Last night I was in a lovely restaurant in the fishing village of Fowey, Cornwall. (I’m down for a wedding).
Having been involved in a minor bus crash, I was keen for a drink; my heart sank slightly on seeing the Peroni tap. “Do you have any other beer?” I asked. “Yes, we have San Miguel, Kronenbourg…”. Heart sank a little further, which the waiter picked up on. “Do you like ales?” he said. “er…yes” I said. “Well, we do have some ale. One of the local brews”. And out came St Austell’s Admiral’s Ale. It was bottle conditioned and absolutely superb – glorious red-brown colour, slight toffee aroma, tasted a little bit like a cross between a good dark wheatbeer and an ale. I’ve enjoyed their “Tribute” a couple of times, and recently picked up a couple of their other products, “Proper Job” (an IPA) and “Clouded Yellow” (a continental-style wheatbeer brewed with British yeast). But this was the king of the crop. I was so impressed, I went out and bought a case.
And how great to see a good restaurant offering quality beer. (I got some funny looks mind. I like to think this was the mixing strong tasting beer with strong tasting seafood, and not some lazy stereotype about ladies drinking ale)
More on St Austell later – I went on the brewery tour today and had a chance to chat to the head brewer about how they make it… And it has just been on BBC local news, as they are now doing double shifts to cope with demand for Tribute. Well done lads.
Boak
- The restaurant was “The Other Place” and was fantastic. Fowey can be reached by public transport by taking a train to Par or St Austell, and getting a bus.
4 replies on “Adventures in Cornwall part 1: St Austell’s Admiral Ale – in a good restaurant!”
[…] my socks knocked off by St Austell’s bottle-conditioned “Admiral’s Ale” (see previous post), I was determined to find out more about it. So I booked myself (and friend) onto their brewery […]
[…] Austell have taken to spamming us with press releases (a bit annoying, but we do like the beer, so what the […]
[…] of our all time favourites and is reliably good in St Austell pubs in Cornwall. Proper Job IPA and Admiral’s Ale are two of Britain’s best bottle-conditioned beers, in our humble […]
[…] my socks knocked off by St Austell’s bottle-conditioned “Admiral’s Ale” (see previous post), I was determined to find out more about it. So I booked myself (and friend) onto their brewery […]