The York Brewery Tour

Ah, the York Brewery.I went there as part of a Stag do at the weekend. Yes, I thought we should have gone paintballing too? Or go-karting maybe. Oh well, maybe another one of my friend's will get married.

We took a route out of town into what, at first, seemed to me to be an industrial estate. Then, on a very small building, I spied the York Brewery sign. This place, this tiny little shack, was where we would be having our tour. Worse still, this “privilege” was to cost us £6 a piece. Anyway, this “tour” consisted of a walk into a room containing some bags of hops and very little else aside from a table, upon which were trays full of a variety of different grains. We were then subjected to a rather boring lecture on the history of the brewery (mercifully it was only 13 years old, so there wasn’t much to tell) and the process of beer making. All the while these plates of grain were being passed around the room so that we could feel what they were like. They felt, unsurprisingly, quite grainy.

After what was only 15 minutes, but felt like six hours, we continued with the rest of the “tour”. We stepped into the second and, as it turned out, final, room (do you see why I need to be sarcastic about the idea that this was a tour?) and gathered around a platform that overlooked an open, stainless steel container and a closed copper thing that looked a little like an old style furnace. As the lecture continued, I slipped slowly into catatonia.

Essentially, we had to stare at a large empty cauldron for round 15 minutes whilst the tour guide entertained us with his trieste on the beer making process. Obviously I found it absolutely thrilling. Much the same material had been covered in the Oz and James drink to Britain TV show that had been on just a few weeks ago. However, whilst their recounting of the process had been amusing and engaging, this man’s lecture was only serving to send me to sleep. And then, after a brief look through a glass section of the floor at some bubbling yeast, the tour came to an end.

The actual bar was quite nice. It sort of looked like somebody had turned their loft conversion into a makeshift pub. The place was decked out in a somewhat eclectic style, like all the unwanted furniture that had been stored in the attic had just been left in situ. I rather liked it actually. I have to admit, I wasn't to partial to the ale, though some of my compatriots seemed to like it. I'm not much of a real ale drinker though, so maybe that had something to do with it. Besides, I was unbelievably hungover, so much so that I needed something non-alcoholic. Alongside my free drink, I ordered up a cola. That, I'm afraid, was the foulest tasting cola I'd ever had the misfortune to drink. It's taste was not unlike the cheapo Panda Cola that you used to be able to buy from all disreputable newsagents in the eighties and nineties.

So, to summarise, don't go for the tour, its a waste of time and money. Don't order a cola, it's sub-par, sodastream-esque swill. Do have a few ales, but only if that's your sort of thing.

Hello

Hello and welcome to Reviews for a Confused Life. This spin-off from my main blog, Notes For a Confused Life, is where I'll be sticking all my more review like posts. I'll be pretty much covering anything that takes my fancy. If I go to a pub I like, I'll probably mention it. If I hate it, I definitely will.

From time to time I'll also try and come up with the odd special feature, like buyers guides to gadgets or maybe even a suggestion for a pub crawl or two.

I'm really just going to see how it goes, but I'm going to try to give a more in depth look at anything I review. All the stuff I cover will, inevitably, be the things I've bought or paid for with my own money, so I'll try to give more of an idea what everything's like to live with on a daily basis. Bear in mind, I'll pull no punches; if something's crap, I won't be afraid to say. If I've ended up buying something rubbish I'll be angry and I'll be using my blog to work out my rage issues.

So, sit back and enjoy. Hopefully it'll all be of some use to someone.