What a shame. After another challenging week in the office I was looking forward to a day at one of my favourite annual events, the Helston Beer Festival. And come the day, Mrs N stays in bed with stomach pains and I become ICO childcare. Ah well, way of the world (and I did get to see Kung Fu Panda, which was actually a pretty good film!).

Having promised to write some words for The West Briton, I popped along today and chatted to organiser Julian Pinto about how it had gone. And it seems I missed a belter. There were 36 beers on, all Cornish, tasted by about 450 people over three days. First to run dry was Lizard 2000 (4.5%), a golden hoppy brew created by Alan Hinde at Coastal Brewery, Redruth, and named after the organisers of the festival, who formed in Milennium year and raise money for charities and good causes in the Lizard and West Cornwall area. Second to disappear was Skinner’s Cornish Blonde, a 5% wheat beer that’s very popular during those years when we actually have a Cornish summer!

This was also the first beer festival (I think) to feature beers from the Penzance Brewing Company, aka Star Inn, Crowlas, landlord Peter Elvin. PZ Gold (4.3%) and Crowlas Bitter (4%) were both very well received, apparently.

Proving the holiday season is well under way down here (as the empty supermarket shelves also testify) there was even a couple in attendance from New York.