No.44 - Oyster Inn, Butley, Suffolk

The Under 40's Beery Bike Blog
Friday 29th June, 2012

 

After months of serious(!) planning, myself and 3 other brave souls -Andy, Ade and Damo) set off from Meadow Crescent with our 4 bikes in tow, heading up the A12 to Blaxhall YH. Our mission - to visit 7 Adnams pubs in 2 days and to survive 48 hours without our ladies being around to take care of us. Once checked in, beds made up, and getting over the disappointment that the Blaxhall Festival was basically just a Flower Show in the local church, we mounted bikes and sped off heading in the direction of Butley for our first pint.
The Oyster Inn at Butley is a pub that I've driven past a few times en route to Orford, so it was nice this time to finally stop off. The pub dates back to the early 1800's and still has many of it's original features, which were all visible inside.  We locked bikes up in the garden and headed on into the bar. The bar area had a typically dark solid wooden floor, with plenty of tables for sit down meals, but this did not encroach too much on the drinking area of the pub, which remained fairly spacious. The pub was empty, but I guess it was still a little early for the evening rush. We were greeted by a friendly Landlord and also a new beer !!   'Flame Runner' - a beer brought out to celebrate the Olympics this summer, so of course we ordered 4 pints !
We took our drinks outside into the warm sun drenched garden, only to realise the disasterous situation we found ourselves in - 3 of the pints were off! The bottom of the barrel had been reached! As tempted as we were to still drink them, we returned them to the Landlord, who to be fair, was rather distraught himself, especially as he knew we were there for the blog! With Bitter, Broadside and Spindrift all available, we plumped for 3 Spindrifts, and a good call it was too. You can't beat a nice cold Spindrift on a warm sweaty evening. Plus we had the bonus of all still being able to have a gulp of Ade's Flame Runner!
Once we were done supping, it was time to move on to the next watering hole as time was pushing on and we were concious of the fact that food would very soon be required. We said our farewell's to the LandLord, and the half dozen locals who had now ventured out, and hopped back onto bikes and sped(?) off into the sunlight enroute to Snape.