- Green Beer! -
The event was held at Walsall Town Hall and saw over a hundred different ales available for our perusal. Among those we sampled were Triple FFF Rocklobster, Backyard Porter, Three Tuns Steampunk and some Killer Stout as our preference to stray onto the dark side was again very much in evidence. Nick also got to grips with some Smokeless from the Red Willow Brewery; described as "surprisingly approachable" the smoked fragrance wasn't quite approachable enough for me to take a liking to it. Our favourite tipples respectively were Korvak's Triumph for me (a Fownes brew that initially came across like cough medicine but then delivered a sizeable hit of honey porter goodness) and Stonehenge Sign of Spring for Nick, who was awestruck by the beer's green appearance. From what we can tell, beer festivals in general are gaining in popularity because they provide a relaxing convivial atmosphere, excellent value for money and the chance to try ales you may not otherwise encounter. Walsall certainly lived up to some extremely high standards and we found the whole event to be very friendly and well worth attending.
Having spent up our beer tokens, we decided to seek out a couple of Walsall's finest local pubs to round off an excellent evening. The Fountain on Lower Forster Street has recently been resurrected as the new taphouse of the Backyard Brewhouse. The pub already seems very popular and was doing a roaring trade whereby we thoroughly enjoyed a half each of the Hoard for a bargain £2.30. A hop, skip and a jump then brought us to Birchills and the Rose & Crown. The building dates from 1901 and has some wonderful period features including decorative tiles and an original foot rail. A half of Burton Bridge's Tail End Totty in a dimpled glass was just the job to go with a crusty cob, setting us up perfectly for our ride back to Wolverhampton.
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