Love Good Beer

Experiencing the Great British Beer Festival

Sunday, August 15th, 2010 | Beer, Events | 1 Comment

When I let my intentions to attend the 2010 Great British Beer Festival (henceforth to be referred to as GBBF) be known, numerous people let me know not to go on Saturday.  Sadly, having already bought the tickets and being a Monday to Friday working man, Saturday was my only option.  It turns out that most of the good beer is gone by Saturday and the crowds tend to be rather raucous.  I had no problem with the latter, but the lack of quality beer was disappointing. That being said, if you enjoy people watching, Saturday is the day for you.  I will not elaborate; attend next year to see for yourself.

The Great British Beer Festival at Earls Court

To give you a bit of back-story, the GBBF is held every year at Earls Court (an enormous convention center in London) the first Tuesday to Saturday of August.  CAMRA UK organize GGBF, which is well attended by hundreds of brewers from around the UK who provide casks of beer.  It costs £8 to get in, another refundable £3 for a tasting pint glass (yes, pint), and then beer can be purchased from various bars in 1/3, 1/2, and full pints at rather affordable prices.  I was used to having my testing vessel at a beer festival come in the form of four ounce taster sized cup and was quite surprised at the full pint glasses on offer.  Luckily, most British beers are lower in alcohol content than typical North American festival beers, so the full pint did not do me in.

I was quite pleased with our pints

In searching for quality beer, we did indeed find that almost half of the beer listed was sold out.  We didn’t particularly enjoy what we tried of the other half.  It might be that the beer was starting to spoil after five days sitting in an open cask or that only the poorer quality beer was left, but I was not particularly impressed with the overall beer quality of what I tasted.  I admit that this might have been to do with me lacking in knowledge of the vast number of British brewers and I’ve vowed to do my research in the future.  Next year I’m going to go earlier in the week and come prepared with a list of fine beers to try.  What I am quite sure of is that the beer available at GBBF was nowhere near as adventurous or varied as what you might find at a festival in the Pacific Northwest.  I’m sure the various ales on offer were chock full of subtlety, but subtlety detection seems to disappear after a couple pints.

All the good stuff sold out...

After a few disappointing pints, I stumbled upon the international bar where I found a few of my west coast favorites.  I took comfort in a bottle of one of my favorite beers, Deschutes Black Butte Porter.  I then went back to challenge myself with a 500ml bottle of Green Flash Double Stout.  You might say this did me in.  I’m once again going to complain about the propensity for festival organizers to hold events such as these during the day.  I wasn’t particularly inebriated at 7PM on Saturday, but what’s a slightly inebriated person going to do post GBBF at 7PM on a Saturday?  Carry on, that’s what.  Needless to say, the following Sunday was one of those “I’m never drinking again” days, which usually last me a week.  However, I’m in England now, so I only managed to take one day off.

Festival goers at GBBF

All and all, it was a very interesting experience and a fun time, I’ll be back.  Next year, I’m going on a Wednesday night and I’m going to go prepared.  This strategy will hopefully help me come up with some non useless commentary in 2011.

Cheers,

Chris

Tags: camra uk, Cask Ale, earls court, gbbf, great british beer festival, london

Vancouver Craft Beer Week Events and Tickets

Friday, April 23rd, 2010 | Events | 4 Comments

Vancouver Craft Beer Week is shaping up with many tantalizing events announced recently.  If you haven’t heard, VCBW is a week long celebration of local beer taking place around Vancouver May 10-16.  There will be many events at many different venues, for the full list click here.  I’ve just learned that tickets to two of the most exciting looking events have just come on sale and aren’t expected to last long.

Hoppapalooza at the Alibi Room on Monday, May 10 is looking like the pick of the litter so far.  Apparently Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson will be on hand to kick off this event, which marks the beginning of VCBW.  For $50, your ticket gets you a taste of over 25 hop forward beers, a dish of bison chili, and the enjoyment of local blues musician Rich Hope.  Buy tickets here.

The BC Beer Awards Tasting Event brought to you by Brewery Creek will be held Friday, May 14 at Heritage Hall on Main street.  At this event, $30 for your ticket lets you taste the winning beers from the first annual BC Beer Awards.  The winners haven’t been announced yet, so that will be part of the fun too.  Buy tickets here.

There are many other beer dinners and pubcrawls to choose from, so make sure to check out the other events. Also, take a look at this video released for VCBW:

I am a Canadian Craft Brewer from VancouverCBW on Vimeo.

Sadly, I’m not going to be able to go to any of the VCBW events, what with moving to another continent and all.  I have consoled myself, if only a little, by buying tickets to the Great British Beer Festival coming up in August.

Cheers,

Chris

Tags: alibi room, bc beer awards, brewery creek, Events, gbbf, great british beer festival, gregor robertson, Hoppapalooza, mayor, tickets, vancouver craft beer week, vcbw