This weekend is the Reading Real Ale and Jazz Festival, at Christchurch Meadows in Reading – and like many recent years, the weather forecast is for rain and wind. When the weather is nice, there is nothing better than sitting out on the grass with a pint of decent beer – but when it’s nasty weather, everybody is huddled into the stuffy, steamy, noisy marquee, and it’s virtually impossible to get to the bar.
Never mind, I’m still looking forward to it – we’ll be there on Friday evening. Look on the website, and you’ll see that there will be 34 beers on sale, from 21 different brewers – and there are some on the list that I’m really looking forward to sampling – some old favourites, and some that will be new to me. Not a huge beer festival by any means, but manageable, with a good selection – anyway, I can’t manage as many different beers in a session as I used to be able to.
Oh, and there will be some jazz as well!