Category Archives: Yorkshire

FUBAR by Tiny Rebel made in North Yorkshire Brewery? Advent Calendar Day 4.

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day-4-fubar

Many people will disagree with this, but I don’t think Tiny Rebel  are a craft brewer. Definitely a very, very good brewer, whose products I very much enjoy, but not craft beer. More a British (Welsh, to be specific) brewer with a host of accolades, brewing in a post modernist style. Okay, they may have been inspired by American IPA’s, it says so on their web site, beyond that the only reference to ‘craft’ I could see was in relation to their Urban Tap House (Mk I). I mean, if they are a craft brewer how come their Welsh red ale Cwtch won the Champion Beer of Britain 2015, in the Best Bitter category? Best Bitter isn’t craft beer is it? Cwtch is however a lovely drink that I could drink all day and everyday.

Opening my calendar today revealed a bottle of FUBAR. I like FUBAR. I like the name. I like the cheeky way they have just spun it round to ‘Funked Up By A Rebel’. I like the label art, I like the little bear, I love the bottle cap. I love it that you usually see it on cask, in fact we’ve had it on twice at our little local beer festival, by popular request! I like the fact that Tiny Rebel continue to produce all their core beers in cask and I’d love to see them follow  up FUBAR with a family of similarly named beers; SNAFU, SUSFU, TARFU and maybe even BOHICA for something with a bit of a chipotle kick?

I did get a little confused the other week when I saw FUBAR chalked on a fermenter/conditioning tank in a brewery at Cropton, near Pickering, North Yorkshire. Surely The Great Yorkshire Brewery haven’t nicked Tiny Rebel’s idea?

day-4-cropton

I rang Tiny Rebel to find out. They explained they are going to be opening their new brewery in January 2017 and are currently working flat to get everything right. The new brewhouse is exactly the same as the The Great Yorkshire Brewery one at Cropton, so they went up and did a trial brew on it to see how things worked out. The new brewery will increase Tiny Rebel‘s capacity from 12  to 30 Barrels.

Getting back to FUBAR, a 4.4% Pale ale, Unfiltered and Vegan friendly, so the very pale amber beer is a little hazy in the glass. The foamy head you get on pouring soon disappears. I don’t know if it’s the bottles/cans or my glasses, but none of the beers I’ve had so far have retained their head? Aroma; hops and a hint of citrus flavours. Taste; dry, citrussy, flowery, bitter, a touch of biscuity maltiness that leaves a nice honey, lemon and straw after taste. I could drink lots of this. I wish they had it on draught in my local.

Still no more tasting notes on the Beer Hawk web site (1100 – 051216), since Day 2. I was enjoying those little videos too, a bit of added interest to the experience.

Verdict – I’m enjoying the beers I’m getting. Very well curated so far. And Tiny Rebel aren’t a Craft Brewer, they’re just excellent modern British brewers. I can feel a weekend trip to Cardiff coming on in the new year!

day-4-cap

The Old Cock, Otley

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old-cock

As soon as I walked into this pub several years ago, I knew it was good. You can instantly feel when something is right, and presumably Leeds CAMRA members feel the same as they voted it their pub of the year 2011, 2012 & 2013. It being surpassed only by the excellent Kirkstall Bridge Inn which repeated the treble and is the current Leeds CAMRA pub of the year. There’s no doubt in my mind that both are very excellent, but different, ale houses.

The Old Cock is a typical olde worlde tavern of the sort tourists and visitors to the market town of Otley would love to stumble across. The only thing is, it isn’t old at all. I remember it being a bit of a derelict, ramshackle sort of place for a good few years and it only opened as a pub after a long planning battle with the good burghers of Leeds city council. The owners persevered however, going to a national planning appeal and their vision finally came to fruition in September 2010.

Now Otley is one of those towns reputed to have the most pubs per head of population in the UK? A bit like the oldest Inn in the UK, this is a difficult one to resolve. It did have over thirty pubs once and still has twenty to go at, which is impressive given it’s size. At one time it had a reputation for being a drinkers paradise on market days as the towns pubs were allowed to stay open all day, as opposed to the 3.00pm closing rule elsewhere and hence on Mondays and Fridays the town would be packed with all day drinkers from nearby Leeds and further afield.

