Beer

On Tuesday night, my sister and her family retired early to their camper van to put little James to bed at a more reasonable hour, and Mark and I went up to Kilvert's for the Open Mic evening.
Mark does quite a bit of karaoke back home, so he was determined to sing - but it's not so easy when it's just you and a microphone with no backing track.
While he was there, though, he got chatting to Eddie at the bar, and when he came back to where I was sitting he told me he'd been invited to a private beer tasting session on Thursday night! Apparantly he'd been extolling the delights of King Goblin, the special version of Hobgoblin which was on the hand pump for Hallowe'en.
Earlier on Thursday evening, we were engaged in nefarious pursuits around town with the Stitch and Bitch ladies, but we had plenty of time to get up to Kilvert's afterwards.
I have to confess, my memories of the evening are slightly blurred. We were trying Dorothy Goodbody's Wholesome Stout; Night Beacon, the stout from Breconshire Brewery, and Brewdog Punk IPA, all of which are very fine beers. With Eddie was Buster from the Breconshire Brewery, and later in the evening a chap from Adur Brewery turned up with something special in his knapsack for Eddie. The chap from Adur Brewery said he was still learning, but the brewery already brews twelve different beers.
Looking at the Dorothy Goodbody beer clip led to a discussion of complaints that have been made against breweries - it's now a head and shoulders view, rather than showing Dorothy with her legs tucked up in front of her. The brewery got a complaint that Dorothy wasn't wearing any knickers! (Though how they could tell, unless they were scrutinising the picture very carefully, is a moot point). Buster said that the pump clip for Rambler's Ruin had also been complained about - because the picture is of a cartoon character, and therefore (went the slightly warped reasoning) they were encouraging minors to drink.
As a mere drinker of real ale and ex-member of CAMRA, it was quite a privilege to be in the company of a group of people with such an encyclopaedic knowledge of beers. They talked about malts, and the different varieties of hops, and the Georgian table ale that Buster is re-creating (he's pleased with the bright ruby colour of it). Knowing now how passionate Buster is about creating good beer has given me an extra reason to visit Brecon, where his beers are available at the Boar's Head, and to look out for his bottled beers - the Night Beacon was a very nice stout, with complex flavours, and quite distinct from the equally delicious Dorothy Goodbody's.
The bar was quiet that evening, but there was a group of drinkers sitting quietly down at the other end - one of whom turned out to be the social secretary of the East Bedfordshire CAMRA Branch, on her holidays! She told us that she has recently widened the scope of their local newsletter to include a section called "What I did on my Holidays", where members can write about beers they have tried which are not generally available in their local area - and since she wrote down details of who was there, I think a glowing report will be published there soon!