Waltham Abbey Beer Festival

The May Bank Holiday was a mixed bag for weather but for once we could attend the Beer Festival that is held in the town hall on this weekend.

The beer was smaller than we are used to at many London festivals but all were local breweries and so were the ciders. Jack of Clubs was my favourite but the Mild from Brentwood was a close second. The London Glider Dry was indeed dry, extremely dry but that is down to personal taste, the medium/dry is great.

And of course what beer festival is not complete without LARP!

Canned Summer

Ah cans, yes I have been known to be rather snobby about them and with good cause, over carbonation has ruined more than one nice beer that had been previously enjoyed on cask or from a bottle. However recently I have tried the latest versions from Fullers, Badger, and Adnams, all of which were good.

Ok, I still prefer London Pride on cask but now prefer the can to the bottle, the can having that lovely toffee thing the cask does. Fursty Ferret from Badger was very good too, slighty fizzer but not noticeable plus side to cans is you can quickly cool a can to celler temperature unlike a bottle which is a waiting game. Adnams is a difficult one to judge I enjoyed the can offering more than the times I have had a pint of it outside Southwold and found it to be badly kept and I've never seen a bottle of the bitter.

I'm not fully a fan but I have to say that I won't turn my nose up straight away plus it means a few more options for the store cupboard.

Post Run Recovery

Now my unfortunate blisters have healed plus I can walk without pain, I have gone back to running. Helped by the fact that in September I will be doing the Edinburgh Half Marathon! This snippet article in one of my running magazines certainly made me laugh, not advisable if you run before work but a relaxing pint after your weekend run could be termed as recovery now.

Although I would personally swop the beer mentioned for a 4% bitter.