Real Ale Magazines

and the Queen's Head, Troutbeck

Reply to
Chris de Cordova
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Not been there for years, but the Mason's Arms in Strawberry Bank (Carmell Fell, east of Lake Windermere) had its own microbrewery and an excellent beer range - though possibly no longer has a microbrewery.

Or you could settle for the Watermill which we visited a couple of years ago. Superb. Digital photos of the interior - notably the beer list - available on demand :-)

Have a look here - if you can stand the "music"! They say the Mason's Arms sold (sic) Timothy Tailor Landlord ;-) last July. (Apparently the Mason's Arms website has now closed.)

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Brian

Reply to
BrianW

A report on this weekend's ventures...

Some great pubs.

My favourites were the Manor Arms, the Watermill and the Anglers Arms but they were all great pubs. The number in () is my score using NBSS ratings.

Manor Arms - Broughton in Furness

Roosters Hooligan (4)

Storm AB150 (3)

Hawkeshead Bitter (4)

Watermill - Ings

Hesket Newmallet Great Cockup Porter (3 )

Coniston Bluebird (3)

Moorhouse Black Cat (4 )

Atlas Latitude (4 )

Skinners Hiligan honey (3)

Inveralmond Ossians Ale (4)

Hawkeshead Bitter (4 )

Eagle and Child - Staveley

Yates Biltter (3);

Hawkeshead Red (4);

Dent Aviator(4);

Harvistoun Ice Maiden (3)

Anglers Arms - Haverthwaite,

Moorhouse Anglers Arm (3)

Haiwkshead five Hop (4 )

Copper Dragon Black Gold (4); Challenger IPOA(4) ; Golden Pippin (4 )

Jennings Golden Host (3)

Pnnce of Wales - Foxfield

Foxfield Mild Parti (3 ); Slipped Up (3)

Hopback Best (3 )

Glastonbury Mystery Tor(4 )

Simpson and Simpson Hang em high (3 )

Reply to
Brett...

Glad you enjoyed your visit!

Why is it whenever we go away we do not get a great pub experience like this?

For instance, we went to the Whitehaven Wigan match this Sunday. Afterwards, in need of some sorrow-drowning, we looked in GBG - nothing for Wigan. Nothing exciting in the nearby pubs descriptions.

Chose a couple and couldn't find either of them anyway.

Gave up and went for a motorway KFC instead, and went homeward. We called in at one of three pubs, newly transferred to our branch, which we hadn't visited before and found it was yet another gem.

A typical remote country pub, but obviously well used because it carried five Jennings beers, the four we tried all in great condition, inclduing Jennings MILD!!!! Very rare!

Our area is full of these sort of pubs yet we have a miserly 23 pub allocation for GBG. In our branch we have to reject over 30 top class pubs for lack of space, yet when we go anywhere else, using GBG, we end up sadly disappointed and going home.

Usually find one boring local beer, and/or common guests like speckled hen or abbott available in almost every entry ...

:o(

Reply to
Chris de Cordova

Too late now, but if you're in Wigan again, try the Anvil, right in the town centre behind the church. Bland modern scrubbed clickfloor and brass lamp decor, but several real ales and some Belgian fruit beers, and a nice grown up crowd.

Are you going to tell us what it's called then? :)

More and more now I tend to ask local people first when going to an area, rather than relying on the GBG.

Reply to
loobyloo

tehe ...

Horse & Farrier at Dacre, nr Penrith

Reply to
Chris de Cordova

Thanks Chris, both for that and the other reply.

Reply to
loobyloo

Not sure what you mean there, but the current GBG has seven entries for Wigan. I don't know the place well myself, but surely at least one of those might have been worth a look.

It is a Good Beer Guide, not a Rare Beer Guide.

In Stockport it lists a number of pubs that sell nothing but Robinsons or Hydes. Is that bad?

Reply to
PeterE

Oh I think there are many parts of the country where there are equally good pubs :-) As Peter says later on in this thread, a wide range of guest beers might not be an essential prequesite for everyone.

However if you are after a wide range of guest beers then I admit that your part of the world does better than any other I know of. The attitude of your supermarket Booths seems to follow this trend as well.

Reply to
Brett...

Not necessarily IMHO. Out of interest ARE there any GBG standard pubs that DO serve a wider range but don't make it to the guide Stockport?

Reply to
Brett...

Possibly the Old Woolpack which for some reason was omitted from the 2005 Guide but has been selected for 2006.

The beer in the Wetherspoons (Calvert's Court) is maybe borderline GBG standard but the pub itself is utterly soulless.

Not a long list, though - we tend to suffer a lot from "revolving licensee syndrome".

Reply to
PeterE

Oops ---- I thought it was in Lancashire! We missed some good spots there, by the looks of things.

Shame Whitehaven is unlikely to be playing Wigan again in the forseeablefuture!

Reply to
Chris de Cordova

as you point out it's a good *beer* guide

not a good pub guide!

Reply to
Chris de Cordova

yeah! :o)))

and have you seen their prices!!!!

most between 99p per bottled (eg for a 5% bca) and 149p

I get funny looks and remarks about parties/newyear/christmas/etc when I call into the Booths at Keswick and come out with a trolley load of bottles (only)

Reply to
Chris de Cordova

The branch members take the view there are places of equal beer merit and far more pub merit. We do have a thorough beer-scoring system, but we treat it as a guide rather than simply taking the top 25 eligible pubs. A scoring system is a good servant but a poor master.

Reply to
PeterE

I did wonder about that!

Reply to
PeterE

We are in the same situation in our area in which 100% of the pubs sell cask ale . We are given a quota which we are told is generous , one in seven which is more than other areas. But an area with 50% real ale pubs given a quota of 1 in 10 is better treated as it works out as

1 in 5 of eligible pubs. I wrote to HQ and they said the purpose of the GBG is to provide a traveller with a selection of suitable pubs in all areas.I hopoe they don't publish a road map because they would include as many roads in the Scottish Highlands as in London on that basis! The solution we are trying is to produce our own local guide.
Reply to
valeofbelvoirdrinker

we can't do that - our area is too large for the number of pubs we can put in

We always have to choose between putting in the best pubs for beer and getting a good geographical spread.

There are several large areas where there might be one real ale pub but it would not come in even our top 50.

So we have large areas with no GBG coverage.

We have a lot of instances where good pubs come in clusters.

(Go away Brett - I like it here - at least there are people posting in here!!)

Reply to
Chris de Cordova

Happens a lot. It's called competition , if the nearest pub is good you have to be good too.But we also have pairs of pubs in villages which deliberately work to complement each other rather than to compete head on.

Reply to
valeofbelvoirdrinker

Charming! The point I was making is that this is not a CAMRA only forum and it might be worth considering the views of others who may not wish to be involved in internal ramblings of CAMRA. The mailings lists are also very new, so it is going to take a little time before they are as busy as here. On the other hand, you may well find you get an answer to someone in the know on a dedicated list.

Reply to
Brett...

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