A Day in the Lakes - Mark 2

Paul is only here for a week, and the main reason for his trip is to be here for our housewarming party. For much of the rest of the time he's going to be helping out around the house, either getting ready for the party, clearing up after it, or giving me a hand stripping out the study ready for replastering. So to try and make it a bit more of a holiday, we went up to the Lakes yesterday for the day.

First stop was Sefton, to see Anthony Gormley's "Another Place." We were lucky to get the chance to see this amazing work. It was due to move off Crosby beach in November last year having moved several times before, but now the local authority have accepted proposals for it to stay there permanently, thus allowing the artist's original vision to work itself out over the coming years as the figures become more affected by nature.

I'd heard about the figures years ago, naturally, and seeing them on TV I scoffed at the idea as being just another daft artist's attempt to do something different. I couldn't have been more unprepared for my reaction to actually seeing the iron men for myself. The 100 figures are spread out across the beach so that in any one direction you can only see a few of them. But the fact that, as you look around, you see more of them, they are all standing alone and all looking in the same direction, gives the already desolate place a heightened sense of loneliness mixed with steadfastness that I found profoundly moving.

Having completed our up-close look at Another Place, we set off for Cockermouth for the second event of the day: a tour of Jennings Brewery (which had been on Paul's list of things to do). Jennings is the oldest brewery in Cumbria, established in 1828, but is no longer an independent brewery as it was recently taken over by Marston's. The brewery tour started at 2pm and when we arrived at the souvenir shop at ten to two we were the first there. By 2pm though, a fair crowd of about a dozen of us had assembled and we set off round the brewery to see the mill, the mash tuns, the boiling coppers, the hop station (complete with hops) and the fermentation vessels (pictured). No matter how many times I hear the story of how beer is made it's still always fascinating. Each brewery makes their own slight tweaks to the standard process, whether it's the water they use, or the way they mix the grain.

The lesson for me this time round was that soft water areas make darker ales, whereas hard water tends to give a pale ale. So when Marston's from Burton on Trent - famous for their darker Pedigree bitter - took over, Jennings were able to extend their range of already excellent beers and move into the production of darker beers by "Burtonising" their water. Adding gypsum or epsom salts to harden the water and make it more like the water used in Burton.

I don't think I've ever been allowed to stick my head into a fermentation vat either, so that was a treat. We were warned not to do it with the first vessel as it was still early in the process and the atmosphere in the tank was almost 100% carbon dioxide, but the second one had been skimmed and although extremely pungent, it was at least safe.

The highlight of any brewery tour is the sampling, and on this score Jennings rated very highly indeed. They had six ales on tap for us to try, and we were allowed three half pints each. Even better, if anyone chose one and decided (before finishing it!) they didn't like it, then we were allowed to swap. So I ended up sampling the traditional Jennings Bitter, the seasonal ale - Tom Fool - which I didn't like, Cocker Hoop, a wonderfully fruity pale ale which was my definite favourite, and the Cumberland which has hops added to the barrel after brewing to give extra flavour.

Just on the off-chance, I enquired about the possibility of taking a barrel away with us. In my student days it was always a tradition to secure one or more firkins (9 gallons) for parties and it occurred to me it would be a bonus if we could do that again. I was told they do supply small quantities direct to the public, but you're supposed to order in advance. They checked the racks for us though, and found a barrel of Jennings bitter that had not been collected, so we were able to fetch the car to the brewery door and load up 72 pints of best Cumbrian ale with which to party on Saturday night.