8 Sail Brewery's beer festival "Beers of Lincolnshire" held during the last week-end in July proved a great success in terms of range of beers on offer from breweries in the immediate area, condition of the ales, and the number of visitors over the three days who sampled and drank most of the barrels dry by close of play. The festival coincided with another well known event, Heckington Show, and so punters on their way to and from were calling in, to not only sample the delights of Tony Pygott's emporium, but were also visiting the Mill and the renown Tearoom for snacks and meals.

15 beers were on offer with 2 from 8 Sail (Flour Power and Golden Ale), 2 from Sleaford (Hedgerow Silver and Go West), 2 Oldershaw (Heavenly Blonde and Caskade), Swaton (Happy Jack), Blue Bell (Frightened Pheasant), Brewsters (Helles Belles), Dark Tribe (Dixie's Mild), Fulstowe (Seargent's Brigg Bitter), Grafters (Yippee IPA), Leila Cottage (Leila's One Off), Poachers (Billy Boy), and Willys (Original Bitter). To aid the drinker in selecting beers that appealed to their taste and palate the PintPicker profile indicated each beer's characteristics by providing diagrammatic values showing colour, hoppiness, bitterness, citrus, sweet, body, burnt, and winey. 2 "real" ciders were available on draught from Churchill of Spalding (Spalding Scrumpy and Fenland Gold), and bottles of Marron Cider of Waddingham, in this case made using concentrate.

Fenland members, old and new, attended in numbers, and CAMRA members from Nottingham branch even delivered copies of their Nottingham Drinker. Pints and halves were priced most reasonably - even by beer festival standards. Tony was pleased to thank the various Fenland members who had helped make the festival a success. A most enjoyable event all round. There is to be a Threshing Weekend at the windmill on 1st & 2nd October; a beer festival at the same time is a distinct possibility.