Saturday's Pub of the Year Tour

The West Kent Pub of the Year Tour took place last Saturday. Unlike previous years when we've suffered anything from broken down mini-buses, to adverse weather conditions, this year's trip went remarkably smoothly. Eleven members turned up, including some old faces we hadn't seen for a while, plus a very welcome guest from Croydon and Sutton branch. The weather was dry and sunny when we set off, and this helped set the scene for an excellent day's pub visiting and beer sampling.

Six pubs in total were visited, starting at the Dovecote Inn at Capel where the licensee was presented with a certificate to mark his 10 years in the Good Beer Guide. Being the first port of call I sensibly stuck to the lower gravity Black Sheep Bitter, which at 3.8% was a good beer to start with. All the cask beers at the Dovecote are dispensed by gravity, by means of taps which stick through a false wall. This allows the casks to be stillaged in a temperature controlled room behind the bar, a system that was developed by former licensee. Richard Allen, who has adopted the same system for use at his current pub - the Halfway House at Brenchley.

The latter was to be our third port of call, but en route we stopped at the Hopbine, in the small hamlet of Petteridge. For a long time this was the only King & Barnes tied house in Kent, but since K & B's sad demise back in 2000, it now belongs to Hall & Woodhouse and sells Badger beers. Landlord Mike Winser has been at the pub since the mid 1980's and is due to celebrate 25 continuous years in the Good Beer Guide - something of a record for West Kent CAMRA. As well as enjoying some excellent Badger beer, most of us partook of some more solid refreshment; my home-made steak and kidney pie, with chips, vegetables and gravy was particularly good.

From the Hopbine it was a short run down to the aforementioned Halfway House. Since taking over this ex-Whitbread pub, Richard has carried out extensive alterations and has moved the serving area into the former adjoining restaurant. This has allowed him to adopt the same arrangement for the gravity dispense of the beer that he had at the Dovecote, only this time with even more beers available. There were 11 cask beers on tap when we called in, including a mild, and old ale, and several different bitters ranging in strength from 3.8% up to 5.2%. All the beers were either from micro-breweries or established independents, with a good hand full of local names such as Goachers, Kings, Rother Valley and Westerham making up the range. Between us we must have sampled most of them, and what's more they were all in good nick. Richards' prices are also very reasonable, and on the whole reflect the price charged to him by the breweries concerned. For example, the excellent Skinners Best Bitter, which was my first pint was only £2.20. Contrast that with the Harveys Sussex Best, which although a good beer, and also probably the most widely available real ale in the region, Richard is having to sell it for £3.00 a pint, due to its higher wholesale cost. The Halway House also runs its own beer festivals; one taking place over the late May Bank Holiday, with the other being held over the August Bank Holiday weekend.

From the country we headed off to town; into the centre of Tunbridge Wells to be precise. Here we stopped at the Royal Oak, an up and coming free-house which has been given a new lease of life by its keen and very enthusiastic new owners. Dark Star Hophead was the star attraction on this visit, so far as I was concerned, but previous visits have seen the superb Larkins Porter available. As well as Dark Star, there was a beer from Wychwood brewed to mark the Six Nations Rugby competition being played out on the nation's TV screens. The pub's menu looked inviting as well, and seemed particularly good value for money. Had I not eaten earlier, I would certainly have partaken of the food on sale in the Oak.

It was a long drive to the fifth pub on our itinerary, namely the Rose and Crown. I have written before about this excellent, unspoilt, two-bar village local, which nestles high up on the North Downs, just inside the M25 ring. Tripple fff Moondance was my choice here, but the Moorhouse Black Cat mild also slipped down well. Bob, the landlord, had laid on some sausage rolls and sandwiches for us. This was a nice touch, as despite having eaten at lunchtime, it was now getting well on into the evening and many of us were starting to get a bit peckish again. A few members adjourned to the public bar in order to watch the England v. Wales rugby match, but most of us stayed in the quieter saloon, enjoying the beer, the company and, of course, the complimentary food.

We departed the Rose and Crown and headed down into Sevenoaks to the Anchor, which was to be our last pub of the evening. Although unassuming from the outside, licensee Barry Dennis has created a thriving and well run town centre pub where both regulars and casual visitors can be assured of a warm welcome. People like Barry are something of a rarity in this day and age. He comes from a family with a long tradition of running pubs, and has been at the helm of the Anchor for 30 years. Whilst such achievements were not that uncommon when Barry first entered the trade, these days pubs seem to change their licensee every few years, with people not prepared to "stick at it" anymore. Whilst some of this is undoubtedly due to the many changes undergone by the licensed trade in recent years, there does seem to be a misconception in certain quarters that the pub trade is "easy money", and a way of quickly getting rich . The short of it is that many new entrants to the trade go in with their eyes closed, impervious to the sheer hard work involved in running a pub, and soon end up disillusioned, and often broke as well.

