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A British Beer Festival (photo diary)

by Helen Thu Mar 25th, 2010 at 05:15:47 PM EST

Given that I'm always going on about beer, I realised that most of you have probably got no idea of what a British Beer festival is.

So, this is a photo diary of the recent London Drinker festival I helped at. A couple of pictures from the balcony


there are 3 main bars, organised with the brewers in alphabetical order;

Bar A - C

Bar D - T. Also in the first picture, this shows the bar from the back of the stillage.

Bar U - Cider. Yes, a beer festival also stocks cider. At local festivals like this it will be british cider, but ciders from europe will feature at the Great british Beer festival in August.

Also, a lot of beer festivals will feature the more interesting and diverse foreign beers which are popular among the beer drinking cognoscenti. the range available is dependent upon the interests of the person doing the ordering, so some will focus almost exclusively on  Belgian beers, whilst others, such as this one will feature a lot of German beers. that suited me as it enabled me to drink Schlenkerla Rauschbier in great quantities; a treat I never turn down.

and the sordid ruffians who serve it

But all good things come to an end, and then we have to take it down.

and then we party. Pictures censored to protect the guilty very drunk.

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DJ? Band? Strings? Accordian?

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Thu Mar 25th, 2010 at 09:47:08 PM EST
No music at this one. There's a shortage of space and music would simply make things worse.

Again it depends on the interests of the organisers. Some, such as the GBBF will be very diverse featuring anything from heavy rock to classical, others become folk festivals with a beer fest attached.

Personally I dislike heavy rock or any form of loud music at a beer fest. Folk can be okay, but the very best music I've heard to accompany drinking is classical. A string quartet is excellent.

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Fri Mar 26th, 2010 at 05:47:51 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Good stuff.  A beer festival comes to Cardiff too - do you know when it is?
by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Sat Mar 27th, 2010 at 10:16:14 AM EST
Jun, 10 - 12 th.

I'll come over and "guide" you through it if you like :-))

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Sat Mar 27th, 2010 at 10:39:53 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Wait a minute! Beer festivals travel?

Now I'm wondering how promoters/producers organized such events. Assuming, do brewers follow the festival or is each organized by local venue?

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Sat Mar 27th, 2010 at 12:17:16 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Neither.

There is a group called the Campaign for Real Ale who have local branches all over th country. It is these local branches who organise the festivals, ordering the beer from various brewers, hiring the halls etc.

On any particular weekend there will be 2 or 3 fests happening somewhere in the country. Fewer in the winter, more in the summer

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Sat Mar 27th, 2010 at 03:29:39 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I live near a very dangerous place, The Warehouse in Port Costa, a tiny town down a very windy canyon road, on the Sacramento River. As its name implies, it's a former warehouse, huge, and it has a chill room with what they say is four hundred beers in bottles.

I scoot down the canyon on occasion, wander into the chiller accompanied by a rowdy barmaid, and idly select weird beers to consume on the raised platform overlooking a few dozen Harleys, and few Italian and Japanese crotch rockets, and of course, my very weird looking stretch scooter assembly of parts, the naked Helix (sounds like the next Dawkins book, eh?).

Big bowls of popcorn are free, and they have a killer shrimp cocktail, way too many shrimp way too cheap.

The trains roll by, boats skip and sail by, tugs push barges of oil to the refinery in Martinez (I ruminate on peak oil), and across the river the McMansions snake across the temporarily verdant hills. Latino families picnic and fish on the beach, kids screaming happily as they flail each other with seaweed invaders from the faraway ocean, and the metal detector guy wanders aimlessly in his search for Ed Dorado.

Then I have to ride home, pixilated, into the setting sun. There's a beautiful view of the Marin mountains just west of the I80 freeway, reminding me why I live here. It's a glow, indeed. Beer festivals.

It's idyllic

Align culture with our nature. Ot else!

by ormondotvos (ormond.otvosnospamgmialcon) on Tue Mar 30th, 2010 at 05:36:12 PM EST


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