The sun has been high, bright and hot for ages now and it’s bloody lovely. This weekend has been especially glourious.
Thursday it was
The Bull for their West Kent Pub of the Year celebration. The cask line-up was superb, as promised, but I was taught me a valuable lesson by the English IPAs: I am not immune to hop bitterness. It was the combination of
Pictish Simcoe (wonderful, bitter, fruity) and (a one-off cask of)
Marble’s Tawny 3 (seriously one of the most bitter beers I’ve had) plus the jerk chicken which saw my soporific, hoporific demise and left me all hopped out (but it was well worthy it as all the beers were wonderful, including, of course,
Marble Pint). Cask
Worthington White Shield was a rare and glourious treat of a scoop.
Friday I visited an old favourite:
The Man of Kent in Rochester. This place sells up to eight cask beers from Kent plus German lagers, Meantime keg, Fruli, cider and a fridge of bottles. All my cask beers were great (
Gadds No.5,
Gadds’ Seasider and
Whitstable East India Pale Ale) and a bottle of
Rochefort 10 went down a glourious treat in the garden after sunset, playing board games with a couple of old mates.
Saturday I went to see Tarantino’s new film,
Inglourious Basterds, and it’s honestly one of the best films I’ve ever seen. It’s a complete love letter to cinema and the power of film and reminded me so much of
Jean-Luc Godard’s films of the early 1960s. There’s so much that I want to write about this film and I attempted to do so but it started sounding like an essay I’d write at university (I studied the French New Wave and Godard…) so I stopped. It’s tight, sharp, funny, tense, beautiful (
Melanie Laurent), well acted, mesmerizing (those long takes, the sweeping shots, the perfect cutting), brutal… Seriously, this film is a complete masterpiece and the final line of the film is utter, glourious perfection.
And then Sunday. Sunny Sunday when England won the ashes. It was a very proud day to be an Englishman and I celebrated with a bottle of
Cantillon Kriek and then a
Speakeasy Big Daddy IPA from San Francisco, which I will freely admit is terrible planning on my part. I should’ve cracked a
Gadds’ Reserve or maybe a
JJJ. Still, what a result, and what a glourious weekend.
The ashes picture is from here. The beer picture is from my phone. It shows the line-up of beers at The Bull, plus there were a few in the cellar or on the other side of the bar – Darkstar APA, Whim Flower Power. The movie poster is from here. I have no picture of the Man of Kent, but that's glourious too, or glorious, whatever.
The sun has been high, bright and hot for ages now and it’s bloody lovely. This weekend has been especially glourious.
Thursday it was The Bull for their West Kent Pub of the Year celebration. The cask line-up was superb, as promised, but I was taught me a valuable lesson by the English IPAs: I am not immune to hop bitterness. It was the combination of Pictish Simcoe (wonderful, bitter, fruity) and (a one-off cask of) Marble’s Tawny 3 (seriously one of the most bitter beers I’ve had) plus the jerk chicken which saw my soporific, hoporific demise and left me all hopped out (but it was well worthy it as all the beers were wonderful, including, of course, Marble Pint). Cask Worthington White Shield was a rare and glourious treat of a scoop.
Friday I visited an old favourite: The Man of Kent in Rochester. This place sells up to eight cask beers from Kent plus German lagers, Meantime keg, Fruli, cider and a fridge of bottles. All my cask beers were great (Gadds No.5, Gadds’ Seasider and Whitstable East India Pale Ale) and a bottle of Rochefort 10 went down a glourious treat in the garden after sunset, playing board games with a couple of old mates.
Yes, that was a fine Thursday evening at The Bull, wasn't it? Full marks once again to Garrett for his selection. Like you, I'm now thoroughly hopped (and, for that matter, beered) out.
ReplyDeleteIt was good to meet you all, even if I had to make a quick getaway to catch my train, but, all being well, I'll be back for the Saturday afternoon session of the Pictish showcase in September (more Simcoe, please!).
i very nearly cracked open my jjj but the swiftness of the result also caught me by surprise (i'd been drinking flyingdog on the beach most the afternoon) so i ended up with a thornbridge bracia,top stuff.
ReplyDeletequite jealous of the number of pubs you have close that do great ales, there doesn't seem to be much call for it in the town here so i have to go out onto the moors most the time for ales, having said that i spent Saturday in the redscar brewery pub supping their ales...pier is quickly becoming a favourite session beer.
look forward to seeing inglorious the clips look great!
Andrew, great to meet you too, the Pictish showcase looks like a great one and the Simcoe will be there according to the Facebook site, which also says on Bank Holiday Monday there will be Brewdogs on!
ReplyDeleteMoggy, don't be too jealous... The Bull is 20 miles away and there are only a handful of pubs within a 5 mile radius even worth considering. I have to travel to get good beer, I'm just lucky that the ones I do travel to are excellent! And let me know what you think of Inglourious Basterds!