A quick trip on the Irwell

Having had our beer tent cancelled due to flooding, we have had the hottest weekend of the year, just to rub it in.

  Monday I went down to the Mark Addy in Manchester for a "Meet the Producer" event for Visit Manchester.  The Mark Addy is a great little riverside pub on the side of the Irwell in Salford, an area known as the Irwell Rivierra.

We went onboard a widebeam boat called the Emmeline Pankhurst, who was one of the great campaigners for womens rights in post Victorian England.

There are some great views of Manchester from the River, starting with the newly developed Salford Quays.

And the Imperial War Museum.

There are still a couple of old ships in the last part of Salford docks, but I believe these are going to be removed and the docks built over.

This is what used to be the entrance to the Castlefield area docks

Returning towards the Mark Addy, there are three bridges, The first carries the railway to the nearby Deansgate station, the second is apparently the oldest railway bridge in England, and the third is a new road bridge.

Finally returning to the Mark Addy under a new pedestrian bridge linking Castlefield to salford

Rain, Rain and more Rain

On my way down to Tonbridge to judge beer of the south of England, I get a phone call.  The Rugby club is flooded, and the Beer Festival has been cancelled.

I was already on my way, and the hotel was already booked, so I thought I would have a night out in Tonbridge, and return back up North the following day. I met Baz, and we went into the Man of Kent, a great little pub with a great atmosphere and good beer. Unfortunateley, half way through our second pint, the pub quiz started.  The pub descended into complete, hushed silence.  Bang goes the atmosphere.
We decided to go to the Wetherspoons on the main road, the Humphrey Bean.  Big Mistake, unless you luike cloudy stale beer.  Thornbridge Jaipur, Oakham JHB - really great beers destroyed by staff (and a pub chain generally) that don't know or care about the beer. Wetherspoons must have Cask Marque Accreditation by default because they are a big pub chain I suppose.
I stayed in the Rose and Crown, and the food was superb, and a superb breakfast in the morning. The Rugby Club was drying out slowly in the Morning sun. I wonder what they will do with all the beer?

By the time I got back to London, the sun definitely had his hat on.

I stopped for a coffee at Cafe Nero at Euston, and the bloke in fron tof me in the queue, is my old mate Q.  Small world!

When I get back to Rammy, the roof of the brewery has been stripped down for re-tiling in the summer rain. I suppose we could get enough sunny days to finish this before winter.

We were supposed to be putting on a beer tent at Berkeley Castle, but I've just got a message "Berkeley Castle is flooded, Event cancelled".  Bugger.

Across the Border

Another trip up to Edinburgh to judge Beer of Scotland.  I had a great start to the day with a good scottish breakfast.  Haggis AND black pudding - great!

 I was stopping at Haymarket, where all of the main road was dug up fo the new tram installations.  Funny isn't it, all of the trams were discontinued, and the tram lines ripped up, now we are spending millions putting them back again.  Beeching ripped up thousands of miles of railways, now we are spending millions putting them back again.  Some people never learn, anybody who wants to be elected to Parliment should never under any circumstances be allowed to be in any position of power.

The building next to Haymarket Station used to be Caledonian Distillery, now converted into flats.

There were about 150 beers at the beer festival, and I was suprised at the quantity of really good beer.  Houson Brewery, Fyne Ales, really good beers.

Stewart brewery had a gimmick called a "hopinator". Basically, the beer is pumped out of the cask through the chamber on the right, which is full of fresh hops, before being dispensed through the hamdpump.  The result is a hazy beer with an overpowering hop aroma, and a few minutes later, a blocked pump.

There seems to be an obsession at the moment with over-hopped beers.  We are getting to the stage where the only beer that brewers seem interested in is an extremeley pale beer you can smell from six feet away.  Very few beer styles need this characteristic, Pale ales and IPA's yes, but standard bitters, milds no. Just think of the nice, roasted barley aroma of a lovely creamy pint of Stout.  MMMMM.

I go the train back to Leeds just before the landslide that shut the East coast route near Berwick - bit of luck there.  I had a wander down to the canal basin while waiting for a connection, and a quick pint in the Hop bar.

 I noticed that the gates were locked for the lock between the L&L and the Aire, even though the river level was in the Green.