Beer on the Wye

I was planning to go to Beer on the Wye this year - the thirteenth year Herefordshire CAMRA have organised it - and the night before, I got a phone call. One of my friends was going to see her mother in Hereford; her husband is a member of CAMRA and wanted to go to the beer festival, so would I like a lift? It would only be for the Friday afternoon, but that was ideal for me, because that's what I was planning to do anyway, but working around the times of the 39 bus. This way, I was dropped right at the Rowing Club, picked up afterwards, and had company to chat to while I was there. And it meant that Richard had company, too, so a win all round, although he does know several of the volunteers running the festival, and had a good chat about cricket at the bar.

A quick scan down the list of beers, and I didn't notice any from East Anglia this year - the beers from that part of the country don't make it across this far very often so that's always my first choice if there are any available, and I was wearing my Woodforde's Wherry tshirt for the occasion, which is one of my favourite beers from East Anglia.
So the first beer I tried was from the North West - Robinson's Trooper, which was named after the Iron Maiden song. Richard went for Timothy Taylor's Golden Best, always a reliable name, and a nice light beer to start with.
And we managed to get seats, on a table under the stage, where tech people were getting ready for the first band to play that evening.
Moving around the country, my second choice was Orkney Raven, a golden refreshing ale. I try to go for a beer from each category of the list if I can (my upper limit for beer festivals these days is three pints, taken as halves or thirds so I can try a variety of beers), so the next beer I chose was Mantle's Dark Heart, a ruby porter from Ceredigion which was absolutely gorgeous - and just right to finish on, as our lift arrived then and was waiting outside for us. Richard finished with some Malvern Hills Pale Ale, which he thought his wife would like.
The weather was good, it wasn't too crowded (being the first afternoon) and we got to try some very fine beers, with good conversation, so it was an extremely pleasant way to spend an afternoon.