A Local Club.......

On Friday evening myself and the whole gang made our way over the 'border' to Thorncombe Sports and Social Club for their annual Cricket and Beer Festival.
I was picked up by the mini-bus just after seven and after the short journey up the road we arrived at the club ready for a good evening. We numbered ten on the bus but were joined by two more later with at least eight of us being CAMRA members.
The ales on offer were all local brewery's and most of us had tried at least half of them before, but what the heck, it was a festival !

I went first for a new beer for me and the Mighty Hop brewery from Lyme Regis, this was their Mighty Red IPA, although at only 3.8%abv its not what you would traditionally call an IPA as it should be around 5%.
It was slightly cloudy as it had not settled since racking but it tasted OK.
Next up was another Lyme brewery,Town Mill and Revenge, a seasonal ale at 5.3% and one of my favourites of the night.
Next it was back to Somerset and the Quantock Brewery from Wellington.White Hind at 4.5% was a chestnut brown ale and was pretty non-descript and forgettable.
For number four it was off to Devon and the Dartmoor brewery's Jail Ale at 4.8%. This was another that I had tried before and is a full bodied mid brown beer with a slightly sweet aftertaste.
Now it was back into Somerset and one my favourite brewery's with Yeovil Ales Lynx Wildcat. This was the first time I tried this out of the cask and it was much better than its bottled variety. At 4.3% its a bronze full bodied and hoppy bitter with a grapefruit aroma.
Last of the night (well at the festival at least !) was a trip to Wiltshire and the Salisbury brewery Hop Back. GFB is an ale I've tried many times and never fails to deliver. A great session beer at 3.5%.
It was now 11.30pm and the Mini-bus had arrived to ferry us all back home but not before a few of us had stopped off at Andy J's for a couple more. We raided Andy's stocks and I had a bottle of Elsie Moe from the Castle Rock Brewery in Cornwall which was another 'new one' for me and was a strong golden ale at 4.7% with a nice citrus taste. I also managed to put away a Bath Ales 'Organic' before stumbling into the night and getting to bed around 3am.
Needless to say I felt decidedly fragile the next morning but it was a good night spent with friends and ale which could have only been improved with few darker ales.