The Broomfield Tavern, 17-18/12/14

While AR disappeared up to her mother’s in the run up to Christmas, MJ had chance for a couple of visits to his favourite local – The Broomfield Tavern.  Over the couple of visits he was very happy to find a few Northern beers amongst the selection available, which were among those he sampled:

• Golden Duck Brewery – Half Century – What a beer!  This 7.1% amber ale had a very deceptive mild flavour, making it taste like a nice session amber, something a lot of British beers struggle to master but this one managed it perfectly.
• Kelham Island – Captain Crimbo – A powerful IPA with good hop build up throughout leading to a nicely dry finish.
• Naylor’s Brewery – Santa’s Dark Side – A pleasant thick and chocolatey winter mild that went down extremely quickly.
• Acorn – 12th Noel – Always a good festive ale, this beer is thick with a decent kick of alcohol lending it a very dry finish.

The Broomfield Tavern, 14/11/14

After dropping the car off at the garage for a new tyre, the Pandas decided that a quick drink at the Broomfield Tavern would be a good way to pass the time.  However, upon seeing the range available, a quick drink was no longer an option, so it was back to the garage to collect the car and take it home before walking back to the pub for a proper session!  The Pandas managed to get through quite a lot of beers and ciders, including:

• Windswept Brewing – Wolf; a lovely dry and chocolatey stout with a hint of liquorice that hid its 6% strength reasonably well.
• North Star – Helmsman; a very malty light ale with biscuity flavour and delicate hops.
• Downton Brewery – New Forest Ale; a pleasantly dry ale with good malt flavour followed by a decent amount of hops.
• Church End – V Reg; a hoppy ale with decent malt taste.
• Three Castles – Corn Dolly; a malty ale with hints of caramel and slight floral notes.  Very easy to drink.
• Clark’s Brewery – Merrie City Atlantic Hop; a very dry beer with full hop flavour but not too thick and cloying.
• Sunny Republic – Dune Raider; a fruity ruby bitter with a dry aftertaste.
• Malmesbury Brewery – Burnivale Hop; a hoppy beer that was balanced just right, enabling you to still taste the slightly caramel flavour of the malts.
• Lilley’s:
  • Bee Sting; a honey perry that despite being slightly sour as it was at the end of its shelf life was still nice with strong sweetness prevailing until the after taste.
  • Crazy Goat; a blend of perry and cider that AR was quoted as saying was “Bloody Delicious!”.  Good fruity scrumpy that hids its 6.8% well.
  • Merry monkey Scrumpy; a nice scrumpy with strong taste of apples.  AR described it as a normal strength Old Rosie, so if you’re a fan of that cider but want something that isn’t over 7% this is the cider for you.

What a night!  The Pandas have always loved this pub but it just keeps getting better and better – it’s not often you see such a range of drinks outside of Wetherspoons and ale festivals.  They can’t wait for their next visit to see what’s new!

The Broomfield Tavern, 6/11/14

Today the Pandas tagged along with MJ’s group of reprobates for an evening in Coventry.  As they need to work in the morning (unlike the rest of the group who are mostly students), MJ and AR only accompanied the group to their first pub – The Broomfield Tavern.  As mentioned before, this is one of the Pandas’ favourite pubs, and it has got even better since their last visit as the landlords have managed to buy the pub out from Enterprise, making it a Freehouse!  This explained the extra beer pumps that had been installed – the owners hope to eventually have a rotation of up to 13 real ales plus 13 real ciders at any one time!  Even though there weren’t this many drinks available yet, the Pandas still managed to work their way through the following beers:

• Woodstreet Brewery – Honeylocust; a nice and malty honey ale that wasn’t overly sweet.
• Castle Rock – Most Haunted; a chocolatey porter with a dry and fruity taste of pumpkin which the Pandas were incredibly lucky to get the last pint of! Lovely beer!
• Osset Brewery – Movember; a nice bitter with a good amount of hop.  A good session ale.
• Church End – Stout Coffin; a good, dry, chocolatey stout with full flavour, always a good beer.
• Sarah Hughes – Dark Ruby Mild; ever an excellent beer, this mild hides its strength behind a smooth and fruity taste.  You had to be there to believe the speed at which the Pandas’ group finished whatever they were drinking as soon as this came on!
• Yates – Undercliffe Experience; a taste of the Isle of Wight that the Pandas were surprised to find in Coventry.  A nice malty bitter with full flavour and well balanced hops.

To finish off their evening the Pandas were thrilled to notice that the landlord had made up a batch of her homemade fruit liquors that were so popular last Christmas – this time it was a cherry vodka that the Pandas just had to sample, and let’s just say that they hope there’ll still be a few bottles left next time they call in!