You’d think that such an abundance of pubs would mean that the closure of an odd one or two would be neither be here or there to the little town? Not so, they’re pretty proud of their pub heritage out here and they actually have an Otley Pub Club, who as soon as the concept of ACV’s came into play, assisted by local MP and Pub Champion Greg Mulholland, applied for ACV’s on every pub in the town. Some of the licensees didn’t like this, including Linda Exley and Lee Pullan who own the The Old Cock, and they were a little cross. Especially when their request to be withdrawn from the application was ignored. You can read the owners thoughts in a letter which was originally sent to The Morning Advertiser (now apparently unavailable on their site?) and which was re-printed in Bradford Tyke Taverner July/August 2016, the Bradford CAMRA branches’ excellent magazine.

I have to agree with most of Mr Pullans points and I think I have iterated most of them before. I do not however see this venture being anything other than an extremely viable going concern. Unless, God forbid, some unfortunate incident or illness beset the structure or the management. This is also a point against ACV’s I have made before. What if something drastic happens and you can’t go on or need your money out sharpish. It’s the infringements on an individuals rights by others that grinds with me, others that just think it’s a nice idea, but who haven’t put their money down or invested a lot of blood, sweat and tears.

Anyway, there’s nothing to fear here because this quaint, cosy, atmospheric little boozer is throbbing with vitality. Flag floors, exposed brick work, a proper bar with a tap room feel, plenty of room to stand around and a little ledge around the walls to stand your drink on, plus a few comfy seats to sit at and read a book, perhaps. I really like the window seat in the main bar and in the adjacent room and upstairs there’s more seated areas. There were even a couple of guys having an impromptu jamming session upstairs when I last called in, on a Thursday afternoon!

old-cock-int

I’ll make a comparison with the previous Otley pub I mentioned, The Otley Tap House, a micro pub. Both bucking the trend, in so far as they are thriving successful ‘new builds’ in old buildings, that were previously occupied by other trades. The only difference being that The Old Cock is properly a small pub, owing to the presence of proper, separate, substantial, gender specific toilets. Strangely enough, the Otley Tap House met with the same blanket ACV application, despite there previously being much local opposition to it’s own change of use application – too many pubs in the town you see! Personally I don’t.

Dotted around The Old Cock, there’s a few beery books and collated info about the pub, together with CAMRA promotional leaflets and magazines. A landlord recently asked me what could he do to improve his chances of getting in the GBG? Well, apart from the obvious, forge links with your local CAMRA branch, get involved in LocAle  and get some leaflets from your local branch. Oh, and beer books, I think it was Boak and Bailey who mention somewhere that the presence of beery literature is a very comforting feature in a pub. If I were a landlord I’d get a few copies of the GBG and put them on a shelf in full view, whether I was listed in it or not. Most folk would see them and instantly assume that the pub was featured, without ever delving between the covers or noticing how good, or otherwise, the beer was!

old-cock-tap-list

I like the little plaques above the bar showing full details and tasting notes of each of the nine real ales on sale. Very neat, very informative and I wished I had handwriting like that! They were all in price order from £2.90/ pint of Theakstons to £3.50/pint for Kelham Pale Rider. Pricing was on ABV and I worked out the average at £3.10, which isn’t bad. I know from talking to Lee, a long time ago, that there is a bit of a premium, which along with the absence of cheap lager ensures a more select clientele, whom were a proper cross selection of locals when I last visited, plus the odd metro bus day rider like myself who had come for the beer.

old-cock-bar

Beer quality was spot on. I tried a Pale Rider, I really do like this ale and a Stancil Black, which wasn’t black at all, it was very dark ruby when held up to the light. It was though good enough to warrant a second half of it. I could have gone for; Taylors Landlord, Ilkley Mary Jane, Kirskstall Pale, Saltaire Pride, Everards Carnival, and Barlow Black Stout. There was even a Beavertown Gamma Ray at £5.50/pint as well as a real cider, two keg ones, Staropramen and Amstel lager, Guiness and some Belgium bottles.

The only concession to food is bar snacks, the most substantial thing on offer was a sausage sandwich. Dogs allowed but no kids and sadly the need to return to Leeds on the X84 came around all too quickly.

