Now then,
after my annoying experiences at the Magna Rotherham Real ale and music festival 2013 on Thursday, I'd already thought of phrases like Baa Humbug, Baa'sil's gone West, Baa'sil gets worse, etcetera, to use in this second report. But would I need them?
Despite my misgivings, I had my glass, washed and intact, and I hadn't seen Matt for a year. So what better plan than to head back to the festival and see how things were shaping up.
It was a glorious sunny day, almost warm, (in my three layers), and I got there quickly, which cheered me up, and the first pleasant surprise on entering the North and East Yorkshire Bar was that there was plenty of beer left. I've been on a Thursday and seen more beers ran out. As it turned out, of the 5 beers I definitely wanted to try, 4 were still on.
I started on a half of the Yorkshire Brewing Co True North, a pale hoppy session beer, and went for a wander. Nothing really took my fancy in the Cheshire room, so I wandered into Lancashire to find it empty. The bloke behind the bar explained that there was loads of beer left because they'd ordered much more this year. Seemed perfectly plausible. Here I had a rather astonishing half of Thwaites 13 Guns. Hopped similar to BrewDog but with that characteristic soft malt background, I was impressed.
I visited the West Yorkshire bar; obviously it was freezing, and bought a half of Mallinsons Centennial, which I was surprised to discover was still on, and headed for the big hall, where I bumped into Liz and Ernie, and eventually Jen and Matt and his family. In here I tried the Dronfield Amber, which had a crisp taste with a cereal like body. I was told by someone else later on that it wasn't supposed to taste like that, but I don't think thats a big problem since it was enjoyable.
I also got to try a drinkable Raw Citra Black - and as predicted both it, and the Citra Pale, were on gravity - winner! This was probably one of the beers of the day to be honest, with a fruity hop bite and served with a light billowy head - ironically more lively than some hand pumped beers.
In no particular order, here are the other beers I tried :
Treboom Baron Saturday
Arbor Hoptical Illusion
Arbor Triple Hop (Citra Motueka and?)
Chantry Diamond Black
Harthill Village Brewery Harts Desire
Little Valley Python IPA
Elland 1872 Porter
Mallinsons Motueka
The Chantry and Arbor offerings were very good, and once again, the beers I drank were all in very good condition. There was also a plus in there being roast pork shoulder sandwiches on offer - which I seemed to have missed on Thursday. A generous portion, with apple sauce to keep it moist, and it was £3.00. They also didn't run out, or at least, not when I left about 20.00. A really good filling snack to keep you going as the beers continued going down.
So a marked improvement from the last visit, although, am still unsure about the whole glasses in toilets malarkey, and I noted with concern that Mr Robbery's half of Geeves Smokey Joe still tasted vaguely of paint. I think the positive developement is the increased beer order, and a goodly range still being available as the festival drew to a close. Plenty of people were still coming in when I left.
Still don't think its an 8 or 10 quid festival though. Siba BeerX is only a fiver. It will be interesting to see how that compares.
Wee beefy
Showing posts with label Magna Science Adventure Centre. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Magna Science Adventure Centre. Show all posts
Sunday, 3 March 2013
Sunday, 4 March 2012
Rotherham real ale festival - return journey
Now then,
just a quick update on my return visit to Rotherham Real Ale festival (Baa's of steel) which I went to Saturday afternoon for a last few.
Firstly, the beer range was still quite extensive when I arrived at 13.00, and some of the better ones from Thursday were surprisingly still on sale - particularly the excellent Brass Castle offerings. There was also a lot more people there by about 17.00 as would be expected. One real boon this year was the decision to keep the bars open, which made more sense, at least from a punters point of view.
This time I made the effort to get to the North East bar, but alas I have to confirm that I found little to my taste. Notwithstanding that I didin't try the Mordue offerings as I had them before, and the Yard of Ale and Cullercoats ones because there was too much of a queue, the only beer that I enjoyed sampling in this room was the Stable Brewery Silver Buckles IPA, a well rounded 4.4% beer that couldn't really claim to be an IPA but was enjoyable nonetheless.
