The Good Beer Guide is CAMRA’s seminal publication and the is the best-selling beer and pub guide, featuring 4,500 of the UK’s best pubs, including fourteen from the Mid-Chilterns branch.
We are thrilled to showcase The George Inn in Berkhamsted as one of Mid-Chilterns CAMRA’s entries into this year’s Guide.
WHATPUB SAYS:
Well looked after outside, and inside there is a central island bar within a single room format.
The character changes style as the room turns around the bar. Window bench seating in the front windows and high stool tables, moving into a lounge type of feel with lower table and chair format and then coffee shop-style low table and sofa behind the bar island. All very well presented.
Covered courtyard area also. Décor consists of wallpaper, framed prints and newspapers, plus mirrors.”
The Good Beer Guide is CAMRA’s seminal publication and the is the best-selling beer and pub guide, featuring 4,500 of the UK’s best pubs, including fourteen from the Mid-Chilterns branch.
We are thrilled to showcase The Rising Sun in Berkhamsted as one of Mid-Chilterns CAMRA’s entries into this year’s Guide.
WHATPUB SAYS:
The Rising Sun in Berkhamsted is a traditional pub which adopted the environs of lock 55 in 2013.
The ever changing guest beers and multiple real ciders/perries are accompanied by hundreds of gins, cigars, and exotic spirits and liqueurs.
Three inside areas, canal-side seating and a sunken patio make this a pub for any time of the year.
Look out for the many events that take place throughout the year including beer festivals, quizzes, and cheese club.”
As the first in a series of blogs exploring cask ale hotspots in the Mid-Chilterns area, we’re taking to the West-Hertfordshire market town of Tring.
This week’s Ale Trail starts in Wigginton, on the outskirts of Tring. Our trail then meanders onto Tring High Street, before emerging out of the town and on to its other outskirt settlements, Bulbourne and Marsworth.
Each pub features a description from CAMRA’s online national database – WhatPub. WhatPub allows members to view pub information and score visits. WhatPub scores directly influence branch ‘Pub of the Year’ awards as well as entries into the Good Beer Guide, so be sure to score your favourite pubs today!
On with the trail..
1. The Greyhound, Wigginton
The Greyhound in Wigginton can be found on Chesham Road in the Tring-outskirts village of Wigginton (HP23 6EH).
WhatPub says:
A traditional family run village inn situated in the sleepy village of Wiggington. Offers a warm and friendly welcome to all visitors. Four beers, two usually from local breweries. Freshly prepared top quality food is served daily. Groups and families are always welcome in the bar, restaurant and beer garden. Three large en suite rooms are available.”
2. The Robin Hood
The Robin Hood is Fuller’s pub that is located at 1 Brook Street (HP23 5ED).
WhatPub says:
A classic community pub situated in the centre of the pretty and ancient market town of Tring. Your hosts, Terry & Stuart, will welcome you into this busy pub with a warming stove and cosy feel. A Fuller’s pub with six hand-pumps carrying one regular guest ale from within the classic Fuller’s range. Great food is available and on Sunday evenings you can now enjoy Tip Khao Thai food an exciting difference to the classic pub menu with an outdoor patio area for better weather. Charity functions are a regular event and this pub has been responsible for raising a good deal of funds for local charities over time.”
3. The Bell
The Bell is a recently reopened pub on the town’s High Street (HP23 5AA), now owned by Farr Brew.
WhatPub says:
17th Century coaching inn with original beams. In addition to the main bar there is a back bar with a pool table and a large courtyard garden. Home cooked food.”
4. The Castle Inn
The Castle Inn is a recently reopened establishment situated on Park Road (HP23 6BN).
WhatPub says:
Situated on the southern fringe of Tring, 200 yards from the Rothschild Zoological museum, this is a friendly Victorian corner pub. It is a one room genuine drinkers’ pub with three hand-pumps serving well kept local ales (the guest is invariably a Tring beer). Comfortable, upholstered bench seating, TVs for sports viewing and two darts teams make this a thriving local. There is an attractive rear open courtyard with some covered seating; no food is served.”
