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The January grind and the ever increasing cost of a pint.

£3 a pint? get used to it evidently, even with a CAMRA card London Pride is £3 in The Approach (£3.20 without) This latest hike in VAT isn’t looking at all good for beer in general with no breaks in the future looking likely, and it’s not just The Approach being particularly ruthless with the pricing, many many places are now charging north of £2.80.

Where do you draw the line? leave a comment and let us know.

The January grind is taking its toll at the moment unfortunately, though reviews are in progress for the King William IV and the Cross Keys, and will hopefully be up for the months end. We like to visit a place at least twice if possible to get a better idea of what it’s all about.

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Pumpclip museum

Stumbled across this site yesterday, it provides an extensive list of all sorts of beer handpumps, clips etc.

But of real interest was the section detailing brewery taps, a great selection of pictures, and some ideas of places to visit in the summer… (this is from all around the UK not just Nottingham)

http://www.pumpclipmuseum.com/page35.htm

But wait, there’s more! A comprehensive page of hand pumps at railway stations.

http://www.pumpclipmuseum.com/page36.htm

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SIBA festival returns in new year

Well happy new year and all that, here’s some great news, the canalhouse is welcoming back the SIBA festival!

SIBA national beer competition/ SIBA champions beer festival

Thursday February 10th – Saturday February 12th

SIBA

It's a bit different with all hand pumps, no gravity.

It’s nice to see this competition return to Nottingham again, hopefully they have found a new home!

A list of the competing finalists can be found below

http://www.siba.co.uk/events/?page_id=883

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Review: D.B.A (New York City, USA)

Another great bar in NYC which is off the beaten track so to say which myself and Mrs.Hoppkins  set out to find is D.B.A.

What D.B.A stands for is a long standing mystery it seems, or perhaps the landlord just winding everyone up. But common theories are:

Don’t Bother Asking
Drink Better Ale

As much as i would like to think its the latter I’m sure the landlord is cackling behind the bar the whole time at the hilarity of the gag….possibly….who knows….anyway

First off if your looking to get to this bar prepare for some confusion unless you’re actually from New York. Me and my wife came out the subway and immediately set off in the wrong direction. After we got our bearings and found a good landmark to work from (Katz Delicatessen from “When Harry Met Sally”) we found the place.

DBA

This small and dark looking bar holds possibly the largest beer selection I have seen in any pub in any country. It is phenomenal…

As you can see from the below pic it doesn’t end at beer…they stock a gob smacking selection of Whiskey, Tequila, Vodka…you name it.

Woah

I dived in and had half of an excellent Japanese Beer (which tasted distinctly Belgian) which was matured in sake kegs. It was veeeeeery heavy but absolutely delicious…and cold…which in the heat it was that day was a pleasant thing i can tell you (About 32 degrees Celsius plus and very humid)

sake beer!?

The bar is quite small, dark and cramped but since you can drink at the bar and there are numerous small tables and a nice beer garden its not an issue. For its size the bar is stocked like its ready for war…on your liver.

I would of got a picture but I’m not sure people sitting in a veeeery dark room would of appreciated a camera flash going off in their eyes.

If you drink at the bar you get a complimentary cheese platter at certain times (Check website@ DBA Website for details of times of any offers)

Despite the majority of the beers on offer being bottled there is a pump selection seconded only by the Bree Louise in Euston, London (UK)

Not even Wetherspoons has a real ale selection this wide and this place is 1/10th of the size of an average spoons. The beer was kept beautifully and although the price is high, its the price you pay for excellent real ale (more importantly in my opinion the price you pay for great ale you have never seen)

Another redeeming feature of this great bar is they have a sit down pac man machine (Dr Lovesale will appreciate this I’m sure being a fervent pac man lover)

In short this is a bar not to be missed if you swing by New York which has a great selection, great atmosphere with friendly staff.

Easiest way to get to DBA is:

Subway
# F Train – The Second Avenue stop is closest to d.b.a.
# 6 Train – Take the #6 to Bleeker Street and walk to First Avenue.
# R Train – d.b.a. is equally close to either the Prince Street or 8th Street stops.

CHEERS!

