Blues, Belgian Beer and Beerbikes

31 Mar, 12 /  Beers, General, Gigs /  Chris /  1 Comment

It’s Saturday afternoon and I’m sat behind the bar with my normal eclectic mix of audio stimulation. Its been a pretty manic few days really. The good news is that I seem to be making a chip into the mountainous pile of jobs that I have been putting off. The back garden is now separated with a fence that myself and the dad-in-law put up. Really helps tidy the area up. Next week there’ll be more planting going in and hopefully, some new benches too.
Another job I managed to complete this week is to get my beer bike finished. New white wall tyres and inner tubes, a little fettle to the Sturmey Archer hub, and a tweak of the brakes and it’s a runner. First proper trip out on Thursday to The Macc and then to The Waters Green Tavern. A couple of pints with mates and a pleasant ride back. Exactly what a warm spring evening and a push bike is for. The Iron Donkey fulfilled the role perfectly.
Laura, our Friday night bar girl, has done a sterling job on our new Beer menu. It is now printed and available to view in the pub. Already proving a talking point and seemingly attracted more customers in. Last night I had the opportunity to open a couple of bottles for some customers to try. We opened Faithless XI from RedWillow and Rochefort 10, both of which went down wonderfully and got some cracking feedback. The winner of the two was surprisingly RedWillow Faithless XI which had a complexity, taste and mouthfeel that shames many more known craft beers. A true delight of a beer.
Last night also brought a new band to The Wharf. Married In Vegas are normally a four piece upbeat blues and rock band with a couple of local lads and a couple from Stockport. However, last night they had lost their drummer through unexpected circumstances. So what does a rocky blues band do with no drummer?! A decision saw the trio drop into a lovely acoustic set-up, playing mainly off-cuff and improvising around some rehearsed tracks and some numbers they normally play as a full band. It worked a treat and the response from the crowd was great. We have rebooked them, as a three-piece, for later in the spring.
Last point to mention is The Wharf pool team. We started the season off pretty badly with a 5-2 defeat at The Weston but then bounced back to a 5-2 win at home against The Queens B-Team. A good midweek night for us all, and Sy and myself on 2 wins each so far.
Well thats that really. Party tonight for one of my locals, football on tomorrow daytime.
See you all soon,
Chris