Nottingham Beer Festival

From 13th - 15th October I worked at the Nottingham Robin Hood Beer Festival located in the grounds of Nottingham Castle. This was my first visit to this beer festival, the promise of over 900 different real ales helped me decide to give it a try. I was not dissappointed. An excellent location, friendly and helpful staff, and a great selection of ales including quite a lot from breweries I had not yet sampled.

I arrived at Nottingham station at about 2 o'clock on the 13th and decided to visit a couple of pubs I had been to on previous visits on my way to my hotel.

 The photo above is of the Canal House, complete with canal running through the middle of the pub. It is owned by Casle Rock brewery and I had a half of their Spyke Goldings Ale.

 The photo above is of the Salutation. A free house where I drunk a half of each of Clearwater - Proper Ansome, Abbeydale - Contraption and White Rose - Guaranteed Sunshine.

Then having booked in at my hotel, a 3 minute walk took me to the beer festival entrance and the sight below.

Pathway leading to marquee

 

First view of inside the massive main tent.

I signed in at the staffing desk, asked which bar I would be working at and was told I could work at whichever bar I liked. I made my way to Bar A & B where I worked from 1530 to 2300.
Friday and saturday I worked on the bars 11-11. Long days, but good fun, plenty of breaks to keep me going plus drinking thirds of lots of new beers. I also found time to take some more photos.

Main beer tent

Main beer tent

A view looking out

A view looking out

A view looking out

Belly dancers at a beer festival!!!

Night time

Night time

Over the3 days I had beers from some great new brewerys. It is definately one of the best CAMRA beer festivals. I can't decide on my favourite though cos they are all different. Nottingham this year had great weather, the layout is well thought out, spacious, yet still cosy. I particularly like the fact that the music tent is separate from the main tent. The bar by the bandstand was a beer festival in its own right.

When I get some more time I will list some of the breweys featured here and some comments on the beers themselves.

So, will I be back next year. Of course I will. It takes some great organising to make these festivals work this showed. I'm glad to have been a small part of this festival team.

Before going home on the sunday I went for a little walk along the canal, near the station.

Nottingham railway station

10th Egham Beer Festival 3rd-6th Nov 2011

Blatant plug for my local. The 10th beer festival at the Egham United Services Club.
People come from far and wide to visit and sample some great beers. Lots of new beers and brewery's feature here and the latest draft of the beer list is shown below:

Ascot Ales, Camberley, Surrey (2007)

• Single Hop Mount Hood - 5.0% *New*
• Single Hop Nelson Sauvin - 5.0% *New*
• Emperor Penguin  7.0+% - *Special* Penguin Porter aged for a year in bourbon casks
• Last of the Blue Devils  Aniseed - 8% *Special*
• Last of the Blue Devils  Cassis - 8% *Special*

Bingham, Ruscombe, Berks (2010)

• Hop Harvest Best -  3.7% *New*
• Chilli Doodle – 5%  *Special*
• Old – 4.5%  *New*

Botanist Brewery & Kitchen, Kew Green, West London (2011)

• Humulus Lupulus  – 3.8%  *New*
• Three Nine One - 4.0%  *New*
• OK Bitter – 4.2% *New*
• Dunkel Berry - 4.8% *New*
• Kew Green – 4.8%  *New*
• Night Porter – 5.0%  *New*
• Queen Charlotte - 5.2% – *New*

Brightside, Bury, Lancs (2011)

• Brightside Best Bitter – 4.3% *New*
• Solstice Special Dry Hop – 4.8% *New*
• Solstice Golden Ale – 4.5% *New*
• Maverick IPA  - 4.8% *New*
• Darkside Stout – 4.6% *New*

By The Horns, Wimbledon, SW17 (2011)

• Pale Ale – 3.9% *New*
• Midnight Red - 4.8% *New*
• South Wheat London - 4.1% *New*

Camden Town Brewery

• Town Bitter – 3.8%
• Showboat Brown Ale – 4.5% *New*

Canterbury Brewers, Canterbury, Kent (2011)

• Biggleston’s Brown – 3.8 *New*
• Black – 4.0 *New*
• Pumpkin Ale – 4.6 *New*
• Steam – 5.5 *New*

East London Brewing, London E10 (2011)

• Pale Ale - 4.0% *New*
• Foundation Bitter – 4.2% *New*

Havant, Cowplain, Hampshire (2009)

• By A Nose – 4.0% *Special*
• Blackberry Stout – 4.2% *Special*

Kent, Birling, Kent (2011)

• Chilli Ginger - x.x% *Special*
• Coffee Porter – x.x% *New*
• Harvest Moon – 4.6% *New*

London Brewers Alliance

• IPA – 5.8% *Limited Edition*

London Fields Brewery, London E8 (2011)

