I have to say Tara picked a fine location for renting a house in York, five minutes walk away from the site of the York Beer & Cider Festival! And As it is my duty to introduce Tara to all Great British institutions, I felt that I had to take her to this festival, so on Saturday we had a wander across to Knavesmire.
It was that rare thing in England, a sunny September afternoon, so there was a beer garden to sit in, as well as two marquees. There were over 300 British real ales, 70 foreign beers and 100 ciders and perries on sale.
With such a choice, it was hard to know where to begin, but I stuck to my tried and tested approach, that of having a half pint for each letter of my name. That’s not too bad, Tony equals four halves. But as my full name is Antony Robert Newboult, it would mean me drinking 20 half pints or ten pints, Not recommended!
In the end, I went for Antony and got on to New when I called it a day. And these are the ales I drunk:
A – Luddington Lager (4.5%) from Axholme Brewing Company. I started with this as it’s brewed in my home county of Lincolnshire.
N -Neilson’s Sauvin (3.7%) from the North Riding Brew Pub
T – Moccachino Messiah from To Ol in Denmark. That wasn’t advertised in the programme, but was rather strong!
O – Oliver’s Medium Cider (6.7%) from The Olivers, Hertfordshire
N – Fiery Red (4.5%) from The Nook Brewhouse in Holmfirth
Y – Yakima IPA (7.4%) from The Great Heck Brewing Company
N – Nordic Storm (5.0%) from The Rudgate Brewery
E – Amish Mash (4.7%) from The Great hEck Brewing Company By this time alot of the barrels were empty so the E came from E by Heck
W – Wold Gold (4.8%) from Wold Top Brewery in Driffield
So nine half pints of damned good real ale!
But not only ale, there was also some music as well. Early afternoon was an open mic session, which inevitably was somewhat varied. The evening session kicked off with a set from TC & the Money Makers , which featured some wicked harmonica playing from Tom Cocks.
Finally I have to confess to having my own “chili” moment, a la Sean, when I tried some Scorpion Death Chilli Chocolate from the Merry Berry Truffles stall. It was hot stuff and had my eyes watering within seconds!
All in all, it was a great day, and roll on the next festival Pocktoberfest
I also came across this poster which I loved!
