Peterborough Beerfest time! It’s Krispy Xmas and B’Day in one

Beer.. lots of it. Thank you CAMRA

Well it’s that time of year again – you should be able to tell, as it’s been raining .. a LOT.  Which means it’s time for the annual Peterborough Beer festival.

If you’ve not been before, this is the one thing that Peterborough does really well – something to be properly proud of.  Our beer festival is the 2nd largest in the UK (after the national one), and is held outside (well inside HUGE marques), on the river embankment.

As with previous years, there are many many many ales to try (350+), bottled euro beers, cider, perry, and  English wines (both grape and fruit).

Lots of live music too, in the mega enormous music tent.  Oh and grub, to keep me from keeling over.

It’s the 33rd beer festival… I think I’ve been going since the 12th?  I would have been 17 anyway (oh dear, naughty boy).  Back in those days it was held in the local roller disco and music venue (the Wirina), which is a sorry closed building now.

Anyway – Beerfest starts Tuesday.. I have the week off.  Should be sampling a few ales Tues, Weds… and all day n night Thursday.  Can’t wait!!

Oh and it’s obviously a lot cheaper if you are a paid up CAMRA member – which I am.  Remember your card if you go along!

DETAILS HERE.

Drinking 7 year old beer – someones got to do it

Fullers Vintage Ale 2003, Drank by Krispy 2010

I was given a bottle of beer to try by my step-dad David the other week – and it was a little different to say the least!

It was a bottle of Fullers ‘Vintage Ale’ – still in its slightly mottled box.  Each year Fullers create a ‘best of the best’ ale – using their favourite ingrediants (malts and hops), and make it strong enough to last.  The bottle I had was the 2003 vintage – that’s right, 7 years old!  It was one of 50,000 made back in 2003 – and I wonder how many of that run are still left maturing.   The ale is obviously bottle conditioned (bottled with live yeast), and was bottled at 8.5%  I expect some very slow fermentation carries on – with the yeast trying to digest the more complex left over sugars, doing so with little oxygen.

The card that came with it did state a ‘legal requirement’ best before of 2006, but that could be ignored with an ale of this quality and strength, especially as it had been stored in a cool and dark garage.

Well I did what any beer fan would do – I opened it!   The ale was darker than the ‘golden’ description, and it had the aroma of .. oak and sherry.  There was still a reasonable level of carbonation – enough to give the ‘mouth feel’ you want in an ale, not enough to make it ‘fizzy’.  The flavour is hard to describe (I’m probably not really a supertaster who is good at that sort of thing);  very powerful complex flavour – you knew its % was strong, but the alcohol ‘flavour’ wasn’t too pronounced, probably after 7 years to merge with the other flavours.  I couldn’t pick out much hop, so was left with an oaky malt.

It wasn’t an easy pint to finish – one that you have to take your time with.  Not a beer I’d want to drink every day, but a real experience.

The box, bottle, and insert card, about to be opened!

Oakham Ales new facebook page

Oakham Ales Black Baron - 8.8% - bonkers beer!

I thought I’d post quickly about the fact my favourite brewer (and not just because they run my locals) has a new facebook page, with some smashing images on.

Oakham Ales fanpage can be found at; http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Oakham-Ales/375341174470?ref=nf

They have released the name/strength/pump clip image for their soon to be here ale, ‘Black Baron’ – which is 8.8% in strength!  I did query that, and was told it is part of a new range of ‘bonkers beers’ – sounds good to me!

Not sure I’ll be having more than one tho.

I think you can sample the new ale at their beer festival – coming up this Easter weekend at Charters (the pub in a boat on the river nene).

Beerfest day 3

My last day at this years beerfest – I decided against going again Friday, as my body couldn’t take it (and the Mrs was pleased to see me one night!).

some of the food tents - and the sun is out

A full thurs enjoyment – we got there about 2pm, and stayed until closing at 11pm.  Many, many ales tried – and some old favourites re-visited.  The great news was it was a really good day – the weather was on our side, and the sun was out.  It was the first festival in several years where the ground was rock solid and not all muddy and churned up.

Casks of beer... mmm

I ran into quite a few old friends – which is always a highlight of the festival!  It was also the ‘big night’ for work – so I wasn’t short of friends.  I also managed to spend more time in the music tent, as there’s always something great about live music and a large crowd.

Workmates enjoying the beer n sun

The only disappointment was that Oakham had rotated out their festival special (and my beer of the festival) – to save it for Friday and Saturday night.  I do hope they make it a permament feature of their ale selection!

Pboro Beerfest beerguide - showing my beer of the festival

Hats off to CAMRA and all the volunteers who run the who event – I did get tempted to help out myself this year – but it’s so much fun being a visitor – it’s very hard to see how I’d give that up.  Maybe next year…

Some of my favourites – those remembered anyway – if you see any of these in your local pub, why not give em a try?

