If you know me or of me, you will know I like beer. Over the last few years I have been collecting photos of every new beer I have.
I now have over 2,000 individual beers photographed and have realised that many beers that I assumed I have photos of, I haven't.

This blog will be therefore be an account of my quest for new beers to photo and how I enjoyed them (or not).
My email is ralphgant@sky.com.

Thursday 6 August 2015

Missing beer from Dot's birthday

In my write up from Dot's birthday I noticed it says "(see separate write up for the beers).", well it did say in a separate write up, thing is, I didn't write it at all. So here is the write up from March, the draught beers I had in Hawes on our trip there.

Rudgate, Brew No1 Vanilla Mild from England

Rudgate, Brew No1 Vanilla Mild, England

3.6% black colour with a nice head, sweet vanilla aroma and a sweet vanilla taste, it was slightly too sweet for me, but not too bad.

Wall's, Northallerton Dark from England

Wall's, Northallerton Dark, England

4.4% dark colour with a very good head, not much aroma but a mild bitter taste, not a bed beer.

Wensleydale, Bitter from England

Wensleydale, Bitter, England

3.7% very pale gold colour with a good head, some lemon in the aroma and taste, not bad at all.

Wensleydale, Semer Water from England

Wensleydale, Semer Water, England

4.1% gold colour with thin head head, citrus hop and sight caramel aroma, cirrus hop (orange) taste.

If I have done these beers before, I can not find them but sorry if I have.

Monday 3 August 2015

Away, outside Thirsk

Thirsk in a cabin

Thirsk, 6th of July to the 10th of July

A day after we arrived back from Warwick we sett off again for the Hoseasons, Woodland Lakes Lodges, just outside Thirsk.  I didn't have many new beers that week but the draught ones I did have are listed here in the writ up. I do have loads of bottled beers though and will cover them as we drink them.

Day one, Monday 6th of July

We got everything ready and set of down the A19 to Thirsk, where we stopped off at Tesco there, as we were too early to check in. It was almost time when we finished shopping so we went straight there, it's about three miles by road to the cabins. Dot checked us in, then we drove round to the car park and carried our stuff to the cabin. The weather was very on and off and the hot tub was out in the wet.

Pool in the rain

So we didn't go in yet, we got ready and walked over to the bar to see what the food looked like. The bar was very nice but was only open two days while we were there, tonight and Wednesday, it also closed very early (at eight or nine I think). The beer and food were alright though and we really liked it, shame that tonight was the only time we could use it.

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By the time we walked back to the cabin it had stopped raining and Dot decided to go into hot tub, I decided to have a go as well.

Later that night

Day two, Tuseday 7th of July

After breakfast Dot was in the pool again while I sat and stuck to reading my book. The weather was much better than the previous day and the sun was shining, so we just did nothing most of the day.

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Latter on the afternoon we went for a drive though and ended up in Ripon and had a good wander round the shops. I got a load of beers and had to take them back to the car as they weighed far too much to carry. But then I bought even more and had to carry it around with me.

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Ripon is very good for beers as there are at least three very good shops in the centre. The biggest of these being Booths and they are great with beer stocks. We also got a nice beer glass from one of the other shops.

We were going to have tea there but it was still a bit early, so we drove back to Thirsk and had tea in the Spoons, The Three Tuns. I did have one new beer in there.

Wharfe Bank, Tether Blond, England

Wharfe Bank, Tether Blond, England

3.8% gold colour with a nice head, not too bad but a bit too hoppy and I an getting sick of hoppy beers.

After tea we made our way back to the cabin and again Dot went into the pool, I also had to have a dip.

Day three, Wednesday 8th of July

Dot was making very good use of the hot tub and was in again on the morning.

That afternoon we had to get back to Ingleby Barwick for the girls school play and we were going early to help them get sorted. We left Thirsk on the A19 only to get stuck in traffic as soon as we joined. I took a chance and took the first turning of the A19. We were very lucky, as the road went straight to the back road to Northallerton and then to Ingleby Barwick. It took some time but we had no idea how long the A19 was closed.

Anyway we got there on time and the school show of the Wizard of Oz was fantastic, Georgia was Dorothy and Emily was the Lion.

Dorothy, played by Georgia Emily the Cowardly Lion

Afterwords we drove back to Thirsk and instead of going to Spoons for super we went to one of the Italian takeaways and got a pizza to take back to the van.

Day Four, Thursday 9th of July

After breakfast we went for a walk around the site, for a look at the cabins and I like the older ones a lot more that the newer stuff. Even though ours was relatively small.

The bigger cabins Our cabin

We then went off into Thirsk and Tesco (or was it Lidl, it's opposite Tesco), to get stuff for a BBQ for tea. Only we had to cook everything on the cooker and the oven wasn't working properly (just remembered and I forgot to report that).

Later that afternoon Nicole, Tim and the girls arrived and got into the hot tub, Tim and the girls spent most of their visit in there.

All in

After the others left, Dot was back in the tub and so was I.

Day Five, Friday 10th of July

We had to be out of the cabin fairly early this morning so all we did was have breakfast and set off. We were not going straight home but set off for a drive around the northern dales.

First we headed for Masham and had a brief walk around there. Then we headed on to Middleham, only I took the wrong road and we had quite a long drive to get there but we did get there. In Middleham we had a walk around the castle, we did not go in, just had a walk around.

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From there we drove on to Layburn not far away but when we got there, the market was on there and it was practically impossible to get parked. So we just drove on Richmond, were again our usual parking place was also full, anyway we just parked somewhere else and walked in to town.

After a nice walk around and a look in most of the shops we looked for somewhere to eat. We chose the Wetherspoon's, now this is something we have noticed, some of the Spoon's are very nice indeed but a few, are not that nice, this was one of the not very nice ones. I assume it must just be the landlord but we will probably give it a miss next time. In the last two weeks we have been in three Wetherspoon's, one was very nice (Thirsk), one was iffy but only service (Warwick) and the third was not very nice (Richmond). I am not giving up on Wetherspoon's, as most are very good (especially for drinking) but I do think management need to take a look at some of them.

After our visit to Richmond, we just drove home.