Mild in May 2016

Tuesday night at the Crown and Plough in Long Clawson (a villabe best known for its excellent Stilton) , the mild was from the Milestone Brewery. It was their Rich Ruby at 5.6% ABV so I didn't have many pints as I had to drive home

Today I motored up to the Crown in Old Dalby but they don't have mild till next week. No problem as the Belvoir Brewery is in the same village , where a pint of Dark Horse was procured. Utterly superb , though I did follow it with Star Bitter (proper beer which I grew up with) , good choice.Called in at Colston Bassett dairy for some Stilton. I had pinched my wife's MG to go out in and it made an excellent peace offering

 

Crazy price! I've never paid £4 a pint in my life, the nearest was Adnams' Tally Ho. But Tim Taylor's beers are in such demand that they don't need to offer cut prices.
Going out in half an hour, let me see what mild is on in my local

 

Well , now I know. I arrived at the Chestnut and found no mild on pump so had a pint of Sheriff's Tipple , nice easy going pale session ale. The landlord arrived and I tasked him about the mild. Straight away he went down into the cellar and emerged with a pint of a Cornish mild.I did rather enjoy it (!) and another half appeared from nowhere to make for a happy lunchtime.


Edit , just looked up the brewery , it's stunningly situated, part of an hotel and may well repay a visit later this year :
http://www.driftwoodsparsbrewery.com/pages/about-us

 

The saga continues. We met up at the Cranmer Inn in Aslockton where there was the excellent Belvoir Brewery Dark Horse. Belvoir, for the uninitiated , is pronounced Beaver.This we enjoyed in the large beer garden, looking round at the 20 or 30 customers most were drinking mild.Interesting.
Then to the delightful Red Lion in Bottesford where the mild was from Navigation. This was a palish mild , again we sat outside in the sunshine.Then we moved on to the Staunton Arms in , unsurprisingly , Staunton in the Vale. A thriving pub despite a village population of around 40.There we had some cracking Moorhouses Black Cat , again sitting outside.
We have two more trips arranged this month , one short one on foot in Bingham and later on we intend to visit about a dozen pubs by minibus. I shall visit the rest in the evenings,

 

Nope,genuine Black Cat all round. The glasses look good though.

 

Went back to the Chestnut last night , the Blackhead's Mild was still on.
It was an object lesson to those who love cask , an already excellent beer had put on weight and gained in complexity and flavour quite remarkably.It was simply superb.

 

Weather perked up a bit so pinched my wife's MG and drove to the Martin's Arms in Colston Bassett where the delightful old favourite Elgood's Black Dog was on sale. I chose a mug rather than a glass , I'm reverting to my childhood ways.
Colston Bassett is perhaps better known for its Stilton cheese (my Dad used to buy it in Australia , it gets about!) but alas they don't give it away at the back door any longer.

 

Back to the Chestnut , this time there was Dave from the Great Heck brewery in Yorkshire. Very roasty , very nice indeed,
Out tonight to try the mild in three more pubs.
Excuse picture quality

 

Caught the bus to Bingham and met up in the White Lion. There it was Milestone's mild , quite excellent so one pint was not enough.After a considerable stay we moved to the Horse and Plough for some Grafter's "Darker side of the Moon" , also a lovely drink.
We finished up at the Wetherspoons "Buttercross" where they were serving two milds , an old friend "Rock Mild" from Nottingham Brewery which I enjoyed immensely , and Falstaff's Brewery's "Moon Landing" , also nice but which I didn't enjoy quite so much.
Two minutes walk took me to the bus stop and that was that for the night.