Brum Beer Fest 2012 + other stuff

Hello yes.

The 2012 version of the Birmingham Beer Festival 2012 took place last week (24th-26th October).  I attended on Friday and here are a few 'observations' (which is a posh way of saying that I'm going to tell you things about it).

First off, it was a massively good chance to catch up with fellow beer lovers from Birmingham and the surrounding sectors; people one regularly converses with on Twitter.  In fact, the Thursday and Friday evening sessions were designated #Twissups, allowing me to check in with a selection of friendly faces.  This was obviously a massive pleasure.



Second, the Foreign Beer Bar being run by Krishan and the Stirchley Wines team was a big plus, offering access to treats such as Emelisse Triple IPA and Duvel Tripel Hop, as well as £5 shots of 32% Brewdog Tactical Nuclear Penguin.

From a very personal point of view, the foreign beer options made up for the rather pedestrian cask beer list, which offered up a series of so-so beers during my foray.  Now, I'm not not trying to be sniffy, but having been denied some promised Summer Wine beers, and with a hugely in-demand barrel of Magic Rock High Wire refusing to clear sufficiently to be sold, I was left slightly disappointed at a lack of cutting edge/well-hopped beers.  Indeed, it was tricky to move beyond standard Bitters or Golden ales, but I did enjoy a Revolutions Paranoid Porter and a Tyne Bank Southern Star.  Sadlers also came up with the goods (as they usually do), with a very nice double IPA entitled Sweet Leaf.  But sadly, there were not many other cask beers sampled by me, which put their bubbly heads above the parapet.

Lastly: music at beer festivals.  What's that about?  By about 9.00 on this Friday evening, the upper floor of the festival venue was 'rocking' to a heavily metal band.  This band may have been brilliant for all I know, but the volume, and my consequent inability to have a conversation with fellow beer geeks, meant that effectively the national beer floor became off limits.  Which was a shame.

Still for all the mixedness of the above bag, the experience was undoubtedly positive.  As a member of the BrumBeerTwitterati pointed out - it was good to feel 'part of something [a community]".  The organisation of the fest was exemplary and the queues outside the venue on Friday evening were clear testimony to the popularity of the event.  It has to be said that I don't really enjoy beer festivals (I prefer pub crawls) but I did enjoy my visit to the Birmingham Beer Festival.

**

The following day, I had another lovely beer experience.  Following an exciting LCFC loss against Crystal Palace, I managed a mini-crawl of Leicester which took in the Swan and Rushes, Criterion, The Pub and the Ale Waggon.


I'm happy to say that the Swan came out on top, by retaining a dynamic selection of foreign bottled beers and by offering bar staff with the wit and knowledge to coherently discuss your potential choices.  Because of the staff intervention on Saturday, I managed to add a DELICIOUS De la Senne Jambe de Bois, to the Kneitinger Bock and Forsting Festbier which I had already necked.  When I was starting my beer journey in the early noughties, it was this pub that grabbed my tackle and got me excited.  10 years on and I still relish every visit.

The Criterion no longer has a bottled range to rival the Swan, but I did pick up a nice bottle of Krusovice Imperial.  The Pub meanwhile had St Feuillien Brune on tap, which was a deliciously smooth Belgian treat.



Finally, after nipping into the Ale Waggon, I managed to grab 3 off licenced treats: Slovakian Saris, UAE Barbican (pineapple flavoured, alcohol free) and Ukranian Obolon.  Cheering indeed.



***

Thirdly.

On the day previous to the Beer Festival (Thursday) I had a super, smashing, great sightseeing trip to London.  Having visited all the 'hot' spots and scoffed a delicious falafel sandwich, I managed a lightning visit to the Euston Tap, which never disappoints, and which didn't disappoint.  3 x halves of Bristol Beer Factory Acer, De Molen Blikken and Blozen and Red Willow Soulless were all extremely well tasty and sent me on my way happily.

More soon.

