Thornbridge Brewery

On Wednesday I went to Thornbridge Brewery with the Meetup group I'm a member of.

Phil and I caught the bus to Bakewell and walked to the brewery. It's only a 10 minute walk, and this way Phil could sample as much beer as he wanted and not worry about driving afterwards. We walked along the river to get to the brewery, it was a really nice walk. I guessing that if we had walked along the road, the footpath would have been very narrow, if there was one at all.

For those of you that know me you might be wondering what I was doing at a brewery tour at all, seeing as I don't like beer. I still don't like beer. It was more for the social aspect; to get out of the house and do something different, maybe even learn something new, and of course to spend some time with nice people.

The brewery was surprisingly difficult to find. I had turned the GPS on my phone on and when it told me we had reached out destination we were standing outside a kind of small industrial park and there were no signs pointing to the brewery. We did notice a map by the entrance, which actually led us in the wrong direction at first, as it looked like you didn't have to go through the gates. Once we did walk through the gates we had to walk for a while before there finally was a sign that said Thornbridge Brewery, from there it was easy to just follow the signs to the brewery. So it's not like it was super difficult to find or anything, but it would have been nice if there had been a proper sign outside the gates so that we knew straight away to go though them.

While we waited for the tour to start we got to hang out in the shop, which had a lot of sofas and chairs to sit down on, it was almost like a bright cosy pub. The main attraction for most people in this room was the bar. We all got a half pint glass and could sample the various brews they had on offer. They only did 4 or 5 brews on their little bar, but you could have as much as you wanted.

I sampled the Baize chocolate mint stout... I couldn't really taste the chocolate at all! Didn't enjoy it. I did sample some of the lagers as well, and although a couple of them were quite fresh, I wouldn't sit down and drink any of them.

I really enjoyed the tour of the brewery. It's a small one but there was still a lot to see. As I hadn't heard of Thornbridge before I went on the tour I thought it was just a small brewery that only supplied beer to local pubs, so I was very surprised to learn how many countries they export their beer to. They export beer to Japan, USA, Sweden and Australia amongst others.

I thought it was a really nice way to spend the afternoon, and I really enjoyed it, even without drinking beer.

We paid £7.50 each for the tour, included in the price we got all the samples we wanted in the bar both before and after the tour, and we also got to keep the half pint glass they served the samples in, which i think they sold in the shop for around £3.50, so you really got your money's worth!

Definitely a nice day out, especially if you are interested in, and like beer, and if you don't.

The adventure begins

.... Well, the adventure began a few days ago actually, but this is a different (or an extra) adventure. It's Universal Studios Islands of Adventure.

Islands of Adventure was more the way I thought Universal Studios would be, clearer sections. Like yesterday, I headed counter-clockwise around the park, and so the first section I got to was Seuss Landing. I haven't read many Dr. Seuss books but I quite enjoy the films. I went on the Cat in the Hat ride, which was good, probably more fun for the younger crowd, but I did enjoy it.

The next section was the Lost Continent where I attended Poseidon's Fury. It was a really good attraction, I walked through Poseidon's temple on a guided tour, with special effects, with a large group. The guide was really funny and the end of the tour was a lot of fun, I don't want to give too much away, you should see it for yourselves!

The next section was the one I had been looking forward to the most, Harry Potter! I'm not a big fan of the films, but I love the books. Well. I like the films if it has been a long, long time since I read the books, that way I can't remember the books so well that I compare them all the time. Which reminds me.. I want to re-read the books, again. And I still haven't seen the last few films... I've got some catching up to do!

Anyway, I digress. The Harry Potter part was really nice. You walk through a winter version of Hogsmeade, where you can buy wands, clothes and other Harry Potter related things. The only thing I bought was a Butterbeer-slushie. I've never had a butterbeer before. I was worried I wouldn't like it, that it would be too sweet and sickly since I pretty much only drink water, but it wasn't. The butterbeer was really tasty, I wish they sold it everywhere so I could buy some whenever I wanted! I was also quite brave (for me) and I went on the Hogwarts ride. I was really nervous before I got on it but I knew I'd be kicking myself if I didn't go on it. It was a fun ride actually. Yes, I got dizzy and nauseous, but mostly I thought it was quite fun.

By the way, the single rider queue is awesome! The wait for the Hogwarts ride was supposed to be around 60 minutes, but because they had a separate queue for single riders I probably only waited 10-15 minutes! A handy tool if you're travelling alone or if you're in a party that doesn't mind being split up for the ride (why would you mind if you're all adults travelling together? It's not like you can talk much during most rides anyway).

As I walked to the next section, Jurassic Park, it started raining, so I walked into the Discovery Centre. Not too bothered about that one to be honest, more for children as far as I could tell. When I walked back out again it was throwing it down and I could hear a thunderstorm in the distance, it wasn't as bad as yesterday but I still waited for a little bit, until the rain eased up, before I emerged from my shelter. I had been wanting to go on the Jurassic Park River Adventure, but they had closed it due to the weather, I waited around for a little bit, but as there was nowhere to sit down I decided to just move on to the next part of the park. I hate standing around without anything to do.

Toon Lagoon was next. I loved it! I have read many of the toons featured there, in Norwegian. I used to buy Beetle Bailey every time a new issue came out. Blondie is one of the comics my mum buys for Christmas every year, and Hägar always had some guest strips or pages in the Beetle Bailey mags. It was a fun little section of the park. They also had Popeyes boat, and if you walk along the little path behind it there are lots of little fun things hiding. Like a school for fish and Plymouth Rock, shaped like a Plymouth amongst other things.

