I attended Kingston Beer Festival on the evening of 25 June 2010.

Here’s the drinks I sampled, along with marks out of ten:

• Castle Rock Black Gold – 9/10
• Grafton Lady Mary – 6/10
• Marble Pint – 7/10
• Welton’s Bobby’s Best – 9/10
• Gwynt Y Doraig Black Dragon Cider – 9/10

I attended the Wetherspoon Spring Real Ale Festival at The Red Lion and Pineapple in Acton, West London, last Friday.

The Festival, which is running at selected Wetherspoon pubs, is featuring up to 50 ales and continues until 25 April 2010.

Some of the ales were new and brewed exclusively for the festival, [FB] below, whilst a few were by international brewers but specially brewed in the UK [IB], to complement the imported beers [I].

A few others were resurrection ales brewed for the festival [RA] – in other words beers that have not been produced for some time.

Full details are given in the festival programme [3MB PDF]

Here’s the drinks I sampled, along with marks out of ten:

• Goose Island Honker’s Ale [IB] – 9/10
• Green King Suffolk Springer [FB] – 11/10
• Herold Black Chalice [I] – 10/10
• Holden’s Burton Runner – 9/10
• Hook Norton Early Mist – 9/10
• Jennings Stickle Pike – 10/10
• Shepherd Neame Fremlins Bitter [RA] – 8/10
• Thwaites Summat Special – 9/10
• Val-Dieu Abbaye Blonde [IB] – 11/10

Pictured are fellow drinkers Nick Carroll and Chris Collier.

The Central Bar 6 April 2010.

I attended The Fox Inn Easter Beer Festival 2010 yesterday in West London.

In challenging Bank Holiday weather conditions (showers and a cold wind) a group of beer enthusiasts sampled a range of real ales (and one perry).

Here’s the drinks I enjoyed, along with marks out of ten:

• Highgate Davenports Irish Whiskey Ale – 10/10
• Hydes Over A Barrel – 9/10
• Kelham Island Pale Rider – 9/10
• Lancaster Blonde – 8/10
• Marston’s Jennings Cumberland Ale – 6/10
• Twickenham Naked Ladies – 8/10
• Westons Country Perry – 10/10
• Wylam Beer Rocks Spring Crazy Ale – 7/10

The Festival continues until Monday – if you’re in the Hanwell area I recommend a visit.

Pictured are fellow drinkers Nick Carroll, Tony Lennon and Chris Collier.

Went to Twinterval 2008 on Monday at the Match Bar, Margaret Street, London W1.

A good time was had by all – it was good to meet fellow Twitter users face to face.

Also caught up with Mauricio Reyes, who I last met at a meeting of the WordPress UK London local.

Above I’m pictured (some rights reserved) by Paul Parkinson, sampling some of the Czech bottled beer available at the gathering.

Training for Christmas is fully underway in the Scott household.

Well, the obvious answer (alcohol) was not the conclusion reached during discussion between Robert McIntosh and myself at the London Bloggers meeting on Tuesday at Ember in Farringdon.

During the wine tasting session organised by Robert, we discussed the common themes between the wine community and the real ale and cider movements.

There is an obvious connection between real ale and real cider, demonstrated by the regular appearances of cider (and perry) at CAMRA real ale festivals.

But what is the connection between the consumers of hop and apple-based drinks, and grape-based beverages?

The majority of members of both groups tend to drink wine, beer and cider (but not at the same time normally!).

The commonality between the real ale and cider groups, and the hard core wine aficionados, seems to be spreading the availability of the ‘real thing’.

In beer and cider it involves getting into as many outlets as possible drinks produced using traditional methods and ingredients.

In the wine world it involves making easily available wines that are outside the fairly standardised range distributed through supermarkets and the off-license chains

How to prove the thesis of a common ground between these interest groups correct?

I’m more from a real ale background, whilst Robert is from a wine background. Together we’re proposing a wine/beer/cider tasting evening in the London area to bring together those who might be interested in the intersection between these currently disparate areas.

The evening could also involve matching each drink with a food dish from a range that could be produced by food bloggers.

Whether this actually happens depends on the level of interest shown beforehand.

Therefore if interested readers could leave a comment to this post we can take the idea from there.

* With apologies to James Cridland for the title of this post!