As you might expect the Isle of Thanet has a number of nautically inspired pub names, almost all of which incidentally sell real ale. This list includes The Rodney in Garlinge which is named after the interwar battleship HMS Rodney, the NauticAles micropub in Ramsgate, the Captain Digby named after a Royal Navy commander, the Northern Belle which was a large sailing ship that was wrecked off the island during a storm in 1857, Shepherd Neame’s Rose in June which was named after a passenger boat, and the Wheel Alehouse that references a ship’s wheel and is a micropub in Birchington-on-Sea.

Always available at the Wheel Alehouse is Bosun’s Bitter (4.2%ABV) which is brewed only for the pub and is a session bitter with a malty character, noticeable hops and some earthy spicy notes. Brewed by Margate resident Nat Spens who runs Isla Vale Alesmiths and also works one or two days a week serving at the Wheel Alehouse. Somewhat surprisingly Nat is the clan chief of the Lathallan Clan from Fife. He explained that “Yes I’m a clan chief, in fact because of this I’m listed in Burkes Landed Gentry though we have no lands or estate anymore and our historical home is now a hotel. As clan chief I have a special bonnet that I’m entitled to wear, which has an eagle feather in it, but it’s not the greatest looking piece of headwear and to be honest I’m not always that keen to wear it. We don’t have a single tartan but can wear a number of tartans from neighbouring clans as we are related to the Stuart and the MacDuff clans”. Nat flashed his clan signet ring with the motto “If God is for us, who can be against?” and features a formidable stag. Years ago when Nat’s sister got married at the church in Manston, the family of course all turned up in traditional dress, afterwards he and others went on to a night club in Ramsgate not realising it was a fancy dress night, they all got in straight away and for free.

Nat started his beer making at home a little while ago now with home-brew kits which were much more popular than they are today, even Boots the chemists sold them. But on realising the limitations with kits which use malt syrup he soon moved up to using full grain and began making all kinds of styles of beer and investing in more equipment. He and a colleague began Isla Vale Brewing in 2012, though only Nat is now involved. The name Isla Vale is a double pun as I love ale, and also as Thanet being the isle of ale. They experimented with having a web site and were able to get beers into the Ales of the Unexpected, and another now closed micropub the Why Not. Nat explained “soon we were phoned by East West Ales who are the wholesaler for JD Wetherspoon. I was thinking they’d like us to deliver to the Margate Wetherspoons – but no we would have to deliver to a distribution centre on the outskirts of London, so we declined”.

Thinking of the future Nat said he is not expecting to be bought out by Asahi, AB InBev or any of the other international giants of brewing and is more than happy to keep brewing for local pubs and customers.

WhatPub: https://whatpub.com/pubs/THA/172/wheel-alehouse-birchington-on-sea

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Published: 1st September 2021.