Beer on the Wye

 I went into Hereford yesterday afternoon with a friend and her two adult children for the nineteenth Beer on the Wye.  It's also running today and tomorrow, at the Rowing Club in Hereford.

 

Because of works that the Rowing Club were doing on the field, the beer festival wasn't held last year.  This year, because of the improvements to the site, the marquee has been erected at 90 degrees to it's position in all the previous festivals - which was a bit disorienting.  Inside, it looks exactly the same, but when you look outside, suddenly you have no idea where the river is!

We got used to it over the afternoon, and even sat at a table by the river (under an umbrella) with a lovely couple from Cardiff who were doing a crossword puzzle.  My friend is a crossword fanatic - she'd even brought some crosswords to do at the festival herself - so we had a lot of fun helping them to solve it and chatting.

Usually at a beer festival I like to try as many different beer styles as possible (subject to my cut off point of a maximum of three pints - any more than that and I feel awful the next day).  So this means six halves, or nine thirds.  However, this time there were two breweries there with beers I wanted to taste, and they were both Gold beers (somewhere around the bitter/IPA area, but now a distinct style of its own).  Uley's Hog's Wallop and Woodfordes Bure Gold were both delicious, but the Uley packed a slightly harder punch at 5.2%.  Then my friend wanted to try the Solstice from Three Tuns brewery at Bishops Castle - we'd both visited the pub at different times some years ago, so it was a bit of a trip down memory lane.  Solstice is a bitter, and very pleasant on a hot day.

I wanted to try a mild, so I went for Old Magic from Magic Dragon in Wrexham - again for nostalgic reasons, because I used to live near Wrexham.  I hadn't come across the brewery before, but it was a very good mild.

I finished off with the Jaipur Union IPA from Thornbridge.  I first tasted Jaipur at a Beer on the Wye (I think it might have won supreme champion of the festival that year) and since then they have installed a traditional Burton Union fermentation system in the brewery (which is something that beer nerds get quite excited about).  It was delicious, and a good beer to round off the session before we went for the last bus home. 

The champion beers of the festival (and also ciders and perries) were announced while we were there, but I didn't write them down.  I think Makerfield from Weird Dad brewery in Newport was the supreme champion this year - it's a pale ale, and Jarl, a blond ale from Fyne Ales in Argyll, all the way from Scotland, was also mentioned, as well as Titan from Left Handed Giant brewery in Bristol, a pale ale. 

And there was a treat when we got back to Hay - a traction engine came down the road just as we got off the bus!

 

Beer on the Wye

 This weekend, in Hereford at the Rowing Club, is the nineteenth Beer on the Wye.

They had a year off last year, while the Rowing Club did work on the festival field, which will mean that the marquee is at 90 degrees to the previous position parallel to the river.

Inside the marquee there will be over 300 beers, ciders and perries, food trucks, and nine different live bands in the evenings.  I've already had a look at the beer list, and they've got a couple of my favourites on it - two from Uley brewery in Gloucestershire, and one from Woodeforde's in Norfolk - so I'm looking forward to it.

Forty Years of Wye Valley Beer

 Wye Valley Brewery marks its fortieth anniversary this year - that's a lot of pints of Butty Bach along the way!

Back in the 1990s, when I was an active member of CAMRA, we used to meet at the Barrels, the Wye Valley brew pub in Hereford.  We were among the first to see the pump clips for their new Dorothy Goodbody range.  Pete Amor wanted to show them to the ladies in the group, because he was slightly worried the artwork might be seen as a bit sexist - but we thought they were fine.  The beer was certainly fine.

Since then, the business has grown - brewing has moved to bigger premises, they've bought new pubs in the area, and they still hold their beer festival at the Barrels.  Founder Pete Amor retired, and his son Vernon took over.  Pete even made a little film, going round other independent breweries around the country, as a way of celebrating local breweries like his.

I regularly stock up with their bottled range, including Butty Bach and Wholesome Stout, from Londis. 

Eating Out

 I'd used up as much food as possible before I moved, so I wouldn't have to carry it across, so I found myself installed in the new place with half a loaf and a tin of rice pudding, and a lot of spices!

