Cock and Bull in Stony Stratford

According to Wikipedia a 'Cock and Bull Story' is

1. (idiomatic) A far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity

and is believed to have originated from stage coachcoaching inns, travellers' gossip and rumour exchanged between two The Cock and The Bull in Stony Stratford, England. These inns were a main stopping point on the turnpike road from London to Birmingham , Chester and North Wales (for Ireland).

Stony Stratford is sited on the Old Watling Street, now the High Street and this road contains some fantastic old coaching inns which I once spent an afternoon researching some years ago.

However one Stony Stratford Councillor, Paul Bartlett, has decided to take it on himself to introduce a smoking ban in public places.

"Stony Stratford is a historic town which is blighted by cigarette butts," said Herr Bartlett.
"The plan that I am trying to put forward is for smoking to be banned in public in the High Street, surrounding streets, and preferably elsewhere as well."
"Why should people be able to smoke in my face and spoil the environment?," he added.

Yes that is correct, this health Nazi has invented his own Cock and Bull Story by wanting to ban smoking in public, not content with thousands of pubs being closed in this countrythis idiot is now proposing to ban a perfectly legal pastime form the streets of his town, though it is more of a surburb of Milton Keynes now.

Where to start with this authoritarian idiot? Well over at Dick's Place place a protest has been organised for this Saturday at the Vaults Bar, High Street, Stony Stratford, Buckinghamshire, MK11 1AQ.
There is a Facebook Group 
A number of articles have been written about this:
Pro-street smoking rally in Stony Stratford - Joshua Lachkovic
For once I'm missing England - Angry Exile
On manoeuvres in Stony Stratford - Misanthrope Girl
A day in Stony Stratford - Devil's Kitchen
Is there honour amongst thieves? - Frank Davis
Stony Stratford, the sequel - Filthy Engineer
... and there are a collection of posters at Lawson Narse's place.


The speakers so far confirmed are as below (others may follow): 
Bill Etheridge - Midlands representative for The Freedom Association
David O'Dell - Head of Stony Stratford Chamber of Commerce
Patrick Hayes - Journalist at the Institute of Ideas and columnist at Spiked
Nigel Farage - Leader of UKIP

So if you fancy satnding up for civil rights this Saturday in Stony Stratford, pop along and give the smokers your support.
First they came for the Smokers, next they came for the drinkers. The health Nazis are out there - time to start hitting back now!

Google Map:

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Image courtesy of Lawson Narse at Flying Warpigs

O Roger for Burton

Burton ale makes comeback thanks to Welsh brewing collaboration

Burton-on-Trent is set to welcome a revival in its famous Burton ale as a new style goes on sale in local pubs this week (12 July).

The beer, named O Roger, has been brewed by South Wales based Otley Brewing Company in collaboration with world-renowned beer writer, Roger Protz.

Described as a ‘traditional Burton ale with a twist’ by Nick Otley from the Otley Brewing Company, the brew has been created with a pale malt and a small amount of amber malt to 5.2% ABV. As well as English Fuggles and Goldings English hops, American dry hops – Colombus, Galena and Aurora - were used to give it the twist.

Nick Otley, managing director of the Otley Brewing Company, said: “As a brewer that’s constantly experimenting with new types of real ale, we joined forces with Roger Protz to brew something really special. We’re really excited to be bringing back the traditional Burton Ale and what better way to launch it than in two of the best pubs in Burton-on-Trent.

“We’re inviting anyone along who fancies giving it a try and learning about Burton ale – a beer that goes back to the 18th century and has seen a colourful history. We thought it was about time to relaunch it for the 21st century and we’re looking forward to seeing how well it goes down with drinkers in its home town.”

After maturing in casks, the beer is now ready to be launched in Burton-on-Trent, and will be available from the 12th July at The Devonshire Arms on Station Street and The Alfred, on Derby Street, from 4pm.

Roger Protz said: “This is an exciting moment as it is the recreation of a great British beer style that has almost disappeared from view. I chose to have this version of Burton Ale brewed outside of Burton-on-Trent to stress that in the 18th and 19th centuries the style was so popular throughout the country that most brewers had ‘a Burton’ in their portfolio.

"It was a massive beer style with the strongest versions exported to Tsarist Russia and the Baltic States. I am looking forward with keen anticipation to tasting Otley's version.”

