Jo and I were in Nottingham this weekend for Fantasycon – the annual highlight of our social calendar – which was held at the Britannia hotel, just up the road from Nottingham Castle and The Olde Trip to Jerusalem. It would have been rude not to pop in for a jar while we were there, so I did, twice.

The Old Trip had a selection of half-a-dozen ales on offer. I started, on visit number one, with a couple of pints of Rock Mild (3.8% abv) from the Nottingham Brewery; a dark, sweet, slightly chocolatey mild that was perfectly palatable and went down extremely nicely on top of the rather fine curry we’d had just before.

The next day I nipped back with a few friends (while Jo had a strategic nap) and this time decided to give the house beer one more go. Olde Trip Ale (4.3% abv) is brewed for the Olde Trip by Greene King and Ed first posted tasting notes on this one back in June last year. I’ve encountered it a couple of times with rather disappointingly mixed results.

This time around though it made a much better impression on me: rich, smooth, malty and fresh-tasting. I must have been lucky and encountered a particularly good batch. (Quick name-dropping aside: Steven Erikson had nipped out for a pint with us and he was quite taken by the Olde Trip – pub and pint both – as well).

I also had a pint of Greene King’s seasonal Autumn ale, Bonkers Conkers, on a recommendation from my mate Mark Newton. Bonkers Conkers was a light (4.1% abv), nutty, pale / brown ale; another easy-drinking, entirely palatable beer that helped to set me up a treat for an evening back at the hotel quaffing bottles of (the oh, so terribly-amusingly-named) Piddle in the Hole from the Wyre Piddle brewery, which wasn’t a bad drop either.

It was a great weekend of catching up with old friends and shooting the breeze, made all the more enjoyable by some thoroughly decent beer. I think Fantasycon 2010 will be in Nottingham again and I for one can’t wait. Although I might be having a word with the committee about asking the hotel to source some bottled ale that doesn’t try to patronise its customers as they order it. Let’s face it, the joke’s pretty bloody thin, eh?