Langdale Beer Festival

I went to the Lake District again for the Bank Holiday weekend. It happily coincided with the Langdale beer festival. It was a fairly minor event, just some of the pubs putting on a few more beers than usual. I did my best to get round the pubs, I mean spend quality time in the mountains, whilst I was there. The selection wasn't overly inspiring but there were some nice beers to be had. The Old Dungeon Ghyll had the lovely Loweswater Pale Ale on. A beer of modest strength with good Cascade hops flavour it's very refreshing but I find that I can't drink beers like this in quantity. Strangely enough, considering the hot weather, stouts came off best for me. Conistion Special Oatmeal Stout at the Stickle Barn went down very nicely, which was a bit of a surprise as I normally find oats give beer an unpleasant oily mouthfeel, and Ulverston Stout Ollie at the Wainwright was a delicious beer full of rich dark flavours but without the astringency roasted grains often give to stouts.

We didn't get anything too exciting from Booths this time though: some infected organic beer from Little valley which went down the sink and Ringwood 78 which was a bargain at £1 a bottle. I wish the Booths chain would spread to the South.