Samuel Smith's

the old boot inn in chester and the swan and three cygnets in durham city
absolute must visits when there
I.m 77 so smartphones are not for me

 

Our lass bought me a bottle of Sam’s ‘Taddy Porter’ from our local farm shop. Really like it and did a bit of Googling. I was surprised at the variety of beers they sell online.

https://samuelsmithsbrewery.co.uk/product-category/online/

 

I always found the strength of their stuff incredibly variable, no doubt due to the informal old school practices in the brewery. I was once off my face on 4 pints of lager.

 

I was barred from the Windmill in Pontefract for beating the landlord at pool then mooning at him. Those were the days.

 

I was going to recommend The Princess Louise too. I remember having a very good sesh in there the day before the Oxford final at Wembley.

 

Yep, used to be loads of Sam Smiths pubs along the Strand. Started my stag do along there, starting in the Chandos. Old Museum Ale was a cracking point.

Just coming to the end of a massive case of their beers my sister bought me for my 60th last month. Onto the Oatmeal Stout tonight.

 

When I come over, my brother picks me up from Heathrow. To avoid doing the return trip in a day, and for a night out, we always have a night in Belsize Park to have a pub crawl around there and Hampstead. We both lived there in the late eighties / early nineties. On the way home we usually stop in Richmond or Kingston, as it's an easy run to Heathrow next morning.
All that waffle above was to say we usually drop in the one on the river in Kingston, but it is nearly always like a ghost town. I've no idea how it survives.

 

Been in The Crown on new Oxford st london many times and Brown bear Sheffield. Do like a pint or two of Taddy's lager missen. Bit frustrating supping up times though. Suppose they won't pay overtime.

 

Next time give their organic lager a try instead of Tadddy’s

You can thank me later

 

Their abv and duty payments and declarations would be spot on, HMRC have an office in the brewery, visit at will and audit with a fine toothed comb. It's only fairly recently that HMRC dropped the practice of having a set of keys in order to visit when the brewery was closed.

 

The cider reserve is a lovely fruity pint but since he's put a quid on every drink. Sorry not paying £4.60 a pot.

 

Coincidental timing for the thread, I visited the Angel in Leeds last night. Used to go in loads when I was a pauper student in the early 2000's, and there were plenty of like-minded folks, was always busy.

There was a sum total of 3 people in the place, plus 2 bar staff. We were wondering why, given that the rest of Briggate was heaving with work Xmas parties and whatnot. Even at £3.50 a pint, they're clearly struggling to attract customers, yet not remotely bothered about it.

 

This!
Never knew Sam Smith’s had so many pubs in London. Always heaving and always in the most beautiful buildings.
I still think the beer is ***** mind.

 

Fair enough, I must have been spiked or summat then, although I've no idea why someone would spike an unattractive bloke in a village pub and then not do anything.

 

It depends when it was, but going from memory, until fairly recently their Ayingerbrau lager wasn't far off 5% ABV....4 pints of which is not a bad evenings work.

 

I knew a few Sam Smith's people at one time including Humphrey's chauffeur. He told me Humphrey would have him pick him up at midnight and take him to various Sam Smith's pubs in the early hours...Humphrey would go through the bins outside to see if he could find evidence of the manager buying things outside the Brewery contract.
Another friend took a Sam's pub in Selby, Humphrey came in one day and told him he was ordering too many toilet rolls...my friend, jokingly said, ''if I wasn't selling your beer I wouldn't need to buy so many"....Humphrey apparently took it in good part....Two weeks later my friend got his notice.

 

The Ayeringbrau is one that I think has gone right down in ABV - as I recall it's 2-3% now. The Pure Brew lager was always excellent and is still about 5 - I used to have it even as a committed ale drinker. Only occasionally though, because I think it was north of three quid when you could get a pint of bitter for about £1.30!

 

I remember them bringing the Pure Brewed out....it was originally called Sam Smith's Natural Lager, but apparently it offended some stupid regulation and had to be renamed. At the time it was bottled only, but purely from a taste and aroma point of view it was the best UK brewed lager on the market.

 

holly bush ?