Bring On The Beer

After a couple of days in Northallerton seeing the family, I made the short hop to Darlington and checked into Hotel Bannatyne - or the New Grange as I still prefer to know it - where I hooked up with Steve.

After a quick turnaround, we wander down to Number Twenty-2 where even at 4:30pm the place is busy. This was probably because the beer festival shut at 4pm for a few hours - there looked to be some CAMRA-types at the bar. We were supposed to be meeting Tony and his dad Ray but it seems they'd moved on to the Tapas Bar.

Steve and I started on the Holmfirth IPA from the Summer Wine brewery - not a brewery I'm familiar with - and not surprising it was a very hoppy brew - not bad. I stuck to this whilst Steve tried their Teleporter Stout which was also good.

Tony and Ray joined us - and a little later we were joined by that other father and son duo, Harry and Neil, who'd already been to the Arts Centre only to find it shut. We're also joined by another Neil, a young work colleague of Tony's who'd been persuaded into making his beer festival debut tonight. Poor lad.

We got to the Arts Centre a little after opening time and not surprisingly it was a bit dead but it did allow us the pick of the tables. A quick peruse of the programme suggested that there were quite a few unknown beers to me - which can be a good thing if I find something I like.

I had a quick chat with Ian and Big John on the Darlington Traditional Brew Group Stand as I had some of my Dad's old brewing books.

(left) Getting down to it

As much as I'd love to try and make my own beer, I suspect I've not got the patience so I'm passing them on in case they're of us to someone.

Most people at festivals tend to drink in halves but not Mr Johnson - he dives straight into a pint of Flannel Hammer from Wylam - an imperial stout which at 7% is rather hard going. This experience does not deter him of course.

I try quite a few halves looking for a nice session beer - among the candidates are Captain Cook's Endeavour, Outlaw's Bangtail, Yorkshire Dale's Burnsall Blonde and Redacar's Beach - but nothing really stands out. The best of the beers is the Salopian Maori - a very hoppy brew.

Perusing the cider and perry stall for an alternative I see they have something from Gwynt Y Ddraig, a wonderful Welsh cider and perry maker whose wares I've tried before.

Their Monmouth Red Perry doesn't disappoint, a pale clear perry and at 4.5% very more-ish. So I have more.

(left) Tony and Ray try the keg John Smith's

By the time we get to 9:30pm, we're all starting to get a bit peckish - Tony has arranged the taxis and it's not long before we're in the Spice Garden on Parkgate.

Owner Karim is putting on another of his home cooking evenings for us - no ordering from the menu, just taking what he presents us with - all served up with a bottle of room-temperature Old Peculier. This is how to match food and drink.

The food is lovely - I can't remember all of what we had but one lamb dish was beautiful - but as ever Karim overruns us with the sheer quantity of it all.

Thankfully we have a late addition - John Wilson arrives late after leaving London after work - and he helps us out but we still fail to do justice to it all...