Prince of Wales, Shippon: 30th Sep – 2nd Oct

Next weekend (Fri 30th September to Sunday 2nd October) the Prince of Wales in Shippon is holding a beer and music festival. This will feature over 20 real ales, 7 ciders and a pig roast on Saturday. This pub is within easy walking or cycling distance from Abingdon. Last year this pub was on the verge of closure with planning permission to convert it into housing, but was saved from closure and a lot of money and effort has been put into improvements over the last year. There are normally 6 real ales available including local beers from Shotover and Loose Cannon. Regular live music events, and is a favourite pub for several local morris dancing sides.

Brewery Tap: 7th-9th October

It’s been 20yrs since Mr Warrick’s Arms shut. Keith and Marilyn Heritage were the licensees and soon after opened The Brewery Tap, but the pub will be remembered more for the ‘Duchess of Ock Street’, Mrs Heavens, who had run the pub for close to sixty years!

To celebrate the anniversary and to commemorate British beer week, The Brewery Tap is holding a big old beer, cider & sausage festival, with their biggest range yet. The festival will in a double top hat marque adjacent to the pub in the pub car park. Live music will include Big Boys Blues Band and Flexamuscle on the Saturday evening and Nevada plus guests on the Sunday afternoon.

When the beer list and tasting notes are available, I’ll add them here.

The Brewery Tap is in the latest 2012 edition of The Good Beer Guide which was published by The Campaign For Real Ale (CAMRA) last week. They offer a discount on real ale and cider for CAMRA members and have been recognised by CAMRA as a real cider pub.

Broad Face: 18th-20th November

Following the success of the Broad Face’s first beer festival earlier this year in April, they are holding their 2nd beer festival in November. I don’t have many details, but I expect it will be similar to the April one with around 12 real ales and live music. More details will be added when I get them.

The Broad Face normally has a selection of 4 real ales, and offers a discount on real ales to CAMRA members.

The list of beers will include:

• White Horse – Black Horse Porter
• West Berkshire – Whimble
• Oxfordshire Ales – Happy Hooker
• Loddon – In Yer Face American IPA
• Loddon – Russet
• Exmoor – Exmoor Gold
• Castle Rock – Harvest Pale
• Greene King – Bonkers Conkers
• Greene King – Olde Trip
• Wolf – RAF Battle of Britain
• Everards – Tiger
• Wentworth – Vanilla

The latest beer list can be downloaded Here

I am particularly looking forward to trying the Loddon American IPA. Loddon is a local brewery based in a converted barn between Reading and Henley, but we don’t get to try much of their cask ales in Abingdon’s pubs, although some is available in bottles from supermarkets

Live music each night, starting with BLIND DOG BLUES on Friday night, RAMI & THE TALC DAEMONS on Saturday night and finishing up with ADAM MATTHEWS early Sunday evening.

The Cross Keys is now also using YourRound so you can see what beers are currently being served and in the cellar.

You can also follow them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/crosskeysabingdon

Hook Norton Dray (Picture borrowed from Kings Head and Bell facebook page)

There is a good range of 20 real ales outside (and 4 more at the bar). Many of them are from local breweries including:

• Loose Cannon, Abingdon: Pale Ale and Abingdon Bridge
• Hook Norton: Hooky Dark, Hooky Gold, Old Hooky, Hooky Double Stout, Haymaker, Flagship
• Appleford: Power Station
• White Horse: Saracen IP
• Vale: Grumpling
• West Berkshire: Dr. Hexter’s Healer
• Oxfordshire Ales: Pride of Oxfordshire
• Butts: Barbus Barbus

From further afield are:

• Andwell, Hampshire: Gold Muddle
• Box Steam Brewery, Wiltshire: Tunnel Vision and Funnel Blower
• Cottage Brewery, Somerset: Licence to Chew
• Rebellion, Marlow: Mutiny
• Red Squirrel, Hertfordshire: Summer Ale
• Sadlers, Stourbridge: Stumbling Badger
• Adnams: Broadside
• Wadworth 6X

There are also 5 real ciders.