5. The King’s Arms
The King’s Arms find itself in the heart of the ‘Tring Triangle’ area of the town, located on King Street (HP23 6BE).
WhatPub says:
1830s back-street local, popular with all age groups. Painted externally in striking fuchsia pink it was run by the same family for 31 years until it was taken over by the Muirhead family in 2014. It offers a changing range of five real ales and one cider. Two real fires are welcoming in winter, and outside is a secluded heated patio with canopies. Home-cooked food is based on an imaginative international menu. Children are welcome at all times.”
6. The Anchor
Just a four minute walk from our previous stop is The Anchor, located at 73 Western Road (HP23 4BH).
WhatPub says:
Situated ten minutes walk west of the town centre this welcoming pub, refurbished in 2012, has a spacious bar with tall tables in the two front bay windows, and more conventional seating at the rear. There are pictures of local scenes and unusually, wine crate sides on one wall, TVs for sports viewing, and the bar sides are faced with reclaimed door and floor timbers. Fresh filled rolls with local bread from the bakery opposite are available on the bar. Burgers etc. are available.”
7. The Grand Junction Arms, Bulbourne
The Grand Junction Arms is an Oakmann Inn’s pub located in the outer-Tring hamlet of Bulbourne (HP23 5QE).
WhatPub says:
This canal side pub boasts a clean, spacious and modern interior with local artwork displayed for sale. Extensive home-made menus serve all tastes with daily specials and Monday night is steak night. Music sessions are hosted on the first Tuesday of each month and Sunday night is curry and quiz night. A large family friendly garden sits beside the canal with a wild flower orchard. During busy periods a downstairs bar serves the garden, notably during bank holiday music festivals.”
8. The Angler’s Retreat (Marsworth)
The Angler’s Retreat can be found at Startops End (HP23 4LJ), in the Buckinghamshire village of Marsworth, near Tring.
WhatPub says:
A good base to use when investigating the Tring Reservoirs. A fish theme is in evidence in this one bar local where rooms can be had. The 4 beers area mixture of local and small nationals. The garden with an aviary and even a parrot in the bar guides you to a very rural experience with good cheap food to complete your stay. Conservatory and garden make it seem even bigger. Tring Brewery is the LocAle beer.”
9. The Red Lion, Marsworth
One final pub and another that calls home to the village of Marsworth. Found at 90 Vicarage Road (HP23 4LU).
WhatPub says:
Genuine 17th-century village pub close to the Grand Union Canal. A central bar serves three areas: an upstairs lounge, a small snug to the left of the entrance, and a public bar with an open coal-burning fire. A games area hosts darts. Five or more well-kept beers are served on hand pump and the kitchen serves generous portions of home-cooked food. There is a beautiful garden to the rear.”
TIME AT THE BAR
That marks the end of our nine-pub ale trail, featuring local cask beers, rural outposts, foodie hotspots and more.
We hope that you will join us on the next ‘Ale Trail’, to be set in Hemel Hempstead. Come wander with us through the branch’s largest town, home to Mid-Chilterns CAMRA’s very own Hemel Old Town Beer Festival.
For now, we’ll raise a glass – to the wonderful pubs of Tring!
CHEERS
*Disclaimer: As with all entries in this series, drinkers are advised to research transport options and pub opening times in advance. Trails are simply ‘spotlights’ – additional local ale outlets may be omitted. Visiting every trail pub in a single day may not be practical/achievable.
In this week’s focus blog we’re taking a deep-dive into the world of perry.
Perry is a fermented, alcoholic drink made from pear juice, usually from eponymously named perry pear varieties, though culinary pears such as Comice and Conference are used also.
Perry is generally straw-gold in colour, big on fruity flavours ranging from bone-dry to sweet and commonly found in the United Kingdom and France (with smaller markets in Austria, Germany and Switzerland).
Pears are grown in orchards. Pears may be classed as cooking, eating or perry varieties.