The Anchor is different though, and we were soon enjoying the well-kept Harveys Sussex Best and Sharps Doom-Bar bitter. Yet more complimentary food was placed in front of us; this time sandwiches plus a selection of Indian snacks. Now I don't want people to get the wrong idea and assume that certain landlords were trying to buy votes, as nothing could be further from the truth. The fact is the food was most welcome at this late stage in the evening and helped to soak up some of the excess beer we had all consumed.

So ended a most enjoyable day out. All the pubs surveyed were of the highest standard and when it came to totting up the scores (based on CAMRA's standard criteria for pub of the year awards), there were not many marks separating them all. Unfortunately although I know which pub won, I am not at liberty to reveal it at the moment, as it has not been made public knowledge yet. You will all therefore have to watch this space for further details!

Pub of the Year Tour

This coming Saturday sees me and some of my fellow CAMRA members from West Kent Branch embarking on our annual Pub of the Year Tour. Now CAMRA, like a great many other organisations, seems to thrive on acronyms; hence Pub Of The Year gets shortened to POTY. I particularly despise this abbreviation, to me it's only one step up the evolutionary scale from Baldric (a.k.a. Tony Robinson) waffling on about "Geophys" on "Time Team" - the word is Geophysics man! I've lost count of the number of times I've wanted to throw something at the television when this whining, extremely irritating little man ruins what should and could be a very interesting and enjoyable programme - but I digress.

For better or worse, our Pub of the Year Tour kicks off just before midday, and those members who have booked a place will be whisked by minibus around the highways and byways of West Kent visiting the finest hostelries the area has to offer.

Actually we're confining our trip to six pre-selected pubs, carefully chosen at last month's Good Beer Guide selection meeting. A few years ago we ended up with eight nominations, and had to run two separate trips. This led to all sorts of problems, especially with the scoring, as some people were unable to attend both trips. It was unanimously decided after that to restrict the number to six - even if it meant taking a vote on the nominations. Six pubs are just about do-able over the course of a Saturday afternoon, especially as the branch covers quite a large area of West Kent.

All six pubs are automatic guide entries, and several are either past winners or runners up. The list does change slightly from year to year, otherwise things would get a bit boring, and this year we are doing the circuit in reverse. This is a good idea, as in spite of all good intentions, by the end of the trip (i.e. by the time we have reached the final pub), people's judgement does become just a little clouded by the amount of alcohol consumed over the course of the day!

Attendees are given a score sheet and are asked to mark each pub according to CAMRA's standard scoring criteria. As well as beer quality, several other areas come into play, including involvement with the local community, attitude of the bar-staff, plus of course that all-important, but hard to define quality we refer to as "atmosphere".

We will linger in one of the pubs for lunch, but the whole trip will hopefully be a relaxed affair. I can think of few better things to be doing on a dreary Saturday in mid-February, and am really looking forward to it.

Good Beer Guide Selection Meeting

It's been a while since I last posted anything, so I thought I'd better update my small, but loyal band of readers about what's been happening in this corner of Kent.

Members of West Kent CAMRA held their Good Beer Guide selection meeting the wekend before last. We normally hold these meetings on a Sunday lunchtime, with the business starting at 2pm. This gives those members wishing to partake of a spot of lunch prior to the meeting, the oportunity to do so. This formula has always worked well in the past, and usually ensures a reasonable turn-out. Unlike some branches, nominations for the new GBG are asked for prior to the branch AGM, which takes place in November. All nominations received are then surveyed prior to the January selection meeting. This means that when it comes to actually deciding entries for the forthcoming guide, the branch are in a good position to sort the wheat from the chaff - having completed survey forms to hand, plus the recommendations, or otherwise, of the person (or persons) who actually carried out the suvey.

This years selection meeting took place on neutral territory, just over the Sussex border, at the Brecnock Arms, Bells Yew Green. This excellent Harveys pub is about five minuts walk from Frant station, which itself is just one stop away from Tunbridge Wells on the Hastings line. Regular readers will remember a previous blog of mine where we were thwarted in our efforts to hold a social at the Brecknock due to over-running building work. This time I am pleased to report that the pub was well and truly open for business.

