After the two day BeerX trade show, we were up again early and setting off on the 250 mile trip down to Suffolk for the long weekend to visit family and drop off some beer at a few venues. I put together a delivery schedule for the 5 venues, making sure my dad could join us for the last drop as he had secured that sale for me.

First stop was the Westhall Race Horse. This is a great community pub, which I regret not having visited more often while I was still living in Suffolk. They generally only stock local beer, but I had got to know Steve quite well via Zoom during lockdown and consequently they often take a cask or two when I’m coming down to Suffolk. Happily, the journey was much easier than the last time when Storm Babet stopped me from getting to Westhall altogether.

One of the main reasons for this trip was to take beer to the Theberton Lion for their April Beer Club. I was a regular attender at Beer Club and Tom has previously bought beer from me for his Winter Beer Festival. I’m looking forward to going back to Theberton next month for my first Meet the Brewer event. It will be great to see some old Beer Club faces and I’m hoping that a few local Bríd’s Cross fans will come along to swell the numbers.

Sweffling White Horse was another regular haunt of mine when I was living in Suffolk. Like the Race Horse, they usually only stock local beers. Happily, Maz and Mark decided that I qualified as a Suffolk brewer so they took a couple fo casks. It was good to have a bit of a chat with Maz and Mark while I was dropping off my beer with them.

Rich at The Vic in Colchester has been a supporter of Bríd’s Cross since the first homebrewing trials and has taken a couple of beers on previous trips down South. This time he took five casks and put them all on at the same time last weekend for a cask tap takeover. I’m sorry that I couldn’t have been there myself but I felt enormously pleased an proud to see all of my beers side by side.

Finally we picked up my Dad before dropping the last cask at Rushmere Golf Club. After a long day in the van, I was more than ready by this stage to flop on the sofa and crack open a beer!

Saturday morning started off with a Parkrun for me, while Ruth went for a more leisurely stroll to get her steps in. Kesgrave is mercifully flat compared to my local venue at Watergrove, which feels like mountain climbing in comparison! Thanks to the Suffolk terrain I was able to record a Parkrun PB, which set me up for the day.

Sutton Hoo
When we were chatting about what we wanted to do with my parents during this visit, both my parents and Ruth had said they had never been to Sutton Hoo. I however, had the amazing opportunity back in the day to develop the education programme when the National Trust took over the site. It was the first time I had been back for several years and it was interesting to see the changes that had taken place.

After a bit of history and culture we called into the Cherry Tree for a spot of lunch and some lovely Adnams beer. I had a pint of Balmy Days – a cask lager collaboration with Vocation from Hebden Bridge, one of my northern neighbours – followed by Southwold Bitter’ while Ruth stuck to the Old Ale. I love to reacquaint myself with Adnams beer whenever I’m back in Suffolk and I wasn’t disappointed this time.

On the journey back home, we managed to squeeze in some time with two of my children who live in Norwich. It was just a quick catch up over a coffee, but it was lovely to see them.

Feedback
We’re enormously pleased with the fantastic feedback we see on socials from the venues pouring Bríd’s Cross beers.