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Visit A Good Beer Blog site Now that I am six months (yikes!) into retirement, I am moving into a bit of a more organized approach to doing nothing. My plan is to really really achieve a state of active non-achievement and, so, on Tuesday I spent the morning an hour and a half to my east to meet up with … Continue reading "The Month That Ends in Halloween Starts With These Beery News Notes" More...

Visit The Retired Martin site September 2026. North Hykeham. Lincolnshire. You left me in Poachers Brewery Tap at North Hykeham in the suburbs of Lincoln, showing no ill effects from the handful of Devil’s nuts foisted on me by the locals after securing the “tricky” tick in GBG27. Parked up in my campervan in the industrial estate on the junction… Continue reading A NEW SPOONS FOR NORTH*HYKEHAM More...

Visit the Shut up about Barclay Perkins site I rise just after 7. No trouble getting up in the morning when you travel west. I head to reception before breakfast. I have an important request. “Can you move me to a quieter room?” “Which room are you in?” “402.” “You’re already on the quiet side of the hotel.” Fuck me. I wonder what the noisy side is like? Quite a different breakfast. No buffet, for once. There are five options. At least, for free. I go for a bowl of fruit, healthy bastard that I am. With a milky coffee. Which sets me up nicely for the day. After breakfast I bump into Chris. Always good to see him. we arrange to go to Barrica brewpub at 13:00. I drop by the nearest convenience store. But it's shut. Fuck. I'll have to go back later. The walk back up the hill, though short, is steep enough to be quite annoying. I hate hills so much. Back in my room, I see on the internet that the convenience store opens at 11:00. I was there at 10:50. I laze in my room for a while before returning to the shop. Where they have what I was looking for: Medellin rum. Which I know from my time in Cartagena is dead good. I get a bottle of the 8-year-old. What luck that they sell it here in Medellin. I bump into Chris on the way back. He's still waiting to check in. He suggests that we go to the Barrica brewpub in 15 minutes. Which is fine by me. It's about a 10-minute walk there. All downhill. Several people pester us on the way. One bloke trying to flog a Colombian football shirt gets

Visit The Retired Martin site September 2026. North Hykeham. Lincolnshire. Friday was a perfect day, and not in a corny Lou Reed charity single way. I drove down to see Dad, who despite advancing dementia was as chatty as he’s been for many months, was eating well, and had somehow acquired the Russian resident’s hat. I stayed a couple of… Continue reading THE BEER GUIDE PUB OPEN FOUR (4) HOURS A*WEEK More...

Visit The Retired Martin site September 2026. Grantham. A few new Beer Guide entries to break up the interminable slog up and down the A1, and a characteristically eclectic bag of Lincolnshire debutants in GBG27. The one place I didn’t expect a newbie is Grantham, a town I thought I’d done to death over the years, even stayed over in… Continue reading A WHISTLE STOP IN*GRANTHAM More...

Visit Real Ale, Real Music This was all brand new to me, a visit to an area that I had never been to before as we headed down to the Sussex Riviera in search of some good beer and a win at football. Read on to find out how the trip unfolded.... I had maybe been to Sussex once before. I have vague memories of once catching a ferry back from Dieppe in Northern France to the small port of Newhaven but not much else, so I assume we didn't linger. And so therefore, in terms of exploring the county, this visit was definitely the first proper visit I had made here. And, no surprises, the rationale behind the trip was the first-ever visit by FC Halifax Town to the Sussex Community Transport Stadium, aka the home of Worthing FC, who had been promoted as champions from National League South at the end of last season. Three of us had travelled down from the north via the Grand Central on Friday morning, arriving in London after lunch. We caught the tube to Victoria, then another one for one stop to St James for a pint. A short walk away we came to the Buckingham Arms , one of the select group of 5 pubs that have been in every edition of the CAMRA Good Beer Guide, the 2027 version of which having been officially released the day before. A cracking pub, a single room with dark wood, an attractive bar, and a pleasant atmosphere. Another plus was that the normal journey to the centre of the earth to the toilets in central London pubs was not needed here. The beer too, our Mysteries of the G

Spotted there is a second Lockdown Room recently opened on the Canary Wharf estate (the other is City Island so an E14 postcode and already on the site). The new one has an E22 postcode (not currently supported on here). I had to look it up and it (ie E22 postcode) is essentially an enclave of the wider E14 postcode area used for new developments in that geographic area. Can E22 be added as a new Central London postcode - this bar might be its only entry for a while but I haven’t verified that as yet!!

