Not everyone who enjoys a pint of real ale is a morbidly obese loner with eccentric facial hair.
I spent a very pleasant couple of hours sniffing and sipping halves at CAMRA’s Sussex Beer Festival last week.
True, quite a few fellow imbibers would benefit from a diet plan and a good barber.
But the packed halls at Hove town hall included all sorts, students, pensioners, visitors from the Far East, fashionable young women.
Beer festivals are rare in that they are one of the few public events that attract the widest possible audience. And despite the presence of alcohol the atmosphere is lively but good natured, all pleases and thank-yous, excuse mes as you squeeze through the throng.
A good pint, half or third, transcends class, sex, nationality and pretty much everything else. Perhaps we should drop good beer on Crimea and give everyone the chance to relax, chat and find common interest like strangers in pubs.
Last week my taste buds tingled to Beachy Head’s Legless Rambler, Firebird Heritage XX, Harvey’s Armada Ale, Langham’s Arapaho, Rectory’s Plumpton Cross and Naked Beer’s Streaker.
Other interesting names included HipHopoptamus, Halcyon Hop Haze, Cavedweller, Art Of Darkness, Beyond The Pale, Old Town Tom, Fuggle-De-Dum, Amish Mash and Black Jesus. The list goes on.
Naming beers must be almost as much fun as drinking them.
Only in Brighton. A man stands in the street in his boxers, joggers round his ankles, trapped because in each hand he holds a big plate of hot pub Sunday roast thick with gravy that he’s walking home.
bill@billtodd.co.uk
www.facebook.com/DannyLancasterInvestigates
Remembering Barbara – www.barbaragubbins.co.uk