Pommie Beer page

I have previously referred to Mr B Mackenzie who went to the UK with a suitcase of personal effects (ie cans of Fosters Lager).

In 1971 when I went back to the UK to let my parents know I was staying in Australia I arranged for a couple of slabs of Fosters to be delivered by mail to my parents place.  My dad was a little surprised to find the postman staggering to the front door with 48 tinnies in his arms.  These days I wouldn't drink Fosters in a fit (unless 1: I was suffering from extreme thirst and 2: there was no other beer available).

My only recent (ie since 2002) experiences of British Beers have been:

• a couple of bottles of an Adnams product which were very enjoyable and found in the Plonk shop at Fyshwick Markets.  (Note that I am a bit worried about Adnams since this site kept trying to divert me into wine: bugger that, they are BREWERS not whine (sic)  merchants).  
• a bottle of Black Sheep (see below) Riggwelter Ale from the same source.  Most excellent beer

 However the following list of points will report on what I find on safari later in the year.

I think this might come under the "nice try but no cigar"  category.  Our first stop, at Ingleby Manor is close to Great Ayrton where there is a Captain Cook memorial marked in the AA Atlas.  On Googling this I was linked to an entry in  Wikipedia which includes the statement "...in the 18th and 19th centuries was a centre for the industries of weaving, tanning, brewing and tile making."   Who cares about the death of the weaving, tanning and tile making industries?

After Frances found a reference to Theakstons in a guide book I did a little research on it and came across a page from 1998.  The Good Beer Guide says that the Theakston family have re-acquired the original brewery so possibly they are running both breweries again.  The Black Sheep has a webpage also.  It sounds like Masham will have to be visited (and possibly Frances will be driving afterwards).  [I contacted Theakstons about their opening hours and got back a helpful reply in under an hour!  That is what I call a client focus!!]

This was but the start of my theoretical research.  My next attempt was to read through the Breweries section of the Good Beer Guide to see which ones were in range.  Unfortunately I had noted 7 good looking establishments before I had got out of the 'Bs'.  So I went for plan B which was to mark the location of our accommodation on the maps and see what was around them.  North Yorkshire and Somerset had a few interesting looking entries at first glance with a Black Sheep (see above) house very close to the Manor.   "Our" part of Norfolk looked be suitable for renaming as "Leglessshire" since:

• the village we're staying in has a pub tied to Buffy's;
• the next village towards Norwich has facility of the Blue Moon Brewery (makers of inter alia Liquor Mortis); and
• the 3rd village has house beer by Wolf and specialities from Beeston!