Do I like beer festivals? I’m still in two minds.
I’ve always had a bit of a love/hate relationship with beer festivals. I think my first was the Midlands Real Beer Festival 1975 held at Birmingham’s Bingley Hall (later damaged by fire and demolished), followed by a trip to the Liverpool Beer Festival. After moving to London, my first visit to the Great British Beer Festival (GBBF) was in 1980 at Alexandra Palace. This time, the fire beat me to the venue, so the festival was held under canvas in the grounds.
The following year, 1981 saw the GBBF move to Leeds, where it coincided with the Inland Waterways Association’s national rally of boats. As we were due to help friends who were exhibiting a hire boat at the rally, we felt it necessary to split our time between the two venues. After that I became an irregular GBBF visitor at venues in Brighton and London and attended various other local and regional festivals.
But gradually my festival attendance reduced. This was mostly due to the usual reasons: family, work, geography, etc. But it was also due to a change in the UK beer scene. Once, going to a festival was the easiest, perhaps the only, way to sample a wider range of beers then normally available. These might be beers from different parts of the UK, or from breweries not represented locally. But as the number of independent breweries and microbreweries began to grow and brewery tied houses reduced, beer started to travel. Last week in my local micropub, there was beer from a range of local breweries – Bristol, Gloucestershire, Somerset – plus “visitors” from Sheffield and Northumberland.
So, do I want to go to an exhibition hall or sports centre in a distant town and stand (there usually isn’t enough seating) drinking third- or half-pints of some “interesting” beers which may, or may not be, served at optimum temperature and condition? Or do I want to sit having a chat in a suitable pub and wait for the beers to find me? I’m tending more towards the latter option.
There are, however, exceptions. I made the trip last week to the GBBF in its new home at the National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham. It was well organised, even if the cavernous halls don’t provide much in the way of atmosphere. I did have a selection of interesting beers, all of which were served in excellent condition. These included cask beers from the USA, which I certainly didn’t come across during my recent travels there, as well as a selection of European beers.
I sampled everything from some excellent milds (Batemans, Green Duck, Backseat) to a 10% chocolate imperial stout (Green Duck again) and Greene King’s 12% 5X old ale. This last one is very rarely seen as it is mostly used as a stock ale to blend with other beers.
A highlight was a tutored tasting of five beers all brewed by Thornbridge using the Burton Union system which they acquired when Marstons decided to discard it. I think it is the much wider scope of beer, plus these extra events and the CAMRA Learn & Discover stand, which set GBBF and some of the other large regional festivals apart from smaller local events.
Lest it be thought that I am anti-festival, I should declare an interest: I was responsible for ordering beer for the 2024 Bristol Beer & Cider Festival. Yes, I was the man who ordered too many dark beers, not enough dark beer, too many beers from local breweries, didn’t support all the local breweries, not enough strong beers, too many expensive beers… Perhaps that’s why I prefer to drink beer in a pub.
