THIS week I felt it most appropriate to do some tub thumping for Cask Ale Week - a celebration of Britain's national drink that runs until Sunday.

It's an ideal platform to increase footfall in the locality's pubs and clubs, flog more cask ale and, hopefully, introduce and 'convert' more folk to the delights of cask-conditioned beer.

One venue supporting Cask Ale Week is the Hare and Hound in Padiham. As part of the celebrations, they held a mini-beer festival - and they asked yours truly to choose all 10 of the ales on offer

It gave me the perfect opportunity to select beers from some of the area's breweries made by brewers with the passion and a skill for brewing craft ales. These are all beers produced by artisans, in my humble opinion.

It was quite a responsibility and a challenge, identifying beers to suit all palates. The pub was packed out for most of the three-day festival. And the feedback from the many that had thronged was very positive.

First to sell out, was Moorhouse's First Cut, chosen to identify a typical, premium English traditional bitter. It is amber in appearance and with a malty sweet aroma. The classic maris otter malt gave it a biscuity-sweet flavour and led to some fruity bitterness and lingering caramel in the finish.

No surprise it flew out.

Another popular slurp was from a small microbrewery on the outskirts of Burnley. Fighting Cocks.

The Cliviger Clout was the talk of the festival and I had had it brewed specially for the event. It's a robust, light golden ale and was bursting with zesty grapefruit along with a hint of gooseberry. It had a pleasant, resinous mouthfeel being both clean and refreshing with a fruity bitterness in the aftertaste. A tangy, tingly, tongue taster!

One beer I knew would go well was from Blackburn brewer, Three B's. It produces craft beer at its finest and brewer Bob Bell is my beer hero.

His Pinch Noggin was superb. A premium strong bitter, at 4.6% with a dark amber appearance and a malty sweet aroma. The caramel malt and dark offering vinous fruit flavours, which complimented each other to perfection.

Arguably, my favourite beer, was from Rammy Craft Brewery. Their Chocolate Porter was a brewing masterpiece. The tartness of the dark grains offset the malty sweet flavour to perfection. It led to a strong, bitter chocolate finish. It was Cadbury's Bournville in a glass - clever brewer.

Other favourites included a brew from fledgling Eccleston brewer, Third Eye Brewery. Session Ale was a refreshing, hop-laden delight. And then there was a fruity wheat beer (it flew out) from Manchester brewer, Seven Bro7hers. A delicious, offbeat and hazy potion.

So, let's hope Cask Ale Week will be a successful one. And that many are migrating to the intoxicating delights of cask conditioned beer - and hopefully, I will have played my part in persuading you to become more 'judicious' in your beer preference.