Another 'Crisis' Real Ale and Cider Provider in Hastings

By Steve the Beermeister:

The Tower

Further to recent blogs that I hope you found useful, particularly if you drink real ales and ciders, eg the April blog that gave a fair amount of details about drinks being brought to your door, and the blog from a week ago that added the opening times for collecting ale from The Jolly Fisherman, now we have another source to share... 

The Tower (see, for example, an older blog), up on the corner of London Road and Tower Road in Bohemia TN37 6NB, is holding a launch opening tomorrow (Monday 1st June 2020) and will then be opening 3 evenings a week from Wednesday 3rd June to provide off sales, with 'social distancing' facilitated, and hand sanitizer provided too:

Monday 1st June 2020 4-8pm; THEN

Wednesdays 4-8pm

Fridays 4-8pm

Saturdays 4-8pm

There will be 2 cask-conditioned ales on sale at £3.99 for 2 pints, changing as each cask runs out, kicking off with 2 Sussex ales this Monday, from Dark Star Brewing Co (website), their superb 3.8% pale refreshing session ale Hophead, brewed with Cascade hops providing plenty of citrus flavour and bitterness for you to relish. 

The second is a darker ale from Franklins Brewing Co (website), and a very interesting Porter style too, their 5.0% Sriracha Ace, brewed with Sorachi Ace hops to add a citrus note to dark chocolate and coffee flavours, apparently subtly spiced with Guajillo Peppers... I so need to try this one!

They are also selling 6 different real ciders (2 pints for £3.99); keg beers, beginning with Guinness, Fosters Lager and Stella Artois; cans, including ale and lager (2 cans for £3.80 or 4 for £7.49), from another local brewer, Gun Brewery (website); bigger cans (!) as in Mini Kegs from Gun Brewery too; and 3 bottles of wine for £20. 

2 pint reusable plastic bottles available, but please bring your own bags.

Great to see another local business helping us through the Coronavirus Crisis, and good luck to Louisa and her colleagues, who I may just see very shortly, cheers! 😉

Look after yourselves folk, be careful out there.

Jolly Fisherman and Drinks Collection...

Passing The Jolly Fisherman earlier, and I espied all those very interesting looking bottles in the window! So I investigated, as one does, and saw that they don't only deliver on Fridays (see my earlier blog), but you can collect from there at certain times on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays; either ordering in advance for Click & Collect or Friday delivery (website) and they are open for off sales, hours:

6-8 pm Thursday

4-7 pm Saturday

1-3 pm Sunday

So, this afternoon, and you still have a couple of hours to shop there today!

Great service during the Coronavirus Crisis from this local bar, cheers folks!


Many thanks for information in the comments Roy! 👍

Breakfast and Rugby at the Dolphin

Earlier this year (blog) I reported that Clare was now the chef at the Dolphin Inn, 11-12 Rock-a-Nore Road, TN34 3DW (website), but I have not eaten a Full English Breakfast there since, although I have had many excellent bacon (locally 'smoked' across the road) sandwiches, because I'm being sensible about my diet these days, and despite having eaten breakfasts all around town before, eg at the Anchor Inn (blog). But yesterday, I was there for the Rugby Union World Cup Final, along with many others of various ages, male and female, all of whom were a wee bit upset at the result, except 2 Scotsmen, oh well, I did enjoy my breakfast, ales, and the craic!

So, to the food, of the various breakfasts available, I had to chose the Full English, of course, as it's what I've always compared when writing about breakfasts before, and above you will see a photograph of my meal, costing £6.75, and the price including a mug of tea or mug of various coffees. This is a slight variation on the usual Full English, which includes bubble & squeak, but without the beans and fried potatoes.

They also have a smaller version at £4.25, a Vegetarian Breakfast, Welsh Breakfast, Kedgeree, GEG (a pretty special scrambled eggs on toast, but look up all the breakfasts at the website!), and a Classic Omelette, all at £6.75 and including a tea of coffee in the price too. Breakfast is available until lunchtime (12.00 noon, then lunch) every day, starting at 10.00 am on weekdays, but at 09.00 at weekends. Food is locally sourced, particularly from Hastings Fish Market, which is opposite the pub.

Of course there is always ale, including these 2 excellent guest ales yesterday, another guest ale (Harveys Old Ale yesterday), and 3 regular ales, including 2 ales brewed in Sussex, Dark Star Hophead and Harveys Sussex Best. But to the breakfast I ate!

