OP From The Wood
Does it get any better?
It’s been aggressively beautiful outside this week, after an age of brown mud and torrential rain. To make the most of the frozen ground and dry skies, I went to Appletreewick in the Yorkshire Dales on Sunday to visit a pub I’ve been meaning to visit for years. The Craven Arms is an historic inn decorated with an abundance of curiosities and artefacts; I particularly liked the original oil paintings of Sir William Craven, a local lad who, in the 16th century, moved to London as a tailor and became the Lord Mayor of the city. There is a snuff box for all to use, if they so wish. A range fireplace roars over the main bar area, a happy sight for our fingers and faces which were numb from a November ramble around Wharfedale.
The crowded but friendly bar offered a few excellent options, but there really was only one choice—The Craven Arms serves Theakston’s Old Peculier from the wood. I order it without a thought, and a man carrying three pints away to his table tells me: “great choice.” It is, he’s right. I take a well-earned gulp right there at the bar. Perfectly cool, but not cold. Soft and pillowy, with a silky texture like rich red wine. Dark treacle and golden syrup wash in waves along with the distinct bitterness and blackberry-currant flavours of black patent, with an appetising roasted malt aroma. Served directly from a wooden barrel it tasted fresh and full of life—vibrant, you might say. Half my pint was gone before I knew it.
Old Peculier isn’t a particularly peculiar beer—the name comes from Theakston’s brewery location in Masham, North Yorkshire, which was outside of a diocese, and therefore a place of parish peculiarity. It’s actually quite simple, with pale and crystal malts bringing the caramel-brown-sugar notes and roasted malts of different levels for colour and flavour, and Fuggles hops providing the majority of the fresh, almost hay-like aroma and more bramble fruits. It’s a ruby ale that’s never left us, and whenever I see it in Yorkshire, I have to have it, for all the reasons stated above.
We were exceptionally lucky—there was one free table. This never happens, I’m sure. We sat down with our almost-finished pints and ordered a roast dinner and a huge plate of venison stew. Both were exceptional.
I went on a wander around the busy pub and found there’s a thatched medieval barn back where you can dine and it looks like the interior of Uhtred’s home (From The Last Kingdom? You should watch it.) The pub itself is a masterclass in old, wooden-beamed, definitely haunted pub decor. It’s packed with character and centuries of life, and the beer is top quality. Now is the season of visiting country pubs and eating lovely big roast dinners and drinking pints of delicious beer. This was a great one to spend an afternoon in.
Other Stuff
NYC Meet Cutes is a nice little pick-me-up of a TikTok and Instagram account, and when they visited London and asked British couples how they met, it was lovely to hear that so many met in the pub.
Dan Hays says his art aims to look at nature as though it is “tightly controlled and heavily meditated.” My favourite of his works are where he uses pointillism like pixels to create beautiful landscapes as if they were generated by a computer or pushed through a glitchy programme rather than created by an artist and his imagination. It’s messing with my AI comprehension.
Photographer Victoria Rennerståhl captures beautiful, ethereal frozen landscapes in her homeland of Sweden that literally take my breath away.
It was a privilege to edit this wonderful piece on sake, koji, and Japanese culture by Tim Anderson for Pellicle.