One of the good things that this shows is that you were very unlikely to buy a bad beer if you exercised your right to try first - in the North East room I tried 7 before I got one I liked, but that was very nice. This supports the try before you buy ethos fully. And given the rather generous leanings of the excellent volunteer bar staff, I was getting nearly a quarter of a pint per taste! Alas this laissez faire approach to festival going did not extend to the food prices as bemoaned previously, although I have included a picture of a man masticating, to help in someway illustrate that the food was nice, just overpriced..
On a similar note, this was also to be a social occasion and I was meeting up with Allie and Malc, Aidibobs, Tim n Jim, Matt and his family, and others, as well as a slightly hungover Mr Robbery who had accompanied me on the Thursday. The different locations of the groups made it easier to move round the different bars and catch up with people on the way round instead of being tied to one location and moving en masse. This did mean I spent a fair amount of time wandering around by myself though....
The downside to a Saturday afternoon trip is that, as well as the inevitable rubbish public transport links (an hour from Handsworth, perhaps 5 miles away?) as the day draws on, there is a reduction in the choice of beers. This was highlighted starkly by my having waited to have two of the Elland 1872 porter, for my last beers, only to find it had gawn nrunnart.
Still, despite this obvious disappointment, I made an effort to enjoy myself, (as did the other festival goers as above) and I managed to sample the following beers on my afternoon peregrination:
Great Newsome - Marvellously Poetic Porter
North Riding - Neilsons Sauvin (I couldn't resist a third half of what was my runner up best festival beer)
Treboom Drum Beat
Stables Silver Buckles
Kinver Khyber
Tempest Cresta Black
Thorne Lighter
Youngs London Porter
Owenshaw Mill Katy's Blonde
Saltaire Cascadian Black
Saltaire Cream Stout
Of the above the Kinver Khyber and the Thorne Lighter were perhaps the standout ales, and as suggested above, I had the Neilsons Sauvin again because it was so good.
My festival Top 3 beers were therefore :
3. Brass Castle Cliffhanger/Bad Kitty (tied)
2. North Riding Neilsons Sauvin
1. Elland 1872 Porter.
Notable praise should also be aimed at the fact that I could use my Thursday glass again, and the fact that the two Thursday beer tokens I found in my wallet could be exchanged for 2 valid Saturday ones at no extra cost - and, as mentioned earlier, the fact that the festival opened throughout the day.
All in all this was a fantastic festival which, despite many concerns about the cost, delivers a thoroughly enjoyable festival experience, at a unique venue, with a fantastic selection of beers.
Wee Beefy.
just a quick update on my return visit to Rotherham Real Ale festival (Baa's of steel) which I went to Saturday afternoon for a last few.
Firstly, the beer range was still quite extensive when I arrived at 13.00, and some of the better ones from Thursday were surprisingly still on sale - particularly the excellent Brass Castle offerings. There was also a lot more people there by about 17.00 as would be expected. One real boon this year was the decision to keep the bars open, which made more sense, at least from a punters point of view.
This time I made the effort to get to the North East bar, but alas I have to confirm that I found little to my taste. Notwithstanding that I didin't try the Mordue offerings as I had them before, and the Yard of Ale and Cullercoats ones because there was too much of a queue, the only beer that I enjoyed sampling in this room was the Stable Brewery Silver Buckles IPA, a well rounded 4.4% beer that couldn't really claim to be an IPA but was enjoyable nonetheless.
One of the good things that this shows is that you were very unlikely to buy a bad beer if you exercised your right to try first - in the North East room I tried 7 before I got one I liked, but that was very nice. This supports the try before you buy ethos fully. And given the rather generous leanings of the excellent volunteer bar staff, I was getting nearly a quarter of a pint per taste! Alas this laissez faire approach to festival going did not extend to the food prices as bemoaned previously, although I have included a picture of a man masticating, to help in someway illustrate that the food was nice, just overpriced..
