Tag Archives: festival

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West Bridgford Hockey Festival – Review.

Hockey and beer festivals are not an obvious mix and to me at least it practically sticks two fingers up at logic, so it’s a good job then I was there to drink beer and not crudely waft my big stick around, I’ve been there and got arrested; indecent exposure, I wouldn’t recommend it.

The festival takes part in the hockey clubhouse, it’s of decent size with the beer barrels out of sight behind the bar, a good amount of seating is available for the numbers who show up which on a Friday was busy but at the very worst a 2 minute wait for beer.

WBHockey10

Well priced? you bet.

So onto the beer and food then, the two things you go for! How was the beer? fantastic as usual, all are left to stand for a week prior to the festival so it goes without saying they’re well kept. Beers (all of them, yes including Jaipur) where priced at £2.40 a pint, selection and quality where both excellent Roosters – Jasmine IPA 5.0% my favourite of the festival, and a mention for the Magpie Brewery who I am usually to put it nicely ‘not a fan of’ Magic Lantern 4.4% was very nice indeed.

Value in this climate is a big talking point, so when they’re selling off good burgers for £1, samosas for 50p and pair of spring rolls also for 50p you can’t go wrong, and having sampled them all, they where as good as the beer!

A Hockey club showing other beer festivals how it’s done!? it certainly looks like it.

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Nottingham (Robin Hood) 2010 beer festival review

And just like that it was all over, but enough talk of what I did last night and onto last weekend which again saw the Nottingham beer festival dominate the city centre, seeing over 21,000 visitors guzzling 800+ beers 50 ciders and a selection of fruit wines so quickly that once more they didn’t need to open on the Sunday (a day usually reserved for drinking the remnants) the rate at which the beer sells is something that has to be witnessed, Kipling anyone?!

Our advice is if you want the best range and guaranteed entry then make your way down on the Thursday, the aforementioned Thornbridge – Kipling (festival champion) had already sold a full barrel by around 5pm; thankfully another came on, though I doubt it lasted long at all, a magnificent beer and worthy champion.

notts

Friday saw things begin to really heat up, the atmosphere was buzzing and queuing at the gates had formed just before 6pm (those that wish to go in 2011, you’re best leaving work early if you don’t fancy queuing) it was amazing to see the number of beers beginning to sell out, it hits you then at just how much really is being drunk, shedloads, but you only need to look around to realise that theres so much other beer left, and beer on reserve it’s pretty much a moot point.

rain

Rain mid-evening on Friday saw a rush into the tents

Once again a huge selection of food was on offer, I didn’t try it all as I’m not a machine but the range was vast, one of the grumbles from last year was the lack of beer token outlets, there are now 3 : problem solved, as was last years toilet issues, it’s hard to work out how they shoe-horned in more and put them indoors but given the weather it was a move that paid off.

Grumbles this year, well the main one is not being able to try the Kipling on Friday, but then it’s hardly the organisers fault for not having a crystal ball, maybe they ought to get 5 barrels of last years champion in for 2011, now there’s a thought…  – edit : seems that the organisers did have a crystal ball, but due to supply issues from Thornbridge the order couldn’t be substantially increased!

castle

Time it right, and you can walk right in

One thing I had previously touched upon in my day 1 report was the beer pricing seemed a little odd with Nottingham beers being the same price as beers sourced from all over the UK , so I emailed CAMRA some questions on the festival. Steve Westby festival organiser gave me an insight as to why this is the case.

Over half of the beers at the festival come to us from local brewers (as do many guest beers in our local pubs). This is because they nearly all have swap deals with other brewers around the country, by which they swap casks of beer on an abv for abv basis. So we actually pay the “local” price for these beers.

Which pretty much shut me up on that point quite nicely. Steve also went on to point out that they’re always looking for volunteers to help out with the festival, you can find out more by clicking the Nottingham CAMRA link on the right of this site.

In a nutshell if you’re wanting to go to the biggest and best festival in the UK, with the largest selection of real ale on the planet then start planning on coming to Nottingham in 2011.

What was your beer of the festival? leave us a comment below.

What was our beer of the festival? unsurprisingly, also Thornbridge – Kipling, followed by Great Oakleys – Wot’s occuring?

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The loons guide to the Nottingham (Robin Hood) beer festival.

Nutters, they’re absolutely everywhere so here’s a short and sweet guide for the loonies among you, the DEADMAN 8, the strongest beers in order of strength!

BREWDOG Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire

622 PARADOX 10.0%
– Whisky cask aged imperial stout.

RES HARDCORE I.P.A. 9.0%
– An explicit beer with masses of hops

FULLERS Chiswick, London
661 GOLDEN PRIDE 8.5%
– A robust strong ale of immense character

COASTAL Redruth, Cornwall
RES EROSION 8.0%
– Dangerously drinkable, strong dark malty brew

HUNTERS Ipplepen, Devon
236 FULL BORE 8.0%
– A strong, golden, honey ale, refreshingly malty

MAYPOLE Wellow, Notts
324 DAMBUSTERS ‘GONER’ 8.0%
– A strong barley wine

MALLARD Carlton, Nottingham
353 DUCK OFF 3 (PHIL’S FINAL DABBLE) 8.0%
– A pale barley wine

GREEN ROOM Brewed at Keltek, Redruth, Cornwall
199 ROGUE 7.6%
– Strong dark beer with a deep fruity aroma

Remember to drink responsibly, ahem.