As I said above, a slight variation on the usual Full English, with Double Bacon (Clare's own and delicious!), a Pork Sausage (very eatable), Fried Egg (perfectly cooked, only a wee bit runny), Plum Tomato, Mushrooms (should always be included in any Full English in my opinion!), Black Pudding (not everyone's favourite, but I'm happy to eat it), Fried Sliced Potatoes (liked these muchly!), Baked Beans and Toast (lovely bread). Also, they are always happy to omit or add other ingredients when asked, eg if you hate Black Pudding, which I don't, indeed, you can create your own breakfast! 😉

Anyway, good value, nicely cooked and presented, thanks to Clare and colleagues, but maybe I shouldn't leave it so long before I have a cooked breakfast next time...

Midsummer Fish Festival 2019

The Hastings Midsummer Fish Festival 2019 will be starting tomorrow at 11.00am, 22-23 June 2019, at The Stade (website). As always, food, drink and music all day, both days, with admission in advance from the Tourist Information Centre, Breeds Place, for £1.50 the whole weekend; at the 'gate' £3.00, and under 18s free. There will be a bar with crafty keg beers, and Harveys Brewery (website) will have a real ale bar (no FILO this year), if you would prefer ales from local microbreweries, try the Jolly Fisherman or the Dolphin Inn, the nearest free houses.

The Jolly Fisherman, Hastings First Micropub...

By Steve the Beermeister:

The Jolly Fisherman (facebook page) is at 3 East Beach Street, Hastings TN34 3AR (tel: 01424 428811), and is now a micropub as well as a B&B. Opening hours (usual, but can be a little flexible) are Wednesday/Thursday 12 noon to 10pm; Friday/Saturday 12 noon to 11pm; Sunday 12 noon to 10.30pm; closed Mondays and Tuesdays (and for a one off, also closed just for this Wednesday 15th August 2018). Previously, it had been a cafe bar, as well as a B&B...

The current owners, Oliver and Becky, took over the premises a couple of years ago, converting it from a Pie & Mash shop/cafe/restaurant and B&B, into the Cafe Bar and B&B, and which is now a Micropub and B&B; and can be found on the Micropub Association micropub finder.

Foyles Pie N Mash

In its earlier life, The Jolly Fisherman was a public house for the 125 years from 1834, when James Mann became the first licencee, until 1959, when the landlord was Brian Hone. Brian had held the licence from 1954, and Hastings Winkle Club (see older blog) was based at The Jolly Fisherman between 1954 and 1959, with Brian as the Winkle Club Treasurer during those 5 years. Please note, I have found this information in David Russell's informative book The Pubs of Hastings & St Leonards 1800-2000 (2014, publisher: Lynda Russell, pp171-174). It is great to see the building returned to an earlier use, more of below...

Walking into The Jolly Fisherman I was rewarded with a friendly greeting from Oliver, as I was bombarded with information above, in front, and to the side of me! First there is an impressive list of Belgian beers available here; memories of 15 years of regular visits to my brother when he lived in Brussels came to mind. Immediately above the bar (photograph below) are details of the 3 ciders/perries, 2 crafty keg beers, and 3 cask-conditioned ales (all local) on offer, though only 2 real ales were available this day because of the extra day closed this week.

Real ales available were Pig & Porter (website) Black Pale (4.2%) and Brighton Bier (website) Batting Practice - Three C's Pale (3.5%), a refreshing seasonal pale bitter, very easy to drink, and with tropical and citrus in the flavour, obviously the result of the 3 C's hops from the USA used late in the brewing process, and dry hopped too. Also, me loving ales from the not-so close brewery, I had to have a pint of the Tiny Rebel perry (website) Peariscope (4.8%), which did what it should, nice balance of bitter and sweet, and very nice too, thank you very much!

What of the B&B and food then? Well, there are 3 large bedrooms upstairs, one family room and two doubles, one of which can take a further camp bed if required, so a maximum of 9 people at a time, and there is just about enough room to seat them all for breakfast in the bar area. Food on offer is a Tapas style menu at lunch, and in the evening; as can be seen to your right as you enter The Jolly Fisherman (photograph above); a very interesting selection indeed!

I shall be returning soon, cheers Oliver and Becky! 😉

Beer Festival at the Albion this weekend!

The Albion, 33 George Street TN24 3EA (and with an entrance on the seafront) is holding its annual St George's Beer Festival this weekend, continuing on to Monday (St George's Day). There is a selection of real ales from local breweries and from a bit further away.   

Image thanks to Samuel Docker

The RX Shanty Men will be performing live this afternoon (Saturday) from 3pm, plus there will be live 'Jazz on Sunday' early tomorrow evening. Also tomorrow, there will be a 'traditional' Yard of Ale Drinking Competition (drinking 1.4L of beer from one very long and difficult to manage vessel!) at 4pm outside the seafront bar (top picture). 

For St George's Day, Monday the 23rd of April, the Albion is introducing a 'traditional' Pie & Mash offer, a London Pub Pianist will be playing that evening, and the first 50 customers through the door at 6pm will receive pie and mash free! See facebook page.

