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beer festivals london real ale

A model beer festival

The Castle in Walthamstow has just hosted what might be the model beer festival.

The pub, which has struggled to attract the same crowds as its sister pub the Nag’s Head around the corner, was absolutely packed tonight.

The landlord was quite emotional: “I never expected it to be this popular. We’ll definitely be doing another one. And I’m going to get more real ales on the bar.

Here’s what worked:

1. Let the local CAMRA types choose the beers and run the festival bar — “leave it to the experts,” as the landlord said.

2. Keep the selection small. There were about 10 beers, which is just the right amount. We tried almost all of them and didn’t leave wondering what we’d missed.

3. Choose beers carefully. All of the beers on offer were decent, though some were better than others. We were particularly impressed by Saltaire Cascade, Kinver Edge and Dark Star Mild.

The CAMRA people running the bar were friendly and plainly delighted to be doing good trade. The rest of the pub was full of locals who were just intrigued to try something new.

If you can, pop down tomorrow (there won’t be any beer left on Sunday). Otherwise, keep your eyes peeled and come to the next Castle beer festival.

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beer festivals london real ale

Another London beer festival

Sadly, we didn’t make the Battersea beer festival this year (work and family stuff) so we were delighted to notice last night that the Castle in Walthamstow, East London, is having a beer festival. It’s running on the 15-17th of February.

It’s supported by the local CAMRA branch, and promises, in massive lettering, “Ales, milds, STOUTS and PORTERS”. I’m hoping the massive letters mean an emphasis on warming, wintry brews.

The Castle itself is the sister pub of the Nag’s Head, although it’s struggling to build up quite the same level of buzz or custom. Surely worth a visit when there’s a festival on, though, and one of a few pubs in the area with potential.

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The Castle is at 15 Grosvenor Rise, Walthamstow E17 9LB.

The picture above isn’t of the Castle — it’s an old one from this post, also about Walthamstow.

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beer festivals

Pig’s Ear beer festival, Hackney

pigs-ear.gifWe managed to make it to the Pig’s Ear in the end, and we’re extremely glad we made the effort. The beer lists were impressive, and everything we had was in good condition (unlike GBBF – but to be fair, it’s probably easier to keep things in condition in the winter, and when you’re not in an aircraft hanger.)

There was a good mix of people there for a beer festival – at least 10 women and many men without beards. No, seriously, it was good to see that it attracted locals as well as CAMRA members, as this can only be good for spreading the real ale message. I met locally-based Italians, Australians and Poles there as well, enjoying the beer.

Also a good idea is letting students in free – get’em when they’re young and pretentious, I say.

We had lots of great beers, but some that really stood out for us were;

  • Dark Star’s “Smoke on the Porter” – as you may guess, a slightly smoky porter
  • Dorset’s “Advent-ageous” – awful name, great beer. Described as a “Christmas beer” and subtly spicy, but extremely drinkable.
  • De Ranke Pere Noel – strong flavoured belgium blonde, impressive flavour for “only” being 7%
  • De Regenboog Smisje Kerstbier (in bottles) – at 11%, the perfect nightcap. Had drunk too much by then to give any useful description of what it tasted like, but we sat around going “wow” a lot.

We also picked up a number of interesting takeaways. And the Wobbly Bottom cheese stall was fabulous.

It’s on until Saturday, so there’s still time to visit!

Notes

All the details you need are here on the Pig’s Ear website. Even if you live outside London, don’t be put off by the fact it’s “in the suburbs”, it’s only about 10 minutes from Liverpool Street by train.

PS Also want to mention that we popped into the Pembury Tavern for a warm-up drink and the Augustus pale ale is absolutely superb.

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beer festivals

Wedmore Real Ale Festival 2007

wedmore.jpg

I spent Saturday evening at a real ale festival in Wedmore, Somerset, former home of Gary Glitter. It’s apparently Somerset’s biggest beer festival and was unlike any other I’ve been to, in a good way.

Wedmore is in the middle of nowhere with a population of fewer than 4000 people, so a three day beer festival is a big deal, and pretty much everyone who lives nearby turned up. I didn’t see one bearded bloke with a notebook, just lots of locals out to have fun and get drunk.

That meant that the atmosphere was genuinely lively. The little village hall was incredibly crowded, which was annoying until we’d had two pints, when it suddenly felt like the cosiest, friendliest place on Earth.

There was loud music; dancing; and there were even some people on the pull. Successfully on the pull. At a beer festival. You don’t see much of that at the Great British Beer Festival, do you? Or is there a special area for it…?

What about the beer? Well, that was great too. There were some 50 beers on offer and, it being Somerset, loads of decent cider.

I had St Austell Black Prince (a mild); something called Trade Winds that, disappointingly, wasn’t the Cairngorm beer of the same name I tried at the Pembury Tavern beer festival; Wentworth oatmeal stout (fantastically fulsome and smoky, if not complex); and a “Black as yer ‘at”. Is that a racial epithet? Hope not.

My Dad had a pint of Thwaites Lancaster Bomber that was mostly sediment but, as the proceeds of the event were going to charity, he gallantly poured it away rather than cause a big fuss at the very busy bar.

He also had something called Dr Hexter’s Healer which was a massively malty strong ale with no medicinal properties whatsoever….

I will be back there next year, for sure.

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beer festivals Germany Snacks to beer Spain

Bierfest by numbers in Don Quijote country

Boak is on tour in France and Spain.

I was extremely surprised to see posters advertising an Oktoberfest in Cuenca. Cuenca is a beautiful town in the Castille-La Mancha region of Spain (the dry bit in the middle), famous for cheese, honey, cooking with strange bits of animal… but not really for its beer. A closer look revealed the event to be “sponsored” (i.e. organised) by Paulaner, who have organised similar festivals in other Spanish cities. The Cuenca local authorities then tagged on a tapas festival, where different restaurants and bars have stalls and offer a couple of dishes each.

Obviously I had to go along and have a look. It appeared to be in the car park of a housing estate, with a huge Paulaner tent dominating the proceedings (not in the photo). Inside was the requisite oompah band, Paulaner on tap, a mixture of German and Spanish snacks and some tacky souvenirs.

The outside was definitely where it was at — I got the impression the locals weren´t quite sure what they were supposed to do in the tent. They were certainly slightly bemused by the band. That said, the tent was beginning to fill when I left, and no doubt it turned into a wild fiesta afterwards. Perhaps.

Like the locals, I´m not sure what to make of it all. On the one hand, the combination of good beer and tapas is a match made in heaven. On the other hand, this is not so much a genuine cultural exchange as a mass-marketing technique by Paulaner. If you read Spanish, here´s an article from Marketing Magazine last year, which says that by promoting these festivals, Paulaner want to develop the appreciation of beer in Spain. Well, that´s nice of them. Funny that their generosity doesn´t extend to promoting beers from other breweries. Here´s a link to the London Bierfest, which looks identical.

Do we really want these Identikit beer festivals springing up all over the place? Sure, I dream of a world where every town has a beer festival — but not exactly the same festival wherever you go.

Boak