Showing posts with label The Jenny Lind. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Jenny Lind. Show all posts
Monday, 17 March 2025
St Patrick's Day Music in Hastings!
Albion, 33 George Street TN34 3EA from 8.00pm The Garry Blakely Band (website);
Clarence, 391 London Road TN37 6PH from 3.00pm Stone's Throw (facebook);
Dolphin Inn, 11-12 Rock-a-Nore Road TN34 3DW from 6.30pm Lackadaisy (Hastings Events);
Jenny Lind Inn, 69 High Street TN34 3EW from 6.00pm Bold Reilly (website);
Stag Inn, 14 All Saints Street TN34 3BJ from 8.00pm Shamrock-a-Nore (website).
Enjoy live music and party folks, slainte!
Friday, 8 November 2024
Hastings Old Town Cider Festival 2024
Wednesday, 2 October 2024
Hastings Tap Takeover at 15 Venues!
Friday, 5 January 2024
Festive Cheer!
By Steve the Beermeister:
Happy/Hoppy New Beer/Year! I wandered around Hastings over the last few weeks, particularly the 'old town' with its better variety and choice of pubs, but I've included a photograph above of the tree in Priory Meadow shopping centre, taken fairly early in the morning.
I started in the town centre, it's where I live, but now walk eastwards, past Iceland, to the old town, where the first pub you reach opposite the seafront, with its other side in George Street, that is the Albion, 33 George Street TN34 3EA (website), which sells 4 cask ales from Sussex and Kent brewers, normally Harvey’s Sussex Best (website) as a regular; sadly they no longer appear to be getting ale from Bedlam Brewery. Plus side, they do now take cash again.
I missed drinking the 7.5% Harvey's Christmas Ale (website) on my last visit, indeed, which I last drank 4 years ago now (blog), but a bit strong to start off the session! However, I did recently drink there, from another East Sussex brewery Long Man (website), their 4.3% old ale Old Man, which I joked about many years ago about a young member of bar staff at the Dolphin Inn serving up 'an old man Old Man' - amused me at the time, sadly I've lost the image of her pulling the pint... Anyway, Old Man is brewed using darker malts, of course, with Bramling Cross and Fuggles hops, producing a fine version of an old ale, dark and bitter sweet, nice one...
Carrying along George Street you reach 2 of the 5 Shepherd Neame (website) pubs in the old town, if you like their ales, you may say 'blessed' with 5! Above is a photograph of Ye Olde Pumphouse, 64 George Street TN34 3EE. It looks old, but was actually built 1955/56, opening in 1956, but using older materials; I suggest reading Hastings Pub History website for more details. Indeed, the first pub that Shepherd Neame acquired in Hastings was The Freemans in Wellington Place, now Jempsons/Rye Bakery, which was their pub from 1928-1958 (blog).
What I did drink at the Pumphouse was the cask Shepherd Neame Christmas Ale (5.0% cask ale - 7.0% in bottle). An amber winter ale, not as impressive as the Harvey's version, no surprise bearing in mind the strength, but a gentle surprisingly easy to drink bitter sweet beer.
Virtually opposite, is another Sheps pub, the Anchor Inn, 13 George Street TN34 3EG (website), a much older pub (blog). Here you get the regular ales, sometimes the impressive 5.0% Bishops Finger, and the pub is famed for its Sunday roast dinners/lunch!
At the eastern end of the street is another older Sheps pub, the Hastings Arms, 2 George Street TN34 3EG (website), which I have written about before in my older blog. Actually, I visit here quite often, and I really do need to update this blog more with information about pubs I've written about in the past in that older blog; usual Sheps beers served here. They have a locally popular, thus heavily subscribed Curry Night on Tuesdays, and Tapas Night on Thursdays. Also, I regularly meet up with people I know coincidentally at the Sheps pubs in the old town. 😁
Turning left up the High Street, and up on the left is the Jenny Lind, 69 High Street TN34 3EW (website), which I have written about a number of times (eg blog). Here I drank:
A wee bit confusing, because it was in a Long Man glass in this image, but the ale is actually from yet another East Sussex brewery Three Acre (website), and is their 5.1% Chocolate Oat Stout, with the added chocolate flavour coming from added cacao apparently, not just chocolate malt. Does what it says on the label, smooth, chocolatey, with a dry roasted malt finish, strangely nowhere near as heavy as I thought it would be, nice!
