Tonbridge Crawl

A couple of weeks ago we had one of the best turnouts for a mid-week CAMRA social that most of us can remember. The event was a tour of a few selected Tonbridge pubs; pubs we perhaps might not normally go to. We kicked off at the Ivy House at the top end of the High Street. This 350 year old inn re-opened earlier last year after an extensive refurbishment. It is now somewhat of a foodie’s pub, with links to Michelin Star Chef, John Burton-Race. It certainly wasn’t packed out with diners on a damp Wednesday evening, and only had Harvey's Best on sale. The barman though, must have been pleasantly surprised at the amount of beer he sold in a short space of time. Seventeen of us amounted to over two gallons of ale! I must say that the Harvey's was in good condition, although a tad expensive at £3.20 a pint!

We then moved on to the Wharf, in Lyons Crescent. This converted former wharf building has been through several changes since it first opened as a Beefeater Restaurant back in the mid-1980’s. I have fond memories of its time as a Hogshead Alehouse, when it offered a wide range of real ales direct from casks kept behind the bar. In more recent times it had stopped selling cask beer, changed its name to the Wharf and become something of a young persons haunt. Now it is good to see the Wharf back in the real-ale camp.

That night, there were two cask ales on offer; Adnams Old and London Pride. There was some doubt that the former was Old Ale, as it certainly wasn’t the dark colour this style of beer should have been. The London Pride was quite drinkable though, and just before we left the bar staff put on a third ale – Black Sheep Best. The pub didn’t seem to have changed all that much since its Hogshead days and is definitely a place worth keeping an eye on.

Our third port of call was Mojo’s, at the back of the station. Again this is a pub that has a couple of name changes. For many years it was called the South Eastern, but in more recent times it was known as the Station House and unfortunately acquired a bit of a bad reputation. Now a recent refurbishment and change of name has given the pub a new lease of life. Decorated in a modern, minimalist style, Mojo’s was selling Harvey’s Best alongside Sharp’s Doom Bar on the night of our visit.

Time was getting on so we moved on to the last pub of the evening, the Punch & Judy in St Stephen’s Street. This is yet another pub that has seen several changes of name, being formerly known as the Gardener’s Arms. The Punch hit the headlines just over a year ago, when the then landlord, Mr Colm Powell, went on hunger strike in protest at the high rent being charged by the owning pub-company. He was pictured in several national newspapers lying in a coffin, symbolising the "Death of the English Pub". Since Colm's departure there has been a succession of landlords. When we called in, Young’s Bitter and the ubiquitous Doom Bar were the ales on offer, but unfortunately the former was way past its best and had to be returned. It was replaced, without question by mine host, and several of us got stuck into the Doom Bar whilst a fresh cask of Young’s was brought into service.

So ended a most enjoyable and highly successful tour of Tonbridge, during which we were pleasantly surprised by what these four pubs had to offer.

CAMRA Good Beer Guide 2011

I’ve been somewhat tied up this past couple of days. We’ve got our branch Good Beer Guide selection meeting coming up this weekend, and I’ve been kept busy filling out a load of boring Survey Forms. The joke of it is that these forms haven’t changed much since the early days of CAMRA, and were primarily designed for old-fashioned typesetters.

We all know that the world of printing has moved on since then, but these antiquated forms are laid out in a series of blocks. Entries for each section have to be made within the relevant squares using BLOCK CAPITALS. One is not supposed to break words at the end of a line – very frustrating when you have a word that is just one letter too long to fit at the end of a line! In short, the forms are a proverbial pain in the butt!

The even bigger joke though is that these forms are not now the final format in which the data is submitted to the guide editors. Instead some poor sod (our Branch Chairman and his wife) will have to sit down at a keyboard and input all this data onto the National Online GBG Submissions System. In short local branch members are doing the bulk of the Good Beer Guide editors work for them. So what exactly is Herr Protz being paid for?

Why also have I wasted the last couple of evenings writing out pub descriptions and beer lists in BLOCK CAPITALS, a form of writing I haven’t used since primary school? Come on CAMRA get a grip, stop taking the piiss and stop taking your hard-working members for granted!

Dark at Last!

At long last I have managed to track down a drop of the dark stuff, in fact I managed it two days on the trot! Friday lunchtime saw myself and a work colleague paying a flying visit to the recently re-opened Rock at Chiddingstone Hoath. The purpose of our visit was to inspect the pub ahead of next weekend's West Kent CAMRA Good Beer Guide 2011 selection meeting.

I have written about the Rock before. It is a fine example of an unspoilt rural alehouse, with low-beamed ceilings, a floor of bare and well-worn bricks and in winter a cosy log fire keeping the place warm. For many years it belonged to the local Larkins Brewery - just down the road in Chiddingstone village, but at the end of last October Larkin's owner Bob Dockerty, decided not to renew the lease on the pub and it reverted back to its original owners. After being closed for most of November, the pub re-opened the following month after an extensive re-fit. This involved replacing the rotten floorboards in the saloon bar, scrubbing the brick floor clean in the public bar, re-painting the ceilings, installing new toilets and, most recently, a new kitchen.

There is a very pleasant young couple running the pub now; those who remember the previous incumbent will breath a huge sigh of relief on that score. Larkins beers are still on sale, alongside Sharp's Doom Bar - a beer that seems to be everywhere at the moment. We were pleased to see Larkins Porter on sale, and can report that this 5.2% dark beer, full of rich roasted and bitter chocolate flavours, was in fine form.

