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During February we spent most of our real ale ramblings around Birmingham, but we did go to a brilliant festival at Lichfield where I picked up 6 new beers. We also went to Great Comberton with the caravan and had a lovely day in Pershore where we visited the Brandy Cask for its superb real ales and meal. Our last jaunt in February was to Conkers, a Camping and Caravaning Club site in the National Forest with lots of super walks. We opted to take the local bus into Burton on the Saturday as there were some new pub entries in the Good Beer Guide to visit, and we had a great day. We went to see the SAhire Horses at Coors while at the brewery tap there.
Total different real ales to 1.3.08 now 5.9.33
A wonderful day out in Sheffield 9.2.08 gave us the following ales. DEVONSHIRE CAT York Saaz 4.0 SWIM INN Acorn Bloomfield 4.5 WELLINGTON BAR Thornbridge Gildas 6.5 Mighty Oak Rabbies Ruin 4.4 Millstone Cat & Fiddle 4.0 Salamander Minx 3.8 Salamander Vixen 4.0 WELLINGTON CELLAR Salamander Jester 4.0 Glentworth Stargazy Gold 4.2 FAT CAT Kelham Isaland 45 RPM 4.5 Tigertops Uber Weiss 4.8 KELHAM ISLAND TAVERN Alehouse Winter Wonderland 4.3 White Rose Tight Head Prop 4.2 MOON Abbeydale Epiphany 4.6 Globe Comet 4.3 GEORGE IV Castle Rock Preservation Fine Ale 4.4 Wentworth Venture 3.6 HILLSBOROUGH Church End Half Cut 4.3 Bridgnorth Lager Bier 4.8 BANKERS DRAFT Saltaire Blackberry Cascade 4.8 Gill
Tewkesbury beer festival weekend 1.2.08
We took the caravan to Sunset View; an ostrich farm at Shutonger near Tewkesbury on Friday 1.2.08 as it is handy for catching a bus. Our friends were already there, so we set the caravan up and went to the local pub, the Crown, to have a drink. It was a pleasant local pub, but there was not much of a choice for real ale as only Bass was served. I went onto Guinness, and found although cold, it was good.
Saturday morning we went out to catch the bus, but I had got the times wrong and we were very early, so I decided to see how long it would take to walk in. I left the others waiting for the bus, and it was a pleasant walk with a footpath all the way into Tewkesbury. It took 25 minutes, and I had just reached the Tewkesbury sign when the bus passed me.
We met up and had a wander round the market before going to the festival. It was a Winter Ales festival and we were expecting some strong and dark beers. Having found seats, we started, and all the beers we had were well served and very pleasant to drink. Bravely we had a half of the 15% ABV North Cotswold Arctic Winter Warmer, and it was so strong, it tasted like a sherry to me. We had a 7.6% and a couple of 6% beers and the rest were normal strong beers. It was a good festival, and we enjoyed the bacon sandwiches available to help the beer down. I had a total of 17 beers, and afterwards we went for some fish and chips before I walked back to site with our friends, leaving my husband to catch the bus. We all arrived back at site the same time.
It had been a great weekend and on the Sunday the weather got a bit rough with the wind becoming very gusty, so we went to see the ostriches in their field before packing up for the trip home.
On Friday 18th Jan we went to Belper in the caravan to a site about a mile north of the town. It is a lovely site tired with great views, but the pitches are a bit narrow.
We had a walk to the Fisherman's Rest for a meal Friday night, and were recognised from our last visit - that was 12 months ago! It was superb, then we went to Belper and found the George & Dragon, a Good Beer Guide pub we had not done on our previous visit.
Saturday we walked to Belper and caught the train to Sheffield via Derby to show our friends the real ale trail there. We had a super day despite some pub times changing as the local derby was on at Hillsborough, Wednesday v United. We got a lot of good real ale, and enjoyed our dinner in the Hillsborough Hotel. All the pubs on the route serve good reasonable priced food. I love doing the Sheffield blue tram route, and it was great to show friends who had notbeen before. When we got back to Belper, we called at the chippy for something to eat as we walked back to the caravan site. It had been a super day.
