Sunday 5th October 2008
Turnout - Fantastic
Weather - Pants
It was a miserable morning weatherwise as Mark and I made our way to meet the other guys outside the Gala for 10.15. We arrived to find quite a large crowd waiting for the coach (rough guesstamate approx 30 beer lovers were at the bus stop). No sign of big D though ... quite worrying as the bus was not going to wait for anyone;) However as dave had organised such a great trip ... I think we can forgive him for the 1min 55 seconds that he was late!
The bus set off ... we passed away the time discussing the health benefits of the papaya fruit, discovered that despite remembering to bring my camera I had infact forgotten the batteries - rendering it useless, we were also entertained by Al's artistic skills (drawing funny faces on the back window of the bus!) The other highlight of the trip was peter yet again getting out his lunch box (great tuperware) ..sadley I had restricted view seating for that.
We arrived at Saffron brewery slightly later than scheduled ... I must add by the way great skills by the bus driver for his reversing. The brewery itself had lots of character set in a very rural area. We were greeted by the sound of a cock and a some saffron blonde ... who could ask for a nicer welcome! We were then given a brief history of the brewery, and were impressed by Saffrons previous innovative brewing equipment ... mash tuns that swivel & tilt on its side for easy cleaning (fantastic idea). All this was presented on a huge flat screen telly that was donated to them by a local celebrity in return for a 'great deal' of beer! Speaking of beer ... we were then offered some more ... this time it was Littlebury Lighthouse, another smashing ale ... sadly the time came too quickly for us to move on and we had to make our way back to the bus.
Our next destination was the Bull at Woolpit. Unfortunatly our journey was delayed somewhat by a bad accident on the A14. We arrived at the pub looking foward to our meal (it had been a long time between cornflakes at around 9am and the current time which was 3pm!) Before I ordered however I was becoming increasingly frustrated that as a women I always have to queue for the toilet ....... I watched 27 men go in and then come out of the gents ... there must have only been about 4 women in the whole pub ... but only 1 'ladies' ... anyhow moving swiftly on ... after selecting from the impressive range of vegetarian options, I joined the others in the conservatory and dining area. Most people had requested the sunday roast ... which I have to admit looked very nice! It was quite amusing that whilst mark (toss) was on a rant about something or another... he missed the extra roasts being brought through in a big bowl that somehow managed to bypass our table! whata mistaka to maka. After finishing a very reasonable priced and tasty meal it was time to make a quick getaway again and after downing a refereshing pint of Everards, we piled back onto our beer bus to wind our merry way to the Red Rat brewery.
When we arrived 'merry' would be a good way to describe our greeting from some happy brewers who had been waiting for us with 3 barrels of beer for slightly longer than originally planned. We crossed the moat (large bit of wood across a big puddle) into the brewery. We were given a warm welcome and were allowed to sample some very fine free beer. The Stout was top notch, the experimental fruit beer and some Wooly Pig ... all tasting good but also quite strong. Big D presented the brewer with the award for Champion Bitter and runner up of overall best ale of 2008). Then the bad news was given that due to the delays encountered on our journey there ... the final leg of our trip - a visit to the Bell at Hedingam was to be cancelled ... however, the good news that we had an extra half hour at the Red Rat brewery cheered us up and gave us more time to try and work out which ale was in each bottle (no labels on any of the bottles of beer) ... and either a) some bright spark had swapped them all around, or b) the bottles had mysteriously shuffled themselves around just for fun, or c) the stout was a light brown colour. It also gave me an extra few minutes to throw my pint all over the floor ... by the way who said 'I couldn't hold my drink?!' Then it was time to make our way back to Colchester (la la la).
We bundled back onto our awaiting transport. After a couple of wee stops in the middle of a field for the men and after hearing several Zzz's from various passengers (for some it was a power kip before final drinks in colchester ... me) and for others they we were sleeping off lots of food and beer as it was all too much. We arrived back and for the 'hard core' there was a final final stop before bed time. The Hole in the Wall had a beer festival on ... and we felt obliged to support them in the promotion of real ale ... well it would be rude not too!! We all for some reason chose different routes to the pub but arrived in one piece! Dark Island went down very well before a trudge back home.
Well done to Big D for organising a great day out, thank you to the breweries and pubs that looked after us ... and provided us with 'refreshments' good work ... keep it up! ... I had a lovely time and sure everyone else did too ... so CHEERS!
Georgie