I had the pleasure of a few hours in the lovely Historic Cheshire town of Chester.
mrsuw had given me leave of absence 😉 for a few hours my first port was the Albion Pub which is right by the Walls near the Roman amphitheatre – Its like my nans posh front room – but with more royal and World War memorabilia than I have ever seen before.
Coincidentally it was CAMRA’s 40th anniversary (even as a member I did not know it was started in Chester in 1971) and while sitting in the quiet albion the place exploded with beards and bellys (ok unfair as that was just me) as the Founders pub crawl was taking place – so I made my excuses and left as it was getting a bit hectic.
I had planned to go to the Bear and Billet and maybe the Boot, but after recommendations from Alex and Christoper on twitter I went to the Brewery Tap (Lower Bridge Street) which is the pub of the local brewery Spitting Feathers and did not leave it until I had to meet up with the mrs after here afternoon chatting with her friends.
the pub is situation in the Gamul House, a Jacobean great hall, King Charles 1st stayed there from 23rd-26th September 1645 – while the Battle of Rowton Moor was taking place, so I was in good company.
The size of the roof space gave the pub a great atmosphere and there was a great mix of punters, ladies that lunch, young beer fans and codgers like me.
The beer selection was excellent with two from the Spitting Feathers – Thirstquencher (3.9%) – a lovely starter .
and their wonderful Old Wavertonian stout (4.4%) – a great example and one I would quite easily go back for more.
unbeknown to me at the time, we stayed in the village of the brewery that very same night – and next time we visit Iam sure we will pop and have a tour!
A great beer from Summer Wine Brewery valencia pale ale (4%) made with the ever popular Citra never had anything from them before, but as you can guess from the brewery name they are from Yorkshire, will look out for their stuff as they seem to be doing some interesting craft beer.
The other ales on which I did not sample were a Porter from Conwy Brewery.
They also had Gwynt y Ddraig Scrumpy on (which of course is only a couple of miles from my home in the Welsh Valleys) – the landlord said it was very popular, but not many people could pronounce it – which is a surprise as Chester is so close to the Welsh borders 😉
Just as I was leaving the Brewery Tap they put on a special Founders’ Crawl at 4.0% ale brewer by local brewer WC Brewery (who have a small brewery and tasting area in their toilet at the home of the brewers) – so it would have been rude to not have a half, which was a nice and appropriate end to the afternoon.
A short time spent in a great city which I no doubt will visit again in the future – to end my very mini pub crawl – we attended a birthday party at a local cricket club that evening and they had a blonde ale Chesire Cat 4% from another local brewery Weetwood, so a winner.
