Sheffield Brew Fest at the Bath Hotel

Evenin,

             last night my camera tells me I was at Sheffield Brew Fest at the Bath Hotel. I also went to Peddler for half an hour. A pretty full day for me, and here are my thoughts on both festivals.....

Before I start, please note that you can see my pics on Facebook here assuming the link works. They are hardly detailed and mainly feature people drinking. The things is, that is really what Brew Fest was all about.....

I went Thursday after a "starter" at Shakespeares and found the festival rammed. People were standing outside the pub (but sensibly not on the road! ) drinking some of the 29 or so casks, 8-ish kegs and numerous bottles on offer. Myself and Miss N stood outside with Emily and the guy from Coach and Horses (Are you Adam?!) and talked beers for a while, before coming inside and somehow managing to find a seat. We started on halves of Blue Bee American Five Hop from Sheffield and Alechemy Summit Burst from Scotland. Both were very good.

We moved onto halves of the Northern Monk Blueberry Saison which (and everyone said thankfully") didn't taste much of blueberry, but was an excellent saison. I also tried a half of the Moor Illusion which was a refreshing if comparatively uninspiring beer, as well as the Anarchy Sublime Chaos Breakfast Stout at 7.0^, because I love it. I finished on a half of the excellent Summer Wine Brewery Cirachi, an outstanding Sorachi Ace Pale Ale at 5.9%.

On Friday I left work early and arrived at 16.30, to find seating and freely donated Wateralls pork pies on sale at £1.50. I had one, (the money went to charity) along with a half of Five Points Pale, and settled down. I got chatting with an older gent about the pies and then the beers. He had marked off on the flyer which breweries cask beers he had not found, and was quite disappointed. I explained that all the breweries listed featured somewhere at the festival, just some only on keg or in bottle. He was quite forceful in his rejection of such styles, stating that he "only drinks real ale, nothing else".

A couple pf years ago I would have been similarly, if not entirely in agreement but by trying good and bad keykegs and having always drunk bottles I couldn't agree, so listed some quality stouts, rye, pales sours and saisons on offer. This only annoyed the man further, telling me, with disgust, that he'd been to Cantillon, loved the brewery but hated the beer, and didn't like Belgian beer anyway. Seemed strange to have gone to Belgium, I thought..... I didn't even ask about German or U.S brews. Obviously the gent is entitled to his opinion and its good that he's so sure of what he likes but I couldn't help thinking he could maybe try one or more keg or bottled beers....

I later met up with Mike and Danny from Two Beer Geeks and got chatting to them whilst drinking the Atom Saison (on cask) and the Steel City, which seemed burnt to me - too much time aboil? Not an unpleasant brew though.

Yesterday I went to Peddler festival first. This was in a small yard and warehouse on Arundel Lane opposite the Lord Nelson pub. There was, as promised, street food stalls, all of whose wares smelled fantastic; there was, as advertised, live music, and a small amount of art. The "Craft Beer" aspect of the ads turned out to be the Hop box, who had two beers on. The Dark Star Hophead was lovely and about right on keg at £4.00 a pint, and I understand there was a saison on the night before but I was a little underwhelmed!

Up the Hill I arrived at the Bath about 18.30 to find it unsurprisingly busy. Many folks from the local beer scene were there and I eventually managed to secure a seat, along with a half of the Summer Wine Cirachi again, and the blueberry saison. I also tried the Black Jack Belgian Red, and the Ilkley Rye beer which was very strange but enjoyable. I was joined by Clare and then Miss N and we drank the rest of the night away, including more excellent Thornbridge Desert Sessions, and finished on Magic Rock Human Cannonball.

This was the busiest I've seen the Bath perhaps ever and there were some incredibly good beers on, and it was good to see people of all ages drinking cask, keg, can and bottle. Cask wise, the highlights were particularly the two Alechemy ones, and others from Ilkley, Hopcraft, On the Edge, Blue Bee, Five Points, Siren and Summer Wine.

