Huddersfield & Linthwaite

Harold Wilson outside Huddersfield station

The group of CAMRA members from the South had split on Thursday 19 January with the majority on a visit to York, Knaresborough and Harrogate led by Tony Lea. 

Tim Thomas joined the smaller group of five on the 10.47 Transpennine Express slow service to Huddersfield from platform 13B of Leeds station.

On a cold day with blue skies, Huddersfield station forecourt, was frostier than on Tuesday's visit when it had been our first stop on the Transpennine Real Ale Trail.

Tim arranged to meet the group at the Sportsman later and headed to Huddersfield Library and Art Gallery while the others first revisited the King's Head. 

The Art Gallery with its permanent collection of 700 paintings was closed but a temporary exhibition space in the building opposite showed an impressive collection of artworks for 'Entwined' (plants in contemporary painting) and by Richard Baker, making a visit worthwhile.

It was noted that the Samuel Smith's pub - The Commercial Hotel - was closed with curtains drawn.

The Cherry Tree (Wetherspoon), near the station, was open but not visited on this occasion.

The Sportsman

There are two entrances to the Sportsman, one at the corner and one with a Bass barrel above the door.

At the corner entrance the floor has an Art Deco design and there is an inner door leading to the main bar.

Inside, the bar is in a corner position with a curved front topped with ten handpumps offering eight cask ales including a porter and a stout from Thornbridge Brewery. 

Standing at the bar you can see through to another room and in the other direction a stove in the fireplace and many CAMRA award certificates including Huddersfield CAMRA Pub of the Year 2011, 2012 & 2013.

Phil Wildsmith, Graham Porter, John Yeates and Denis Rahilly at the Sportsman

Tim found the group in a room to the left of the side entrance with another fireplace, two solid looking long tables and framed architectural plans on the wall.

A visit to the Gents on a quiet day provided the opportunity to photograph the colourful thematic tile panels without any embarrassment!

The Sportsman is listed in CAMRA's inventory of historic pub interiors.

Tim's beer choices in his new favourite Huddersfield pub: Brew York - X-Panda (£4 pint) and North Riding Brewery - Mosaic Pale (£2 half pint) which was full of flavour. An interesting selection of mellow music was played. 

The original plan had been to visit other pubs in Huddersfield but with several not opening until 4pm we decided instead to catch a bus to Slaithwaite and visit The Commercial, a pub on the Transpennine Real Ale trail and near Slaithwaite station. This required a careful walk on icy pavements back towards Huddersfield station, passing the statue of Harold Wilson, and then up St Georges Street to approach the bus station entrance. 

view towards Slaithwaite from 181 bus at Manchester Road, Linthwaite

After a frustrating wait for a driver, the 181 bus to Wilberlee pulled up to platform M. On the edge of town, the inexperienced driver exclaimed 'Where am I going' after taking a wrong turn to pass the Rat and Ratchet requiring a further delay before returning to the route via Manchester Road (A62). The passenger who had got up and walked forward to offer advice was loudly instructed to 'Sit down'.

A few miles before our destination on the 'high route' to Slaithwaite, Tim spotted a Linthwaite sign and remembered this as the location of the famed Sair Inn.

view from Slaithwaite bus stop with Huddersfield Narrow Canal

After our visit to The Commercial in Slaithwaite, described at the end of the Transpennine Real Ale Trail post, Tim caught a 181 bus back to Linthwaite church while the others walked to the Shoulder of Mutton and Hideaway Craft House in Slaithwaite. The Grove, near Huddersfield bus station, would be our rendezvous.

The Sair Inn

Tommy Lane, Linthwaite

Tim had been warned that the steep road to the Sair Inn might be too icy for safety but in fact Tommy Lane had been gritted and only a short stretch was still icy.

Now glad that he had ignored the warning, this would be Tim's first visit to the famed Sair Inn.

Inside, there was still an array of handpumps with many of the Linfit Brewery beers brewed in an outhouse of the pub. However, as there was a Sair Inn Facebook post on 7 December 2022 about the 'hopefully temporary' brewery closure of Linfit Brewery, these handpumps will be serving beers from other breweries in future.

The decoration includes an historic CAMRA mirror and there are unusual wall lamp fittings.

Tim sat at the bar end of the main room with a coal fire and a photo of the 'Late but very great' Ron Crabtree, the 'pioneer' of Linfit brewery, on the wall. The occupant of the next table, facing the fire, sat quietly there until his pint and a packet of crisps were finished before leaving.

