Bath and Bristol bimble - part 2 the new Bath guide continued

Day 2 of the Bath odyssey, and it was tipping it down, which was going to make standing outside watching the Tour Series cycling event a bit wet, and travelling between pubs in between a bit soggy too.

The Ale House
First stop of the day, there are quite a few pubs in the area of the Roman Baths, which obviously appeal mostly to tourists, The Ale House sits somewhat unassumingly on the corner of York Street near the Parade gardens. As it happens its a Grade II listed building, easy sometimes to forget with millennia of history around you even Victorian buildings are several hundred years of history. I stopped for a quick sandwich lunch and probably the best pint of Bath Gem I had all trip.

The Bath Brew House
Opened the summer of 2013, so a year after my last trip to Bath, and one of the City Pub Company pubs who are slowly creating a new chain of pubs across mainly London & Cambridge and Bristol (more of that later). One of the bars Id tried, and failed miserably as it had been so busy, the night before to get served in, a bit quieter on a soggy Saturday afternoon, and as the name suggests its also a micro brewery, as well as the obligatory gastro craft style restaurant. If anything the food side was doing better business than the bar at this time as the must have been 20-30plus people in the eating area which was full, and people were being turned away, note this was post lunchtime mid afternoon.

So its the place to go for deep fried stuff and fries it seems, though notable from my seat across from the bar very little  of the ale was being sold on the back of it, wine yes, lager mainly to the rugby fans, cider, even coffee, but not the beer, which seemed disappointing since some of it was brewed on site, and had been one of the things Id briefly noticed the night before.

a half of the Brewhouses own Emperor, average, and half of Faultline by Kettlesmith Brewing Company, better than average. Again a place that looked interesting on the menu side but for whatever reason I never ended up eating there.

The Trinity Inn
An Abbey Ales pub, one of 4 in Bath though as I was to discover all 4 are very different propositions. But so Id expected to find at least one Abbey Ale on, but only St Austell Tribute was visible. The pub itself is basically just a dedicated sports bar, the locals were avidly watching any screen showing more rugby, but with both tvs in corners of the pubs rooms and high up and, its one of those bars you walk in and wonder why everyone is wordlessly staring at the ceiling. I drank my half reasonably quickly and left.

The Lamb & Lion
Much like the Trinity Inn another sports bar focused pub, albeit for a much younger group, football was the sport of choice this time, and whilst the pub was alot lighter and had more pub atmosphere, the beer selection wasnt much better, another swift half followed, this time of Butcombe Bitter.


At this point I headed off to watch some of the cycling up around the Pulteney bridge area of the city, which was great except the heavens opened and needing some respite from the rain I tried to find the nearest pub. Now I hadnt realised the GBG listed Pulteney Arms was very close to where I had been, on the list for next time, and instead I made my way to...

The Rising Sun.
which is actually an Inn, in the old sense, in that it provides beer, food and somewhere to stay overnight, albeit with only 7 rooms, but it looked a very nice traditional but modern updated place to stay at a price not that much more than Id paid for a Holiday Inn Express and Id have had a decent breakfast chucked in too. I think if I went to stay in Bath again Id certainly look this place up. And the beer served with great care by the on duty manager, was pretty good.


Coeur De Lion
A quick run back to my own hotel to dry out and change before setting off back round Bath for the evening. The Coeur de Lion, Id been here before on my previous Bath trip, so knew what to expect. Its Baths smallest pub, and another of Abbey Ales pubs, its most striking feature being the stained glass windows that still refer to the since lost Devenish Brewery who used to own the pub and tried to close it in the 90's. Fortunately the locals campaigned against the closure and its worth revisiting on any visit. Abbey Ales - Bath Best, and an exceptionally good Abbey Ales Crafty Friar, showed this is still a good pub to call at.


The Pig & Fiddle
only a short distance in the grand scheme of things away the next stop was here. An odd mix of old shop frontage and courtyard back, with the bar somewhere in the middle surrounded by a table football table, and collection of memorabilia, with what felt like a very student vibe to the place, certainly I wasnt the oldest patron in residence, but I bumped the average age up considerably. Owned by Butcome Brewery, so not as surprising to find a Liberation Smugglers Ale on as Id first thought, and reportedly closed recently for refurbishment, thereby proving the point about how quickly pub reviews can date.

