We all pretty much shuffled in through the same (nearest) entrance to the big tent, following the pipers (you didn’t want to get trapped in front of them) and all heading to the same five or six casks lined up to the left of the entrance, so that some substantial lines formed immediately, causing a bit of a bottleneck while the rest of the vast space remained quite empty.

I was all set to do the sensible thing and was heading to the opposite corner of the space when I spotted the Austin Eastciders through the gathering crowd.

Well, it was on my list of newbies, and it was one of the few ciders at the event, and it was quite strong for a cider, so I muscled my way through and grabbed myself a pour to take with me into the open spaces.

It was a good one to start with, a real palate refresher, an apéritif if you will. Pale gold, no head, gently carbonated and subtly hopped with mosaic, very nice.

And then the plan fell apart, at least for a while…

Sipping my cider and wandering aimlessly purposefully, perusing all the brewery names and getting my bearings – wait!

There is Transmitter, and they appear to have brought along their almost mythical cask of dark mild; I had heard rumors many months back that they had such a cask in their possession, but at all subsequent cask events it had failed to make an appearance, I was starting to doubt its existence.

So, by my second beer I was already off track, but it was worth it; opaque deep black in the glass but with sparkling ruby notes when held up to the light, a small frothy head and a simple but full-bodied mild taste, with just a hint of caramel – lovely balance.

I was then diverted to the Saint James Red IPA (shipwreck yeast anybody?) which was actually a nicely balanced old-school American amber ale, before stumbling over the Fifth Hammer crew.

Three beers in, I decided to wander outside the tent to scope out the bathroom facilities (very important at my age), and take some pictures while I remembered, before rededicating myself to my mission to sample all of the new (to me) breweries.