Centurion Vintners, 16 George St, Stroud, Gloucestershire
Stroud Brewery Tom Long
Website Hype:
3.8% ABV
Silver at SIBA National Beer Competition, Champion Bitters (up to 4.0%)
Amber session beer with spicy citrus aroma. Good body for low ABV.
Tom Long, 3.8% is an amber coloured bitter with a spicy citrus aroma. This beer won Overall Champion for the West of England and Wales, 2008 in the Society of Independent Brewers Awards.
Highwayman
Tom Long is named after a mythical highwayman hung at Tom Longs Post on Minchinhampton Common, near Stroud.
Another derivation of the name is found in the Canting Dictionary [thieving slang], 1736. This is a collection of words and terms, both ancient and modern, used by Beggars, Gypsies, Cheats, House-Breakers, Shop-Lifters, Foot-Pads and Highway-Men.
TOM-Long, tedious; as Come by Tom Long the Carrier; of what is very long a coming.
Having wearily traipsed around Stroud disappointed after a-lookin' for a decent bikini (a market opportunity for sure), Brenda and I found ourselves walking in circles; "Had we been to this shop? Were the ones in here only for teenagers? Can we manage with what we have?" Bikini shopping certainly ain't what it used to be...
Of course, although I have a fine figure, the bikini is for Brenda (just in case you were wondering).
"Shall we get a drink?"
"Oh, yes!"
"In a pub or shall we take home?"
"Hmmm... How about we look in here?"
And so we enter Centurion Vintners, an oft-visited place of wines and spirits, some of which I haven't found elsewhere. I asked for anything local or even English. The proprietor answered that they normally carry these, but didn't even have a bottle of Three Choirs because the weather last year was so bad there was a meagre crop and very little worth bottling. Ah well...
And so we went in search of skimpy lady parts coverings and returned with a half-gallon of Weston's Herefordshire Perry (a treat for the kids, ya know) and three bottles of Stroud Brewery's amiable beers. Brenda remarks that we have often gone shopping for her only to return with things for me!
Eeny-meeny... I opened the Tom Long first, named after a notorious legendary highwayman hung at Minchinhampton Common near Stroud. As all Stroud Brewery's beers are organic, have a Warranty of Origin and contribute their brewing waste to feed local Tamworth piggies, I feel a certain sense of self-righteous eco-warrior coming over me, but I shake that off with the first taste.
The un-chilled ale is nut brown, clear with a heavy hopped aroma. The head is soft and does not hold for long (a good sign). First tasting is dark with long and rich spicey maltings, so much so that Brenda's sister said she didn't like it. Probably one best served beside the fire on a miserably wet winter evening. The beer achieved a silver and gold medal. Not a bad beginning.
The brewery has excellent business ideals -not wishing to sell to supermarkets because they appear to stamp their increasingly negative mark on everything in this country, and encouraging local pubs and businesses. Below is an extract from their website:
Stroud Brewery - we'll sidestep the supermarket
The man behind a leading Stroud brewery has pledged that none of his beers will ever appear in major supermarket chains. Greg Pilley, who owns Stroud Brewery, is making the stand because he claims cheap supermarket beer is the biggest threat to the traditional British pub, as well as being a chief cause of binge-drinking.
"It may mean that I miss out on a big market but I've made a conscious decision not to sell our beer through the supermarkets," he said. "I do not wish to undermine my core business, which is the local pubs. These places are often the hearts of villages. I want to see that tradition continue."
Worthy indeed.
Because the memsahib and meself is off to Morocco (ooh, what a palarva), I have yet to sample the other two in the trilogy, the Budding and Woolsack. I fear their careless consumption before our return.
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