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Been going into the Victoria Hotel Beeston on a Wednesday evening for my mid-week fix of Harvest pale for the last two years now. I have been hopping beyond hope that a nearer pub to the Vic would start to sell my favourite beer because it’s a thirty minute walk to the Vic and I’m not getting any younger nor is shoe leather getting any cheaper.

My wishes have come true; the Hope Pole [Hop Pole] on the High road has re-opened after the last owner went bankrupt.

I didn’t know what to expect as I pushed the door and discovered you have to pull it to let yourself in.

Once in I was confronted with two more doors one to the right which I ignored because the last time I was in the place that led to the room with the pool table and dart board in and this evening I wasn’t interested in playing darts or pool.

I was in the company of my next door neighbours who had taken me out for a social drink before I move away, which I reckon was very good of them considering I have only known them for two years.

Anyroadup where was I?

All three of us polled through the left hand door [ not all at once silly] to be confronted on the right by a bar adorned with a row of hand pumps five or six in total all selling micro brewery beers, and guess what? Two of the said pumps were dedicated to beers from the Castle Rock brewery, namely Elsie Mo at £2-40 a pint and Harvest pale at £2-20 a pint.

As you can imagine, I was overwhelmed with emotion on seeing this long awaited phenomenon, I even had a little lump in me throat and a tear in me eye.

All my wishes had come true, it’s a pity I shall be moving away from the vicinity to a place which in my opinion is a wasteland for real ale drinkers namely Sawley.

One comforting thought is that the number 5 Trent Barton bus drops me off right outside of the Hope pole [Hop Pole] and across the road is the stop for me to catch the bus back to the wastelands of Sawley, I wonder do Trent and Barton allow one to take Kebabs on their buses like NCT buses do?

Bip. :Friends:

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Not been in there for years BiP used to be called the Hop Pole in my day though!!!LOL

;)

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Uh-oh - moving to Derbyshire. I grew up in Long Eaton - but it is lacking in the good pub department! A quick search revealed the "Harrington Arms" in Sawley is in the "Good Pub Guide", after that, you're on your own!

Not that there is any shortage of pubs - a friend and I once decided we should drive from my house (Douglas Road), to Ashby-de-la-Zouch, and stop for a pint in every pub on the way - we realised we would never make it over the Trent!

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Not been in there for years BiP used to be called the Hop Pole in my day though!!!LOL

;)

Bl00dy spell checker.....Hop Pole it is Beefstake..

Bip. :Friends:

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I could have done with some help last night in the quiz at the Hop Pole, out of twenty general knowledge questions I only achieved to answer five correctly, saying that the winner who, mind I say only got seven right and there was six of them won eight pints of beer of their choosing.

Next week I’m looking for a partner with a little bit more intelligence than me, I should imagine that wouldn’t be hard.

Bip.

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Actually I am thinking of catching a train into town this Friday night,

Anyone going?

From where you live Mick wouldn't it be as quick to walk into Long Eaton than catching the train to Beeston then walking it back to Long Eaton.

Hop Pole again to-night 8-30 any takers..?

Bip. :tease:

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This night I will have my mate with me pity there's no quiz..

Bip.

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Made some enquiries and the land lord has assured me that Elsie Mo and Harvest pale are permanent beers as well as one from the Black Sheep Brewery also noticed that there are four more vacant hand pulls on the bar, lets hope it won’t be long before there are beers flowing from them….just like to add that I have been informed that the food from the kitchens is well worth a taste might try a Sunday dinner from their before I move away to the back and beyond real beer waste lands of Sawley…..

Bip.

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I just hope they get some decent Aussie beers in before I get there in August isitsafe

Baz :ph34r:

Is there such a thing????

;)

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I just hope they get some decent Aussie beers in before I get there in August isitsafe

Baz :ph34r:

Is there such a thing????

;)

They're ALL good.

At least there is a bit of life in Aus. beers unlike the flat almost warm stuff sold as beer in the UK. !laughing!

Baz :ph34r:

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Wait till you get your laughing tackle round a pint of Marstons 'Pedigree' , Theakstons 'Old Peculiar', Pendle 'Witches Brew', Timothy Taylors 'Landlord' or even the famous Castle Rock 'Harvest Pale Or 'Hemlock' you'll be laughing on the other side of your face

;)

P.S. I didn't even like Tooeys or V.B. LOL

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Lol! Are there any decent Aussie beers how dare you Beefsteak! We have some excellent beers & I don't mean VB or Fosters either.

A friend of mine just came back from visiting the UK ,Italy & Bavaria & she was amazed at the price of drinks [$30 dollars for a glass of sparkling wine? ] & appalled that all of the drinks she was served were room temp, hardly chilled.Now don't know if you are aware but we Aussies like our Beer ice cold & our white wine the same,seems to me the drinking establishments need to get out of the square & visit a few "Foreign" countries so they are familiar with what visitors want & like.

