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chester
charity beer festival 2009
Thankfully the (inevitable) damp weather didn't put
off visitors to the 2009 (and 21st) Chester Charity Beer Festival
as the Friday and Saturday sessions were both totally sold out. The
wooden flooring kept things nice and dry underfoot despite the
frequent bursts of torrential rain. The cool weather did have the
benefit of keeping the 90+ ales in tip top condition though. The
beers were sourced from around the country but also featured local
breweries such as Sandstone, Spitting Feathers, WC and Weetwood.
Over on the cider bar were over 20 casks and even that ran out early
on the last session. More will be ordered for next year to keep up
with the resurgence in demand for real cider.
Elsewhere
the pub games were as popular as ever, the hot food
went down a storm, and the bands put on great music each night. Several
new members were signed up to CAMRA during the festival and it was
good to see the large numbers of younger drinkers trying out the
various beers. Well done to both CAMRA and Round Table members for
putting on such a good festival. Our efforts now turn towards the
Chester Autumn Beer Festival which will take place over Halloween
weekend. Look out for more information coming soon.
Beer
of the Festival
No
sooner had the final drop of beer been drained from the last cask of
ale at this year's Chester Charity Beer Festival than our analysts
were casting their beady eyes over the nominations submitted for beer of the
festival.
In
total a healthy 49 different ales received at least one vote which
suggests that all of them had been kept in good nick.
Your
favourites came from all over the country stretching from Skinners
Cornish Blonde in the south west to the subtly named Cairngorm
Sheepshagger in the Grampians. Just outside the top five places, and
reflective a diverse choice of beer styles, were the likes of Dark
Star Hophead, Titanic Stout, Cottage Somerset & Dorset, Marble
Manchester Bitter and Spitting Feathers Thirstquencher.
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ageing
rocker and groupies
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Narrowly
missing out on a visit to the medal's podium were Holden Golden Glow
(5th) and Sandstone Edge (4th) while the bronze medal spot creditably
went to Wold Top brewery in Driffield, North Yorkshire with their Wold
Gold. However, the top two places both hail from far closer to home.
In fact they both come from the same place - Mickle Trafford. Yes. WC
brewery have done it again. Their 6.5% stout, The Trotsky's, came
second but an eventual clear winner was Oui Oui, a 4.1% well-hopped
pale ale. Congratulations to the self-styled Gents, Ian and Steve, who
both served at the festival but, to avoid conspiracy theorists, had
absolutely no influence on voting whatsoever. They just brew damn fine
beer.
One
final footnote from the voting. Perhaps reflecting that this charity
event is more for the bacchanalian element than the true real ale
purist (i.e. a lot of people attend solely to get well and truly
hammered) the spoilt votes were rather unsophisticated in nature
ranging from "The BNP", to the sexual proclivities of
Brummies (???). Even more offensive than doodled genitalia were votes
for "Carlsberg", "Amstel", "Becks" and
"Carling". Go back to your lager dens little boys. Rather
than sup that fizz nonsense we'd sooner gamble on a half of
"Nelson's Arse Nuggets" as nominated by some wag (and
probable Viz subscriber). A fruity brown number we'd wager.
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