Hastings Seafood & Wine Festival 2017 this weekend!

OK, there's so much going on at the moment, what with Arts, Music and Fringe Festivals, but, this being Hastings, we've another festival this weekend, the 2017 Seafood & Wine Festival at The Stade! Obviously, seafood and wine, but so much more, tastings, cookery demonstrations, champagne breakfasts, music, and the usual mini-beer festival provided by the FILO Brewing Company, together with other local ales, ciders, lagers, and, of course, wine (the Beermeister hopes to be able to provide a list of the ales available asap, if possible I shall publish more details). Tickets for the festival are £2 in advance, cover both days, and can be bought at the Tourist Information Centre on the ground floor at Muriel Matters House, or bought 'on the door' for £3; the breakfast on Sunday costs more too, with entertainment, as usual, provided by internationally famed Liane Carroll. See website for further details.

And I apologise for the fuzziness of the above photograph, but it was very windy yesterday early morning, but this evening, in the 'music tent' at the Stade Beach, music kicks off the weekend with Super-Ska Night. OK, not as selective as this, and without the pressure or missing words, but here are samples of a band I saw many years ago (video and video), this is ska! Tickets are £8.50 in advance from the Tourist Information Centre at Muriel Matters House, or £10 on the door.

Enjoy the weekend!

Celebrating Jack in Hastings, and more...

You can't do any better than celebrate Jack in the Green by meeting up with one of the 4 Beer Fairies, here in the Dolphin Inn at about 09.30! I'm sure she must have a celtic name, whatever, she put me right about the role of a Beer Fairy, mostly, who's job is to keep the Bogies hydrated with ale from their rather enormous horns, nice one and cheers! She certainly made me smile, and we met up a couple of more times during the day, such is life in the party town of Hastings, keeps us older lads happy anyway...

As I had other duties up on West Hill this year, I didn't get a chance to photograph the many motorbikes that arrived, but, on my way along the seafront, I snapped early arrivals...

Waiting for the Jack to emerge from the Fishermen's Museum, only, due to other reasons, I couldn't hang around for long enough! 

Opposite the Dolphin, the Giants wait for the Jack to emerge too! 

 Jack!

Looking up High Street towards the procession coming down High Street! 

Up West Hill I then rushed, up the steepest way it seemed! Once at the top, you can see the trouble up there yesterday, 'twas a bit like being in a cloud! Sad for the day, and was quieter up here than usual, but still, it became much busier when the Jack and entourage arrived, but I was helping out in the...  

The Bar 

Anyway, as I said, I couldn't take so many photographs this year as I was otherwise engaged, the weather wasn't so great, but a fun time was had by many!

This morning, and this was taken before 07.00, and the job of cleaning up the 'Old Town' was already nearly completed, but you can see a few of those who carried out that job in this photograph, well done Hastings, and well done you cleaning peeps too, no wonder our council tax is not so cheap! 

My shadow is down there, bottom left, looking forward to the next party, cheers!

Beer on the Pier, cheers!

Hastings Pier opened its gates today, so I decided to christen the pier with a bottle of their 'special' ale, 1872 Blonde Ale (3.7%), Harveys re-badged Wild Hop ale, brewed using a combination of wild Sussex hops and Cascade hops, not bad!  

Open gates, and a short film on the BBC South East Today facebook page!  

Where I drank my beer, and a selection of other photographs below...

Remember, the Pier has a new website. Also, confirmation that dogs on leads will be allowed onto the pier out of season, ie from October until the end of April (so you have a few days left!), though not in buildings, at events, or on the Upper Deck of the Visitors Centre. Of course, this is excepting assistance dogs, that are allowed on the pier all year; this is the same as the rules on the beach next to the Pier.

The Visitors Centre, not open just yet, but will be very soon. 

 End of the Pier

Looking back to land, way over there! 

Looking over to the east. 

If you're feeling lazy! 

The building in the centre, which used recovered and refurbished boards from the original pier platform, it looks much better up close! 

View from on top of Visitors Centre 

Remembering, there will be a cafe, and bar, I believe, up on top too! 

Walking down from the roof 

That's all for now, folks, enjoy! 

Tomorrow evening at the Dolphin pub...

By Steve the Beermeister 

From tomorrow evening, 6-9pm, Wednesday, I just found out that Daisy returns to the Dolphin as guest chef, to enable a regular Wednesday 'Sausage & Mash' evening! That is...   

Locally sourced sausages (from the Arcade Butchers, plus a vegetarian option available), mash and vegetables, plus a pint of (quite possibly) award winning ale, or lager, or a glass of wine, or a soft drink, all for just £9! I think I know where I'll be eating and drinking tomorrow evening, cheers!