I had a couple of hours at Ilkley beer festival last friday afternoon. It was slightly bizarre, the whole afternoon is a corporate sponsorship thing where (mainly) Leeds' big legal, financial & property companies try to outdo each other by wearing rugby yawnion tops with their names emblazened across them (why it is yawnion & not soccer, league or cricket tops is an intersting debate). Apart from that it was great, all the beer was free, as was an endless supply of Lishman's pies. As my time was short (& you could barely move) I concentrated on local ales, both geographically & within the halls; all were good, most I've since forgotten the name of, though the clear winner, among those I had not tried before, was Gooseye (Keighley) Chinook. A fantastic pale beer.
Fantastic stuff.
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