Tomorrow (Saturday), I’m off across the border into Sussex,
for the Winter Ales Festival at the Cooper’s Arms, Crowborough. I’ve written
about this excellent pub on several previous occasions, and I have also been to
the Winter Ales Fest before. Unfortunately I missed it last year, due to family
reasons, but I can report that the year before’s event was really good.
There will be a party of local West Kent CAMRA members
travelling over to Crowborough by bus, and we’ll be meeting up with members
from neighbouring Sussex
and Surrey branches. Two years ago, these other members
arrived by vintage bus, but whether this is the plan this year, remains to be
seen.
So far as I can make out, there will be 11 cask ales on sale
at the Cooper’s; most, but not all, strong and dark. Gun Brewery (a new one on
me), Redemption and Pig & Porter are all supplying two beers each; with the
rest coming from Crouch Vale, Dark Star, Fuller’s (cask Golden Pride, no
less!), Gadds and Moor Brewery.
It promises to be an interesting day, and I will be
publishing a full report in the fullness of time.
2 comments:
Dark beers seem to be making quite a comeback, even in the craft beer bars.
Was impressed with Coopers; Crowborough an attractive small town.
Dark beers are definitely becoming more popular Martin, although there were a couple of refreshing pale beers on sale at the Cooper’s yesterday.More about that later on.
Crowborough is often overlooked but despite its high elevation, and the attendant problems this brings in winter, is a pleasant and attractive town. It eclipsed the older, nearby settlement of Rotherfield during the later half of the 19th Century; its growth helped by the arrival of the railway in 1868.
Its most famous, former resident is Sherlock Holmes creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who spent the last 23 years of his life living in the town. There is a statue of him at Crowborough Cross, opposite the town’s latest acquisition a JDW outlet - called, somewhat unimaginatively the Crowborough Cross!
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