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.

Tuesday 15 September 2015

Beers from early July

Some beers from way back in July, I am attempting to catch up, these two were from Spoons by the look of the photos, Richmond I think. If it was the Weathersoons in Richmond, can I just say that this one is no where near as good as the others and was very run down, also some of the staff were pretty poor as well.

Richmond, Station Ale, England

Richmond, Station Ale, England

4.0% deep gold colour with a nice head, bit of an acidic aroma, slight vanilla taste.

Allendale, Golden Plover, England

Allendale, Golden Plover, England

4.0% gold colour with a nice head, a bit too hoppy but it was drinkable.

Monday 14 September 2015

Another trip to Alnwick Gardens

26 August 2015

We were looking after Georgia and Emily and I finished work really early, so we looked for something to do for the rest of the day. Well we had one day left on our Alnwick Gardens yearly tickets, so we went for a long drive out. It was a nice drive up there and we arrived about half one. We got to park nice and close in the car park for retuning customers with a ticket (last time on this ticket) and wandered over to the gardens.

As soon as we arrived we got some fish and chips from the café, Emily had sausage and chips, then we made our way into the main gardens. Dot and I got a cup of tea from the café inside the gardens, while the girls went off for a general run around.

Alnwick Gardens

The girls had a wander through the maze, looked around the water features and wandered up passed the waterfalls before we finished our tea. So we wandered up to the waterfalls and could see the girls back down the bottom, we had to wave them back up.

The Girls, Alnwick Gardens

After a sit in the gardens, I took some last photos around the garden before we headed back down for an ice cream.

Bea on Flower Bea

The fountains were flowing as we headed back down, so our ice creams had to wait until we finished watching.

DSCF8840

With our ice creams, we all had different flavours but I am sure mine was not the best, saying that it wasn't bad at all, we made our way over to the Treehouse. It was open this week which was better then last time we were there, still disgusted about that. It was also very full over there, with a lot of people eating and drinking.

Rope Bridge

After that we headed back home, we were not there that long but it got the girls out of the house and I am not sure if we will ever be back there.

Wedding do in Newcastle

A few weeks back we made contact with part of Dots family that we had lost touch with over the years. Dots aunty Margaret had died a few years ago while dots mother was poorly and we had not seen any of them since then. So when we were invited to the wedding do for Sophie, one of Dots cousins children, it was too good an opportunity to miss.

August 14, 2015

The do was on a Friday night in Newcastle (well Gateshead actually), at the Baltic and we intended to stop over at the Hilton Newcastle/Gateshead. We finished work early and drove up to Gateshead, although the roads were very crowded on a Friday tea time. We got a very nice room with a great view out over the river Tyne. Only trouble was, road works on the entrance to the hotel and we had to take a detour just to get there.

We met up with Margie and Dave, Dots sister and brother in law, at the hotel and wandered down and over to the Baltic.

There was nothing new on the beer front but I did manage to have a good drink anyway. We had a great night meeting Dot's relatives, there was a great band on and a magician, who managed to take Dot and Margie's  watches without any of us seeing.  It was fairly late when we got back to our room in the hotel.

August 15, 2015

Next morning was much nicer and I managed to take some photos from the room, just to show how good the view was. We had a very good breakfast before saying goodbye to Margie and Dave and drove up to Alnwick, we still had tickets for the gardens and time off work.

Swing Bridge Newcastle Hotel Window

We had a good walk around Alnwick Gardens and then went for a look around the shops in Alnwick. One thing though, the Treehouse Restaurant and walkway in the gardens, where closed for a private do, I do think is very poor and just shows what the rich can do.

In town I did check out a few places to stay the night but everywhere was booked up, August is not the time of year when you can just book somewhere last minute.

Another Bee

So in the end we just took our time driving the long way home, got a takeaway and watched England beat France 19-14 in a very close rugby match.