Who else isn't going to GBBF apart from me and Brewdog ?

There is a sense of anticipation in the air this week. Just a week to the start of Britain's premier beer festival, the Great British Beer Festival (GBBF). Accomodation is booked, milk thistle tablets and various hangover remedies purchased in industrial quantities.

Time for a confession. I've been a CAMRA member for over thirty years, am an ex branch chairman. I've mananged bars at local festivals and worked at festivals in Belgium, yet I've never been to GBBF. When I was younger I just wasn't that interested. I drank most days of the week anyway and didn't really see the need to waste money to do what I did all the time.

As I got older, gained beery friends from around the world and found out that London wasn't all bad I liked the idea of GBBF from the social and working point of views. The problem is I've had children of school age since 1993 and my younger child doesn't leave school until 2015. So the end of July/early August is reserved for family holidays so as not too much of the start of the football season. I'm off to the south of France tomorrow. I'll see you at GBBF in four years time.