On the lawn by still, Cam waters...

The Tuesday before the late May bank holiday saw both Dr Stan and myself travel to Cambridge to visit the 37th Cambridge Beer Festival. Bravely for a British beer festival (albeit one in the East of England), the festival is hosted in a large tent on Jesus Green, with the vast majority of the drinking/eating area being outside and uncovered - this can cause problems if it rains!

Fortunately, the sun was shining. Bypassing the large queue and obtaining free entry (perks of being a CAMRA member), I met Dr Stan and started to select from the 210+ beers on offer. It seems that more and more real ale breweries have noticed the success of light coloured, heavily hopped strong IPAs - a number of these were available, and generally speaking were good examples of the genre. Having said this, I quickly gravitated towards the foreign bier bar, with its ever-changing range of 10 biers on draft. Augustiner Edelstoff, Keesman bock... Need I say more?

By mid-evening, the festival site was getting busy, and the bier queues were lengthening. We beat a hasty retreat (but only as far as the St Radegund, a small pub on King Street. The local Milton beers were on fine form!

From there to the Free Press (Gr**n K**g) for a quick, last pint of the night.