Local Beers: Taste the difference....

I think I may have mentioned that I revived my life long like for beer (well adult long anyway) at the beer festival held at the rugby club early on in the summer. With over a hundred different beers to choose from from all over the south east who can blame me. I even searched out, such was my new found obsession, a small brewery whilst on holiday called Lizard Ales who had a wonderful golden ale called Frenchman's Creek, named after the Cornish novelist, Daphne Du Maurier's, book by the same name. It's all very well wanting to support your local small breweries but try buying the wonderful, lovingly produced stuff when there isn't a beer festival on though. I don't go down the pub that much these days but I've discovered a liking for bottle conditioned beers which most of these breweries now supply. The trouble is that Sainsbury's and Waitrose only have a very limited number of them on the shelves prefering, for the most part, to stock the big breweries brands. I suppose, in a way, you can't blame them because that's where the bulk of the sales will inevitably come from due to large advertising and marketing budgets etc. but surely there should be more than one choice, out of the many Kent breweries, in each of the main supermarkets of Tonbridge. How do the little guys get a foothold in the market without being available for sale in the bigger outlets? Come on Waitrose and Sainsbury's lets have more and better choice of beers on your shelves with a local bias; every little helps and you really can taste the difference!...