At Immigration at Heathrow, the officer asked me the nature of our visit. I told him we were going to walk across Wales. He said, “Sounds like a pub crawl.” While planning the trip, I had envisioned a certain amount of pub visits, but I didn’t know if that was really going to happen. I mean, we were going to be walking across the countryside and passing through villages infrequently and at odd hours, so I didn’t know how much refreshment we’d be taking at pubs. The Immigration officer seemed to think there’d be a pub at every mile-marker. This was a great encouragement.
I will not recount how we managed to do it, but several hours later we arrived in Llanidloes, Mid Wales, where we checked into Lloyd’s B&B.
Lloyd’s is the red brick building with flower-boxes.
Not long after checking in at the B&B, we started wandering around Llanidloes in search of food.
We liked the name of this Fish n Chips joint, but it wasn’t a pub, so we kept wandering.
There were pubs aplenty, like The Crown & Anchor:
Can’t remember why we didn’t go in. Maybe they were not serving food by that time.
We decided on the Angel House, recommended by our B&B as the place to eat:
Built in 1748. Cool.
The pub has low ceilings with exposed timber beams. Lot's of pictures on the walls. Collector plates on display. Everyone who came in seemed to know everyone else, and most just stood at or near the bar and chatted with the bar keep while enjoying their pints.
My first ale in Wales wasn’t Welsh. Instead, I went for something called Bishop’s Finger from Britain’s oldest brewer, Shepherd Neame. This East Kent brewer has been in operation since 1698, and Bishop’s Finger has been awarded Protective Geographic Indicator status by the European Union, which means it is the only beer in the world which can be called a Kentish Strong Ale. At 5.4% by volume, it isn’t very strong by American standards, but here it is considered pretty potent. The water, malt and hops for Bishop’s Finger all come from Kent. First brewed in 1958, Bishop’s Finger has an interesting history that can be found here: http://www.bishopsfinger.co.uk/legend.htm
The Kentish Strong Ale hit my lips and tongue with a sweet kiss of malt and only the faintest hint of bittering. So faint, in fact, that I think I only imagined it. After a quaff or two, there was no bitterness detected. The hops are East Kent Goldings, the smoothest and sweetest of the smooth, sweet Goldings variety. There will be no Cascade, Willamette, Chinook, Columbia or Amarillo on this trip. I'd better get used to this in a hurry.
As expected, the brew was not served cold, but neither was it served warm, as rumored. It was cooler than “room temperature” and just right, I thought, for tasting every element.
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