I think eating it might help more.
I forgot two small details of last night's outing.
At the top of North Hill, I say a huge group of cyclists out on a night ride of some sort. They were joining The Ridge (heading downwards) from Runsell Lane. Lots of very high powered lights on show, and flat bars. I'm assuming they'd been or were going off road somewhere.
Oh and in the Hoop I mostly drank the Maldon Gold, but did try a West Country-brewed ale whose name escapes me (something Cream, IIRC). I quite like this but it had a scent I couldn't quite place. In the end the nearest I could com to describing it was "It smells a bit like meths, but not in a
bad way".