Norwich Beer Festival.

Around the end of October, Tina and I headed to St. Andrew's Hall - which used to be a church - for the 2010 Norwich Beer Festival, put on by Norwich CAMRA [Campaign for Real Ale: "campaigning for real ale, pubs and drinkers' rights since 1971" - now that's a charity I can get behind!]. I put on my Angkor Beer shirt from Cambodia for the occasion.

Around 11 on a Friday morning, we made our way to the back of a very long line. While we waited for about 45 minutes to get in, we noticed that the line was mostly full of guys. Beer festival? More like sausage fest!





Once inside, we bought tickets and glasses and headed over to the cider kegs. These were nothing like Strongbow, though - very different taste and almost no carbonation. I got a perry, which is a cider made from pear instead of apple. The older gentleman who was pouring cider out gave me a couple samples first, and when I chose one and asked for a half pint, he just looked at me and said, "A hahlf pint." I said, "Yes, a half pint." He said, "No - a hahlf pint." So I put on my best British accent and was rewarded.

In the area featuring Norfolk beer, we started talking to three guys - a father-in-law, a son-in-law, and the son-in-law's friend. They come here every year, and the friend even comes all the way from London, where he now lives. He knows he's going to be made redundant soon, and he's planning on taking up brewing - so we listened to his recommendations for what to try out.

I finished up the experience with a Scotch egg ["a shelled hard-boiled egg, wrapped in a sausage meat mixture, coated in breadcrumbs, and deep-fried" - wikipedia] and a beer called Hey Pesto, which did, in fact, taste like pesto. I was appalled and intrigued at the same time.