Monthly Archives: July 2011

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A sad farewell to Kimberley Miners Welfare

Miners

 

Recently the Kimberley Miners Welfare closed after 80+ years. A sad day for a lot of people who frequented this great place to meet friends, play bingo and have a drink. Sure it only had one real ale on per time, it was usually kept well so they already were getting one thing right Wetherspoons could fail on some nights when they had 4 times that many guest ales.

Places like the Miners Welfare are not so much about the drink but the atmosphere, I think it’s safe to say without being ageist that most of the clientele of the Miners Welfare were over 50 with a spread below this age maintaining membership. Atmosphere created by the relaxed attitude of the staff, children were allowed in and often met up with other children from other patrons, food would often be brought in from outside without being frowned upon by staff.

Local acts would play on the stage at the back, ignore if you want, sing along if you want, get up and dance if you want! Some were good, some not so good but all were greeted with applause at the end.

The drink selection was mostly generic with 1 guest real ale, they did a mean can of Tango if you fancied a soft drink. The real kicker about this place being gone is it represents (in my opinion) the archetype of the Old English Tavern. A place to meet, talk, drink and eat…a central hub of activity for a community.

Not just someplace to swill lager and watch Sky Sports. Plenty of activities were played here instead like bingo, open the box (finding that key is impossible…) quizzes and stuff which brings people together…not just draws their blank gazes to a TV. I’m not sure who I’m aiming my disappointment or scorn at exactly, only that the “big guys” have contributed to the downfall of someplace like this. Places like this are important for communities, I doubt there are many other local places some of the “older” clientele would like to go to now.

Clubs are becoming a dying breed. Having been a member of at least 4 in Ilkeston/Kimberley I can say that Nottingham on the whole will be worse for more of these closing. However price hikes, higher beer duty and recession make it hard for places which are not centered around profit and competitiveness to stay afloat. The local word is the miners is now being considered as a building project for apartments. So suburbia claims another victim after 80+ years of being open.

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Fox and Crown Basford / Alcazar Brewery

Well there are plenty of newcomers to the brewing scene in Nottingham, but rather than get swept up in all that let’s take a look at one that’s been around for a bit, brewing from the Fox & Crown in Basford the Alcazar Brewery.

Alcazar started brewing in 1999, whilst that’s still relatively recent they’ve been brewing since well before the recent real ale resurgence, though you would be forgiven for not knowing who they are as I have only ever seen their beers on sale at the Nottingham Beer festival or the Fox and Crown itself, but then they are a small brewery.

 

 This lack of exposure doesn’t mean they do ale not worthy of it, far from it, they have a good stable of beer with Sherrifs Gold and Black Fox both excellent session choices though I will admit to not having tried the whole range due to availability! It would be nice to see them spread out a bit more, but the Nottingham real ale scene is becoming a tremendously fierce battle ground, it seems to survive you need to get some brews with the popular US and NZ hop imports, let’s hope they do.

They show sky sports, which isn't for everyone, but most ale pubs nowadays choose not to.

The Fox and Crown is a great traditional pub in easy walking distance of the Basford tram stop, and it would be rude to not goto the also excellent Horse and Groom whilst you’re in the area!

As Radfordlad points out in the comments below, CAMRA discount is 25p off a pint, and they do thai food though I have yet to try it.

33 Church Street, Old Basford, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, NG6 0GA

*Note Alcazar beers are available in bottles, I have tried a few and whilst being passable as with most bottled beer they’re nowhere near as good as on draft.

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CAMRA and BrewDog get nitro knickers twisted.

Hit the nitro! it sounds like something out of Knight Rider doesn’t it? no I didn’t think so either, as we all know KITT uses a turbo boost, not nitro.

You may or may not have read about the big brewhaha kicking off between CAMRA and BrewDog regarding kegging some of their beer at the GBBF (Great British Beer Festival) it’s mostly rather petty tit for tat but it does create a bridge to an issue that over the coming months and years we will be undoubtedly seeing more of, craft beer in a keg. Like it or not ‘craft beer’ in kegs isn’t going anywhere so CAMRAs decision to pull the plug seems a little short sighted, perhaps both parties just need to sit down properly and talk it over, this would be helped greatly by BrewDog who brew some fine beer indeed pulling their head down from the clouds, they’re not the messiahs they often claim to be, just rather good at marketing.