So I treated myself.

For a late lunch, after watching the ATK men work so hard all morning, I ambled down to Shepherd's and had a mushroom melt and coffee, which was just right.

And in the evening I went into Kilvert's and had their vegan chilli, washed down with a pint of Tiny Rebel IPA. It's one of the few times I've ever strayed away from the beers on the handpumps, but I used to drink Tiny Rebel when I went down to Cardiff for a day out, and it was nice to see it again.

This morning, I took my folding chair out into my new garden, and had a snack there.  It's lovely to be able to watch the robins and blackbirds, and hear the sound of the stream down below the gardens. 

And now the Festival has started, and I watched the coaches full of school children heading for the Festival site this morning.

Later, when I was taking the empty boxes back to work (it's great to work in a bookshop when you're moving - we have all the right sized boxes for removals!) I met a couple of the schoolgirls trying to fill in a questionnaire.  They were looking for the oldest book they could find in Hay, and had pencilled in 1992.

"We can do better than that!" I said, and took them up to the Francis Edwards department, where we have a book which I think is dated 1483 - an early example of a printed book.

They were last seen heading off to the gold post box, to tick that off their list of things to find.  There's a new post box topper of Gavin and Stacey on it!

Trip to Hereford

 I intended to go to Hereford on Thursday, so I turned up at the bus stop in plenty of time, and waited....

Eventually, I realised that I have technology now, so I could check where the bus was on its route on my phone.  I showed this to two ladies in Hereford when I was coming back yesterday, so for those who don't know - google 'T14 bus timetable' and choose the TrawsCymru site - there's a map at the top of the page showing where the bus is on its route.  Remembering that I can do that makes me feel a lot less anxious about bus travel!  It's much better than huddling there in the rain thinking "I'll just give it five more minutes in case it comes."

Anyway, the bus on Thursday was still in Felinfach when I checked, which would have meant me waiting another half an hour, so I decided to try again on Friday morning.

On Friday morning, the bus was on time (a bit late coming back, due to heavy traffic, but that didn't matter so much) and packed.  Three ladies with small children in buggies got on at Peterchurch - and one buggie was actually for two little dogs - so the wheelchair area was packed out.

I stayed on the bus until the railway station, because I was buying tickets in advance for a holiday early next year.  As always, the nice man in the ticket office gave me a better option for travel than the website had done.

Then I had some banking business to do, which went a lot more easily than I'd expected - this is a hymn of praise to seeing actual real human beings in person to transact business, rather than doing it online.

I had some shopping to do, and I was surprised to see that a lot of shops are already having sales.  I'm not complaining, though!  

I was sorry to see that the Monkhide stall wasn't in the square - I'd been hoping to get a bottle of mead, and their mead is very nice.  I did see Spicing Up the Valleys, though, the Caribbean food stall that comes to Hay on a Thursday now.  I can recommend his goat curry, which I tried last week.

I had time for a Wainwrights Golden Ale (nectar!) in the Lichfield Vaults, and while I was there I picked up the latest edition of the Hereford Hopvine, the magazine from the local branch of CAMRA.  It contained sad news.  They will not be running Beer on the Wye next year.  There are a couple of reasons for that.  One is that the Rowing Club is having landscaping work done, and they want to be able to see it when its done to make sure they can get the marquees in.  The other is a lack of volunteers.  They managed to get 130 volunteers to serve beer and run the beer festival over the weekend this year, but there are fewer people involved in the planning stages than there used to be and it's getting too much for the ones who are left.  So, they're going to pause for a year, and use that time to try to recruit more volunteers for the organising committee, and hold a major review of how the festival is run and how it can be improved, so they can return, refreshed, for a festival in 2026.

Beer on the Wye

 I went into Hereford on the bus on Saturday afternoon for Beer on the Wye.

I'd read that the marquee was going to be at 90 degrees to previous years, to fit on the site this year, but in fact it was the same layout as it's always been.

Usually, I try to pick a beer from each of the different categories (bitter, IPA, porter, mild etc.) but this year I saw several old favourites on the list, and went straight for them.

