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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

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West Bridgford Hockey Festival – Review.

Hockey and beer festivals are not an obvious mix and to me at least it practically sticks two fingers up at logic, so it’s a good job then I was there to drink beer and not crudely waft my big stick around, I’ve been there and got arrested; indecent exposure, I wouldn’t recommend it.

The festival takes part in the hockey clubhouse, it’s of decent size with the beer barrels out of sight behind the bar, a good amount of seating is available for the numbers who show up which on a Friday was busy but at the very worst a 2 minute wait for beer.

WBHockey10

Well priced? you bet.

So onto the beer and food then, the two things you go for! How was the beer? fantastic as usual, all are left to stand for a week prior to the festival so it goes without saying they’re well kept. Beers (all of them, yes including Jaipur) where priced at £2.40 a pint, selection and quality where both excellent Roosters – Jasmine IPA 5.0% my favourite of the festival, and a mention for the Magpie Brewery who I am usually to put it nicely ‘not a fan of’ Magic Lantern 4.4% was very nice indeed.

Value in this climate is a big talking point, so when they’re selling off good burgers for £1, samosas for 50p and pair of spring rolls also for 50p you can’t go wrong, and having sampled them all, they where as good as the beer!

A Hockey club showing other beer festivals how it’s done!? it certainly looks like it.

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Nottingham (Robin Hood) 2010 beer festival review

And just like that it was all over, but enough talk of what I did last night and onto last weekend which again saw the Nottingham beer festival dominate the city centre, seeing over 21,000 visitors guzzling 800+ beers 50 ciders and a selection of fruit wines so quickly that once more they didn’t need to open on the Sunday (a day usually reserved for drinking the remnants) the rate at which the beer sells is something that has to be witnessed, Kipling anyone?!

Our advice is if you want the best range and guaranteed entry then make your way down on the Thursday, the aforementioned Thornbridge – Kipling (festival champion) had already sold a full barrel by around 5pm; thankfully another came on, though I doubt it lasted long at all, a magnificent beer and worthy champion.

notts

Friday saw things begin to really heat up, the atmosphere was buzzing and queuing at the gates had formed just before 6pm (those that wish to go in 2011, you’re best leaving work early if you don’t fancy queuing) it was amazing to see the number of beers beginning to sell out, it hits you then at just how much really is being drunk, shedloads, but you only need to look around to realise that theres so much other beer left, and beer on reserve it’s pretty much a moot point.

rain

Rain mid-evening on Friday saw a rush into the tents

Once again a huge selection of food was on offer, I didn’t try it all as I’m not a machine but the range was vast, one of the grumbles from last year was the lack of beer token outlets, there are now 3 : problem solved, as was last years toilet issues, it’s hard to work out how they shoe-horned in more and put them indoors but given the weather it was a move that paid off.

Grumbles this year, well the main one is not being able to try the Kipling on Friday, but then it’s hardly the organisers fault for not having a crystal ball, maybe they ought to get 5 barrels of last years champion in for 2011, now there’s a thought…  – edit : seems that the organisers did have a crystal ball, but due to supply issues from Thornbridge the order couldn’t be substantially increased!

castle

Time it right, and you can walk right in

One thing I had previously touched upon in my day 1 report was the beer pricing seemed a little odd with Nottingham beers being the same price as beers sourced from all over the UK , so I emailed CAMRA some questions on the festival. Steve Westby festival organiser gave me an insight as to why this is the case.

Over half of the beers at the festival come to us from local brewers (as do many guest beers in our local pubs). This is because they nearly all have swap deals with other brewers around the country, by which they swap casks of beer on an abv for abv basis. So we actually pay the “local” price for these beers.

Which pretty much shut me up on that point quite nicely. Steve also went on to point out that they’re always looking for volunteers to help out with the festival, you can find out more by clicking the Nottingham CAMRA link on the right of this site.

In a nutshell if you’re wanting to go to the biggest and best festival in the UK, with the largest selection of real ale on the planet then start planning on coming to Nottingham in 2011.

What was your beer of the festival? leave us a comment below.

What was our beer of the festival? unsurprisingly, also Thornbridge – Kipling, followed by Great Oakleys – Wot’s occuring?