The Star Inn
Now the reason Id been heading northwards out of the city, a pub Id tried to visit on my previous visit but had found it closed at the time as it still very much runs to traditional pub opening hours during the week. GBG listed and another Abbey Ales pub completely different in style to the other two Id visited so far. Abbey Ales on offer of course, as well as Bass, but the "Star" if you like, is the Abbey Bellringer served by gravity into a jug and poured into your glass, a practice very few pubs use anymore.The art as the barman was explaining to his protege apprenticing behind the bar is knowing how far to fill the jug so the minimum amount of beer is wasted, which he proceeded to demonstrate on all 3 occasions near perfectly every time I ordered a pint, and no the jug wasnt lined as far as I could tell, and certainly the best cask ale Id had in Bath.

Assembly Inn
Time to head back and made my way to the 4th and final Abbey Ales pub, though confusingly owned by Greene King. Again another completely different style of pub, a two room pub with one dedicated to being part sports bar with pool tables, the other being more a gastro eating craft bar style room with only the actual bar providing connection between these seemingly disparate setups. On the gastro side I tried a reasonably average Azacca Gold by Milestone Brewing Co, on the sports bar side it was Greene Kings House Lager named after the pub, I didnt like the lager much at all.

The King of Wessex (Wetherspoon)
If anything just to get the Cask Marque checkin, your average Wetherspoon built next to a gym and cinema, selling average beer for not alot.


The Cork
Included in the Bath list except it was actually only somewhere I visited after my day trip to Bristol following the end of Bath day 2, but it makes more sense to include here for the map and link to Bath..

Now when Id walked past it on the other two days Id discounted it as sounding like the atypical Irish themed pub, which on the whole I avoid on my travels, as cask ale is rarely on their agenda, and it didnt look a whole lot different to the array of sports pubs in this area. But for whatever reason, it was half nine on a Sunday night and seemed to be one of the few places left open I hadnt already tried, so I went in and found its not an Irish themed pub at all. Actually its another City Pub co (same as the St James Brewhouse), and had a good selection of cask ale, infact they had one of the St James Brewhouse beers on Gladiator, which was good, I also had a Seven by Bristol Beer Factory, also good, and then a couple of craft American beers, Lagunitas IPA and Brooklyn Lager, in bottles and cans so also good for what they were.

all in all very good pub I was glad I went in, and enjoyed the pub quiz. Just shows sometimes appearances can be deceptive sometimes.

Bath and Bristol bimble - part 1 the new Bath guide

I dont often write pub reviews as on the whole I dont think "man walks in pub, has drink, kind of liked it" is a particularly interesting narrative style of writing, though thats generally the standard fare of review you get. They can also date pretty quickly given the pace of change in the beer/pub world can mean a pub that was outstanding on one visit is rapidly left behind even if it manages to maintains its standards, whilst others might change hands or close down become part of ever bigger pub groups.

But as Id last visited Bath & Bristol 5 years ago which had just been on the cusp of a wave of new breweries,pubs and bars opening, in some cases literally the week after Id left, I figured it would be interesting to see how things had changed, had the places Id been recommending to my friends as the best places to go since, still as good or had the new places supplanted them.

'the new Bath guide'

looking back to my last visit, which I remember most from being terribly excited to see the BBC filming some of Doctor Who, I got to see Richard E Grant stand on a street corner and that was about it, I was surprised how few pubs Id visited, admittedly visiting the Roman Baths had taken up most of the day (top tip leave plenty of time to do it and avoid weekends), but Id only managed to visit 4 pubs in total. The Salamander, one of Bath Ales pubs, the Raven an atypical CAMRA GBG stalwart, Coeur De Lion one of Abbey Ales pubs and the Old Green Tree, well it was in the GBG and is 300 years old. I do remember the Star Inn,which Id wanted to visit, had been closed as it was still operating very traditional opening times and I think at that point having walked around Bath alot that day Id had enough and got the train back to Bristol, thinking there were probably better food/drink options to be had there instead.

So would the old and the new match up.

Graze 

First up of the new bars was Graze which opened just under 5 years ago and is Bath ales biggest outlet, twice the size of any of its other pubs/bars, with its own microbrewery on site. Its a 1st floor bar/restaurant which actually puts it on the same level as the platforms on the train station, but the entrance is on ground level, and as the ground level which is part of Baths "food quarter" a number of other shiny restaurants/bar vie for the attention, certainly had I not known Graze was supposed to be there I could easily have missed it or walked in any of the other venues instead, obvious it isnt.