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Roundhouse Nottingham : Review

In-case you’re wondering, the roundhouse got its name because of its large triangular nature.

This magnificent hexagonal beast is located at the top of St James’ street and is actually part of Nottingham’s old general hospital, hence the trapezium shaped nature, synonymous with UK hospitals at the time.

This is a great pub actually, and due to its location one of the best ways to kick off a pub crawl, it’s easy to float down into the heart of the city centre as it’s pretty much all down hill, much like your night likely will be.

Round House Bar

Quality beers, and make sure to try the Tyrells crisps!

The bar is well stocked with a good selection of Ales which change frequently, The Roundhouse have a deal in place with the Full Mash brewery, they brew an exclusive Ale Roundhouse Gold (4%) and sell it at £2 a pint, it’s worth visiting the pub for this beer alone.

Because of its previous usage and the fact that they sell food (which is a popular choice) the roundhouse has a lot more comfortable seating than an average pub as well as benches in a courtyard at the rear for the summer, or winter if you’re a smoker.

The Roundhouse is a characteristic pub with a warm friendly atmosphere and offer a lot more to drink that just ale,  it’s well worth a visit, so if you haven’t do so.

You can check out menus and more from the official website by clicking here.

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Interview: Blue Monkey Brewery

The Blue Monkey Brewery are a small and relatively new  microbrewery originally based in Ilkeston but whom have now moved to newer and larger premises in Giltbrook, Eastwood.

Blue Monkey

They have already wowed the brewery community by winning no less than 3  medals in the 2009 SIBA awards for:

Overall Champion of the Competition with “Blue Monkey – Guerrilla” (Gold)
Porters, Strong Milds, Old Ales & Stouts with “Blue Monkey – Guerrilla” (Gold)
Strong Bitters  (5.1 – 5.5%) with “Ape Ale, Strong Ale” (Bronze)

I was fortunate enough to get an insight into how Blue Monkey came about and a bit about them from John @ Blue Monkey

1) When did you first start brewing?

What kind of brewing was it? Was it a kit? How did it go?

When did you switch to mashing and what made you switch over? How did that turn out?

I started brewing about three years ago in my kitchen.  I did all grain right from the start, as the point for me was to learn the full process and to try to make better beer then I was buying elsewhere.  I don’t think you can do that with kits.

2) What made you pack up the IT business for brewing?

I was just bored of sitting at a desk all day doing something that didn’t particularly interest me.  I found myself sitting at my desk at work daydreaming about my next brew rather than working, which led me to wonder whether I’d be better of brewing for a living!

What was the biggest challenge of starting up Blue Monkey?

Getting the funding together, and taking the big step of quitting a good job to do it.  After that step, everything else falls into place simply because you have no choice.

3) How did your family react when you told them you were opening a brewery?

I think they thought it was just another ‘scheme of the week’ until I actually quit my job.  Then they thought i was nuts!

4) How have you coped with the recession, increases and other misfortunes of the economy?

We’ve had no problems at all.  I started the business right at the start of the current recession, so it’s all I’ve known.

5) How are you finding the new premises?

Brilliant.  We were so cramped in the old place, so it’s great to get some breathing space!

6) Any tips on novice brewers hoping to move into the world of microbrewing and replicate your success?

Brew great beers and get the branding right, and you’ll be OK.  It’s surprising how many start-ups don’t seem to get this.  Also, it’s not as cheap as you think it is to set up a brewery- I’ve had a lot of people come to visit me who want to get a brewery up and running, and they all have totally unrealistic budgets!

7) How do you view other similar sized microbreweries? As competition? Or allys against the evil forces of huge commercial breweries?

A bit of both, really.  It’s a very friendly industry, and whilst other small breweries are very much our competitors we also help each other out.

8 ) Whats the farthest afield one of your beers has travelled?

I know a few have gone to Norway, but thats about it.  We dont do bottling yet, so we are limited to how far a cask can travel.

Keep your eyes (and Bananas) peeled for more news on the Blue Monkey Brewery here on Nottsbrew!

For more info on Blue Monkey you can goto their website here Blue Monkey

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The London Connection

Apologies for the lack of any kind of update last week, I was down in London and hoppkins was busy with real life stuff.