Here's my first half of Woodforde's Wherry, from Norfolk, with the Festival programme on my folding stool.  It was very useful - there are never enough seats!

Then I went for Jaipur from Thornbridge, a strong IPA which I think I first tried at a previous Beer on the Wye.

This was followed by a very fine vegan Cornish pasty from Loafers, one of the food vans on site.

Then I went for Batemans XB, another East coast beer, followed by Uley Pig's Ear, a pale ale which isn't often seen outside the small area around the brewery in Gloucestershire.

Number five was Elgood's Black Dog Mild - I do like a good mild, and I finished off the session with something I hadn't tried before - 8 Sail's Victorian porter, which was very tasty.

And that hit my limit, with two and two thirds pints.

There were 138 cask beers on offer, including 23 from local brewers, and 148 ciders and perries on the cider bar, 100 of those being from Herefordshire producers!  Hereford Beer House provided a variety of world beers, and there were a couple of low alcohol beers and ciders as well.  They even had a listing of gluten-free and vegan beers!

Towards the end of my afternoon, the live music was just starting on the stage with The Barcodes, three blokes in hats, with guitar, bass and electric drum kit, playing a variety of songs from the sixties onward.  I rather enjoyed them.

The charity this year was Hope Support Services.

Over the weekend, 130 volunteers served nearly 20,000 pints of beer, cider and perry to over 5,000 people.

The Champion Beer of the festival was Three Tuns Best from Three Tuns Brewery in Bishop's Castle.  They've been brewing since 1642, and their beer is now brewed in a miniature Victorian tower, which means the process starts at the top and moves by gravity down to the finished product at the bottom.

Herefordshire Beer of the Year was Rock the Hops from Ledbury Real Ales, and the West Midlands Champion Cider was also from Ledbury - Wilce's Dry Cider.

Herefordshire Brewer of the Year

 Congratulations to Lucky 7 Brewery, who were declared Herefordshire Brewer of the Year at Beer on the Wye this year!

Now that they've crossed the border to their new premises, they count as a Herefordshire brewery, and the beer that won them the title was Beertrix Potter, a 4.3% dark beer brewed with cocoa nibs and vanilla.

New Location for Lucky 7 Brewery

 The programme for Beer on the Wye this year had a section on local breweries - including the news that Lucky 7 brewery has moved across the border to Cusop!  They say it's on the site of the old railway station, so I went up to have a look.

I think the railway station was nearer to Hay and Brecon Farmers, and they're not there, so I went further along the road to Clifford, past the Co-op, and came to the industrial units....

So there they are, at Unit 4.

Beer on the Wye XVII

 Off to Hereford this afternoon for the first day of Beer on the Wye, and a lovely sunny day for it!

The bus got me to Hereford shortly before one, and Beer on the Wye opened to the general public at 2pm, so I had time to take some stuff to a charity shop (I usually go to the RSPCA, as it's close to the bus stop where I get off), and find something to eat before I started drinking.  I found a little crepes stall just inside the entrance to the Market - I just had a plain one with lemon and sugar to try it out, and it was delicious.

I do not have a large capacity for beer these days, so my approach has to be pretty well targetted.  So although there were over 149 different draught ciders on offer, 90 of them from Herefordshire, I wasn't going to try any of them - or the 53 World Beers, partly because I am very much out of practice at knowing what the different beer styles are like.

That leaves the 134 beers, so there was plenty for me to choose from.  I was drinking thirds, too, so I could try as many different beers as possible over the afternoon.

As soon as I stepped into the marquee, I spotted the barrels of Uley beer.  I have happy memories of a CAMRA coach trip to the Uley brewery, which ended with the brewer playing his accordion while we sang, so I started off with the excellent Old Spot, a 5% ruby ale  (several of my choices were on the strong side).

Also at that end of the bar was Jaipur, from Thornbridge, which I'm pretty sure I remember winning best beer of the Festival a few years ago - this one is a Pale Ale, very well hopped, and 5.9%.

