Hobson’s Choice is one of the 4 bottles I bought last time I was there. Atom Splitter, Parker’s Porter and Boathouse Bitter are the other ones I’ll try sometime soon.

Hobson’s Choice headlines as a light golden ale with a refreshing hoppy aftertaste.

Their website also says – ‘… this light golden bitter has a pronounced hop aroma, contributing to the refreshing bitter aftertaste. Hobsons Choice has an ABV of 4.1%.

This bottle won ‘local champion beer’ in 1997, was an ‘Great British Beer Festival – Olympia Finalist’, in 1998 and won a ‘Bronze English Ale Award’ in 1999.

Named after Thomas Hobson Esq a Cambridge carrier who delivered mail between London and Cambridge. The stables were near St Catherine’s College in the centre of the city and when the horses were not delivering mail they were used by the students and staff of the university. Thomas Hobson noticed that the strongest and fastest horses were very popular and tended to be overworked. He devised a scheme whereby customers were offered the choice of the horse nearest to the door or none at all, renting his horses out in strict rotation. Hence there was no choice at all.

Anyway, the verdict: this bottle very drinkable indeed. It lives up to it’s refreshing hoppy claims and went down nicely. It was a bit gassy so I knocked that out with a fork. I’d give this a 4 out of 5 as I reckon it would be great to drink all afternoon whilst sitting in your garden in the sun (if we ever get any).

Apparently you can sometimes get this on draught in ‘The Cambridge Blue, Gwydir Street, Cambridge. I’d be keen to try that.

No Nethergate this year. Not that that matters. But, just not blown away this year.

Next up ( don’t you hate that rubbish English) is:

1. Brewsters Hopfield
2. Castle Rock Harvest Pale
3. Elgoods Golden Newt
4. Digfield Fools Nook

I think this might be our last or penultimate round ! Getting tired now!

Wish Us Luck !

1. Oldershaw Old Boy
2. Potton Village Bike
3. Potton Shannon IPA
4. Thornbridge Kipling

Not been excited by the 20 so far. Are these 4 going to swing the balance?

1. Belvoir Beaver Bitter
2. Bartrams Butchers Hooks
3. Cotleigh Honey Buzzard
4. Hopshackle Special Bitter

5 rounds in and no typos so far !

Tweets to follow

Our next 4 ales are as follows:

1. B & T Shefford Old Dark
2. Dark Star Over the Moon
3. Milestone Raspberry Wheat Berry
4. Oakham Black Hole Porter

Just been approached by some weirdo. Fortunately he left before a glass became empty.

16 ales now. Let’s see how these 4 go.

The next 4 ales for tasting are:

1. Woodfordes Norfolk Nog
2. Vale Best
3. TSA Ginger Explosion
4. Tring Ridgeway Bitter

The packed lunches are coming out !

1. Potbelly Aisling
2. Cambridge Moonshine CB1
3. Son Of Sid Dr Buskers Bitter Black
4. Milton Sparta

A much bigger turnout here than last year at this time. It took until round 4pm when all the office workers arrived for the venue to fill.

It isn’t even 1pm and the place is half full. Maybe the participants couldn’t find the British Legion.

Worth noting: the only thing you ever want to pull in this place is a pint.

We arrived at 12 noon on the button and already it is pretty busy – albeit we could be the grandchilden of every other person here.

We have a scoring system of 1 – 5 stars with the rating as follows

• 1 Star – Never Again
• 2 Stars – Maybe Again but Maybe Not
• 3 Stars – Probably Again
• 4 Stars – Definitely Again
• 5 Stars – Outstanding

We’ve bought 6 glasses – and our first 4 halves are

1. Elland 1872 Porter
2. Digfield March Hare
3. Digfield Merry Muck
4. Grain Blackwood Stout

Reviews to follow!