On a similar note, this was also to be a social occasion and I was meeting up with Allie and Malc, Aidibobs, Tim n Jim, Matt and his family, and others, as well as a slightly hungover Mr Robbery who had accompanied me on the Thursday. The different locations of the groups made it easier to move round the different bars and catch up with people on the way round instead of being tied to one location and moving en masse. This did mean I spent a fair amount of time wandering around by myself though....
The downside to a Saturday afternoon trip is that, as well as the inevitable rubbish public transport links (an hour from Handsworth, perhaps 5 miles away?) as the day draws on, there is a reduction in the choice of beers. This was highlighted starkly by my having waited to have two of the Elland 1872 porter, for my last beers, only to find it had gawn nrunnart.
Still, despite this obvious disappointment, I made an effort to enjoy myself, (as did the other festival goers as above) and I managed to sample the following beers on my afternoon peregrination:
Great Newsome - Marvellously Poetic Porter
North Riding - Neilsons Sauvin (I couldn't resist a third half of what was my runner up best festival beer)
Treboom Drum Beat
Stables Silver Buckles
Kinver Khyber
Tempest Cresta Black
Thorne Lighter
Youngs London Porter
Owenshaw Mill Katy's Blonde
Saltaire Cascadian Black
Saltaire Cream Stout
Of the above the Kinver Khyber and the Thorne Lighter were perhaps the standout ales, and as suggested above, I had the Neilsons Sauvin again because it was so good.
My festival Top 3 beers were therefore :
3. Brass Castle Cliffhanger/Bad Kitty (tied)
2. North Riding Neilsons Sauvin
1. Elland 1872 Porter.
Notable praise should also be aimed at the fact that I could use my Thursday glass again, and the fact that the two Thursday beer tokens I found in my wallet could be exchanged for 2 valid Saturday ones at no extra cost - and, as mentioned earlier, the fact that the festival opened throughout the day.
All in all this was a fantastic festival which, despite many concerns about the cost, delivers a thoroughly enjoyable festival experience, at a unique venue, with a fantastic selection of beers.
Wee Beefy.
Friday, 2 March 2012
Rotherham beer festival Magna 2012 - Baa's of steel
Hello,
this week saw the 20th Rotherham real ale and music festival take place at the Magna science adventure centre at Templeborough in Rotherham. Wednesday 29th February was the first official day of trading, although puzzlingly there is no mention of this in the programme.
The festival opened at 18.00 last night and we got in at about 18.20. We would have been there earlier, but there is only one bus route that serves the festival, run by Wirst South Yorkshire. We were catching the 17.25 number 69 which was inevitably 15 minutes late. So well done for that.
I had got my ticket earlier in the week from Shakespeares but even then, Magna, or Rotherham or White Rose festival is still an expensive do. No doubt the cost covers the rental of the enormous and unique festival venue, plus the large numbers of bands. Its not really explained in the programme but either way its been expensive for many many years now so its not a surprise. So buying in advance, £8.00 gets you a festival glass (which then secures free entry on Saturday day, which I think is to be applauded), entrance to the festival and a decent sized programme, listing the 230+ beers, 20 odd ciders and perrys, world bottled beers and wines available. Its worth remembering that the festival is also a Charity event, as the various Bluebell Wood staff behind the bars attests.
As with previous years the bars are split regionally. The first bar in the large entrance hall is the North and East Yorkshire bar, adjoining this in the incredibly tall room (really hangar is the only viable description) is a stage, the Clark's bar and the West Yorkshire bar. There are also the North East, Scottish and West Midlands bars centred around the main corridor, and a Raw brewery bar in the dining room. Down the corridor on the right is the large South Yorkshire bar, with another stage, the foreign bottled beers and wine, the Cider and Perry bar and the Bombardier bus.
The range of beers present is very impressive, a good mix of established and brand new breweries, large regionals and micro's alike. Breweries new to me were plentiful, and included Treboom from near York, Brass Castle from Pocklington which I erroneously thought was based in a hotel in the lake District (perhaps it being on the North and East Yorkshire bar should have suggested my error), Owenshaw Mill from West Yorkshire, Birds from the West Midlands and Barneys, currently brewed of the Old Egglesbrech plant at the Behind The Wall pub in Falkirk.
