Sunday in the Lake District: cold, crisp, clear; sun shining like it was feeling guilty for forgetting to do it all summer and felt it had a point to prove. In short: an absolutely amazing Autumn day.

Keen to make the most of the good weather, Jo and I headed out reasonably early (for us) in the direction of an amble around the grounds of Sizergh Castle. En-route we stopped off at Sizergh Lower Barn; a farm-shop cum deli that was packed to the rafters with local delicacies. We came away with pots of lemon cheese and damson paste (concentrated damson jam, without the stones – delicious!) as well as a few huge blocks of flapjack and a few bottles from their rather good local ale selection: two of Coniston brewery‘s Special Oatmeal Stout for Jo and one each of their Old Man Ale and Winter Warmer Blacksmith’s Ale for yours truly. Things were looking up already.

After a wander around the formal gardens, kitchen garden and orchard at the Castle (actually a stately home), we got back in the car and headed via the scenic route up to Bowness on the shores of Lake Windermere. Word to the wise: Bowness on a Sunday at the start of half-term is a definite candidate for Hell-on-Earth. Wonderful scenery across the Lake (if you could see any of it for all the bloody tourists) and quite a pleasant-looking town (if you could move around it for all the bloody tourists) but we were extremely glad we weren’t there in high summer. We trekked from the car park into town, becoming one with the throngs of bloody tourists in the process, then ducked into the first likely-looking pub for a spot of lunch.

We’d rather foolishly left the 2011 Good Pub Guide in the car, so we missed out on both the (Recommended) Hole in t’ Wall and the (Lucky Dip) Royal Oak, ending up in the Stags Head instead. This large, traditional, stone-walled pub offered a decent selection of pub food at reasonable prices, which turned out to be served in generous portions. Jo ordered the chicken roast and got half a bird with all the trimmings and I went for the 12ox Cumberland sausage and chips (very good chips they were, too).

Beer-wise, there was an advertised choice of eight; from the likes of Thwaites, Moorhouse’s, Theakston’s and John Smiths (cask). Only two pumps were on (Sunday afternoon leftovers after a busy Saturday night, I’m guessing) but luckily the beer I fancied was one of the two: Stags Head Imperial Bitter, brewed by Moorhouse’s and clearly the House ale. A 4.2% ABV, light golden bitter with plenty of malt flavour and a citrusy hop-bite to chase it down. Quite a pleasant easy-drinker and a very good accompaniment to my sausage and chips.

Feeling pleasantly full – and even a little better-disposed towards all the bloody tourists – we wandered around Bowness for a bit before heading back to the car and on to the definite beery-highlight of the weekend…

If you take the main road out of Bowness (the A591), through Windermere and on towards Kendal, after a few miles you reach the village of Staveley. Not much to it on first impression, apart from a couple of pubs, a fine art showroom… but then, tucked away off the main street, you’ll find a former mill complex, part of which now houses the Hawkshead Brewery. It would have been unforgivably rude not to drop in to The Brew House – the Hawkshead brewery tap – while we were in the area and as Jo had very kindly offered to do the driving for the rest of the day, that meant I was free to sup a couple of pints of Hawkshead’s finest.

I started with a drop of Lakeland Gold. Fellow beer blogger Baron Orm had raved about and personally recommended Lakeland Gold, but I have to admit that when I tried a bottle a few weeks ago, I wasn’t as fond of it as I’d hoped I would be; it just cam across as a little too drily ascerbic for my preference. So here was a golden opportunity to re-sample and re-assess, if ever there was going to be one.

The draught version was – as you’d expect – much, much nicer. The dryness was still there in force, but the fuller body of the draught pint gave the beer’s other characteristics a chance to shine through: subtle yet complex malt flavours and a richness of mouth-feel that the bottled version just didn’t manage to convey. All in all, it reminded me quite strongly of Marble Pint, which is one of my all-time favourite session beers. And to be fair, I’ve not had a bottled Pint, but I’d imagine there would be a similar disparity between that and the draught version as well.

At that point, seeing as I was still riding on Jo’s generosity and not yet pushing my luck, I went back to the bar for a second. A revived liking for Lakeland Gold aside, my eye had been caught by Hawkshead’s stronger, darker offering: Brodie’s Prime. Beautiful, it was. Dark, rich and complex; a bitter-sweet, almost porter-like roast malt flavour, but shot through with dark damson and black cherry, smoky liquorice and toffee sugars. I’m a big fan of dark, fruit-cake-sweet beers (something I may have mentioned a time or two before today) and this was the darkest, cake-iest beer I’d had all weekend. A lovely, lovely drop.

Now, unbeknown to us, the Beer Hall hosts an open mic session every Sunday afternoon and evening and the place rapidly filled up with folks carrying guitar cases. The session was hosted by a lady from round our way (odd factoid: we chatted to three or four random strangers over the course of the weekend and they all seemed to come from Prestwich, Whitefield or Middleton…) who tried to persuade us to stay the duration. If we’d been lodged closer-by we’d definitely have been up for it, but Jo wasn’t drinking and there was a rather enticing Organic Oatmeal Stout on the bar; depriving her of that was starting to feel like mental cruelty. So we waited until the first change of musicians and then guiltily sloped off out the exit, clutching a Hawkshead Brewery carrier bag full of bottles of the aforementioned stout and Brodie’s Prime.

We’ll be back, though. Another trip to the Lakes, another Sunday afternoon, with a room at the pub up the road: we’ll be back…

That evening we got back in the car and headed out for food at another local Good Pub Guide Recommended hostelry: the Wheatsheaf at Beetham. The food was of a good standard, with a varied menu, prices middling to slightly steep (£13 – £16 for a main course, side dishes extra). Jo had sea bass, which she said was very tasty, and I had belly pork, which was good but not quite as crispy as I usually like it.

Beer-wise, there were two or three real ales on the bar and I plumped for the one I’d not heard of: Queen Jean from the Tirril Brewery (based up in Long Marton), a village not far from Penrith. Alas, Queen Jean completed my hat-trick of thing, slightly sour-tasting session bitters. It wasn’t unpleasant, but it didn’t have a great deal going for it, flavour-wise. Fine if you want to sit and sup something inoffensive all evening, but otherwise unremarkable. But then, let’s face it, Brodie’s Prime at the Hawkshead Tap was always going to be an extremely hard act to follow.

So, there you go: a suitably beery three-day weekend up in the fabulous Lake District. Jo and I are already planning our next visit; maybe in the Spring. And maybe we might head a little further north. After all, I didn’t find a single Coniston beer on draught all weekend. That sounds like a good enough excuse for a second trip up there to me.