Regular Beers
Below are some of our main beers with write-ups by beer writer, Steve Hobman. We have a constantly changing line-up of ales from small brewerys around the country so please pop by or ring the pub to find out what we have on today.
Handmade in Devizes says the badge on the pump. Well they must be very busy little hands; this Wiltshire brewer produces around 200,000 barrels a year – and most of it, apparently, is the impressive 6X brew.
‘Waddies’ Victorian tower brewery is the very epitome of English ale brewing. Originally founded in 1875 by Henry Wadworth, the present brewery was built ten years later and has stayed in family hands. It even boasts one of the country’s very few remaining coopers to work on the traditional wooden casks.
Yes indeed, this is brewing heritage in a glass. And it’s pretty blinking good beer too. Brewed with pale and crystal malts together with cane sugar and no less than four varieties of English hops: First Gold, Fuggles, Goldings and Progress, 6X is a copper coloured ale with a complex flavours of soft malts and hop bitterness.
Wadworth owns more than 250 pubs and is one of the few brewers that still retains dray horses for deliveries. Fortunately, to the relief of the discerning imbibers at Pen-y-Bryn, these days the beasts don’t have to struggle the 200 plus miles with their regular tipple.
The legend of the Cheshire Cat goes way back in time and was featured in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.
And this beer has enjoyed a bit of a fairytale success. The grinning cat pump clip couldn’t be better suited for a beer that gives you a ‘got the cream’ sort of mouth feel.
Light and fruity blonde ale that offers hints of lemon and grapefruit and a gentle, dry, hop bitterness Cheshire Cat began life as A Blonde for Christmas in 2005. Such was the magic, it quickly became a regular brew. That popularity can be witnessed daily in Harker’s, as the staple quaffing diet for the cask-ale-loving fat cats there. Blimey, do they shift some stuff. Greater praise for beer is hard to find.
Weetwood Brewery (see Oat House Gold) set up in 1993 near Tarporley and has garnered a strong following. The beers regularly show up in Brunning & Price pubs. A bit like Alice’s cat.
Daniel Thwaites have been brewing at Blackburn in Lancashire for 200 years, and have some 455 pubs of their own. This is a well-hopped refreshing session bitter combining bitterness and nutty flavours, with a lingering bitter finish. Thwaites Bitter benefited in our pubs from Interbrew's decision in November 2003 to relaunch Boddingtons (qv) with a new recipe and an increased abv, up .3% to 4.1% from 3.8%. This resulted in several of our freehouses looking for a new session bitter, despite Interbrew's insistence that Boddies remained a session beer even at 4.1% abv (our customers disagreed.) The upshot was that Thwaites Bitter now has a permanent listing at Pen y Bryn, the Pant yr Ochain, the Dysart, Glasfryn and the Fox.