Verdict – Destination venue for good beer and good crack. This is the type of small, town centre pub with an emphasis on quality, that defies any need for legislative intervention, and in the hands of good owners (which it has) will always thrive. Anyway, what ever happened to market forces?

old-cock-musicians
old-cock-poster
old-cock-stairs

 

 

The Cats Pyjamas, Headingley

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CPJs logo

I was sent an invitation, via Twitter message, to visit this place when it first opened. Sometime in late 2015, I think? I usually don’t rise to that sort of thing, unless it’s a one off event, so I waited until now (Aug 2016) to try it out.

I’ve read lots of good things about The Cat’s Pyjamas, some of which I found to be accurate, some not so. The big myth that needs to be dispelled is that The Cat’s PJs is NOT the Headingley version of Bundobust!

Those of you who have been will know that Bundobust is excellent, a beer bar that does food, excellent food and excellent beer, but you can walk in and just have a beer. The food is ancillary to the main function and comes presented in little pots, snack size essentially. Okay, you can pig out and get four or five pots between two and make an acceptable meal out of it, but it’s NOT a restaurant.

On the other hand, The Cat’s PJs is a restaurant that serves excellent beer, but it’s not a drinking place and the alcohol is ancillary to the meal, hence the comparison with Bundobust must end and can go no further.

The first thing we were asked on a Thursday at 5.30pm was, ‘have you booked?’ No, but we were pleasantly informed we could have a table until 7.00pm. This was echoed to yet more customers and it was clear that come seven o’clock the entire place was booked out, which bodes well. NB no students in town in August neither, or very few anyway.

CPJs interior

The place is exactly what you would expect an Indian styled gaff doing craft beer (essentially their words, not mine) to be like. The chairs must be the heaviest in Leeds. A bit of a design flaw there, my old Mum couldn’t have moved one on her own. There are two rooms, I favoured the downstairs, upstairs looked a bit like it was a converted first floor room in an ex retail unit, nicely done out, but uniformly rectangular. The comfort blanket that is the bar is on the ground floor and you could see directly into the kitchens where cleanliness and efficiency appeared to be of the highest order. The upstairs Lavs, complete with Bollywood wallpaper, were spot on too.

I’ll start with the beer NMBCo. Mango Lassi, Heathen IPA 7.2%. The nicest beer I drank all day and I visited some good places and had some good beers too that day, I tell you. Tropically fruity, dry and slightly sweet at the same time, not cheap, £3.10 for one half, unfined and unfiltered, worth every penny though and eked out with copious amounts of Corporation pop, it went well with the food. Mrs C’s Camden Hells was a shade cheaper at £2.90/half. The beer range was quite interesting, both bottles and the draught list. No cask ales but some splendid key keg stuff, as well as a cider and Kingfisher. The value conscious will note from the pic below that as well as being all the money, there was a hefty premium on a half pint. My tip to get around this would be to have an advance visit to a small Tavern in the same Town that sits at the end of the Arndale centre’s Arcade and Markets equally impressive beers at more reasonable prices.

CPJs Tap list

The food was however, tremendous. Indian inspired, as opposed to the Pakistani and Bengali fare served up in most W.Yorks curry houses. The Kolkata Chaat starter was almost nearly as good as Bundobust’s, but you did get more of it. Sorry, I did say I wouldn’t, didn’t I? The Tandoori prawn starter sublime. Rogan Josh and Kheema Matar were like you would make at home. Now I’m not Asian, but I do a lot of Asian inspired home cooking, to traditional family recipes that friends have given me over the years and I can tell you that this is The Dogs … The real deal … The Cat’s Pyjamas in fact. I had to look it up, but that’s what it means.

One Pulao rice and an outstandingly fluffy Garlic Nan completed the beers, two starters and mains and came to 5p shy of £40. Service was excellent, quick and friendly and, ‘No, I couldn’t manage a pudding mate.’ If you subtract the six quids worth of ale from the total, it came to around seventeen pounds each. For the quality of the food we ate, I thought that represented excellent value, on top of which I gladly left the customary staff 10%.

I know I said I wouldn’t mention Bundobust again, but the above comments on beer prices versus food echo loudly all the way down Woodhouse Lane into the city centre.

Verdict: I’ll definitely be going again. The food is sheer authentic quality. You can have a good ale with it if you’re feeling flush. Make sure you book when you go. I’m in love with their logo too.

