Pilchard Press Alehouse, St. Ives

Located just off the attractive harbour front, I can’t imagine this pub gets anything in the way of the causal tourist trade as it’s quite easy to miss, even if you’re actively looking for it, with just a scruffy looking wooden gate and a sign up above that is recessed back slightly from the surrounding buildings. Persevere and things look even less promising, as you have to walk along a dingy alleyway, squeeze past rows of industrial sized bins and chefs from the adjacent restaurants who have nipped out for a fag, before you manage to get to the pub entrance, which still looks quite uninviting. Even Mrs B who is well used to being dragged all over the place to find out of the way pubs, asked if that was the only way in. All that effort pays off though, and you eventually find yourself in a cosy cellar type bar, with no natural light and quite a rustic appearance with whitewashed stone walls, dark wooden boards on the floor and a dark blue ceiling from which were suspended a number of old fishing nets. A colourful mural of an old harbour scene covered much of the back wall and was something of a feature. Seating was a mixture of bar stools and small tables and chairs that were quite tightly packed in, whilst the bar counter took up pretty much all the left hand wall, leaving little available floor space should there be no seats available, and we ended up sharing a table with a local old boy who was something of a character. Beers on tap were all served directly from barrels racked up behind the bar and consisted of Penzance Early Bird and Seven Stones, Driftwood St Agnes and Bluntrock Pilchub Pale along with a trio from St Ives with their Zennor, Meor and Slipway. Ciders meanwhile were Cheddar Valley, Lighthouse and something just described as Rhubarb. All in all, a cracking little pub and well worth making the effort to try and find it.

Third time of asking for the Good Beer Guide Tick and I time it right to get in..... from 4pm only, on the half a week it does open. Down a dingy alley, where you can determine how much vegetable oil a Thai restaurant gets through. We arrive bang on 4pm and as it is so small, those in the know were slightly ahead of us. Waiting to get served took a while, with one bar staff, whilst the rest of the parties played musical chairs trying for the best spots in a windowless former pilchard factory. Beers all on sillage - Dartmoor Legend the only one I had heard off. I went for the Treen Krowser, which of course lost any resemblence of a head or lacings once the initial sip was taken. Good to have some beer variety and something a little different but I never really found a "destination" pub in St Ives. Maybe I shouldn't have been too hasty with the Three Ferrets.

Up an alley off the main drag past some bins – not exactly enticing. Interior is a small atmospheric poke; bare boards, whitewashed stone walls, blue ceiling and no windows at all so the amusing wall-mounted webcam to the outside world gets a decent viewership, especially as a hoolie had blown-in on my visit. Extremely busy, I had to stand at the end of the bar as there wasn’t a spare seat in the house. GBG listed, the liquid offerings were two cask (off stillage) and three keg with a couple of ciders as well; apparently there are more ales during the summer. I decided to give both the cask a go with Treens Sunbeam (NBSS 3.5) and St Ives Meor (3) both drinking well-enough to justify the listing. Amusingly the internet went down halfway through my visit prompting matey behind the jump to chalk 'cash only' above the bar, to the consternation of a couple of grockles. I could well-imagine this place could be a great place to have an evening drink during the week in the winter.