So I managed to make it round a few pubs at various times to sample the black delights on offer this march.

There was a particularly boozy night in the Salutation after a ghost walk,where I made the most of Black Pearl and ‘A drop of the black stuff’.

A mighty fine pint of Harviestoun‘s “Engine Oil” at the Newshouse really hit the spot after Peroni at an Italian meal.

And then we decided to do a little crawl one Monday night, though this year making sure to stick to halves.

Started off at the Hand and Heart on Derby Road. Bar staff didn’t seem to really know what was actually on the S+P stroll, so I took the Burton Bridge Damson porter for a spin while waiting for company, and googling the other possibilities on my phone. Damson Porter’s always a nice pint, but is quite ‘regular’ around nottingham. So was quite happy to move onto Croots “Cow Juice” milk stout next. Very nice creamy half that one.

Looking at the list we realised we’d not been to the Ropewalk before so wandered up Derby Road to try it out. Wish we hadn’t. Asked the bar staff what was on the S+P trail and got handed a half of Doom Bar (amber ale), which hadn’t been particularly well looked after. That and the smell/state in the gents meant we didn’t hang around too long.

Quality was restored at the reliable Roundhouse (which we’d only discovered on last years S+P) with a great pint of Smoked Porter (forgot to note brewer, d’oh). Stopped for some food here as well

Suitably fortified we wandered down to the Canalhouse where we tried the College Green Brewery’s “Molly’s Chocolate Stout”. Good solid stout, though not as chocolately as some of the competition, though that could be a jaded pallet at work.

Quick wander down to the Newshouse, which unfortunately had moved on from the Engine Oil and onto Grantham Stout. A nice smooth stout, with all the right points, but a little ordinary.

Final stop of the evening was the Keans Head. Had noticed the week before that their bottled beer selection included Brewdog’s Paradox which I’d tried at the Nottingham Beer festival but had to discard as it was a little too hardcore for the middle of beer festival session, which we’d planned to split. Unfortunately they didn’t actually have any in :(. So I finished off with a pint of their usual Oyster Stout.

So the standout for this year was the Engine Oil with the Cow juice coming a good second. Unfortunately didn’t discover a new hidden gem of a pub this year, but nice to see that the good ones are still going strong.

Now to wait for the Milds to roll in in May.

Well the good news is that all the details are in the current edition of Nottingham Drinker, unfortunately there’s nothing on t’web yet with all the details. The list of participating pubs is nice and large with a couple of new ones this year. No official list of brewers yet, but hopefully that’ll get published so I can hunt out some I haven’t tried yet.

So that’ll be a couple of nights out drinking between the 5th and 26th March this year then. Though this year I’ll try and be sensible and stick to the halves.

So it’s that time of year when afficinados of real ale traipse up to nottingham castle to sample the delights of the nottingham beer festival.

For the past couple of years I’ve made sure to book the first thursday of the festival off of work to make sure I get a nice relaxed chance to sample the ales. And this year was no exception. Starting off at the Malt Cross with a jacket potato to make sure the stomach was amply lined we wandered up to the castle to work through the barrels.

Being me, I decided to stick to the darker side of beer and make the most of the stouts and porters on offer. So the following were drunk: (numbers relate to the festival programme, and any spelling errors are down to trying to type on an iPhone while drinking).

284 Mallinsons – porker porter – little thin for me. Roasted taste, good starter.

63 Bottle Brook – paranoid – def a porter in my book. Good solid porter but let down by no uniqueness. Would be good for a session though as a litle lighter than most.

135. Driftwood – Bolsters blood. Another good porter good strong taste but doesn’t linger too long. Only slightly chocy to me, but that’s me.

84. Brown Cow – Thriller in vanilla. Very nice. Vanillla touch just right. Goes lovely with oysters. And chilli sauce.

Waen blackbery stout. Awful didn’t even finish raster (Updated: – Please see the comment below from the brewery. I’m more than happy to accept that it was a bad cask, and hopefully I’ll get to have a try at a later point).

707. Nook brewhouse cherry stout. Very smooth, very slight hint of cherrymess but not overpowering. Litle thin but very drinkable.

622 – Brewdog – paradox. 10% very strong. Lovely taste of whisky, a nice big sherry cask? Lovely taste but too strong really for a festival sup. Quite Jammy almost. Wish they had offered this in 1/4 pints, as 1/2 pint was a bit too much. Despite offering it around I had to pour some away :(

699 – muirhouse – jolly roger stout. Very nice. Decent taste that cut through the prevous, just the right amount of bitterness and fruiteness for a stout.

341 – Potbelly – Pigwash. Good honest beer. Almost coffe like bitterness. Liitle acidic for me.

