Tommy Legs at Spoons

I met my friend Clive, who also happens to be the Bothy organiser, in the Sir Henry Segrave on Lord Street in Southport yesterday evening. There's a cider festival on at present, which I'd forgotten, but I wasn't in the mood for cider anyway; I do think it's good that Spoons do things like that, though, making the point that there is a lot more to cider than just Strongbow. I began with a beer, the name of which I forget, which is appropriate because, while it wasn't actually objectionable, it wasn't especially memorable either.

I then went on to the curiously named Tommy Legs (4.5%) by Derwent Brewery. The Derwent website describes it thus: "A complex, hoppy copper ale. Hopped three times, giving a full flavoured beer with a hit of cascade hops." I'd say it is a good example of a nicely flavoured, fairly bitter beer, light brown in colour and slightly old-fashioned in this modern world of golden ales, but none the worse for that. The strength too was in my favourite range of (4.2 to 5%); I rarely drink anything under 4%, as too often I find them thin and insipid, although - before anyone protests - I have drunk three point something beers that are exceptions to that experience. I was chatting to the friendly barmaid and she told me she'd worked in a Spoons near Preston, but had transferred here and was enjoying it; I suggested it might be because you get a better class of scally in Southport.

I was curious about the name: I first assumed 'Tommy' was a First World War reference, but in fact Tommy Legs is the nickname of a lighthouse in the Solway Firth near Silloth (where the brewery is situated) in Cumbria: click here and scroll down to near the bottom for a fuller explanation.

Clive and I later ended up in the Guest House drinking Golden Sands (4.0%), one of Southport Brewery's best in my view, and at £2.50 a pint as well.