The Great Yorkshire Brewery Tour

I love Christmas, and this weekend we had a great reminder of it - we'd been given a Red Letter day experience which was a brewery tour, and we used it in Cropton, North Yorkshire. We set off early Saturday morning, and got to the pub in time for coffee - a lovely pub, The New Inn.

And then set off to the brewery, which had begun in the pub cellar but now occupied a couple of buildings close by. It was also undergoing a rebranding from Cropton Brewery, to The Great Yorkshire Brewery which was considered to be abetter brand for the international market.

As a former member of CAMRA, and a lifelong believer and drinker of cask ale, I was surprised to see some kegs outside

But our very entertaining tour guide Karl explained. The brewery produces some very fine beer which is put into casks and bottles, but they also produce some beer which is "craft kegged". This is for a couple of reasons - they are selling into international markets and cask beer doesn't travel, but also because they are producing lager, which needs to be kegged.  The brewery tour was excellent, and more informative than many others I've been on.  At the end we could choose three beers to sample, and I went for quite a mixture. The one in the middle is a red lager. very hoppy, and very much to my liking - I prefer hoppy, bitter beers to sweeter ones. The one on the left is flavoured with nutmeg and cinnamon, which I wasn't keen on and the other is a pale ale which was very nice!

 Of course, it would have been rude to only have one, so we forced another one down with lunch, but I went for the red lager again as it was so good. Having made the very sensible decision not to drive home after sampling 5 different beers, we checked into a room at the pub and had a lovely walk round the village. The sun was actually shining, and it was warm!  Got back to the room in time to watch the Grand National but no luck in the office sweepstake!  Great steak and ale pie in the pub for dinner, cooked in their beer of course!

Sunday breakfast was very fresh eggs on toast, then we drove to Helmsley for a coffee. But, we got seduced by the shops and didn't have time for a coffee. Then to Nunnington Hall, a National Trust property. A lovely house and garden:

and not over-restored. Very much left as it has been when it was last lived in between the wars. I like to get inspiration for my dolls house, and loved this dining room.

One of the attractions for me was a collection of miniature rooms, painstakingly recreated in many different styles. This is one of them - a Palladian Hall

The gardens had a ribbon tree, where children ere encouraged to tie and ribbon and make a wish, and it added some colour to the place - many spring flowers not yet out because of the very cold recent weather. There was also a peacock and peahen. He decided to display to here, and opened and shook his tail feathers - a beautiful sight, but she was not in the slightest bit interested, only going near him to pick up crumbs on the grass.

I did mange to get close enough to take this picture though, which shows the amazing detail and colour on his head and tail

Back home by 4, in time to cook Sunday lunch. A lovely couple of days, and thanks a lot to Tom and Fiona for treating us.