- Poised for action -
Our journey to the festival was eventful in itself, with vandalism on the line between Kidderminster and Worcester meaning we had to catch a rail replacement coach. We arrived in Worcester just on mid-day and headed straight for the festival, securing our glasses, programmes and all-important tokens before eagerly surveying the available ales.
- Plum Dunkelweizen -
It seems that the Friday sessions at the festival had been extremely popular, hence quite a number of the beers were either sold out or unavailable. There was still plenty to go at though, and among the tipples we tackled first off were Signal Light, Black Hill Stout and Plum Dunkelweizen - bringing out Nick's inner German - whilst I was dangerously waylaid by an Exmoor Beast.
- Inside the Big Tent -
We commandeered ourselves one of the picnic tables in the main marquee from which we had a fine view of all the offerings lined up along one side of the tent. Our next spot of token expenditure resulted in samplings of Ginger Doodle Stout, Blonde Bombshell and Old Dairy with me being tempted into a Raspberry Wheat Beer from Millstone. Roger and I were also keen to make the acquaintance of a Cherry Blonde, which turned out to be a highly pleasurable experience, whereas Nick came over all punk courtesy of Clash London Porter.
- A Tombola Triumph -
Mr D9's absence was lamented given that the event organisers had once again laid on personalised Andyloos especially in his honour, although those of us in attendance were happy enough to make use of the facilities on his behalf! It was soon time to account for our final round of tokens, whereby it was Nick's turn to brave the Exmoor Beast. Roger found himself a Desert Rat and Mr W Snr dredged up a half of Old Slug Porter, leaving me to detect a bit of Skulduggery when Rog won a beer towel on the tombola.
- Fun and Games with a Beermat -
Taking our leave from the festival, we set out on a little crawl of the pubs in Worcester's historic centre. First up was the Plough on Fish Street with its unspoilt traditional parlour interior, a place that quickly became the setting for our unspectacular attempts at beermat flipping. Roger demonstrates how it should be done.
- The King Charles II, New Street -
Two other pubs high on our hitlist were the Cardinals Hat (reputedly Worcester's oldest inn and recently resurrected after a period of closure) and the King Charles II which has latterly been taken on as a joint venture between the Sadlers and Craddocks breweries. Worcester's status as a real ale destination has certainly been boosted by the re-emergence of these establishments and we hope they both prove to be highly successful.
- Nickolenko achieves global fame -
The King Charles II particularly grabbed our attention with its Tudor origins and unnerving uneven floors - at one point my Sunchaser tried to make a break for freedom by sliding itself off the table! The first floor had a cosy seating area complete with a globe and several rather comfortable armchairs, very nice indeed. Having supped up in here, we moved next door to the Swan with Two Nicks where we took advantage of some discount prices to imbibe some Malvern Hills Trevor Stout or some Draught Bass. As if the thought of two Nicks was not alarming enough, Dad also spotted a poster for ukelele lessons but thankfully we managed to distract him!
- Cheers from The Dragon -
With rail services restored, the 18:51 Foregate Street departure is nominated as our train home. We just have time to squeeze in two more hostelries, these being the Paul Pry (a heritage pub on The Butts which has some particularly attractive interior tiles) plus our old favourite The Dragon where we are joined in our group photo by a cuddly little mascot. From the festival to the town, the beer quality had been consistently impressive and we made our way back to the West Midlands having had a thoroughly splendid time. Cheers!
No comments:
Post a Comment