York on Wednesday;

Redwillow Heartless Chocolate Stout 4.9% in the Pivni WBF
York Centurions Ghost Ale 5.4% in the Last Drop Inn
Great Heck Bah Humbug 4.5% in the Guy Fawkes Inn
York Wonkey Donkey 4.5% in the Three-Legged Mare
Partners Shoddy Porter 4.5% in Ye Olde Starre
Black Sheep Ruddy Ram 4.0% in the Maltings
Ilkley Stout Mary 4.5% in the York Tap

Only the two York brews had been sampled before and the Wonkey Donkey not for some time.

Redwillow (Macclesfield) and Partners (Dewsbury) are breweries who's ales I haven't had before and both were very nice indeed.

In fact not an average / poor drink all day.

Enjoyed some excellent ales around Hull town last night:

Three John Scots (a Weatherspoons): Ruddles Best 3.7%
Bombardier 4.3%
Tom Wood's Bomber County 4.8%

Lick bar: Ay Up (Dancing Duck Brewary) 3.9%

Burlington Tavern: Theakston Lightfoot 4.1%

myself and brighton dons fan,my son were in york yesterday only visited the maltings and the tap on the station.both superb
roosters "yankee",york "guzzler" in the maltings aswell as lunch.
purity "gold" in the tap.

The Gatehouse had the very enjoyable Wentworth Plum Pudding 4.7% available on Thursday and the Old Angel had on one of my personal favourites Leeds Midnight Bell 4.8%.

I haven't always been a fan of Springhead's brews but Drop of the Black Stuff 4.0% (in the Yorkshire Grey) was certainly one of the better one's I've sampled.

A brewery whose beers always seem very palatable is Vale (Brill, Bucks) and Cask Corner had available their Good King Senseless 5.2% which certainly maintained my positive view.

The Dovecote Inn, Laxton, Notts on Friday evening ... A couple of pints of Hartley's Cumbria Way 4.1%.

Despite a number of trips to Cumbria, I don't recall having had a beer from the Ulverston brewery before.

Tough Question Wanderer, but do you have a favourite tipple!

I've had their Laughing Gravy up there before, which was nice. It is also available in bottles, though I've not sampled them.

It is a tough one ... too many to choose from.

Honourable immediate mentions go to ...

Brains The Rev James
Leeds Midnight Bell
Batemans XXXB
Black Sheep Ale (as opposed to the Bitter)
Thornbridge Lord Marples
Adnams Gunhill

... I'll have missed loads of other favourites too.

great xmas treat for me as the lad brought down a crate of Adnams Broadside from blighty - surely the best bottled ale in the world ?

Was that the 6.3% Strong Original version? ... I had a bottle of that on New Years Eve.

yeh, the 6.3% stuff - sheer nectar in a bottle and i've three bottles left !!!



better than the french cr@p tho' some of the belgian ale is quite drinkable ....

Had a nice pint of Wentworth Brewary Camberwell Beauty 4% in Lick (Hull) on Saturday.