There are now a few pictures available.
"So it's a run to a brewery..." - well, I was there! A run through the Kent countryside (that well-known newsreader spoonerism) and a nose around the Shepherd Neame brewery at Faversham, plus a classic car and bike show in Faversham town on the same weekend. Barry and Janneane had picked a good 'un and my enthusiasm was barely dented by the prospect of a 9:00 a.m. meet-up opposite the Oakdene café.
There was about a dozen of us at the off, with a couple more hooking up on the way. Barry and Janneane had planned out another one of their "off the beaten track" routes that took us down Seven Mile Lane, through Yalding, Coxheath, Boughton Monchelsea, Doddington and all points in between, and very picturesque much of it was in the clear morning weather.
When we got to Faversham the whole place was crammed with vintage, classic and quirky vehicles but we headed for one of the main car parks and were directed to an unoccupied area just big enough for the bikes. We walked through what was probably the market square to the Shepherd Neame brewery, to be told by a man with a clipboard that we were early for our 11:30 tour.
Strolling back just a few yards the way we had come, a café was spotted offering hot sausage rolls, at which point there was an unseemly rush as several people suddenly came over all peckish. I settled for a cup of coffee while Tank manfully tackled a fudge cake and ice cream ensemble which looked about two thousand calories all-in.
Presently we wanderered back to the brewery and were welcomed by our young lady guides, who took us first down a side street to what you might call their corporate communication centre, i.e. a conference room with rows of chairs and a computer slide-show hooked up to a projector. I feared what's known in the trade (and Dilbert) as "death by Powerpoint" but the short presentation on the history of Shepherd Neame (and brewing itself) was informative and concise. Did you know that in medieval times, the average person would drink eight to ten pints of beer a day? Of course it had a much lower alcohol content than our modern tipples.
We moved on to the brewery itself and soon found ourselves weaving between vats of this, pipes carrying that and bags of raw ingredients. Our guides kept up an informal but informative narrative as we were taken through the brewing process and shown the vessels that house the "work in progess" - or should that be "wort"?
Most memorable was a look in the Lager Room (no, really it had "Lager Room" in painted letters above the entrance), which contained tanks three stories high, each of which would hold over 40,000 litres of lager - "more", said our guide, "than you could drink in a lifetime." Ian and I looked at each other meaningfully...
Having seen all the accessible areas we moved on to the hospitality suite (well, bar) where we had a chance to sample three beers and compare colour, taste and smell, before redeeming our token for a complimentary half-pint of our choice.
Meanwhile outside the weather had taken a turn for the worst with light rain persisting for the rest of the afternoon. However there was time for some to sample the fudge and cheesecake stalls and stop for a cup of tea, before most of us headed back home via the Pied Bull and a heavier dose of rain.
Still, it was a good ride down and an interesting tour so many thanks to Barry and Janneane for organising it and planning the route. Gary was making noises about a tour round a cider-maker's next as that's more his inebriation inclination, so watch the diary!