CPJs front

The Brown Room, Filey

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Brown Room

 The Brown Room is one of those places that qualifies to be one of the best fish and chip shops in the known world. I don’t actually think I could ever single out the best chippy ever because fish and chips are like beers and pork pies, there are loads of really good ones out there, but they are all slightly different. Like you can’t compare cheese and apples, you can’t directly compare porter against pale ale or Melton Mowbray pies against proper ones, and pubs are exactly the same. In fact you can’t judge them unless you have a standard to check against. That’s why we have standards for beer judging, which means, if you are doing it right, you can actually score a beer very highly, even if you don’t prefer that style or even compare the brewers art between porter and pale ale.

CAMRA have a standard with which you can judge pubs, I’ve used it and it works, albeit it with a CAMRA bias. I’m sure I could actually come up with my own standard for judging pubs. Perhaps it exists, somewhere in the windmills of my mind, I might try sometime, but even then, it would have my own bias. Having said that, my bias might be similar to others as I agree with other commentators on many things, but not all. Maybe I should undertake some post graduate study in an attempt to define a formula of pubiness. I’m sure someone’s already done it?

I would predict that any independently, without bias, pubiness formula derived through pure scientific research would end up having a strong leaning to mainstream/premier lager brands and large (larger the better) cheap (cheapest is bestest) meals, because, let’s face it, that’s what most folk go for. Unless it’s Thursday to Friday night in a town centre when again lager type drinks and possibly cocktails prevail, along with other agendas, although the premise of largest and cheapest may still apply here? This sort of brings me down to earth and I have to understand that I am a very small minority, as are organisations like CAMRA, which to my reckoning has a membership representing around 0.3% of the UK’s estimated population (60 millions) and maybe what I like isn’t exactly mainstream?

Getting back to The Brown Room, it’s exactly what a Yorkshire chip shop should be, clean and tidy, friendly, traditional, unpretentious, and the finest example of the fish fryers art. Although, I do recognise that some folk prefer different levels of crispiness in their batter, I think they get it right here with a consistent delicate balance of lightness and crispiness. I don’t like the thick crispy batters that scratch your gums, nor the sad doughy type that falls off the fish.

There’s a big tradition theme going on here, as a family we’ve been visiting for years and in the same way The Brown Room has been owned by the same people for as long as I can remember. Okay, the original ‘old man’ has retired, but he turned up just before closing when we were in the other day, just to make sure everything was okay. I’m pretty sure that most, if not all, of the staff are part of a single large extended family, if not biologically then socially. Reassuringly a nice mix of mostly mature, exceptionally friendly, professional and efficient adults with a smattering of carefully watched apprentices. No ‘back from Uni for the summer, clever but not much practicality and even less interest (apart from the money) lasses’ here.

I like the way it styles itself, “Fish and Chips, Cafe or Takeaway”. No pretensions of being a restaurant, not even an acute accent on the e. Immune from silly trendiness, it still has formica topped tables, ketchup squirters and proper vinegar bottles. No sachets here just pure functionality. Tea comes in tea pots, with even more hot water and a milk jug. I’m not a big fan of tea, but this is one of the few places I drink it. It just complements fish and chips, tannins cutting through the fat leaving faint floral notes to liven the palate.

There’s another well known fish and chip restaurant nearby. I’ve eaten there and the food is pretty good too, all served up in modern surroundings. Thing is, you don’t have a slice of lemon with fish and chips on the East coast of Yorkshire, you don’t want your peas in a separate ramekin thingy (think how much gets left in the pot) and you definitely don’t want an alcoholic drink with it. Neither do you want lobster or crab from a fish fryers, you go to see a chef for that.

I think readers will get where I’m coming from and realise that most people will rave about the other place with the plastic fisherman stood outside. I’m thankful though that I’m not actually in the minority and there’s still a lot of people out there who want proper fish and chips served by proper people in a proper chip ‘oyle.

Hopefully I will still be going to The Brown Room in twenty years time, and with a bit of good fortune, then maybe some more. If any grand bairns arrive on the scene then I’ll take them, just like my kids were taken by my parents. With a bit of luck, after a day on the beach, we’ll all be able to go to a proper pub for a couple of pints of proper beer before we go for our tea. I hope you will still have to queue up for a table.

Brown Room fish tea

The Cobblers Arms, Filey

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Cobblers front

The Cobblers Arms, was a cobblers, that’s now a pub, a Micro Pub, the smallest pub in Filey, a very nice one too.

