Me and Bridget had a great time serving and sampling beer and chatting to many familiar faces who you bump into at various festivals. There were many really high strength beers available such as
Abbeydale Last Rites 11%
Burton Bridge Thomas Sykes 10%
Eastwood & Sanders A Shot in the Dark 7.7%
Kinver Over the Sledge 7.5% ( Which has my vote as the best Winter Ale name and was my favourite of the strong beers )
Marston's Owd Roger 7.6%
Olde Swan Christmas Cracker 10.5%
Titanic Wreckage 7.2%
Church End Rest in Peace 7%
 
The beer of the fest was Red Lion Chardonnayle 5.1% - this is where I was stationed, so I had my fair share of this. Other highlights for me were
Millstone Grainstorm 4.2%
Crouch Vale Brewer's Gold 4%
Church End Fallen Angel 5%
Buffy's Hopleaf 4.5%
Abbeydale Holy Water 6%
 
but find of the festival for me was
Thornbridge Jaiphur IPA 5.8% :- 
"Light-golden appearance. Sweet citrus notes prevail, reminiscent of candied lemon peel and combine with hints of sun-drenched tropical fruits. A soft smooth taste leads to hoppiness accentuated by a taste of honey. Slowly converts into a powerful bitter finish."
 
Steve Amos invited us onto the judging panel for the Best Bottled Conditioned Beer so we had to stay over and have some free beer - life's tough.
First place went to
Burton Bridge Tickle Brain 8%, closely followed by Hobson's Town Crier 4.5%.

We went to Kinver for a booze-up, so decided to take the bus, but forgot my bus pass isn't valid in Staffordshire. To add insult to injury Bridget had bought a West Midlands Day tripper ticket only to find they were Hansons buses to Kinver and it wasn't accepted, so she had to pay as well.
             First stop the Vine. Thank goodness its future seems safe now. Holden's Black Country Bitter £1.50, yes £1.50, Holden's Golden Glow £?, Kinver Edge £1.85, Enville Ale £2.00. We'd gone to Kinver to find Kinver edge so that's what we drank, it was a 4, so it was very hard to move on but we did, to the "Steps," the Bathams was in tip top condition, another 4. Kinver Constitutional Club was next, there were about 8 beers on including Kinver Edge, so more of this, another 4. Surprisingly it was £1.90, you could rely on really cheap prices here a few years ago.