Curry Night

Visited The Staple Hill Oak last night. They were serving the new curry menu but due "to a printing" error the printed menus were not available. I reckon that someone forgot. However, I tried the new Lamb Chettinadu.This dish originates from the Chettinad region of India. Pieces of diced lamb are cooked with traditional Chettinad spices, in a tomato & coconut sauce, with fennel, cinnamon and black pepper. It was very nice, tasty and not too spicy but at 946 calories you wouldn't want to eat it everyday. Back to the beer. Started off with a Wickwar Breweries Autumnale (yes all one word) 4.6%. Then onto a Snowy Owl 5% as the free drink with the curry. Nice curry which I have already mentioned. However, then had a pint of Abbot Reserve 6.5%. A truly lovely and very drinkable beer so I had another. But at 6.5% it really is too strong.

Wetherspoons Real Ale and Cider Festival starts on 27 Oct 10. Jim, Pet and Richard will miss it as they are off to New Zealand. Lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky barstewards. I will have to find another partner for the 4 or 5 of my Wednesday pub visits (not quite a pub crawl more of a pub stroll). Volunteers, preferably female and naturally blond, please write your details on a postcard and send to me. Sorry kids you have to over 18 for this one.

Wednesday - A Day Out In Bristol

After catching a bus to St Nichol's farmers market and purchasing my usual pie and also a piece of topside beef from Moorland Farm, Axbridge, Somerset I met Pete in the Commercial Rooms. Suffered the usual wait at the bar although this time when the bar person started to serve some late comers they very kindly pointed out that it was me that was next. Fair play to them. I got a pint of Ringwood Huffin 4.4%. Ever mindful of trying new beers we finished our pints and headed to the Cornubia a delightful pub run by an extremely nice couple. They also offer a good discount to card carrying members of Camra There is the usual decoration and a tank with some turtles swimming about. The landlady told us that there were getting a bigger tank so the turtles would have more room. I suspect that the resident turtles will just get bigger or it will provide an excuse to introduce more wild life. We shall see. Here we devoured a pint of Lord Nelson 4.2% from the Cornish Brewing Company  Anyway, our second choice was a beer brewed for the Cornubia called, wait for it, Cornubia 3.8% a copper coloured ale with a nice hops to the nose and a hoppy aftertaste. After that we tried a pint of Old Higby 4.8%. A really enjoyable afternoon quaffing beer and putting the spending review to rights.

I managed to catch an earlier bus than normal so got home in time for a couple of bowls of really scrummy, really delicious lamb stew.

Its Thursday and can you guess what that means. Yes, curry night at the Staple Hill Oak. There is a new menu for the curry club. Mainly old favourites but some new ones. I hope that they have not taken the opportunity to raise their prices. Se shall see tonight.

Another Barrelling of the Beer

Transferred the fermented wort of Donnington Best Bitter to a pressure barrel and primed with 75 grams of castor sugar on 16 Oct 10. A final gravity of 1.006 gave an ABV of about 3.51. This should be a nice easy drinking session beer. Tuesday 19 Oct 10. Its raining hard and I am reluctant to grab the barrel from the brewing cupboard and lug it the 5 metres into the cold of the garage. Though its got to be done and I struggle through the pouring rain and finally manage to lift it up onto the 4 foot racking. Job done and I leave the garage. Bloody hell its stopped raining and the sun has come out. If I had waited another 2 minutes I wouldn't have that soaking. Oh well! Thats Life. And don't you forget it.

Meeting with Pete tomorrow at the Commercial Rooms for our usual Wednesday jaunt around Bristol. I hope the weather will be a little kinder.

Thursday Night is Curry Night (well almost)

Joined Jim, Pete and Geoff at the Staple Hill Oak for our weekly curry night. However, they had a special offer on Chile Con Carne with rice or chips and tortilla chips with sour cream for £2.99. A bargain. So we ditched the curry in favour of the chili. Good choice it was very nice indeed and came with plenty of tortilla chips, potato chips and sour cream. (click here for a couple of chili recipes).We ordered 4 of them. Unfortunately they only had three left so Geoff ended up with the 5 bean chili and a side order of onion bhajis. He does like his bhajis. Started off with a Yellow Hammer 4.2%. This ran out quite soon so our second drink was a Rucking Mole 4.5%. All this washed down with a couple bottles of Hardy's Shiraz. Though Geoff had to leave early and Jim was forced to drink nearly a full bottle by himself. It was another successful night and very much enjoyed.

The trip to The Old Spot at Dursely has been postponed until the 28 Oct 10.

EVERYBODY HAS TO BELIEVE IN SOMETHING... I BELIEVE I'LL HAVE ANOTHER BEER.

The Wednesday Day Out

Journeyed to St Nichols Farmers market by bus. It was bang on time and it is still unnerving. However, purchased my usual Friday lunch pie (a PM from Pieminister). I also hunted around for a Sirlion joint but couldn't find one. So will order some meat from Donald Russell. They are a bit expensive but if you buy their special offers the meat is not much dearer than supermarkets and of a much superiour quality. Met Pete in the Commercial Rooms after a bit of confusion as to where we were meeting. After queuing and enduring a later arrival being served before myself, I had a pint of Roosters Bangtail 3.7%. A delicious bitter with a very distinctive taste. I do think that Weatherspoons should introduce some sort of ticketing (siniliar to what the supemarkets use on their deli counters) thus ensuring that customers get served in their proper turn.

Onwards then to the Penny Farthing for a pint of Malt of Hops at £3.10.I should have asked the barman about the beer because I can't find anything via google about it. However, a very enjoyable ale, malty and hoppy as the name suggests. They also had about 5 other real ales available including Henry's IPA 3.6% at £2.30 a pint. Which considering the location of the pub was a very good price indeed. We didn't stay as we wanted to go onto the Blackboy Inn. It was little bit further than we first thought but we bravely trudged up the hill and were rewarded with a pint of Betty Stogs 4% but quite expensive at £3.30. Also a welcome return to our traditional bowl of chips. The chips were very good and served with a small ramikin of tomato sauce and the usual salt and vinagar. However, at £2.50 I would have liked a few more chips. Considering other pubs can produce the same quality of chips and more of them with a wider selection of sauces for about 70p less per bowl.

Curry Night tonight at the Staple Hill Oak. Yummy, yummy.

Brewing Done For Now

The next brew day has not yet been decided but will probably be a week Friday 29 Oct 10. I will move the barrel of the latest brew, Darkish Knight, to the garage and leave for 2-3 months. Wednesday tomorrow and looking forward to trying a new pub or two around the Clifton area of Bristol.

Thursday curry night is rapidly approaching. Weatherspoons new menu does not start until 22 Oct 10. So I will now have to wait for another 2 weeks before I can try any new curries that may have.

Another visit to the Old Spot at Dursley is planned for Thursday 28 Oct 10. I hope they have a few new ales for some of the Old Gits to try.

The Barrelling of the Beer

Took a final gravity reading of the Dark Knight which read 1.006 which makes a ABV of just over 3.6% and decided to transfer to a barrel. All went well but the Dark Knight is not quite as dark as I expected. This is probably due to the fact that I only steeped the black malt instead of boiling it along with the malt and hops. So I have decided to rename it the Darkish Knight. Is this classified as a mistake. Not really I think the correct term would be "learning curve".



The latest brew is still bubbling along nicely and should be ready for the barrel in another 8-10 days. Not made any mistakes yet. Fingers, legs and well as everything else are well and truly crossed.