On the palate, perry is widely compared to both cider and sparkling white wine. Whilst straddling this line is no mean feat, perry is often over-shadowed by cider at the bar as both are grouped for their similarities.
In the face of this relative obscurity (and myriad production hardships), perry is championed by avid drinkers and makers alike, now amplified as a single voice through CAMRA’s first ever ‘Perry Month’ – happening this October.
Perry Month will celebrate the unique flavours and aromas of a drink that boasts a storied history, one featuring pagan gods, Napoleon Bonaparte and UK television firsts.
So, you may ask, what exactly is perry?
‘PERRY, TASTES LIKE CIDER RIGHT’
Although perry is a drink in its own right, it can be very tricky to produce, meaning it is almost always made as an ancillary product by cider-makers.
Cider-makers capitalise on their expertise in orchard-fruit pressing and fermenting, crafting a drink that is highly comparable to their mainstay apple beverages in both process and palate.
When talking of palate, perry can mirror cider’s tart fruitiness and then some. Smacks of pear dominate, with luscious high notes of tropical fruit and gooseberry. Sherbet, white grape, apricot and honeysuckle are not uncommon tasting notes. Floral aromas suggest fragrances of elderflower and grass.
Like cider, perry balances a structure of tannins, sugars and acids. The presence of citric acid in perry (which is not found in cider) boosts the drink’s fragrance, evocating flavours not unlike white wine. Playing into perry’s wine-like qualities is the suggestion that the drink was favourite of no other than Napoleon Bonaparte, allegedly referring to it as ‘the English Champagne’.
Considering the shared similarities of perry and cider, plus perry’s additional layer of citric acid, perry is surprisingly less mainstream than its apple-based buddy.
So why is this – why does perry remain so niche?
PERRY: A LABOR OF LOVE
Historically, cider and perry were both farm-made drinks, crafted alongside each other to similar strengths of alcohol. Through this shared lineage, both drinks hold a ‘quintessentially British’ image in the national conscious, conjuring thoughts of rolling greenscapes and flowing flagons passed over ancient farm gates.
These wistful ideals, however, form a stark contrast to the actualities of professional perry-making, a task more risk-fraught than cider-making, once described by Tom Oliver of Oliver’s Cider and Perry as “more dangerous than deep sea-diving.. more dangerous than filming sharks”.
The hardships of perry production start in the orchard, as fickle-to-grow pear trees encompass large areas of orchard real estate, taking a long time to reach full maturity (that is, if they grow fully). At fruiting, pears need to be handpicked in a water tight window of time, too early and the fruit will be unripe, too late and pears will fall to the floor, bruising and mushing their flesh.
Perry trees take a long time to grow and some that live today date back three hundred years. ‘Plant an apple tree for your children, plant a pear tree for your grandchildren.’ – perry-making turn of phrase
Once picked, pears are pressed to extract their juices. Select pears can be very hard, meaning the fruit cannot be processed through the same industrial machinery as cider.
Juices extracted and it is time for fermentation. Perry is known for its light body and delicate composition, this fine balance makes the drink susceptible to undesirable bacteria, leading to common infections such as ‘mouse’ which spoils entire batches without discrimination. (Mouse is an off-flavour that occurs in infected perrys – fausty in the mouth and displeasingly funky in taste, like a mouse cage, hence the name).
Post-fermentation and extra sweetness is provided by sorbitol, an unfermentable sugar that occurs naturally in perry pears (though not in cider apples, another difference in the make-up of perry and cider respectively). Whilst sorbitol brings a welcome sweetness from its unfermented sugars, it may also induce a laxative effect when consumed in large quantities. Quite undesirable indeed!
At bottling the drink’s delicate form works against it once more, as loose sediment clumps on occasion to form a visible ‘brain’. These ‘brains’, sometimes marketed as ‘perry diamonds’, are harmless-to-consume bodies of matter that can compromise the aesthetic of an otherwise crystal-clear perry. In some cases, a disconcerting ‘snowglobe’ effect can take control. Whilst ‘brains’ and ‘snowglobes’ are not detrimental to the balance of a quality perry, they are generally undesirable for the consumer and act as yet another point of caution for budding producers.
