A jolly day out at the Sheringham Beer Festival was had by all on Friday 17 July (despite the fact that it bucketed down). SBF is held annually on the picturesque Sheringham Station platform, home of the Poppy Line, where steam trains shunt up and down and grown men revisit their boyhoods and dream of driving them. What is it about trains and real ale? A number of breweries have railway themes: Stonehouse (located next to the Cambian Railway line), Beer Engine (overlooking the Exeter to Barnstaple Tarka Line) and Humpty Dumpty (founded close to a railway tavern) all have beers named after trains. Breweries are often located on old stations (Brunswick, for example). Many breweries do one-off beers that are railway inspired: e.g. Potton Shannon IPA, named after the "Shannon" locomotive that once worked the Potton-Sandy Railway. Interestingly, Tydd Steam is named not after steam trains, but after the farm steam engines that originally occupied the building in which brewing now takes place. Steam is evocative though, taking us back to a time before we understood the maximum number of units we could safely drink in a week and real ale was ordered not by the pint but by the gallon. And there are undoubtedly parallels between train- and beer-spotters (often they are one and the same person). Which is probably why the Sheringham Beer festival is so popular; it was heaving. My favourite beer of the festival was Sheffield Seven Hills (4.2%)"Good, dry, crisp very pale-coloured with more than a twist of citrus and v. well hopped. Excellent." which notched up 9 points. Following close behind with 8 were: Consett Steel Town (3.8%) "Nice citric session bitter with a good long bitter finish"; Hopshackle Caskadia (4.3%) "Lovely citrus flavours, lemons and oranges. Hoppy to the max!"; Nelson Jack Knife (4.1%) "Biscuity golden ale with a light juicy summery taste. V. hoppy."; Wylam Summer Magic (4.2%) "Citrussy summery ale"; Black Hole Bitter (3.8%) "Lovely session bitter, hoppy and biscuity"; Salopian Prohibition (4.6%) "Very fruity and hoppy, delicately floral with citrus"; Tydd Steam Armageddon (5.0%)"Bitter beer with a long bitter finish and very fruity."; Ole Slewfoot January 8th (4.2%) "Very juicy and fruity (apples, pears, citrus) with good nettley hoppiness"; Lancaster Red (4.9%)"Berry fruit, nicely hoppy"; Shugborough Mi Lady's Fancy (4.6%) "Deliciously pale and dry with a really crisp edge" and Abbeydale Black Mass (6.66% - hmmm, I understand the numerology, but don't believe you can brew to three significant figures..) "Chewy coffee and quite bitter with dark fruitiness". I should point out (in the spirit of responsible drinking) that these were tastings, not pints! We went with our good friends Alan and Terry who very kindly let us taste their beers too. It is also a testament to the organisers that there were so many high-scoring ales; every single beer we tasted was in absolutely prime condition so well done to them. We'll be back!