Diary - Day 6

A busy day ahead of us we stumbled out of the door a little after 8am as our host family left for work, school and other important institutions. Someone had turned the sun off overnight and forgot to turn it on again; it was overcast most of the day but still pretty warm. The wind certainly wasn't helping, but neither did it inhibit progress as much as it had and would continue to do later.

We headed away from Hereford on the A465 until we reached Stoke Lacy where we found our way to Wye Valley Brewery and met Lizzie Thomas who is pictured below between a couple of familiar faces.


We were shown around the brewery which used to be the site of Simmond's Cider before Wye Valley Brewery took it over in 2000. We were given a 'Butty Bach' (apparently 'my little friend' in Welsh) to taste and it was a pretty good beer. Not much later we were back on the road and heading away from Stoke Lacy and on to Ludlow via Bromyard and Tenbury Wells. The Herefordshire countryside is certainly pleasant although not particularly exciting, but the scenery would gradually improve through the day as we headed into Shropshire.

In Ludlow we met Gary Walters of the Ludlow Brewing Company (and as usual you can click on the link to go to a separate page for that brewery) which is the first brewery in Ludlow since the 30s. Gary owned the smallest brewery we saw on the trip and one of Sam's favourites, probably as it seemed to be a realistic dream. Most of it can be seen in this photo
Gary has made a pretty decent start to his brewing career with awards at his first beer festival in Bridgnorth and has two regular brews although it was a third called 'Footfalls', which has yet to make it into circulation, that we tasted. Not an exceptional pint, but I would have been happy drinking it for some time. Unfortunately time was ticking by and we had one more brewery to visit so we had to leave Gary and his friend and soon-to-be-employee Rob to get on with their business.

It occurred to me as I was trying to rate the pint that we had just tasted that the brewers we met on this trip were likely to have a pretty high standard of beer. The logic worked like this: if they bothered to reply to my email and to get involved with the trip they were probably of the enthusiastic type that put a lot of effort into their business, and this energy would transfer itself into the taste of the product. Well, something like that but you probably grasp the basic idea. This is why as I left Ludlow I was thinking that had I walked into my local and had a pint of 'Footfalls' I would have been very happy with my purchase, yet amongst the beers we tried on the trip it wouldn't make waves.

With the benefit of hindsight I think my theory was borne out - we did visit some excellent breweries and tried a number of superb beers made by enthusiastic and generous brewers. Our pint from Ludlow stood up against all of the beers we drunk in pubs around the country, preferable to many, but was beaten by a number of beers we tried in the breweries. We should have tried the other two brews really................

My camelbak was considerably heavier on the road to Wistanstow due to the bottles of beer we had been given at Ludlow. I don't remember which brew they were and I don't remember how they tasted, but after a few hours of being shaken about I doubt they would have been at optimum taste. We found ourselves looking at things like this
Bit dismal aint it?

At Wistanstow we found the Plough Inn behind which was Wood Brewery. Climbing the stairs to the offices we were met by a man I instantly disliked, I believe the reason for this was that he was a plank. Fortunately our brief interogation by this ape was cut short by another member of the office staff who happened to have some manners. Soon enough we were in the capable hands of the be-wellied (it's in my dictionary) head brewer who showed us around the brewery and backed up my theories on energy and enthusiasm. We were still trying to take things in (at this early stage of the trip the brewing process was still a bit of a mystery although we were getting the general idea) when we reached the cold room and tasted some 'Pot o' Gold'. Pretty nice. From there it was back into the offices where we were presented with a cheque for our charities and sent on our way. Top notch.

3 decent breweries visited and about 20 miles left to go before we reached Much Wenlock. The original plan was to ride along Wenlock Edge but time was short and Sam was knackered so we used the B4368 and arrived in Much Wenlock soon enough. A campsite essentially in the town was pretty convenient and we were able to wander into the centre for a meal. Before we made it that far we met an 81 year old man who had been cycling around Wenlock Edge all day and was camped next to us. Apparently the hills seemed bigger than they used to and he wasn't sure that he was up to it any more, especially after his tour of the Lake District being hampered by constant downpours a few weeks earlier. We didn't ask why at his age he kept cycling through the pissing rain rather than just going home and starting again some other day. We didn't ask how the hell an 81 year old propelled a bike up and down the Shropshire hills either, but we made sure he knew we were impressed by saying 'bloody hell' and puffing our cheeks every time he told us about his cycle tours.

Sam was kind enough to tell him we would be quiet when we decamped the next morning. He was gone by 7am, we didn't get up until 7:30.


Day 6 review

Mileage = 75
Breweries visited = 3

Ales consumed = 10ish

• Butty Bach (x2) - Wye Valley
• Footfalls (x2) - Ludlow
• Pot o' Gold (x2) - Wood
• ?? (x2) - Ludlow
• Cocker Hoop - Jennings
• ?