Eat, Drink, and be Merry

Left to right: Dave, Jordan, Chris

casks for days...

more casks for days....

even more casks for days....

Jordan in his element...

The Robin Hood Beer Festival was excellent! It was held at the castle in Nottingham and featured over 600 different ales; let's just say there were ample choices. I sampled about 1% of them. I know that was just the tip of the ale iceberg, but it was a great tip! I went with three other Sherwoodians, my PIC Jordan, Dave from the North Wing, and our friend Chris from Germany. We got there payed our entry and recieved our beer tokens and souvenir half pint glasses. Like any good beer enthusiasts we didn't waste any time getting down to business. I can't really remember the names of the ales I tried except for one which was called Rambo. I only remember this one because it brings to mind images of a Sylvester Stallone killing spree involving a machine gun, exploding arrows, bulging biceps, an open mouthed stare and one extremely small tank top.

I really enjoyed just being in a tent with so many beer lovers. These aren't your run of the mill get drunk on some cheap, piss flavor lager college students. This crowd loved their beer and it showed. It showed in their eyes, smiles, and hearts...but mostly in their guts! This was definitely an older, more mature crowd who really did appreciate beer for more than it's alcohol content. I felt honored to seek the holy grail of ale with them.

On a finishing side note, I noticed that I saw more beards and facial hair at the beer festival than I have in my previous three weeks here. Until last Thursday I thought that if you had a beard in Nottingham you were either Middle Eastern or a cab driver...or both. So apparently, the beard is not dead in England, although it's probably on life support.

That's pretty much all I have to say about the beer fest, it was awesome. Plain and simple. Good beer, good people, good beards. I wish I had more time to write but I have tons of work to do and more blogs to write so, if ya don't know, now ya know....