• Hackney Hopstar - x.x% *New*
• Love Not War - x.x% *New*
• Session Ale - x.x% *New*
• Ian’s Landlord - x.x% *New*
• Galaxy Single Hop - x.x% *New*
• Summit Single Hop - x.x% *New*
• Wheat Beer - x.x% *New*
• TBC - x.x% *New*

Longdog, Basingstoke (2011)

• Bunny Chaser – 3.6% *New*
• Lamplight Porter – 5.0% *New*

Moncada, London W10 (2011)

• Notting Hill Blonde – 4.2% *New*
• Notting Hill Bitter – 4.3% *New*
• Notting Hill Amber – 4.9% *New*

Old Dairy, Rolvendon, Kent (2010)

• Fresh Hop - 4.0% *New*
• AK1911 - 4.0% *New*
• Czech Mate – 5.0% *New*
• Tsar Top - 8.0% *New*

Redchurch, London E2 (2011)

• Pale (TBC) - x.x%  *Special*
• Blonde (TBC) – x.x%  *Special*

Slaters, Stafford, Staffs (1995)

• Colombia Coffee Stout - 4.5%  *New*
• Western American Pale Ale – 5/0% *New*

Vibrant Forest, Totton, Hants (2011)

• Summerlands 3.8% *New*
• Ginga Ninja 4.0% *New*
• Vibrant Best 4.2% *New*
• Oat Stout 4.5% *New*
• Wheatwave 4.8% *New*
• Dark Castle Porter 5.2% *New*

Windsor & Eton, Windsor, Berks (2010)

• 1075 - 7.4% *Limited Edition*
• Irish Conqueror – 5.0% *Special*

XT Brewing, Long Crendon, Bucks (2011)

• X Egham Ten - 5.1% *Special*
• XXXXX Sorachi Roast – 4.1% *Special*

Further info from http://www.eghambeerfestival.co.uk/autumn-2011
 

Pre blog stuff

Some photos taken over the last few months before I started blogging. Every picture tells a story or so they say.

To celebrate my birthday in May I arranged for a one off beer to be on sale in the Wenlock Arms in London. This excellent pub is unfortunately up for sale and may not be a pub for much longer.

Mighty Oak - Ian's beer

The pump clip

 The full name of this beer from Mighty Oak Brewery in Maldon in Essex was:
national_bus_man's 45th Birthday (note use of underscore, not hyphen).

One of my favourite railway stations (there is no such thing as a train station) is Surbiton. Art Deco brilliance in my opinion. I managed to get some photos during a quiet spell (most unusual)

Booking Hall, although modernised, it still is impressive

To The Trains. Simples!

A photo of Blackfriars station taken from the terrace of the Olde Thameside Inn near Borough Market that I liked .

 

Some shots around the Borough Market area near London Bridge station.

Market with 'The Shard' under construction in the background

The Market Porter pub

The Rake bar.

 From the London Eye on my first ever trip. Glorious weather gave some impressive views.

After the London Eye we went to a pub in Greenwich and I took this picture of the Dome.

 

 A Leyland National I did a little bit of help in restoring.

After the Alton Bus Rally in July, the staff retired to MHR platform 3 for a barbecue. The MHR had donated some beer for the helpers and decided to give the trolley the beer was sat on a name. Not my idea at all, I knew nothing about it beforehand.

Recent and Future Beer Festival visits

Over the past few days I've been working at 2 CAMRA beer festivals. Wednesday and thursday afternoons were spent at St Albans Beer Festival. I was serving on the stage bar aka 'tickers' bar. I managed to find time to drink beer from a number of new brewery's to me. Black Paw, London Fields, London Brewing Co, Holsworthy, Mobberley and West Country.

The Stage Bar

The Stage Bar

A colourful train home

Friday and saturday was spent at Ascot Beer Festival, at Ascot Racecourse. For a change, I had volunteered to help with the CAMRA membership stand. However this was not to be. The organisers had decided that it would be better if individuals went round the festival as a sort of mobile recruitment stand. This sounded like a good challenge for me and I'm pleased to report that I recruited 16 new members to CAMRA over the 2 days. I did feel a bit like one of those 'chuggers' (1) you see on the high streets, but at least I didn't have to wear a brightly coloured vest. Beers were mostly from local brewers, but there was also a small Yorkshire bar.

You're welcome

Beers

More beers

Fullers Brewery dray

The spectacular grandstand at Ascot racecourse

And now for future beer festivals. I shall be making my first visit to the Nottingham Beer Festival (13th - 15th October) http://www.beerfestival.nottinghamcamra.org/

And a plug for my local beer festival at the Egham United Services Club (3rd - 6th November)
http://www.eghambeerfestival.co.uk/autumn-2011




(1) chugger = charity mugger http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=chugger