A few weekends-in just recently have helped to put a decent-sized dent in the stockpile, which gave me some storage room to play with and a chance to indulge in a bit of a new acquisitions drive on a couple of occasions.

The first phase took the form of a raid on the Tanner’s Wines branch in Bridgnorth, Shropshire. Although primarily a purveyor of fine vino, they do have a small, but quite interesting, selection of beers from local independent and / or craft breweries. Mindful of my self-imposed new year injunction against picking up one of everything I can find just for the sake of it, I limited myself to the following:

• Three Tuns Cleric’s Cure
• Hobson’s Old Henry
• Hobson’s Postman’s Knock
• Hobson’s Manor Ale

Next up was a visit to the recently-opened branch of Morrison’s in Whitefield. They’ve got a pretty good range of real ales to choose from, all things considered – easily superior to Tesco, if not quite as extensive as Sainsbury’s – with quite a few on the shelves that I hadn’t sampled before. But again, I impressed myself with my restraint and emerged from the store with just a small selection:

• Marston’s Oyster Stout
• Bateman’s Victory Ale (an eagerly anticipated re-visit)
• Bateman’s Dark Lord
• Belhaven Twisted Thistle IPA

And then last weekend Jo and I headed off for some r&r up on the edges of the Lake District, where the North Yorkshire, Cumbria and Lancashire borders collide. En-route we stopped off in Settle, and to kill some time while lunch went down decided to wander around a big outlet store by the name of Watershed Mill. Inside, we were surprised and delighted (Jo was surprised, I was delighted) to discover the Yorkshire Real Ale Shop, offering a wide range of beers from a number of Yorkshire’s finest independent breweries:

Frankly, I could have had a good stab at filling the boot of the car with new beers, but yet again I showed truly remarkable self-restraint and only purchased a half-dozen bottles (and the average asking price of around £2.50 a shout helped keep the numbers down). Anyhow, here’s what I’ve got settling in the cupboard as a result:

• Whitby Black Dog Rhatas Special Bitter
• Dent T’Owd Tup
• Dent Ramsbottom
• Daleside Morocco Ale
• Copper Dragon Black Gold
• Cropton Monkman’s Slaughter

Tasting notes to follow in due course! And, potentially, more acquisitions to report on as well: Jo and I are off over to York again on Saturday and we’re planning on swinging by The Jug and Bottle on the way, time allowing…