It's my great aunt who we'll be saying goodbye to tomorrow. She was in her late nineties and managed to stay in her own home until just before the end.
Funerals, however sad, do allow the opportunity for catching up with family members, and this one will allow me to reconnect with the Welsh side of the family.
Despite previous issues, we're staying at a Premier Inn again. The Llanelli East hotel is a short drive from the crematorium, and with my sister traveling down from Nottingham tomorrow, it's a handy place for us to meet up.
After a four and a half hour drive from Kent, we thought we'd stay local this evening, so it was off to the adjacent Beefeater for a bite to eat and something to drink.
Now the beer offering in these places is usually pretty dire. I ended up drinking Erdinger Weissbier at the Beefeater nearest our hotel in Dundee last month, so the sight of a hand pump with a Brain's SA clip was one to gladden the heart of a drinker resigned to pints of insipid Doom Bar.
We sat down, scanned the menu and ordered some drinks. My pint of Brains came topped with a thick creamy head. The first taste confirmed its excellence, and boy what a cracking pint it was!It was a definite 3.5 NBSS, and I even contemplated awarding it a 4! Of course I had to have another, and it was equally good.
So full marks to the Pemberton Beefeater, for going with something relatively local, rather than playing it safe by going with a national bland.
Footnote: I re-jigged the layout of this post, when I arrive home. What looks OK on the small-screen, doesn't always transfer across so well to the large one.We called in at the Beefeater the following evening, with my sister. This was after leaving my aunt's wake. The local club, where the wake was held, had put on a good spread, but as my sister is denying herself all animal related products, there wasn't much that she could eat.
We decided to grab a couple of bowls of chips, even though Eileen and I weren't all that hungry.
More importantly, there was the chance of another pint of Brains. It wasn't quite as good as the previous evening, but was still eminently drinkable. The Pemberton Beefeater did drop slightly in Mrs PBT's estimation as it refused to accept her fifty pound note - company policy, apparently.
She was still fuming about it the following day!
4 comments:
Hope today went well.
Premier Inn a sensible choice in the main, you can turn up late, always clean, somewhere to eat etc.
I'm pleased the Brains is good. Plenty of turnover and limited beer choice a good thing in that sort of place. We had good beer in Barnsley last year.
Thanks, Martin. It was a nice send-off yesterday for my aunt, who at just a few days short of 97, had a good innings.
The Llanelli East Premier ticked all the right boxes, and was convenient too for my sister who had traveled down from Nottingham.
The Brains had dropped a point last night, but was still perfectly drinkable. Definitely a beer that is improved by being pulled through a sparkler. 🙂
For once I'll agree on the sparkler!
I used to travel to Cardiff regularly in mid 90s, Brains was one of the first real ales I drank.
Despite Cardiff booming, i'll bet it's selling a third of the volumes it was 25 years ago, with consequent drop off in quality.
I'm not a huge sparkler fan either Martin, and once nearly fell out with Tandleman by claiming that they ruined beer.
In a few instances they can enhance a pint, especially where it's a beer designed to be pulled through such a device. Brains is definitely one of those beers.
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