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Well its been another year and on Wed 6th April 2016 the Newcastle upon Tyne 40th Beer and Cider Festival starts for 3 days. As a fully paid up CAMRA member I will be there on the first day only as I can not usually remember the next two days anyway. There will be literally hundreds of beers on offer and getting through the lot is not an achievable dream. On paying for entry you are supplied with a half pint glass and usually you get tickets to start you off and you change these for half pints of the selected brew (but if it is a high alchol brew sometimes two tickets are required). This is the only time in the year I mix my drinks (if you ignore the Jack or G&T at the end of a normal night out). There will be representation from other countries as well as UK microbreweries, including a fair number from the USA (wish you were here Dbals) I have to admit that whilst I have had some amazing brews there have been some that were revolting but thats part of the fun, you don't know what you are going to get, though you can ask for a taster. In my experience the extra strong beers more than 8% usually taste bad as the sugars used to increase the alchol content during fermentation leave a sweetness that has to be compensated for by over hopping which ends up crippling the palate. I tend to stay away from them now sticking to 6% and under, the strongest I ever tried was 10.5% and it was not worth finishing, it was more of a curiousity, revolting and ended up in the slop bin. If anyone is there I will be among my group of beer hardened mates, the baldy old fart staring at the top of my glass intently and wearing a battered leather Jacket and an old Helbros 21 Invincible on my wrist that I have finally got going nicely for the day. Cheers, Vic