I haven’t tried everything yet, but probably the Hooky Flagship is my favourite so far.

You can also see more pictures of the horses on The Abingdon Blog

As with the Abingdon Bridge when it was launched last year, Will Laithwaite the owner and head brewer has made two different recipies, currently known as Trial Brew 1 and Trial Brew 2. They are made from the same malt and yeast but use different hops.

• Trial Brew 1: Made with Fuggles and Goldings Hops: Smooth, almost sweet, delicate, slightly spicy
• Trial Brew 2: Made with Challenger and Pioneer Hops: Lemon/Gratefruit citrus aroma.

Handpump serving Loose Cannon Pale Ale at the brewery

Both trials can be sampled at the brewery shop, which is at the brewery in Suffolk Way.

You can also buy both of the Pale Ale trials as well as Abingdon Bridge in various sizes including 1 and 2 Litre bottles, mini-casks, polypins and Firkins.

We took a few litres back to our office to get the opinions of our colleagues. The reaction to each trial seems quite mixed. Both are very drinkable and different people seem to prefer different ones. Personally my vote is for Trial Brew 2 as it has a more complex taste, but brew 1 has more traditional English hops.

Bottles of Loose Cannon Pale Ale trial to try at home (or work!).

At the moment it is not being served in any Abingdon pub, but hopefully some of them will start stocking it in the next week or two. In the meantime, I recommend visiting the brewery to try it out. The brewery shop is open weekdays from 8am-6pm and Saturdays 9am-5pm.

The Cricketer’s Arms in Littleworth has both of the Pale Ale trials as well as Abingdon Bridge at their Beer & Sausage Festival this weekend, which features 14 mainly local real ales and 2 real ciders. More information can be found at www2.cricketers-arms.co.uk/beer_and_sausage_festival

The Fitzharris Arms has closed down, currently boarded up and sold to Tesco. This was a community pub serving an area of Abingdon without any other pubs close by. The nearest pub is the Spread Eagle which is over half a mile away. See This Abingdon Blog for photos of the Fitzharris in its sad closed down state.

The Nags Head also closed after christmas and is currently boarded up.

The Plough was up for sale and I understand an offer has been made on it. There are several rumours going around town about the buyer and what the intention is, but it seems unlikely to remain as a traditional pub.

The Ox closed down briefly, but appears to have reopened again. I have heard that it is now selling good real ale such as Timothy Taylor Landlord Bitter, but I have not yet had chance to check for myself. If true, then this would be excellent for Abingdon to have a freehouse free of Greene King’s control of most Abingdon pubs.

The Black Swan I believe has changed management and has signs on the window applying for a change in license involving making the bar smaller and removing some fixed seating.

The Blue Boar which has been something of a desert for real ale has been reported as occasionally having real ale available.

The Brewery Tap has reached an agreement with Greene King allowing two handpumps to be free of tie. As part of CAMRA LocAle scheme, it is expected that at least one of these will have a local beer on most of the time. The other four handpumps are from Greene King’s range of guests, and currently include a good range of different ales including two from Brew Dog. They are holding a blues, brews and jazz festival on March 25th-27th.

The White Horse, also a Greene King pub continues to have an interesting range of guest beers.

The Stocks Bar (Crown & Thistle Hotel) also continues to vary its range, mainly from the Marstons group of breweries including Ringwood, Jennings, Wychwood and Brakspear.

The Old Anchor (yet another Greene King pub) always serves its 3 Greene King beers in good condition, but it is likely that landlady Leslie will be leaving in a few months when Greene King find new tenants. Over the last few years several excellent beer festivals have been held there, and you always get a friendly welcome. This is one of Abingdon’s picture postcard pubs, being one of the first sights you get of Abingdon when travelling up the Thames. I hope that it will continue as a pub.

