Clive and I caught the train after work on Friday up to London, to meet Mandy and her friend Selena at Earls Courts for a trip round the 'Great British Beer Festival' hosted by CAMRA. Overwhelmed by the range of ales around (yes Grandad there was a token wine stall (for the lady?) who'd prefer to ignore the whole point of a beer festival, never mind. So first on our hit list was Holt Brewery (Manchester). Unfortunately they were out of 'Humdinger' so we had a 'Mild' instead. We stuck to 1/3 pint measures so we wouldn't be stuck with a whole pint of something if we didn't like it, plus it kept the cost down to around a £1 a drink.
Other brews we tasted were: Marston's EPA (Clive really liked this one);Jennings 'Lakeland Stunner' (fab name and lovely too); Bath Ales 'Dark Gem' (can you sense a theme here?) and an Oldershaw Mowbray's Mash. Not bad for two hours. There were plenty of food stalls there (fish and chips, Chinese, pork scratchings- all pub classics), and traditional pub games included Skittles (Northants rules though so no overarm throwing) so we had traditional tea of a bag of chips. Musical entertainment from The Hamsters, and a huge cheer/Mexican wave would roll around the hall whenever a glass was dropped. There was even a section for overseas brews called 'Bieres sans frontiers'.
On another note entirely, it has been the first festival/gig/event I have EVER been to where there was long queues for the Gents loos and NOT the Ladies..at last! There was even a young chap (very polite and clearly in some danger (!) and pain) who pleaded with us clearly amused ladies to let him use our loos. He was so grateful he even promised to remember to put the lid down.
http://gbbf.camra.org.uk
Recommend beer festivals, anyone fancy a trip round Hook Norton brewery?
No comments:
Post a Comment