4 dark beers and DownDIPA/Eurovision

Sometimes the joy of beer is in sharing.  The best case scenario is to share the beer experience in 'real time' either with friends in the pub, or via the medium of off-licence, at home (also with friends).

However, for someone like me with burgeoningly anti-social habits, the Internet offers a remarkably pain free way of sharing good beer experiences, with some complete strangers/friends who feel obliged to read your blog.

Here is a quick resume of my most recent 'good' beer experience.  Actually, I'll give you my two most recent best experiences... how's that for a BOGOF?

i) 19th May AKA Champions League Final.

This evening saw four dark beers stashed in the fridge, and supped whilst Chelsea put Munich away on penalties.  In fact, because I'm rather a slow drinker, this session probably lasted until well after the Chelsea fans had downed their last stein of Augustiner Helles in Munchen.

Things kicked off with Buxton Imperial Black IPA, an absolutely belting beast.  Hoppy, ashy, smooth with licorice and good, clean earth.  From that high point, it was a tough ask to top it.

But Magic Rock Dark Arts had a good stab at living up to Buxton's err blazing trail.  Dark Arts is une grande Stout: chiseled blocks of graphite, bobbing in a sea of blended hop and sweetness.

Next up a Brewdog Dogma - an example of the style which is known as a Scotch Ale.  What exactly is a Scotch Ale Dan?  Did the style originate in Scotland presumably, Dan? Err, well yes, but it's been popularised by our US craft-brewing cousins.  Dogma is everything which I profess to be err not necessarily enamoured with: thick, sweet, extremely malty, with not much hops.  But, this was very delicious; exceptionally smooth and compelling.  Another winner.  But hang on, could it be that I'm deliberately lauding a Brewdog beer, because I'm so delighted that they are opening a new bar in Birmingham?  Perhaps subconsciously.  But honestly the beer was great.  Great news about Brewdog opening a bar in Birmingham, by the way.  Can't wait until August.

Fourth and [thankfully*] last of the evening, was a Bristol Beer Factory Raspberry Stout.  Now this was plainly a nice beer, but I'm afraid my tastebuds were shot by this point.  In fact my sense of reason had wandered down Hagley Road some time previously.**  It didn't hit the heights of the others.

* With ABVs of 7.5%, 6%, 7.4% and 7.7% respectively, I was at full capacity.
** Please see above sentence and try to pay more attention.

Buxton won the night.

ii) 26th May AKA Eurovision

Oh yes - Eurovision.  But oh, not just Eurovision, also DownDIPA, the Campaign for Really Good Beer's celebration of Double India Pale Ales.

Not quite as socially unacceptable as the evening detailed above, this night saw the consumption of three beers of 7.2%, 9% and 4.9% content.

First up was Ageless, a very tasty hopfiend from Redwillow.  This was more of a single IPA, rather than a double, but that's missing the point; the point being that it was a very tasty, hoppy, orange rock and parma violet accented beer.

Then came a genuine DIPA - Summer Wine Maelstrom.  For those who need to know, Summer Wine are a really very good UK 'craft' brewery from Holmfirth (yes, the place where they filmed Last of the Summer Wine). Maelstrom was thin, sticky and packed with very bitter, oily alcoholic menace. Excellent.

At that point I was sensible (for once) and opted out of any further DIPAs.  I had a Dunkelweizen instead.  Maisels Weisse Dunkel in fact.  Yes, it suffered in comparison with the two previous beers, lacking their hoppy, high content flavour.  But it was nice to relieve some happy Germanic memories of Summer's gone by.  More proof that this Summer will be the 'Second Summer of German beer' (which I will explain another time, but basically means that I am aiming to drink lots of delicious German beers this Summer, in some futile attempt to regain my fast fading heyday).

Any way, the Maisels was smooth, nutty and full of frothy sweetness.  One day soon I might tell you my top ten Dunkelweizens***

Eurovision is obviously a hoot, and the beer was equally good.  Here's to the next DownDIPA.

*** If you are particularly naughty.      

   

Brodies Alert!

