Abingdon Brewery Tap improves beer range

The Brewery Tap on Ock Street in Abingdon, is now offering a wider choice of real ales with two hand punps being free of tie. Initially these include White Horse Brewery’s Wayland Smithy, and Slater’s Top Totty.

The Brewery Tap has always been known for its quality of ale, and was the only pub in Abingdon to appear in the Camra 2009 Good Beer Guide and has been Cask Marque accredited every year since it started. However as it is a Greene King pub it has been restricted in its choice of beers.

The improvements are due to Kane who previously managed the Stocks bar, and has now moved to the Brewery Tap. Whilst at the Stocks bar, he was responsible for dramatic improvements to the beer range and quality, turning it into one of the top pubs in the Oxford area for real ale drinkers.

There are plans to hold a beer festival at the Brewery Tap at the beginning of December, and to try to obtain Camra LocAle status by permanently stocking beers from the White Horse Brewery.

This is good news for Abingdon, which over the last few years has seen a big improvement to the quality and range of beers.

West Berkshire Brewery Wins Bronze Medal at Great British Beer Festival

Dr Hexter's Healer

I have just heard that local brewery The West Berkshire Brewery has won bronze medal today at the Great British Beer Festival for its Dr. Hexters’s Healer

The other winners include:

In Abingdon, you can often find West Berkshire Beers including Doctor Hexters Healer at the Stocks Bar in Abingdon and at Music At The Unicorn.

The Stocks bar is the only pub in Abingdon with Camra LocAle status (awarded by Camra to pubs that consistently server locally brewed beers), offsers discounts to Camra members and is having its summer beer festival in a few weeks time on 21st-24th August.

Music at the Unicorn is a monthly music event featuring top acts from the folk music world in the historic Unicorn theatre in Abingdon abbey. Blackheart and Maybelles are performing there this Thursday (6th August). The licensed bar always features beer from West Berkshire Brewery.

Stocks Bar – Beer, Blues and Jazz Festival

As mentioned in the previous post, the Stocks bar in Abingdon has seen a huge improvement to its beer range and cellar quality over the last year to become one of the best real ale pubs in the Oxford area.

It is holding its 3rd beer festival this weekend (Friday 3rd April – Monday 6th April). Previous beer festivals have been very good with an excellent range of beers, mostly locally sourced.

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Update on Abingdon Pubs over the last year

I haven’t made many blog entries recently, but now the summer is on its way, it is time to be more active.

Pubs in Abingdon have seen some major improvements over the last year. After the take over and closure of the Morlands Brewery and Morrels Brewery by Greene King around the end of millenium, we ended up with something of a beer wilderness in Abingdon where almost every pub was run by Greene King and all served the same small selection of beers (Greene King IPA, Morland Original and maybe one guest… but all the pubs seem to choose the same guest each month). Not that there is anything wrong with Greene King beers, but I like to have a choice.

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