Barrels Beer Festival

The Young Man arrived in Hereford on Bank Holiday Saturday - which co-incidentally was the first day of the 28th Barrels Beer Festival. It opened at 1.30pm, which just gave us nice time to trundle his suitcase down to the pub from the railway station.

What a pleasant afternoon it was! Here's the Young Man bringing beer from the bar - set up in what I remember as the brewery building. Wye Valley Brewery have expanded somewhat since those days, and now it houses a long bar. There were around 30 real ales, and 20 ciders and perries. The ones we sampled included Cwtch from Cardiff's Tiny Rebel (which I understand has just won a big award), Ledbury Dark, Black Knight from Ludlow, Directors (the Young Man likes to have a Directors wherever he finds it), Rudgate Ruby Mild, Dorothy Goodbody's Wholesome Stout and Timothy Taylor's Boltmaker. I may possibly have had a Robinsons' Twisted Sister as well. So a good mixture of beer styles, from mild to stout to hoppy bitter.
Entertainment was by Slippery Slope, a folk band that included a steel drum - and very good they were, too. I was told later that the set they played at the Barrels was only the first of a long day - later in the afternoon they played at the Sausage and Cider Festival across Hereford, and went on to play at a birthday party at Grosmont in the evening, finishing up at the Angel pub in Grosmont for the end of the night!
And then we trundled up to Maylord Orchards, just at that pleasant stage of happy inebriation, to catch the 39 back to Hay.