Wednesday 4 November 2009

A Couple of New Beers

We had a CAMRA meeting last night and it gave me the opportunity to try two beers I've never had. First was Saltaire Republika, a strawberry infused blonde beer which was surprisingly good, with a whiff of fresh strawberry on the nose and a good bitter finish with strawberry again evident. Interesting and different, but I dare say it will appeal to some more than others.

More promising, as they always are, was a new beer from Mallinson's of Huddersfield. St George's Square is pale, full bodied, spicy, with a long bitter finish. It was really excellent and was my beer of choice for the rest of the evening. The Baum, our hosts and our current Pub of the Year lived up to its reputation. The beer was on top form and as a bonus, though some won't approve no doubt, they offer 40p off a pint to CAMRA members.

Both Saltaire and Mallinson's are tremendous breweries. Seek them out.

7 comments:

Sat In A Pub said...

Yeah, the Mallinsons was on in the Marble last weekend and very nice it was too. Also look out for Saltaire Raspberry Blonde which is doing the rounds and is another of their fruit beers that divides opinion.

Cooking Lager said...

Not being facetious, but what occurs during CAMRA meetings and what is the point of them, other than to keep the odd balls off the streets? Oh and is 40p off a pint the going rate for winning a CAMRA award? Not disapproving, just asking.

Tandleman said...

We talk about beer oddly enough. A bit like a live blog. Like most things in life, there isn't any point, but it passes the time until you croak.

As for the 40p off, in the hundreds of pubs in our area, I know of only two to offer such a thing. The beer in the Baum and the place is so good, you'd pay the extra 40p anyway. Well, not you. Obviously.

JohnB said...

So they can take 40p off and still, presumably, make an acceptable profit. Wonder what that tells you about the non-CAMRA price? Rip-off comes to mind.

Anonymous said...

Well JohnB there's no pleasing some miserable gits is there, given that I suspect you've never been near The Baum and have no idea about the prices you aren't really qualified to comment are you. And no, I'm not the landlord and I don't even work there.

JohnB said...

Anonymous.
Unsurprisingly your suspicions are spot-on wrong.
Now for a bit of fun please explain what's being a 'miserable git' about identifying possible opportunity (ie. rip off) pricing.
Britain has a certain reputation for exploitative pricing. Somehow we're often daft enough to think that high price always means high quality.
I'm sure you'll be one of those.

Anonymous said...

Identifying possibly opportunity pricing is only possible when you know what the non CAMRA prices are, which you obviously don't as the Baum's prices are comparable to the other pubs in Rochdale town centre, as you'd know if you'd ever visited, which you haven't.