Great British Beer Festival 2010

Last night J and I went to the third night of the Campaign for Real Ale’s (CAMRA) Great British Beer Festival at Earls Court. CAMRA, the organisation whose mission is to protect consumer rights and ensure that the quality of British beer is maintained, as well as supporting the continued existence of pubs (many of which have closed in recent years) have been organising this event since 1977, and this is the fifth year that the festival is being held at the massive Earls Court exhibition centre.

In addition to showcasing the best in British beers, ciders and perrys you’ll always find other nation’s beers represented at the festival, usually with one country’s output being showcased. This year it was the USA’s turn, so there were lots of their brews to choose from. Each year the festival also selects a particular charity to support – as it was the Royal British Legion this year, the beer stands were all named after heroes from British Military history. This led to an interesting juxtaposition of names – you’ll find the stand dedicated to Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery to the left of the stand named after Captain Robert Scott – I wonder if they realise that they are also commemorating the passing of the chief engineer of a 23rd century starship!

We started our evening with the ciders and perrys (a perry is to pears as cider is to apples if you’ve ever wondered!) and chose a few from the west country, where J hails from. We tried the Perry’s Blend and Parson’s Choice ciders, as well as the Malvern Magic and Ross On Wye Blend perrys – the last of which was the most incredibly sour but refreshing drink I think I’ve ever had – the final drops from the glass were like taking a gulp of lime juice while simultaneously sucking on a grapefruit – no doubt the vitamin C was good for me though!

With a bit of trepidation we then moved on to the US stand – we were both a little unsure because our only previous experience with American beers has been the bland bottled beers that you get almost everywhere these days. We shouldn’t have worried though – some of the beers that we sampled were very similar to the stouts that are familiar to us in the UK, in fact J’s ‘Portsmouth Oatmeal Stout’ was apparently just like drinking melted licorice sticks! All the others we tried reminded me most of all of those rich, dark beers that you get in Germany – the Lowell Beer Works ‘Crimson Clover Red’ in particular was very similar to the ‘dunkel’ style of German ale that I enjoy so much.

The beer wasn’t all that was on offer last night though – an evening supping ale isn’t complete without food and music in my opinion, so when we weren’t drinking we were chewing on the hearty traditional pies and pork scratchings from the pie company stall that seems to be here every year (we could have gone for ostrich or kangaroo burgers, but I’m not that brave!) , and we also spent quite a while toe-tapping to the legendary Hank Wangford and the Lost Cowboys playing up a Country & Western storm for the crowd on the main stage. We also checked out the stand where the best in pub architecture and style is celebrated every year – this time there were three that I’m familiar with – the Barton Arms in Birmingham (where my father, grandfather and I used to go to listen to a big band playing upstairs on a Monday evening), the Golden Cross in Cardiff (where I’ve spent many an evening over the years) and, one that’s a more recent acquaintance, the sumptuously decorated Crown in the centre of Belfast.

If my account of last night has got you feeling thirsty you can still go over to the festival on Friday, when it will be open from noon until 10:30, or on Saturday when the opening hours are 11am until 7pm. If you miss it though, don’t despair – there are lots of other beer festivals around the country before the end of the year, and you’ll find details of everything that’s coming up on CAMRA’s website here.

By the way, I apologise for the quality of the images today – they were all taken with the camera on my HTC Desire phone – a beer festival is a bit too hostile an environment for my SLR equipment!