Derby Beer Festival – 11.7.07
We decided to catch a train into Derby to go to the beer festival, and met others on the train. As we were early, we called into the Brunswick to see what beers they had on, and took some beers into one of their interesting rooms. We had Boggart Jack O Lanterns, Brunswick Derailed and Brunswick Marks Copper Nob.
After enjoying these beers, we walked down to town and joined the queue to get in. Once in we found seats, and studied the beers. They did not open till 6.30, then we found out it would be 8.00 before one of the bars opened – a bit rough for those of travelling a distance with a train back to catch.
There were plenty of beers on however, and we enjoyed Brewdog Punk IPA. I had been trying to get a beer from this new brewery for some time. Another new brewery was Dove Valley DVA. Also tried were: Highland Dark Munro, Iceni Crocus Gold, Inveralmond Sunburst Pilsner, Mighty Oak Live and Let Die, Oakham 100 Guineas, Strathavon Clydesdale, Sulwath Black Galloway, Tryst Tryst 80/-, Valhalla Island Bere, and Whim Flower Power.
We got the train back to Birmingham and decided not to pop into the Wellington, but shared a bag of chips before catching a bus home. It had been a great night in good company.
Real Ale in Birmingham – 10.7.07 On Tuesday 10.7.07 we went into Birmingham for our Tuesday real ale crawl. First stop was the Anchor in Digbeth, and we found 5 beers on that we had not tried before. We had Red Rock Inseine Ale, Roosters Vision Aids, Salopian Hypnotic, Mighty Oak Sunny Side Up and Bells Fat Boy. We went on to the Lamp Tavern where we had Batemans Summer Swallow and Salamander Cuckold. Next we went to the Wellington where we had Worfield Wenlock Blonde, Holdens Julie Dunn, Full Mash Sexy Lady, Tower Fosbrooke Bitter, Burton Bridge Drakes Dram and Northern Dancer. We had a look in the Briar Rose before going out for our curry, and had Milestone Missy Sippy Jazz Ale. A good night out with friends.
Stourport Charity Rally – 6.7.07
On the Friday we took our caravan to Lickhill Manor in Stourport to attend a charity rally run by the Sterling Caravanners Owners Club. We have been going for the past few years as we run one of the stalls on the Saturday. This year the chosen charity was Breast Cancer.
We found that the field was a lush green, but had not been badly affected by all the rain recently, and the Severn had not flooded it. The caravans running stalls and events were placed in a "street" with others behind them, and the marquee was set up at one end.
As previously written, we spent Friday night going into Hereford to attend their beer festival, so when we got back to the caravan we spent a quiet night in drinking all the beer I had brought back from Sheffield on the Thursday, saving Fridays beer for Saturday night.
Saturday morning was a scorcher. One of the caravans cooked breakfasts for a reasonable cost, and we look forward to our bacon sandwiches. We decorated the caravans with bunting, and at 1.00 the stalls opened up. This is a lovely site with the river at the bottom of the rally field, and there are both statics and tourers behind the rally field. There were also a couple of other rallying groups on the rally field, some on the side where there are electric hook-ups, so there were plenty of people around to attend the stalls. There were second hand stalls, book and jigsaws, Sans Punch that is always very popular as a recipe is purchased and you can sample the resulting punch. There are cream teas, strawberries and cream, and a burger bar. Also popular are the tombolas, one for soft toys of all sizes and a bottle and various goods one. There was a cake stall, and a couple including ours where whisky could be won. Some of the children ran a treasure hunt and a lucky number draw.
It was a scorching day, and although creamed up I did get sunburnt. At the end of the day we decided to walk into Stourport along the river to get a meal in the Wetherspoons as we had just snacked while working during the day. At Ye Olde Crown Inn in Stourport we had Hancocks HB and Woods Summa That along with a lovely meal. After the meal we walked by the river for a while and it was well up, and the putting green was under water. We strolled back to the site, and got our beers out to take into the marquee. A quiz had been arranged and we had a lot of fun with that before retiring for the night.
Sunday morning we had another bacon sandwich, and at the coffee morning found that we had made over £1000 for the charity, so it had been a good weekend again. We packed up and headed back home tired out, but pleased that the work involved had meant a good result for the breast cancer charity.
Hereford Beer Festival – 6.7.07
We had taken our caravan to Stourport as we had a charity rally to attend there, and as we had got set up early enough, we thought we would drive over to Hereford and collect some beers to bring back. We already had a lot of beer that I had brought back from Sheffield, so thought we would have the Sheffield beer Friday night, and the Hereford beer on Saturday night.
It took us nearly an hour to drive over to Hereford, and we found the marquee all right by the river Wye. Although running high, it hadn’t caused the festival committee a problem, and it was a pleasant evening with tables set up by the river in the rare sunshine.