Visit The Retired Martin site September 2026. Sheffield. There’s some great Proper Pubs™ just above West Street in Sheffield studentland (also home to its best Asian restaurants). Some, like the Grapes and Perch and Fagans flit in and out of the Beer Guide; the Dog & Partridge and Red Deer the perennnial entries. Until recently, when the Red Deer seemed… Continue reading Do pork scratchings REALLY improve a pint*? More...

Hi All, I am getting a choo-choo ticket for a week around the midlands, combining culture and ale. I would be grateful for people's opinions on: Loughborough Beeston Evesham Crewe Wrexham Matlock Banbury Cheers all Soup

Visit The Beer Nut site Arriving late for summer, Witty Banter is a new limited edition witbier from Dew Drop Brewhouse in Kildare. It seems to be a very orthodox take, using orange peel and coriander, and one always has to ask: in a world that includes Hoegaarden, why bother? 440ml barely touched the sides of my enormous Hoegaarden glass. If the recipe is orthodox, they've immediately veered from the archetype with the clarity: it's barely hazy at all. The aroma offers lots of Belgian banana, though the fruit and herb additives are apparent as well, adding a citric/spicy bite. Though a full 5% ABV it's a bit thin, and the carbonation is lacking. The flavour is clean, however, with the coriander taking the lead. The fruity esters are minimal, which is good, though the orange peel element is relegated to the finish, and it would be better if that were more prominent. It's a bit simple, overall, though I guess that's the nature of the style: had it been brimming with complexity, it wouldn't be a proper witbier. This is a proper witbier, and if you are looking for an Irish-brewed Hoegaarden substitute, it's well suited. I don't think it's an improvement on the original, though. More...

Visit The Retired Martin site September 2026. Sheffield. The first few weeks after the publication of the annual Good Beer Guide are invariably a whirl of travel to the nearest towns to mop up the easy wins (ugh), the low hanging fruit (ugh, ugh) and get the closest counties pinked in. But then you come up against limiting factors like… Continue reading FRESHERS WEEK More...

Visit the Shut up about Barclay Perkins site Top of the tree at Maclay was their Strong Ale. A beer which, if it were sold in England, would probably have been called Scotch Ale. In a glimpse of what would happen after WW I, this was parti-gyled with a Pale Ale. 54/- PI, to be precise. Between the wars, everything was parti-gyled together at Maclay. 6d, 7d and 8d Pale Ale and Strong Ale were brewed together in every possible combination. This was a slightly unusual parti-gyle, in that the hopping is different for the two beers. Implying that the Strong Ale was all first wort. Which, given this beer’s strength, shouldn’t really be a surprise. I wonder if the 54/- PI got any first wort? Unsurprisingly, the recipe is the same as for the Pale Ales. Pale and amber malt, along with grits and sugar. This wouldn’t be Maclay if there weren’t loads of hops. Hallertau from the 1907 and 1908 harvests, Californian from 1907 and two English types, both from 1908. 1909 Maclay Strong Ale pale malt 13.00 lb 64.20% amber malt 0.50 lb 2.47% grits 4.25 lb 20.99% No. 2 invert sugar 2.50 lb 12.35% Cluster 120 min 2.00 oz Hallertau 60 min 2.00 oz Goldings 30 min 4.00 oz Goldings dry hops 1.50 oz OG 1096 FG 1031 ABV 8.60 Apparent attenuation 67.71% IBU 79 SRM 12 Mash at 146º F after underlet 154º F Sparge at 170º F Boil time 90 minutes pitching temp 60º F Yeast WLP028 Edinburgh Ale More...