Despite the weather (which actually was remarkably good) we had an excellent time at the 3rd Annual Cheltenham Beer Festival which was raising money for the Cheltenham Branch of The Samaritans.
Last years event raised £6000 which is pretty impressive and helps keep The Samaritans running providing a service that really does help save peoples lives.
Jon, Neil, Nick and I walked from Prestbury/Oakley and we got there just about at Noon.
I had a good chat with Sara (who I knew from my days in Parasoc) who does work for the Samaritans and she recommended a couple of beers that she said were well worth trying.
We grabbed a small gazebo and some chairs and headed to the bar. The range was pretty impressive and I even tried the Battledown Brewery’s “4 Kings” – which has an ABV of a mere 7.1%. Oddly enough even though it smelt very much like a barley wine it was remarkably thin.
The food was, as ever, good: good solid beef burgers, a pig roast and of course sausages in a bun (“Get em whilst their hot, inna bun with Onions!”)
Michael, Simon, Paul and Richard joined us a bit later – Richard had just flown back from Turkey that morning and was looking forward to drinking some proper beer.
We left mid evening – the beer was running out and we were all feeling a bit hungry. So we walked back into town, grabbed a pint at The Bell and then headed to Maheks for a curry. Maheks is usually very good but the service on Saturday night was extremely slow. The place wasn’t busy but it took nearly 2 hours for 7 of us to have starters and a main course (and even when the main course arrived it took over 5 minutes for them to get the last of our naan breads onto the table).
So we’re all looking forward to next summers event and they may even be planning one for the middle of winter!!