The Beer Monster on Beer Ticking

As some of you may have read the beer monster went on holiday to Thailand in May and, as has been reported in these pages, suffered from a mild case of SARS (Severe Ale Reduction Syndrome).

However, leaving that aside, here is my method of going off on holiday. It might take a bit of planning but it can be worthwhile so here is my skeleton plan.

Stage 1 of planning a departure for a holiday abroad is deciding when you are going and where from. This may seem obvious but deciding the time of leaving the country has an influence on stage 2.

Stage 2 of course now means that we look up what beer festivals can be visited on the way to the departure point and if no convenient festivals are found return to stage 1. Stages 1 and 2 should be repeated until a suitable combination can be found.

In my case Stage 1 led to a departure at 21:30 Saturday 03-May-2003 from Heathrow and Stage 2 gave up the 4th New Britannia Beer Festival in Preston and the 9th Reading Beer festival.

So Friday 02-May found me catching the train to Preston and then checking in to my accommodation for the night. This was then followed by a gentle walk to the New Britannia to see what delights Paula had managed to find for us this time.

As usual the choice was astounding and I proceeded to test all the beers on the festival bar plus those on the normal bar. Amongst the offerings were new beers from Hart, Goose Eye, Spinning Dog and Cropton as festival specials. In addition there was a selection of beers chosen by the Barmaid Lisa from Wylam, High House Farm, Durham, Hill Island and Jarrow. Of course where would the New Brit be without Ollyıs eclectic choices and these were from all over the country and even one from Messrs Maguire of Dublin. Needless to say all had a good time and it was nice to see all the Preston lot and people from further away sampling these beers.

Saturday morning saw me catching the train to Reading and unbelievably the Virgin train was actually on time into Reading. (Wonders will never cease). So at about 13:00 (I use the 24 hour clock) I arrived at Reading Railway Station. Unfortunately this place no longer has any left luggage facilities to the annoyance of Heathrow Link staff. However just 5 minutes walk takes you to Kingıs Meadow. So having hired a glass I proceeded to the festival. Not many tables down I found Barry from Wigan and the incomparable ticker Little Brian from Sheffield (some of you know him), and obviously joined them. For some reason they thought that going on holiday via beer festivals was strange. But to hear this from a man who travels 100 miles for 4 or 5 beers is incredible. Anyway I sat down and then went for a beer (sometimes I get these things wrong.)

Reading is one of the biggest beer festivals in the country with about 300 beers, plus this year the CIBA beer of the year bar and the APPLE Cider and Perry National Championship going on. I just stuck to a selection of the 300 that included a lot of new beers, mainly from the south (of Cumbria that is) but also including a couple of beers from Foxfield. 18:00 soon came and having tried about 20 new beers it was time to go for the bus to Heathrow. Heathrow is apparently the worldıs biggest international airport and this must explain why the excellent Shakespeare bar in terminal 3 has now shut. This bar used to sell 3 well kept real ales normally being Bass, Fuller London Pride and 1 other. However consumer progress moves on and itıs been replaced by some useless shop or other and there arenıt any bars after you go through emigration.

Some 12 hours takes you on a non-stop flight to Thailand and then itıs just a couple of hours from Don Muang Airport to Pattaya and the start of four real ale free weeks.

However Pattaya isnıt totally bad there is the Brau Hopf. This is a German run brew pub selling a very nice wheat beer and a rather malty Pils. These beers are served under a slight top pressure but they are the least gassy beers in Pattaya and also theyıre not served ice cold. The beers are very tasty and if you go in soon after opening time (15:00) on the right day you might find the guys finishing off that part of the dayıs brewing. You also might get a chance to talk to the "brewmeister".

Keep finding the beers!
Beermonster.