20/11/21 - The Good Beer Guide Pubs of Exmouth

Pubs - 3

Good Beer Guide Ticks - #618-620

Exmouth.  I like it.  Mrs M is not so keen.  I see vibrancy, many restaurants/bars and all human life.  She smells that cloying scent of a striped north American mammal at every street corner.

Three Good Beer Guide Ticks are available and each, in their own way, are superb.

The Grapevine, Victoria Road, Rum Tom Tom and Ayinger Winterbock

Smart Victorian Street Corner Pub

Just the other side of the central door is a velvet rope.  Where we wait to see if we are allowed in.  A cursory inspection determines that we may be pushing our luck, as every table is taken.  But fear not, for they have a covered courtyard with bench seating and importantly for people in an Air BnB with no hot water or heating, a log burner.

Table mounted menus on clipboard show the offerings from this brewpub - home of Crossed Anchor Beers.

Note to future self - there's several pages

Without knowing what molasses actually are, I went for the Rum Tum Tum Stout - brewed with the molasses of rum production.  A 6.4% stout that had a fizz on the tongue and took a while to get through.

I then paged through the rest of the menu and saw they had Ayinger Winterbock - a beer that's only produced during the last two months of the year and if I had room in my shed, would have been my latest beer import when a kindly email came through from beersniffers.com.

As tempted as I have ever come to glass theft

A good pubby atmosphere - waitresses bringing drinks to the wrong table, students discussing how much money they are making on cryptocurrency, dogs scrapping.  It was on its way to getting a 10/10 for me.

Until I used the facilities.  Point deductions for a) upcycling kegs as urinals and b) having draft pump handles instead of taps.

The First and Last, Church Street, Warm Yer Cockles Xmas Ale

They are spoilt in Exmouth  - not one brew-pub, but two.... this the home of Checkstone Brewery.

Follow the Arrows

On approach, Mrs M spied a night club and said "that's not it, is it".  To be fair, the nightclub may have been quieter.

For tonight, it is Barbara's 60th and one thing Barbara likes is 50s music.  Very, very loud.   

Dancing was not reserved for only the party guests.  The lady in the walking boots had surely stumbled on this scene of carnage by chance.  But by christ, didn't she like Dion and the Belmonts.

If I could have heard myself think, I could have worked out how to get at the buffet.

Its all going on down there - jiving.... pork pies....

Beer wise, I am a sucker for a Xmas Ale - even in Calendar Week 46.  And the Checkstone Warm Yer Cockles - coming in at a powerful 7.5% - was a wonderful pint.  Even if Untappd says its discontinued.

Excellent

With a table booked for 8pm, we were forced to leave before things got really messy.  There are going to be some thick heads in Exmouth on Sunday.

The Bicton Inn, Bicton Street, Dartmoor Jail Ale

A much more sedate experience in this community local, just off the main street.  And get this - the lady in the hiking boots giving it large in front of the egg sandwiches at the F&L is in here.... joining in with Knit and Natter.  What a night she is having.

Welcoming

A decent pint of Jail Ale, accompanied to the soothing sounds of knitting needles.

Bliss.

Mappiman, having conquered Exmouth GBG Pubs