430. Tempest. Smokehouse Vanilla porter. Nice and smooth with a slight
after taste. No obvious vanilla notes, but that might be due to all the previous beers

So another succesful Nottingham beer festival. The only improvement I’d like to see from Nottingham Camra is a few more seats. Maybe some of the long bench style seats you get at german beer festivals? The little round ones they offer now seat too few people.

The outstanding beer for me was the brewdog paradox, I’d love to settle down at home with a bottle of that to last the evening, but it’s not a beer for drinking with others. For a night out drinking I’ve definitely go for Brown Cow’s Thriller in Vanilla.

Nice wood grain and a pint of guinness. In this case being enjoyed in the beer garden of Nottingham’s Orange Tree.

Popped the contrast a bit in Photoshop, thinking about printing I wonder if I could then have dodged a bit to bring back the reflections in the Pint?

Canon EOS 300, Ilford HP5+ @ 400ISO, developed in Ilford DD-X and scanned with an Epson V500.

The start of another years Stout and Porter stroll, the chance to sample some different porters and also an excuse to visit some pubs I don’t normally see too much of.

Starting off in the Sir John Borlase Warren with a pint of Soar Head stout from the Cockfighter brewery. Nice and smooth with a chocolatey flavour. Very easy drinking and I could have easily had another couple relaxing in the nice sofas watching the world go by, but we had other pubs to visit.

Quickly dropping down Derby Road, passing by the Hawksley which none of use knew about we reached the Hand and Heart. Here they had a porter – “Drop of the black stuff” from Springhead – and a stout – Amber stout, apologies for forgetting the brewer but I was drinking the porter :)  (Updated – Thankfully Jen’s memory worked and it was Original Stout from Amber Brewery) . A nice middle of the road porter, well kept. The ‘incoming’ board looked interesting as well, and given the closeness to work I might have to check if they’re going to change them soon. Very friendly welcome there with the Landlord coming over to have a chat with us, and we ended up discussing old drinking haunts out in Beeston.

Deciding to let gravity help us we dropped further down to the Gatehouse , here we found “Drop of the black Stuff” from Springhead on offer again. Nice pint so I wasn’t too heartbroken, though if I’d have known I’d have had the Stout in the Hand and Heart.  Never really been in this pub for ale before, only occasionally for lunch. Was pretty quiet, but they had the football on which none of us follow. Handily they did have the schedule for the England World cup games in the gents, so I now have a list of dates to avoid the city centre in June.

Now the next pub was a complete mystery. I couldn’t remember the name, and when making the map I just couldn’t spot it anywhere on google maps or streetview, so armed with a plethora of smartphones we decided to set off and find it.  Well we found the  Roundhouse and very nice it was. Just the one on -  Noir Rouge which I believe is by Full Mash – but again another great pint. We were all taken by the pub, it’s very nice and comfortable, and if it wasn’t for the porter plan I’d have been tempted by their taster set, 3 beers and a selection of bar snacks for £5. Think this is one pub I’ll have to go back and visit.

Dropping in to the Salutation always feels comfortable, the mix of Ale and Rock always works for me. 2 beers on – Salem Porter, which I drink a lot of in there, and Oatmeal Stout for which I completely forgot to get the brewer, this lapse I blame on doing the stroll on pints rather than halfs. The stout was good, nice ‘porrdgey’ taste to it and a good feel in the mouth.

We had planned on stopping in at the Contemporary Arts centre’s bar (an unofficial venue on the stroll), but they shut early on a Tuesday so we carried on to the Keans head which was serving  Hopback Entire stout. The Keans head is s a nice little pub but I don’t get to that side of the city centre that often and usually when I do it looks like the rest of Nottingham have decided to drink in there.

Decided to call it quits there, and I managed to avoid the pull of the lincolnshire poacher for one more as I wandered home up Mansfield road with my chips.

Still plenty on the list so I might sample a few more over the next couple of weeks.

Excellent, it’s that time of year again when Nottingham Camra organise their  Stout and Porter Stroll. I’m a big fan of porter and stout, and it’s always nice to know that there’s going to be plenty of it on, and in pubs that I like as well.

The ‘Stroll’ runs from the 6th to the 27th March so there’s plenty of time to sample the drinks. And it’s going to be a good excuse to drink in some pubs I don’t normally get too.

There’s a promotional leaflet here – http://www.nottinghamcamra.org/index_files/Stout&Porter.pdf

And I’ve knocked up a map of all the pubs here – http://bit.ly/ajwhur – these should be in about the right spot, if it was glaringly obvious that google had no idea where the pub was I’ve tried to get my marker in the right spot.

It’s been nice over the last couple of years to see a lot more porter on sale in Nottingham pubs,  and hopefully events like this will push the demand up a little bit so it sstarts becoming a regular feature on the pumps.