And on the seventh day, God sat down, created and then drank beer.
Myself and a couple of friends popped along to the Great British Beer Festival at London’s Olympia yesterday. And it was very very good.
Olympia was a great place to be in the heat yesterday, as a nice refreshing breeze drifted through the building. Coupled with some really rather nice halves of beer, we really did have the best time possible.
Regrettably, we also stumbled on a not particularly enjoyable half of a dark beer (not quite a stout), which brought an early end to one of my friends drinking. Personally, I don’t think there’s any shame in chucking a duff drink - It’s a beer festival, and you’re bound to have a few you don’t enjoy.
The other beers we sampled, particularly a beer from Liverpool the name of which alludes me, and Bluebird XB from Coniston were absolutely delightful. The Bluebird I’d discovered during our recent visit to the Lake District.
IMNSHO drinking halves at the festival is key to enjoying more beers, but buying the pint glass makes sense for other home drinking purposes…
Oh, and the pic is our new household member “Lamby” tucking into a pint of Bluebird outside a rather nice pub in Coniston. Lamby was suffering a little, having just found out it’s a door stop, and faced a lifetime propping open our sitting room door. He’s fine now, and settling into his (her?) job just fine.
One last thing, if you’re ever in Taunton, drop in to the Somerset CAMRA pub of the year (2002) - It’s run by my Uncle, Jeremy Leyton: The Masons Arms.