If, and only if a perry overcomes these obsticles, the drink can be enjoyed en masse from bottles, kegs, cans or polypins at home or in a pub that is willing to stock it.
All of the above may explain perry’s modest commercial output, and sounds like a case for why not to make it, so how has the drink survived to this day?
A BREIF HISTORY OF PERRY
To understand perry’s unwaivering nature is to understand the heritage of its mysterious fruit, the pear.
Our story begins at the end of the ice age, with a new warm period ushering in a flourishing of wild pears across Europe. In Britain specifically, orcharding skills arrived with conquerors from Rome, spurning the growth of common pears across the isles.
Domestic orcharding knowledge was lost when the Roman Empire fell back, though pears remained fruitful as chance seedlings sprouted across the UK. Some years later a medieval warm period arrived, facilitating the keeping of vineyards. As the climate warmed, so too did thirsts for fruit-based tipples.
The mediaeval warm period was proceeded by a little ice age that summoned cooler temperatures. This climatic shift favoured orchard growth over that of vineyards, allowing cider and perry to rise atop the fruit-booze podium. In regard to a renewal in British orcharding knowledge, it’s thought that the lost skills from Roman days had made their way back from the fruitful Eastern world via Northern Africa, through Spain and France. All factors now in place, the stage was set for perry and cider to rule Britannia.
Single variety Thorn perry from Ross on Wye Cider & Perry Company (Herefordshire). Source : CAMRA social media channels | Credit : Helen Anne Smith
As British orchards became widespread with culinary and cooking pears, select varieties began to be bred for the purpose of drinking. It is believed that the growers of the May Hill area in Gloucestershire were those responsible for cracking perry pear cultivation, igniting a trade for commercial perry production. Perry’s commercial reputation reached fever pitch as England warred with France, celebrated by domestic aristocracy as the perfect replacement for fine wine (wine suffered from geopolitical blockading at the time).
Taking a few steps forward in time and industrialisation had transformed Britain beyond imagination. Almost inevitably, the hard-to-work-with pear and its orchards were side-lined in favour of burgeoning beer and cider markets. The death-knell for perry was sounded.
A few strides forward in time again and perry was ready to surprise all with a significant comeback in national favour. The commercial releases of Babycham and Lambrini (yes, both are perrys!) were gargantuan in the latter half of the 1900s, the former launching the UK’s first ever televised alcohol advertisment. Regrettably, the ever-growing march of alcopops and continental lager put an end to perry’s fifteen minutes of fame, consigning the drink once more to novel memories of a sparkling wine substitute.
More recently, a surge in premium ciders served over ice, such as Bulmers, Magners and Gaymers has brought offerings of ‘pear cider’ to supermarket shelves and pub bottle fridges across the country.
Today, pear cider is a contentious term as industry voices worry authentic perry could be banded in with apple-based cider drinks that have simply been blended with the inclusion of pears or pear flavouring, muddying perceptions at the bar front. These conversations have brought pear drinks back into parlance, offering artisanal makers an opportunity to educate and delight consumers with authentic examples of delicious, drinkable perry.
CONTEMPORARY MAKERS IN MODERN TIMES
Today’s perry drinker can enjoy an array of treats from specialist bottleshops, with well stocked shelves featuring both home-grown producers and celebrated makers from the continent. In our fervent research we have been lucky enough to sample bottles from Oliver’s (Herefordshire), Gregg’s Pit (Herefordshire), Severn (Gloucestershire), Little Pomona (Herefordshire) and Burrow Hill (Somerset), all of which were fantastic . (For more extensive bottle notes, please read the ‘what we’ve been drinking’ section below.)
As detailed above, modern perrry-makers ground themselves in the drink’s historic holdout territories. Gloucestershire (the county home of May Hill) and its close neighbours of Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Monmouthshire are proudly touted as ‘cider and perry country’, with May Hill itself taking undisputed claim to ‘perry’s cultural heartland’.
