A tough game today away
to Chesham United who have one of the best home records this season. It was
just after 9:00am when we left Kettering to collect Pharp, when he got into the
PRATSmobile he was hugging a bottle of Gaviscon, was this good or bad news and
was Pharp fermenting inside? Undaunted
we arrived at Malt Brewery just before 11:00am, a delightful establishment
buried in the Chilterns.
The taproom is adjacent to the brewing and packing
area and is quite cold despite the lovely weather outside. The bar person was
keen to show off a new beer that had been brewed since our last visit in
January so several small sample glasses were filled with a deep brown brew
named Malt Icknield. Being pale ale lovers Citra and Fuggles reluctantly sipped
a drop, wow, this was incredible, but more about this later. Pharp went for
Starry Nights, a chestnut coloured ale coming in at 4.0%, and it was in good
nick, very clear with a good tight head. Citra and Fuggles open their account
with Missenden Pale Ale, easy drinking, light amber, session ale, coming in at
3.6%, we expect to have this at the Poppies beer festival in May. Next up Pharp
tried the Prestwood’s Best, light chestnut ale and once again in perfect
condition with hints of caramel. Fuggles and Citra decided to go for the Malt
Icknield, what an incredible brown ale this is, styled on a London Porter and
bursting with flavour, roasted chocolatey malts and plenty of hoppy bitterness,
beautiful, coming in at premium strength 4.5%, massive aroma greets you just
before your dive in. We were planning to have Prestwood’s Best at our festival
but we may have to have a rethink. Our Beer festivals nearly always sell out of
the lighter ales with loads of darker ales left over and then poured down the
drain, but this delightful ale will go down very well with the discerning
Poppies ale drinkers, so it looks as though we’ll be taking the Missenden Pale
and the Malt Icknield for our beer bash. So good Citra had another one, whilst
Fuggles went for the stronger 5.0% IPA, rich and smooth amber ale, very tasty
indeed. All the ales were in perfect condition and well presented. We are
looking forward to returning back down here to collect our festival ales in 4
weeks’ time; needless to say we will also be looking forward to taking the
empties back. It was time to move on into Chesham, so after a 15 minute drive
we were parked up by the ground and set out on a 500 metre route march into the
town centre with the Red Squirrel owned Chesham Brewery shop our destination.
This is a pleasant little place, outside are a few tables and chairs within a
forecourt, with a canopy ready to be pulled out when the weather is a tad inclement,
all very continental. We were the first ones in there. A small shop-like
building with racking for bottled beer from around the world. A couple of
church pew type seated areas in the shop windows. There was a bar area in the
corner with a row of taps poking through the wooden wall type structure, with a
chalk boards above the taps describing the ales. Pharp went for Mister
Squirrel, a 4.3% premium ale, Pharp had a sip, his face contorted, we weren’t
sure if the beer was rank or he needed to take a swig from his Gaviscon. He
wasn’t entirely happy, there was a very slight haze but the head looked tight.
Fuggles and Citra decided to sample the delightfully named Hopfest, oh dear.
This ale was extremely cloudy and that is being kind. We pointed this out to
the young ladies behind the bar; they just said the beer in unfined. What this
means is that the brewers do not add finings ‘isinglass’ is a substance
produced from the swim bladder of the sturgeon fish and is used to clear the
ale. This of course makes ales unsuitable for Vegans. Whilst I appreciate this
is supposed to be a craft beer brewery product, this ale was neither good to
look at or nice on the palate, instantly fobbing and fizzing, it was just a
yellowy/orange looking sludge, quite unpleasant. Pharp commented “clearly the bar
staff haven’t got the foggiest’, to which Citra countered “clearly they have as
they have just served us 2 pints of it”. The Weebles arrived and we were able
to steer them clear of the toxic waste. We didn’t stay for another, one was
enough, sorry Red Squirrel we won’t be back, we trudged back to the ground. All
this walking had worked up a thirst and thankfully the clubhouse, which was
already full of the Poppies faithful, had a couple of ales on hand-pump. We
went for the Rebellion Generals, which is probably a standard ale re-badged for
Chesham. It was ok but nothing to write about, so I won’t.
The game, well what
can I say, the team sheet suggested we were either resting a lot of players in
preparation for 7 matches in a chaotic 15 days or we were carrying quite a few
knocks. With Chesham having one of the best home records this season, we were
in for a very tough time, or so we thought. Within 15 minutes the club’s infant
16 year old had set up one goal and scored another, finally running out 3 nil
winners. Quite a stunning and most unexpected result, we are now daring to
believe.
Time to start the
journey home; we decided to venture through a heavy hailstorm up towards
Aylesbury and an old favourite the Hop Pole.
We’ve been here a few times now
when watching the Poppies take on Aylesbury’s Moles. This is a great pub with
an impressive row of 10 hand-pumps, 9 ales and a cider. At the rear of the pub
is the Aylesbury Brewery sister of the Vale Brewery. Needless to say there were
quite a few of their ales available, Fuggles and Citra went for the Vale Best,
a light coppered coloured, hoppy, session ale coming in at 3.6%. It was in
excellent condition, perfectly clear with the head clinging to the glass all
the way to the bottom. Pharp went away from the house ales and tried Welsh
brewery, Monty’s Moonrise, a 4.0% malty amber ale. It looked in good nick,
Pharp certainly wasn’t complaining. Time for another, Pharp stayed with
Moonrise whilst Fuggles and Citra went for another house beer, this time
Gravitas, a strong 4.8% pale ale, quite citrusy with a dry finish, once again
in very good condition. Just enough time for one last pint for Citra and Fuggles,
this time we Lymestone Brewery’s Ein-Stein a powerful 5.0% blonde ale, quite
hoppy and refreshing a decent ale to finish a decent day off nicely. Three more
home games now before we go off to Redditch one again a week on Monday. It could
be an interesting few weeks.
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