TOPIC:

"DrJohn":3flnxgo6 wrote: My experiences with Witherspoons outlets have generally been poor. The last time I was in one (in Sheffield near the university); at first sight it looked like they had an excellent range of cask ales. Then I went to order some; "No, I'm afraid we're out of that one". After I ordered three or four brews without success, I asked the girleen just what brews were actually available. To which she replied "I'll go and ask" For feck's sake!

I was chatting to a local man later in the day, and his opinion on how 'spoons managed to offer cask ales at £1.30 a pint was that they bought up end-of-batches due to go out of date and distributed them to the local 'spoons outlets and that was why they ran out of them almost as soon as they were tapped. They might only have a single keg of a particular brew and the places are often so badly run that they never seem to think of turning the pump clips around so the punters avoid ordering what's not available.

And don't get me started on the food.....[/quote:3flnxgo6]

Thats largely my experience of spoons as well, the ale is so badly kept that its virtually undrinkable, this will go against the grain of a craft beer forum but my advice is to take them for what they are a cheap place to have a few sups with mates before heading elsewhere, i don't even bother with the cask beers, just stick to the usual commercial guff at very attractive prices. If you look at them in this light then you won't be disappointed.
If you want a nice pint of real ale in a nice setting and atmosphere, look elsewhere.

"DrJohn":1zw8k8k2 wrote: And don't get me started on the food.....[/quote:1zw8k8k2]
We had dinner and breakfast in the one in MK - all 3 of us were highly impressed with the quality and price. Also had dinner in the Edgware Rd outlet - food wasn't quite as exotic, but again quality was top notch and price was excellent.

So I hit Belfast at the weekend and TBH, apart from a massive power cut on Saturday afternoon, it was very uneventful.

I visited a few pubs and the only cask beer was Belfast Ale, it was a nice pint but would have liked a bit more of a selection,

I liked the Kitchen pub at the back of Victoria square, we were there when the power was off so the place was lit by candles, the pumps were still working and they were dishin out the Irish stew to beat the band as they didn't want it going cold.

The crown was a let down, beautiful place but the staff very very unhelpful and the place was packed.

All the rest of the pubs were standard pubs with nothing to write home about, standard pints, ended up drinking Bass in most of them,


The one thing I did notice up there was the complete lack of service in most places, the staff are rude and the time it takes to get serves is ridiculous

Off on a last minute trip to Norn Iron tomorrow. Scanning the thread, it looks like there's bugger all worth visiting on the beer front. Sounds like Dublin is more interesting these days with B&C, Porterhouse and Mulligans.

Fair to say that John Hewitt gets the most thumbs up ?

Will have small child in tow so busy spot like the Crown doesn't sound suitable.

Would anyone recommend the brewery tour at Hilden ?

"Diablo":2vqzzp6p wrote: Would anyone recommend the brewery tour at Hilden ?[/quote:2vqzzp6p]

Yeah its not bad, you need to ring ahead and give them some notice, if you let them know you brew (i assume you do) they will probably go into a bit more detail than the bog standard tour spiel which is aimed at the general public who know nothing about beer making.

I can recommend the food at hilden, very reasonable at lunch time and you can sit and enjoy a few of their ales while you are at it.