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.