Pub Watch: Cherry Tree Inn (Wye Valley, Wales)

"Should not be missed" says the CAMRA Good Beer Guide - but it would be very easy to do so. Found up a little backroad not far from Tintern Abbey in the Wye Valley, it would not be a pub you would simple drive by, spot and stop at. I actually wonder how these places exist and survive. But thankfully they do!

And the Cherry Tree Inn (http://www.thecherry.co.uk/) was a perfect little stop on our first day in Wales. It certainly stuck out in the Beer Guide, "a gravity-lover's delight" was enough to sell it to me, so off I went in search of this little beauty. Tucked away in what I suppose you could call a village, though it is only a collection of 10 or so houses, which are group around a little bubbling brook. With enough parking for a Combi and a small car we had to park ourselves up on road. The building itself is an interesting affair, with a little post office and grocery shop downstairs. Upstairs is a rambling pub with 3 distinct rooms (one a restaurant), and a large bar with two servicing areas. However, what I had come for was behind the bar. There sat 6 casks in all their glory, though unfortuantely only two were actually on. I had a pint of the Hancock's HB - it was OK, considering I later found out that it is brewed for the Coors Group by the Welsh brewery Brains. But you just can't beat a gravity fed pint from the cask, it is just so smooth in the mouth. I also ordered a half of the Slaters Premium, but this was the last of the cask and unfortunately it had gone off (which can happen when you are drinking real ale).

As lots of these pubs often do, the walls around the bar were also covered with used pump clips (which they obviously wouldn't be using seeing they serve the ale straight from the cask). Some brilliant beer names there though, my favourite being "Ernie Ales" - maybe an idea for you Stuey to market a beer to local golf clubs. Most surprising (and pleasing) though, as we had our lunch, was how busy the pub got. By the time we left there must have been 30 people in there, and this during the middle of the day on a Tuesday. So I could certainly see that this place was more than just surviving and it is one of the reasons I love the beer and pub culture over here.