Do we have any decent beer indeed.................... ;)

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Can I be serious for a moment and inform all you home sick reprobates [ex Brits] that here in the UK for several years now we have been able to buy our beers and foreign Lagers chilled, gone are the days of when asking for a bottle the bar person reached to a stack of beer bottles on the back shelf, all bottles are now kept in chill cabinets. Even now as I type this nonsense we can have Guinness and other mass produced slop at a lower temperature than ever before, the admen call this new innovation ‘extra cold’ to be sold to the clueless beer drinker for an extra couple of pence. The wonders of modern technology and the admen’s desire to squeeze the very last penny out of the credulous beer drinker is phenomenal, he is forever thinking up new scams to rip the non concerning beer drinker off. .

Personally I like my beer at just below room temperature, not warm or chilled, [cellar cool] if too cold or chilled IMO one looses the taste of the lager or beer ones drinking but as I say that’s the way I like my beer, now for you convicts, you lost your taste of good beer when you crossed the equator to be sold as slaves.

Well that’s what I reckon.

Bip :tease:

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Once again - I'm with Den!

American beer is also sold ice-cold. There is a simple reason for this - it disguises what little flavor the beer has! IMHO - it is the same reason they serve beer ice cold in any country - to hide that it tastes terrible!

REAL beer should be served at "cellar temperature" - typically about 45 degrees fahrenheit!

For those in the USA who disagree - check the label on a bottle of Michelob!

thumbsup

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Here Here

John Smiths extra cold B) is another fine example of mass produced grog that (Under the right circumstances i.e. watching the footie in a boozer) tastes just fine and dandy

;)

Still didn't enjoy your beer when I was over your way though

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Took me mum for a Sunday dinner in the Hop Pole, was quite surprised that we two were the only customers.

We had the option of Roast Pork or Beef, my mum chose the pork and I opted for the Beef also in with the price of £6-25 we had the choice of a desert either apple pie or chocolate sponge with either custard, fresh cream or ice cream.

We waited twenty minutes for our dinners and when it came both looked very nice, each had carrots, peas, cauliflower cheese, leeks, with mashed and roasted potatoes Yorkshire puds and gravy, which I would have liked more of because my beef looked a little dry but saying that tasted fine.

We were warned when the desert came that it had just come out of the microwave and it was very hot of which it was.

Would I recommend this pub dinner to anyone else?

Even though it was very nice and they did sell Harvest pale that wasn’t enough to tempt me to venture another dinner from them, I thought it could have been better even taking in account the red hot pudding.

One of my little niggles with pub dinners is that I find if the plate they serve your dinner on isn’t hot your dinner won’t stay hot for long especially if you are a slow eater as I am.

Bip, your in house pub dinner connoisseur.

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Just been across to Spain fer a week of lovely sunshine and plonk and took me brother and his new missus out fer Sunday Lunch at the restaurant in Nerja that Gordon Ramsay recently visited on his tele show Ramsays Kitchen Nightmares.

http://www.laparrarestaurant.com/

http://www.channel4.com/money/ontv/kitchen...rra_advice.html

A couple of beers and soft drinks for the women, 4 x Sunday lunch specials and a bill of 149 Euros and I shall NOT be going back! - the meat was undercooked to say the least!!!

Add to that, they even added 2.50 euros each for the "Live" entertainment - some local expats playing Jazz whilst quaffing large glasses of local Rioja. Not my sort of music I'm afraid.

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Without converting euros to pounds I have no idea Frank what you paid for the Sunday lunch but I reckon it sounds about right for a posh restaurant, especially one that been featured on the tele.

I wouldn't say I'm an expert in the kitchen, but I do cook a mean roast and make some nice curry dishs so me mate tells me. My specialty is liver vindaloo.

On the odd occasion I do watch these cooking programs on the tele, especially the Saturday one in the morning. Whenever they cook meat on these cooking programs they always under cook so has blood is oozing out, now I don’t mind beef or lamb in this fashion but I draw a line at chicken.

I can never understand anyone who likes their meat well done, for me it’s ruined, give me beef or Lamb oozing blood also I like liver the same way, rare!

Ps, I bet the first pint of HP went down without wetting the sides?

Bip. :Friends:

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£108.73 BIP !hungry!

And the owners of the restaurant are - to quote Jeremy Clarkson - ginger beers !!

I've been to nicer places.

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Maybe a little pricey Frank me thinks but hey! you're on holiday!

Bip.

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So where were you all? I could have done with help again last night, only managed five right but this time it was out of fifteen.

The winners three lads scored ten.

Managed three pints before HP went off so switched to Elsie Mo, got one pint of that and that too died on me....

Bip.

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