Pubs of 2014

Right, here we go...... The purpose of this blog is to log all the pubs that I have visited and consumed an alcoholic beverage in during 2014. The rules are quite simple, the establishment needs to be a public house, it sounds straightforward but it may get complicated for example things that wouldn't count are a visit to the bar at the cricket, a pre gig drink in a concert venue, a drink at the Birmingham German market etc. As judge and jury my decision is final, and if I'm in any doubt I won't count it.



My prediction as at the start of the year is that the final number will be somewhere around the 200 mark though I won't go to pubs just to get the numbers up, it will be a true reflection of my pub visting year.



My posts will include information about the pub, the ambience of the surroundings, the choice and quality of the beer, any interesting or amusing anecdotes about my visit and, where possible, photographic evidence.



I will try and keep the information as accurate as possible noting that alcohol consumption means that at times this may prove difficult !!



The format of the posts is simple, the first visit to the pub will be the blog entry and that post will be updated for any subsequent visit.



Hope you enjoy it...



Cheers

UPDATE January 2015

Right, that's it, it's finally finished, some 259 pubs later !! It's been hard work but it's nice being able to look back and relive the drinking experiences of 2014.

I am pleased with the final result and whilst I've been reviewing it, I have actually laughed a few times at my own jokes !!

A word of warning, it does start off a bit slow (some of my posts from Bath are a bit dull) but stick with it. In hindsight the format of posting repeat visits to a pub on the original post at times doesn't work very well when reading the blog in its' entirety but on the whole I'm pleased with it and I hope that you enjoy it.

I have stated this in the blog but I will say it again, thanks to anyone that I have had a beer with in 2014 and special thanks to Shelley for her patience !!







Monday, 24 February 2014

The Black Lion

The Black Lion in the centre of Hereford is rumoured to be haunted, however on the night Shelley and I went there with her brother Craig and sister in law Maria the most scary thing that confronted us was the local pub nutter !!

I blame Craig as it was his Stereophonics tee shirt that caused him to talk to us in the first place, and then we couldn't shake him off. He asked us repeatedly 'What was the name of the first Stereophonics album'? and even though we looked up the answer (Word Gets Around just incase you are interested) in the hope that this may encourage him to leave us alone it seemed to have the opposite effect !!

The pub itself was excellent, it was a traditional, welcoming pub in the city centre and was well stocked with local ales from the Wye Valley Brewery (I went for a Hereford Pale Ale) but our abiding memory from our visit was the village idiot. You will notice in the snap that Craig is looking round the pub fearing that any minute he'll appear and ask another bit of trivia about The Stereos...


We quickly downed our beers and bolted for the door whilst his back was turned !!


UPDATE 15th November

We were certainly putting in the miles at weekends, from Liverpool to Lichfield and then Hereford we ensured that we packed plenty into our time away from work. The purpose of our trip to Hereford was to visit Shelley's brother Craig and sister in law Maria, not forgetting their dog Bailey. After a few drinks in their house on Friday night we headed into the centre of Hereford early on Saturday afternoon.

When I say a few drinks in the house I may be understating things slightly, the number of bottles that went out for recycling was either impressive or shameful dependent on your viewpoint, and a half two bedtime for someone of my advancing years is not something that I pull out of the bag too often these days.

First stop was The Black Lion a lovely little pub yards away from where we got off the bus. Plenty of local ale from the Wye Valley brewery for yours truly, I was torn between Butty Bach and HPA, I eventually settled on HPA for a couple of reasons, firstly at 4.5% ABV Butty Bach was maybe a bit strong for an opening gambit, and secondly I was unsure as to whether I could pronounce the word Bach correctly, a mistake I couldn't afford to make with Welsh speaking Maria in attendance !!

The last time we visited this pub Craig's Stereophonics tee-shirt attracted the unwelcome attention of the pub's nutcase (am I allowed to use that expression these days?!!) so you will notice that he was much more conservatively dressed on this occasion..



It didn't take long before the conversation became a bit risqué with Maria coming up with a business idea. As a rival to the popular male haunt commonly known as a t*tty bar, she felt that a female equivalent (which she memorably entitled a c*cky bar !!) would be a sure fire winner !! To quote a Dragon from Dragon's Den 'I'm out' !!

We hadn't intended to watch the rugby but the autumn international between England and South Africa was being shown in the back bar. We caught the start of the second half, South Africa scored an early try but maybe got too cocky (that's your fault Maria !!) and allowed England to get back into the game before eventually emerging as deserved victors.

We moved on after the rugby though an establishment that involved nudity (female or male !!) was not on the agenda !!



 


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