June 2025. Macclesfield.
The Macclesfield Proper Day Out (none of your “curated exploration nonsense here”) heads for Pub No. 2 via the steep incline of Back Wallgate.
Regular readers may remember that bollard;
the one that extinguished my chances of late fatherhood (two is plenty).
I’d already done a recce on the barrels outside the Castle,
and a pint of Sarah Hughes Dark Ruby (or possibly Ybur Krad) would have made this classic even better,
but I can live with Siren’s Cherry and Chipotle Porter, a cool, chewy 3.5,
enjoyed in the best room.
Four years since re-opening the Castle is hard to fault, unless you think Bass would be better than those 3 changing beers from trustworthy indies, or you believe a straight glass always beats a handled jug.
Both of those may be true, but that room on the left is simply one of the greatest places in the world to waste away an afternoon.
Sadly, we had work to do.
retiredmartin 
“a pint of Sarah Hughes Dark Ruby would have made this classic even better” especially in memory of John Hughes who had died twelve days earlier aged 87.
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I fear one pint of the Dark Ruby would have become two…
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Ah yes, and an even better day that we had.
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Those pineapple glasses always remind me of Terry and June c.1979 enjoying a drink at Purley Golf Club.
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Or Buller Bullethead at the Fool And Bladder.
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Now who was it saying that one should note which way up the pineapple is ?
Not someone Kentish the same age as me ?
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Not guilty, but it might have been one of the strange individuals, such as Volvo Cruiser, who occasionally posts on my blog.
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