Another year, and another Ale Trail! This time of year is my favourite. Whilst many people are feeling down following the distant excitement of Christmas, the build-up to Reading Beer Festival is in sight. Things were a little quiet on the Ale Trail Facebook page. Thankfully, in the winter 2018 edition of Mine’s a Pint,Continue Reading Ale Trail 2019

Back in July 2017, I took a huge career change. Having worked as a Science Teacher both in the UK and US for 7 years, I applied for I job with a small but far-reaching software development company in Surrey. One of the biggest benefits, trivial though it sounds, is I can now make aContinue Reading Don’t settle for inadequate tea at work

At Noon on the 10th February, the Ale Trail kicked off at The Fox and Hounds, Caversham. I’d been looking forward to this for a while now, as the Ale Trail really is one of my favourite activities of the year. The Fox and Hound, Caversham I have to the Fox and Hounds a numberContinue Reading Ale Trail 2018 – the opening day

Having visited three of the 24 pups on the ale trail, I have already found myself needing to refer to my opinion (and it is only that – my opnion) on craft beer twice. Rather than repeat myself over and over, I thought I’d document my thoughts on Craft Beer here, and simply link toContinue Reading Craft Beer – my thoughts

My eagerly-awaited birthday present from my wife was an evening of tea-related learning at the Bluebird Tea Co in London. After a quick rush into London from work, I arrived in plenty of time, so was able to browse the shot for a while before Hannah arrived. There were so many blends of tea toContinue Reading Tea Mixology at the Bluebird Tea Co.

Interactive ODG Tower Map An interactive map of all the towers withing the Oxford Diocesan Guild of Church Bell Ringers. This map was created using Google Map API v3, data from the Dove database (for which I am most grateful), and customised JavaScript functions to manipulate the Dove data. Click here to see the map.

Every year, the Reading and Mid Berks branch of CAMRA put on an ale trail in the lead up to the Reading Beer Festival. This year, the trails runs from February 10th to April 4th, and features 24 pubs in and around Reading. It really is one of my favourite times of the year, gettingContinue Reading Ale Trail 2018

There are many traditions when it comes to seeing in the New Year, and one of the oldest in the UK is the ringing of bells at midnight. This year I spend the New Year in Wales and was invited to ring in the 2018 at St David’s, Pembrokeshire. A quick visit to the pubContinue Reading New Year’s Day

On Christmas morning, following an evening of ale-trailing, I found myself awake at 8.55am and unable to sleep. A quick “google” of the service times revealed that there was a service at St Mary’s at 9.30am. As I drove down to the town centre, I could not hear any bells, which was concerning, considering thatContinue Reading Christmas Day Ringing

It’s been a couple of weeks now since I started the Christmas Brew process, and so far, the operation has been rather slick. This has been helped by installing taps on both of my fermentation vessels, eliminating the trickiest part of the whole process – siphoning! The taps also came into their own on bottlingContinue Reading Bottled and Kegged – the Christmas Brew