Further up the hill, and on the right is the First In Last Out (FILO), 14-15 High Street TN34 3EY (website), with its own brewery, and which I've written about many times (eg blog). Usually meet up with people I know here, indeed, arranged to meet up with a couple of friends here last Thursday, and another friend, Russ, always comes down once a year to visit me, and we always drink here, if not eat here (although it was the Albion where we ate at the Thursday before).
I have imbibed a few of their different styles of ale here recently, best bitter (3.8%), pale and hoppy (4.2%), and the stronger Gold (4.8%), but I'll discuss here their 4.6% Cardinal Sussex Porter. Brewed with chocolate malt and roasted barley this is a very deep dark red, and tastes like it should, with a smooth finish, nice one.
Go behind the FILO via the alleyway by its side, and car park, and you reach The Bourne, once a river, now a sewer below ground, and a road above, cross the road and nip up a side road to All Saints Street, if you turn left and carry on up the hill you come to another Sheps pub in the old town, The Stag. However, I turned right and down to the Cinque Ports Arms (above), 105 All Saints Street TN34 3BE. This pub was originally known as the Chequers and dated back to before 1642, but apparently hasn't been a pub continuously since then. For more information about the history of the pub go to the excellent Hastings Pub History website.
The have had 3 ales on when I've visited before, but it is usually 2 cask ales, including the ubiquitous Harvey's Sussex Best (above), and, replacing the Fuller's ESB that used to be a regular here, now they sell Fuller's smaller sibling, London Pride. Needless to say I had a pint of both, and a nice chat with Tony, who I found sitting at the bar when I arrived, cheers Tony!
Carry on down the hill and you come to the Crown, 64-66 All Saints Street TN34 3BN (website), which sells 2 cask ales, and an array of crafty keg beers. The cask ales are usually from very local brewers, but I own up that I've forgotten what I drank here; I made no notes, oops, sorry! 😕
Anyway, carry on down and you'll reach Rock-a-Nore Road at the bottom of the hill, turn left and you come to the Dolphin Inn, 11-12 Rock-a-Nore Road TN34 3DW (website), which I have to own up to being my favourite among many very good pubs in Hastings; but they sell some of my favourite ales and ales from some of my favourite breweries, notably pale, dry & bitter!
Anyway, recently I've had some very decent dark ales here too, including Titanic Plum Porter and Pomona Island Horngus Mild, but you'll guess from the image above, many excellent pale bitters too. Not just one of my favourite ales Citra, from one of my favourite breweries Oakham Ales (website), both of which I've written about many times before, but many also from another of my two favourite brewers; including Kocasco (4.2%) from Mallinsons (website), brewed with Kohatu, Cascade and Columbus hops, and a few from Kent Brewery (website).
The final Sheps pub in Hastings old town is back to the west of The Bourne and is the Royal Standard, 19 East Street/East Beach Street TN34 3DW (website). The building dates from 1707, when a shoemaker lived there, and was a beerhouse from 1822, and has been a fully licensed pub since 1856. As you'd expect, the usual Shepherd Neame ales are served here, although there wasn't Bishops Finger for my last visit, sadly.
My final seasonal pub is the Jolly Fisherman, 3 East Beach Street TN34 3AR (website), which I have written about quite a few times, eg blog, and which, incidentally, begins a 3-day Dark Beer Festival today, Friday 5th to Sunday 7th January 2024. It will be opening at 12.00 noon for these 3 days, and further information can be found at their facebook page.
I have been intending to write a blog about dark beers, and have been knocking back quite a few recently, but I'll leave that to after I visit over this weekend. However, I have to mention at least one excellent crafty keg I've had there recently, the 12.5% Our Barley Aged Imperial Stout (above), brewed in Glasgow by Overtone Brewing (website). They used 12 kinds of malt in the mash, and this was brewed in collaboration with Lochlea Distillery, aged in a selection of their ex-bourbon and ex-oloroso barrels... Oh yes, and Magnum hops used!
