There are 30 different real ales, 8 ciders and 20 different types of sausage, including Steak & Marmite and other interesting flavours.

There will be live music on Sunday afternoon. Additionally on Sunday, anyone showing a CAMRA membership card will be offered a discount on beer prices

The beer list has a good range, including many local beers from breweries such as Pitstop, Vale, West Berkshire, White Horse as well some from further afield. I particularly recommend you try some of the Pitstop beers as they are unlike anything else you will have ever tried (Try the Sump in half pints as it is very strong… and on Friday was amongst the most popular). The complete beer and cider list is reproduced below:

The Kings Head and Bell reopened on 30th October. This is everything I expected it to be, good beer, reasonably priced food. It has retained the traditional feel to it, but is more welcoming than previously. Judging by its popularity over the last couple of weeks it fits in with what many people want in a pub. Beers are mainly from Hook Norton and Adnams and Fullers London Pride arrived this week. It is good to see a regular outlet for Hook Norton in Abingdon. Hook Norton is Oxfordshire’s oldest brewery and has recently been winning lots of awards

The Brewery Tap has had a 6th hand pump fitted, and has a lot of beers from local breweries including West Berkshire Brewery, Hook Norton, White Horse Brewery, Vale Brewery. The list of beers on last week were:

• Maggs mild
• Morland original
• Hardy’s and Hanson Bitter
• Hook Norton’s Flagship
• White horse Wayland smithy
• vale Brewery Grumpling ale

They are having a Winter ‘Beer, Cider & Sausage’ festival between 4th-6th December. Featuring 30 different cask ales, 5 real ciders and live music from Big Boys Blues Band on the Sunday from 4pm.

Morland’s Old Speckled Hen recently celebrated its 30th birthday. I’m sure most people already know its history. For more info see this article in the Oxford Times and this youtube video of Ode To Joy being performed on Speckled Hen bottles.

The Old Anchor has a charity event on 5th December in aid of stroke survivors. The main event is sold out. However there will be live music at 9pm to which people will be admitted for a £3 entrance fee.

The Nags Head is continuing to maintain a good variety of real ales which change on a regular basis, although I understand that Fullers London Pride may become a permanent offering.

The Broad Face has a new sign depicting a broad faced man’s head more in keeping to how it was few years ago. They are serving a guest beer alongside the regular Morland Original and Abott Ale

The Stocks Bar is continuing to maintain a good range of real ales, and has just some refurbishment including new flooring in the bar. They also now have a facebook page

White Horse has a good range of beers and live music most Saturdays.

The Cross Keys has a good program of live music and serving good beer including St. Austell’s Proper Job.

Punch Bowl had a Morris Dancing folk music jam session last Sunday afternoon.

The Blue Boar appears to be having some interior refurbishment going on

The Plough is serving a reasonable pint of beer, serves lunchtime food and has live music most weeks

The Black Swan has had some outside refurbishment, but seems the same inside

There will be around 140 different ales and 20 real ciders and perry’s available. This is a good opportunity to try out beers that may not be available locally, try beers from local breweries and to meet other people who appreciate good beer.

You can find more information including an up to date beer list at the Oxford Camra web site.

A new industry report published this week about Cask Ale says:

…over the last few years, cask beer has seen a remarkable turnaround. It’s now outperforming every other beer style, benefitting from the increasing demand for products with local provenance, natural ingredients and interesting flavours.

• White Horse – Wayland Smithy
• West Berkshire – Maggs mild. If there is enough support this may become permanently available
• Highgate – Highland whiskey ale
• Clarks – Westgate gold.

They are also examining the possibility of installing another 2 hand pumps which will bring the selection of ales up to 7 pumps.

The Brewery Tap has always been known for its quality of ale, and was the only pub in Abingdon to appear in the Camra 2009 Good Beer Guide and has been Cask Marque accredited every year since it started. However as it is a Greene King pub it has been restricted in its choice of beers.

The improvements are due to Kane who previously managed the Stocks bar, and has now moved to the Brewery Tap. Whilst at the Stocks bar, he was responsible for dramatic improvements to the beer range and quality, turning it into one of the top pubs in the Oxford area for real ale drinkers.

There are plans to hold a beer festival at the Brewery Tap at the beginning of December, and to try to obtain Camra LocAle status by permanently stocking beers from the White Horse Brewery.

This is good news for Abingdon, which over the last few years has seen a big improvement to the quality and range of beers.

I have just heard that local brewery The West Berkshire Brewery has won bronze medal today at the Great British Beer Festival for its Dr. Hexters’s Healer

The other winners include:

• Champion Beer of Britain: Rudgate Ruby Mild
• Silver: Oakham Attila

In Abingdon, you can often find West Berkshire Beers including Doctor Hexters Healer at the Stocks Bar in Abingdon and at Music At The Unicorn.

