SIBA Great Northern Beer Festival – Drinking
Following the serious business of judging at last week’s SIBA Great Northern Beer Festival, the next visit was all about sampling the many beers on offer. Returning for a second day – the outside of the Mercure Piccadilly now sporting several identifying posters – I brought along my bitter-loving father to give him a taste of what beer festivals are about. Despite being something of the booze-hound, he’d never been to one before, so it was high time that was put right.
As the whole thing was under-written by SIBA, there were several unusually luxurious beer festival touches – such as carpets, and plenty of seating. Even better, a new, fresh glass every time you went up to the bar. I’m sure this must happen at other festivals, but for me it was a revelation – no toilet rinsing trips! Pouring your undrinkably hazy golden ale away next to someone draining theirs in a different manner isn’t exactly fun. With clean glassware, no need!
64 handpulls on the bar – there wasn’t going to be a shortage of things to try – and having travelled down from Scotland into a different region, many of the breweries were unfamiliar to me, or even totally new. Saddleworth’s Greenfield Brewery, for example. Their Pots n Pans golden ale isn’t even on RateBeer – it tasted pretty good, quite lemony and dry. Far too fruity for my Dad, who was busy ploughing through the best bitters – Wincle Sir Philip, and Southport Carousel.
Peerless Skyline and Bushy’s Manx Pride were next for him, as we piled on through the programme at a fearsome pace. Not quite at the pace of Shovel’s old man – who I once witnessed put away four pints of John Smiths within an hour and still look as if he needed more – but impressive nonetheless. I’d moved onto stronger things, like the wonderful RedWillow Ageless (7.2%) and Saltaire Stateside IPA (6.0%).
The festival was in full swing at this point, I’d found another of my beers of the day in the shape of Concertina Bengal Tiger – and my Dad was suspiciously describing a strong IPA I’d just bought as ‘stoat’s wee’ (one of the lesser-known elements of the flavour wheel). We’d even built our own pies, combining a pastry case with a ‘hot slop of your choice’ and mash, studded with pickled onions. Awesome stuff. Particularly when paired with Kirkstall Black Band Porter.
Taking my cue from this – and also from a group of stout-drinking Liverpudlians who’d joined our table – I moved onto the darker beers. Having judged eleven of them the day before, chances are I’d had most of them before, of course. Bollington Oat Mill Stout slightly edged out Bushy’s Oyster Stout in terms of flavour, as it had a few more hops in evidence to balance out the roasty malt. Speaking of balance, my Dad was still on an even, bittery keel, rounding things off with the 3.7% Beartown Best Bitter.
With that, we thought it best to wobble back to the station and face the music when we got home (although I have promised to take my Mum to the next SIBA Gin festival, if such a thing exists). Many thanks to SIBA for hosting the event, CAMRA for providing the staff and sorting out the cellar, and the person who invented the concept of building your own pies. My beer of the festival? RedWillow Ageless. My Dad’s? “They all taste the same.”
Oh – we were also joined at our table by a young couple with a twelve-week old baby, who were directed to the ‘family area’ that they couldn’t find. The festival punters who were sitting at our neighbouring table, then left after a couple of hours – great work for hiding the family area sign, just so that you could get a seat. Morons.
