Even in this little rural outpost of Exmoor, we get beer: at 5.15pm this afternoon I received an email from Kenny at the Bridge. ‘Brew Dog 77 Lager on now...’ It’s a five minute walk down the road, right next to the River Barle, which eventually meets its destiny with the Exe about two miles away. At 5.30pm, having decided that my saison opening for an American magazine was coming along nicely, I was on my way. It’s the best beer on tap this weekend in Dulverton, and I say this having also thoroughly enjoyed several pristine fragrantly hopped pints of Tribute at my other local Woods afterwards. The countryside and fantastic beer, what a combination. This is not one of those Sodom and Gomorrah rants about the Moloch of the city, I love cities, but I don’t want to live in them and I glad to get home here after a day or so in London, Sheffield, Prague, New York, whatever So take a bow Kenny at the Bridge and Paddy at Woods. Hwyl fawr.
The picture is of a tree (obviously) in the centre of Hawkridge, a village four miles or so out on the moor, which has no pub but is exquisitely isolated.
Is the 77 Lager on cask or keg?
ReplyDeleteC it’s cask but as it’s Friday evening and I didn’t feel like engaging in debates with the likes of Herbie the fake Macedonian, Postman John and The Poet about lager i left it, besides it’s a bloody good beer (though nothing like a Bohemian Pils as the brewrey’s website seemed to suggest).
ReplyDeleteThe reason I ask - and this subject probably deserves a post of its own - is that cask lagers tend to appeal to cask drinkers, not existing lager drinkers. Breweries like BrewDog will only make inroads into the wider lager market if they put products such as 77 into kegs.
ReplyDeleteC I agree, am going down the Bridge later on and will find out from Kenny how it has gone (it’s Carnival night), the lager lads I know will give it a wide berth because of handpumps and even the Exmoor Ale men will look at it suspiciously. The problem with producing keg lager for small outfits is that very few pubs have the facilities to put on a guest lager, I remember doing a piece on it for What’s Brewing and Richard at Cotswold enlightened me on the whole problem for micro lager brewers. Budvar draft is on at the Bridge as well and I have sen Carlsberg men try it but at a quid or so more than their normal tipple they had one, pronounced it fine and then back to their normal suds.
ReplyDeleteJust tried this myself in Edinburgh - like it, but it certainly an assertive pint!!
ReplyDeleteleigh
ReplyDeleteAssertive is the word for it, it took two days to go, which isn’t bad for a small Exmoor place, they sold 45 pints on Saturday during the carnival (a big thing out here in the west), I enjoyed the last two pints on Sunday afternoon.