As Ray was driving so couldn’t drink, we decided just to collect some of the beer in bottles, so I didn’t have a drink either.
The beers we brought back were: Breconshire Brecknock Best, Arrow Arrow Bitter, Festival Festival Bitter, Inveralmond Sunburst Pilsner, Keswick Thirst Quencher, Severn Vale, Monumentale, Tigertops Weissmax, Yates Bees Knees and Zerodegrees Pilsner.
The only beer we did not enjoy on the Saturday was the Tigertops. It was a bit cloudy, but the man serving it said it was probably an acquired taste and got me to taste it before pouring it.
I really hope that this festival does not clash with other things next year as I would love to have stayed and sampled more of the beer on offer.
Sheffield Real Ale Crawl – 5.7.07
After the River Don caused so much damage in Sheffield, I heard some of the real ale pubs we love were trying to get ale back on, so I decided to catch the train to Sheffield to do a crawl and give them my support.
As I was early, I called in the Wetherspoons first, the Bankers Draft, and had Acorn Northern Pride. It was not in a good condition, so I continued on the tram to the Cask and Cutler, but was a little early so walked down to the Fat Cat. It was open, and had real ale from casks on the bar and the passage. I selected a couple and read the humorously written laminated story of the flood propped on the pumps along with pictures while drinking my beer. I chose Thornbridge Brock, and bottled Phoenix Navvy to take home for later. The cellar still had work to be done on it, but they had rescued a fish from the river and called it Nemo. Another couple came in, and I left and walked down to the Kelham Island Tavern.
The Kelham had not opened yet as it was still suffering damage, but expected to be back in business in a couple of weeks.
I got hopelessly lost trying to get to the Harlequin, but ended up going via town to get there. It was open serving bottled beer only, again due to cellar damage. Expected to have beer on stillage upstairs, but as so few customers around till the ale trail back in business, had decided it was worth it yet. Expected to be back in business in 2 weeks.
I went on to the Riverside and although it is right beside the river it had escaped due to being on higher ground than the Harlequin. I had Howard Town Melandra, which I took outside on the balcony and bottled for later.
I walked down to the Gardners Rest and sadly found this wonderful pub wrecked by the floods. The pub furniture was stacked outside on the pavement and it is still not known (19.7.07) if or when it will reopen. I called good luck through to Eddie behind the bar, and went onto the bridge to look down on the river that had caused all this havoc.
I walked up to the Infirmary tram stop, then up the hill to a new pub for me, the Moon. It had an array of guests alongside their regular Abbeydale beers – 10 pumps in all. They deserve to get onto the trail, as the beers were great. I had Slaters bitter and bottled Rudgate 793, Abbeydale Daily Bread and Foxfield Extra Dry Stout.
I caught the tram to go down to New Barracks, and had a brilliantly hot Chilli for lunch while drinking Burton Bridge Risky Mack. I bottled Lancaster Duchy and B & T SOD.
Up the hill and a tramstop away was the Hillsborough. I drank Red Rose L & Y Aleway, and bottled Milton Dr Oh and E & S Elland 7 by 7. This was the first pub on route that I seen any beer tickers in. Most had been extremely quiet.
My final pub for the day was the Cask and Cutlet where I drank Glentworth Summer Rains and bottled Foxfield Timeriffic. I had a chat with the barman and the only other customer in there before catching the tram back to the station with a very heavy bag of beer that I enjoyed with my husband on the Friday night. It had been a quiet day for me, but I had enjoyed it, and felt that I had given my support to those struggling to get back on track.
Birmingham Real Ale Crawl – 3.7.07
We caught the bus into Birmingham for our usual real ale crawl, and started off at the Anchor in Digbeth. There was a good selection on, and we had Magpie One2many and Archers Nosmo King – a skit on the new No Smoking in public places. These were followed by Tigertops Hersbrucker and York Nugget. We finished with Wychwood Wychcraft and Magpie JPA.
We Moved on to the Wellington on Bennetts Hill where we started with Alehouse Head Full of Northdown and Coastal Coastal Breeze. Next we had Elland Halifax Bomber, a beer we had had before, and Wentworth Early Fruits. We finished at the Wellington with Hanby Grapefruit Bitter and Spitting Feathers Farmhouse.
We walked down to the Briar Rose where we had Mayfields Auntie Myrtle and Mayfields Naughty Nells. We then went to have a curry before catching the bus home.
Black Country Real Ale Crawl – 30.6.07
What a shock to the system it was when we found that due to the June floods, we were not able to get to the rallies we tried to book onto – in the middle of June! We don’t have a problem caravanning in the winter months. Along with some friends we decided to have a trip to the Black Country and visit the good real ale pubs there.
