Great grandad was 'ere

Sunday night I stopped in the Sun at Hitchin, a great pub and hotel which has been there since the 1500's.  I was gobsmacked to read some idiotic review on trip advisor complaining, "the corridors are narrow, the floor isn't level, and there are wooden beams sticking out of the ceiling!".  This is exactly what makes the place so brilliant (other than the fact they serve best breakfast I have had in Hertfordshire)
Sadly I arrived too late to hear the live music, which is on every Sunday.

On Tuesday evening I got the train up to York, wandering around the south of the city wall to stop in the Waggon & Horses.

Of all the times that I have been to York, this is the first time I have seen the old keep.









There are some great old pubs in york...

..and the Waggon and Horses is one of them.  I know I am supposed to be on a diet, but the steak was calling out to me, so a perfectly cooked steak duly arrived, complete with a mountain of chips, mushrooms and tomato!

I was up here  to judge the beer of the North East of England at the racecourse on the Wednesday.  The sun was shining outside, with blue skies, but inside there was water dripping onto us.  It is the first time I can remember when I have been in the sun outside a beer tent, but rained on when inside.

The first round of best bitters was mediocre, with half the beers cloudy, and almost all of them flat.  Very little aroma and very little taste. Very disappointing.

The second round I was put on the speciality bottle beers, which I was dreading, as this is not my beer of choice.
However...
We had a couple of beautiful wheat beers, very smooth, a smoked beer, a coriander and lemon beer that tasted just like a nice smooth pale ale.  Then the Milk Stout arrived and Wow!  The appearance of this drink was a delight in itself, the aroma was amazing and the flavour perfect.  For the first time ever, both me and Jenna agreed that this drink could not be faulted, and gave full 60 out of 60.
Last in this round came a chocolate porter.  Massive chocolate aroma, and a superb chocolate flavour, this had to be the Triple Chocolate Porter from Saltaire.


On the last round, I was judging the strong cask bitters, and again, half of the beers were hazy, and most of them were flat.  Boring, boring, and then the last beer of the round, although unfined, was clear, had a wonderful hop aroma, and a not too overpowering hop flavour that made this a superb IPA.

The overall finals are always hard to judge because you have eight different beer styles to judge against each other.  The only way to do this is to judge each one as itself, then compare the scores at the end, with a bit of side by side comparison at the end.

Altogether an enjoyable day, despite the poor quality of some of the beers, and we  rounded off with another superb steak!

Maggie hasn't shut it all down

Another afternoon on the boat, and I have just spent a small fortune on marine ply, but with a cunning plan.
I have had the ply delivered to the house, where, I have a (just plastered) completely empty room awaiting decorating.

Rather than struggling to cut the ply to size on the boat, I can measure and make patterns as necessary, and cut the 8x4 sheets at the house, where there is room to manoeuvre them.
So, armed with a roof template, and a side template, I have managed to erect the first wall in the boat, between the bedroom and the WC.  However there is still a considerable gap at the top of the wall. So much for the clever templates!

I had far more success with the wall linings, and soon I have the first porthole liner temporarily in place.  Nice!

Friday I was in Grantham, and it was like a ghost town. In the town centre on a Friday dinnertime, we were virtually alone.

Seeking food, we ventured into the Blue Pig.  This is nothing to do with a coloured animal, the blue indicates the owner, years ago, supported the torys.

The blue Pig was a great find, a nice pint of Oldershaws Blonde, and the most amasing mixed grill for £8.99.

We wandered into the town centre and spotted a great name for a design company.

In the town square there is a statue to Newton.  I didn't know he was from Grantham.








We went in the Lord Harrowby, which was a short walk from the town centre, and very quiet, but a great little pub, with a great pint of Brewsters Calamity Jane.

We then found where everybody was, they were in the Nobody Inn. A real quirky pub with a great atmosphere at the North of the town centre. The toilets are amusingly hidden, but I won't spoil the suprise by saying where they were!
One last pint of Brewsters Aromantica in the Chequers and it was time for the train back home.

Hops

It was that time of year again, down to the hop farms to see how the crops have faired, order next years hops, and try some new varieties.

 We were down at Stocks farm near Worcester, which grows apples as well as hops.

There were apparently 400 people here this year, many new faces and new breweries again.





Many of the hop varieties seem to have been OK, but some seem to have suffered with the weather.














There is a new English hop variety, Jester, which makes a tasty beer.  These seedlings will hopefully have enough of a crop next year for us to get some.







We had a quick look at the stripping machinery, which looks to be older than me.










There is a board near the packing sheds which has the hop productions for this farm going back 50 years.

The evening was spent at the Talbot at Knightwick, having a nice relaxing evening of sunshine, beer and great food.

The following day after the most amazing breakfast, we hot-footed it back to Rammy with 20kgs of freshly picked hops for a new brew of Green Manalishi.

Friday I managed to get the solar panel finished and connected just in time for the black clouds, rain, and complete lack of sun!