Castle Rock – Harvest Pale as you likely know is supreme champion of great britain, some accolade and a great thing to associate with Nottingham other than ridiculous gun crime stastics and how women outnumber men 3/1.

I’ve lived in Nottingham all my life and have never had a gun rammed into my side by a bikini wearing, pistol toting madwoman, shame.

So there I am on Sunday at the trainstation waiting for my boss whilst listening to a recorded message of how the whole place had been evacuated and that I should run for my life, so I did, to hooters. It goes without saying it’s somewhat unecessary to review hooters, one for a different website perhaps.

On returning to the station the trains had been delayed for another hour, so off the VAT and fiddle we went, it turns out this was going to be the last Harvest Pale I saw for the week.

Londons a massive place, I won’t pretend to have gone on some incredible mega tour ticking off all the pubs whilst frequenting the relevant hospitals for liver replacements and stomach pumpings as required. Even with the two of us it’s an impossible task, but it soon became clear that in our nations capital there’s either literally none, or very little Nottingham beers on sale, and to make things worse of the 10 or so pubs we frequented, Derbyshires Thornbridge – Jaipur was available in 3 (it’s worth noting the most expensive Jaipur we saw in the heart of London was £3.25)

I was left puzzled, I had asked a few CAMRA members down there if they knew about supreme champion of britain Harvest Pale and was left with blank looks, like I had just asked them if they had an appreciation of flower pressing. It wasn’t until Thursday in The Bree Louise did I get a better picture of what was going on.

Bree Louise

If this is Eustons best kept secret then tell nobody nothing, of the times we visited including a random Tuesday it has always been packed!

I won’t get into re-reviewing The Bree Louise, but if you have never been it absolutely is the best pub I have ever been too. I spoke to the owner Craig, a passionate man who clearly loves his beer, he told me that thankfully Nottingham beer IS on its way to London, it sounds like Blue Monkey will be gracing the shelves of the Bree Louise in the near future, a deal which surely will work well for both sides.

But with this all said and done, there’s a lot to be done in London, Nottingham CAMRA run the largest real ale festival in the UK, but not to Londoners, they’ve never heard of it!

Do you know anywhere in London serving Nottingham beers? are you a Londoner who loves the Nottingham beer festival? let us know!

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Lincolnshire poacher – winter beer festival review

The Lincolnshire Poacher is a bit of a gem on Mansfield Road and always has a wide selection of beers, so it was good news then to hear them announce a winter beer festival with 25 beers on gravity, on top of the 8 or so well kept beers they usually have on the bar(s).

I’ll admit despite being a good beer list I thought this festival would be a complete rip-off, I was wrong and all beers where £2.80 a pint which is fairly reasonable, if you thought that was still too pricey you could of course just stick to the 5%+ beers, but that’s a little extreme. It’s worth making note of the fact that Nottingham Beer Festival winner Kipling was amongst these beers, and unsurprisingly was shifting very well.

Main Bar

For once the Poacher main bar was not the focus of attention.

As expected the festival beers where well kept and as always the staff where very polite, however as I have previously touched upon in an article some of the none festival beer pricing on the bar was daft, Fullers London Porter at £3.40 a pint must have been rolled up from London by Mr Fuller himself, of course nobody is forcing you to buy it.

(unless you went into the back garden where Mr Fuller was hanging around with a lead pipe threatening people : disclaimer for idiots and the PC lot, that is of course a joke.)

Board

Beers from the 25 where being replaced as and when needed, this board changed repeatedly on the Friday night, and already had been doing so judging by the chalk smudges.

Space was at a premium with the snug area playing temporary home to all the extra beer so it was a little tight at times, this didn’t seem to bother anyone as people made do with propping up against walls, hey support is support right? Best beer then, for me at this festival I’d give it to Ossett – Vivian May 4.1%.

A great beer festival and hopefully this won’t be the last, judging by the volume of beer being shifted I doubt very much it will.

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Review: The Dewdrop Inn (Ilkeston)

The Dewdrop is a pretty special pub to me being one of the pubs I’ve frequented for about 15 years and has aside from one “dark time” been a consistently excellent real ale pub (as shown by the frequent CAMRA awards)

Located on the outskirts of Ilkeston next to the train tracks it was first known as The Middleton but later changed the The Dewdrop Inn.

