Dance on a Volcano

Through a crack in Mother Earth

Blazing hot, the molten rock, spills out over the land
And the lava's the lover who licks your boots away
Hey, hey, hey, if you don't want to boil as well

Be-be-better start the dance
D-d-do you want to dance with me?

...well I only need half an excuse for a nice bit of Genesis...

...but this post really is tenuously linked to volcanoes, or to put it another way... Crackle Rock Brewery from Botley in Hampshire.

Rewinding a bit....a Saturday evening pub shed meeting (in my back garden) was rapidly approaching and the nervous wait for a well known on line retailer, and their shipper - I won't reveal their real name, lets call them 'Parcel Farce', to deliver the 'featured brewery' beers, turned into a major traumatic event....

...for the second time in succession Parcel Farce failed to deliver the beers intact, citing exactly the same set of circumstances for both deliveries, as recorded on their tracking website...

Parcel Farce....

Now call me cynical...but when the same script appears on their tracking website for the original delivery and the resent second delivery, something slightly 'iffey’ is going on at the local Parcel Farce depot....

After that I gave up and cancelled the order and suggested to the online beer retailer that they might consider finding a more reliable shipping company...

...which (finally) brings me back to the subject of the post...as Saturday morning arrived and I needed some 'featured brewery' beers PDQ...

So a quick look at the Hampshire Brewry possibilities and eliminating those already tried, resulted in a drive round to Crackle Rock Brewery.

Arriving in the quaint little town of Botley, I couldn't find it at first and my sat nav kept delivering me to a private residential cul de sac, whose residents seemed a bit curious as to why I had arrived, and was turning round and leaving, for a third time...

...but eventually I found it and then had to leave again and find the public car park, as there was no parking outside...

When I finally walked into the Crackle Rock Tap - I needed a drink....

...the barman said they were on their last cask of Merlin Mild, and following my policy of always trying a cask mild when I come across one, I had a half...

...the barman gave it a good pull through first, and it was good, though perhaps a little past its best.  Never mind - still enjoyed it - especially as it was offered 'on the house', as I had purchased a box of twelve assorted bottles for the pub shed (all bottle conditioned beers too).

Crackle Rock is a quite new and very small brewery but their Tap is nice...

...and in very fiery volcano colours...

So Crackle Rock save the day and are definitely 'doing it right'...unlike the beer retailer who uses Parcel Farce IMHO (in my hermits opinion)...