While the pub wasn't busy the opportunity was taken to photograph other areas of the pub. The grandfather clock in the darts room is also seen reflected in the mirror above the fireplace. John Lennon and Jimi Hendrix are on the wall to the right of the clock and a local connection is that Jimi is also featured in the pub sign for the King's Head at Huddersfield station.

The Sair Inn has won many CAMRA awards over the years including National Pub of the Year 1997.

Arriving at 4pm and leaving after 5pm in mid January and sitting in a north-west facing room in an elevated position provided a nice sequence of changing views as the sun went down.

The sound quality from the jukebox system was noticeably better than music heard in most pubs. It may have been on free play but to hear 5 songs played for £1 still seemed good value. After some page turning, the tracks selected included some favourite classics: Deacon Blue - Dignity; Tom Petty - American Girl; Van Morrison - Brown Eyed Girl; Kinks - Autumn Almanac; James Taylor - Sweet Baby James and Beautiful South - A Little Time.

The Sair Inn joins Tim's list of favourite pubs that more than repay the effort to visit them. In his own local area, The Bell Inn, Aldworth is another of these favourites which benefits from a microbrewery run by the son of the landlord in an outhouse - Aldworth Brewing Company. The Bell Inn is also a past CAMRA National Pub of the Year winner.

Tim's beer choices: (after recommendation from the bar as a popular choice) Linfit Brewery - Gold Medal (£3.50 pint) & Linfit Brewery - Citra (£1.65 half pint).

Before catching the (late) 181 bus for Huddersfield, Tim stopped to take a photo of the north west evening sky which shows faintly the red lights on the twin 158 metre high steel towers of Moorside Edge transmitting station at Pole Moor, north of Slaithwaite, which are used for medium wave broadcasts of BBC Radio 5 Live (909 kHz). 

Due to a traffic accident closing the road at nearby Cowlersley, the 181 bus was significantly delayed while an alternative route was authorised.

The Grove

It would not be until 6.30pm when Tim finally spotted the illuminated green signs for The Grove, when passing the older (1848) of the two circular brick ventilation shafts for Springwood Tunnel. The parallel railway tunnels run south west from Huddersfield railway station, almost directly underneath the Grove.

There are a total of 20 handpumps on two counters of the central bar which serves the two rooms closest to the corner entrance to the pub. However, not all were in use as 'only 11' cask ales were listed on the boards!

Tim rejoined the group in a room towards the back of the pub with luxurious seating and adjacent historic gig posters on a white wall. Otherwise the decoration is as quirky as in other areas with the animal theme extending to skulls, antlers and skins as well as a padlocked cupboard of taxidermy. This decor and the bright green walls in other areas may not appeal to everyone but makes the Grove unique and memorable.

A low table has CAMRA magazines next to shelves with board games and the range was expanded with the addition of some recent Ullage magazines from West Berkshire.

There have certainly been a lot of changes at The Grove since Tim's previous visit. Tim's Huddersfield, Batley and Leeds visit post includes photos of The Grove, The Sportsman and the King's Head in January 2013.

Tim's beer choice (recommended by the group): Vocation Brewery - Naughty & Nice Coconut Milk & Chocolate Stout (£2.35 half pint).

John and Phil discussed a possible visit to their favourite Indian restaurant near Huddersfield station -  Lala's but when a check was made to find details of trains back to Leeds it revealed that many Transpennine Express trains had been cancelled and to avoid being stranded in Huddersfield later, it was decided to catch a stopping train back to Leeds originating from Huddersfield that would not be overcrowded in these circumstances, arriving back in Leeds about 9pm.

John and Phil went for an Indian meal to newly opened Delhi Wala, in a railway arch on Bishopsgate Street, just outside the station and a stone's throw from the Head of Steam at the foot of Mill Hill. Tim and Denis went to Beckett's Bank in Park Row, a short walk from the north exit from Leeds station. Unfortunately, somehow we had lost Graham en route.

Langham Brewery #Follow The Swallow

 

#followtheswallow 

Based in a rural location, near Lodsworth, in the South Downs National Park, Langham Brewery supplies local and independent pubs including the Hollist Arms in Lodsworth, Petworth’s Angel Inn and the Duke of Cumberland Arms, Henley village, north of Midhurst.

Village sign at entrance to Langham Brewery shows the Hollist Arms pub.

With pubs closed during parts of 2020 / 2021, due to lockdown restrictions, the brewery embarked on an ambitious four point plan to overcome reduced sales of casks and kegs of beer:

• Open a Taproom at the brewery site

• Open a Shop onsite for drive through collections

• Launch an Online shop for local and national deliveries

• Add a Canning line at the brewery

The Taproom reopened in 12 April 2021 with a large gazebo in the sheltered courtyard. Additional outside tables are available in the courtyard with views of nearby fields and woods.

