Over 100 beers? erm no actually, not really, and if there ever where it would require a myriad of *† and other cautionary disclaimer notes after the number 100… It’s possible that 100 beers where on sort of, but not at once and some pubs where paying lip service compared to others. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still worth going as they have some great beers on, but the claims of 100 beers whilst true, in a nutshell it’s not ‘all at once’.
We started at the Peacock Inn, I like this pub and we are due to do a review but I was surprised to see no beer barrels, just the bar full up to its normal quota, that was ‘it’ thankfully Bath Ales – Summer Hare was superb and pulled them out from embarrasment, they had about 7 beers on including regulars, this was not the start hoped for.
Moving onto the Golden Fleece we where greeted with this board,
That’s better I thought, but the reality was unfortunately again not all beers being available, inside was a smaller sized menu with ticks showing which where currently on, about a third where available to buy at the time. Thornbridge Jaipur was a great pint but costly at £3.20, but hey at least thats 5p cheaper than in the center of London, because Mansfield Road and the center of London are clearly in a similar business position…
Ok so fair enough moving on to the Nags Head, they do a quality beer festival out in the great patio area they have, the board this time didn’t promise so much but at least all beers where on and available, so fair play to the Nags Head.
Not promising a massive selection, but fair play for having it all on the bar to buy.
Next off to the Lincolnshire Poacher, which roundly trounced the previous pubs with its usual great bar selection, and just under 20 on gravity available.
£2.80 for all festival pints was again reasonable
Many will think after my previous glowing reports of the Lincolnshire Poacher that I have some kind of agenda, well I don’t! I think normally it’s over priced, but tonight again it showed that it was the best of the bunch!
We went at this point to next door, it seems Fade and the hard to find cafe just plain pulled out, we went there to be told abruptly, and I quote,
we’re not stamping cards
They had 2 beers on, and that was your lot.
This was a festival/crawl that promised a huge amount and didn’t quite live up to expectation, claims of 100+ beers is deceptive given the showing we saw. We didn’t try the Rose of England or Forest Tavern but given the experience from all the other pubs, I think a mixed reaction is the best we can give it, here’s hoping that if this event is back on in 2012 some of the pubs that gave a poor showing pull their weight, as they put the brakes on what could have been a fantastic night out.
On the whole reasonably fair comments, however shame you didn’t make it to the Rose & Crown which had a great offering on stillage in the downstairs bar.
This was an ambitious event to take on from a standing start and very difficult to co-ordinate and a lot of hard work went into it, it was impossible to know in advance exactly what to expect for the Grale Trail nor whether people would actually visit. The idea was certainly not to have something too rigid or corporate and the framework was intended to give each pub licensee the opportunity to get involved as much or as little as they wished providing they did something it was for each pub to promote themselves. The fear of losing money was maybe the main deterrant for the less participative pubs pushing the boat out more.
If the Grale Trail happens again, and hopefully it will, then there is no doubt it would be much improved by heeding the lessons from this ground breaking festival and hopefully enough about the festival was good to attract people back.
I certainly enjoyed my tour around the six pubs on the trail and we’re hopeful that the pubs did enough to attract people back to Mansfield Road to enjoy these great pubs more frequently.
Thanks for your comment and dropping by Colin.
We both hope that this crawl/festival does return as some great beers where available, I’m sure if it returns next year and builds upon the experiences it will no doubt be a winner.