From my notes now: "Very very very dark! Brownish head, rich and thick/full bodied. An aroma of roasted barley, and smooth, rich and chocolatey taste... Very decent!"
HI HO! 🍻
Monday, 27 November 2023
Cider Drinking at Hastings Old Town Cider Festival!
I recently suggested I may take advantage of the Hastings Old Town Cider Festival 2023 (blog), and imbibe cider during the festival... Well, I just sort of missed it, arriving at each of the 4 venues the day after the festival ended, surely they wouldn't have run out of ciders already?!? And I was correct, I drank cider at them all, only small measures of course...
I first visited The Albion, 33 George Street TN34 3EA (website), which, unsurprisingly had many ciders left, although they always have plenty of ciders on sale anyway... So I had a couple there, first off, the 4.0% Gooseberry Cider (above) from (Sussex) South Downs Cider (website), which suggests the use of gooseberries in addition to their usual desert apples in the fermentation. It had a deep reddish colour, slightly cloudy, starting off sweet to the taste, but drying out a wee bit sharp, I wrote 'not bad' which means I was very happy to drink it! 👌
My second cider was from Herefordshire producer Gwatkin Cider (website), their 6.0% Norman Cider (above). Apparently, the Norman Cider apple was imported from Normandy, and there are 'half a dozen apple varieties of the same name' differing in size and shape, but mostly sharing a similar flavour. This cider had an orangey colour, was cloudier, and was much drier than the first cider I had imbibed, medium dry to dry in taste, and another 'not bad' scored by me! 👍
I then wandered on up to the Jenny Lind, 69 High Street TN34 3EW (website) and had the first of a few ciders/perries from Sussex based Ascension Cider (website), both cloudy here, their 4.0% Shimmy (on the left in the photogroph above). Now this is a very interesting cider to taste, my notes say a big apple flavour, as I expected, but I've since found out that it includes lemon and pineapple in the mixture! The lemon obviously offsets the pineapple to the taste, a sweet start with a dry tartness in the finish. It wasn't my favourite cider of the day, but I'd be happy to drink it if there were no other ciders available. 😉
The other cider to the right in the photograph was also from Ascension Cider (website), their 4.8% Pilot, made with 100% Pilot apples. Ascension acknowledge that this, the first ever cider produced by them, can change flavour slightly from batch to batch, as the 'sugars and acids in each apple are dependent upon their variety, their terroir and the conditions they were grown in.' This cider was dry all the way through the drinking experience, and I liked it... 👍
I then ventured over The Bourne to the Crown, 64-66 All Saints Street TN34 3BN (website) and drank yet another Ascension (website) product, but a perry this time, their 3.3% Comice (above). The pears used are descendants of Doyenne du Comice pears first introduced to the UK from France in 1858. This cloudy perry had a fair amount of flavour considering the strength, it was dry and slightly tart, and not bad at all. 👌
My fourth and the final venue, was back down to the Jolly Fisherman, 3 East Beach Street TN34 3AR (website). Here I had a cider from Welsh producer Hallets (website), their 6.0% PX Sherry Finished (above). This was a clear rusty red coloured cider with a tropical fruity aroma and hints added to the apple taste, and another that was very easy to drink, vying with the Gwatkin and Pilot as my favourites of the day 👍 I'll say equal first! 😉
Cheers 🍻
My apologies for not tasting every cider and perry in the festival!
Saturday, 11 November 2023
Hasting Old Town Cider Festival 2023
Maybe you didn't know it was being arranged, but the first annual Hastings Old Town Cider Festival 11-18 November 2023 begins today at 4 old town pubs, The Albion, 33 George Street TN34 3EA (website), The Crown, 64-66 All Saints Street TN34 3BN (website), The Jenny Lind, 69 High Street TN34 3EW (website), and at the Jolly Fisherman, 3 East Beach Street TN34 3AR (facebook).
This new added festival to Hastings' events has been arranged by the licensees of the 4 public houses and promises a large sample of ciders and perries, still and fizzy, and from near and far, and you have a week in which to sample the many delights on offer, enjoy the week, cheers! 🍻
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)