The 15th White Cliffs Festival of Winter Ales was held in Dover on Fri 1st-Sat 2nd February in the town hall. Our first and only attempt at the festival previously was in 2005, when we turned up on the Saturday to find little beer left and had a disappointing pub crawl around the town. The poor review was spotted by the local branch of CAMRA, and I received an email in 2007 saying a number of things had changed, and I should head back for another visit. 12 months later, and I'm glad I did.

Dan made his way down on Thursday evening, and in true tradition we headed out for a warm-up session. As Deal is now on my doorstep, boasts 20-odd pubs - of which 5 are in the Good Beer Guide - and I'd already discovered some of the better ones, it made sense to go there. Meeting up in the Kings Head we had a quick pint before dropping off bags and returning to town. In a potentially dangerous move, we made the Bohemian our second stop - dangerous because they do such a great selection of foreign bottled beers and have 6-8 well-kept ales on tap that there was the possibility we wouldn't leave. Unsuprisingly, they're in the GBG.

After a fantastic pint we tore ourselves away and headed further inland. Tempted by the call of decent beer in the GBG-rated Ship, we decided instead to go for unfamiliar territory and into the (again, GBG-rated) Deal Hoy. Not exactly what I was expecting, with 3-4 standard beers on tap when we visited, it just seemed like a friendly local. Worth another visit at a different time (6pm on a Thursday probably wasn't the best time to judge...)

Back onto the High Street, we had a quick lager in the Strand (under 30's, loud music) which looks like it would be lively on a Friday/Saturday night, then onto the New Inn next door. A pub you could easily make your local, this had a friendly atmosphere and bar staff, decent beer and was comfortable. After a couple of pints and a quick move into shorts, the lack of food was beginning to take its toll. Unfortunately the Walmer Castle lay between here and home. Making up the numbers to 6, the night was deemed a crawl and a celebratory kebab was had.

The next morning was predictably painful, and after a concoction of Alka Seltza, Nurofen, fried breakfast, Diet Coke and Bud, I was feeling almost alive again. Dan proved to be reliably resilient to the alcohol, and just needed his Red Bull and Stella. A short train ride later and we were at the fest...

Whilst the advance tickets had sold out, we were still able to get them on the door. Entry was £5 (free to CAMRA members - sweet :-) ) which gave us access for the whole day - as we arrived at opening time (1pm), this gave us up to 10 hours of drinking. Naturally, with 75 ales over 5% on offer, we didn't quite manage it. Set up was good - nice long bar with quick, attentive bar staff. This being the first session, pretty much all the ales were available, and a very decent programme/beer list gave short tasting notes on each one. Plenty of tables and chairs were laid out in the main hall, and there was still space when the guys from work turned up at around 5pm. Another highlight was the reasonably priced food counter, serving the likes of sausage baguettes and chips.

It wouldn't be a beer fest without the tombola, and we didn't go disappointed (although quite where I'm going to wear a bright red "BUY ME A BEER" T-shirt is another matter). In the afternoon we also had the honour of the Lord Mayor of Dover coming over to talk to us - although the photographer that accompanied him probably signified it was more a PR exercise than getting the views of inebriated punters.

In all we had around 7 pints of the strong stuff, but the memory begins to fade after that. I dimly recall accordians being played and a Buddy Holly tribute on stage, but that may have been part of a bizarre dream/nightmare... All being well, I'd certainly hope to go to this fest again next year - great job.

 

For more info:
Deal, Dover & Sandwich CAMRA - Festival organisers