The alterations carried out to the Brecknock involved moving the bar-counter back into the rear saloon bar, a part of the pub that was rarely used, and knocking through the dividing wall between the bars. Normally I am not in favour of knocking bars through, but in this case there are still two separate drinking areas and the limited space in the pub has been much better utilised.

Roughly half of us took the lunch option, and my steak and ale pie, accompanied by roast potatoes, vegetables and gravy was most excellent. Also excellent was the Harveys Old to wash it down, It was just a little unfortunate that halfway though the afternoon it ran out, having been the choice of most of the attendees at the meeting.

The selection process went remarkably smoothly; in fact I was slightly disappointed there were no arguments or any real bones of contention. We filled our allotted quota of pubs, and aso selected a couple of reserves, should space allow. It was particulaly good that on a wet and dismal Sunday afternoon, we managed an attendance which ran into double figures. What was also good was the throng of happy drinkers, as well as diners, packing the Brecknock on what was its first Sunday lunchtime since re-opening. Full marks therefore go to Joe and his missus (whose name escapes me at the moment), for continuing to run an excellent village local which remains at the heart of the local community, and also to Harveys for the sympathetic way in which they have extended this much-loved pub.

The Wheatsheaf at Marsh Green

It's that time of year, as despite the 2009 Good Beer Guide only hitting the shops in the run up to Christmas, it's already time to start the selection process for the 2010 edition. In common with those members who bothered to turn up to the branch AGM, back in November, I was given a handful of pubs to survey. (Nominations for the Guide were taken at the AGM).

As is usually my wont, I put the forms to one side thinking that there was plenty of time to do the inspections. I did a couple just before Christmas, but still had one to go, and with the final selection meeting due to be held next weekend I decided I had better get my skates on. The outstanding pub was the Wheatsheaf at Marsh Green near Edenbridge, a long-standing guide entry, and a place renowned for the quality and range of its beer. Having decided to visit it on Saturday, the next question was how to get there.

It would have been easy just to have jumped in the car and driven there, but that kind of defeats the object. I wanted to sample more than one of the beers, and besides for mid-January, Saturday wasn't too bad weatherwise. I decided therefore to take the train from Edenbridge and then walk the three or so miles to Marsh Green. A look at the map showed I could cut across the fields, and as I had recently purchased a new pair of walking boots this seemed the ideal opportunity to try them out. I duly arrived in Edenbridge just after 12.30 and followed the long straight road down into the town. I hadn't realised before just what a pleasant little town Edenbridge is. One tends to miss so much by driving through a place, and it is only when one is on foot that the true charm (or otherwise) of a location is revealed. Edenbridge does suffer from a somewhat poor image, due largely to the London overspill estates built there during the 1970's, but I was quite impressed with the wealth of characterful old buildings and independent shops that I passed.

I branched off across country from the main road, the idea being to cut off a corner, and avoid a particularly busy main road, which drivers seem to regard as a race track! All went well and I was thoroughly enjoying being out in the country, until the path reached a gate which displayed a sign warning walkers that there was a bull in the field. Now I don't mind cows, and I have walked through fields of bullocks on several occaisions, but a fully-grown adult bull was a different proposition. I decided to deviate round the field, but then had trouble trying to re-locate the path. I managed this more by luck than judgement and eventaully arrived in the small hamlet of Marsh Green pondering the rights of walkers to pass unhindered versus those of landowners to use their land as they see fit. I decided I would definitely contact Kent County Council on Monday, as they are the body rsponsible for the maintenance of footpaths and public rights of way to see what their views are. Hopefully the landowner will be told to keep his bull elsewhere and not on a public footpath!

The slight detour had sharpened my thirst, but on entereing the pub I discovered that a shooting party had arrived a few minutes before and were busy ordering drinks and food. The wait gave me time to reflect on just what an excellent pub the Wheatsheaf is. It is divided up into four different areas, all with bare wooden floors. Open log fires provide the heating, and whilst television and games are present in one of the rooms, they are mercifully absent from the other three.

My first beer was Hogs Back TEA, always a fine beer and especially so here. Whilst enjoying my well-earned piny, Neil the landlord took time out from serving his many customers to pop over for a quick chat and to go through the inspection form with me. This was a nice gesture, as I don't go int the pub all that often (I would if I lived nearer, but unfortunately I don't). Like many rural pubs he said he was feeling the pinch; the smoking ban had not helped matters, but then neither had the Chancellor! Being a freehouse though he is in a better position than many pub landlords and, given what the pub has to offer, I'm sure he'll be ok. With five well-kept beers on sale, together with a range of good, reasonably priced home-cooked food to help satisfy the inner man, Neil is much more than halfway there when it comes to making a success of things. In addition, the Wheatsheaf really is the heart of the small community it serves and amongst other things holds an annual beer festival to coincide with the village fete. It has been voted West Kent CAMRA pub of the year on at least one occaision, and was also runner-up in the regional contest.

