Beer Viking

Recently, I was lucky enough to spend a week of holiday on Tresco – one of the 5 main the islands in the Isles of Scilly – which are off the coast of Cornwall in the Atlantic. As a long time American resident in the UK – in my humble opinion -  this is one of the best (if not they best) places to go on holiday in the UK. But I am not going to bore you with holiday bragging and snaps. Instead I am going to do a quick summary of the beers (real ales, of course) and pubs I managed to visit on 3 of the 5 inhabited islands – Tresco, St Martins and Bryher.

Each of these 3 islands has a single pub. Which makes it very simple and that I don’t need to really show a detailed map for each pubs location. If you happen to find yourself here and need to find the pub just ask anyone for directions –everyone is friendly. Some one once to me “the Scilly Isles are really a bunch of rocks out in the middle of the ocean with 2000 drunks hanging on!” Well the locals are not really a bunch of drunks but they do know how to have good time and keep themselves well supplied with real ales.

Each island is small enough to be easily crossed in less than an hour. Each island has its own unique character and well worth a visit.

Here are the 3 pubs:

Tresco: The New Inn – 4 stars (out of 5), good pub grub with 3-4 real ales on tap at one time. St Austells, Skinners & Ales of Scilly feature. We managed well over 7 different brews in a week’s time, including both Scuppered and Firebrand from the very local Ales of Scilly. They also have beer festival in May. Great outdoor area of eating, Internet connection and often live music. Kids welcome.

St Martins: The Seven Stones – 3.5 stars, good food and regional beers. Amazing views. On a sunny day one could stay here for ever. We had St Austell’s.

Bryher: Fraggle Rock – 3.5 stars, food and west country ales. We had Sharp’s Doom Bar on this visit. Also serves as a decent cafe. The real gem on this island is of course The Hell Bay Hotel and the wild western shore, but that’s a post for another day.

The breweries that featured on this trip – all are from Cornwall:

• Sharp’s – Doom Bar every time.
• Skinners – be sure to try the Betty Stogs Bitter
• St Austell – we particularly like the Proper Job IPA
• Ales of Scilly – the Firebrand was sweet and the Scupper was decent. Probably a hard one to tick off outside of Cornwall. Next year we will try to get a tour of the brewery which is on the largest island of St Mary’s.

Happy Hunting!