Thatls the way to do it! Feb 17 2007

by Mike Chapple, Liverpool Daily Post

"YOU lucky get - I wish I had your job. Going to pubs and writing about beer all day. I bet I could do it.

"Go on, gizzit!"

This is the desperately romantic view of a Yosser Hughes replicant who occasionally crosses this path. Apart from the fact that this column only takes up a microscopic speck of the working week, he may find that the reality is a little different from what he expects.

There are, however, compensations.

Take this week, for instance. Not only did it mark the return of the much-anticipated annual Liverpool Beer Festival, but a host of satellite events which proved that we can organise a piss-up in a brewery - and a whole lot more.

First stop had to be the crypt of Paddy's Wigwam for the opening night of the festival itself. This could be the spiritual home of all beer festivals and partly explains why this year's allocation of 5,000 tickets sold out in a flash - people just love the ambience of the place. As Geoff Edwards, chairman of the festival organisers, Liverpool and Districts branch of Camra, said: "If we had the capacity, we could sell out five times over."

The special cause for celebration this year was the veritable explosion of beers from local breweries flagshipped by one of the great city success stories, Cains.

And the lads from Liverpool's famous brewery, Ajmail and Sudarghara, were duly on hand to unveil its latest creation, a deceptively dangerous silkily smooth 8% Bock lager that slips down a treat.

More of which later.

With more than 170 quality ales to sup, supplemented by traditional pub grub from the likes of John O'Dowd, of the Lion Tavern, and Paddy Byrne's team from the Everyman Bistro, this was the place to be over the past four days.

But if you weren't lucky enough to get a ticket, the nearby Augustus John and the Ship and Mitre, on Dale Street, staged their own festivals to coincide with the main event.

Given that both were free, and that the Ship was also unveiling its long neglected, now revamped, Art Deco upstairs lounge, these provided more than adequate compensation.

The piece de resistance in this week of food and drink delirium, however, was a "tasters" night down at The Courtyard restaurant, on Dale Street, recently taken over by Rigby's next door.

Hosted by Fiona and husband Dominic, the game was to mix and match the beer and foods together in a beautifully served five-course menu created by Rigby's award-winning chef Tommy Rockliffe.

The favourites, certainly on our table, were a sumptuous slab of Red Snapper married with a Fuller's Honeydew, sweet with all the fullness of the spirit of the beehive, and the Cain's Bock, matched with a perfectly cooked medium-rare cut of peppered venison.

Ah, yes, the Bock again.

It certainly made an impression on the Pub Column's companion for the evening, Lady Janet of Crockie Park, an avowed teetotaller. Prodded though, through the needs of scientific experiment into daring to take a few sips from her glass, the eyes immediately lit up and the words "this is goooooorgeous" sprang out.

Such was her infatuation that, when Yours Truly tried to pinch her dregs, an angry hand snapped out and the Lady roared: "Get your thieving hands off me Bock!!!"

The remainder of the evening was spent with her clucking "Bock, Bock, Bock" noises like some demented chicken.

And it came to pass that, although it might not always be so, as we left a voice inside the head murmured: "Life is good. Enjoy."

Sorry Yosser.

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