Tuckers Maltings

My first post for a few weeks as my 24/7 carer duties take up so much time and don't allow me many opportunities to get out much anyway.
I did though manage to get to the 21st Tuckers Maltings Beer Fest on the 20th of April with most of the usual suspects, my brother and sister in law taking on my carers duties for the day.
We arrived in Newton Abbot on a sunny morning at 10:30am and made our way straight for the The Richard Hopkins,a large Wetherspoons in the middle of town for the traditional breakfast start to the day.
I passed on the food as I had eaten a large breakfast before leaving home so went straight for my first beer of the day, Riptide from the Conwy Brewery, a really crisp black IPA at 4.3%.
We then moved onto the 'fest at the Malting and after collecting our glasses( a rather chunky tankard style glass) headed for the beers. As in previous years all attempts to make sure that all the beers were available on the last day had failed and many of the ales were not on offer.
The Champion beer was though and I went straight for Hunters 'Royal Hunt', a strong amber beer at 5.5% but with a smooth taste. The rest of the day was made up of seeing what beers were left and choosing that way. Although the full range was not available I did enjoy all the beers I tried and in particular The Bristol Beer Factory's 'Bitter Kiwi' a fantastic crisp NZ pale ale at 5.0%. How this didn't win any awards escapes me !
We left the 'fest around 4.30pm and made our way back to the station, stopping for a pint of Amy's Ale from Teignworthy on the way before arriving back in Axminster around 7pm and calling into the Axminster Inn for a Palmers 200 to end the day.