Coventry Beer Festival

As you may have gathered from my previous post, last Friday morning's Rail Rover tour of Rugby and Long Buckby was only half of the story. There is still the small matter of the afternoon to tell you about, whereby I was joined by my esteemed colleague Nickolenko for a canal walk, a smattering of pubs and the crowning glory of the Coventry Beer Festival...

From Long Buckby I take the London Midland service to Coventry, arriving in time to meet Nick off his 13:11 train up from Birmingham. A Travel de Courcey 85 bus gets us to Pool Meadow, and then we can catch Stagecoach's Atherstone and Leicester-bound 48 for a ride up the Foleshill Road to Longford Tesco.

In keeping with much of the week, the weather was glorious and we were bathed in warm sunshine as we joined the towpath of the Coventry Canal for the stroll to Hawkesbury Junction. We enjoy views of the Ricoh Arena and Nick gets to test out the 'Stone Sofa' sculpture before we pass the site of the original canal junction at Longford. A little further on and we reach Sutton Stop - the meeting point of the Coventry and Oxford Canals remains one of my favourite waterways locations.

- A perfect pint of proper Perry -

Part of the charm of Hawkesbury Junction is undoubtedly the Greyhound pub, which occupies an envious position looking out over one of the turnover bridges. It seems we're not the only ones keen on an afternoon drink here as the beer garden here is absolutely full, but there is room inside for us to enjoy a refreshing pint of Weston's Perry, a delicious way to slake one's thirst. Nick is definitely in English mode for the time being and we have a browse of the various Sutton Stop structures including a police hut and the old engine house.

- The Town Wall Tavern -

We retrace our steps back to Bridge 10 so that we can catch the number 20 bus outside the Longford Engine. Before too long we're back in Coventry centre on the trail of our next pub, heading round the back of the theatre to find the Town Wall Tavern. This was another excellent choice where we debated our favourite Chip Foundation haunts over some Adnam's Broadside and noted an internal frosted window etched with Atkinson's Brewery - at least Nick resisted the urge to play the piano...

With the beer festival set to open at 6pm, we had a spare half an hour or so to fit in one more call. The Old Windmill on Spon Street fit the bill nicely for a dash of medieval charm, sitting in one of the tiny front snugs supping some Olde Peculiar. If you're looking for a pub with character and beams this place is hard to beat - the open fires can add an extra touch of cosiness although thankfully there was no need for them today.

- The Old Peculiars with their Old Peculiars -

We were now ready to sample the delights of the beer festival, which was being held at the Coventry Rugby Ground off The Butts. Despite arriving just after 6pm the place was already pretty full and was only set to get busier. Heading inside we pick up our commemorative glasses and programmes then select our opening tasters. There is a wide range on offer including many 'LocAle' examples from around Warwickshire, so I opt for Merry Miner's Warwickshire's Finest from near Atherstone (very nice) and Nick dabbles with Honey Stout from the North Cotswolds Brewery.

The event is certainly popular and there seems to be a broad mix of people all interested in their ales. The food servery is also attracting a bit of attention and we avail ourselves of a cornish pasty each before battling our way back up to the bar for our second samplers. It's getting rather crowded now so I choose Humpty Dumpty's East Anglian Pale Ale by virtue of being able to get close enough to ask for it, whilst Nickolenko's Slavic tendencies come to the fore with some Gorlovka Russian Stout all the way from... Barnsley!!

It was getting on for half past seven and the festival appeared to have become a victim of it's own success as the volunteers weren't able to let many more people into the hall. We decided to go for a third and final tipple with Nick bravely negotiating the scrum to resurface with some Scilly Stout courtesy of the Penzance Brewing Company. This was potent stuff and hit the spot perfectly, with Nicoklenko craftily getting confused and drinking some of mine on my behalf, the cheek! We leave the venue to a few cheers (someone else could now go in) and complete the evening with some chips at dusk and a train back from Coventry Station. The whole experience was huge fun and I look forward to attending further such festivals in future...