To return to the beer, Whitstable Native was the other beer that took my fancy, although at 3.7% abv it tasted slightly weak after the Hogs Back. Also on sale were Harveys Best and Harveys Mild. Neil told me that the brewery supply the latter in 4.5 gallon pins, in order to ensure a quick turnover.

I finished my visit with another pint of TEA; the pub was getting ready to cater for another party of shooters as I left. I decided to risk the walk back into Edenbridge along the road, rather than get lost trying to avoid several hundred pounds of angry beef. I just had time for a quick look round the impressive parish church before catching the train back toTonbridge after what had been a msot enjoyable afternoon out.

Tunbridge Wells -Wednesday 14th January

After spending most of Saturday in Tunbridge Wells, I ended up returning there for a few drinks on Wednesday night. It was a CAMRA social evening and we were supposed to be going to the Brecknock Arms, at Bells Yew Green - just across the border into Sussex.

For those not in the know, the Brecknock is owned by Harveys of Lewes, who are not only one of my favourite breweries, but also brew some fantastic beers as well. The majority of their pubs are unspoilt, with many retaining a traditional public bar. The Brecknock is no exception, and as an added bonus is easy to get to by train. We were therefore all looking forward to an evening there, especially as they would have Harveys superb Old Ale on sale. Unfortunately the pub closed temporarily just after New Year, to allow some sensitive rennovation work to take place, but as is the tendency with building work, the project had over-run by several days. We didn't know about the building work at the time the social was first organised, but fortunately our membership secretary found out prior to our scheduled visit, and thanks to e-mail was able to alert members that the pub would not be open.

A walk round some of the pubs of Tunbridge Wells was put forward as an alternative - hence my second trip around a few of the town's hostelries in less than a week. The majority of the members started off in the peculiarly-named Ragged Trousers, a pleasant, but rather non-descript bar situated in the famous Pantiles area of the town. From what I later learnt I am somewhat glad that myself and a friend missed out on this establishment due to us bnoarding the wrong train! (Apparently the beer quality wasn't all it could be.)

We met up with the rest of our colleagues at the nearby Duke of York, a cosy corner pub, also in the Pantiles area, which was selling Bombardier, GK Abbot plus Harveys Best. Most of us stuck to the latter, which was in fine form. I am glad to report that the Duke of York has reverted to its original name after a spell as "Chaplins". As far as I know, the director and silent film star had no connection with either the pub or the town, so like many locals I was particularly pleased when this in-appropriate name was dropped. The other nice thing about the DoY was that there was no noisy and obtrusive music to disturb our conversation. Definitely a pub to go back to!

From the DoY we made our way up to the Grove, a fine old locals' pub, situated in the "village" area of Tunbridge Wells. Although they had a seasonal beer from Everards on offer ("Sleighbells"), most of us stuck to the Timothy Taylor's Landlord, which was excellent. The beer was so good in fact that we ended up spending what remained of the evening in the Grove.

Whilst it would have been nice to have sampled some Harveys Old, we all had a very enjoyable evening. I shall look forward to visiting the Brecknock on another occaision to see what changes have been made, and also to see what seasonal ales are on offer.

Tunbridge Wells - Saturday 10th January

It's been a week or so since I last posted anything on this site, although during this time I've been quite active posting comments on other peoples' blogs. Since my last posting I've survived my first week back at work - it was quite nice to get back and actually do something, as although I've got several projects lined up at home, it's not really the best time of year to be starting them. I've also survived the cold weather - I say survived but that's a bit harsh really as I much prefer bright, crisp but cold days to gloomy wet and windy ones, however mild the latter may be.

On Saturday I attended the Kent CAMRA Regional Meeting, which took place in the grandiose surroundings of Tunbridge Wells Constitutional Club. This venue was recently voted Kent Club of the Year by local branches of CAMRA, and at a pre-arranged break in the proceedings, a photographer from the local paper duly came along to take the obligatory photo's of the club steward being presented with his certificate. The attendance at the meeting was reasonable despite the extreme cold, and four cask ales were available for us to sample. I confined my sampling to just two of these (Old Hookey plus Ringwood Fortyniner), but they were both good, and to help soak up some of the beer, we were provided with a buffet lunch.

