Whitby - part 1

A session in the Elsinore

Back in Whitby for my annual visit for Folk Week; it's the festival's 50th anniversary this year, although I'm a comparative newcomer as I've only been coming here since 1988 (and I missed 1989). Nowadays I tend to favour the fringe: music sessions in pubs, dance displays in the streets and so on because, unfortunately, the queues for the main events are just too long.

We had our annual pub crawl yesterday, beginning in the Elsinore in Flowergate. This is a very friendly pub where some of us from the Merseyside area like to call into, and perhaps join in the music sessions. The beers are Camerons Strongarm, John Smiths Cask and Tetley Bitter. I always go the Strongarm, as I find the other two to be among the most boring beers on the planet. I wonder whether they've moderated the flavour of the Strongarm; nowadays the taste seems to be milder, and a bit more like Doombar than it used to be. The Elsinore is well-known for its musicians' sessions every evening during Folk Week, including a lot of English tunes - despite what some people seem to think, not all folk music comes from Ireland!

A view across Whitby harbour

Across the road is the Little Angel, once a Tetley house but now with a good range of real ales, and there were several beers I'd not had before. Firstly the Scarborough Brewery Citra (4.2%), which was light, citrus (obviously) and altogether a very pleasant pint and a good example of the style. Another new beer to me was Brass Castle Mosaic (4.3%), apparently a collaboration brew with the North Riding Brewery, made with the American hop, Mosaic. Sightly more fruity than citrus, it too was a very enjoyable pint.

As a drinker from the North West, the beer prices here are a bit of a culture shock - around 40p to 50p per pint more than I'm used to. Still, I'm on holiday! More later in the week.