The Catcher in the Rye

By Steve the Beermeister...

Well, it certainly catches me whenever I visit Rye, The Rye Waterworks micropub, on the corner of Tower Street and Rope Walk TN31 7AT (older blog giving more detail about the history etc, hate to keep repeating myself!). And it caught me yesterday, with the pleasure of David and Eddie working behind the bar, and quite a few other sociable customers, and cider manufacturer!

One of the quaint things about this wonderful wee pub, and I say about it more in the earlier blog, is that virtually everything inside, chairs, tables and paraphernalia, and outside, is for sale! Consequently, it looks different virtually every time you visit...

And there are, of course, the 8 local real ales served straight from the cask by gravity feed, and similar number of local real ciders, not to mention local gins, locally produced pub food, and even the house wines, which are quite delightful, are produced by colleagues (Paso-Primero) of a local brewery (The Three Legs Brewing Company), indeed, one of the original 'three legs' I do believe! I don't really drink white wine, but was given a taster of this 13.5% blended from Chardonnay, Riesling and Gewurztraminer grapes, and it was tasty and very refreshing, but the red is absolutely gorgeous, with Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Tempranillo grapes, what a great pair of house wines, and reasonably priced too!

Real Fire too!

To the ales, I did have a few pints, including 2 from Kent brewer Brumaison (website), never heard of them before, so I had to try both of their ales on offer, didn't I?!? I started with their 4.4% Golden Blonde, made with wheat in addition to pale malted barley, and English hops Challenger and First Gold. I thought it was more pale amber than gold, but what do I know, 'twas very easy to drink with a nice bitter aftertaste, good 'session' ale indeed. 

Then I had a pint of their 4.7% 1770 London Porter, obviously brewed with darker malts (and wheat, though I've since found that out!), and Kent Bullion hops. A very dark ale with a light brown fawn coloured head, looked, smelt and tasted more like a stout to me than a porter, but the difference between stouts and porters often depend on the interpretation of the brewer, and I have written about this before, see an older blog for more detail, and my own interpretation! Actually, Brumaison's version was very good, slightly sweet to my taste, but with a nice dry bitter finish, nice one, cheers!

To flush Gents!

I had to add the image above, it amused me muchly, add jokes as you feel necessary! 😉

Anyway, I also enjoyed a couple of pints of an old favourite session bitter Old Dairy Brewery (website) Uber Brew, a very easy drinking 3.8% pale golden bitter, brewed with Citra, Chinook and Equinox hops, which provide a pleasurable strong fruity flavour and aroma, as one would expect! Still very good, cheers peeps!!