Now it's several years since I last attended one of these meetings, having decided after the last one that life's too short. As my local branch were acting as hosts though it semed rather churlish of me not to to show my face, and besides I wanted to see what the Constitutional Club was like for myself. As well as representatives from our own branch there were a number of familiar faces in attendance, but one thought struck me more than any other - namely, none of us are getting any younger. This thought was made more poignant by the absence of one regular attendee who is in hospital recovering from a heart attack. More than ever CAMRA needs an influx of new blood. Membership levels may well be approaching the 100,000 mark, but we desparately need some younger faces in order to carry on the campaign.

On a lighter note, the meeting finished remarkably early - thanks largley to our own branch chairman Ian who, in his capacity as Area Organiser for the western half of the county ably chaired the meeting, and kept discussions properly on track. Half a dozen or so of us embarked on a mini-pub crawl of Tunbridge Wells afterwards. The first port of call was the up and coming Royal Oak, where we enjoyed some excellent Larkins Porter.

From here we walked straight through the town centre up to Sankeys http://www.sankeys.co.uk/, on Mount Ephraim. This is a wonderfully idiosyncratic establishment which as well as selling two well-kept cask ales from Harveys and Goachers, also offers the best selection of draught continental beers in this part of Kent. Amongst the offerings are Hacker-Pschorr Helles and Erdinger Weiss Bier from Germany, Lieffmans Kriek and Fruhli Strawberry Beer from Belgium and Lindeboom from Holland. The walls and ceilings are festooned with what must be one of the most comprehensive collections of enamelled metal advertising signs in existence, most of which relate to long lost, but not forgotten local breweries. If you are ever in Tunbridge Wells, do give this place a try.

From Sankeys, my companions had one last port of call - the unspoilt Grove tavern, tucked away in the" village area" of Tunbridge Wells. I stayed for one last pint in Sankeys though before making my way down to the station through the cold and frosty streets, where I caught the train home after a good day out.

New Year's Day

Unlike past New Year's Eve's I not consumed a lot of drink, and had also gone to bed at a reasonable hour. The result was that I felt pretty much ok the following day, so it seemed a good idea to take a drive out to the countryside in this unspoilt corner of Kent and visit a few local pubs. My son was at work, and my wife and sister had decided to hit the shops, so this left just me, plus my brother-in-law Ernie, and 14 year old nephew Jack as we set off to sample some of Kent's finest.

Our first port of call was the Spotted Dog at Smart's Hill near Penshurst. Although a bit of an eaterie drinkers are still made to feel welcome, and with beers from Larkins, plus low beams and warming log fires, what better place to take my American guests. My nephew couldn't believe people lived in such a small and isolated place with just a few cottages, a chapel (now converted to residential use) and the pub. Another thing I like about the Spotted Dog is that it has it's own Farm Shop attached. This stocks all manner of local produce and is a good example of a pub showing both enterprise plus support for the local community.

The beers were good too, with both Traditional and Porter on offer from Larkins, plus a beer from Cornish Brewers - Sharps, whose name unfortunately escapes me. As I was driving I stuck to halves, but from the Spotted Dog we set off for what is one of my favourite pubs, passing en route another excellent hostelry - the Bottle House, also at Smart's Hill.

The pub in question was the totally unspoilt Rock Inn at Chiddingstone Hoath, which if anything is even more isolated than the Spotted Dog. The Rock belongs to the local Larkins Brewery and is their only tied pub. With its floors of well-worn, bare-brick, low-beamed ceilings and log-burning stove ablaze in the large fireplace it too was another place to impress the visitors. My brother-in-law is particularly fond of dark beers, so the Larkins Porter did not disappoint. We bumped into an old friend of mine there as well, and this coupled with one or two other local "characters" made quite an impression on my nephew Jack.

Our last port of call was to have been the equally unspoilt Castle Inn situated in Chiddingstone village. Several of the old houses in Chiddingstone, including the pub itself, are owned by the National Trust and whilst the Castle is undoubtedly expensive it is a fine example of a village inn that still serves its original purpose of providing good food and drink, plus a friendly welcome as it has done for the best part of 300 years.

In the end though we didn't go in, as my nephew was by now getting rather hungry. Car parking spaces also appeared to be somewhat limited, so with a bit of reluctance I turned the car round and headed for home. It was an excellent day out though and for my visitors a good taster of some of our finest local pubs.