Monty’s Brewery and Miss England finalist

News from SIBA website:

An award-winning Mid-Wales brewery, Monty's has managed to secure the talents of Miss England finalist Amy Wollerton to promote their Award winning Monty’s Mischief.
Monty’s Mischief is a strong golden bitter with initial punches of hops on the pallet, subtle malt character aftertaste, refreshing and easily quaffable for a 5% ale. It is a SIBA 2011 regional award winner, getting a bronze in the strong bitters category at Ludlow in the Wales and West competition.
Monty’s want to wish Amy every success in the Miss England competition!

Brains rebrand cask ales

Wales' biggest real ale brewers, SA Brain have announced that they are to rebrand their pumpclips, full press release below:

Welsh brewer S.A Brain and Co Ltd, famed for its much loved SA, has completed a major re-brand of its cask ales as part of a wider plan to grow sales and market share throughout the UK.

The company will showcase the new designs at the Great British Beer Festival in August, with an on trade roll-out following soon after. 

Brains began the re-brand process 12 months ago after identifying that the cask market was changing and product brand design would be even more important to future success. Richard Davies, sales and marketing director at Brains explained: “Cask ale is growing its share of the total beer market and the development of our range of cask beers is a key element of our growth strategy going forward, both within Wales and across the UK.

“Our current cask design has been in market since 2002 so, with more interest and competition in the category, we felt the time was right to modernise.”

After a pitch process, Brains recruited integrated branding and design agency Blue Marlin. Their brief: to evolve the brands, modernise the look, and create a unique design; all with the aim of engaging with new consumers and appealing to a wider demographic.

Chris Hart, creative director of Blue Marlin Bath said: “We looked at Brains’ heritage and what Welshness means today. The Welsh dragon is really important so we wanted to find a modern, contemporary way of representing it that is stylish, adaptable and ownable. What we came up with is a massive step away from the usual cask ale territory that reawakens the legend of Brains.”

And the result? A simplified and distinctive design, featuring clear product descriptors and a unique dragon’s tail, which, Davies explains: “is a design device we can own as much as Nike own their swoosh”.

Brains’ last major re-branding exercise began 10 years ago and resulted in the ‘more positive thinking’ strap line, while more recently the company successfully redesigned its keg range. This latest re-brand will be supported by national advertising in the Daily Telegraph throughout the Rugby World Cup in September. Brains range of bottles and cans will also carry the new design look and will be introduced ahead of the Christmas trading period.

Scores on the doors

A while ago the Food Standards Agency launched their 'Scores on the Doors' programme with scores from 0 to 5 being award with 0 being 'Urgent improvement necessary' to 5 being 'Very good'. Now these scores are produced by local councils and I'm a bit disappointed to see that environmental health officers from Newport have not got around to all the Newport pubs - also the listing system is a bit confusing - 'The' appears in the alphabetical list in some places and not others so if you search for a pub name the search will not show up the pub name unless you use 'The'! A bit of a data entering error there on behalf of my useless council.

Cardiff Council does seem to have covered their pubs well, take for instance Cathedral Road and the scores available for those pubs:
The Cayo Arms is owned by Marston's and scores 3, 'Generally Satisfactory' - FSA link here

Further up the street the Evans-Evans flagship pub, the Cricketers fairs less well:

Scoring a 1, ' Major Improvement Necessary' - FSA link here
The pub also had a disapointing review of its food here.
Now to take this in context a quick look at the search for Caroline Street, Cardiff's 'Chip Alley' reveals these scores:

All scoring better than the Cricketers.
Finally the Halfway, owned by SA Brain, FSA link here

I often eat in this pub when in Pontcanna and have always found the pub to be clean and welcoming.

Check out the cleanliness of your favourite pubs via the Food Standards Agency website here

NB: The above screen shots were taken from the Food Standards Agency website on the 11.07.11. and are subject to change and alteration dependent on future surveys by Cardiff Council.

City Arms American Beer Festival

Well done to SA Brain for allowing the City Arms in Cardiff to host an American Beer Festival. The first order of beers had sold out in a few days but reorders were done and the full range was replenished within a few days. Most of the beers were served in brewery branded glasses – a nice touch that added to the festival. With 2 beers on draught and the rest in bottles a good and unusual selection of beers was put on. The festival also gave me a chance to put the beers on Untappd – a social networking site for beer drinkers – with a lot of American beers on it.

