County Stat Attack Week 26 - Buckinghamshire

17 Buckinghamshire rates for me, the highest at 3.8 is XT Squid Ink, a black IPA

There are 9 active cideries in Buckinghamshire, with Virtual Orchard having the most listed with a cider count of 13

The top 5 raters for Buckinghamshire Cideries & Ciders are:

BuckinghamshireCider Ratings

BuckinghamshireCideries

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Buckinghamshire is a real blind spot for me. I have only tried 31 beers which means only the Isle of Wight is lower.

@beardedavenger I did boost my numbers by ordering some Chiltern beers in 2019.

I did work in MK for a while in my pre rate beer days. I stayed at the Holiday Inn so often they kept my stuff there (including my bike) at weekends so I didnā€™t have to bring it home.

I have been considering a post lockdown trip to somewhere like the Blackened Sun Taproom to pick up a few rates, as they also have a bottle shop.

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As already mentioned Buckinghamshire has been a good county for me over the years. It helped that it was a neighbouring county and also helps that Oxford Health merged with Buckinghamshire (well took over really) and had a large mental health unit (the Whiteleaf Centre) where I had an office in Aylesbury for about 1-2 days a week. Furthermore, we had offices and a day centre in High Wycombe where I used to go once or twice a month and a medium secure unit in Milton Keynes once a month. The Buckinghamshire border was also pretty close to where I lived and places like XT and Vale breweries easily were cyclable when they had open days. I like Buckinghamshire it is an interesting county, with clearly some nice scenery in and around the Chiltern area and some nice towns and villages throughout the county, in fact, the northern stretches of the county arenā€™t so bad either. It always amazed me at the huge price disparity between somewhere like Aylesbury and Oxford considering how close they were and also Aylesbury in comparison to other towns like Amersham and others, particularly in the stockbroker belt area. We had lots of staff who worked in Oxford living somewhere like Aylesbury or even somewhere like Northants.

I have visited 17 places which puts it in 13th list in England

In terms of my top beers, Vale, Aylesbury Brewhouse and XT and Animal dominate the top ten.

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I discovered that The Hive Coffeeshop and Craft Bar in Crowthorne stocks Rebellion beers. I was more interested in other beers but they have enough to get me in the top rankings if I pick more up on repeated visits.

And when I start going to local pubs again then should pick up some XT/Animal rates.

I used to live in South Bucks, in Denham Green, but that was 30ish years ago and there wasnā€™t much decent around to drink back then. Rebellion has just started up before I moved away, I think.

I see Iā€™ve subsequently rated several local brews, mostly Aylesbury, Vale and XT of course, although my top one is Blackened Sunā€™s Luna.

The oddest thing about Denham, apart from the luvvies, was the cops. Although it was technically in Bucks, it was part of the Metā€™s beat - except that if you ever called them up the operator would hear the address and immediately try to pass you off to Thames Valley, whoā€™d go ā€œNope, not one of ours!ā€ Possibly the borders have been realigned since, it would make sense.

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How often were you calling the cops up ?

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Info from the neighbours, cannot confirm personally!!

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The catch up continues! Iā€™m not aware of ever being in Buckinghamshire, but maybe one day!

Iā€™ve just got 35 ratings meaning itā€™s 44th out of the 46 counties for me (only Rutland and IOW are lower). However, this enough to for me to hold down 42nd place and as previous commentators have pointed out, there is little of this beer available on tap in the northern parts of Britain, that Iā€™m probably safe for a few months at least. I think I got in there on the back of an order from Hornes Brewery - the beers were very traditional and samey. Years ago, we used to see a fair bit of XT up here, and that was good stuff!

Iā€™ve deemed one beer to be worthy of 4 points or more and this was in the last few months.

Blackened Sun Spiritual Healing 4.1

Iā€™ve never been there, so no place ratings, even of online stores.

Thatā€™s all I know!

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Getting onto the table for Bucks was a target last year that I eventually forgot about. I was looking at putting putting in an order with Hornes or whoever but other orders took priority. Pity Blackened Sun beers are not widely available.

Ah sir, my Blackened Sun came from the Beer Garage in Northampton. Looks like they have a sale on and if you get to Ā£60 worth, itā€™s free delivery (thatā€™s about 5 cans of Three Hills, ha ha).

They have various other counties covered in there too, which make it worth it, I reckon.

That places was on my list. Although a local place has some Rebellion beers in stock now so I should crawl over the line.

Bucks remains as the only English region Iā€™ve yet to rate a beer from, canā€™t believe Iā€™ve still not managed it - although to be fair, Iā€™ve made no effort to do so!

Just seen this thread, Iā€™m apparently the 32nd highest rater of Bucks beers. Iā€™m from Greater London and only moved out of Greater London 6 months ago having been born there and lived there all my life. I now live not far away in the extreme SW corner of Herts right on the border of Bucks in fact Iā€™m only 3 roads away from the county line. Maybe I can improve on my ranking but Bucks beers are nothing to write home about to be honest, XT and Moogbrew seem to be my most highly rated breweries. I often visit craft beer places in Amersham, Chesham and Great Missenden all very easy to get to on the Met line/Chiltern line. The White Horse, Hedgerley can turn up some really good beer and has decent little festivals but is quite difficult to get to on public transport yet itā€™s only 15-20 mins by car for me. The Royal Standard of England is a gem of a place with a great atmosphere and very good food but beer list is rather average.

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Hello Ian ā€¦ heard you retired this past yearā€¦ Best out of the madness!
Also maybe donā€™t say county linesā€¦ means something different in this era !

Hi Colin,

Long time no speak.

Almost 40 years at that place for me, I retired quite early, so far so good, just wish I could travel abroad!

Six of us retired this summer, only 50% of passengers using the tube these days so future looks quite uncertain.

Had no idea of that other meaning for boundaries between counties, must be an American thing.

Cheers

Ian.