Grin And Beer It? - E-Mail correspondence with Spooky St. Ives

Janet Bentley

07 October 2003 13:46

Hayle to the Ale

Dear Mr Jelly,
I read that you are very fond of Doom Bar, but what other local ales can you recommend? When we were in St Ives during the summer, we wandered off in the direction of Hayle to visit the choughs in Paradise Park. When we came out, there just happened to be a very handily placed pub called 'The bird in Hand'. Not wishing to miss any of the local sights we ventured in and found something resembling a real pub!

(I know that these exist in Cornwall (i.e. The Sloop) but it always comes as a shock as all the pubs local to us in the Midlands appear to have been turned into pseudo-restaurants that seem uninterested in anyone not wanting a meal, perhaps because you need the food to make up for the fact that the beer is tasteless?)

Anyway, back to Hayle. As the driver, my quaffing was limited (n.b. must catch the bus next time) but my hubby investigated their own brew 'Speckled Parrot'. He seemed to find this most enjoyable and soon developed a very silly grin on his face. Also the pub seemed to be populated with locals rather than emmets. Perhaps the RT should investigate!

Happy quaffing
Janet

Vile Jelly

08 October 2003 09:36

Hayle? Hayle! I'm not going there until I get the Abrams Tank back from Baghdad!

The udder problem with visiting foreign lands like H is that I have to drive to get there which obviously makes ale-swilling a problem. The RT have offered to drive me but as that would involve some of them steering while others work the pedals I'll wait until I am utterly weary of this pointless existence before I take them up on it!

As for other lokel beers worth investigating:

Sharp's Special is well worth investigating. Not sure if you can still get it at the Tinners in Zennor, it's on at the Old Success in Sennen. Of course, if you've been paying attention you will know that the legendary Eden Ale can be obtained in the Gig Bar at the Godolphin Arms in Marazion.

The Skinner's stuff is pretty good too. That was on at the Gurnard's Head and the Tinners had Heligan Honey on last time I was in.

Avoid St. Awful stuff if you can.

There is the legendary Blue Anchor in Helston where small quantities of the even more legendary Spingo can be obtained if you grovel and beg convincingly!

There are a few microbreweries around like Doghouse but I've never actually come across anywhere that flogs it so can't really comment.

Of course, there may be more going on up north but this being the last outpost before the Big Wet we don't tend to get a lot of variety down here.

Of course, I could be looking in the wrong places but until someone pays me to check out everywhere .....

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