Notable this year was the fact that my first pint in the Baa's of Steel themed event was one of the best - the fantastic 3.8% Ciffhanger from Brass Castle was a wonderfully refreshing well balanced hoppy ale which started me off nicely - and was a popular choice with many of the others in our party. Me and Mr Robbery had been joined by Dave, Ian, Dave B, Malcolm and Allie, for our tour of the bars. Its always nice to go with a group so that you can each find the best beers in the different locations - or forewarn each other of the worst on offer.....
The beers I tried last night, in no particular order were :
Brass Castle Cliffhanger and Bad Kitty vanilla porter
Brown Cow Thriller in Vanilla porter
North Riding Neilsons Sauvin
Birds Black Widow
Barney's Porter
Strathven Craignill Mild
Williams Black
Geeves Tunnel Mouth
Oakwell Dark Mild
Youngs London Porter
Golcar Dark Mild
Elland Beyond the pale, and their 1872 Porter
Revolutions Milk and Alcohol, milk stout
Beer highlights were both the Brass Castle beers, the Revolutions milk stout, the North Riding Neilsons Sauvin, and our finisher on the night, the Elland 1872 porter which was fantastic. The only disappointing beers were from Barneys and the rather lamentable Golcar Mild - tasted too much of a Selby Brewery beer, but without the alcohol. Too earthy for me.
Alas, despite being a great festival there are a few areas where improvement is required. For a start, given how much you have paid to get in, almost all the food sold is £5.00 upwards - it may well be a very nice handcrafted steak and ale pie but a fiver for a pie and gravy is steep, although ut did seem to be a large portion.
The transport was problematic - they did sensibly provide plenty of "last buses" to Meadowhall but we were catching the First South Yorks 69 at 20 past 11. We could not get hold of any timetable information from the venue, which seems daft, and when we needed directions they fell well short. On leaving the venue, we were disorientated; trying to walk in a hurry across the car park is confusing because on the long path in you skirt the edge of the building and don't really go in the car park - it looked like we were crossing a road into the venue, which we weren't. And the beer wouldn't have helped....
We asked a volunteer in a high-vis vest which way to walk to the bus and he sent us all the way down the mile long slip road out onto Sheffield Road at Ickles, so we missed the last bus by about 5 minutes. Had we thought about his woeful suggestion we would have realised that we had only to carry on the way we'd been going and take a left down the side of the building to get out onto the main road. Luckily we found a couple of lads heading to Crookes who had also been misdirected, so organised a taxi for the four of us via town which didn't cost too much in the end.
Anyway, back to the positives, having successfully ferried my glass home I am hopeful of a quick return visit tomorrow, to try some of the other new brews that I missed. I can also confirm that there is more heating thos year - coupled with a sudden temperature rise of late this makes for a much more comfortable visit.
The festival is open tonight from 18.00 (£10.00 on the door) and all day from 12.00 tomorrow (£8.00 on the door) - generous discounts available for CAMRA members.
I highly recommend you give it a try.
Wee beefy
this week saw the 20th Rotherham real ale and music festival take place at the Magna science adventure centre at Templeborough in Rotherham. Wednesday 29th February was the first official day of trading, although puzzlingly there is no mention of this in the programme.
The festival opened at 18.00 last night and we got in at about 18.20. We would have been there earlier, but there is only one bus route that serves the festival, run by Wirst South Yorkshire. We were catching the 17.25 number 69 which was inevitably 15 minutes late. So well done for that.
I had got my ticket earlier in the week from Shakespeares but even then, Magna, or Rotherham or White Rose festival is still an expensive do. No doubt the cost covers the rental of the enormous and unique festival venue, plus the large numbers of bands. Its not really explained in the programme but either way its been expensive for many many years now so its not a surprise. So buying in advance, £8.00 gets you a festival glass (which then secures free entry on Saturday day, which I think is to be applauded), entrance to the festival and a decent sized programme, listing the 230+ beers, 20 odd ciders and perrys, world bottled beers and wines available. Its worth remembering that the festival is also a Charity event, as the various Bluebell Wood staff behind the bars attests.
