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The website for The Chequers in Brize Norton is a goner. I'm sure there's a "chequered history" pun in there somewhere, but I can't be arsed ;)

Visit the Paul Bailey's Beer Blog site It’s often said that it’s a woman’s prerogative to changeher mind, but truth be told, men are just as capable of a last‑minute rethink.Case in point: my plans for the Bluebell Railway Beer Festival, which takesplace this weekend. It was a festival I knew nothing about, until Thursday evening, when I accidentally stumbled across a press release on behalf of therailway. Running acrossmultiple stations , with steam trains linking bars, livemusic, food stalls, and more than 80–100ales and ciders, depending on the source, the Bluebell Railway Beer Festival is one of the biggest heritage railway beer events in the country.In full swing this weekend, 18–20 September 2026, the event soundedlike a good idea: heritage trains, good beer, and a railway that now runs rightthrough to East Grinstead, where you can hop straight onto the National Rail network. Getting there seemed straightforward enough, even though it would stillinvolve a couple of bus journeys, but Metrobus 291 runs hourly between TunbridgeWells and Crawley (via East Grinstead ), making the trip perfectly doable. Moreimportantly, it offered the ideal excuse to ride the “new” - relativelyspeaking — Bluebell Railway extension from East Grinstead all the way down to Horsted Keynes and Sheffield Park, the two stations that formed the originalheart of the line. I don’t need to go into the full history of the BluebellRailway here, although it’s fair to say I’ve watched its progress with inte

Visit The Retired Martin site September 2026. Huntingdon. It hardly mattered as I was about to* drive Mrs RM home from Huntingdon station, but the stagnation of the pub scene (ugh) in what you’d assume to be an affluent Cambridgeshire market town is quite something. First appearances can be deceptive. Entry into town over the Great Ouse takes you past… Continue reading WHAT HAPPENED TO HUNTINGDON’S PUBS*? More...

Visit The Retired Martin site September 2026. Huntingdon. I drove back from the in-laws to Waterbeach for a family funeral* on Wednesday morning, leaving Mrs RM to look after her father and then catch up on the train. Rather than hang about in Cambridge for 3 hours when I couldn’t drink anyway, I suggested Mrs RM just head up the… Continue reading IN SEARCH OF*CROMWELL More...

Visit the Shut up about Barclay Perkins site I'm back with Draught Bass. This time looking at what it was like for more than a century. Fortunately, I have plenty analyses of the beer. Thanks to its enormous popularity in the past. At the end of the 19th century, Bass in Burton was one of the largest breweries in the world. And Pale Ale was one of its main products. One of the classic IPAs, though Bass themselves never called it that. For them, it was simply Pale Ale. We're only looking here at the draught version. Which was principally sold in the UK. With exports mostly in the form of the bottled version. Bass, along with Guinness, was one of the few beers which was sold in the tied houses of other brewers. And, unlike Guinness, it wasn't only in bottled form. The draught version appearing in some "foreign" tied houses. Before WW I, Draught Bass had the classic Burton Pale Ale gravity of around 1065º. With a very high degree of attenuation leaving it getting on for 7% ABV. Why was the rate of attenuation so high? Because it was a Stock Pale Ale with a long secondary Brettanomyces fermentation. After WW I, the gravity fell to around 1055º. Which is totally predictable. 1055º being the strongest draught beer got during the interwar period, Falling in with the gravity bands of the last set of price controls in the aftermath of WW I. It was the typical gravity of beers retailing for 8d per pint, which, as you can see, was the case here.. During WW II, the gravity held up surpri

Visit The Retired Martin site September 2026. Southborough. Kent. Southborough lies betwixt Royal Tunbridge Wells and the more earthy Tonbridge, home to one of the UK’s top beer bloggers. The views into the Weald of Kent from my in-laws house are indeed bucolic, but Southborough itself is a one street, traffic scarred town, rescued only by the rambling common and… Continue reading A DECENT PINT OF MASTERBREW AT THE IN-LAWS’*LOCAL More...

Visit the Shut up about Barclay Perkins site Youngs were still producing their standard-strength Burton XXX, though they had dropped the stronger XXXX. The gravity isn’t quite as high as in 1939 – it’s 6º lower – but a higher degree of attenuation leaves the ABV a little greater. We’ve seen something similar with Youngs other beers. The recipe has changed a bit since 1939. The pale malt has been replaced by more mild malt. And the crystal malt content has almost doubled at the expense of the No. 3 invert sugar. A drop in the hopping rate from 7 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt forces down the calculated bitterness from 33 IBU to 21 IBU. Which must have been way more noticeable than the fall in gravity. The hops themselves were Worcester and East Kent, both from the 1940 season. 1941 Youngs XXX Ale mild malt 9.00 lb 81.82% crystal malt 120 L 1.25 lb 11.36% malt extract 0.25 lb 2.27% No. 3 invert sugar 0.40 lb 3.64% caramel 1000 SRM 0.10 lb 0.91% Fuggles 120 min 0.875 oz Fuggles 30 min 0.875 oz OG 1051 FG 1016.5 ABV 4.56 Apparent attenuation 67.65% IBU 21 SRM 20 Mash at 151º F Sparge at 170º F Boil time 120 minutes pitching temp 58º F Yeast WLP002 English Ale More...

Not that it matters greatly, but the Royal Oak (shown as closed) is in fact the same place as Ackroyd's (open). The correct address is 2 Water Street however.

Visit The Retired Martin site September 2026. Headcorn. Kent. Only an hour in Headcorn, strategically tucked between Ashford, Maidstone, and Mrs RM (and Shane MacGowan’s) birthplace in Pembury. An hour is enough to visit the White Hart, walk the length of both sides of the High Street, and diligently bring your readers views of the Church Walk around St Peter… Continue reading MORE UNMISSABLE SIGHTS IN*HEADCORN More...

Visit The Retired Martin site September 2026. Headcorn. Kent. We settled my father-in-law at the Queen Vic Hospital, the most notable thing about East Grinstead, in a room decorated with this painting of a cricket ground with the shortest boundary in Kent. Just as I always tell you that young people are great, and CAMRA does a marvellous job (but… Continue reading TAKE THE STRAIGHT LINE TO*HEADCORN More...

Visit The Retired Martin site September 2026. Royal Tunbridge Wells. You can’t stay at the in-laws in (virtual) pub desert Southborough and not pop in to Tunbridge Wells, and I spent an hour on Sunday evening avoiding folk wanting to tell me Phil Foden had been sent off in the Manchester derby. The Pantiles seemed a tranquil place to avoid… Continue reading AVOIDING THE MANCHESTER DERBY IN THE*PANTILES More...