Around Peterborough Beer Festival in ten beers and one perry
Bit late with this one. Let's rip through the write-up; six reasons to be cheerful about Peterborough Beer Festival, ten beers reviewed in three words each, four questions I quizzed CAMRA about and one declaration.
Reasons to be cheerful:
1) It didn't rain on Thursday. If it has rained previously, there was no Somme-like gloop pervading the tents.
2) Beer quality was spot-on.
3) Beer range was spot-on.
4) There was Northamptonshire skittles, dodgems and a caricaturist. None of which I got to experience coz I was too busy drinking (see points 2 and 3 above).
5) Grasmere Farm knock out a very generous hog roast.
6) AlcofrolicChap and Lupulucy are fun people to share beer and banter with.
The beers:
1) Summer Wine, Resistance Mild - Kevin loved it
2) Adnams, Ghost Ship - Smooth citric drinking
3) Arbor, Oyster Stout - Tangy roast chocolate
4) Blue Ball, The Smoker - Smoked Fruit & Nut
5) Fuller's, Brewer's Reserve No. 3 - Figgy vanilla whisky
6) Fyne Ales, Sublime Stout - Seriously easy drinking
7) Hopshackle, Lonestar TPA - Hoppy? Definitely maybe.
8) Northcote, Jiggle Juice - A tangerine dream
9) Summer Wine, 7 C's of Rye - Bittersweet bittery bitterness
10) Thornbridge, Geminus - O.M.G.
And Oliver's Perry. The lodestone of any half-decent cider & perry bar.
The questions:
1) Plans to introduce a third-pint glass / measure? - raised by a number of punters and is to be discussed at the festival 'wash-up' meeting in October.
2) Bottles bought to be taken away from the foreign bar had to be collected from the CAMRA membership stand - why not over the counter like GBBF? -process seemed convoluted, trying to discourage people from walking around with bottles.
Here's hoping for a third-pint measure in 2012; other CAMRA fests with cash bars manage this well. As for the bottle takeaway... I'm not sure. I can't see many being dumb enough to buy takeaway beer and the wander round swigging from the bottle. As all onsite bottled beer was poured into your glass, there were no bottles knocking around and you'd stand out like a sore thumb if you were necking one. Maybe the takeaway could be bagged, taped-up duty-free style and then handed over?
As for discouraging people wandering around with bottles, several thousand punters were wandering around with glasses... unless they were polycarbonate???
I didn't ask about the lack of seating because, er, I got one. My advice for seating at tented fests? If you want one, get there early or take your own - I saw several Nottingham CAMRA members with camping chairs (they learn from experience).
All in all, probably the best Peterborough CAMRA festival I've been to. Numbers may have been down on last year - maybe not surprising in our straitened times when non-CAMRA members had to shell out nine quid entry, although the three quid glass rebate may have gone un-noticed by many.
Still, there were 26,000 punters who drank 97,452 pints of beer, 13280 pints of cider, 10,755 bottles and 6,500 glasses of wine. As this picture shows, one bearded Kevin seemed to enjoy himself...
Reasons to be cheerful:
1) It didn't rain on Thursday. If it has rained previously, there was no Somme-like gloop pervading the tents.
2) Beer quality was spot-on.
3) Beer range was spot-on.
4) There was Northamptonshire skittles, dodgems and a caricaturist. None of which I got to experience coz I was too busy drinking (see points 2 and 3 above).
5) Grasmere Farm knock out a very generous hog roast.
6) AlcofrolicChap and Lupulucy are fun people to share beer and banter with.
The beers:
1) Summer Wine, Resistance Mild - Kevin loved it
2) Adnams, Ghost Ship - Smooth citric drinking
3) Arbor, Oyster Stout - Tangy roast chocolate
4) Blue Ball, The Smoker - Smoked Fruit & Nut
5) Fuller's, Brewer's Reserve No. 3 - Figgy vanilla whisky
6) Fyne Ales, Sublime Stout - Seriously easy drinking
7) Hopshackle, Lonestar TPA - Hoppy? Definitely maybe.
8) Northcote, Jiggle Juice - A tangerine dream
9) Summer Wine, 7 C's of Rye - Bittersweet bittery bitterness
10) Thornbridge, Geminus - O.M.G.
And Oliver's Perry. The lodestone of any half-decent cider & perry bar.
The questions:
1) Plans to introduce a third-pint glass / measure? - raised by a number of punters and is to be discussed at the festival 'wash-up' meeting in October.
2) Bottles bought to be taken away from the foreign bar had to be collected from the CAMRA membership stand - why not over the counter like GBBF? -process seemed convoluted, trying to discourage people from walking around with bottles.
Here's hoping for a third-pint measure in 2012; other CAMRA fests with cash bars manage this well. As for the bottle takeaway... I'm not sure. I can't see many being dumb enough to buy takeaway beer and the wander round swigging from the bottle. As all onsite bottled beer was poured into your glass, there were no bottles knocking around and you'd stand out like a sore thumb if you were necking one. Maybe the takeaway could be bagged, taped-up duty-free style and then handed over?
As for discouraging people wandering around with bottles, several thousand punters were wandering around with glasses... unless they were polycarbonate???
I didn't ask about the lack of seating because, er, I got one. My advice for seating at tented fests? If you want one, get there early or take your own - I saw several Nottingham CAMRA members with camping chairs (they learn from experience).
All in all, probably the best Peterborough CAMRA festival I've been to. Numbers may have been down on last year - maybe not surprising in our straitened times when non-CAMRA members had to shell out nine quid entry, although the three quid glass rebate may have gone un-noticed by many.
Still, there were 26,000 punters who drank 97,452 pints of beer, 13280 pints of cider, 10,755 bottles and 6,500 glasses of wine. As this picture shows, one bearded Kevin seemed to enjoy himself...
Finally catching up with some blog posts. Shame on me. Thanks for the compliment, the feeling is mutual. It's not only the beer banter but the general nonsense and laughter.
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