#354b: Bristol Part Two

This is continued from part one, here.

Across the road from Small Bar resides the King William, a Samuel Smith pub spread across a number of rooms and levels, a large yet cosy sprawl or dark wood and leather, and the last place one might choose to spend an exceptionally warm an sunny June afternoon. I was one of two or three patrons at the time, and strictly here for beer.

My first choices (any mild or pale bitter or stout on cask) were unavailable, so I ordered an Old Brewery Bitter, a brownish blend of tangy toffee and apple. I'm not sure about this one; is it archaic authenticity or is it just a bit iffy? If you can't tell, it's probably not great. Perhaps the cask was tired, but I was unimpressed.

I moved to the bottles for the next and last one, and opted for a beer I've known of and coveted for a time, but seems to be unavailable in Ireland. That beer was the deeply unseasonable Yorkshire Stingo. Kind of a barley wine or strong ale, it's aged in oak and carries a thumping malt weight with its 8.5%-ish ABV. In fact, it's rather homemade tasting; a thick caramel wortiness works up rich  and fully realised fruitcake characteristics which would be perfect for the fireside, but rather bizarre in the summer heat. Still, it's clearly quite good, even if it is a bit heavy and unsophisticated. I didn't quite need the full imperial pint, so regretfully left the last third behind.

Hickey the Rake

A few steps down the street will find you at The Famous Royal Navy Volunteer, which seems as old and sprawling as the King William but with a more modernised interior and, for that matter, beer selection. No brewery ties here, just a broad selection of craft across keg, cask, can and bottle.
I started on keg with Wiper and True's Huckleberry, an amber ale with plenty of caramel backbone propping up juicy grapefruit skins. I rejoice that it's bitter but balanced, straddling approachable sugary cara-malt sweetness and robust ripe bittersweet citrus highlights.
Wylam's Hickey the Rake was on cask, and has a strangely twiggy or stalky background to it, but with plenty of satisfying orange and lemonskin juiciness atop, making a perfectly pleasant and quaffable cask pale ale.

Interstate

The last beer here is the ugliest, a keg DIPA from Electric Bear by the name of Surface Area. Not only is it opaque, but it's dull and greyish too, looking rather unappetising. Thankfully it's eminently tropical to taste, a big dense fruit smoothie of pineapple, citrus and stone fruits laced with a bit of hop acid buzz. This is sharp and effective stuff, even if it isn't quite as moreish due to its intensity and texture.

I  also made a repeat visit to the particularly pleasant Brewdog bar in town, and punished myself with Brewdog's quite horrible Vienna lager Interstate. It's paler than expected, which is fine, but what's not fine is the mess of plastic, chemical and medicinal odours masking almost all of the grassy aroma that constitutes the only acceptably normal beer smell. Bad.

I got better mileage from their AB:23, a bourbon barrel-aged barleywine that wears its bourbon influence on its sleeve, with sweet vanilla wood enrobed with raisin and chewy caramel. This develops into dates and figs with brown sugar sweetness and real plum pudding characteristics.

From the fridge, Wiper and True's Kaleidoscope, a good pale ale brimming with plenty of peach, apricot and juicy passion fruit. Quite pleasant, which I couldn't quite say about the saison on tap, which was Leaf Peeper from New Bristol Brewery. It's super sweet with overwhelming bubblegum phenolics. Absolutely not my jam, least of all from a saison.

Just up the road from the Brewdog bar is The Old Fish Market, a Fuller's pub that I entered on impulse in the hope of cask London Pride but got something rather more exciting - cask Nor'Hop from locals Moor. I never made it to the brewery tap so was happy to settle in to this smooth, silky, light grapefruit and fruit salad chews pint. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

It was the Sober Destrier's work that brought us to Bristol in the first place. Much like our trip to Manchester, I don't think either of us expected to be so enamoured with the city, but we were. It should go without saying that Bristol comes highly recommended as a destination for their beer, their zoo, and their all-round pleasant city goodness.