Archive
With Sats and Sun in my Eyes
You wake up early and you get free Sats by listening to Podcasts on the Fountain app. Leaving just before official dawn and it’s pull the sun visor down as the May Sun is low in the sky. A chilly arrival at Gloucesater, check the car in and Coffee and a Bacon Roll in the rather expensive Costa Coffee. Wandering along the Canal and it’s into The Lord High Constable of England. Which Bespoke Brewing Ale should I have. Then a touch of BrewDog. Mastodon encouraged me to go to The Regal and then it was no Morris Dancing in the Turks Head. The Pelican was even faster WiFi and all Cask Ale.
Huh, Spring Only Lasted One Day
You can’t beat quality comments. The rain is back, so I got slightly wet going to get my Premier Inn all you can eat breakfast. New craft cans in Spoons and it’s a corker. Listening to ATP. And another new craft can.
More gentle rain on the way to The Siren’s Calling. Mild and ESB to start both on Cask. Sometimes Old School is the way forward. Oh yes, Cantillon Gueuze as well.
The Half and Half Beano
When you have been there before but only to the Premier Inn. When it is only 39 miles from home, which is just as well as you only have half a tank. When you are rather happy because Spring has finally arrived. However, it was very foggy on the M4 and I mean a Peas Souper.
Portishead was calm and less foggy. I think I’m really going to like it. There is an iBis Budget and a Lidl in the same builder. The Spoons, The Posset Cup is not bad and has really fast FTTC WiFi. A Full English with a Pint was consumed.
The Siren’s Call. Great Cask, Keg and Bottled Ales. Also, you can bring food in from the chippy next door.
Frosty Saturday Beano Training
Another Saturday morning, another late April frost. Off to Caerphilly for an #mb05 training session.
Caerphilly is lovely, especially with the Castle but Oh, the litter, it’s everywhere. Never mind, it’s on to The Malcolm Uphill with my CAMRA 50p voucher in my hand.
So next weekend it’s both days with Premier Inn, all you can eat breakfasts. So I’m also getting in training for that. Asked for extra butter than was cold and got it too. The cold butter is so much better.
Then on to Brew Monster Caerphilly. A brew house and much faster WiFi then The Malcolm Uphill. On the Mezz for the first time ever.
Quality brews, brewed on site and now some rather good guest brews including from The Vale of Glamorgan Brewery
Solid training with fast Brew Monster WiFi and I ended up rather sleepy.
The Never Ending Beer Festival
A fresh start to Day 03 of mb04, Sunday. My right eye is getting better but it is a slow old job. Spoons for Breakfast and they have two fresh casks on and they look like Festival Ales. The Spoons Spring Beer Fest, the Fest that goes on forever. I’ll drink to that! All the Supermarkets are shut but there is no issue with the joy that is The Hereford Beer House.
Drops v Cream
A rather fresh start to mb04 Day 02. A pile of Apple updates and my right eye is runny again. Spoons, the place to update your mobile Apple devices. Then, a fresh on Spoons Fest Ale and it was the best so far. Yates, where Jugs with Handles are preeminent. Supply problems for Infected Eye drops in Boots. Toots from CSB about the Polish Shop next to The Hereford Beer House. Tiddly Easter Saturday.
Easter Hereford Therapy
You really need a Beano when you have conjunctivitis in both eyes, a blocked ear and issues with your right shin and arm. Frosty, double hot water bottle on the dash start. A mostly light journey up. Craft not Cask in The Kings Fee. Filled Rolls and Cask in The Orange Tree, where their card reader was having problems. Then on to the Beer House and how good it was. Really glad I have another two days in Hereford.
Spoons Spring Beer Festival 2023
So it must be Spring as we have gone past both the St David’s Day and The Spring Equinox, however the weather is still like February. What makes it really Spring is The Wetherspoon’s Spring Beer Festival and that starts on 22 March 2023. So it’s off to Cardiff for the maximum number of Wetherspoons. Plus my Oldies Bus Pass has arrived.
After a Costa Bacon Roll and Coffee, it was straight in to The Gatekeeper. That Belgian Flag was calling me and straight off it was a B++ and 1 Sat per minute on the Fountain App.
Then along comes Spring Break from Greene King and who knew, a really rather nice fruity, malty Golden Ale
Moving on to The Central Bar, where people go for a Full English in Cardiff. Strangely the Fest Ales are unmarked and just look like standard Guest Ales.
Vincent and Blind Jack. The Central Bar is sessionable central.
And then it got all Old School and Swiss. It’s been a long time since I have been to the Ernest Willows.
Reeds Ale from Sudwerk in Switzerland, brewed at Adnams in Suffolk. All really malty
And to finish the day.
Flurries and a Voucher
We are well it to March and it is still Winter. Frost, hot water bottles on the dash and snow flurries on the journey up. Nicely light from from Monmouth onwards but still at 0c when I arrived at Hereford. CAMRA vouchers at the ready. Steamy windows in the Beer House and yet again I wish it was more than one Day. Post video listening to Talk Sport.
Cats On The Wall
A double optimised departure and the carpark had an app, despite what the website said. Costa just around the corner from the carpark. Coffee and a Bacon Roll, of course.
Tip for the Cabot Court, order your food early, as it fills up quickly and gets very busy. However, Half FTTC WiFi.
Meanwhile The Black Cat Micro is Full FTTC and is full of the Finest of Cask and Keg. Note, it’s Card only. Big Crisps too.
The R W Nash Blog 