Never a frown, with Golden Pippin

Timing. The pub game is all about timing. Timing and location. Timing, location and product. Timing, location, product and you get the general idea – namely, that I am in possession of a complete layman’s idea of what the pub game is really all about (although, it must be said, I hold my end up in several ‘pub games’, notably flipping beer-mats off my elbow).

The Woodsman Bar & Grill (formerly The Hayrick) at the junction of Lancaster Lane and Wigan Road, Leyland

Then, no special expertise is required to suspect that the newly opened The Woodsman Bar & Grill (formerly The Hayrick) at the junction of Lancaster Lane and Wigan Road, Leyland, is now set fair to benefit from imminent convergence of aforementioned Holy Business Trinity.

Their location is about to get seriously favourable, what with umpteen hundred new homes leaping off the drawing board and into reality – in timely fashion – just a few hundred yards down the road, and not one serious rival less than a 20-minute walk away.

And the ‘product’ (horrible word)? On the experience of my recent visit one which is likely to find favour.

Two pints pulled up from the cellar, two pints poured perfect down my chimney. Moorhouse’s famous Pride of Pendle, and the lesser known but widely appreciated Golden Pippin of Skipton brewer Copper Dragon.

Both perfect, fresh and, in the case of the Pippin, great to renew acquaintance. Some summers back we met, can’t have been long after Copper Dragon started to brew (2003), on the bar of a semi-regular rural haunt...

Let’s just say we had something special, huh? Or, alternatively, that I shipped enough of this pale floral beauty to capsize Ark Royal.

Washed down these ales with some food, and while scoff is not the business of this column, it is fair to say the quality was good, the price fair. One minor dropped ball and this, once reported, was swiftly settled to our satisfaction by friendly helfpul staff.

Maintaining this standard will be the name of the game.

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