After an early start, the alarm went off at 06.30; we caught a bus into Birmingham, the Metro into Wolverhampton then another bus to Sedgley in order to meet friends at the Clifton, a Wetherspoons for breakfast. Service as usual in these establishments was a bit slow, but we did have a good value breakfast, and Brewsters Hop a Doodle Doo, and Ringwood Fortyniner. We walked up to the Bulls Head, and found this to be a lovely cosy community local with a comfortable lounge extension to the bar area. We had Holdens Jungle Jim here while looking at the interesting photographs and other items on the walls. On to the Beacon, home of the famous Sarah Hughes brewery. This has a small island bar serving into the corridor and rooms. They serve guests as well as their own excellent brews. We had Blue Bear White Bear and Sarah Hughes Sedgeley Surprise.
We caught the bus to the Jolly Crispin in Upper Gornal and settled into the back bar area in this pub with its interesting room layouts. We had Hidden Potential, Hop Back Beerdicia and the house beer Titanic Crispy Nail here.
We walked down to Lower Gornal to visit the Fountain where we had an excellent lunch along with RCH Pitchfork and Red Lion White Lion in the elevated dining area. Across the road was the Old Bulls Head where Black Country Ales are brewed. We decided on the guests though and had Nottingham Legend and Kelburn Goldihops. We then walked to the Black Bear, a charming cosy pub with lovely décor where we chose Worfield Thomas Telford Anniversary Ale and Three Tuns Clerics Cure.
We then left our friends to catch the bus back to Wolverhampton, but decided to get off in Sedgeley to visit the Mount Pleasant as it was not open lunchtime but would be now. This was an impressive pub with an unusual corridor down alongside the rooms that had seating and a shelved wall for drinks down the side. The rooms were lovely. We had the house beer RCH Stumpy and RCH Double Header here.
We caught a bus to Wolverhampton and then to Wednesfield where we visited the Vine as I wanted to see how it was getting on since my visit shortly after it opened. It is a lovely friendly pub with banter between staff and customers. We had Wye Valley Champion Ale and White Horse Village Idiot.
We caught a bus to Bilston where we visited the Olde White Rose. This pub was packed and we had to stand at the end of the bar, but as usual there was a good beer range and we had Marston Moor Brewers Droop, Archers Strong Dark Mild and Cotswold Spring Honey Bear. A short walk to the Metro saw us travelling back to Birmingham where we called into the Wellington to see what was on. We had Falstaff Morcombe and Wise, White Shield White Shields and were tempted into having Kinver Nine Lives with a photo of the Welly cat on the clip. At 9% it was definitely the one to finish on so we caught the 10.30 bus home. It had been a brilliant day out in some of the best pubs around the region in great company.
Birmingham Real Ale – 26.6.07
We caught the bus into Birmingham for our usual Tuesday outing looking for new real ale. We started at the Anchor at Digbeth, where we met up with friends. The beers we tried there were Rhymney Hoppy Birthday, Stonehouse Kingston Flyer, Ludlow Footfalls and Yorkshire Dales Bainbridge Blonde.
From there we went up to the Wellington in Bennetts Hill. Slaughterhouse Hog garden and Coastal Cornish Summer were followed by Cottage Wessex Brue and Cottage Chequered Jack. We finished off with Townhouse A’dleyweisse and Quartz Blaze before going for a curry. Another brilliant night in Brum.
Chatsworth weekend – 22.6.07
We left the Barnard Castle club site Friday to make our way to a caravan rally on the Chatsworth estate, and after a bad journey through terrible weather, we took our caravan through the Golden Gates onto the rally field. Due to the bad weather and having no 4 x 4 we pitched up near the roadway. We stayed in the caravan Friday night, as it was a bit on the wet side for going out. The local sheep had to be herded off the site a couple of times until folks going out got used to closing the gate.
Saturday we went off to look for real ale pubs. We started with the Flying Childers in Stanton in Peak. This was a cosy pub named after a famous racehorse. I had Tom Woods Fathers Pride. We went to the Lathkil Hotel in Over Haddon next and had lunch from a lovely display of food while drinking Fullers Chiswick. We bottled Whim Arbour Light and Whim Snow White for later. The next pub was the Monsal Head in Monsal Head. The bar is actually the old stable and you can see the stalls. It was a bit packed with people eating and very busy, so we had a long wait for service, then one of the beers was sour and needed replacing. Lloyds Monsal Bitter and Bradfield Farmers Blonde were the 2 beers bottled for later, but unfortunately the Farmers Blonde was still a little sour. Our final pub was the Red Lion at Litton, and this charming pub was on a lovely village green. The fruit crumble tempted us, so we sat outside and had the delicious desert. I bottled Thornbridge Wild Swan and Abbeydale Absolution for later.
Back on the field, we joined the others that evening in the awnings they had made into a marquee area. They ran a quiz with a difference for us and it was fun as it got people looking for the questions that were all on separate pieces of paper being passed around. There were also some super bacon sandwiches being made for us.
