Bearwood

We found ourselves driving around our locale on Saturday afternoon (after visiting a garden centre) and decided to pop into a brand new craft brewery/taproom on the outskirts of our home town. Called "Bearwood Brewing" it's named after an area to the West of the town called "Bear Wood" where there used to be a big old public school belonging to the Royal Merchant Navy that had lush grounds and even a large lake, but which closed down in 2014, there's a golf course on the site now. 

Anyway, the brewery and taproom is situated (as most of them are) in a light industrial estate on the outskirts of town, surrounded by tattoo establishments, pole dancing schools and car repair shops it felt a little out of place to be having a drink there but hey ho, in for a penny etc.. The venue itself was clean and nicely decked out and the range of taps on offer numerous, most of the beers available were their own but they also had a couple of guest beers and some zero alcohol options. I opted for a hazy pale ale (Accomplices) made with Citra and Nelson, it was well made, balanced and flavoursome but a little light on the body, I think it weighed in at around 5% but perhaps needed a little more umph! Not a bad effort though, I'm sure it takes a while for a brewery to bed-in and for the core range to emerge!

Unfortunately we only had time for a quick half, it would have been nice to stay a bit longer and try one of their tasting flights, another time..

Sunday Sermon

 

Luckily, these days, no one in their right mind would base their entire moral and ethical foundation on a primitive bronze age story book... oh, wait..

V. Citra

Had one of these last night, it's a NEIPA beer from Verdant made with 100% Citra hops called "All of this may be untrue". It's an absolute haze bomb, delightful tropical fruit flavours, dank and a solid bitter (ish) finish, a really nice beer and at 4.9% ABV not too head harming! Unfortunately I only had the one can, sourced from the "fridge of wonders" at Elusive, however I'm aiming to visit Verdant's Penryn taproom at some point this year so who knows, maybe I'll be able to try it on keg fresh from source (that would be awesome!) ...

Friday Smirk

The boys talking about the absurdity of the concept of "facing Mecca" on a planet that's a sphere! I wonder how many human beings in history have stressed about this, I bet it's quite a few, we're such silly sausages sometimes..

Vote

Voted today in our council elections, but TBH it was more a vote against who I didn't want rather than who I did...

Midweek Mirth

I've attended a few interviews like this over the years..

Thirst Quencher

Had a new beer from Elusive over the weekend, it's a pale ale made with NZ hops (Motueka) with added lime juice called "Zesty" (it's well named!). The overall effect is a bit like a lager and lime, pale and crisp with a very prominent citrus backbone. This one would be perfect for warmer weather and BBQs, really easy to drink and only 4.5% ABV a real thirst quencher!

Local Stories

An old photograph (50s?) taken in my home town showing the Tudor house at the end of Broad Street (the old market street), a really interesting building complete with wooden beams, warped floorboards and ceilings that struggle to reach 5ft tall! Amazingly in recent years this was the town's doctors surgery, there were at least a dozen GP's in there practicing medicine from tiny little dark paneled rooms. The upper floor window on the left was one of the waiting rooms, my infant son projectile vomited in there on one visit and I had to scoop it all up with paper towels from the toilet, ah the joys of parenting! These days the old place has been converted into apartments (like a lot of places in town) although we all remember the days when it had the faint whiff of disinfectant and the sounds of red-faced people sitting around in 16th century rooms, sniffing and sneezing..