Pint Of Ale

The Sun Inn was built in the 1860s in the market town of Bishop Auckland in County Durham. Today, it makes up part of the town centre in Beamish Open Air Museum, in the state it would have been in in 1913. It was dismantled brick-by-brick for the 30 mile trip north to the museum.

The pub is a small, two-roomed affair and although it’s a tourist attraction in the middle of an early 20th Century town, it has a certain character. Sawdust on the floors, authentic 1918 advertising, costumed bar staff, mirrors and stuffed animals give it a charm. Three (very much 21st century) ales were on tap, two from local breweries and a Yorkshire ale which I opted for: Theakston’s Old Peculier is an ale I can seldom resist. It was served with speed due to the crowds in the bar, but this did not affect its burnt aroma, deep dark colour nor its taste.

The pub is in the Good Beer Guide, but if you plan to visit, bear in mind that there’s a £16 museum entry fee to pay before you can make your way by foot, vintage tram or vintage bus to the pub’s door. Unfortunately, the beer is not sold at 1918 prices!

We are about to embark upon a whistlestop tour of England as this year’s holiday. We’re spending five nights in County Durham, four on the south coast (Hastings and Brighton) and five more nights in Bristol. My plan is to visit a pub in as many places as we visit, get some long-needed new posts on this website, and restart my stalled pub counter.

Being a non smoker myself I’ve been looking forward to this day for a while. No more stuffy atmosphere, foggy eyes or coming home smelling like you’ve been on fire.

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The Butchers Arms is in Pudsey town centre, just set back from the road opposite the monstrous 1960’s concrete Post Office. There’s not much to look at if you’re sitting at one of the tables out on the pub’s terrace, but the pub itself is an attractive, simple building.

There is not much of a beer choice; this is a Sam Smiths pub so the choice is Old Brewery Bitter at about £1.20 a pint! Opinion varies on Old Brewery, it can sometimes leave a lot to be desired, but my pint here in the Butchers Arms was exquisite - it was the best pint of Old Brewery I’ve ever tasted!

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When I was a student in Sheffield, I came to Leeds for some reason and I was carrying a cheque that needed paying into my bank account. I came across a branch of Barclays - a grand, open, ornate affair, like banks from American films. That grand branch of Barclays is now a Wetherspoons pub, a big, open affair with a balcony and fancy toilets.

When the pub first opened, my student days were not far behind me, so a modern pub with exposed air conditioning ducts, fancy toilets and a bar back-lit with green neon was an attractive place to visit, especially with the Wetherspoon attitude to cheap drinks prices and two meals for a fiver. Back then, I drank lager but occcasionaly would opt for a “bitter” if I was feeling adventurous. I think that Becketts Bank is the first place where “bitter” meant a choice, I had to choose from several colourful pump clips so full of promise. I think therefore that Becketts Bank is the birth place of my interest in and love of real ales.

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As well as real ale, I also enjoy tinkering with things web-related. I’ve today had a play using the Google Maps API to embed fully-functional Google maps into the pub review posts on Pint of Ale. All I need to do is pop the grid reference of the pub into my blog posting and it will add a Google map to the right hand side of the page. It even adds a little Pint of Ale icon at the position of the pub.

So far, I’ve only added it to one review, that of The Brunswick Lounge in Manchester. I’m not sure about the size or position of the map yet, so may have a bit more of a play. I’ll then no doubt tire of this gimmick and remove it again!

Built in 1488, this ornate building was originally a gate into Amsterdam. In the centuries that followed, it was a weigh house, guild house, factory, fire station, history museum and a Jewish museum. Now it’s a bar and restaurant.

The most striking thing about Waag is the lighting. The huge room is lit by candles held on huge candelabras hanging on chains from the ceiling.

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I pondered for a while over what to call this post as the pub it relates to may not be called The Brunswick Lounge at all, but more on that later. It was a sunny March day when I was travelling with work and changing trains at Manchester Piccadilly. I had the best part of an hour to kill so wandered off in search of a pint of ale. The first place that caught my eye was the Brunswick.

It’s a modern pub conversion. Cream painted bricks and bare brick fireplaces reside over the obligatory leather sofas and comfy seats. Razorlight played the background music. There are three or four areas. The bar area includes stools and sofas. There are interesting light shades, pillar candles and plants. The small, non-smoking cream coloured front room contains oil paintings and framed photographs. There’s a foodie dining area towards the back.

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Hannah and I popped into De Prins after an interesting and moving visit to the Anne Frank museum in Amsterdam; It’s just across the canal from the house. It’s a typical narrow building with large windows made from many glass panels straight from a child’s drawing.

There is a bar area and a second area with many tables towards the back, up a few steps. There are green painted wooden benches around the edges of this area. From this area, you can gaze out of the large rear windows at a corrugated plastic roof, or out of the front windows onto a bridge arching over the Prinsengracht canal and the customary clutches of chained up bikes.

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I’m a fan of the small local pub chain Market Town Taverns. They have their priorities right - decent beers, decent food and decent surroundings. Coopers in Guiseley is a ’standard’ offering from them.

The pub occupies a basic, dull looking unit at the end of the town’s main street. It’s not a street presence that proclaims character. Inside, it’s the standard open plan Market Town look - olive green and cream walls, historical continental beer posters, pump clips from guest ales gone by.

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