As with previous years the bars are split regionally. The first bar in the large entrance hall is the North and East Yorkshire bar, adjoining this in the incredibly tall room (really hangar is the only viable description) is a stage, the Clark's bar and the West Yorkshire bar. There are also the North East, Scottish and West Midlands bars centred around the main corridor, and a Raw brewery bar in the dining room. Down the corridor on the right is the large South Yorkshire bar, with another stage, the foreign bottled beers and wine, the Cider and Perry bar and the Bombardier bus.
The range of beers present is very impressive, a good mix of established and brand new breweries, large regionals and micro's alike. Breweries new to me were plentiful, and included Treboom from near York, Brass Castle from Pocklington which I erroneously thought was based in a hotel in the lake District (perhaps it being on the North and East Yorkshire bar should have suggested my error), Owenshaw Mill from West Yorkshire, Birds from the West Midlands and Barneys, currently brewed of the Old Egglesbrech plant at the Behind The Wall pub in Falkirk.
Notable this year was the fact that my first pint in the Baa's of Steel themed event was one of the best - the fantastic 3.8% Ciffhanger from Brass Castle was a wonderfully refreshing well balanced hoppy ale which started me off nicely - and was a popular choice with many of the others in our party. Me and Mr Robbery had been joined by Dave, Ian, Dave B, Malcolm and Allie, for our tour of the bars. Its always nice to go with a group so that you can each find the best beers in the different locations - or forewarn each other of the worst on offer.....
The beers I tried last night, in no particular order were :
Brass Castle Cliffhanger and Bad Kitty vanilla porter
Brown Cow Thriller in Vanilla porter
North Riding Neilsons Sauvin
Birds Black Widow
Barney's Porter
Strathven Craignill Mild
Williams Black
Geeves Tunnel Mouth
Oakwell Dark Mild
Youngs London Porter
Golcar Dark Mild
Elland Beyond the pale, and their 1872 Porter
Revolutions Milk and Alcohol, milk stout
Beer highlights were both the Brass Castle beers, the Revolutions milk stout, the North Riding Neilsons Sauvin, and our finisher on the night, the Elland 1872 porter which was fantastic. The only disappointing beers were from Barneys and the rather lamentable Golcar Mild - tasted too much of a Selby Brewery beer, but without the alcohol. Too earthy for me.
Alas, despite being a great festival there are a few areas where improvement is required. For a start, given how much you have paid to get in, almost all the food sold is £5.00 upwards - it may well be a very nice handcrafted steak and ale pie but a fiver for a pie and gravy is steep, although ut did seem to be a large portion.
The transport was problematic - they did sensibly provide plenty of "last buses" to Meadowhall but we were catching the First South Yorks 69 at 20 past 11. We could not get hold of any timetable information from the venue, which seems daft, and when we needed directions they fell well short. On leaving the venue, we were disorientated; trying to walk in a hurry across the car park is confusing because on the long path in you skirt the edge of the building and don't really go in the car park - it looked like we were crossing a road into the venue, which we weren't. And the beer wouldn't have helped....
We asked a volunteer in a high-vis vest which way to walk to the bus and he sent us all the way down the mile long slip road out onto Sheffield Road at Ickles, so we missed the last bus by about 5 minutes. Had we thought about his woeful suggestion we would have realised that we had only to carry on the way we'd been going and take a left down the side of the building to get out onto the main road. Luckily we found a couple of lads heading to Crookes who had also been misdirected, so organised a taxi for the four of us via town which didn't cost too much in the end.
Anyway, back to the positives, having successfully ferried my glass home I am hopeful of a quick return visit tomorrow, to try some of the other new brews that I missed. I can also confirm that there is more heating thos year - coupled with a sudden temperature rise of late this makes for a much more comfortable visit.
The festival is open tonight from 18.00 (£10.00 on the door) and all day from 12.00 tomorrow (£8.00 on the door) - generous discounts available for CAMRA members.
I highly recommend you give it a try.
Wee beefy
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