Without wishing to be a marketing man for the Wellington, and without really having anything to write, I felt I must put the word out that, finally, Brodies are coming to town.

Two Brodies beers will be on offer during the upcoming Wellington Beer Festival, which starts tomorrow.  They are Whitechapel Weizen and American Brown.  Yum yum.

Also making an appearance will be Tyne Bank, a new Newcastle microbrewer, who bring Silver Dollar and Single Blonde; and an always welcome offering from Redwillow - Heartless.

All in all there are 24 beers on offer, with a preponderence of Scottish sounding names - I can't think why.

Enjoy, and post your feedback here.

Saturday's stolen 'crawl' and a craft beer checklist

Well it was stolen, but not a crawl.  I left work yesterday, pinched borrowed 5 bob off leather-clad chum Malcy, legged it straight to the Welly and necked two halves in ten minutes, as follows:

Black Iris Bitter - a proper old-skool, 'real man' type Bitter, which makes no concessions to fruity transatlantic flavour, just a wallop of grizzled UK hops and chiselled sandpaper malt.  It was alright though.  Interestingly enough, having tried all five beers from this newish Derby-based microbrewer, I am now their top rater in the World.  Consider personal trumpet thoroughly parped.

Second was a new beer from Oakham - always a pleasant sight to greet a weatherbeaten beer fan, upon entering a boozer.  This one, entitled 'Preacher' was a suntanned bronze colour, with a luscious aroma of tropical fruit.  Taste was right upfront in the 'delicious mango and passionfruit' department and as balanced as my current account* throughout.  Really good from Oakham.  As always.  Which got me thinking....

How many of the top, top UK breweries' products actually make it to Birmingham on a regular basis?

Oakham - We are lucky to have one of their own pubs serving all their best stuff, plus their beers always make it to the Welly.

Crouch Vale - they pop up in the Welly, fairly frequently.

Moor - Nicholsons carry them, so four chances for their beers to appear in the City centre.

Brewdog - no bar in Birmingham as yet, and their stuff hardly ever pops up on cask, except occasionally in the Bleagle.  Nowhere in Brum serves craft beer on keg, so we are fairly scuppered for Brewdog generally.  Their bottles make it to Stirchley Wines; as do >>>

The Kernel - no pubs in Brum take these bottled masterpieces.  Thankfully Stirchley Wines are doing Birmingham proud.

Magic Rock - to my knowledge, none of their beers have ever appeared in a Birmingham pub, which is nothing short of a scandal, given their reputation as one of the UK's hottest new brewers.  Thankfully Stirchley Wines have just picked up their bottled range (are you noticing pattern here?).

Summer Wine - they very (very) occasionally pop up in the Welly - I've sampled them there twice. 

Thornbridge - pretty good coverage with Post Office Vaults, Wellington and the Nicholsons' pubs taking them.  Unfortunately no one serves their keg efforts, so we have never seen Versa, Italia or Kill Your Darlings, to name but three.

Dark Star - these appear in the Welly with almost acceptable frequency.

Brodies - never glimpsed in Brum.

Redwillow - spotted twice in the Welly by my good self.

Marble - occasional visitors to the Welly, but a full bottled range is at... wait for it.... Asda Stirchley Wines.

Bristol Beer Factory - not spotted in any Brum pubs for a good wee while, luckily someone has some bottles for your delectation. 

Hard Knott - Stirchley only.

Hawkshead - interestingly enough, Wetherspoons are your best bet for these Cumbrian beauties.

Gargoyles - The Anchor is your best bet to try these Devonian treats on cask, which is the same story for...

Steel City - only spotted in the Spanker.

Camden Town - only Nicholsons have sported a beer from this lot so far, but then again, they are primarily keg only.

Buxton - yawn, I'm boring myself now ... these are spotted very occasionally in the Welly, but Stirchley take their bottled range.    

As a City, the end of term report reads "Must do better".  Beer fans like you and me must request these brewers' products and our band of dedicated landlords must seek them out. 



*perhaps more so actually.