Jo and I headed up to Summerseat, north of Bury, on Saturday to do a spot of shed research at the Summerseat Garden Centre. As it turned out they didn’t have any sheds, but once we’d fought our way past three rooms full of assorted Christmas tat and wandered into the “luxury food items” (over-priced james, pickles, bicsuits, chocolates etc. etc. etc.) section, we discovered that they did have a real ale section, for which I was almost able to forgive them the four-piece plastic midget santa band playing a selection of seasonal jingles (not what you want to be hearing in early November).

So, whilst we didn’t come away from Summerseat with a new shed, we did end up with a ceramic strawberry planter and bottles of the following:

• Bank Top Port O’ Call – A ‘dark and mysterious’ ale with added ruby port.
• Bank Top Dark Mild – A full-bodied mild ‘with hints of liquorice and roast barley’.
• Wold Top 5 Wold Rings – An amber beer that’s described as ‘festive’ on the label… we’ll see about that at Xmas, then.
• Wold Top Cracker Black – A 6% ABV Strong, dark Xmas ale, so another one to save for Dec 25th.
• Copper Dragon Black Gold – A Dark beer brewed to a traditional C19th recipe.
• Holt’s Manchester Brown Ale – With ‘a hint of molasses’ and a ‘smooth, burnt palate’, hopefully more interesting than Newcastle Tadcaster Brown.
• J. W. Lees Moonraker – A 7.5% ABV ale from local brewery John Willies? Had to be done.
• Leyden Forever Bury – A 4.6% ABV ale brewed by local brewery Leyden to support my team, Bury FC. About bloody time I bought a bottle or two of this one then, eh?

…so it wasn’t an entirely wasted journey, although I was deeply traumatised by the sheer volume of Christmas tat. It may take me some time (and about eight bottles of beer) to recover.

Incidentally, Wold Top brewery are working to raise £10,000 to support the Candlelighters childrens’ cancer charity. You can support them by buying a bottle (or six) of their Candlelight Ale, available from the brewery or various fairs and farmers’ markets around Driffield in the run-up to Christmas.