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Nottingham (Robin Hood) beer festival, 800 beers, my top tips!

So the Nottingham beer festival is confirmed at having around 800 beers, toppling the already heady heights of last years 700, now that’s a lot of choice…

So here are my runners and riders for the festival, after-all horse racing and beer festivals are very much alike, they’re always full of stupid people who don’t really know what they’re doing, and some mare always ends up on its back.

Nottm

I’ll get the obvious one out of the way first, if you’re not from Nottingham, or if you are and have been living under a rock (maybe castle shaped) you need to try 3 Castle Rock – Harvest Pale it wasn’t made supreme champion of Great Britain for a laugh.

So, if you’ve not tried any of the below, here are my home bankers for a decent drink,

104 Blue Monkey – Evolution 4.3%
132 Derventio – Venus 5.0%
261 Loddon – Ferrymans gold 4.4%
263 Loddon – Hoppit 3.5%
344 Potbelly – Potbelly best 3.8%
361 Nottingham – James Morton’s legacy 3.8% (although I think it’s supposed to be James Fellows of Fellows Morton & Clayton)
382 Rebellion – IPA 3.7%
418 Steel City – Masters of the spooniverse 4.2%
431 Thornbridge – Hopton 4.3%
432 Thornbridge – Jaipur 5.9%
433 Thornbridge – Kipling 5.2%

Bandstand Area

620 Brewdog – 5AM Saint 5.0%
623 Brewdog – Punk IPA 6.0%
647 Fat Cat – Cougar 4.7%

Beers on ‘reserve’ status,

RES Leila Cottage – Ace Ale 3.8%
RES Oldershaw – Caskade 4.2%

If you like the dark stuff it’s hard to see past,

101 Blue Monkey – 99 Red Baboons 4.2%
399 Sarah Hughes – Dark Ruby 6.0%
712 O’Hanlons – Dry Stout 4.2%

Of course, the real point of a beer festival is to try beers new to you, so don’t forget to do some blind shooting and choose some randoms! drop a comment below of any tips of your own.

The Nottingham / Robin Hood beer festival opens Thursday at 11am and ends Sunday 3pm, we will of course be updating live so check back for more beer suggestions, and again leave some of your own. official website

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Loughborough great central railway beer festival 2010

Band tent

Beer and trains, I’ve never been much of a railway person but there’s no doubting I was intrigued by this festival, and they had 40 ales on, so that was pretty much the deal sealed right there.

I was pleasantly surprised at the layout of the festival, I didn’t think it would be literally laid out on a train platform; a period wedding meant people where milling around in pre-war attire, add that to a live brass band and you have quite the atmosphere, certainly unique, and certainly enough to make me want to attend future festivals.

Tent

It wasn’t perfect though, despite a good mix of beers (all sourced from locations on the route) nothing stood out as exceptional, Rebellion – Mutiny, a beer I have enjoyed many times just didn’t taste on form at all to me but that really is nit picking on what was a great day out.

stationgout

My picks from the festival,

Nottingham – EPA
Castle Rock – Harvest Pale
Boggart Hole Clough Brewery – Rum Porter

The festival is accessible from the X9 bus from Nottingham city center and a 10 minute walk, click for the gcrailway website.

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Nottingham beer festival preview.

October sees Nottingham castle open its grounds once again for the Nottingham beer festival, so let’s take a look back to 2009; and on to what we can expect for this years even bigger 2010 festival.

Nottingham beer festival Thu 14th to Sun 17th October 2010, official website

Thursday October 8th 2009 I was in London drinking in Dirty Dicks (it’s a pub, look it up) an amateur mistake for on my return to Nottingham on the Friday I was greeted at 4pm with a lot of the ‘well known’ (Thornbridge being a prime example) fantastic beers empty, already! This happens every year, and no matter how hard the organisers try with 700 beers it’s nigh on impossible to predict sales patterns, you could argue that they should increase the number of beers with a reserve barrel, but no doubt this comes a the cost of variety.

700 is now the benchmark, if you want to try the well known best beers without disappointment ensure you get down on the Thursday, but remember beer festivals aren’t all about the big boys, what about the little known brewer with an absolute gem? or the darkhorse that slipped under the radar? check back in the coming weeks for our ‘top tips’ before the festival, and any gems we unearth whilst there.

nottm

The Nottingham beer festival takes some beating, I would go as far as saying the only thing that can realistically beat the 2009 festival, is the 2010 festival. It seems finally that some of the stereotypes are being shaken off, you could see this in 2009, it was a huge mix of young and old, the pull perhaps is that it’s not all beer, there’s a ton of cider, fruit wines and fruit beers, and if you really want to tread carefully there are lagery type concoctions dotted around, but don’t expect to find a Carling tent, this isn’t Donington. (though the toilets are comparable)

 

Stick with us on the run-up, it’s going to be huge.