Real Ale Festival

Not sure where yesterday went, well we did spend a long time finding out how to get from Charleroi airport (which although it indicates it's Brussels it's actually 55km south of Brussels) to Bruges. We are now totally clued up on all the buses/trains and the easiest/cheapest way to do it if anyone needs that information.
However enough about our trip and more about the beer festival which took place at the weekend. We have been involved with the beer festival for several years in the past, infact D was on the organising committee in it's early years when it took place at our children's secondary school. During that time it grew bigger and bigger and more and more money was made for the school funds. After a new Head took over it moved down to Magna, which provided a much bigger venue. Magna if you've not heard of it is an amazing interactive science adventure centre which is just brilliant for both children and adults. You can read more about it here.
When I had 'that birthday' D and I went out for lunch with our good friends J and J. A year ago J set up a micro brewery in the outbuildings at their house called Harthill Village Brewery and launched their wonderful beer at last year's festival, since then it has won several awards. Over lunch they asked us if we would like to help them down at Magna this year - having not pulled any pints for several years we both jumped at the chance. We worked Friday night, one of the busiest and soon got back into it, not only enjoying the pint pulling but also all the banter that goes with it. Over the weekend 3,312 half pint glasses were pulled on J's bar - pretty impressive! Here are some pictures which will give you an idea of the scale and atmosphere

 



 

and that was just in one hall! there are several others which meant there was over 200 hand pulled beers, 45 ciders and 38 international bottles beers, all that along with live music and food stations. A good night was had by many.

 

So onwards with today and I can already tick my first job off and it's only 7-15am! The rest of my list includes finishing curtains and hanging them in B's old bedroom as we are having J's lovely girlfriend F to stay with us as she is starting a new job near by, icing the buns I made Saturday which will be past their best if I leave them much longer and cleaning everywhere before we go away. So I'll sign off to go and get a shower. xx