The Shop operates from a counter at the front of the Granary building which houses the brewery. The Canning line is due to be installed in June 2021.

Lesley Foulkes, Langham Brewery

The brewery’s 10 Barrel (BBL) kit was sourced from Wickwar Brewery and relies on steam for heat. The Wickwar vessels had all been given names including Martha the Mash Tun, Cathy the Copper and Fiona the Fermenter. Recently the original brewery has been augmented with fermenting vessels ordered from China including a 20 BBL conical fermenting vessel and a further 10 BBL fermenter named Fanny.  

A door on the south side of the brewery looks out towards the South Downs. What a lovely place to work, with swallows flying over the brewery from late spring!Taproom customers enjoy table service from friendly and knowledgeable staff like Bex, originally from Berkshire. With my young childhood spent near Redford, west of Midhurst, it makes absolute sense that she would want to settle in this beautiful part of West Sussex with its sunken lanes and rolling hills. My parents once used to live even closer to the brewery, at Bexleyhill, some years before I was born! No wonder that I feel so connected with Langham Brewery! As a superannuated wannabe hippie, even the brewery’s beer names resonate with me – LSD first caught my attention years ago - it stands for Langham Special Draught!

Taproom customers enjoy table service from friendly and knowledgeable staff like Bex, originally from Berkshire. With my young childhood spent near Redford, west of Midhurst, it makes absolute sense that she would want to settle in this beautiful part of West Sussex with its sunken lanes and rolling hills. My parents once used to live even closer to the brewery, at Bexleyhill, some years before I was born! No wonder that I feel so connected with Langham Brewery! As a superannuated wannabe hippie, even the brewery’s beer names resonate with me – LSD first caught my attention years ago - it stands for Langham Special Draught!

Langham Brewery Hip Hop

Draught beer from cask or keg is served in half pint, schooner (2/3 pint) or pint measures. Glassware may be from the brewery or local beer festivals. For schooner measures, Teku glasses with a tulip like bowl and a thin curved lip are used. The long stem prevents your hands from transferring warmth to the beer.

The hallucinogenic Op art style label for LSD is the work of Gianni A. Sarcone. LSD is a strong (5.2%) auburn beer with sweet maltiness and Bramling Cross fruit notes.

The use of a three letter acronym for this beer makes a link with the brewery’s pioneering use of What 3 Words as a geographical location method. The App can identify a spot with three words e.g. ///hence.mute.lizards for Langham Brewery.  

In June 2020, Langham Brewery adopted the ///hence.mute.lizards brand for an exclusive What3Words range of occasionally brewed beers like Freedom, a golden ale featuring Citra and Simcoe hops, available from 1 June 2021.  

As well as being a collective name for a group of swallows, The Gulp is the name for a free, new club for Langham Brewery customers. The application form suggests supplying the three words that identify the property to make deliveries easier. The ethically sourced silver birch membership card is posted to applicants and gives a 5% discount on draught beer and 10% off the ‘Beer of the Month’ among other benefits.  

Many awards for the brewery and its beers from CAMRA, SIBA and beer festivals are on display inside the brewery, visible from the counter for the shop at the front entrance.  

As it is difficult to sample all the beers on a visit to the Taproom, it is a good idea to take home some beer after a visit. Langham Brewery beers are available in 500ml bottles and can also be supplied in takeaway containers of various sizes. Merchandise like brewery caps and t-shirts are also on sale.

Bottles of cider from The Garden Cider Co of Mill House Farm, Chiddingfold are also available from the shop and taproom. Surrey Hills Bottling, also based at the farm in Chiddingfold, are the bottlers for some of the Langham Brewery beers.

A few days after visiting Langham Brewery I enjoyed a bottle of South Downs Best Bitter at home.

The Taproom makes a good stopping off point for walkers and cyclists exploring the beautiful countryside of the South Downs National Park.

Pubs near the South Downs Way that serve beers from Langham brewery include the Amberley Black Horse and the White Horse Inn in the village of Sutton,

You can also find Langham’s beers at pubs near the coast like the Shore Inn in East Wittering, Lancing’s Stanley Ale House and the Golden Lion in the Hampshire village of Southwick.

My introduction to the Langham Brewery was a visit to the Duke of Cumberland Arms, Henley village, with a coach load of CAMRA volunteers who had helped at Reading Beer and Cider festival. The 16th century hillside pub with brick floors and a garden with ponds was the brewery’s first pub customer, stocking Hip Hop initially. This July 2010 late afternoon visit had been preceded by a visit to Dark Star Brewery in Partridge Green and pubs including the Sportsman Inn, Amberley and the Black Horse Inn, Byworth, earlier in the day.