West-Country areas such as Bristol and Somerset join with Normandy in France to champion traditional perry-making along the coastal belts. These coastal areas prospered during the medieval warm-period and continue to be a slice of verdant orcharding territory, sandwiched between the grain-based beery North Europe and the grape-based wine cultures of Europe to the South.
Modern perry is a rich tapestry with a breadth of styles ranging from bone-dry to super sweet, bolstered by curiosities such as ice-perry, perry brandy and Eau de Vie de Poire. Common varieties of pear used in perry’s modern style spectrum include Butt, Thorn, Stinking Bishop, Blackney Red, Hendre Huffcap, Coppy, Rock, Gin, Oldfield and Plant de Blanc (FR). Be sure to try as many as you can, it is a fun task indeed.
The future of perry is bright with a new wave of evangelists and a dedicated CAMRA campaign month to boot – we’ll raise a glass to that!
ONE FOR THE ROAD – WHY OCTOBER?
CAMRA celebrates Perry and Cider all year-round but most especially in May and October – two months that are intrinsically linked to the production of each drink.
October is a prominent month in the perry calendar as it is commonly when pears are harvested from the orchards that they have been grown in, ready for pressing into juice and in turn, fermentation.
In May, new pears will fruit as the previous year’s perry rounds out to appropriate maturation. Matured perry is soon bottled and ready to drink over the long, hot days to come.
The Campaign for Real Ale has a dedicated ‘APPLE’ committee, campaigning in the name of real cider and perry all year round. Click the APPLE committee logo above to learn more.
Oliver’s X Cloudwater – Ask The Fields – Medium dry, 6.3%, sparkling, red wine barrel-aged + dry-hopped with NZ Cascade and Nelson Sauvin : sold out online
BONUS CONTENT: ALTERNATIVE HISTORY
If you’d rather prescribe to a pagan explanation of perry’s origins, then please read as follows:
One ancient pagan legend tells of a young godling rushing to the summit of May Hill in Gloucestershire. Joining the gods atop May Hill, the godling brandishes a perry pear and proclaims it to be the “true elixir of life”. Without hesitation a god grabs the fruit scoffs it whole, quickly however, the god’s face turns to disgust, before pear flesh and pips are spat out with gusto. Nervously, the godling informs his elders that they weren’t supposed to eat the fruit, but to press it instead, and enjoy its drink.
Alas, the godlings instructions were too late as perry pear pips had been expelled in every direction of May Hill, falling to the earth and nestling in the ground. Almost immediately, majestic perry pear trees erupted from the earth, heralding the land in sight of May Hill as ‘the home of good perry-makers’. The rest, in accordance with pagan folklore, is history!
Mid-Chilterns CAMRA are thrilled to announce that CAMRA’s ‘Good Beer Guide 2024’ is out now and features fourteen of the branch’s greatest pubs.
HERTFORDSHIRE ENTRIES
• The George Inn, Berkhamsted • The Rising Sun, Berkhamsted • The Bell Inn, Bovingdon • The Green Dragon, Flaunden • The Full House, Hemel Hempstead • Monks Inn, Hemel Hempstead • The Saracens Head, Kings Langley • The Kings Arms, Tring
BUCKINGHAMSHIRE ENTRIES
• Boot and Slipper, Amersham • The Blue Ball, Asheridge • The Queen’s Head, Chesham • Trekkers, Chesham • The George Ale House, Great Missenden • The Crown Inn, Little Missenden
The Good Beer Guide is CAMRA’s seminal publication featuring 4,500 of the UK’s best real-ale pubs, in rural and urban areas.
Now in its’ 51st edition, CAMRA’s publication is the best-selling beer and pub guide with a foreword from Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson alongside consumer features, industry analysis and a comprehensive guide to hundreds of UK breweries too!
The Good Beer Guide’s 2024 foreword is from Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson
As always, our nominees were curated from the highest scoring establishments on WhatPub, CAMRA’s public scoring portal which allows all members to put their local forward for awards and commendations.
Congratulations once again to all of our entries – here’s to another fantastic edition of CAMRA’s Good Beer Guide!
