Wales, Day 2

Starting in the Hafren Forest near the sources of the Wye and Sevren rivers (which then take different routes to the same place!), we begin our walk of the Wye Valley.

If this were a travel blog, I’d tell you about the walk and the locals we met along the way, but this is a beer blog, so I’ll tell you about the village and pub at the end of the day.

Twelve miles of walking through forests, moors and pastures brought us to the village of Llangurig.  Llangurig has the distinction of being 1) the highest village in Wales (we love getting high); 2) situated at the very center of Wales; and 3) the first or last village of the Wye Valley, depending on which way you’re walking it.  For us, it was the first. 

                                   Llangurig is off in the distance

The parish church dates to before 550 A.D., though little if anything remains of the earliest building.  Parts of the present building date to the 12^th – 15^th centuries, but most is from extensive additions in the late 1800’s.

                       We stayed at the Old Vicarage B&B.

For dinner and pints, we popped over to the Black Lion pub.  Built in the 16^th century as a shooting lodge, it was partially rebuilt in 1888.  It sits prominently in the heart of tiny Llangurig.

 The center of any village in Wales is the post office (center left).  I'm standing in the road at the entrance to the Black Lion.

Low ceiling, dim lighting, picture-adorned walls, decorative brass plates - a typical Welsh pub.  Nice head on the Welsh Bitter.  Rich, smooth and sweet.

Wales, Day 1

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. 

 

Greatest Time Waster of My Generation?

When I started this blog, a friend told me that the secret to success as a blogger is sticking with it.  “You’ve gotta keep blogging,” he told me, and added, “The easiest way to set yourself apart from 99% of bloggers is to just keep at it.”  That sounded easy enough.   I guess I thought that there would be some sort of magical correlation between my prodigious free time, on the one hand, and my blogging productivity, on the other.   Nyet!  As it turns out, sticking to blogging has less to do with time and more to do with discipline.  I think Annie Leibovitz claims to be the greatest time-waster of her generation.  Maybe I’m mine.  Doubt it?  Consider what kind of person could have written this paragraph.  Still doubtful?  Consider what kind of person would feel productive for having posted this paragraph to his blog.

Elysian, Capitol Hill

Elysian has three locations, all in Seattle, though they also do some brewing out of New Belgium in Fort Collins, Colorado.  The three Elysian pubs are Elysian Fields in SoDo near the baseball and football stadiums; Tangletown near Greenlake; and the flagship brewpub on Capitol Hill at the corner of Pike and 13^th Ave.  Here’s a shot of Elysian Capitol Hill at night:

The Capitol Hill location is in the heart of Seattle’s most, um, diverse neighborhood where weirdness is celebrated.  Capitol Hill always makes me think of Dr. Hook’s rendition of Shel Silverstein’s  “Freakers’ Ball” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGLERfPg178).

The Elysian sign outside includes a Greek ruin, a raven and a tree beside a body of water:

Not sure what all the elements of the sign mean, but Elysium – or the Elysian Fields – was one Greek concept of the afterlife, specifically the place of heroes.  Though other places bear the name, I assume that Elysian Brewing seeks conceptual association with the place of immortal heroes rather than La plus belle avenue du monde (the Champs-Élysées in Paris).  Their Immortal IPA and Perseus Porter confirm that assumption, as does their winter brew, Valhalla, named after the Nordic equivalent of Elysium.

I’ve been to Elysian Capitol Hill only a few times, but stepping inside the place always feels like coming home.  In fact, the very first time I walked through the doors I knew I had come to my kind of place.  The sweet smell of malt, the casual atmosphere, the rough-hewn timbers and the industrial concrete flooring combined to welcome me, as did the pleasant-enough staff.  It has the warm, rich, rustic feel of a classic PNW brew pub that puts me at ease every time. 

                                                  The pour list is always impressive

 

Unlike the beer, the tap-handles are sorta ho-hum.  The Maneki Neko doesn't fit at all, which makes it fit just perfectly.  This is Capitol Hill, after all.

Coasters are hops-centric.  So are some of the ales, of course.  The Immortal is a classic Northwest IPA; Avatar Jasmine is a good scented/flavored IPA. In my fridge right now I have a bomber of their Idiot Sauvin brewed with elusive Nelson Sauvin hops, and I'm looking forward to popping the top on it this evening.  Though I tend to go for the hoppy brews, Elysian does a little of everything and has a very diverse line-up that runs the gamut from pilsner to stout.   From their humble beginnings with The Wise (an ESB) to trippy collaborations with New Belgium and a royal collaboration with Green Flash, the brewers at Elysian are real leaders in the PNW craft community.  It's always nice to find a successful ('successful' = readily available at Safeway) micro-brewer that continues to work at the craft, and Elysian definitely does that.  Though deserving of laurels for heroic brewing, they haven't yet taken to sitting on them!

Note the distinctive Rainier R at 10 o’clock.  Rainier was Seattle’s brewer of industrial pilsner/lager from 1884 until the late 1900's.  Though no longer brewed in Seattle and never associated with craft brewing, Rainer is iconic enough in Seattle to be offered at Elysian. 

Random notes:

Excellent food is available at Elysian, so figure on having lunch or dinner with your ale. 

The place can get really crowded, especially on Friday and Saturday nights.

Parking is almost always a challenge, but persistence on the side-streets will eventually pay off. 

Capitol Hill address and phone:  1221 E Pike St, Seattle, WA 98122; (206) 860-1920

All things Elysian: http://www.elysianbrewing.com/index.html

Tides, Gig Harbor

It would be wrong to say that no visit to Gig Harbor is complete without a stop at the Tides.  I mean, it isn’t an absolute must.  But if you go to Gig Harbor looking for beer, you’ve gotta go to the Tides.  For those of us from this neck of the woods, seeing the sign out front is like coming home:

Seeing that inauspicious front door means that good times are just a few steps away. 

The Tides used to be little more than a waterfront dive but has morphed into a faux low-brow oasis for the Harbor’s upscale residents.  The food is better than it was in the early days, the service is usually pretty good and the beer selection is great for a normal tavern.  I'd expect more out of an ale house, but the Tides is just a tavern, not a craft beer specialist.  Locals complain that the venerable old Tides has become unnecessarily expensive, but hey, this is 2011, it's right on the friggin' water, and there’s no better tavern in the Harbor.  Too yuppie for you?  Go on up the hill to the Hu-Lu-Hee-Hee and see how you like it.

Tides doesn’t brew its own, but someone—the Engine House, I think—brews for them.

To a Pacific Northwester, an Oly sign is almost like a family picture on the wall.  The Tides goes a step further with this beautiful stained-glass piece.  Very nice.

Sixteen taps, mostly craft ales. 

   

In addition to the Tides ales (a Porter, an ESB and a Pale), I was happy to see Quilters Irish Death, Union Jack IPA, Big Al’s Irish Red and something from Anderson Valley and Gig Harbor’s own 7 Seas.  They also have Guinness, Mac and Jack's Amber, Manny’s Pale, Alaskan Amber, Widmer Hefe.  They've got Stella and Coors Light for those who don't like beer.

Got bikers coming in for the weekend?  Take them to the Hy-Lu-Hee-Hee or out to the Flotation Device in Purdy.  Got polite out-of-towners?  Take 'em to the Tides.

2925 Harborview Drive (east end of Harborview)
Gig Harbor, WA  
(253) 858-3982