Once inside and up the flight of stairs,though there is a lift for accessibility, its clear the place with its central lozenge shaped bar area and the rest of the space set out for dining the focus is on food, though the balcony with views over the bus station,not the greatest of views, Id have preferred to watch the trains instead, does allow you to sup your beer feeling you arent intruding on people eating.

I went for the house special Platform 3 (the train station has only 2 platforms you see) though there was a good range of Bath Ales available, was slightly taken back by the price which was close to £5 for a pint, and went and sat on the balcony, which was pleasant enough given the hot sunny weather.

I had thought at the time I might pop back in over the weekend,either to try more of the beers or even the food, and I dont think necessarily a reflection on the place, but ultimately didnt find the time to.

The Royal Oak

After decamping to my hotel, I then headed to the GBG listed Royal Oak, local branch Bath and Borders City pub of the year 2017. A quick half of Butts brewery Barbus Barbus (its a fish),which was pleasant enough, the pub had a decent selection of micro brewery beers, though it was fairly quiet, I could have stayed longer, but needed to move on to find some food.

The Hop Pole

Another one of Bath Ales pubs in Bath, though Bath Ales were bought out by St Austell just under a year ago and Id have said their influence is already being felt, both Bath and St Austell beers were available on the bar, along with a "house ale" Hop Pole named after the pub, less gastro pub than Graze, but still gastro and very clearly tenanted. Annoyingly my beer ticking instincts overrode my beer common sense and I went for the house ale. This was a mistake because like Greene King "house ales", they are generally fairly nondescript beers to begin with, but suffer through poor turnover as none of the locals ever drink it, preferring the standard ranges instead and most visitors to gastro style pubs, plump for lager or wine, and notably despite spending just under an hour there, mine was the only pint of house ale they sold. Unsurprisingly it was a little lacking in life and was vaguely heading towards an accompanying condiment to my chips, served in the obligatory gastro pub bucket, and burger, which werent much to write home about either. As I say the influence of a much larger pub group in evidence.

Electric Bear Brewery Tap

the story, which maybe apocryphal, of how Bath Ales came to be based originally on a Bristol industrial estate tells how it was down to the fact the local Bath council wouldnt give them the permit to brew beer in Bath. Clearly such problems have been ironed out as the Electric Bear Brewery are based on a Bath industrial estate, as is their brewery tap.

Yes thats right, as one of the people who had arrived by car asked "is this really a real thing ?" among the car accident repair, builders merchants, plastics manufacturers is the Electric Bear Brewing Co, in a fairly big industrial unit warehouse, big enough for their brewery kit, some benches for sitting inside and a counter from which their beer is served. Outside in the "car park" more benches provide seating which on a balmy sunny evening was a perfectly pleasant way to try 4 of their beers, NZ Pale,
Mochachocolata Ya Ya!, Drop and Werrrd! though check their website for opening times as they arent conventional.

As the industrial estate is right next to the Bristol and Bath Railway path its accessible from Bristol and a group of cyclists had ridden up from Bristol area to try it, and its a very pleasant walk back into Bath alongside the river, though Id probably not recommend walking alone along their at night, but there are buses that run out that way.

The Raven

it was turning into a busy Friday night in Bath by the time Id walked back from the Electric Bear, and several of the bars Id wanted to try were packed. The Raven, still standing room only though, was the first I could get remotely near the bar to get served. It was also the first pub Id revisited from my trip of 5 years previous and first impressions it was still a CAMRA GBG stalwart, both beers I had, Raven, the house ale but one worth trying by Blindmans Brewery Ltd, and Foresters Black by Dawkins Ales which had almost whiskey smoked barrel overtones were great beers, in fact one of the regulars at the bar Im sure I recognised from last time. Always worth remembering, though Id forgotten again, there is a bar upstairs which serves the same beers but maybe quieter.

The Salamander

another revisit pub, again nominally a Bath Ales pub, usual Bath range plus a St Austell beer and the house beer which I avoided this time opting for a Bath Ales Gem, which was fairly average disappointingly. A shame as previously Id rated the place, and the food too, which didnt look much different to the Hop Pole, whereas I remembered it used to be more uniquely home made food. Awkward setup as well for a night time, people eating meals, but not many places for people to stand/sit just for drinking.

