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CAMRA Lunesdale

Dark Ales Pub Crawl

Jade, Sir Richard Owen, Lancaster, Festival, February 2014

by Lawrence Bland

Last year’s Hike (pub crawl) was around Morecambe, Heysham and Snatchems, which I didn’t think was a great day, especially around the beers. This year, a shorter evening stroll was undertaken around Lancaster. It was a wet night, so it was a good idea not to venture too far. Five drinkers met in the Water Witch, nice range of beers, a tried a sampler tray, which included a Batemans Winter Chocolate Biscuit beer, tasted as it said on the label. But I donrsquo;t think the combination was a great success. On to the Sir Richard Owen, Wetherspoons had some interesting available, pints of Ikley Firestone Porter and Kirkby Lonsdale Single Track Black were shared around the group. Tim Tomlinson the organiser made an appearance at this stage, I think he was doing his own consumer survey. The Penny Bank was disappointing, the pub seemed full of young lager drinkers, almost totally ignoring the real ales. On to the Borough, Marble Stouter Stout and the Borough’s own Wintertime Dark, a stronger version of the usual Summertime Dark, was shared around. The Golden Lion was next stop, the Chocolate Biscuit and Hardknott Infared were on tap. I’d had enough by this stage and called it a day, ’quality fatigue&arsquo;. The surviving group were planning to make their way to the Yorkshire House.