A Mystery Pub Tour? But Not Everywhere We Are Going Is A Pub?

 

On a rare Saturday without plans, I decided to join the Cambridge CAMRA mini bus trip around some rural pubs. I’d been one of these trips before, they’re fun and you get to places you’d normally have to drive to. Usually the route is kept secret, but I’d seen the game plan. As usual, I didn’t take enough photos. Let’s get started! 

We started at an old favourite of mine, The Sun Inn, Waterbeach. You’ve certainly heard of this pub if you read Retired Martin’s excellent blogs! 

A cask lager! In the wild! A rare but welcomed beer option. This was brewed by Adnams with Utopian and was delicious. A real contender for beer of the day. 

Our next stop was only half a mile away, which is just enough time for me to consume two mini beef pasties. The Taps, rather confusingly, isn’t a brewery tap. There are two brewery taps in Waterbeach, both were closed on this day. Formerly called The Brewery Tap, The Taps has undergone a significant refurbishment and is now much improved inside. Two casks ales were available, King Mango by Greene King and The O.G. by Only With Love. I’m not a fan of mango and the branding put me off of the other one. 

I did taste both and decided that having a Guinness was the correct decision.

A decent Guinness! 

The next pub was new to me!

The White Horse in Oakington. I went for an Oakham Citra, which was ok. It had that taste beer has when line cleaning is perhaps not being done as often as it should be. The pub put a buffet on for us, which was really nice. The spring rolls were my highlight. 

Blue Barrel Cider was next! They have an open day every month. 

I don’t really like cider, I find most of it tastes like dish water. However I didn’t mind the Smoking Barrels 2. It didn’t taste sweet, which is good for me! 

We then seemed to be heading towards a church.

Oh good! 

This was a really nice little beer festival. It’s done to raise money for the church and the friendly volunteers reminded me of Vicar of Dibley characters. 

I started with a Summer Haze by Panther, which was really nice. I then made the mistake of trying a beer from Papworth Brewery, one of my least favourite breweries. The Papworth lager tasted like chemicals, I couldn’t drink it. The Nene Valley Laugh It Up Fuzzball was much better! 

We then drove down the road to Haddenham, a village I’d driven through thousands of times but never stopped in. 

I had to take a photo from the bus, I had forgotten to take one inside. A charming little pub that’s full of local characters. The Guinness was pretty good! 

Next up was a pub which reopened just a few days ago, The Admiral (formerly Admiral Vernon) in Over. Being the first Saturday being open again, it was rammed. It’s good the see the local community supporting a pub! The pub does not allow dogs inside, apparently because dogs will make a mess of the new interior. I’m guessing they’ve never met people before then. 

My first time having a Murphy’s! Never seen it before! It tasted very chocolatey and I don’t think that it is anywhere near as good as Guinness. 

Our final stop was the place I was most excited to go to! 

A really lovely place with a very good beer list! 

Do you see what I see? No prizes for guessing what I went for! Really looking forward to returning to the place! 

A great end to a good trip! Thanks for reading!