Today, I nipped in to our local Wetherspoons in Tonbridge, and was pleased to see S.O.D (Shefford Old Dark) from B&T Brewery on sale. Like the porter the previous day it too was in excellent condition, and was just the ticket on a damp January afternoon.

Last night I enjoyed a bottle of Guinness Foreign Extra (I bought several last weekend at ASDA for just £1 each!). I had forgotten just how good this high strength version of Guinness could be. I won't have one tonight; I've got a bottle of Marstons Oyster Stout to enjoy instead. I've also got a couple of bottles of Innis & Gunn left over from Christmas to sample, including one that has been matured in a rum cask. Should be an interesting evening!

Bad Day at Black Rock

I know it's got nothing to do with beer, but this morning's news that American processed cheese manufacturers, Kraft have finally won their battle to buy Cadbury's must come as a blow, not only to all chocolate lovers, but to anyone who holds this much-loved, iconic British company in their affection.

To hear Cadbury's chairman declaring on the six o'clock news that the £12 billion deal will be good for shareholders just about sums up all that is wrong with British business today. His comment that the deal will be less good for Cadbury's employees, whilst brutally honest, just shows how the interests of shareholders (often large, faceless city institutions), seems to override those of both workers and consumers alike.

The whole affair has a sadly familiar ring to it, looking back to the takeover of Rowntrees, by Swiss giant Nestle, but at least Nestle had a background in chocolate and confectionery. All Kraft manufacture is plastic, processed American cheese, packed full of salt, artificial colours and other nasties. Just where Cadbury's fit into Kraft's scheme of things remains to be seen, but as is inevitable following any such takeover, the victor will seek to recuperate some of their costs by closing plants, slashing jobs and cutting back on investment.

Cadbury's R.I.P.

Burn's Night Celebrations at Wetherspoons

Popping into my local Wetherspons for a quick breakfast this morning, I noticed a promotion for Burn's Night. However, the company seem to have turned the occasion into "Burn's Week" as the celebration runs from 20th-25th January.

Now at the risk of upsetting my friends from north of the border, I have to say I am not a great fan of this particular poet, who's verses, to my mind at least, seem virtually un-intelligible. This aside, I am all for pubs trying to promote trade, and where this involves the celebration of a national hero, then so much the better. The promotion for "Burn's Week" is offering a traditional Burn's Night Supper dish of haggis, neeps and tatties, all for the princely sum of £3.99. This also includes a drink, and more importantly the company's outlets will be showcasing cask-ales from Scotland's craft brewers.

I therefore take my hat off to JDW, and will be heading down to my local "Spoons" to enjoy some of the above. (Just as long as I don't have to listen to any of the man's poetry!).

Puting a Price on Things

One thing I have noticed on my trips abroad, and something I have been meaning to comment on for some time now, is the practice of many restaurants and bars of displaying their prices on a notice or small display board outside the premises. This is an excellent idea especially when visiting a new country or strange city, as it gives an indication of the prices charged. This is particularly important with regard to food prices. I am not tight, but believe in value for money, and knowing the prices beforehand helps in the decision making process and can help save any embarrassment.

The question I have to ask then is why are there so few pubs and restaurants over here following this practice? Have they got something to hide or indeed to be ashamed of? or is it just not considered a "British" thing to do? There must be dozens of visitors to these shores totally puzzled by the lack of information displayed outside licensed premises here, and all asking the same question. How about it landlords and restaurateurs?

Closer to Home

Whilst there's something both highly satisfying and immensely enjoyable in flying off to foreign parts in order to sample different beers, sometimes it makes sense to pay a bit more attention to what is going on a bit closer to home.

Today, being the last day of the long Christmas break, I was determined not to waste it by sitting indoors. I was up quite early, we had taken the last of the Christmas decorations down, and now it was time to get out in the fresh air and enjoy a long walk in the countryside. My destination was the Hare & Hounds, in the small village of Bidborough, a pub which although virtually on my doorstep, was somewhere I hadn't been in a long time.

I set off following the scenic route up towards Bidborough Ridge. Although there was still frost on the ground in places, it was very pleasant being out in the bright January sunshine. I wasn't hurrying, and it took me an hour and a half to reach the pub, (I could have driven there in 15 minutes!). On the way I stopped to take in the spectacular views from the top of the ridge, right across the Medway Valley towards the Greensand Ridge.

The Hare & Hounds is a Victorian building on a cross-roads in the centre of Bidborough. Internally there are four separate drinking/eating areas ranging from a basic public bar (complete with darts and pool), a saloon with comfortable sofas, a large main bar with tables for bar food, plus a restaurant to the rear. There were four cask beers on sale: Harveys Best, Youngs Bitter, Sharps Doom Bar (a beer that seems to spring up everywhere round here!), and my choice of the day O'Hanlon's Firefly. This was a cracking beer; at just 3.7% it proved the perfect session bitter. I sat in the corner, close to the fire pleased to see that this particular village pub was thriving with a good mix of different customers.

After a couple of pints it was time to leave. I chose a different route back, following the Weald Way footpath down off the ridge. I was keen to follow this route as this is the next long-distance footpath that my friend Eric and I are planning to walk later in the year. The path was quite muddy in places, and I was glad to get back onto more solid ground.

I popped into our local Wetherspoons when I got back to Tonbridge. The pump clip for the Thornbridge Pioneer said "Available Soon" (how many times does that happen in JDW?), so I settled for a warming cup of coffee instead. After that it was time to meet my son from work and head for home for a most welcome dinner.