I started with a bottle of Goose Island IPA from Chicago – a beer recommended to me by Glynn from the Rake last year. An excellent IPA to start the day off, packed with citrus and hop notes. Very enjoyable, I could have gone for some more of this but in the interests of research I decided to try a few more beers. Probably the best beer brewed by Inbev or whatever they are calling themselves this week - AnInBev, AnBev?

One of my drinking companions had chosen to go for a beer from Flying Dog Brewery of Maryland and the bottle label intrigued me – it featured the unmistakable artwork of Ralph Steadman on it, so I ordered their Raging Bitch – a Belgium IPA, weighing in at a hefty 8.3% ABV. The glass it came in was decorated with the company logo and featured a quote from Hunter S Thompson on it, “Good people drink good beer”. Can't argue with that! And the beer – a hop bomb on the tongue, dangerously drinkable at this strength, straight away I realised this was to become one of my favourite beers. Could have stayed drinking this all night but thought I'd better go for something a bit weaker next.

Onto the Brooklyn Summer Beer – a bit weaker than the others at 5% - one drinking companion thought it was a bit bland but I thought it was a quite a pleasant and refreshing beer that made a change from the hop bombs tasted earlier.

Decided to change coasts and have an Anchor Summer Beer – another light one at only 4.6%. The San Francisco-based Anchor Brewery were one of the first American breweries I tasted about 20 years ago and their beers never fail to impress.

Perusing the beer list, the Brooklyn Brewery Black Chocolate Stout stood out and not just because it weighed in at 10% - it's been quite a while since I tried an Imperial Russian Stout so that was the next beer to try. Rich, dark and tasty, this is a beer meant for sipping. By now my tastebuds were becoming slightly tired so had to decide on one last beer to go for – went for a bottle of Flying Dog Raging Bitch, my favourite beer of the festival.

All in all this was a good little festival at the City Arms, giving customers a chance to try beers not usually available in Cardiff. With German and Belgium beer festivals being planned for the pub, the City Arms is becoming the best beerhouse in the City.

Popped in again on Monday night (tonight) for another bottle of Flying Dog Raging Bitch.

The beer festival is continuing this week until the beers are sold!

Elderflower wheaty goodness

Popped into Zero Degrees in Cardiff to see what their monthly beer is, it turns out to be an Elderflower Wheat beer. Now I'm not normally a fan of wheat beers but this one works and the elderflower is noticeable in the aroma and taste. The floral notes of the elderflower compliment the vanilla tones of the wheat beer quite well. A bit on the sweet side for me but very drinkable, especially at only 4.2% ABV

Worth watching

For those of you in the ITV Wales region, Wales this Week takes a look at the pub trade in Wales tomorrow (Tuesday 12th July, 1930hrs)

Update: via a Facebook acquaintance:

View watching your Sky Box via add channels 10832.00 H 22000 5/6
or on Freesat tune in in non-freesat mode

Update II
Its on the ITV Wales Blog here

The Crofts, Roath, Cardiff

The Crofts,  14-15 Crofts Street, Roath, Cardiff, CF24 3DZ

Facebook Page

 Situated in a residential area of Cardiff, the Crofts was built in 1957, replacing an earlier pub known as the Crofts Hotel that dated back to 1867 but had been destroyed during the Cardiff Blitz between the 2^nd and 3^rd January 1941. Built out of brick, today the Crofts is a two-story street-corner pub with sash and dormer windows and is slightly larger than the original building on the site, the rebuild encompassed two neighbouring properties that were also destroyed. Originally owned by local brewers Hancock's, the Crofts later went into decline under Welsh Brewers and a pub company before an enterprising local company bought the pub and have set about improving this back street community local.

The Crofts still retains its original two bar layout, with an impressive wooden front door leading to the surprisingly large bar area with its red leather-coloured settles, tables and bar stools. There is even room for a dartboard in one corner. This public bar is also home to Crofty, an African Grey Parrot whose whistles and calls keep the customers and passers by amused in the warm weather as his cage takes up a doorway to the side. In the colder weather, a wood-burning stove is situated in the fireplace. The bar itself is carved out of mahogany and the dark wood panelling extends around the door frames and above the bar. The original deeds to the plot of land the pub was built on are framed and mounted on the wall of the bar.

At the moment, only one real ale is served and this alternates between the house beer 'Parrot Beer' and guests such as Sharps Doombar from Cornwall and Charles Wells Bombardier, a rare outlet this far West for the Bedfordshire Brewery.

