I'm sorry to hear that it takes a ten hour flight to Seattle for you to get a decent beer! Where do you live? Surrey?
I live in a blessed part of the world - well, it is now - thanks to the advent of :-
http://www.welbeckabbeybrewery.co.uk/Until I met Claire I thought that brewers were either a dying breed of ancient craftsmen or the sort of bloated capitalists that gave us Watneys Red Barrel... Keg bitter! Ugh! The liquid equivalent of thin white sliced bread and a triumph of marketing and shelf-life over taste and quality... and who stole the word "lager" to describe the gnats water they fob off on Friday night Heroes and alcoholics.
This brilliant young Master Brewer is producing a range of beers, from "Portland Black", a porter-like dark beer, to "Cavendish" a citrus blonde. "...a blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained-glass window.."
My favourite, everyday beer is "Henrietta", a four gallon pin of which habitually lives in my garage. If I've run out, I can totter the few hundred yards to my preferred local*
http://www.forestlodgehotel.co.uk/ who have a version of it as their house beer (along with at least four other guest beers)
* the village has five other pubs, one of the advantages of still having a working colliery.
I'll bring a selection of her bottled stuff to Bala for you to try but I can't guarantee how well it travels - as any that has ever made it in through my back door has never seen light of day again!
Claire is what we call round here "A Good Lass". Not only does she brew great beer (traditionally a womans job, don't forget) but fund raises for local charities, sponsors Bolsover football team and even lets me have spent hops for my allotment - in exchange for a few leeks or a couple of cabbages.
(I'm trying to organise a "French beans for Beer" exchange scheme but she drives a hard bargain. Ay, Lad! It's grim oop North! They don't breed owt in way of wiltin' violets 'round 'ere! )