Over the years a number of landlords have passed through its doors to being us to the present landlord and the Erewash Chairman of Camra John Cooke (A retired police officer with a sharp wit and a good eye for ale) and his delightfully hippy looking wife Yvonne (Who has an equally sharp wit so mind your manners!)

The Dewdrop is remarkably spacious in the same way Dr Whos tardis is. The rooms do not appear especially large however the sum of the parts forms a spacious and always well stocked pub. The interior is relatively untouched and has a distinct 1940’s feel to it and has been excellently maintained.

There are 3 rooms (4 if you count the hallway which has a few chairs)

The first room contains a pool table (and for once there is enough room to take shots….can’t stand places where you have the cue near vertical to take a shot) an excellent jukebox with some of the finest trash you will ever hear (Sigue Sigue Sputnik anyone?), an LCD TV if the cricket is on and plenty of seats. The decoration is the usual beer mat come ancient beer bottle fare however the range of the decoration shows the length of time this pub has been around.

Although you can’t see the pool table in the above photo you can see the jukebox….everyone’s seen a pool table…how long has it been since you saw a 7 inch jukebox like that? Exactly..

The smaller room has a real fireplace which is occasionally lit making for a small quiet room (with tons of kids toys which never get apprehended by adults….honestly) This room can comfortably sit 15 or so people (might get a bit noisy though…)

The larger room is where the fun at the Dewdrop is found (Dr Lovesale has seen some sights…) a much larger room with a glorious fireplace which is frequently lit especially in winter (And where many a crisp packet is tossed) The decor is again the usual fare but makes for comfortable pub.

The hallway is a great place to sit for a quick pint if your passing through and if your into fruit machines there is a 10p a go machine which is good for a laugh.

Now…the beer….that’s why your reading I’m sure….

Frankly the beer at the Dewdrop is usually excellent. John keeps beer in excellent condition and sources beer from a wide area meaning (bar the usuals such as Bishops Farewell) there is usually a great selection to keep you going.

There are usually no less than 5 real ales on at one time (including the regulars) Bishops Farewell is one of my favorites and thankfully a regular here, a beautiful malty pale slightly cloudy beer with floral notes.
The other beers are usually a nice selection of dark, pale and everything inbetween.

There is a great lager (and i mean an ACTUAL lager not Stella/Carling/Fosters/<insert generic lager>) called De Konig (if memory serves) which actually tastes nice and European, well worth a try.

There’s a wide selection of bottled beers on offer if you fancy take out or just something different (Usually Oakham or Funfair) and if you fancy taking out one of the real ales on offer you can buy one of those great milk carton jobbies to take out with you.

CAMRA members can show their cards for a discount (I’m sure you were expecting nothing less from the pub owned by the CAMRA chairman of Erewash)

Food…..not often I get to write about food, since most pubs serve such generic fare it’s not worth mentioning. But the Dewdrop serve up some classics which while simple….are just great. They serve up a nice selection of cobs…huge ones…with slabs of cheese….ham..salad or whatever you fancy. My father in law can attest to the ham cobs being great…and he is quite sparing with his praise on that particular topic. Occasionally soup and rolls is served up which makes for a great winter warmer alongside a formidable barsnack selection.

Now i love my bar snacks and the Dewdrop I’m pleased to say does not disappoint. Nuts, crisps, bombay mix etc….all there…waiting to invade your veins with that glorious fatty goodness.

Book lovers may be interested to know that the Dewdrop is part of some scheme which allows you to “borrow” books on the basis you register with a website and record where you took it from and left it.

In short The Dewdrop is a gem of a pub which are these days in short supply with great ale, good food and more importantly an excellent landlord who knows his beer and is enthusiastic about it (which these days goes a long way) Although i do frequent Wetherspoons you can’t help but feel the whole experience is somewhat sterilised by the lack of real “publican” with personality.

The Dewdrop is located slightly hidden away on Ilkeston Junction. Since im so pathetic with directions see the google map below for details:

Click for Google Map Location

The address is

24 Station St,
Ilkeston,
Derbyshire
DE7 5TE
0115 932 9684