Chris Storr the landlord has been here since October last year, but the pub has been open for about two years. Chris has a background in the social care arena and told me he just fancied having a go with a pub, so he took it on. I know a landlord closer to my W.Yorks home with a similar background, who is as good a licensee as you can get, so there might be a natural progression here, based on, like … talking to people? Something a lot of bar staff don’t get these days. Anyway, it was nice talking to Chris on the two occasions we called in.

Cobblers Chris

Inside, it’s very nice and it’s been converted really well. With it’s classic, yet contemporary theme, you could be forgiven for thinking it had been here for ages. It really had a pub atmosphere, as opposed to a bar, if you get what I mean. Bare wooden floorboards, wooden backed banquette seats around the walls and some heavy cast iron bottomed tables. There’s two rooms, the main bar area at the front and a smaller room to the rear which looks out onto a small garden. I really liked the place, but I’ll be honest, if I had to sit in the back room I would have felt short changed on the pubiness front. I’ve never liked these sort of overflow rooms, unless they are decked out in interesting memorabilia, ephemera and a roaring fire or something else to provide a bit of atmosphere. The toilets, as usual in this type of place were small and unisex, but got top marks for cleanliness, as did the whole pub. Dogs are welcome, but not on the seating – too right! You wouldn’t do that at home would you? You would? Not coming round to your house then!

Cobblers inside

In terms of customer comforts there was Wi-fi, newspapers and a bit of a community pub feel coming on. It wasn’t busy when we called in, but it was early doors. I think I mentioned before, Filey sort of closes down at tea time as there are only a couple of small hotels and apart from locals, most holidaymakers are either day trippers or accommodated in holiday homes and caravan sites. We chatted with a nice bloke, a retired caravanner from Huddersfield, who had nipped out for a couple while his wife put the grandkids to bed. Otherwise, the handful of people all seemed to know each other and there was even a bloke on his way home from work who had forgotten to take his Hi-vis jacket off. Chris did say we would be welcome to stay for the weekly (Tuesday) quiz night where there would be complimentary pizza, contestants for the partaking of.

Okay, so what about the business end? Five rotating cask ales and six real ciders. Two halves of ale was a reasonable £3.25. You can see on the picture with Chris on, or the cask ale list, which they were. I didn’t have Cameron’s on principle. I’m still reeling over their latest attempt to further take over Leeds City centre and am currently view them as a large Pubco. Mentioning Pubcos, there were also the usual fizzy suspects on the bar, although comparably, only a limited choice.

Cobblers sign
Cobblers cider
Cobblers cask ales

Looking at the glory wall displaying pump clips of the various beers that had been on, the choice tended towards more traditional, solid choices, rather than anything post modern in attitude, but there’s nothing wrong with that and I couldn’t see a North Bar style drinks list going down a bomb in Filey. We called in the next evening for a couple and 40% of the beers had changed, which on a Tuesday/Wednesday was good. All the beers we had were of good quality, fresh and well kept.

My discovery of The Cobblers Arms, Bohommes and the fact that The Cobblers Arms is directly opposite the finest Fish and Chip shop/restaurant in the world has firmly re-imposed Filey onto the all time best seaside resort ever list. Category of small UK resort – this is really what it should be like.

Tip – Buy a property in Filey now! Before prices go through the roof. Gentrification is occurring (in a nice way too) and we need real people to continue to colonise the town to prevent people with more money than sense coming in and spoiling exactly what they went there for in the first place!

Bonhommes Filey

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Bonhommes logo

1545hrs, Wednesday 27th July, Filey Cobble landing bar, more bar and bistro. Two hand pulls on, one with no clip and the other saying Doom Bar but with a pint glass balanced over the handle.

Pointing to the upturned glass, I said to the guy behind the bar, ‘Presumably that means there’s none on?’

‘Sorry mate.’

If I’m honest, I was glad. So, it was a pint and a half of Grolsch £5.15. Polycarbonate glasses too, in case you throw them off the balcony. Barman said they had been busy at lunch time, and they had some big tables booked for tonight. Best balcony on the east coast, sun nearly out, promenade busy, loads of ice creams, tea and coffee and Donuts (sic). Nice enough inside, not a pub anymore, was a bar with atmosphere once, now it’s £21.95 for a giant garlic bread, 2 large pizzas, 2 Carling or Caffreys and 2 large glasses of pop. Happy Families!