After that I was in the mood for something completely different - Moonraker Mild, from Empire brewery in Huddersfield, which was only 3.8%, and not hoppy at all.

My fourth choice was a porter from a brewery called Wildcraft in Norwich.  It was flavoured with cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger, and my mouth went 'Wow!'  It was also 5%, and my favourite of this year's Festival.

Finally, I'd noticed a new distillery housed in an old toilet block near the swimming baths on my way into Hereford.  This is Goldenwake Distillery, and they had provided a barrel of Honey Ale, which is technically a mead made with hops!  It's 4.4%.  I tend to think of Moniak Mead as the gold standard of meads, and this one was quite a bit lighter than that, but very thirst quenching, and I would certainly try it again.

By that time, I was sharing a table with a retired truck driver and his friend who had come down for the day on the train from Birmingham - I took my own stool, which was a wise move.  We had a very pleasant conversation about the beers.  One of them was enjoying Absolutely Cherried, a cherry porter from 4TS brewery in Warrington, and the other was enjoying the dark mild from Bank Top in Bolton.

According to Mark Haslam's introduction to the programme (he's the Festival Co-ordinator), this might be the last Beer on the Wye to take place by the Rowing Club.  There's a scheme afoot to develop the riverside, and if it goes ahead there won't be room for the beer festival's marquee!

The Festival continues this year over the weekend, with a variety of bands on Friday and Saturday evenings, and Hereford Big Band, playing music of the 1930s and 40s, from 2pm on Sunday afternoon.

Saturday Afternoon at the Festival

 I've been enjoying the podcast Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics, so I was keen to go to the free event at the Festival.  This time I was prepared for the crowds - I took a small folding stool along, and positioned myself outside the packed out marquee where I could hear everything but not see the stage (so, just like radio, then!).  The subject was Demeter, and Natalie Haynes took us through the original myth of Persephone, in which Zeus and Hades are far more creepy than later versions.  Also, bonus first named female comedian in history (or myth), Iambe, who tells jokes until Demeter can smile again.

Later in the marquee, there was a broadcast of You're Dead to Me, the history podcast.

I wandered off afterwards in search of something to drink, and ended up paying £4.50 for a half of cider (Festival Ferret from the Festival Bar) but at least I got to keep the decorative plastic glass.

I also bought a three pack of beer from Woofy's Brewery near Ross-on-Wye - they've brewed a special limited edition amber ale for the Festival, called Bibliophile, which I'm drinking now, and it's very pleasant.  I have yet to try the porter and the IPA.

Then I wandered round the stalls for a while (and had a Shepherds ice cream) until it was time for the event I had a ticket for - Stephen Moffat, Lucy Caldwell and Rob Appleby in conversation.  I didn't catch the name of the moderator of the panel, but I think he was from Comma Press, who published Collison: stories from the science of CERN.  The idea behind the book was to pair a writer with a scientist at CERN.  The scientist would tell the writer about the theories they were working on, and the writer would then write a short story about it.  Stephen Moffat and Lucy Caldwell were two of the writers involved, and Rob Appleby is one of the astrophysicists, and they talked about visiting CERN.  Lucy compared living there to some of the work she's been doing with young women who have vocations to enclosed monastic orders in Ireland - the living quarters being like monastic cells, and the sense of devotion to something greater than themselves.  They also talked about scientists who have spent their entire careers in one area of research - and if they succeed in making a breakthrough, they're likely to get a Nobel prize, but they also might spend 30 years working in obscurity, without discovering any new theories about the universe.  

Stephen Moffat read a portion of his story based on the theory of dark matter, about a person who had been wiped out of existence - in fact, had never existed at all - and added at the end that, if we'd paid a bit more for tickets, we could have got Peter Capaldi to read it!  Lucy Caldwell's reading was also based on the theory of dark matter, and involved a scientist going home to his family in Belfast.

Rob Appleby pointed out that all the scientific endeavour over the last few hundred years has led to us (as a species) learning about 5% of all matter in the universe.  There's 95% of stuff out there that we really know very little about, and that includes dark matter.  He seemed quite excited by this thought, as it means we have so much yet to discover.

