I read at the weekend in Tyke Taverner how CAMRA, Greg Mullholland & others have accused our morally corrupt government of colluding with the giant PubCo's to arrive at a voluntary self-regulatory agreement & maintain the current PubCo sytem that is decimating the industry. Apparently the government only spoke to the PubCo's during the consultation.

Visited two of my favourite real ale pubs in Hull on Saturday, sampled the following:

Wensleydale Falconer 3.9% (Hop & Vine)

Wellington Inn First Duke 3.7%
York Terrier 4.2%
(both at the Wellington Inn)

Called in at the Hare and Tortoise at Parrots Corner on Friday (just gone) after work with Mrs M. Pint of York Terrier (in good nick mind) was £3.30 and a large glass of an average Argentinian Rose wine, £5.75. Must call in again when I win the Lottery. Why real ale has to be that price is beyond me and to the casual drinker the John Smiths Smooth at £2.30 was an obvious bargain. Not the way IMO to convert folk to the Good Stuff.

The least patronised pub in Bentley now doesn't open midweek .... which is a fantastic cure for my laziness ... I now have to walk to other pubs in the village which do have Real Ale ... Win / Win

Popped into Hop & Vine in Hull last night before my regular club, sampled the following:

Grafton Moon Frost 4%
Tom Woods Bomber County 4.8%

Wasn't all that keen on the Tom Woods (think it was a stout), but the Grafton was excellent, went down very easily.

went with the good lady to elsecar,market hotel for refreshments!!!!.
two roses "chinook"
acorn "barnsley gold",
one of my favourite pubs.

SN Spitfire was on good form in the Beverley Court on Wednesday.

Robinsons Unicorn 4.2% in the Tut
Thorne Best 3.9% in the Angel
Muirhead Ruby Jewel 3.9% in Cask Corner
last night

Midnight Bell 4.8% in The Salutation yesterday. Completely won over by this wonderful Mild.

Fantastic stuff.

One of my all time favourites (as I may have said on here a time or two



).

Several pints of Milestone Dark Galleon ABV 5.4 at the Bluecoat, Rotherham. Good stuff.

Last week, Great Newsome Pricky Back Otchan, a nice hoppy pale ale at a very snowy White Horse Farm Inn at Rosedale Abbey in the NY Moors. Then North Riding Peasholm Pale Ale at the N Riding Hotel, Scarborough.

Visited two Ponty pubs on the way to Wakefield on Sunday. Had a Black Sheep 3.8% in one place which I can't remember the name of (down the main shopping street though next door to a bookies I think?). Before that we went to the excellent The Broken Bridge (a Weatherspoons), had the Moorhouse Pontus Fractus 4%, and the Acorn Brewery Old Moor Porter 4.4% (a stout). Definitely decided that I'm not really that big a stout fan, but the other two were excellent.

The Beverley near Hull mate?

No, the Beverley Court Inn at Edenthorpe on the outskirts of Doncaster.

Ah I see. Beverley is actually meant to be great for pubs (inc The Warton Arms on the way to Beverley if you're coming from Hull) but never been round the town itself for a beer, will have to put that right at some point...

I had a couple of hours at Ilkley beer festival last friday afternoon. It was slightly bizarre, the whole afternoon is a corporate sponsorship thing where (mainly) Leeds' big legal, financial & property companies try to outdo each other by wearing rugby yawnion tops with their names emblazened across them (why it is yawnion & not soccer, league or cricket tops is an intersting debate). Apart from that it was great, all the beer was free, as was an endless supply of Lishman's pies. As my time was short (& you could barely move) I concentrated on local ales, both geographically & within the halls; all were good, most I've since forgotten the name of, though the clear winner, among those I had not tried before, was Gooseye (Keighley) Chinook. A fantastic pale beer.

still cutting down on your beer intake mate ?



or you back to being a complete p***head !!!

Bombadier in reasonable form in the Bay Horse (Bentley) in recent days.

Jaipur in the Old Angel on Sunday after the game.
Heaven!

Exmoor Beast, a dark,dangerous ale ( and gorgeous! ) at 6.6% at the Bluecoat, Rotherham.

I was in the White Swan in Doncaster last night at about 7:30.
They were serving Black Sheep and A Glentworth blond ale at 4.2% at £1.95 a pint.
Had two of the Glentworth ... gorgeous, tasted like Jaipur.
How spooky is that?
Since my last pint in town on Sunday was the real Jaipur.

Going round Hull's Old Town tommorow night, some great real ale pubs around there so fingers crossed will have plenty to report back on on Sunday.

To be honest mate I still go out once a week but that's it now. 3-4 years ago it was Friday, Saturday & Sunday many weeks (probably 25 pints in just over 48 hours which I'm not proud of), but obviously I only go out a third of that now (drinking 6-8 pints I'd say) so I'm happy with that.

Had a good trip down to the Br*dford beer festival, which bizarrely was held in Saltaire last night.

The highlight being a cracking pint of Hill Island Black Thai. I'm not usually a fan of ginger beers but this was a great brown ale with just the right amount of ginger, lemongrass and thai spice coming through.

Had an excellent night round Hull's Old Town last night, taking in the following:

Oscars: Brains S.A. 4.2%
Black Sheep 3.8%

Walters: Great Newsom Brewary Sleck Dust 3.8%

Lion & Key (formally Durty Nelly's): Rudgate Brewary Jorvick Blonde 3.8%

Ye Olde Black Boy: Copper Dragon Golden Pippin 3.9%

Lamp: Erdinger Weissbier

Not a bad one amongst them.

Was looking forward to finally trying Brains, nice beer.

Also found the blonde ale in Lion & Key a pleasant change, whilst the Erdinger was the first time I'd had it in maybe a year or two, excellent.