Watsons Brewery

some people are so fricking clever.... (in a nice way)

How many would this serve as a lunch?

Rescue dog Ruby does favour a cushion or two. She says hello to Dudley

After 200+ brews with the old big kit, it's been less of a tried and trusted and well oiled process, but the boil is over and pleased at how quickly the temp is coming down. And there will be a lot less to clean!

A stout, more of a test run through than doing a proper recipe.

Small brew kettle on an induction hob in a shed

My first post-commercial brewday. Experimenting with a manual HERMS single vessel BIAB brew, 18L brew length!

Yup, they never told us that when we bought the rabbit!

We had one. Very unsociable and scratchy and hated being touched. Tried to escape whenever we let it out in the garden. Then it got myxamatosis from insects from the garden pond and died.

Hmm, a risky start, as the rest of the day's beers have got a lot to live up to.

Dinky little brew pot on a kitchen worktop

I'm setting up my new brew kettle. It is a dinky little thing...

Everyone has to start somewhere! #onwardsandupwards

A mini lego USS enterprise, made from a mini lego millennium falcon kit.

I'm using all the right pieces, but not necessarily in the right order...

2x lego kits, one Diddy one frickin huge.

Back home from York to find 2x Modular Building System kits have arrived. One has 74 pieces, the other has several thousand. I bet you can't guess what I'm going to build with them....

Enough to do the decent thing and stump up some cash to go into a pot for equity punks. (not that I'm one, to be clear.)

She's got the same very pleased with herself smug face that Priti Patel horrified me with.

Having a half of a cask pale ale as no keg on offer. Sadly cask pale ale now feels warm and flat and meh to me having embraced the colder hoppier craft pales.

Pub bar with handpumps and shit and stuff

Now at The Last Drop Inn in York, six cask beers in a historic building.

Old guy in a craft beer emporium

Me and the missis just upped the average age in Brew York Tap by several years.

Splendid victorian circular glass ceiling window in a station pub

York Tap at the railways station is amazing. Great beer choice and pork and black pudding pies, what's not to like?

Mallard steam engine on display

This National Railway Museum in York is rather splendid.

Old guy in a pub, sepia tones

Seems my wife's phone has defaulted to sepia for photos of me now I'm a state pensioner...

Top floor cellar at The Market Cat, York, is something to behold...

The Shambles at night

Now at Pivni. The Shambles looking grand tonight. Why the council allow illuminated signs I have no idea.

Old fashioned pub

Now at The Blue Bell, that's more like it. Smallest pub in York they say. Pork pies look nice but not long since we ate.

Pub interior

Our evening jaunt around York got off on the wrong foot when I took us into the Blue Boar and not the Blue Bell. Former is a tv and lager bar. Now in the Fossgate Tap, Blue Bell is next door. A Left Handed Giant dark mild starting the evening off gently.

You would think it's an AI image from Reform or else a @coldwarsteve.bsky.social image.

Yeah the first entry in the book, in York, is closed!

She's cosplaying Pritti Patel

We're wondering whether to do our visits based on the order in your book. Already got Sheffield, Manchester and Leeds under our belts in recent years.

Both on our list, thx! Both @philmellows.bsky.social Beer Breaks in Britain and whatpub.com both consulted. And National Railway Museum for the first time ever.