It was a really interesting discussion, and it seems that Comma Press may be doing more similar collaborations in the future.

Coronation Day

 The weather is wet and miserable, but the Saturday Market is full of really good stalls, with plants and specialist tea and wicker baskets and so on.  In the middle of the market is a covered table where children were colouring in crowns, and at one end is a big screen under an awning showing the Coronation live.  I got there just as the coach was heading for the Abbey, escorted by the horse guards.  

The Tudor Brewery man had brought a couple of boxes of beer to drink on the spot, left over from another festival he'd been to, and he was right by the screen so there may be some interest in that later on.

The British Legion is showing the Coronation all day, too (all welcome!).

In the Buttermarket is the Mad Hatters Craft Fair, again with lots of interesting crafts on sale, so there's plenty to do in the middle of town, despite the weather.

I met Tim the Gardener, who was heading home to hibernate until all the fuss was over - he wanted to go to the butchers', but they're closed today so the family can sit at home and watch the Coronation on TV.

Independence Ale

 Lucky 7 brewery in Hay have brought out a special ale.

To quote the label: "On the 1st of April 1977, Richard Booth proclaimed Hay an 'Independent Kingdom' with himself as King.  To celebrate home rule for Hay, Monty Python's Terry Jones brewed the first Independence Ale.  In 2019 we sadly lost our King, Richard Booth, and also in early 2020, Terry Jones.  This beer has been made as a homage, with very carefully selected local Herefordshire hops, malted grains, and yeast."

The hop varieties are Emporer, Jester and Harlequin.  The beer strength is 4.6%, and it's full of flavour.

The label has a crown and a jester's hat, which seems fitting for the reign of King Richard.

Also, it's a Vegan friendly beer.

Beer Festival

 My Young Man came to stay on the weekend of the Hereford Beer Festival.

I had various things to sort out at my bank related to moving house - changing standing orders and so on, so we went into Hereford on the Friday afternoon.  After I'd done the important business, and had a pork roll from the stand on the main square, we headed down to the marquee by the rowing club.

I think we chose the best day to go.  It was busy, but not too crowded, and I understand the crowds were the biggest they've ever been over the rest of the weekend.

Neither of us can drink in large volume any more - my limit was always three pints, and we had to keep an eye on the time to get the bus back to Hay, which limited the amount we could drink.  So we had to choose our drinks wisely.

The Young Man started off with a Black Orchid porter from Motley Hog in Ross-on-Wye, which he liked.  This came from the local brewers' bar at one end of the marquee.  He was also looking for anything unusual from Brecon brewery, now based in Bridgend.  On the grounds that he wouldn't see it back home, he went for the Mind Peroxide.  It's a 10% IPA, strong enough that they would only serve it in a third or half pint, and he sipped that for the rest of the session.

I started with Moonrakers Mild from Empire brewery in Slaithwaite, West Yorkshire, because I like to try milds when I see them.  After that, I was delighted to find Jaipur IPA from Thornbridge in Bakewell, and followed that with Uley Pale Ale from Uley in Gloucestershire - it's not easy to find outside their local area, and the last time I drank it I was with a bunch of pagans who had just celebrated a mistletoe ritual in an orchard near the River Severn.

That was my pint and a half finished, with just enough time to amble to the bus stop outside the Catholic Church to get back to Hay.

That's where I met someone I hadn't seen for over twenty years - an ex-traveller who had his caravan on the grounds of Brynmelin when I lived there and worked for Richard Booth.  It was nice to catch up with him and find out that he was doing okay.

New Local Brewery

 I saw some new beer bottles at Londis last week, so I picked up three of them to give them a try.

They're from a new brewery in Three Cocks called Antur Brew (Antur is Welsh for 'adventure').

I tried the New England IPA, the Pale Ale and the Alt, which is a German style of beer (and a pun on the Welsh 'Allt', or 'peak').  I enjoyed them all - they're full of flavour and very refreshing, so when I go shopping for beer again I will try the Helles, which is their fourth beer style.

