St.Bees is a small quite village located on the coast of West Cumbria. It's probably most famous for being the starting point of the Wainwright Coast to Coast walk or maybe for being the place Edmund Blackadder himself Rowan Atkinson was educated, but more importantly it has 4 pubs which all serve real ale and it's this last fact which helped me decide to choose the sleepy little town as the subject of my post. So last Saturday me and my good friend Chris headed down to St.Bees to try a couple of choice ales from a couple of the local pubs.
The first pub we went to was the Queens. The Queens used to be somewhat of a regular haunt for me and my friends during our sixth form days, it was a little run down, but always had friendly atmosphere and good ale to spare. The Queens is now under new management and they seem to have done a reasonably good job of renovating the old pub, while still hanging on to the traditional feel of a real ale pub. We did note however the flower vases on tables, which were clearly not in the dining area and a rather cheap looking coffee print which looked like it was bought in Wilkinson’s were a bit out of place in a real ale pub. The Ordinance Survey maps and walking guides on the wall along with the roaring fire more than made up for those shortfalls though.
Anyway onto the ale, we both decided to start with a pint of Banks's Fine Fettle. It was a light, fresh ale that you wouldn’t normally associate with winter, it certainly seemed an ale more suited to a summer afternoon than a cold winter evening. On first taste we both agreed on a citrusy flavour, not that of lemon or lime, but something a little sweeter more like orange and a strong woody finish, something akin to walnut. At this point I feel I should point out, neither of us have any experience or knowledge of ale tasting so we might be talking complete rubbish, but I can safely say it was one tasty pint.
The next pub we visited sits across the road only 7m away from the first. The Manor House unlike the Queens has not been recently renovated and in all honesty is all the better for it. It has a much more traditional pub feel, you know the exposed beams, copper wall ornaments, beer mats hanging behind the bar and all that. The atmosphere in the Manor was notably more friendly as soon as you stepped through the door, which is why we stayed for two pints rather than the scheduled one.
For our second drink we both went for a pint of Adnams Explorer. It was a less complex ale than Fine Fettle and lacked the depth of multiple flavours, it was also slightly stronger than any of the other ales we had that day. One notable flavour we both detected was honey. Not the runny, syrupy stuff you normally see in bear shaped bottles on American tv, but real old man honey. The hard kind, which you have to dig out with a knife and although its undeniably sweet, there is a slight bitter taste that comes with it.
ooking back on our notes for the last two ales, I think the conversation had begun to flow quite freely and we had become slightly distracted from our task at hand as or analysis had become a little lightweight. I chose to end the trip with Thwaits Wainwright which I thought would be quite fitting considering our location. It was far lighter in colour than the previous two ales I tried and was notably bitterer, almost tart. Chris went for a pint of St. Austall's Tribute Premium Cornish Ale, no doubt chosen for the brilliant name. Looking back at his notes all he managed in way of a description was “creamy” but having checked back with him for clarity he assured me it was a delicious pint.
After our three ales we decided to head back home, both thoroughly satisfied and reasonably amused as we read through our attempts at describing the alcoholic beverage that we both love.
