J's sister & her husband came to see us this weekend & come to a beer festival with us - taking advantage of the bank holiday to not have to go home the day after we'd been out all day drinking ;) Our nearest pub, The Dove, does beer festivals 3 times a year and gets in quite a selection of beers, so well worth spending a day at :)

So Jo & Chris showed up at about lunchtime on Saturday & I made a curry for what turned out to be a mid-afternoon early dinner/late lunch - they were running a bit late coz of traffic & my cooking was running even later ;) And then it was off out for beer - unfortunately the weather was sucky, but they have tents in the backgarden bit of the pub and I think the rain had kept people in for the afternoon so we got ourselves a table immediately. Neither J nor I had a theme for picking beers (unusually), Chris seemed to be going for "gimmicks" and Jo settled down with some cider after a while as she's not the biggest beer fan. Between us, we drank the following (listed with brewery then beer name, then drinker):

• Purple Moose Snowdonia J


• Allgates Reverend Ray Chris


• Allgates Twitter and Bisted M


• Northumberland Hung Parliament J (twice)


• Old Cannon Blonde Bombshell Jo


• Kelham Island Night Rider M


• Ilkley Pale Jo


• Summer Wine Teleporter Chris


• Red Rat Hot Stuff Ceveza Con Chilli Chris


• Ufford Ales Golden Drop Jo


• Summer Wine Elbow Grease M


• Wentworth Short and Stout J


• Brass Monkey A Chimp of the Ol' Block M


• Caledonian Deuchars IPA M (pint at the end)


• Farmers Drop of Nelson's Blood M


• Fullers London Pride Chris


• Greene King Abbot Ale J


• Humpty Dumpty Little Sharpie M


• Sticklegs Malt Shovel Mild J


• Adnams Broadside Chris (half, then pint at end)


• Brandon Royal Ginger Chris


• Clarks Clint Eastwood J


• Dark Star Victorian Ruby Mild J


• Elgoods Double Swan Jo


• Green Jack Albion Mild M


• Hop Back Summer Lightning Jo


• Mighty Oak Oscar Wilde Mild J


• Old Cannon Rusty Gun J


• Red Fox Wily Dark M


• Saltaire Triple Chocoholic Chris


• Woodfordes Wherry M


• Mr Whitehead ? Jo - a cider, it wasn't the one on the list (which was Heart of Hampshire) and I didn't catch the name :/


• Thatchers Cheddar Valley Jo (3 halves & a pint at the end - cider)


• Charles Wells Banana Bread Beer Chris (bottle)


• Belle Vue Kriek (Cherry) Chris (bottle)

A rather respectable afternoon/evening's drinking ;) All halves unless otherwise stated though, so we didn't kill ourselves (and tasted more of the beers than would otherwise be the case). And quite a good mixture there of the familiar and unfamiliar. Quite a lot we didn't try, too - but some were sold out as the festival had been running since Wednesday (including the other Northumberland one, which was a shame).

We got food from the barbeque while we were there for our evening meal, some rather tasty burgers and chips :) And the usual good conversation (and beer fuelled silliness) of a trip to the pub with Jo & Chris :) And runes (Tolkein version), for some reason that neither Chris nor I was clear on but was vastly entertaining to Jo & J ;) Then once we started to flag (at about 11) we headed home again, for some rock \m/ I feel perhaps a tad sorry for our neighbours, coz they could possibly hear our (er, by "our" I mean "my") caterwauling, but it doesn't happen that often ;)

Shockingly no-one was hungover on Sunday morning! Well, I tell a mild lie - I was a bit rough, but nothing some breakfast couldn't sort out. The plan for the day was gentle because we'd all expected to be broken - we passed the time with a lot of PS3 games, and quite a lot of tasty tasty food :D Introduced Jo and Chris to ModNation Racers (which I think they're planning to pick up) and to God of War III (which Chris has borrowed from us). And more rock happened, too - slightly more sensible playing of Lego Rockband and Rockband 2 :)

And now they've gone! :( Well, several hours ago - they've been back, done their shopping, and probably loads of other stuff, by now.