After our Langham Brewery visit we enjoyed a walk along footpaths near Cowdray Park Golf Club from the free car park at Benbow Pond. 

Bus stops on the A272 near Halfway Bridge Inn serve the Stagecoach #1 bus service from Midhurst to Worthing via Petworth and Pulborough. Google Maps estimates the 0.7 mile route to the brewery would take 14 minutes to walk. The road to the brewery (The Street), west of the bus stops and northwards from the A272, is signed for Lurgashall, Lickfold and Lodsworth and there is also a brown sign for Langham Brewery.

Visit the Langham Brewery website for more details about the brewery, beers, events, taproom, shop and brewery tours.

Langham Brewery, The Granary, Langham Lane, Lodsworth, Near Petworth, West Sussex GU28 9BU

Tel. 01798 860861      langhambrewery.co.uk

ADDENDUM   (18/5/2021)

Photos: Langham Brewery

Farretti pizzas are now available at the Langham Brewery Taproom and from the nearby Farretti unit.

Photos: Langham Brewery

There are taps for keg beers behind the bar and handpumps for cask ale on the bar of the Taproom.

Photo:Oliver Dixon

Don't forget to take some Langham Brewery beers home with you!

Quinno in Norway

A guest post by Quinten Taylor, Vice Chair of Reading & Mid Berks CAMRA (2020) who is on Twitter as @SirQuinno. [Photos by Quinten Taylor & Tanya Kynaston]

The author drinking at Øx Brew in Trondheim

Dr Strangebrew or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love £15 a pint Norwegian craft beers

So we all know the cliché – Norwegian beer costs a bloody fortune and if you are a serious beer drinker, you’d best have a king’s ransom in tow in order to enjoy yourself like you would at home.

And folks, having spent a week on holiday there, it’s entirely true.

My job, having spent an amount of money that means my wife now says it’s best I don’t see the credit card bill, is to guide future Nordic beer travellers and help them navigate the pratfalls and pitfalls of drinking in this wonderful country.

Tip 1 – Be prepared (mentally)

If you are on a budget, be realistic about how many beers you can afford if you are drinking out. For example the cheapest third available at Oslo’s RØØR bar (the premier venue for craft beer choice in the city) in January 2020 was 62kr. At current exchange rates that’s about £5.20. At that price you’ll burn through a ton without even bothering the higher end of things. Off-sales are split. Beers up to and including 4.7% abv are available in supermarkets; anything above that must be purchased at a Vinmonopolet, the Norwegian state offy. Beware that the Vinmonopolet has restricted opening hours.

Tip 2 – Price usually signifies quality

Almost all Norwegian craft brewers understand the wallet pain that drinking their product can cause, and therefore are rarely in the habit of passing off sub-standard or shoddy beer. Price indicates time, quality and brewing cost in a way that sometimes doesn’t happen in the UK.

Tip 3 – Tasters are a rare treat

Due to the way the Norwegian taxman operates, all beer sold must be accounted for. Therefore a lot of places don’t offer tasters or, if they do, it’ll be a few drops.

Tip 4 – Sharing is caring (about your cash)

If you’re travelling with other beery companions, put any squeamishness about trying other people’s beers aside and dive in. Share the wealth and find the best brews quicker. Flights (which are called 'planks' here, 'flights' are what happen at the airport as far as Norwegians are concerned) are also often available in bars, though often not obviously advertised.

Tip 5 – Brewpubs are cheaper, but refer to Tip 2

I tried half a dozen or so brewpubs and to be honest the quality wasn’t that brilliant in most cases (with a couple of honourable exceptions). By all means try one for a tick but don’t think you’re being clever by drinking exclusively in them to save cash and that you’re getting a comparable experience to drinking more commercial scale products in regular craft bars.

Tip 6 – Card machines are weird in Norway

Bar staff will put in the total on the card machine but often you will also need to re-enter the total yourself (which does give you the option to tip if you wish) before you tap.

Tip 7 – Untappd is your friend

Got a smartphone? Download Untappd and use it to research the beers before you buy. Whilst it certainly isn’t foolproof it often gives you a fair indicator of whether you’re likely to get a great taste experience for your cash.

Tip 8 – Bar service is the norm

And make sure you try a bit of Norwegian lingo when you can, staff will appreciate the effort and will be more willing to give you an exemplary Tip 9.

