South West as a Region

Regional Forums United Kingdom and Ireland
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Continuing the trip clockwise round the UK regions we get to the South West. Hopefully this region includes: Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire.

As with the other regions I have just added up each persons rates in the counties top 50. on 32 rates separate @downender and @imdownthepub at the top.

Rater Beers
downender 3101
imdownthepub 3069
fonefan 2446
Theydon_Bois 2309
mR_fr0g 1846
cgarvieuk 1809
Leighton 1783
madmitch76 1759
harrisoni 1711
Grumbo 1407
MrTipple 1334
danlo 1308
DJMonarch 1249
minutemat 1237
ManVsBeer 1231
leaparsons 1190
Stuu666 1111
oh6gdx 1067
Mr_Pink_152 1047
allmyvinyl 1046
Scopey 1023
AshtonMcCobb 1011
Beese 976
Rune 951
LazyPyro 896
Fin 886
Cheeseboard 873
BlackHaddock 863
mr_h 858
DruncanVeasey 840
Ungstrup 828
yespr 814
Finn 811
anders37 690
The_Osprey 661
FatPhil 650
Rasmus40 592
saxo 585
berkshirejohn 578
johndoughty 542

Again what are people beer total, best brewers, general thoughts?

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I lived in Devon from 1998 to 2005. Alas, as I am not in possession of any extra digits (my nickname in the village was ā€˜Ten Toesā€™*), I never really fit in so left after seven years. And pre-RB, so all my ticks for Scattor Rock, Teignworthy, Otter etc have been Scattor-ed to the wind, leaving me likely far from the top 50.

So most of my SW beers are based around Bristol and Somerset. And Cornwall. My best rated breweries are:

Arbor (22) 3.7
Yonder (15) 3.67
Verdant (24) 3.66
Moor (23) 3.64
Harbour (11) 3.6

Arbor, I mean I love their stuff. Favourite UK brewery? Not quite but itā€™s pretty fan-fuckin-tastic. Big fan of Yonder as well. Funny enough I donā€™t think Iā€™ve seen Moor in ages. Iā€™m guessing theyā€™re still around as Iā€™ve not heard anything to the contrary?

Harbour is a bit of a surprise but I would imagine some overrates in there.

The most-rated breweries are all ones I like, so thatā€™s a treat. A lot of overlap between the best and the most.

Wild Beer 41
Electric Bear 28
Verdant 24
Moor 23
Arbor 22

I got a few Electric Bear deliveries around lockdown. Theyā€™re decent and cheap for what they do.

*They may have been referring to the Ten Tors, which is a walking challenge as well as the transport-caff-esque pub just outside our estate.

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Another modest score
Cornwall (including the Isles of Scilly), 34
Dorset, 8
Devon, 8
Gloucestershire, 105
Somerset 63
Wiltshire 31
Grand total 249
So I wonā€™t be on the board any time soon.

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I was waiting for this one, finally on a list!

873 ticks for 27th place will do for me.

Unsurprisingly Iā€™ve concentrated on beers from my local area over the past few years. I make the top 50 in five of the six counties in the area. Add my Wiltshire rates (not in the top 50th of that county) and Iā€™m just over 900.

Iā€™ve been a resident in the south west since 2007, first in Bristol and then down to Somerset. It was my job that brought me, and I do like it down here.

My highest rated breweries:
Mills Brewing (43) 4.03 (also highest rated brewery overall)
Deya (39) 3.83
Verdant (39) 3.73
Left Handed Giant (27) 3.65
Utopian (17) 3.64

Most checked in breweries:
Wild Beer 69
Mills Brewing 43
Deya 39
Verdant 39
Newtown Park (RIP) 28

Iā€™ve definitely eased off with more local ticks these past few months to concentrate on other counties, but Iā€™ll not be ignoring my local region, so hope to make a bit more progress in time.

Cheers, Simon

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I grew up in the region, and as my Mum still lives there itā€™s one of my better regions, although Iā€™m still a fair way off getting onto the list. Also possibly my favourite region of the country - so many beautiful places, itā€™s a shame so many other people always want to visit them at the same time as me!

Hereā€™s my vital stats:
Wiltshire 130
Somerset 90
Gloucestershire 77
Devon 72
Cornwall 67
Dorset 36
Total 470

My top rated brew is Moor Stout at 4.5 - thought that was gurt lush!

My top rated brewery (5+ rates) is Arbor at an average of 3.63. My most rated brewery is Arbor at 3.63.

My favourite west country beery place is the very friendly Three Crowns in my old hometown of Chippenham.

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Lovely part of the world, have visited Devon & Bristol (Gloucestershire, Somerset?) relatively recently so not a surpirse that those 3 counties are the biggest contributors to my grand total of 88 rates. Really liked Bristol and would like to go back some time soon, but not looking likely this year as trips to North Wales, Herefordshire and Norfolk are already in the book.

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My region. Nice. Mildly off topic comment to start but I am still very much for splitting Bristol out of Gloucestershire. I really do feel it should be a separate county. It basically is in reality anyway, but even in purely beer terms itā€™s surely one of the biggest centres outside of London for beer isnā€™t it? Iā€™m sure itā€™d improve the place database too if we could properly write the towns and regions in addresses without having to have ā€œBristolā€ there with ā€œGloucestershireā€ too.
Well, in any case, itā€™s not like thereā€™s anyone around who could make the change happenā€¦

Cheltenhamshire is my county and Deya account for the vast majority of my rates. Big fan of their hoppy stuff though I do feel like theyā€™ve slipped a tad in terms of quality lately. That trend also continues with Cornwall (largely Verdant, but more recently Pipeline continue to impress). Oh and for Bristol specifically itā€™s mostly LHG, Arbor and Moor.

