More beer

I have the day off today. I thought it would be for the best as I was at the 30th Norwich beer festival last night with a few mates.
It is held in St Andrews Hall, a beautiful setting usually used for choirs, orchestral works etc but one week a year it is turned over to "Camra" the campaign for real ale.


This is like Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory for beer drinkers.
Below is one side of the main double sided bar with a smaller cider bar on the opposite wall.
To the right is Blackfriars Hall with food and the local Norfolk ales. There is also a huge marquee housing all the bottled beers and world beers.

Music is provided by various bands during the week, last night it was The Cawston Band playing everything from The Dambusters March and The Floral Dance to Queen and The Police. Very entertaining. There are also steel bands, skiffle, jazz, a string quartet and organ music, so something for everyone.

We even had bagpipes last night!

No too sure what these two were up to though. Maybe groupies or Scottish super heroes!

My own personal favourite beers were there of course, as Mark the brewer has been charging about running the cellar at the festival for years.

Mark owns and runs Beeston Brewery and when he is not clambering around on the racks changing barrels he tries to make sure we get to taste the best beers in the room. Cheers mate.

The festival made the local news for another reason this year. A sparrowhawk flew into the main hall on Monday when all the bars were being set up and decided to stay, perched quite happily in the rafters.

The R.S.P.B. spent hours with a dead pheasant tied to a piece of string trying to lure the bird out but to no avail. I didn't manage to get a picture but it got headline news in the local rag and no, we didn't get shat on.