Cobble landing view from

There’s only one seafood stall on the cobble landing now, when once there were two or three, sign of the times, people don’t want cockles, mussels and whelks or crabs, they want Shuga Shack donuts, Fish and Chips or the Tea Bar (2 stalls in one) burgers drinks hot dogs chips, no wonder folk are the size they are these days, long walk to Filey Brig required, me thinks. Maybe it’s the same with beer and pubs?

I’m now thinking, I’m not sure whether Filey will get any better in terms of beer, maybe not from past experience, most day trippers drive back to the industrial heartlands at tea time or go back to caravan sites for tea and TV. I’ve always found that Filey’s more a place for local folk at night?

I was surprised I’d never been in Bonhommes bar before because it’s been here for years according to one local. He said it was the American Bar for a long time. He remembered it when he was a teenager and he was well into his late 40’s.

Dogs and kids welcome, but not teething infants! I felt sorry for the little chap but the people were a decent family and they they dosed him up with Calpol before one of them took him off for a walk in the pram, why can’t all parents be like that?

Split level one room bar with original high ceilings, hand full of locals and a smattering of visitors and decent piped music. In terms of decor, it seemed to borrow a little from each era of the late 70’s, 80’s and early 90’s music they were playing. Four hand pumps on the bar, but only three with beer on, maybe a Tuesday early week thing? I get that. There was also  selection of everything else you would expect to see.

Bonhommes lower
Bonhommes bar
Bonhommes upper

The Crossbay Brewery Zenith (5%) was spot on to the end, at my second visit to the bar it ran off! The manager/cellar man expressed his surprise at how quickly it had gone. Mind you at £3.75 for a pint and a half I’m not surprised. I tried a Sandiway Ales Hop Schism (4.1%) next. The bloke said he’d tried some from the barrel earlier and he thought it was decent. How many pubs have this sort of QC? Not many I reckon these days. Often there isn’t even anyone to change the barrel.

The Hop schism wasn’t, to my taste, just quite as nice as Zenith, but similarly on very excellent form and nice to see some North Western ales on the bar for a change in deepest Yorkshire. I noticed a Titanic brew was on next and they had a mild on.

Bonhommes board

There’s no wonder Bonhommes bar has been the local CAMRA Rural pub of the year for 2008, 2009 & 2010 and Runner-up for 2011 – 2014. I’m none too sure about the rural part of the accolade as the pub is in the middle of the town centre? Maybe Scarborough CAMRA hold the belief that anywhere ‘not in Scarborough’ is rural, end of. You know, a bit like Liverpool’s ‘Woolyback’ thing.

The pub was very well kept and exceptionally clean and well maintained. Dog bowl and a smokers umbrella, quiz nights, live music and food between specified times. Wi-fi available and toilets are nice, there’s even dual child seats and nappy sacks and stuff in the ladies. Which begets the kids in pubs argument that I have been avidly reading on other blogs. My two penn’orth on this is, if you can’t have well behaved kids in seaside pubs then you might just be signing the pubs winding up notice.

It looks like the place has once been the public bar of a larger establishment, because the front of the magnificent building looks out over the bay, like it once was a big hotel? It appears to be all apartments now, but perhaps someone who’s genned up on Filey history can let me know? The only downside is that it’s side street location means you might miss it if you didn’t know it was there, if you see what I mean.

Bonhommes exterior

I really liked Bonhommes bar, it felt right and it was right. Very good beer, very friendly locals and staff.

For those who are interested, the Bonhomme Richard was a warship of the American Continental Navy which sank in the nearby  Battle of Flamborough Head on 23rd September 1779. Presumably there is a subtle link here with the bars previous name? Quite why the American Revolutionary Navy sailed half way round the world is anyones guess. If there are any scholars of American naval history then please add something in the comments

Overall verdict – hidden gem of a modern pub cum decent traditional boozer untouched by any Pubco design catalogue. Oh, and exceptionally well kept cask ales.

 

Filey to Scarborough pub walk

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Filey cliffs

I went on a bit of an adventure the other day. When I tell you what it was, some people will go, ‘so what?’ Not having been in a tent since school days, I can tell you, it was quite something for me.

I sort of found the tent by accident whilst having a clear out. I guess it was more a case of having forgotten it  existed really. To give you some idea of the size of it, my son trekked across China with it about five years ago and it’s main drawback wasn’t so much the getting in to it as getting back out again!

