Essex Days Out

We visited The Five Bells at Colne Engaine one Saturday lunchtime last month and blogged about it here. We dropped in yesterday afternoon for a couple of pints at their beer festival, which they’ve been running for the past five or so years.

They had the beer tent attached to the side of the pub, behind the patio – the one with a view over the Colne Valley to die for!

We had the Tom Wood’s ‘Devils Tale’, and Crouch Vale ‘Wild Hop’ to start, and then Brandon’s ‘Napper Tandy’ – not a lengthy session by any means. Memo to self for next year : get their early before the dark beers run out!

We sat in the public bar for the last drinks, and I was impressed with the attention to detail in what can often be an overlooked part of the pub, particularly the very well done montages paying tributes to past landlords.

The Five Bells looks like it’s got the balance just right for a successful pub in a small village – really good food and real ale to attract people from some distance, and a public bar that can serve the locals who want a quiet place to drink, play pool/bar billiards, or watch a bit of Sky Sports on a humongous HD tv. And, starting this month, they’re doing a fish and chips takeaway on a Thursday!

More articles like this: | beer festivals