A door to the left-hand side of the bar leads to the toilets and, more surprisingly to a wooden-clad skittle alley. This area will be used in the future for exhibitions from local artists. The corridor also leads to the lounge/dining area which is also accessible via the glass fronted doors on Partridge Road. The lounge features plenty of seating and on a wall is a large photo of Winston Churchill waving as he was driven past the bomb-damaged pub on his visit to Cardiff on the 14^th April 1941. The pub can be clearly recognised by the Hancock's Toastmaster sign hanging from the wall.

At the rear of the Crofts is a patio area that features a covered smoking section.

At the moment the Crofts only does food from 11-3 as well as Sunday lunch, wherever possible local produce is used with allotment-grown fruit and vegetables being utilised alongside other locally-sourced ingredients such as fresh fish delivered daily.  There are set menus featuring pub favourites as well as home-made specials on chalkboards which change regularly but can feature such favourites as Pea & Ham Soup and Turkey & Ham Pie. Vegetarians are also catered for with Glamorgan Sausages and other options available.

This Thursday (07.07.11) will see a Players, Poets and Pints night with free admission. More details via Facebook here.

Google Map:

The pub is on the corner of Croft Street and Partridge Road, the Google Map is only slighty out!

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Grouse and Telegraph get together in search for famous pubs

Following on from the success of the Famous Grouse/Telegraph competition last year to find the most famous pubs in Britain, these two have coupled up again to run the feature this year with the supplement being printed in the The Sunday Telegraph this October.
The supplement from last year can be found here.
A good bit of pr for the pub trade despite the rubbish written about the Skirrid Inn in Monmouthshire - check out some fisking of the Skirrid stories here.
That aside the photographs of the pubs are excellent and I hope the same quality publication will be forthcoming this autumn.
All the pubs that make it into the supplement will be awarded a commemorative plaque and there is a prize of a trip around the Famous Grouse distillery to be won by someone who nominates a pub.
More information from the Telegraph here.
Nominate a pub here.

Newport Publican celebrates 20 years behind the bar

 Above: There is no truth in the rumour that Al Murray based his most famous character on Rob Jones of the Murenger!

Award-winning publican Rob Jones has recently celebrated 20 years of managing one of Newport's finest pubs, Ye Olde Murenger House. A regular entry in the CAMRA Good Beer Guide, the Murenger is famous as the 'Haven in a Superpub Ghetto' - with its no chav policy and sportswear being banned - polo shirts and rugby shirts excepted as, of course, they would be - the Murenger is one of the best pubs in the City. The Murenger does not have bouncers outside on weekends as other pubs do - the main reason for this is that if Rob does not think the customer is suitable they do not get served - a policy that has served Rob and customers well for 20 years in this grand old Tudor building.

Above: Ye Olde Murenger House, High Street, Newport

Rob previously worked for Sam Smiths in the Swiss Cottage pub in Chalk Farm, North London before returning home to his a native town to take on the reigns of the Murenger. During his time running the Murenger, owners Sam Smith's have restored the building with their sensitive refurbishments and Rob has even introduced a charity bookshelf made from the timbers of the old bar into the pub. 

And a blast from the past below, from the archives of the South Wales Argus, Rob Jones with hair! 

Some history about the Murenger House is available here.

Saturday Kitchen gets Twitterjacked!

It was enjoying seeing the Saturday Kitchen hashtag (#Saturdaykitchen) Twitterjacked by beer lovers today. I must admit I gave up watching the show years ago after Anthony Worrall-Thompson stopped presenting it - I prefer to spend my Saturday mornings watching repeats of Time Team on More4 than watching some unfunny comedian and theatrical has-beans waffle on about their likes and dislikes when it comes to food.
The big problem it seems on Saturday Kitchen is that the presenters are always suggesting wines to go with the food - even today suggesting wine with curry! Now all beer lovers know that hoppy ales, IPAs, even King Cobra are far better to match with a curry than wine - but the presenters and most probably the producers of the show still promote the grape over the grain.
Today beer drinkers took over the #Saturdaykitchen and suggested their own beer matches to the food being prepared.