Tip 9 – If in doubt, ask

Unless it’s Saturday night and the bar is rammed, most Norwegian bar staff are more than happy to help you navigate the beers available if you smile and ask nicely. Spoken English is often impeccable and there remains a great affinity for the British - so you’ll often be engaged in conversation anyway, whether you’re asking about beer or not!

Tip 10 – Know what the Norwegians are best at brewing

This is my final – and I think most important – Norway craft beer tip. Great beer in Norway costs good money. You want to get the best, so why pay three times the price for beer that tastes the same as it does back in UK? You need to hit the rich seams. There are two solid options;

Apollon, Bergen

• Dark beers, namely porters and stouts; the quality of these styles go way above the average of what I’m used to back in the UK. There were at least three beers I tried which I would hail as world class in this category, with a further half dozen or so eliciting long and sustained appreciation. Norwegians know what they’re doing with this genre, so take advantage.                
• Kveik beers. There exists a farmhouse brewing culture in western Norway which has passed down yeasts referred to as kveik for generations. This practice has resulted in ale yeasts which are typically highly flocculant and phenolic. Sounds off-putting? Well, the Norwegians know how to use this yeast to their advantage and there is an emergent trend of adding these yeasts not just to traditional farmhouse beers but also to modern brews in order to bring out a taste similar to funk, orange peel and clove, a taste which I really began to appreciate. Often (though not always) kveik beers will be marked on the blackboard or menu. Read more at http://www.milkthefunk.com/wiki/Kveik

Bonus tips!

Find below a list of bars and breweries that really impressed me during my visit. It isn’t exhaustive, just what I visited, drank and would thoroughly recommend.

BARS

Oslo

RØØR, Oslo

RØØR (Rosenkrantzgate 4)

The most comprehensive tap list in Norway - 71 of them!! Immaculately kept shuffleboards upstairs.

Hopyard (Mathallen Oslo Maridalsveien 17a)

A bar in the covered market with an eclectic selection, run by a bubbly and extremely knowledgeable young lady.

Café Laundromat (Underhaugsveien 2)

A local coffee shop, bar, restaurant and clothes washing facility. And it happens to offer one of the better beer selections in Oslo. I ate here and can recommend the food too.

Grünerløkka Brygghus (Thorvald Meyers Gate 30B)

Friendly backstreet brewpub with a British style atmosphere. And their Løkka Tropicana beer is to die for.

Café Sara (Hausmanns Gate 29)

Cosy and upmarket bar/restaurant with an eclectic range.

Bryggen (the dock), Bergen

Bergen

Pingvinen (Vaskerelven 14)

Small and intimate bar and diner. The food is Norwegian ‘what granny makes’ comfort fodder and comes highly recommended by me. It is really popular, so come early to bag a seat.

Henrik Øl og Vinstove (Engen 10)

A discreet doorway and a flight of stairs leads to a basic and uncomplicated bar with 54 taps. All beer available in thirds.

Apollon, Bergen

Apollon (Nygårdsgaten 2a)

A fun little venue which is half record shop and half bar. Not many seats, so try and visit off-peak.

Røverdatter (Neumanns Gate 5)

Trendy lounge bar with friendly service and some leftfield choices.

View from Gamle Bybro (Old Town Bridge), Trondheim 

Trondheim

Øx Tap Room (Munkegata 26)

Huge modern subterranean brewpub who produce excellent quality beers and also have a wide variety of guests.

Den Gode Nabo, Trondheim

Den Gode Nabo (Øvre Bakklandet 66)

Housed in a centuries old wooden building on the iconic riverfront in the old town, this is a feast for those who love history and quirky hostelries. The beer list ain't bad either!

BEERS AND BREWERIES

Nøgne Ø

One of the few Norwegian brewers to get their products over to the UK in decent quantity, you can’t go wrong with any of their beers in any style. Their Gale Force Imperial Stout and Porter are world class dark beers.

Cervisiam

A cuckoo brewer who make the most amazing beers – if you like big taste, this is the one for you. Their Bourbon & Rye Barrel Aged Pecanisher was a ‘tell your kids about it’ beer, a Top 10 in my lifetime beer. It was that good.

Lysefjorden

The brewer makes his own cola. He decided to try making a sour beer with it – the result is incredible (always available at Pingvinen, Bergen). So good I went back a second day and had it again.

Drum Brew

For their Gulrot Gose, made with Norwegian carrots. Tasted like nothing I’ve had before and if it hadn’t have been for time at the bar, I would have had another!

HaandBryggeriet

Found in most craft bars, they were a new brewery to me when I arrived in Norway and I left having enjoyed a good number of their brews which are consistently high quality.