Just because Al has moved to Sunderland doesn't mean we aren't going to his old beer festival. Just the 5 of us; Al, Andrew, Mark, Matt & myself. Beers that stood out were;

Acorn IPAⁱ - a good brew if not quite to style.
Bazen's iBeer - like a girl betting on a horse, it was picked because of the name. More like an IPA than Acorn's - the brewery, not the seed of the oak.
Fowlers Gothenburg Porter - more like a smoked stout I thought. A particularly good brew.
Kelham Island Brooklyn Smoked Porter - the smell & taste of so much smoke flavour put the others off this one. A supping beer. I loved it but would have trouble drinking more than a pint or two.
Station House 4 a' That - this reminded Mark & me of the sultana beer I brewed in Manchesterⁱ years ago. Very fruity & I liked it even for a sweetish beer.
Thornebridge Country House Brewery Bohemia - a very pale & delicate cask lager. Very good, but doesn't go with pork scratchings very well!
Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbeir Urbock - a strong dark beer from Belgium that was smokey. Not to everyones taste. Lovely.

After the lunchtime session we wandered from pub to pub to Bradford, had a curry & continued to my favourite pub, the New Beehive to thrash a bunch of kids at pool until after midnight and drink Erdinger Weissebeer on tap. On Saturday we toured Leeds on an all day pub crawl & the others watched the Rugby whilst I did the Mirror crossword.

And I didn't make The Mighty Boosh up. It does exist & it's very funny.