It didn’t take too long before we made our way inside to buy our festival glasses and stock up on beer tokens (no money changes hands at the bar). The place was packed, but we made our way to our usual ‘family spot’ between the two main halls. No seating, but a bit of space to move and lower background noise so it was possible to hold a conversation.

There’s a massive list of beers to choose from, but true to form the ones I’d singled out to find weren’t available. I’d been keeping an eye open for Timothy Taylor Ram Tam as it’d been recommended before. For the third year running it wasn’t on when I was there. Same went for one of my favourites, Fullers London Porter, although I’d managed to get a glass of that at last year’s event.

As each different ale was brought back from the bar, it was tasted by various members of the group – a nice way to sample even more varieties. We had ales tasting of orange, grapefruit, ginger, chocolate, coffee, and my personal favourite Theakstons Old Peculier – sweet and dark with hints of apples and liquorice. I also had my first glass of Kuppers Kölsch on draught – a light German (Cologne) beer which reminded me of an unfizzy lager (can you tell I was slightly underwhelmed with that?) which isn’t strange as that’s kind of what it is.

So, in all a nice afternoon and evening, which started in Wagamama with spicy prawns and sticky rice (thanks for treating us to the food Chris & Helen) and finished in a quiet pub in St. Georges Street supping a glass of Adnams Old Ale.

With over 200 cask-conditioned ales from independent brewers across the UK, a wide selection of draught and bottled foreign beers and 25 kinds of cider & perry to try, it’s a great place to visit. It’s become a bit of an annual pilgrimage for our family and there’ll be at least half a dozen of us in attendance on Monday. Always a friendly atmosphere there – it gets jam-packed but there’s never any bother. Everybody’s too engrossed in tasting the ale!