Sunday morning I won one of the raffle prizes at the coffee morning, and we were glad we had taken the awning down earlier as there was a deluge of rain while we were having coffee, so it was a bit wet as we packed up. It had been a lovely weekend, but then Chatsworth is a lovely site for a rally.
Co Durham Real Ale Crawl – 17.6.07 plus Kelham Island Beer Festival
We took our caravan up to Barnard Castle to stay on the Camping and Caravanning Club site there. We went up on the Saturday, and found ourselves on a lovely pitch. We got set up and put the bird feeders out at the back of the caravan. It didn’t take them long to find it. We had some beers that I had bottled at the Harlequin beer festival in Sheffield, and enjoyed drinking them sitting out in the sun watching the black clouds all around us. Weird weather.
On the Sunday, we went to watch the vintage cars driving through the checkpoint in Woodside where my son lives, then had an excellent carvery lunch at the village pub. It is brilliant for food but has no real ale on, so I had to drink wine. We went on to the Moorcock at Eggleston, and had Theakston Lightfoot and Wells Summer Solstice.
On the Monday, we met my son in Barnard Castle, and had a walk by the river during his lunch hour, then did our shopping for the week. We went up to see High Force on the Tuesday, and it was really raging because of the amount of rain there had been lately. We called into the High Force Hotel at Forest in Teesdale where there were 2 Darwin beers, Cauldron Snout and Forest XB. We went on to the nearby Langden Beck Hotel for lunch, and had excellent food along with Jarrow Rivet Catcher and Black Sheep Ale. We had time to go to a lovely Wild Life area called Low Barnes before picking up my son and his wife to go out for a meal with her parents who have recently moved to the area. Again it was a lovely meal, but another pub with no real ale on. We did go on to Frosterley afterwards to visit a good real ale pub there, the Black Bull, and I had Consett Consett Stout, and Fenland St Audreys Ale before we had a drive back in aweful foggy conditions.
On Wednesday we went on the bus into Darlington, as there are some good real ale pubs there we wanted to revisit. Top of the list were 2 favourites, the Quakerhouse where we had B & T Born Free and Wear Valley Hamsterley Dark, then on to Twenty 2 where we had Leyden Forever Bury and Brewsters Messalina. We tried one from the Tapas Bar and were able to sit outside to drink Caledonian Top Banana. The Britannia gave us one from a brewery close to home, Highgate Scarecrow. We were pleasantly surprised by our visit to the Snooker Club as we had not been there before and found it excellent. It was very friendly and we enjoyed a chat while drinking High House Sundancer, York Peaches and Cream, and Yorkshire Dales Buckden Pike. On our way back for the bus, we popped into the Hole in the Wall where we found John Smiths Magnet.
Thursday we wanted to go to Sheffield for a beer festival at the Kelham Island Tavern, so my son picked us up and dropped us in Barnard Castle for the bus to Darlington so we could catch the train. We called into the Bankers Draught for a quick one and had Saltaire Yorkshire P ale Bitter, then on to Kelham. We were early and watched them setting up the stillage in the garden. Once the pub opened, we joined friends in the conservatory area, and enjoyed the following beers: Abbeydale White Lady, Acorn 4play, Acorn Challenger IPA, Acorn Premium, Bradfield Longest Day, Fox Fox’s Willie, Durham White Whopper, Grafton Lady Mary, Grafton Packet Punch, Red Squirrel Weissbier, Rudgate Your tipple, Salamander May Fair, Rebellion Interrogator, Bartrams Cancer, Yorkshire Dales Bainbridge Blonde. It had been great, and we had our dinner there too. The weather was a bit wet, but we decided to move on to the Gardners Rest nearby to see what was on there.
At the Gardners, we found plenty of good beers on, and settled in their conservatory area and had Sheffield (2) Golden Frame and Top Forge, Cumbrian Dickie Doodle, Wentworth Small Copper. We bottled 3 beers to take away with us – Foxfield Flower Power, Naylors Crystal Wheat, and Bottlebrook Floodtide. We headed back to the station to catch the train back to Darlington, but it was too late into Darlington for us to get a connection, and my son came to pick us up. We went to Bishop Auckland for a drink with him till his wife finished work and called at the Stanley Jefferson, a new Wetherspoons. We ordered a meal, and had Shepherd Neame Spitfire and Marstons Pedigree, but cancelled the meal after waiting an hour, as we had to get back to Barnard Castle.
Despite the week having a lot of rain, we had a brilliant week and packed up on Friday morning to move on to Chatsworth. We were very upset the following week to find out that both the Kelham Island Tavern and the Gardners Rest in Sheffield had suffered in the floods, the Gardners being very badly hit. Both have breweries, and were popular from all over the country as part of the real ale trail in Sheffield. I hope they, and everyone who suffered the floods, a speedy solution and recovery from the devastation we saw on our television screens last week.
