The Wikipedia states an Ale to be “Ale is a type of beer brewed from malted barley using a top-fermenting brewers’ yeast. This yeast ferments the beer quickly, giving it a sweet, full bodied and fruity taste. Most ales contain hops, which impart a bitter herbal flavour that helps to balance the sweetness of the malt and preserve the beer.”

My graduation from Lagers to Ales pretty much happened in London a couple of years back and in the company of friends.

So it has pretty much been either a pub crawl (UK for pub hop) or pretty much the confines of a hotel room.

This time was rather pleasant. I was invited by a friend to his hockey club Real Ale Festival. Some offers are difficult to refuse as they say and this one what was one of them obviously. 14 Ales and 3 Ciders – I didn’t try the ciders eventually. Given a choice it’s Ale, Stout, Lagers and Ciders in that order.

So we decided to do a barrel crawl – go from barrel to barrel with the souvenir glass you see in the image. That glass did hold many of those on the list and I’d avoid mentioning how many, because it is not the quantity but quality that matters. Quality of a good time. An Ale of a time…

Thanks Robbie…it was good, not to mention the overground and underground trains back to the hotel in Central London.

Also the blokes at the Broxbourne Hockey club for being great hosts.

Aleman!