Wednesday 8 July 2009

A Good Thing About Sam's


After a pleasant visit to Phoenix Brewery on Saturday, along with a couple of others, Tony Allen, the brewer, suggested we nip into Heywood to check out the refurbished Engineer's Arms.

My experience is that Sam's when they do a place up, do so sympathetically, to a high standard and restore as many original features as possible. The Engineer's was no exception. They have done a great job in this traditional local. Old Brewery Bitter will never be my favourite beer, but it was on good form too. I won't mention the price though - that'd be cheap. Which it was.

Heywood is known locally as Monkey Town. Not sure why.

8 comments:

  1. I like the eccentric and enigmatic approach of SS. Their restoration of the Princess Louise in Holborn is a triumph, and in a city where the four-quid pint is becoming a reality I've learned to love OB.

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  2. Last August, I had a pint of Old Brewery Bitter in the Jolly Sailors in Whitby, Yorkshire, for £1.41. In the next pub, the Shambles, I had Copper Dragon at £2.80. CD is the better beer, but OBB was perfectly aceptable at half the price. And to think that in decades gone by, CAMRA used to oppose tied brewery estates!

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  3. We get a lot wrong in CAMRA, but of course that one is in retrospect.

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  4. I always try and include a Sam's pub, or two on any drinking tour of London. I like the way they have restored many of their pubs, and OBB at under £2 a pint has to be another bonus!

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  5. I liked that Sam's pub in the middle of Manc--what's it called?

    The other one I've been to is the ...er... Princess-something in London: brilliant. The beer's not my favourite, but is a nice diversion.

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  6. Oh please, tell us the price. £1.35 for Old Brewery round my neck of the woods and a regular clientele of ageing red eyed alcoholics always up for incoherent slurred banter. Proper boozers, old school.

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  7. It seems, outrageously, Sam's had put the price up to £1.39 to cover the refurb.

    Mind you it has to be said the price for the bottled beers, even in lowly Monkey Town, is eye watering. It's only the draught beers that are cheap.

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  8. Taddy Porter is going for £3.65 a bottle in London, but I think it's worth every penny.

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