Gloucestershire - 706
Cornwall - 195
Somerset - 55
Dorset - 14
Devon - 6
Wiltshire - 6

Somerset is mostly Wild Beer who werenā€™t usually my thing but were always easily available and did have some fantastic beers, more recently itā€™s been Yonder impressing with their sours. Englandā€™s answer to Scotlandā€™s Vault City.
Nothing to mention for the other counties Iā€™m afraid as thereā€™s just no breweries doing the sort of beers I enjoy. That being said, Devon at least have Utopian who make some great lagers. Iā€™ll be having more from them for sure.

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Iā€™m fortunate in that I get to go down the South West of England at least a couple of times a year and obviously a couple of the counties border my own, so I pick up those areas pretty regularly too.

My Stats are

Cornwall - 516 beers for 1st place at ave 3,24. Breweries = 51
Devon - 399 beers for 1st place at ave 3.17. Breweries = 66
Dorset - 215 beers for 1st place at ave 3.09. Breweries = 28
Gloucestershire - 834 beers for 4th place at ave 3.3. Breweries = 71
Somerset - 640 beers for 1st place at ave 3.1. Breweries = 42
Wiltshire - 473 beers for 1st place at ave 3.1. Breweries = 40

Breweries with most Ratings are

Cottage Brewing - 85
Wild Beer - 80
Wadworth - 73
Arbor - 73
Verdant - 59
Bristol Beer Factory - 58

Breweries with highest ave score are

Wizard - 3.74
Tapstone - 3.74
Stanway - 3.68
Verdant - 3.68
Deya - 3.62
Severn Vale - 3.59

Hopefully I will continue to be able to get down to the S.W

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RIP Cottage Brewery, you served us tickers well with your plentiful if substandard offeringsā€¦

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True. We had a Landlord in Banbury who was so enamoured with the rather pretty sales girl for Cottage that he took every re branded cask she offered him, hence my high figures for the brewery, it was all we could get at the time.

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Rebranded? Never! Every one of their delightful concoctions was an original recipe painstakingly crafted by wizards!

Also, I think ā€˜The Pretty Cottage Girlā€™ sounds like some sort of folk songā€¦

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I must say that every time she walked in the bar went silent. She should be remembered in song.

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Pleased to feature in the ā€˜Statā€™. My parents relocated down to Devon a few years ago and I bought my first house in Cornwall back in 1979 while stationed at RAF Saint Mawgan, no rating back then of course.

I need to find 5 beers from Somerset, as the totals show:
Cornwall 168
Devon 148
Gloucester 188
Dorset 48
Wiltshire 98
Somerset 213

All ending with an 8 bar Somerset!

Wild Beer with 49 rates is the highest total, Wadworth on 34 comes second, Badger third on 26.

Cotleigh is my highest rated with an average of 3.52 over 17 beers.

Highest rated beers are:https://www.ratebeer.com/beer/red-rock-dark-ness/81391/97853/ https://www.ratebeer.com/beer/hunters-full-bore/112898/97853/.

<*))))))><

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Total of 605

Gloucester 233
Cornwall 214
Somerset 103
Devon 24
Wiltshire 19
Dorset 12

Gloucester has overtaken Cornwall now I see, looking at Gloucester can see Deya/LHG/Moor etc feature and with the first 2 getting allot of distro over here makes senseā€¦

Cornwallā€™s probably helped by being St Austellā€™s top rater :slight_smile: - Still want to visit Cornwall one day (SAS fly Copenhagen direct to Newquay so should really do this)

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Cornwall 55
Devon 45
Dorset 157
Gloucestershire 105
Somerset 79
Wiltshire 76
Moor (Gloucestershire) 20
Eight Arch (Dorset) 18
Hop Back (Wiltshire) 17
Badgers (Dorset) 16
Way Outback (Dorset) 14
Dorset 14
Lost and Grounded (Gloucestershire) 14
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Itā€™s amazing how some blokes canā€™t stare unless their mouth is open and nothing comes out!

<*))))))><

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I completely missed my name when I saw this the first time, but i am 14th on this list! :tada: :partying_face:

I do like it down there. Cider, sunshine and lovely coastal townsā€¦ whatā€™s not to like? Brewery situation has blossomed since our first trip, and even on our last there were numerous tiny breweries popping upā€¦ think I had to add a couple to the site!

Cornwall, Gloucester and Somerset all feature in my top 10, cider being the main protagonist!

Somerset 461
Gloucestershire 308
Cornwall 251
Devon 142
Dorset 81
Wiltshire 30

SOMERSET - Pilton and Wild Beer dominate the high scores. Piltonā€™s standard keeved cider is wondrous stuff, really hard to fault, probably my favourite UK cider if I had to think of one. Wild Beer similarly produce some outstanding stuff, happy to see theyā€™re still continuing. Hecks, for trad country cider is also hard to beat.

GLOUCESTERSHIRE - Mills, Arbor and New Bristol probably my picks here. Deya fall just short of greatness in my eyes, their haze had a great pillowy New England yeast presence at the start, but canā€™t say this has continued with consistency.

CORNWALL - Verdant still my highest rated, but over the last couple of years have not hit the high notes, especially their cask. St Austell are solid, always look forward to their beers. Crackington Cider are great too.

DEVON - Scrolling through Devon produces an abundance of cider producersā€¦ hard to pick any that especially stand out - I suppose Ridge & Furrow, Axminster & Sandford Orchards are pretty dependable.

WILTSHIRE - One of those counties I had to google to check where exactly it was. Avebury Stone Circle is awesome, and Atwell-Wilson motor museum is good too. Beer wise, Iā€™ve only got 30 ratings, a mixed bag reallyā€¦ Dark Revolution has some 4s and Iford Cider are doing good stuff too.

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