Beers, Boats and Boozers, No.60.

After leaving the Golden Shield we went to find the Coop for the milk, and right opposite was another pub so we decided to have a look see. Purely for research you understand.

The Old Crown Inn was built around 1798 from an old cottage. I'm not sure why the Old Crown as I can find no evidence of another Crown in the village. One of it's longest serving families was the Spokes'. Willaim was born in the village in 1797 and eventually became the landlord from at least 1838 until his death in 1848 when his wife and daughters took it on until at least 1855. The pub was sold several times and was said to consist of the pub and cottage, yard, stables, gig shed and piggery! In 1904 it was leased for £100 a year by the Market Harborough brewery of Eady and Dulley that has started in 1881. In 1921 Everard's bought the place out right and it is still one of their pubs. It is now essentially a one room pub with different alcoves. Food is served but they only have one hand pull to serve. There was loud music at one end and at the other there was loud football on the large screen, but we did find an alcove out of the way. Not going to be one of those pubs I want to return to.

A history of Everard's Brewery can be found at Beers, Boats and Boozers, No.58, so I wont repeat it all here.

Tiger is Everard's best selling beer and is called a copper ale by them, (best bitter on the pump clip above). It comes in at 4.2% and does have a nice coppery colour if a rather thin head. To sniff it has a slightly hoppy aroma from the fuggles and golding hops, and to taste there is a little toffee flavour that will be from the Maris Otter malt. It is neither sweet or bitter in the mouth and so comes over to me as a little bland. I suppose a good session beer that would be quaffed with a meal. It was first brewed in 1972 and is named after the nickname given to the Royal Leicestershire Regiment after they returned to England in 1825, following a long posting in India. Obviously the Rugby Union team in Leicester is also called the Tigers. Not a bad beer at all but I do like to try different beers out, and in this part of the world this is not unusual by any stretch of the imagination. Still as the pub is about a pleasant 15 min stroll across the fields from the canal, and close to a Coop, we could well end up back here at another time.