They have a bottle shop which is open to the public at Three Cocks, and will fill re-usable beer containers straight from the tap - they sell Growlers (I'm not sure how many pints a Growler will hold!).  And they will deliver if the order is over twenty four beers.

They also run brewery tours for up to fifteen people, with a tasting session.

They have a website at anturbrew.com

A Gift of Beer

 I had a very pleasant lunch at Shepherds yesterday.  The bacon butty was very good, and so was the company - an old friend who was re-visiting Hay.

She has been living in Suffolk, and came bearing gifts - three bottles of Adnams ale!  I started drinking real ale when I lived in Norwich, many years ago, and one of the first breweries I was introduced to was Adnams, who have their brewery (and lighthouse!) in Southwold.  Whenever I have time when I go to Hereford, I stop into the Lichfield Vaults, where one of their regular beers is Adnams Broadside.

The beers I was given are Lighthouse, a light golden beer, Innovation IPA and, to my delight, Adnams Old Ale - I'd thought they stopped brewing it.  It's a dark brown mild-style beer, first brewed in 1890!  It even appears in a song from the Kipper Family, who come from Trunch in Norfolk and sing comic songs.  The chorus of Bald General Coote goes:

"He led his men with Courage Bold,

With Bullards Best and Adnams Old,

Napoleon brandy and Navy Rum

and now at last to the dregs we are come"  

I love the local breweries, like Wye Valley, and Lucky 7 which is brewed in Hay, but Adnams will always be one of my favourites.

Tudor Brewery

 There was a new stall on the market today, selling beer.

Tudor Brewery is based at Llanhilleth in South Wales.  The brewery was established in 2011, and they've been brewing some prize winning ales since then.

In 2012, the Blorenge Golden Ale won Three Gold Stars at the Great Taste Awards, which is run by the Guild of Fine Foods.

Their Black Mountain Stout was Silver Champion Beer of Wales in 2015, winning the Stout and Porter category, and is suitable for vegans.

Black Rock, their dark ale, was Champion Beer of Wales in 2016, and is also suitable for vegans.

Their other beers, named for a mountain theme, are Skirrid Bitter, Sugarloaf Bitter and (not a mountain) Tudor IPA.

They also brew special beers like Winter Cheer, with cinnamon and spices, Twmbarlwm Honey Ale, and Wild Blackberry Stout.  Other occasional beers are Super Hero, an American Pale Ale; Green Green Grass of Home, a Special IPA; Rum to the Hills, with Jamaican rum and molasses, and Blitz Pomegranate Beer.

They have an online shop at www.tudorbrewery.co.uk

Purely in the interests of research, I bought three bottles to sample - the Black Rock, Sugarloaf and Black Mountain Stout.  I like dark beers, so I thought I'd go for those first, and if I like them I can try the rest of their range whenever they're back on the market.

On the Bus to Hereford

 I needed to go to Hereford again yesterday, and I noticed a few changes on the way.

The Boughton Arms in Peterchurch has been empty for a while, but it now seems to have re-opened as Casa Lupo, an Italian restaurant and B&B.

The Old Bridge across the Wye in Hereford is now closed to traffic, so the bus goes over the new bridge now.  This is a weekend of Extinction Rebellion action, and I saw two people standing with a banner on the bridge, waving at the cars.  I waved back.  I forget the exact slogan, but the gist of it was that this is a perfect moment to introduce green policies that will help to mitigate climate change, if only there was the political will to do it.

For my little treat after I'd finished my shopping, I went to the Hereford Beer House for a bottle of Kernel Table Beer.  There the system is that you sign in with your phone number, as I did at Tomatitos on Wednesday evening, and you are served at the table.  I was in one corner reading Dolphins of Pern, which I'd just picked up in the Heart Foundation charity shop, and there was another group by the front window in the opposite corner of the bar.