Next I "geeked it up" with the Marvels section. I am so glad someone introduced me to the Avengers and some of the other Marvels films, like Fantastic 4 and the individual films for each superhero. It was a nice section of the park. I went on the Spiderman ride, which was a lot of fun. They also had a single rider section so I didn't have to queue for long. I am sensing a pattern here with only going on the simulator rides... It feels safer, I know it's only a screen and nothing too bad can happen to me if something fails.

Marvels is the last section on the Islands of Adventure, but I didn't end my day there. I had really wanted to go on the Men in Black ride at Universal so I decided to head back there and go on it. Again, they had a single rider queue so I got to the front of the line fast. It was a really fun ride. You shoot at aliens and get spun around a lot, I actually wanted to go on it again, despite feeling nauseated and having a headache, because I wanted to get a better score. Unfortunately I had to catch the bus back to the hotel.

Tomorrow I am getting up early and heading to Disney's Hollywood Studios. I think.

Smoothie week - day 7

For the last smoothie this week I decided to just throw together some leftover fruits.

The things I ended up throwing into the blender are: 1 mango, 1 banana, 3 kiwi, 3 tablespoons low fat natural yoghurt and a splash of orange juice.

Quite tropical so I decided to call it tropical goodness.

This brings an end to my smoothie week, for now anyway, maybe I will have another one later. Have you tried any of the smoothies?

Like I said at the start of this week I do usually make a smoothie every day but normally I just throw whatever I have into the blender without following a recipe. It has been fun to use some fruits I don't normally use in my smoothies this week, and there are still so many different smoothies to make like all vegetable smoothies, or dessert smoothies with ice cream, maybe I'll do that another week. I will probably go back to just throwing some frozen fruits and orange juice together now for my smoothies as it's cheaper and easier but at least I know a little more about what I like in smoothies and not.

What kind of smoothies do you like?

Smoothie week - day 6

Today I made a booster smoothie.

For this smoothie you need 1 apple, 1 pear, 1 handful of frozen berries, a splash of orange juice and 2 tablespoons of low fat natural yogurt.

The smoothie was really nice but had a slightly weird consistency, I don't know if it's the apple or pear, maybe both, or the peel from them since I didn't peel them, I will have to try and remember to do that next time I use either of them and see how the consistency is then.

Smoothie week - day 5

Today I made a banana smoothie, very nice and easy to make, but the worst tasting smoothie so far! I will not be making it again! It was much worse than the banana and mango smoothie, at least I didn't want to pour the banana and mango smoothie out.

This is the ingredients you should not mix if you want to make a tasty smoothie for 2; 1 banana, 1 kiwi, 1 small apple, 1 pear and a splash of orange juice (approx 100millilitres).

I have drawn a big X across this recipe in my recipe book as I don't want to make the mistake of making it again!

Smoothie week - day 4

I decided to make my own recipe today, I had some strawberries that needed using.

I named it Smooth Citrus Kick, if you make it you'll understand why. This recipe is for two people. You need 150 grams fresh strawberries, 100 grams frozen raspberries, 1 banana, 1 kiwi and 300 millilitres orange juice. You could probably use less juice if you wanted to, 250 millilitres should be enough as it wasn't very thick.

I really enjoyed this smoothie, it was cold like I like it because of the frozen raspberries and very fresh.

Smoothie week - day 3

Today I made a Mango and Banana smoothie.

When I found the recipe it said it was for two people but I only got one glass out of it. You can use either mango or papaya for this smoothie, if you use papaya; discard the seeds. You need 1 mango, 1 medium banana, 1 tablespoon of tahini, tahini is sesame seed paste, I struggled finding it but apparently it lasts for ages and now I can try some more new recipes as I got a big jar! You also need 100 ml of orange or other fruit juice, 1 tablespoon of honey and 1 small pot, approx 125 ml, of natural plain low fat yoghurt.

Not my favourite smoothie so far, the first few sips weren't very nice, I don't know if it was the tahini or what, it was drinkable though and I would like to maybe try it with papaya one time. I also think it would have been better if it had something frozen in it to make it colder. If you don't want to hunt down tahini you could probably substitute it with peanut butter.

Smoothie week - day 2

Today I made a Raspberry Smoothie.

For one person you will need 125 grams raspberries, 150 grams low fat natural yoghurt, 2 drops vanilla essence and 1 teaspoon of honey. Because I used frozen raspberries, and I put those in before the yoghurt, not much happened when I turned the blender on, so I put a drop of milk and orange juice through the top hole of the blender until there was enough liquid to make it go round.

Joe thought this was the best smoothie I had made so far and I really enjoyed it as well, I couldn't really taste the vanilla but it was very fresh because of the raspberries, I wouldn't mind making this again maybe I'll try making it with fresh raspberries instead.

Smoothie week - day 1

I've decided that this week will be smoothie week. I usually make smoothies every day for breakfast or just for something to drink other than water during the day, normally I just put something random in it but this week I will actually use recipes and try some new ingredients.

This Banana and Strawberry smoothie recipe is for 1 person.

You need strawberries for this recipe, 50 grams. Do you know how little 50 grams of strawberries is?? 2 strawberries, it's nothing! You also need 1 small banana, 100 millilitres semi skimmed milk, 2 tablespoons orange juice, 4 tablespoons low fat natural yoghurt and 1 teaspoon of honey.

Put all the ingredients in the blender, blend until smooth, pour it into a glass and put the glass in the fridge for 10 minutes.

I thought it would be boring to have to wait 10 minutes before being able to drink it but I decided to sort out the rest of my breakfast and do the dishes while I waited.

The smoothie was ok. I wish I had frozen the banana or strawberries first as I've gotten used to proper cold smoothies but it was still nice. Very creamy. I'm not a big fan of natural yoghurt but I couldn't taste it at all in this smoothie. I think if I make it again I will put something frozen in it to make it colder but other than that it was very nice.