A Final Derby Stroll

Back to work. I had thought that this trip would have a lot of spare time to look around, but with starting at 7 and working to 5:30, it was hard to get time to fully explore the area. Don’t get me wrong, it was a great weekend, but as this trip was winding down, I did want to explore more of Derby. Len was a great sport (as usual), and we agreed to walk around town and find a place for dinner (a pub perhaps?).

The Good Pub Guide recommended the Alexandra Hotel, so we stopped there first. They didn’t have any food and there was some kind of argument going on out back (nothing violent, just really loud). I had the Titanic Iron Curtain and Len tried the Exmoor Hound Dog. Both were excellent. The Iron Curtain was a Russian Imperial Stout, very well done but a bit on the strong side. We kept on moving, and ended up at the Royal Telegraph, a Marston establishment. It was a beautiful evening and we sat outside. They had Marston Pedigree oak aged on cask, and to be able enjoy this four star beer on my last night in Derby. The menu was so-so, so we decided to again move on.

Our final stop was the Babbington Arms, probably the best comparison to an American beer bar that I had run into on my trip. It had a great selection of beer, it had a large menu that was available every night of the week, it had a bar area, and it had a family eating area. It was also international beer month, and the Babbington Arms was offering 3 1/3 pints of beer for the price of one pint, a sampler for cask beer. And they had brought some specialty beers from different countries, so between Len and I we were able to try the following on cask:

- Koff Sinebrychoff Porter, the world famous porter from Finland,
- St Georgen Kellerbier, a German classic,
- Cottage Hop’N Drop and Slumdog Jack, two fine English Pale Ales,
- JW Lees Hopping Mad, a hopped up version of their bitter, and
- Falstaff Uranus, a powerful stout weighing in at 8.5% ABV (glad we were splitting).

What a great ending to my time in Derby, a beer celebration in a pub. I have another day of work and then we’ll be heading back to Manchester. I hope I’m able to make it back to Derby soon. - 5086

"Less good than they say for the sons of men is the drinking of ale, for the more they drink the less they think and keep a watchover their wits." – Havamal, 800 AD