The ‘rebellious’ BrewDog (available in Tescos…) like to get busy with the fizzy, or busy wit’ fizzy if you prefer the Bo Selecta Craaaaig Daaavid approach. So what’s the big deal? well it all comes down to the definitions of ale, live yeast, filtering etc, yes I can hear the snores already but kegging dominance in short is what CAMRA was setup to stop happening; but more importantly it looks to me like a good old clashing of opinion. In Europe and America this practise of kegging is common, my co-writer Hoppkins is a huge fan of American craft beers and has sampled them many times on their home soil, I myself loved many of the beers we had in Amsterdam, again all kegged, in-fact some of the Flying Dog beers I had out there rank as the best I have ever had though I am massively curious as to what they taste like without kegging.

Is there room for both? I don’t think there’s a choice as both exist and both will continue to push forward but you can’t blame CAMRAs defensive approach with the taste destroying reputation kegging has, this can’t be helped by some of the UK brewers putting on some very poor shows, both BrewDogs- Punk IPA and Thornbridge – Jaipur are brilliant brews, but truly dreadful on keg, and I might point out at this point I have tried them both more than twice at different places and times so it wasn’t just a bad batch.

For now it seems a lot more toys are going to be chucked out the pram, but it seems a genuine shame to have beers specifically brewed for kegging as they do in the US and Europe snubbed because of this reason, for now this debate seems set to roar on.

Of much more importance is the Nottingham CAMRA branches confirmation that BrewDog will be at the 2011 Nottingham Beer Festival but as last year on cask, not keg!

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The Goosebury Bush, reborn a Wetherspoon

Ah Mr Wetherspoon, we meet again.

Goosebury Bush Nottingham

The Goosebury Bush has a lot of work to do, and seems to be doing it so far, the other Wetherspoons’ in Nottingham city center are in an embarrasingly ropey state and are long overdue a complete overhaul, the recent opening of the TBI only further highlighted just how bad its city center counterparts are. Both the Roebuck Inn and the Joseph Else in my first hand experience have been guilty of having a pint returned to be tried by the barman, him commenting on how it ‘tastes of vinegar’ offering a replacement pint, and then leaving the other ‘bad’ one for sale until assumedly it runs out. No wonder many people are put off drinking real ale.

Goosebury Bush Glass Window

The pub has some interesting features including artwork, stained glass, and some odd woodworked tables, that made balancing a pint tricky!

Previous owners Varsity ended up selling to Wetherspoons, it’s worth pointing out at this point that the Goosebury Bush, or what once was Varsity is about 2 minutes if that from Nottingham Trent University; I would have thought it would be easy to hoover student money up from a pub placed here, or maybe it was and they wanted to cash in, who knows? and thinking about it, who cares? So what’s it like…

(if you’re wondering how to find it, follow the tram tracks out of Nottingham, turn right up the hill when you see a cemetary)

Goosebury Bush Interior

As you would expect from a brand new pub it’s all very tidy, how long this is set to last for remains to be seen, I just hope it doesn’t fall foul of student abuse! There are many very comfy leather sofas and soft chairs and plenty of dinner tables dotted around, including some in the unique overlooking point of the pub, alas it only overlooks a carpark, oh well.

Goosebury Bush Pumps

One half of the ale selection, note that this is opening day and running off its 'starter pack'

Goosebury Bush Pumps

This picture is as blury as this side of the bars ale is generic

10 ale pumps sets the tone and whilst the selection is currently somewhat generic this is more down to the ‘starter pack’ new ‘spoons pubs get given, speaking to the barman revealed that only 2 are ‘must stocks’ where as the other 8 are open to guests from Nottingham and further afar, given time this could be a bit of a gem, and it hopefully increases pressure on the other city center Wetherspoons dossholes.

Is it worth a visit? yes, even more so when the beer selection gets into gear, we will revisit in a couple of weeks and see what’s what, until then the Dr says drink some beer.