Real Ale, Real Music

This is a personal choice of course, and I am certain that most of you will have completely different musical highlights from the past 12 months. But here we go.... I haven't done a musical review of the year in blog form for a couple of years or so. Partly, well probably mainly, because I couldn't be bothered and but also to some extent because I felt I'd not heard enough music to be able to undertake a balanced overview. Which was probably not true, as I was, as I had always been, continuing to listen to and champion new music, be it brand new or something older that I'd not heard before. Anybody who says there is no good music out there is talking rubbish; like the best things generally it may just take a bit of searching for. And of course some people prefer just to stick with what's familiar, for them repetition is comfort, whereas as I get ever older I continue to actively seek out new bands, artists, and musical experiences. Before I run through my top albums...

Here's my own personal round-up of the best beers, breweries, and pubs I have encountered over the past 12  months.... It doesn't seem 12 months since I was going through my favourites of 2023. Well actually it isn't quite, as I didn't get to do it until the first week in January, but I didn't want to let it slip again, so here in a more timely fashion are my favourites of the year. As ever, whilst celebrating the best, there are of course some breweries that have unfortunately closed down this year, such as Elland and Chapter Brewing, whilst there have been regular shenanigans again this year from Carlsberg Marstons who seem to be doing the best they can to undermine the cask ale market. The Beers It is difficult to grade these as it very much depends on the setting, the way you feel, as well as the actual beer itself. But the most objective way I can think of is to look at the beers that I have rated as being a 4 or above on the NBSS (National Beer Scoring System)...

I had an afternoon in Keighley recently, where I spent my time sampling beers from the Town's most famous brewery, found out the story of its most famous beer, and paid a visit to a few of the pubs in the town.... I'd had loads of plans during the week of different places to go at the weekend for a research day for the blog. Gradually, one by one, they were all dismissed, mainly in light of the cold and extremely blustery weather brought to us courtesy of the latest celebrity strong wind event, Storm Darragh. In the end I settled on going to Keighley, a town I had not stopped in for years, my only visits being the slow and frustrating part of a drive on the way to or from the Dales or Lakes. There is an hourly daytime bus service that runs between Halifax and Keighley, which for whatever reason I hadn't been aware, so I decided to give it a go. The journey takes you through the hidden suburbs of north Halifax, the large linear hilltop village of Denholme, nearby Cullingwort...

The lights are going up, Santa's sleigh is back from its annual service, and the elves are going through their final refresher course before it all begins. Meanwhile all across the country pubs and bars are gearing up for what they are hoping will be a busy few weeks. Yes, it's that time of year again, although sadly all is not well everywhere.... We say it every year, but Christmas does seem to begin earlier all the time. OK, the shops have been full of it for weeks, bagged up Christmas trees welcoming you to every supermarket, but the general mood out there does seem to have started to feel a little bit more festive earlier. Now you could also say that there seems to be a collective willing of the coming of Christmas as it allows people to escape from the reality of their daily lives, and with the current state of things out there, you can't really blame them. Last Friday I went to a Christmas do, still in November, which would have been deemed too early not that long ago...