Phantom Coach, Broomfield Tavern & Hearsall Inn, 12/6/14

This was a fun evening!  Starting off with a quick pint at The Phantom Coach on their way home, the Pandas were disappointed to find out that they’d had to withdraw their student card offer several months early due to people abusing the system.  However after a quick chat with the duty manager we were informed that there would be a new, more secure student card system set to be operational next academic year, which we look forward to making use of!  For now we satisfied ourselves with a half of Somesby cider for AR while MJ raised of glass of Wells Bombardier to Rick Mayall (a bang on tribute he thought).  As usual here the beer was good quality and well looked after, even though they don’t have the widest selection.  When we’ve eaten here before we’ve loved the food, so hopefully we’ll be back soon to give an expanded review.

Later on, it was MJ’s night out with the reprobates that stood him up a fortnight ago, and this time they did eventually turn up at the Broomfield Tavern, although only after MJ had enjoyed a very nice pint of Wychwood’s Full Brazilian, which is a light and refreshing seasonal beer brewed in commemoration of the World Cup.  The pub was quite busy, having recently acquired a darts team, and they had their usual alternate Thursday evening guitar/banjo entertainment, so we enjoyed sitting outside opposite the park.  Sitting here, watching trains go over the viaduct on the Coventry to Nuneaton line with few tall buildings in sight it’s easy to see why the pub bills itself as the Country Pub in the City.  Moving through the ale pumps, MJ next had a pint of Summer Lightning by Hop Back Brewery, which is another light hoppy beer, packed full of dry bitterness.  Then it was on to Guzzler by York brewery, which is unusual to find in the Midlands, and again is a pale ale with stronger malty taste balanced well against hops.

After exhausting the selection at the Broomfield it was on to the Hearsall Inn for a couple more.  First off the bat at this Irish themed pub was their own microbrew – Chapelfields Bitter.  This beer is a very nice, standard bitter with slightly fruity taste, and it’s always nice to see pubs branching out and trying their own beers.  After this there was just time for a quick pint of Bass (named after the original brewer, although now owned by Anheuser-Busch of Budweiser fame), which needs no description being available in one form or another since 1777 and now found in pubs across the country.  It’s smooth taste was just what was needed to finish the night off, all that was left to do was stagger home (via the chippy of course)…

MJ

The Broomfield Tavern, 29/5/14

The original plan for this evening was for MJ to meet up with some fellow reprobates and do a bar crawl around Spon End and Chapelfields.  Unfortunately, everyone else decided at the last minute to go to Leamington, by which time MJ was already en route to the first pub.  Armed with his Chinese takeaway, he decided to just have an evening where it all began for the Crazy Pandas – The Broomfield Tavern (who are more than happy for people to bring their own food).  Having not been in for a while, MJ enjoyed a good evening of catching up with the owners and locals, and managed to get through quite a few pints while shooting the breeze.  The bar had a large range of Church End beers on offer, and MJ started with Stout Coffin, which was a nice dry traditional stout.  Incidentally, throughout the night this is what several punters were offered if they asked for Guinness, which the Broomfield doesn’t keep on tap, and each of them came back for more.  After this MJ moved on to a new beer called Mike’s Meteor, which at 5.6% was the strongest beer on offer, and had a very thick chewy flavour, with rich hoppiness, and went very well with the last few bits of takeaway.  Next it was on to a pint of Mild Quaker, which was a very nice dark mild, and seemed very smooth after the Meteor.  After another quick half of the Stout Coffin, MJ was debating moving on to another pub as he had tried all the beers he wanted out of the available selection, but the owners swiftly put on another beer and enticed him to stay.  This new beer was Guinevere by Goffs Brewery (part of their Ales of the Round Table range), and was a very light, refreshing beer with a slight citrus note, and went down very well.  After another half of the Meteor, MJ then felt fortified enough to have the final Church End beer on offer, which he isn’t normally too keen on – Goat’s Milk.  This light beer is normally a bit too sour for MJ’s taste, and this was no exception – luckily he only went for a half!  Another pint of Guinevere washed this down though and brought MJ’s evening to an end.  The night reminded MJ why he likes this pub so much, as it has a traditional interior with wood beams and Tiffany-style light fittings, and feels really friendly.  Part way through the evening a couple of local musicians turned up and started playing banjo/guitar pieces (apparently they do this every other Thursday), which was quite a nice light entertainment, although was occasionally slightly too loud to be heard over.  All in all though a pleasant night was had, although MJ is paying for it slightly today…

MJ