Travellers
JA, LA and TM
Comments
As he has over many previous years, TM visited us (wife Lynne and
the family) for the Wakefield Beer Festival weekend. Following
tradition the weekend consisted of TM and me visiting the beer
festival on Thursday evening, playing golf on Friday, going into
town on Friday evening and, along with Lynne, to the beer festival
and for a curry on Saturday evening.
The beer festival has been held in early October for many years
(this was the 18th festival). This year was an exception because the
venue, Lightwaves Leisure Centre, has been closed for refurbishment.
Originally it was held in the town hall, a really excellent venue
with a number of bars in separate nicely furnished rooms. About five
years ago the council apparently decided that such an event wasn’t
suitable for the town hall and so, after one year in the refectory
of the local college, it settled at Lightwaves. The whole event,
except for a family room, is held in the sports hall giving a noisy
atmosphere. Anyway the weekend went something like this .
Thursday 6 November 2008
TM and I bought the vouchers (£1.10 each) for the beer and collected
our complementary ½ pint glasses. As usual there were three bars but
rather than being themed (e.g. ‘God’s own county’ bar) the beer was
presented in alphabetical order of brewery name. Of course the north
was well represented but there were also a fair number of breweries
from the southwest. Some beers are served directly from the barrel,
others from hand pumps without sparklers. There were around 130
beers from 90 breweries at the festival.
Neither Terry nor I had a pen so no records were kept but we drank a
goodly number of very good beers and a couple of not so good ones.
On the way home we called off at a nearby local where we drank a
pint of a cream-flow bitter, not the best way to finish.
Friday 7 November 2008
The day dawned cold and wet but by the time we arrived at the 9-hole
golf course we were to grace with our skills, it was dry, sunny and
warm for the time of year. If only the golf had been as good but the
16 holes we played (after missing two on the first time round by
mistake) were enjoyable and blew the cobwebs away.
Lynne was going to join TM and me on our trip around Wakefield but
Leeds United were up for the cup and so off she went to Elland Road
to watch them after arranging to meet us after the match. TM and I
first went to the Red Shed (www.theredshed.org.uk). Also the
Wakefield Labour Club, it is what is says on the door, namely a
wooden shed painted red. It usually has three or four good hand-
pulled beers and this time we had a couple of pints brewed by East
Coast brewery in Filey, run by the previous owner of Fernandes
Brewery Tap (http://www.fernandes-brewery.gowyld.com/), the pub we
visited next. As you will see from the website Fernandes is the
tenth pub in the Ossett Brewery estate. Since they bought the Taps,
they’ve installed a beer keller in a previously unused floor and
cleaned the original bar upstairs. After showing TM the beer keller,
we went into the original bar and had a couple of pints (from a
selection of 14 pumps) of something I can’t remember.
Then on to Harry’s Bar, a one-roomed pub with a goodly number of
hand pulled beers where we met Lynne (Leeds 1 Northampton 1) for a
couple then to Henry Boons for some late night drinks. Back home,
Lynne treated us to sandwiches that contained a bucketful of mustard
each, must have been a mistake surely????
Saturday 8 November 2008
The sad thing from TM’s view is his trip often coincides with a
Wigan Athletic home match. He bravely offers to accompany me, this
year it was the visit of Stoke City and was a hard match to watch,
even through the eyes of a committed supporter, let alone a neutral.
Still, back to Wakefield and to the beer festival, this time with
Lynne in tow and with pen in hand. After a false start, Lynne found
a light bitter she liked which she stayed with until it ran out half
way through the evening. In the meantime TM and I had:
Brewery Beer %
Brew Company Slaker 3.8
Same again For some reason 3.8
Quantock Quantock Ale 3.8
Oakleaf Green Gold 4.3
Moor Beer Revival 3.8
Blue Anchor Spingo Jubilee 4.6
Hoskins Green and Gold 4.4
Gargoyles Best Bitter 4.2
Sheffield Crucible Best 3.8
Exeter Ferryman 4.2
Sarah Hughes Sedgely Surprise 5.0
RCH Steam Carnival 4.7
One problem was that beers started to run out in the middle of the
evening, it didn’t really matter to us as we left for a curry before
ten.
One of Wakefield’s oldest Indians, the India Palace is big enough
not to need to book and serves good food. A curry and beer or two
later we repaired home after another good weekend.
Created on 12/16/2008 09:02 PM by drinking
Updated on 12/16/2008 09:18 PM by drinking
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