The King’s Head & Bell had its first Winter Beer festival last weekend. This include 16 beers with about half coming from Hook Norton’s range, some local beers from Vale, White Horse and Abingdon’s Loose Cannon, and the Steam Brewery. This was held upstairs in the King Charles’ Room and combined with the Rugby being shown on TV Friday and Saturday and a folk music session on Sunday had a really good friendly pub atmosphere.

The Broad Face have managed to recover and restore the original lost pub sign that was taken down in 2001, and plans to reinstate it soon. They are also holding their first beer festival on 1st-3rd April coinciding with Abingdon Arts Festival. Also remember they have live jazz music every Sunday afternoon as well as live bands most fridays.

Sorry not to mention every pub… The Spread Eagle, Punch Bowl and Cross Keys are always worth a visit. The Prince of Wales just outside Abingdon in Shippon always has 6 real ales, a new dining room, open fireplace and a friendly environment.

You can pick up a free copy from most good pubs in the area. There are currently copies in the Brewery Tap, The White Horse and The Loose Cannon Brewery shop. They should appear in other pubs during the next week (deliveries rely on volunteers to take them to pubs in their spare time).


Articles of interest to Abingdonians in this issue include:

• Abingdon’s Loose Cannon Brewery
• Report from Old Anchor Beer Festival
• Oxford City Pub of The Year shortlist
• Publication of new Good Beer Guide 2011, including new entries from the Oxford branch area
• Preview of The Oxford Beer Festival
• Welcome report from the new Oxford CAMRA branch chairman
• List of Beer Festivals

If you can’t wait to get a hardcopy, then you can also read it online as a PDF file from the Oxford CAMRA web site

List of beers and ciders, with tasting notes

The Tap’s beer festival features 16 real ales including Abingdon Bridge from Abingdon’s own Loose Cannon Brewery and 8 real ciders, and as with the previous Tap festivals this year…. specialist sausages and live music.

There will be live music on Saturday afternoon (4pm) from The Three Musty Steers and on Sunday afternoon (4pm) from George Haslam’s 18 piece Big Time Swing Band.

Saturday also coincides with the annual Runner Bean Day on Saturday, which offers prizes for things such as the longest runner bean.

If you want to travel outside of Abingdon there are a few other beer festivals going on including The Cricketer’s Arms in Littleworth which is holding its Autumn Beer and Sausage Festival featuring 12 locally brewed beers, and Far From the Madding Crowd in Oxford which is holding its Autumn Beer festival.

Kings Head and Bell - Stillage, the day before

The full list of breweries is Hook Norton, White Horse, Abingdon’s own Loose Cannon, Oxfordshire Ales, Appleford, Box Steam Brewery, West Berkshire, Wadworth, Festival Brewery from Cheltenham and Vale Brewery.

The festival was officially opened at midday on Saturday by Beth Fleming, chairman of the Vale and Alastair Fear, deputy mayor of Abingdon.

Also this afternoon, members from the Oxford branch of CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) members will be giving a tutured tasting demonstration and will be on hand to answer questions about real ale and what CAMRA does.

Abingdon Traditional Morris Dancers will be performing on Sunday afternoon starting around 2:30pm and will be followed by a folk music jam session.

The Freedom brewery had a stand on Saturday where you could sample their Hand crafted English Lagers, which if you are only used to the bland mass produced lager brands will surprise you with their aroma, taste and body. The King’s Head and Bell regularly serve Freedom Four

There are other things going on as well including a BBQ serving local farm produce. The banner outside also refers to a local craft market and face painting.

All of the beers are from local breweries, most of which are rarely or never seen in any Abingdon pubs. A provisional list is:

There will also be 2 real ciders and live music.

The Brewery Tap in Ock Street, Abingdon is holding a Cider festival this weekend (Friday 25th June – Sunday 27th June).

It will feature 21 different ciders, including a rare breed of ciders from local sources and CAMRA award winners.

The full list of ciders and perrys along with tasting notes can be downloaded here

There will also be a selection of world beers, and a selection of interestingly flavoured sausages that have been very popular at the previous beer festivals.

Sunday afternoon should be good, watching England beat Germany whilst drinking some traditionally made real English ciders.