The Stocks bar is the only pub in Abingdon with Camra LocAle status (awarded by Camra to pubs that consistently server locally brewed beers), offsers discounts to Camra members and is having its summer beer festival in a few weeks time on 21st-24th August.

Music at the Unicorn is a monthly music event featuring top acts from the folk music world in the historic Unicorn theatre in Abingdon abbey. Blackheart and Maybelles are performing there this Thursday (6th August). The licensed bar always features beer from West Berkshire Brewery.

It is holding its 3rd beer festival this weekend (Friday 3rd April – Monday 6th April). Previous beer festivals have been very good with an excellent range of beers, mostly locally sourced.

There is Live jazz friday night from 9pm
The Abingdon Swing Band are playing sunday afternoon from 2.30pm with a BBQ
Live Big Boys Blues Band sat night from 9pm

This is the Ale that will be available during the course of the festival on a rotational basis. There will be 30 ales available of which 12 are from local breweries.

• Jennings Cockerhoop 4.6%
• Jennings Snecklifter 5.1%
• Jennings Golden Host 4.3%
• Ringwood Best Bitter 3.8%
• Marstons Old Empire 5.7%
• Marstons Pedigree 4.5%
• Wychwood Paddy’S TOUT 4.3%
• Wychwood Dragon’s Bite 4.0%
• Wychwood Hobgoblin 4.5%
• Brakspear Bitter 3.4%
• H.B Clarks Daffodil Dream 4.4%
• H.B Clarks No Angel 4.0%
• Hook Norton 303 4.0%
• Okells Spring Ram 4.2%
• Dr Okells IPA 4.5%
• West Berkshire Brewery Ale Hoof 4.3%
• West Berkshire Brewery Dr Hexters Healer 5.0%
• West Berkshire Brewery Lions Tooth 4.3%
• Box steam Brewery Steam Porter 5.0%
• Box steam Brewery Tunnel Vision 4.2%
• Jarrow Brewery Caulker 4.2%
• Castlerock Brewery Elsie Mow 4.7%
• Hambleton Brewery Stud 4.3
• Hambleton Brewery Stallion 4.2%
• Tom Woods Brewery Barn Dance 4.2%
• Pot Belly Brewery Red Wing 4.8%
• White Horse Brewery Porter 5.0%
• White Horse Brewery Giant 4.3%
• Pit stop Brewery Hamilton 6.0%
• Pit Stop Brewery Sump 7.0%

Pubs in Abingdon have seen some major improvements over the last year. After the take over and closure of the Morlands Brewery and Morrels Brewery by Greene King around the end of millenium, we ended up with something of a beer wilderness in Abingdon where almost every pub was run by Greene King and all served the same small selection of beers (Greene King IPA, Morland Original and maybe one guest… but all the pubs seem to choose the same guest each month). Not that there is anything wrong with Greene King beers, but I like to have a choice.

In the last year there have been several improvements:

• The Stocks Bar (at the Crown and Thistle Hotel) has installed 10 hand pumps and regularly serves 9 real ales (many locally sourced) and around 6 ciders or perries. It also has beer festivals featuring 30 or more real ales (more on this in next blog entry)
• The White Horse (by the Drayton road double mini roundabout) installed extra hand pumps and has guest beers that are not from the Greene King range
• The Nags Head (on Nags Head island on Bridge street) now has 4 real ales from different breweries (LAst weekend this was Adnams, Black Sheep, Bombadier and Greene King IPA
• The Plough (Stert street) is still Greene King, but has a GK guest beer available (last year it only ever had IPA), which is served well
• The Anchor (wharf) has a range of Greene King beers, and has had several mini beer festivals over the last year, some of which featured non Greene King beers
• Cross Keys (Ock Street) has improved a lot, and serves Greene King beers including a guest

On the downside:

• Kings Head and Bell (East St. Helens Street) is still closed, but a lot of building work is going on, and the planning permission application was approved and looks lik it will be good.
• The Grapes is closed again. It was turned into a Tapas bar, but became unpopular amongst locals
• The Broad Face is looking for a new tenant, but is still operating in the meantime.

Other pubs worthy of a mention

• Spread Eagle (Northcourt Road) has good range of Greene King beers, well served in a friendly environment
• Punchbowl (Market Place) is friendly, but still suffers from only having two beers available (Morland Original + Greene King guest), though they are well served and the staff are friendly
• Brewery Tap (Ock Street). Range of Greene King beers, well served in a friendly environment. THe only Abingdon pub in the Good Beer Guide 2009

Also, at the weekend I was in Copenhagen visiting the European Beer Festival. This was an amazing event with lots of interesting things. Expect some blog entries from me about this over the next few days.

And thirdly… last week we released the Camra Good Beer Guide 2009 mobile edition to coincide with the launch of the book. You can find more information about this on the Camra web site.