 Above: Some of the Tweets today

Check out this blog post from Hardnott Dave
He has also made a complaint to OfCom, the basis of which is below:

Beer is the national indigenous drink of Great Britain
Beer is deliberately omitted from Saturday Kitchen
Wine is almost completely an imported product
Beer can be matched with food very successfully
By omitting beer in favour of wine, the BBC is deliberately and unreasonably biasing its content to a foreign import
The BBC, our national broadcasting authority, which is paid for by a tax on television ownership, is deliberately and recklessly damaging the UK economy by its unreasonable and deliberate rejection of beer as a beverage to drink with food. The vast majority of beer consumed in the UK is brewed in the UK using British grown ingredients
Drinking alcohol when eating is a much more responsible activity than heavy drinking sessions when no food is consumed. The BBC, in omitting beer from one of its prime time food programs is alienating beer drinkers from the healthy activity of moderate drinking whilst eating; therefore the BBC is being reckless with the nations health
With many eating and family pubs it is disingenuous to suggest that beer does not form part of the British dining culture
Promoting brands of wine in named supermarkets without also giving air time to quality British beer brands is unacceptable bias for a public funded organisation
Beer is an inclusive beverage. Choosing wine in favour of beer is divisive and deliberately seeks to engage with a much narrower section of society than is acceptable in todays cosmopolitan and liberal Britain.

Over  1500 comments were made on Twitter this morning using the hashtag Saturday Kitchen and suggesting beers to go with the food being prepared on the show. 

 A good start to a campaign to get the BBC to put more beer on our screens.

The Brewing Shed has their take on it here.

Beer 'n Pizzas in Tintern!

As if there was not enough on beerwise this weekend, Kingstone Brewery in Monmouthshire are holding a pizza and beer day at the farm shop and brewery on Saturday 2nd July. Open 1000-2200 hrs. Homemade pizzas cooked in a woodfired oven together with beers brewed on the premises sound like a winning combination.
Situated to the north of the historic Abbey, Meadow Farm is signposted from the road, almost opposite the old Tintern station.

If you cannot make this weekend, the farm shop is well worth popping into during the rest of the week as they sell a wide-range of produce from their farm and further afield. Beers to ciders, fruit and vegetables,  cheeses and flour all make it into the shop.

 Above: The farm shop and restaurant

KINGSTONE BREWERY,
MEADOW FARM,
TINTERN,
MONMOUTHSHIRE,
NP16 7NX

Google Map:

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Journey Planner:
Tintern is served by the Chepstow-Monmouth bus service (about every 2 hours during the day)

Gwent Pub of the Year hosts beerex this weekend

It's the start of July so that means that it is time for the annual beer and cider festival at the Coach & Horses, Chepstow, Monmouthshire. Starting Friday and continuing on throughout the weekend, this festival gets better and better every year, so expect a range of beers on from both local and distant breweries. Earlier this year the Coach won the Gwent CAMRA Award for 'Best Town Pub', and has gone forward to the regional competition, currently being judged around Wales.

Above: The beer range is impressive even on non-festival days!

Below: Some of the beers the Coach & Horses has had on over the years 

No beer list as yet butt there is bound to be a good selection if previous festivals are anything to go by.

Coach & Horses

Welsh Street
Chepstow
Monmouthshire

NP16 5LN

T: 01291 620626

Facebook page here

 Google Map:

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Journey Planner:

 

 

City Arms goes American!

To celebrate American Independence Day, the City Arms in the centre of Cardiff is hosting an American Beer Festival.
The following beers will be available during the festival:
Draught:
Brooklyn Lager (5.2%)

Anchor Steam (4.8%)

Bottled:

Anchor Porter (5.6%)

Dixie Beer (4.5%)

Anchor Summer (4.5%)

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (5.6%)

Black Chocolate Stout (10%)

Brooklyn Summer Ale (4.5%)

Raging Bitch (8.3%)

Snake Dog (7.1%)

312 Urban Wheat (4.2%)

Honkers Ale (4.2%)

Goose Island IPA (5.9%)

On Friday 1st the band Railroad Bill will be playing.

Well done to Brains for showing some initiative by allowing beers from other breweries into their pubs and doing what we hope is the first of many festivals at the pub. Rumours have it that planning for German, Belgium and Welsh Festivals at the City Arms is already well in hand.
The City Arms has become one of my favourite pubs in the Cardiff since the extensive refurbishment and the varied beer range in there. I still drink and eat in the Goat Major - best pub grub in the City with their award-winning pies - but the City Arms is always worth a visit.
A bit about the history of the pub can be found here.