Farnham beer exhibition 2010

It was my favourite beer festival last night: Farnham beerex. As usual we went to the Saturday evening session, which means we don't have to dash down after work and cunningly allows me to get beer recommendations from my mate John who goes on the Friday. 

Despite this the lovely Lisa had an even more cunning plan for the first beer - get something in quick and then worry about tracking down particular beers. Fortunately for us the first beer that caught our eye was St Austell's Proper Job. We'd enjoyed this recently in the bottle and the weaker draught version sorted out the thirst that had built up on the journey. With a beer safely in my hand I had several minutes to find the next one. The RCH breweries East Street Cream was the next choice and and it was a good recommendation from John. Even better though was the next one on his list, Funky Monkey from the Milk Street brewery. There was a touch of caramel to the taste, but hops to balance it out and even though it was only 4% ABV was the beer of the festival for me. 

I settled down to some steady guzzling after that, Oakham Ale's Inferno, stands out in the beery haze of the evening, as does Sarah Hughes Dark Ruby Mild. I'd gone years without seeing Sarah until the Wandsworth Common beer festival last month, and now I got to have some more only a few weeks later. 

Looking at the festival programme I was slightly disturbed to realise I'd been coming to this beer festival for 20 years, from when I was a fresh face youngster only able to bore a handful of friends about real ale to now being recognised as one of the 20 biggest beer bores in Britain!

Standing in the courtyard with my mates, getting steadily pissed on quality beers, with cunts with banjos a folk band playing in the background I was reminded why this is my favourite festival. Here's to another 20 years!

The Second Annual Wandsworth Common Beer Festival

Our latest piss up research trip was to the rather confusingly titled Second Annual Wandsworth Common Beer Festival. It is indeed a year since the first one, but they had another one in October so the Second Annual Wandsworth Common Beer festival was in fact the third beer festival at Wandworth Common. Confused? You soon will be.

Whatever number it is it's one of our favourite venues so I hope they keep doing festivals twice yearly. It's in a great old building with a courtyard where the casks are and a normal bar in case my recently converted friend feels like backsliding. The courtyard wasn't so good when it started pissing down but the rain didn't last long and our beer jackets helped to keep the chill out.

Once again the website promised Sarah Hughes Original Dark Ruby Mild but on previous occasions it's been nowhere to be seen. I scouted round the casks on arrival and this time it was there in all its glory. Now something dark and 6% is not what I normally start a beer festival with but it must be years since I've drunk it and I couldn't miss it this time. Rich, dark and dangerously drinkable it went down a treat. It's a shame you don't see it more often. We'd got to the festival on Saturday afternoon and the Sarah was on still going when were leaving at about 6.30. So we all had a half of it as our last beer, which judging by the flow rate looked like it just about finished it off. Which is quite fitting as it just about finished us off too!

Other beers good enough to be remembered through the alcoholic fog include RCH's Pitchfork (4.3% ABV), a good pale citrussy beer; B&T Easter Eggstra (4.5% ABV) which hit the spot for the lovely Lisa being a beautifully brown beer with a malty and hoppy taste and I found Ballard's Wassail another 6%er to be righteous stuff. At the more modest end of the scale I had to get in a Holt's Mild as it's another tick in 300 Beers to Try Before You Die. In fact it was quite a fruitful night in terms of 300 beers... ticking. A cause for celebration at the festival but something for sober reflection the next day when you realise how much close to death you have moved. Good job the ticking is impossible to complete really.

We went for a Mexican posts-festival, which made a change, but as it combined spice and stodge it served its purpose very well, unlike the Negra modelo lager. Never mind, we'd had an excellent beer day and by that point our palates were a little jaded anyway.