If I had a grumble it was the prices. Apart from Blue Bee and Summer Wine (maybe) all beers were £4.00 a pint, or more. This seemed regardless of strength, so the stronger beers were usually better value, apart from Black Jack Belgian Red which was £5.00 a pint at 6.something%. The kegs would naturally be more expensive and were about right but the lower gravity cask was overpriced.

However, that was the only gripe and overall this was a fantastic festival, which, who knows, may even still be on now. The beer quality was in my opinion, excellent.

Well done to Jules and the team for arranging the festival, especially Ed and the Bath staff and the volunteers for working it. Lets hope the upcoming Sheffield Beer Festival can match it!

Wee Beefy

Gardeners Rest last orders beer festival

Now then,

  
 I realise that the festival is still on and they are adding more beers as they settle (Navigation Blonde for example) but I only get to go once and last night was that visit. Here are some details of my latest pub beer festival.

I got there a little later than planned having popped in the Rutland Arms for a beer or two and Dada, details to follow later. I think the walk from The Rutland to the Gardeners probably did me a bit of good, but mainly made me really hungry. Luckily there was food at the festival - always a good sign, nothing worse than grumpy hungry punters.

The beer list was long, being day 3 some had run out and one or two weren't on. The list included Andrews Ales, Ashover, Eden, Alechemy, Front Row, Truefitt, Tryst and TSA to name but a few. I decided to start mild and keep the gravity low in the first few beers, so that I could "save myself" for some of the stronger ones later, and if needs be, go for a late one in town.

A slightly unpromising start was the first beer - not that it wasn't nice, but I asked for a mild, a half of Front Row Touch was suggested, and given that I hadn't looked at the list or pumpclips yet I agreed. A pale bitter arrived (although I tried to pretend it was a light mild), just after paying for which I spotted a Wild Mild pumpclip. Still eh.

I settled down in the conservatory and set about finding a handy list that I could refer to instead of squinting at the one on the wall next to the bar. Although of course that was up to date, so you kind of needed both. One thing I noticed were the prices, with some guests being between £2.30 - £2.40 a pint. And as you know, the Sheffield Brewing Company beers are always good value in here.

My next two halves were better, the Truefitt Ironopolis porter and TSA Wild Mild. I tasted the mild, which was nicely balanced, and it complemented the Front Row quite well. I left the Ironopolis for a bit, since I knew it was quite strong. Milds finished I sought info about food and got a friend for the Ironopolis. The Alechemy Cairnpapple was my second favourite beer of the night, along with the Ironopolis.The contrast of the grassy light malt and dry bitterness in the Cairnpapple nicely enhanced the glorious roasted malt bitterness in the porter. Truefitt are clearly a brewery to watch.

I got a sausage sandwich from outside which filled a hole perfectly before trying the other Alechemy offering, the Five Sisters. I didn't rate this as much as the Cairn but it was still a tasty and quaffable Scottish ale and, I erroneously thought, named after the spectacular Five Sisters of Kintail - the brewery helpfully explain what its really named after here.

Next it was time for a couple of finishers and to move into the main room to catch some of the music. This was more like a folk session with many guitarists and other instrumentalists, and plenty of people willing to stand up and sing. I had the Bottlebrook Rapture, a 5.9% beer which I remember as being blonde rather than pale (I think some notes would have helped) and the Andrew Ales Tinfast, which was described as a porter, and was, sort of.

Both of these finished my festival trip off nicely, and I think of the last two the Tinfast probably edged it, but my beer of the festival was the Ironopolis. The only beer downside was that the Brodies Old Street, which would have been an ideal starter, hadn't cleared by last night, and I can't see me getting down in the next week to try it.

Hopefully I will have plenty of chances to visit during the next couple of months before Eddie and Pat move on to waters new, but for now, that is my last taste of one of their beer festivals.

An early "all the best" to them both.

Wee Beefy