely Lisa and I were back in the Lake District last week. We heroically struggled up mountains and drank heroic quantities of beer.

Crossing the white spider

The excellent Open All Hours shop was one of the beery highlights of the trip. We were able to stock up on a fine selection of lake district beers, at very reasonable prices. The Hardknott Infra Red was only half the price I'd paid for a bottle from Utobeer, but then everything in Borough market seems overpriced.

If you're wondering which one of these was my favourite the answer is this one:

That's right, cask beer beats bottled yet again. We found this in the the very posh Middle Ruddings. And it was only £2.70 a pint, considerably cheaper than the prices for Jennings beers in the nearby Royal Oak.

The other beery highlight of the trip was a meet the brewer night at the Dog and Gun in Keswick. There were people from four breweries scattered around the pub for a speed dating style meet the brewers event. We chatted to people from the Keswick, Hawkshead and Cumbrian Legendary Ales breweries. The first two offered nibbles to go with the beer which the lovely Lisa seemed very taken with the beer and food pairing thing. Perhaps a beer and cheese night is needed? Though come to think of it the chocolate and beer seemed a popular pairing too.

We missed out on seeing the bods from Tirril but I did have some of their beer and Old Faithful was very drinkable.

The people from Cumbrian Legendary Ales were kind enough to give me a couple of their jigsaw beer mat sets and on my return home I was able to entertain, and I hope indoctrinate, my favourite niece.

I take my duties as a Beer Father seriously.

Visiting the nether regions

The Lovely Lisa and I spent the last week in the nether regions of Wasdale. 

The small village has two pubs, one with a brewery, and a hotel bar. But no shop. With priorities like that it sounded just the place for us. 

Our first bit of beer excitement happened en route when we called in at the Brown Cow Inn for a livener. There on the bar, calling to me, was a beer from Stringers, the renewably powered pro-situ brewery. At a modest 3.5% ABV Dark Country was a delight to drink with a fruity taste but not sweet or harsh in taste despite the black colour. I could have had a few more of these but for the fact I was driving.

We were staying at Woodhow Farm, which at one point seems to have tried rebranding itself as The Cumbrian Goat Experience. I think it would be fair to say has not been a massive success.  

Unusual tourist attractions do sometimes take off, like the nearby Sellafield nuclear power station for example, but it seems the masses aren't flocking to Cumbria to see goats. 

The nearby pubs were busy though, and we didn't waste much time getting ourselves down to The Strands. Their 3.8% session bitter 'Errmmm' was a delight on the first night, with I thought a hint of chocolate malt and some citrus flavoured hops. The owner refused to discuss such matters with me so this is only speculation. I wasn't quite as taken with the slightly stronger 'low flyer', but when we returned later in the week I thought the opposite. Such is life with cask beer. There was good food here too, and one night Lisa reckoned the guy behind the bar had been on telly with noted mountaineering expert Julia Bradbury, and I thought the guy he was chatting to sounded like the bloke off Gardeners' Question Time. 

The other pubs in the village weren't as good. The Screes was a Robinson's pub and I'm not very fond of their beers, particularly when they're on the turn, and the hotel bar was very plush but only had something dull by Yate's on. 

The Wasdale Head Inn at the other end of the valley was our other main haunt. Funny how all the routes off the mountains seemed to lead to its door. It was once home to the Great Gable brewery but that's now gone elsewhere, along with the beers. Some of the replacements were Grasmore Dark Ale and Loweswater Gold, favourites of ours from Cumbrian Legends, so we managed to wash away our disappointment.  

By extending our stay by a day at the climbing hut at Brackenclose we were able to stick around for the Wasdale Head Shepherds meet and Show.

There was a fell race a mate of ours was entering, and that was only one of the many attractions. There were lots of sheep too obviously, and some goats, but by that point I think we'd experienced enough of them, and you could cut the air with a knife the tension was so great during the walking stick judging. 

Once our mate was safely down it was back to the Wasdale Head Inn. The barman from the Strands and his mate were there, and I found out that the guy who sounded like the bloke off Gardeners Question Time was in fact Eric Robson,  the presenter of Gardeners Question Time and president of the Wainwright society. Which is interesting in that I could recognise his voice heard briefly in a pub, but slightly embarrassing as my friend knew who he was immediately. At least I know who Julia Bradbury is!

 

Liver damage in the lakes

Me and the lovely Lisa had a fortnight's holiday in the lake district recently. We spent a week in Great Langdale and a week in Loweswater with our mate Paul. There was lots of trudging around in the sodding mist and lots of beer drunk.


Trudging around in the sodding mist

Highlights of the beer drinking included:

• The Three Shires in Little Langdale. Lisa is now mulling over whether to add Coniston Old Man to her Desert Island Beer list. It's a rich copper fruity beer.
• Tweedies Bar in Grasmere. Crap name but good bar, it had an excellent range of beers and friendly staff.
• Walking over from Great Langdale to the Wasdale Head Inn, a pub with its own brewery. The lovely Lisa like the Wasd'ale best and after five hours of trudging had several pints. I tried a few ranging from some god awful pale rauchbier (Smokey Joe's?) to the excellent strong mild Yewbarrow. 

In the Wasdale Head Inn

Mostly though we went to the Kirkstile Inn in Loweswater, as it's an excellent pub and the lovely Lisa had managed to find us accommodation within spitting distance of it. Sadly the brewery has gone from the pub as they bought another brewery in Hawkshead and now brew from there. Even more sadly for me my previous favourite from here, Loweswater Pale Ale (LPA), wasn't on for most of the week. The replacements weren't all bad though: Langdale at 4% was a cracking pale beer with good citrussy hop taste, Loweswater Gold at 4.3% went down very nicely but was a bit too thin in the body and Grasmore at 4.3% was a good dark beer to re-balance me when I'd had enough of drinking golden ales. Fortunately the LPA was back on towards the end of the week so I didn't miss out, it's rare I go for beers this weak (3.6%) but it's got loads of flavour packed into it despite its modest strength. 


Paul and the lovely Lisa at the Kirkstile Inn

And it wasn't always trudging around in the sodding mist on the hills. We had some sunny days with fantastic views too.


Crummock water from Melbreak

I was even in shorts and a T shirt at one point. Stripped off in the sun, did I get a tan? No, all I got was a tick attached to my leg.