5th Annual Cornish Beer Festival 2008

Last Thursday (17/7/08) marked the start of Bath's Star Inn annual 4 day Cornish Beer Festival.
The obvious question is; why a Cornish beer festival at one of Bath's premier real ale pubs owned by Abbey Ales (our local brewery), and famed for its great Bass served in jugs from stillage behind the bar. The answer is that Paul the landlord hails from Hayle? No? - Penzance. He and his brother run pubs for Abbey Ales in Bath. Thus we have Cornish Beer Festivals at The Star Inn. Incidentally there is also a Cornish Ale celebration each spring on St Piran's Day.
As in previous years Paul the landlord managed to source some familiar and some not so familiar ales for us to quaff until our pockets ran dry. There were fresh pastys from the local branch of The Cornish Bakehouse (not my personal favorite) to soak up some of the ale and on Friday Star Gazy Pies appeared.
Now to the important part; the ales. Of the 13 Cornish ales listed on the programme I managed to try 7.
Spingo Special - What a treat - normally the only place to find this finest of strong ales (6.5%) is in and around the Blue Anchor in Helston, where it's brewed behind the Inn. A darker ale fully flavoured, rich in fruit and malt and hops. Delicious, and it went down well with the pasty.
Skinner's Heligan Honey - Gently flavoured with honey from the famous Lost Gardens of Heligan, this pale amber ale from Skinner's Brewery at 4.0%, has a fresh character leading on to the light malty, honied palate and finishing with a crisp hoppyness.
St Austell IPA - As a straight forward thirst quencher, this 3.4% pale ale from St Austell Brewery has a character beyond its strength. The copper colour hints at the slightly richer malt flavour leading to a delicious flowery late hopping, which I suspect is the Willamette hop. At the finish this ale just begs to be drawn again.
By the time I'd reached this end of the row of pumps the Spingo had finished although I did persuade the barman to squeeze the last couple of gulps out for me.
Next on was Sharp's Will's Resolve - At this point my taste buds were becoming a little blurred; however I was surprised by this ale which reminded me very much of Doom Bar from a few years back before Sharp's Brewery upsized the operation. Very pleasant sweet maltyness with a lovely hoppy finish - still with that flowery hint so familiar in many of the Cornish ales.
Unfortunately or not (after 4½ pints) I had to call it a day.
On Saturday afternoon Zena and I made it all the way up Walcot Street and round to the Paragon to see what was left. The tone of the place was slightly subdued, but judging by the absence of all but one of the pump clips arrayed above the stillage, a good time had been had by all; however there were 3 brews still on tap.
Blackawton Brewery's Original Bitter and their Exhibition Ale were on, alongside Keltek's Magik. As I waited to be served the Original finished so that was off the list, but the good news was that the last remaining ale to go on was Skinner's Ginger Tosser.
Keltek Magik - This fine 4.0% quaffing brew has a clean bitterness on the nose and the slightly darker colour gives a hint of the malty richness to follow. It is not over hopped on the finish leaving a sweetness on the palate. Keltek Brewery is on a trading estate in Redruth which perhaps isn't The Cornish Idyll but does produce some good beer.
Next up - Skinner' Ginger Tosser 3.8% - All you'd expect from a Skinner's brew. A golden ale with light hopping and the sweetness of honey washed through to the ginger finish. Delicious.
I finished with a half of Blackawtons Exhibition Ale at 4.7%. Brewed at the Blackawton Brewery in Saltash, probably the most easterly brewery in Cornwall. A rich fruity ale with a broad hoppiness deserving of a little time to fully appreciate the depth of flavour within.
All in all I have to say that this was a great couple of days of drinking and look forward to the next one.
Thanks Paul.

Drunken Delinquents!!

Drunken Delinquents!! Is there a problem?
I'll say there is when a passing group of youths who are patently drunk cast aspersions on your partners sexual history in an attempt to get a rise out of you. After being asked to disburse by police you'd expect that to be it, but to find the same antagonists have followed you to another location is very disturbing. Worse still one of the them was overheard to say that his spell in prison for such behaviour was pointless.
A number of issues are raised by this:
1. Who sold them their last few drinks - It is illegal to sell alcohol to persons you suspect may be drunk.
2. Having been warned by police to 'go home', why were they left to continue there night harassing strangers. Warnings must be enforced.
3. Having been convicted of a drink related offense, why are these morons still allowed out to repeat their offences. A drink related offence should bar you from access to alcohol.
If we're going to allow people the right to drink responsibly then we must have sanctions that protect us from people who abuse that right.
The punishment must be hard enough or there is no deterrent and worse, the deterrent becomes a goal - 'It didn't hurt so I'll do it again.'
Comments please.

Identify this Bird, Please

Hi. I took this picture of a bird on my feeder yesterday and I can't find it anywhere on the net. I checked the RSPB Bird Identifier which hasn't got enough pictures of birds of each species so finding some females and most juveniles is tricky.

Anyway, have a look at the picture and if you know what it is let me know. Thanks.

Georgian City Kit - More of the Jigsaw

Now I wonder where these pieces'll fit?

[wnxx] End of the Line: Withdrawn & Stored Locomotives UK

[wnxx] End of the Line: Withdrawn & Stored Locomotives UK
Here's a gem for enthusiasts. This site contains the the entire whereabouts of locomotives on the UK railway network. Generally it logs the comings and goings locations and status of the bits of kit that haul the freight and passengers around this island. Fascinating stuff, enjoy. PS Get the downloads.

The things you can do with a longer lens... AKA Georgian City Kit II

A little while ago I mentioned the 'Georgian City Kit', well now I can show you what I see.

The new shopping/housing/parking/transport interchange being assembled as chunks of bath stone faced concrete slab on a reinforced concrete skeleton - hence 'kit'.

Block A is the building at the top of the site, which has nearly got a complete roof now, was the first to get its clothes. Having seen a slab on a lorry a couple of weeks earlier I was intrigued to find out what bits looked like in place.

Anyway, one of things I noticed at the Iceland end was how the masons had worked the stone 'in situ' to reduce the impact of errors in the architects drawings - NOT!!

Check this out....

...and closer.

It's such a shame.

Happy Birthday to Me

It comes around every year and this time it's on Tuesday; anyway I spotted the item that I'd asked Zena to get me and it was a very good price; so I bought it - a lens - to be precise, an Olympus Zuiko Digital 40-150mm f/4.0-5.6 lens. The fact is' I missed the 10x Optical zoom I had on the Fujifilm S5000 that my daughter has since I bought the Olympus E410.

As a great big - Thank You to Zena here are a couple of pictures of The Girls having a busy day.