The June issue of The Oxford Drinker is now out. Copies of the free magazine should appear in Abingdon pubs that serve real ale over the next few days.

If you can’t wait until then, or for some other reason can’t get out to your local pub, you can read it online here

Articles of interest to Abingdon Drinkers include a review of the Broad Face’s first beer festival, Brewery Tap’s last beer festival and some snippets of news about the Cross Keys which is now offering a discount to card carrying CAMRA members.

The Oxford Drinker is the newsletter of the Oxford branch of CAMRA, The Campaign For Real Ale.

Beer List

There is live music on Friday (TC Band) and Saturday (Full Circle)

They will also serve local cheeses and homemade chutneys and few ale dishes and a’la carte menu:

• Beef and Ale Stew with Black Olive Mash £8.95
• Real Ale Batted Fish of the Day with Hand Cut Chips and Homemade Tatare Sauce £9.25
• Selection of Locally Sourced Sausages with Ale Braised Shallots and Red Wine Jus £8.95
• Real ale Beef Chilli with Aromatic Basmati Rice £8.95
• Ale and Onion Soup with Real Ale Bread £4.60

The beer with the most votes was surprisingly the Scott’s 1816 by Copper Dragon. The tap has several more firkins of this in the cellar and is still available at the bar if anyone wants to swing by and taste what all the fuss was about.

The first cider to sell out was the classic scrumpy Old Rosie, quickly followed by all the rest on Saturday afternoon. The surprise seller and possibly the crowds favourite was the Broadoak Medium Sweet, followed by the Old Bristolian.

Over three hundred sausages, twenty bowls of beef stew and nearer thirty bowls of Chilli were also sold.

The success of this beer festival shows how much interest there is in good quality ale, and also the success that CAMRA has had in the last 40 years. When CAMRA was formed 40 years ago, there were only a handful of breweries left, and most pubs were only serving Keg beers such as Watney’s Red Barrel and Double Diamond. We now have over 800 breweries. The problem now is to change the beer tie laws and encourage national pub chains to allow tied pubs to have more guest beers. The other problem is that duty on beer was raised by a further 7.2% in last week’s budget (despite the Chancellor saying there was no change, what he meant was there was no change to the already agreed 2% above inflation rise agreed in previous budgets). This means most beer will be 10p/pint more.

The Brewery Tap supports CAMRA by offering members a 15p/pint discount on real ales.

This weekend is the Broad Face’s first beer festival, which also has an impressive list of mainly local beers… I will post the list in the next post.

This weekend (Friday 25th to Sunday 27th March) sees the Brewery Tap‘s Beer, Cider, Music & Sausage festival. This features 12 beers in the beer tent, 6 at the bar, and 6 more in the cellar to replace the ones at the bar when they run out. As well as 11 real ciders and perrys.

WB-40 ale

More details including tasting notes of all the beers and ciders can be downloaded here:
Brewery Tap, Spring beer festival tasting Notes

There will be live music each day, as well as the now traditional selection of interestingly flavoured sausages.

Next weekend (1st-3rd April), the Broad Face will be having its first beer festival, combined with several live music events.

Then later on in April, the Kings Head & Bell is holding a Best of British Week, which encompasses St. George’s Day, Easter and the royal wedding, and hopefully some good british ale.

Don’t forget to keep visiting the other pubs in town that serve good pints of real ale including The White Horse, Cross Keys, Punch Bowl, Spread Eagle and Stocks Bar. Remember if we don’t use our local pubs they may close forever. We’ve lost 3 pubs already in the last 3 months and don’t want to lose any more!

The Boundary House on Oxford road has had a complete revamp and reopened a couple of weeks ago. It has branded itself as a ‘Surf and Turf’ and looks more food oriented than beer. The food is very cheap, with the menu comprising burgers, steaks, scampi. The interior has been modified so that it is all one large area instead of the seperate dining area that it used to have. It has the feel similar to an American Sports bar. For beer they were serving Old Speckled Hen on draught, which was in reasonable condition. Previously I have found the beer in there undrinkable, so this is an improvement. The large beer garden at the front has been surrounded by a low wooden fence which makes it safer for children who might otherwise run onto the busy Oxford Road.

The Prince of Wales in Shippon has 6 real ales on, with several being local beers from Loose Cannon and Shotover breweries. The refurbishing of the kitchen, dining area and toilets is complete. The pub is only just outside of Abingdon and not too far to walk or cycle. They have live music and other events on regularly.

The Royal British Legion club on Spring Road is in danger of closing. An EGM was held a few days ago due to financial problems relating to the ownership of the property. However for the time being it is still open and is currently serving Loose Cannon’s Abingdon Bridge Ale at only £2.35 a pint.

The Ox on Oxford Road is having monthly Jazz sessions with Abingdon’s top international jazz musician George Haslam and guests. They only have Morland Original beer on offer, but it was served in excellent condition. Don’t forget also that The Broad Face has live Jazz bands every Sunday afternoon from 4pm onwards.

The Plough is a classic local pub, with a pool table, darts board and TVs. Beer is from Greene King with IPA always available and usually a Greene King seasonal guest.

The first was in December 2009, and had an excellent range of beers combined with an amazing range of sausages. The Brewery Tap are planning to hold four festivals a year.

This second festival will have 30 cask ales and 6 real ciders. There will also be live jazz music on Friday evening and Sunday afternoon.

For more information download Brewery Tap Beer Festival 2 – Tasting Notes which has a list of all beers with tasting notes.

I can see several beers on the list I have not tried before, and as before it has a good mixture of beer from local breweries (Appleford, White Horse, Pitstop, Vale, Hook Norton) and a few from further afield.

The Kings Head and Bell is also planning a beer festival soon on May day bank holiday weekend, and I’ll post more info on that when I have it.

Other big beer related news in Abingdon is that the Loose Cannon Brewery in Suffolk Way is getting close to opening. Trial brews will begin in April and hopefully will be on sale in May direct from the brewery’s shop and in local pubs. For more information see this article in the Oxford Mail.

The Oxford CAMRA branch’s newsletter for Feb/March 2010 has now been published. It includes news, articles and information about pubs and breweries in the Oxford and White Horse branch areas.

Free copies can be found in most real ale pubs. In Abingdon this includes Brewery Tap, Stocks Bar, Punchbowl, King’s Head & Bell, Spread Eagle, Nags Head, Broad Face, White Horse, Plough, The Anchor, Cross Keys.

You can also read it online as a PDF at www.oxfordcamra.org.uk/drinker/

It is open between 11am-11pm on Friday 20th November and Saturday 21st November.

Stagecoach number 31 is an hourly bus service between Abingdon and Wantage, that takes about 35 minutes. [Timetable PDF]