A Day in Bath

Bath is a short train ride from Bristol and home to many traditional pubs and six microbreweries of their own. I decided the best approach to finding good real ale was to seek out the local CAMRA pub of the year. In Bath's case, that meant The Raven. They have 7 local real ales on the hand pump, featuring 3 of their own, made by local micro Blindmans, plus a cider and 4 other taps. The Ravens Dark is a deep, garnet brown with a tan head, light nutty nose, floral hops, creamy malty palate with a rich underpinning of bitterness, though nicely balanced, lovely finish. I ordered the Ravens Pie for lunch, made with their own ale, and my next beer, Sommerset & Dorset Ale (4.4%), beautiful reddish gold, fruit-hop nose, definite hop accented palate, a mild bitterness running through its whole malty profile, lovely dry finish. I ended my session with Otter Bright (4.3%). All these beers are so smooth! This one pale gold, classic hop/malt nose, white head creates a hanging lace, great balance with a tinge of citrus, good malt base and a 'more-ish' finish.
Not far away is the Old Green Tree, a tiny bar with two small adjacent rooms. Their best seller here is RCH Pitchfork (4.3%), gold coloured, fruity nose, sharp hops with hints of citrus on a bright palate, fully flavoured, ending nice and dry. I read they always have a porter on, though this day it was Hopback Brewery's Entire Stout (4.5%). A smooth, light bodied and easy drinking stout, jet black featuring some roasted coffee tones, great balance and dryish finish. Blindmans makes the house brew Old Green Tree Ale for this pub, a light, pale gold, well balanced session beer that is popular as well.
I made my way next to The Bell, a larger more rambling pub a short distance away. Hop vines hanging everywhere, there are 7 real ales available, with 2 rotating guest taps and a very knowledgeable and friendly bar staff. They had a local favourite from Abbey Ales, Bellringer (4.2%). Gold coloured, fresh, floral hop nose, beautiful malt balanced nicely against a nice even bitterness, toasty and dry, lovely and long finish. They had free Wifi, so as I studied my Good Beer Guide and worked on catching up on my blog posting, I went for a Danish Dynamite (5%) from Stonehenge Ales. Full on deep gold ale, big fruity aroma, with a complex palate, fully flavoured, medium bodied, malt accented balanced against a wonderful bitterness. It was all so wonderful, I didn't want to leave! But, it was if the barkeep saved the best for last as he offered me a Weymouth Durdle Door (5%) from Dorset Brewing (see Beer of the Day, Oct. 19). Then it really was time to get to the train and find my way back to Bristol.