The West Gate

A Greene King pub, atypical of the style really, but Cask Marque'd so worth visiting to get the check in if nothing else, only beer among the usual suspects that caught my eye was the Amarillo Single Hop Session IPA, which actually wasnt that bad so not a complete waste.


The Map

A year of 2016 beer...

So the last one of these I did, year in beer from Untappd not blogposts :) was 4 years ago covering 2012, and it makes an interesting comparison to see how much beers and brewing have changed since then, if at all.
Before we get to that just a reminder of the ground rules on how Ive been using the application

• a third is the minimum amount required for a valid check-in,and extends through 330ml bottles or cans), halves and pints, only free tasters are still excluded
• check-ins arent retrospective, bar the occasional one lost to various phone issues, lack of signal, battery or in case the phone broke, but none of this I drank this beer 4 years ago stuff, which some people still do.

Unique types of beer checked-in per brewery

The first chart is basically a chart that shows the number of different beers, as opposed to total beers thats the second dataset, per brewery, which tries to highlight how varied the range of beer some breweries are now producing,though it can be skewed by local availability obviously.

Back in 2012, Adnams topped the charts with 21 different types of beer, 2016 they topped it again with 26, alot of these are the collaboration beers they now produce for Wetherspoons, but it shows they are consistently producing alot of different beers over the year above their core range.

Moving into surprising second place was Thornbridge, as its mainly just been bottles. A Waitrose opened up in Ipswich since 2012 and has carried a fair sized range of beer since, what will be interesting to see is if Thornbridge's switch to 330ml bottles will change that as Im not a fan of 330ml bottles.

And 3rd, quite literally coming from nowhere since 2012, as they didnt even exist back then, is Briarbank, who started brewing in Ipswich in 2013.

The rest in the list are mainly local East Anglian breweries, but notable highlighting of Grain (they now have a very good pub in Ipswich so tend to see their whole range on offer), Fourpure and Tiny Rebel both the results of tap takeovers at another excellent pub to have opened in Ipswich since 2012, and Muirhouse.

Marks & Spencers are a data anomoly I think with the way the beers have been created on Untappd as they just use normal brewers to produce similar versions of existing beers, most of the ones I get tend to be just Adnams or Meantime, which wouldnt have changed Adnams rank, but might have pushed Meantime into the list.

Those notably missing since 2012, Darkstar whose beers no longer seem as easily available locally in Suffolk which is a shame and Thwaites who were producing lots of fairly decent one off beers for Wetherspoons in 2012 but have since been taken over by Marstons...who basically dont.

Total Beer check-ins

The next chart shows the total number of check-ins per beer over the year, no suprises Brewers Gold still at number 1, and drunk more than twice as often as any other beer on the list, I really do like me Brewers Gold.

Next is Oakham Citra, which didnt even feature in 2012, and another Crouch Vale favourite Yakima Gold. I guess its no surprise they are all fairly closely similar in taste.

Whilst 2012 was quite abit about seasonal beers, 2016 was very much core range beers, Wherry, Landlord, JHB, with only 3 recognisably seasonal only beers. Sadly since 2012 Fat Cat beers seemed to have stopped heading south from Norwich,whether thats to do with the fact they now run 3 very popular pubs in Norwich and dont have capacity, or they simply dont send the stuff this way anymore Im not sure.

Total Brewery check-ins

Finally the number of total check-ins expressed in brewery terms, so kind of an almagamation of the previous two sets of data. And Adnams as was the case in 2012 leading the table again 150 check-ins, no surprises really given the bulk of their checkins from the other data, Crouch Vale again still in second, but only just, which isnt all that apparent from the other data, though Brewers Gold does still make up over half the total.

And a return to 3rd spot from Woodfordes, though I suspect heavily slanted by a weeks holiday last year on the Norfolk broads, where it was literally the only brewers beer available. Top tip if you do go on holiday in Norfolk, dont buy a Woodfordes Wherry polypin as your cottage/boat back up beer supply, theres plenty of it available everywhere!!! Outside of Norfolk Id say its harder to get than even I thought it was in 2012, which probably explains how Oakham are pushing hard on their heels in 4th place.

What might 2017 hold...

Probably more of the same, interestingly for 2013 I predicted Adnams would hopefully bring back a few old favourites, mark the date in your diaries Regatta last seen in 2011 is back for 2017.