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I've been in two minds this week.
There's a couple of excellent beery options available to me this weekend that both have merit.
I could stay in Glasgow and head to the opening of BrewDog's shiny new bar in the city's West End.
Or, I could pack up the tent and camping stuff, stick it into the boot of the car and head to the Hawkshead Beer Festival in the Lake District for a couple of days of fun drinking beer made by some of the best breweries currently in the UK.
The beer list is a goldmine and contains many of the SIBA 2011 Gold medal winners as well as a finest selection of the brewers' favourites.
Beers available include Hawkshead's own Cumbrian 5 Hop and their new brew, New Zealand Pale Ale. I'm also really keen to get my first taste of a new brewery that seem to have set the twitter tongues wagging recently. The brewery in question is Magic Rock Brewing Co and despite being in their infancy, they seem to have caught the eye with their hoptastic beers such as their 9.2 % Human Cannonball and their High Wire and Rapture. Here's hoping they live up to what others are saying about them.
Many parts of the UK are represented at the festival. From Fyne Ales in Scotland, Marble Brewery in Manchester and Derbyshire's Thornbridge the cream of British beer is here. The South East is particularly well represented with Dark Star, Redemption, Sambrooks and Windsor and Eton all on the extensive beer menu. It really does look an cracking celebration of the best of British brewing.
That's it.
I think I've just talked myself into it.
BrewDog Glasgow can wait.
This weekend, it has to be Hawkshead.
The Hawkshead Festival runs from Thursday 21st July to Sun 24th. More information and the beer list can be found here
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