Beer

      In a change to Friday's usual schedule, I went to the beer festival.
My taste in beer tends towards the chunkier brews, I don't really like the taste of hops, so that rules out most bitters, and I tend to drink larger on the mainland.

Last year they had my all time favourite beer. J.W.Lees' Moonraker, a brutal barley wine that is best described as vodka infused molasses. It was a hard job to go sample other beers.This year in a bid to make my life easier they only appeared to have Hydes in. Also I had a spy in the camp, my compadre had worked the Thursday evening opening shift & spied out some good stuff.

First up was a damson stout, a very palatable number, with sweetness up front and a damson ending. Unfortunately our next target a blueberry ale had just run out, and I fell for the old trick of a punny name. It was fortunately a very tasty mild, thick dark & sweet. After that I found a strong stout, nice enough, but not very memorable.

Moving down to the second tent, a wheat beer evangelist cornered me. After serving me several tasters and finding my stance somewhat unassailable he launched a coup de gras with an orange wheat beer, which was bloody lovely.

The band started up and they were very much pub rock, until a BSL interpreter joined them at which point they suddenly became RAWK. As the orange wheat beer was fading fast I ventured back in to find a strong imperial stout. Another pun turned up in the shape of "raisin to live". I think it was the evening's strongest brew (at a disappointing 7.9%) but had a great chocolate finish.

Beedhams the butcher (see Iberico) provided some lovely catering, in the shape of sausages & steak baps, ok not haute cuisine but ideal with a mug of beer on a gusty October eve.