On Thursday 17 Jan we went into Birmingham for the beer festival at the Wellingtom. We had some beers from the choice on the bar when we got there as the festival did not start till 5pm. There was a good selection of real ales I had not had before, and I shared 11 new ones in total with my husband.
We went to the Anchor in Digbeth after that to attend the presentation of Pub of the Year 2007 by Birmingham CAMRA, and it was a good night. There was a lovely buffet laid on, and a fun raffle Irish style where a lot of people won shirts, scarves and free beer.
We had a weekend near Birmingham at Chapel Lane caravan site, and spent Saturday driving round looking for real ale pubs in the area south of Bimingham, and my poor husband was on fruit juice while the rest of us enjoyed the beers. It was a good day though.
We went to Conkers in the National Forest and there is a new caravan site there we wanted to try out. It is a very new site, and still being developed, but we enjoyed going round Conkers itself. There is a discovery centre where youy could spend hours learining about variou aspects of nature and technoloy.
I loved the outside though. There is an assault course that was fun to try and I did manage some of the course. It was designed with adults in mind, and we were like big kids and had a lovely day.
The site is definately one we will go back to, and it will be interesting to see how things develop both with the site and Conkers.
I haven't kept the blog updated very much, as I have felt as no-one seems to read it is a waste of time in a way. I am not going to keep it as I have done, and just add bits and pieces as and when I feel like it now.
We spent Xmas in York and had a smashing time. I love York, the city and the real ale pubs. It was quite mild really, and the river did not flood this year. We went to the Minster for the midnight service on Christmas Eve. This was lovely and the Minster was packed.
We moved on to ,Moreton in Marsh to meet up with friends for New Year, and went into Oxford for the day on the train on the Saturday and spend the rest of the time in Moreton. New Years Eve was spent in the Bear pub and it was locked before New Year and food was served and a karaoke was on. We all had a super night and wandered back to the caravan around 2.30 am.
Real Ale w/c 17.12.07. Local On Monday I went into the Pear Tree in Kings Heath and asked for a half of Ventnor Golden Bitter. Although the pumpclip was on and facing customers, it was not on and the lady serving gave me Greene King Abbott instead. I do not think bar staff should decide what to give customers when the requested beer is not available, and she didn’t even tell me what she had done. I got my money back and left. On Tuesday we went to the Lamp Tavern in Birmingham and had a Bazens beer we had had before, and an Elland beer new to us. On to the Anchor where we had Outlaw Ale and Hearty and Discovery Scott’s Gold. On to the Wellington and there were 4 new beers there for us. I had a wander round and a chat with some of the customers we knew, but the pub was filling up quickly as office workers were starting to come in, so we got up to leave. One of the empty handpulls had a new Morton beer on, so we had that before leaving. We almost needed a shoehorn to get out as it was so packed. We looked in the Briar Rose as we went down for the bus and had 4 in there and that included a Good Beer Guide tick. It had been a good night and our last visit before Christmas. My new beer total for December is now 65.
Real Ale w/c 10.12.07. Local – Leicester – Nuneaton. I had a surprise when I went into Birmingham on Monday. While shopping in the German Market, I found a craft area and there was real ale on sale from handpumps. The beer was being sold for Wood and I had a half of Shropshire Lass. Very good it was too. Later that day I went to the Pear Tree in Kings Heath and had White Horse Village Idiot. On Saturday, we went into Leicester to visit beer festivals at the Criterion and Out of the Vaults. We had a couple with breakfast in the Mc Spoons Last Plantagenet, then went on to Out of the Vaults. There was a well set up festival there and we found a table and enjoyed 11 beers and managed to keep clear of the heavy ABV beers. I popped out to the Criterion to check what was on, and found only 3 beers I had not had before. We found out there was another pub festival on at the Ale Wagon, so went to check it out on the way back to the station, and enjoyed 3 of their beers. We didn’t want too many as we planned to call at the Crown in Nuneaton on the way back. We enjoyed 4 beers at the Crown including 2 from new breweries. My December total of new beers is now 54.