Tar Bar’l (Allendale of Allendale) – a nice dry stout – which taste seem to grow in the mouth.
B.G. Sips (Blue Monkey of Ilkeston) – a really intense hoppy bitter – I love my hops. Tasted more like an IPA should, but bitter strength.
S.A. Gold (Brains of Cardiff) – you can get this in bottles in supermarkets – and why not?!
Punk IPA (Brewdog of Fraserburgh) – fantastic IPA – good and strong too (6%) so truer to style than many commercial IPAs.
Armada Ale (Harveys of Lewes) – a great easy drinking bitter.
Norfolk lager (Iceni of Norfolk) – a pleasant surprise this – REAL lager – and pretty damn good.  One for those who think they don’t like beer
Golden drop (Ufford ales) – great golden hoppy beer – anyone would like this.
Hop twister (Salopan of Shrewsbury) – hoppy bitter with a nice citrus flavour.
Hop devil (Rockingham of Blatherwyke) – six hops!? in this – only 3.9%, but plenty of flavour.

More mates enjoying the music ... and beer

Beerfest day 2

Well I’ve lived through Wednesday night at the Pboro beer festival – and a cracker it was.  I was joined by my Aussie mate Lindsay – and we drank our way through a good number of ales – one half pint at a time.

I think beer of the festival for me has been the Oakham Ales festival special – Akhenaten – a 4.9% golden ale, with lots of complex hop and citrus flavours.  It’s like a beefed up Bishops Farewell, which itself is a fantastic ale.

The music stage has had a lighting improvement

Talking of hops – now I thought I loved hops in beer, and there was no such thing as ‘too much hop’.  I’ve since discovered there is!  We took a break from the ale to go for a bottled ‘world beer’ – and rather than try my usual belgium favourites, I thought I’d try an American IPA – and picked the Snake Dog IPA 5.6% (Flying Dog brewery).  Wow it was so heavy on hops it was amazing – but unbalanced really – my mouth this morning still feels a bit numb from the effect of those hops.  A bit much – I think the brewer just needs to find a bit more balance in the beer!

Food wise – we went for the standard issue Charters BBQ – burger with cheese.  Hit the spot.

The festival itself was far quieter last night than the opening night – possibly due to the light drizzle that was falling half of the time – and the dark cloud there’d been all day.

As for tonight – the ‘big one’ as I call Thurs night (because it’s the traditional night that a lot of people from work go) – here’s hoping for a great night.  Well afternoon and night in fact, as it opens at 12… although we’ll probably get there more like 2pm – there’s no rush!   Hopefully the bands are on form, the ale doesn’t warm up too much, and it doesn’t get TOO busy.

Peterborough Beerfest day 1

Day 1 of the Peterborough beer festival has been and gone, and I’m still here, typing this – so good news

The beerfestival by night

As with the last few years, I had trade tickets so could enter at 3:30 – the ‘trade only’ session.  So I’m proud to be one of the first 10 or so people in – just like last year.

As soon as you enter the huge beer marquee’s, take a deep breath – grass, humidity, mud, beer, food, people – heaven!

I stuck to drinking halves – as any respecting real ale fan does (on day 1 anyway!).  I didn’t have a bad one – one of the highlights for me was a golden bitter called ‘hop twister’ (Salopian of Shrewbury) – highly recommended.

The new Oakham ales festival special was also very hoppy (which I love) – it was like a slightly stronger Bishops farewell (itself a quality tipple).

I met up with the usual raft of friends and family – for a Tuesday it was surprisingly busy – in fact very busy for an opening night – it could be heading for record attendance!

Now that's my type of bus - bar included

Pboro Beer festival nearly here

Mrs Krispy may not share my enthusiasm, but it’s 1 month until what I call ‘My Xmas’.   The yearly local celebration of ale, the ‘Peterborough Beer festival‘ is next month, and it’s my favourite time of year.

One of the two beer tents - mmm beer!

As normal, I’ve taken the four week days off so I can enjoy it properly – and while my home town might not exactly be a civilised metropolis (to be honest, Pboro’s best attributes is that it’s got fairly good air quality being surrounded by countryside, and it’s on a main train route, so you can get elsewhere!), the Pboro beer festival is up there in the top three beer festivals in europe (well that’s what I think anyway).

The festival is on from 25th – 29th August, and is held outside in 3 massive marquee’s, by the river embankment in the city centre.  Each evening features live bands in the HUGE music tent, and for the kids entertainment is a bit of a funfair.  It’s a very family friendly festival, as long as it’s not raining (as children should keep away from the tented bar areas).  Oh and there’s some 350 beers to choose from, and another huge list of ciders and perries.  There’s also a range of English wines – both grape and fruit.

The festival site - BIG, and full of ale

The official CAMRA website for the festival can be found here.  If you do decide to go – wear sensible shoes – especially if the weather isn’t good – as the ground outside the marquees can get a bit muddy.   I’ll be there Tuesday evening.. Weds evening.. Thurs all day for a ‘Leo Sayer’ (all dayer) – 12-11pm.  And possibly/probably Friday night.. If I can still walk.

UPDATE: if you want to see how a festival is put together – pictures are going up as we get very CLOSE