Real Ale Vouchers

My membership renewal for CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale, came through the other day.
For the past few years, included in the package have been a number of vouchers that give a discount in Wetherspoons. I haven't been using them, because I refuse to set foot in Wetherspoons.
This year, though, the format has changed, and the vouchers can be used more widely.
I looked it up on the CAMRA website, and sadly, no pubs in Hay are included in the scheme - nor are they included in the discount scheme where you show your CAMRA membership card.
In Hereford, however, I can now use my vouchers at the Imperial in the middle of town. I sometimes go in there already for a swift half while I'm shopping, so I'll certainly be using my vouchers in there this year.
[Updated to add: I went into the Imperial with my beer vouchers the last time I was in Hereford, and none of the bar staff knew anything about the scheme - so I'll have to find somewhere else to use them]
On the edge of Hereford just outside the ring road the Beer in Hand is part of the membership card discount scheme, and I've occasionally been in there when I'm at that end of town.
If I ever go into Brecon, there are two pubs that take the vouchers. One is the George, sadly now a Wetherspoons, so I won't be going in there, and the other is the Wellington. However, a friend has suggested that the best pubs to try in Brecon are the Brecon Tap and the Sarah Siddons. I've been in the Brecon Tap before, and liked it, so I must try the Sarah Siddons on this recommendation next time I head for Brecon.

Beer on the Wye

Some friends gave me a lift to Beer on the Wye on Friday afternoon - it's always nicer to go with friends, to chat over the drinks. The drive through the countryside, via Bredwardine, was glorious.

We found a spot to sit at the end of the cider tasting table (that's what all the containers are in the background), but managed to avoid actually drinking any cider on the grounds that we couldn't give an informed opinion about the taste of the different varieties.
Looking through the programme initially, I didn't see anything that I really wanted to try, so I ambled along the beer bar until I saw a name I recognised. It was Harviestoun, a Scottish brewery, and Schiehallion turned out to be their lager. I don't normally drink lager, but this was full-bodied and fruity, and a very good start to the session.
Mark Haslam of Herefordshire CAMRA announced the winning beers of the Festival. I didn't quite catch the Bronze winner, apart from it being a Manchester brewery. The Silver was also from Manchester, Cloudwater's John Green Bouffant, and the winner was Inspector Remorse, a London Porter from Electric Bear brewery in Bath.
Then I saw a beer I really had to try! Costa del Salford from Irwell Works in Bury - all names of places from the area where I grew up. It was light and hoppy, but not too hoppy, and a perfect summer beer.
Then I decided to try the winning beer of the Festival, Inspector Remorse, which was absolutely a worthy winner, and a delicious porter.
Meanwhile one friend was trying the Oscar Wilde mild from Mighty Oak, which he said was very fine, too. My other friend, as designated driver, found some bottled water to drink, though the programme said that Festival Fruit Punch (alcohol free) was available, as well as some alcohol free beers from the World Beers bar.
Finally I went for a local beer. Swan Brewery have made two beers to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing - Small Step and Giant Leap. I tried the Giant Leap, which was another full-bodied beer, using Apollo, Comet and Flyer hops. The Small Step was made with Apollo and Eagle hops.
There were 130 ciders on offer too, 100 of them from Herefordshire - but I find I can't drink cider in any quantity. There were 135 different beers, a local brewery bar, and a World Beers bar. And by the end of the weekend, I hear they had almost been drunk dry!
We were there before the music started, but they had several bands on over the weekend, covering modern pop to Dixieland jazz and R&B.
The charity of the Festival this year was HOPE Support Services - for the sixth year running! I think it was them who were selling raffle tickets for a wheelbarrow full of cider!

Black and Tan

While mum was still here, we decided to go back to Kilverts to see if they had any more of those delicious steak pies.
They had just changed the menu, and the pie was now chicken and leek, which was almost as nice.
Mum's partner doesn't drink much any more, but that night he fancied a Murphy's, which they don't serve - so he asked for a Black and Tan instead.
The young man behind the bar had never heard of it, but when it was described to him he filled a pint glass, half with Guinness and half of Bass bitter.
Kevin was pleased with the taste, but headed off to the table where we were sitting muttering: "Fancy not knowing what a Black and Tan is!"
I pointed out that it's a very old fashioned drink (Kevin is nearly 70 after all). Probably he was the first person to ask for that drink in Kilverts this century!