"If I were to offer you either tea or mild ale at this moment, which would you take?"

"Generally, I should say tea," said the poet; " but after my labours of this morning, which have made me nervous, it would be better for me to take mild ale." She gave him a shilling, and pointed to a jug. He disappeared, and presently returned with a comfortable head of foam upon the vessel. She noticed, with a quiet smile, that he neglected to give her back the change. It was a forgetful way he had.

"It was providential," he said, " quite providential, that I did not get up when I woke up first. At the very best it would have been tea and bread-and-butter with Mrs. Medlar, and now it's been sausages and beer."

from 'With Harp And Crown', Sir Walter Besant, 1875


A couple of weeks ago, Brooklyn brewmaster Garrett Oliver told me that there was no beer that couldn't be matched with sausages. Tonight, I'm proving him right by pairing Buxton High Tor (dry hopped special with Chinook and Columbus) with butchers-thumb-fat Lincolnshire porkers, stuffed with sage and served dead cold after a good baking earlier.

Seeing as how Derbyshire knocks out a great line in speciality sausage - wild boar, lamb and mint, chili and chocolate - I'm going to put Garrett's maxim to the test over the next couple of months. Gueuze that cuts through pork fat? Sounds like a challenge to be relished... >

It has to be said, I'm quite partial to a sausage. So the thought of a beer & sausage festival today was enough to persuade my darling wife to point the little blue beer taxi in the direction of the Three Tuns in Dronfield.

An impressive pub - open plan, wrapped around a central bar, raised dining area, chunky chairs and smart sofas. The staff were fantastic - attentive, chatty, clued-up. The beers were spot-on; twelve from Spire on the bar - it's their pub - plus sixteen festival beers available on cellar runs.

But it was the sausages that stole the show. The Championship Plate, pictured above, had six pork sausages from different local butchers. And, boy, they were different. Density, depth of flavour, skin thickness... what a fantastic opportunity to compare and contrast.

I had to try a few more, of course. The 'Forest' Plate combined the earthy, slightly nutty Wild Boar & Sage from Farmhouse Pantry, a really rich Game sausage by Gaunt's and the pungent Cranberry, Apple & Chutney of Price & Fretwell.

And I had to make space for the 'Farmhouse' Plate too; a magnificently robust lamb & mint by Meadowfresh, the deep deep deep flavour in the buffalo from Farmhouse Pantry and my favourite of the day by them again: sweet chilli chicken. Never had a chicken sausage before; this was properly meaty, not too heavy and just-so on the chilliometer.

The beers weren't too shabby either. Spire's Coal Porter and Sergeant Pepper Stout were everything I want in dark beers; licks of licorice, ashen kisses, gorgeous engorged malts. A couple of IPAs by Barlow - Full Monty and Three Valleys - had that Fullers-like spicy marmalade feel that I love.

It was a cracking afternoon. The place was busy - as it damn well ought to be on a Saturday afternoon with beer and food of this quality. A brass band were playing which gave rise to the sight of someone walking out of the kitchen with a trombone to perform a number and then go serve beer. The only downside was that they ran out of chilli & chocolate sausage as I was ready to pair it with Spire's imperial stout, Prince Igor.

I'll certainly be going back to the Three Tuns - I can feel a Dronfield mini-crawl coming on - and I hope they put a sausage platter on their main menu. I just wish more pubs put this much thought into their festivals. Mahoosive amounts of beers are a bit meh; something such as sausages presented in this fashion turns a beer festival into a far more enjoyable event.


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