Anyway, what’s this got to do with beer? A lot really because our expedition took us to Filey and the discovery of two places I had never been into, Bonhommes and The Cobblers Arms, which will both be the subject of future posts. It also got me thinking about a Pub walk, maybe I could do a book? Just with a different slant, like a two day tour? So here goes, my first walking and drinking route:

Go to Filey and spend a leisurely afternoon in this delightful little sea side town and have a drink in Bonhommes and The Cobblers Arms. You could go in the Good Beer Guide listed Star, but there is a sign outside saying, ‘No dogs except guide dogs’, so that ruled us out. I should say that all the other pubs on this list are dog friendly. Now you don’t have to camp, there are a couple of small hotels, guest houses and numerous holiday lets in the town. What you must do though is go for Fish and Chips in the fabulous Brown Room, which will also get a separate post because it’s principles relate closely to good pubs.

Anyway, when you get up the next day then point yourself North towards Scarborough and follow The Cleveland Way long distance foot path , which disappoints only by virtue of the fact it is entirely in Yorkshire and Cleveland doesn’t actually exist. Stout footwear and weatherproof gear are essential because for much of the eight and a half miles you are very exposed. You need a drink as well because there is nowhere to stop until you get to Cayton Bay at the three quarter mark, and even then the beach cafe is not always open. In terms of time, it took us two and three quarter hours to get to The Spa at Scarborough (not including a cuppa at Cayton Bay and ten minutes on a random bench)

The walk is stunning and much of it is cliff top paths, so you don’t need a map or anything like that as it’s way marked throughout. None of it is difficult, but there is one short, but steep incline, plus a series of nasty steps just after Cayton Bay. The cliff here closely resembling the Seaton to Lyme Regis path where a long time ago a massive section of the cliff has dropped and then settled. Similarly, as in Dorset, the entire area is fossil rich and subject to frequent landslip and erosion.

If you are thinking wild and wind swept cliffs overlooking bays and rocks with basking seals, wild flowers and abundant wild life then you are not far off. The only intrusion being the odd caravan site and a few houses that will probably have fallen into the sea within 20 years!

Filey cliff top

When you get to Scarborough walk right along the promenade to the North Bay, taking in all the sounds and sights of ‘the original’ seaside town,  before doing a sharp left past Peasholm Park to the North Riding on North Marine Road.

This pub is currently in my top ten and will stay there so long as Stuart and Karen keep doing what they are doing. I didn’t get much of a chance to speak with Stuart,  just a quick hello, when he returned from what was apparently a very exciting cricket match (Yorks v Notts) at the ground across the road.

The Peasholm Pale is one of my favourites and in it’s unfined guise it was even better. It’s probably the tastiest beer I’ve had for a while, that wasn’t over 6%. We also tried Mallinson’s Azacca and NRB Ticker’s (something) which didn’t do it for me. What I do like as well, are the friendly locals and staff who always remember you and kindly prompted me to get another drink just before the cricket match finished and the entire pub got taken over by thirsty cricket fans.

On leaving The North Riding we headed towards the station and called into the very quirky Indigo Alley. There were some random doors propped up in the bar on our previous visit, this time there were a load of brand new, still wrapped, mattresses stacked up in the corner? The ale was however, still on excellent form and we tried Milltown Brewing Co. Platinum Blonde, Yorkshire Heart Hop cycle – July, Pacific Gem and Indigo’s house ale, brewed by Wold Top.

The final stop was The Stumble Inn for a third of Elderflower Power by Great Newsome Brewery, a Copper Dragon  ‘special’ and 4T’s  American Woman Bravo, which was my favourite, with the Elderflower one a close second.

We then hopped onto the train back to Filey and during the fifteen minute journey considered the conundrum of why a return ticket for two (£6) is cheaper than getting two singles (£7), confused? I was. In fact I was still thinking about it while we ate a takeaway sat outside the tent in the dark with a spork, which provides a, previously un-encountered, surprise element to a Chinese Special Curry.

You could of course do this the other way round and stay in Scarborough, which has quite a few other pubs worth a visit. Personally, I prefer the more genteel environs of Filey, although Scarborough has many more accommodation options. In all these boozers you will be very surprised by the comparatively low prices if you are used to drinking in Leeds and other similar priced places. You will however get to sample some very well kept and diverse beers in a varied range of friendly licensed premises.

Filey train