|
| 
|
Leicester Beer Festival 2008 ReportThe annual four day Leicester Beer Festival started off on Wednesday 12th March 2008 at 5pm at The Charotar Patidar Samaj, the same venue that has been so successful for the previous 7 years. The festival this year featured 87 different breweries and 205 different beers, amounting to a colossal 18536 pints along with 30 perrys and ciders. Beers were sourced from all of the Leicestershire & Rutland breweries which featured on our new LocAle bar, with some of the newest and smallest micro-breweries from our neighbouring counties featuring on the Guest Ales bars. Bees Brewery from Queniborough made its first ever beer festival appearance and come away winning the Porter/Stout category with its 5% Wobble Stout. The Harry Cragg “Beer of the Festival” sponsored by The Foxton Locks Inn judging was carried out on the Wednesday night using tasting panels and invited guests. See results below.
Hall Set up day pictures. Another record-breaking attendance saw 4503 people attend during the duration of the Festival (5% up on last year) and beer consumption was up slightly on last year. Friday was again the busiest day with some people having to wait a short while outside due to our hall capacity being reached. We apologise for this and are still actively seeking a larger venue despite most people telling us they want to stay at the Charotar because they like it so much.
Tasting Night. Middle Keith Williams congratualtes Grainstore owner Tony Davis on winning beer of the festival. Right Andy Sales and Nick Williams were in charge of the beers. With a slightly increased beer order again on last year, we opened on Saturday with a big choice of beers so that we would not run out. Indeed, we closed with 42 beers left on to maintain choice right to the end. Everards again had their brewery bar at the festival and launched their new beer ‘Hazy Daze’.
L_R. Cider Bar, Curry Bar, Anna Church from ITV East Midlands News, Keith Williams festival frolics, Amy from The Western. The improved authentic Indian curries were a real success and our traditional English food counter manned by CAMRA volunteers was busy as always. Indeed we got through 600 Pork Pies alone as the popularity of these from Lanes Butchers on King Richards Road increases, people were also very complimentary about the cobs as well which were sourced from Ethels Bakery for the first time. Once again we collected for LOROS by means of collection buckets - Thank You.
We would like to thank everyone who attended for making the event so successful. We would also like to thank our main sponsor, Everards, and all of our advertisers and brewers of festival specials. Also, The Leicester Mercury and ITV East Midlands News for their coverage of the event. Also, our main beer agency suppliers: Boggart, Beer My Guest and Shardlow for supplying some fantastic beers. Leicester Mercury article 14 March. Our Sub Branch - Hinckley & Bosworth Festival Report The festival committee would like to thank all the volunteers who worked throughout the event and made it another complete success, including the Hinckley & Bosworth sub branch members. Thanks also to the Red Cross who provided first aid cover for the festival. Andy
Sales. Leicester Beer Festival 2008The Harry Cragg "Beer of the Festival" sponsored by the Foxton Locks InnThe ninth Leicester Beer Festival opened on Wednesday 12th March 2008 at 5pm. Once again, the opportunity was taken to judge the Harry Cragg “Beer of the Festival” by using a mixture of experienced tasters and volunteers. This year the tasters were split over nine tables and tasted 6 beers each totalling 54 beers. All beers were selected prior to opening for quality and category grouping by two senior members of the Leicester Tasting panel. Nearly all of the beers conform to the Champion Beer of Britain criteria for nomination through the Branch. Congratulations to all the winners, we will try and arrange presentations over the next few months for as many of the winners as we can. Winners
Individual category winnersMild
Bitter
Best Bitter
Strong Bitter
Porter/Stout
Golden Ale
Super Strong Beers
Speciality Beers
Beer of the Festival Presentations Brampton, Chesterfield
Andy Sales
Milestone Brewery, Newark
Andy Sales
Awards Night, The Grainstore, Oakham On 16th July 2008, we set off by train to The Grainstore, Oakham to meet 3 brewers to present them with Harry Cragg Beer Of The Festival 2008 awards. After a while, sampling the Grainstore Beers, we set about giving out our prestigious awards. The first was given to Martin Allsop of Barrowden Brewery. It is situated to the rear of The Exeter Arms in Barrowden. Formerly Blencowe Brewing until Martin bought the business 3 years ago. He won First Place in the Bitter Category with his "Own Gear". This was Martin’s first award and he thanked Leicester CAMRA for their support and was pleased that the people of Leicester appreciate his beers.
L-R Nigel Wright and Martin Allsopp.
Tony Davies has been the proprietor of Grainstore Brewery for 13 years now, following his redundancy from the now defunct Ruddles Brewery. Tony has won many awards for his beers from far and wide. This year, Leicester CAMRA awarded him 3rd place in the Mild Category for Rutland Panther, First Place in the Best Bitter Category with Triple B and First in the Super Strong Category with Winter Nip. This beer was also Winner of the overall “Harry Cragg Beer Of The Festival” for 2008.
Tony now runs the brewery with his son Will. He hinted that he is approaching his 60th birthday and had considered retirement. He hopes to do some distilling in the future. He has recently been appointed Chairman of The Midlands Section of The Institute of Brewing and Stilling. A post he is proud to hold. Finally Tony thanked Leicester CAMRA for his awards and said, “Winning these awards means a lot to me, especially as they are from Leicester” After finishing off the sandwiches and another beer, we headed for our train home. A most enjoyable evening for all who attended. It is always nice to socialise with Brewers and Publicans alike. Back to Festivals in the Full Archive. |
The
opportunity was taken to meet Chris Radford of
Another
Brewery and another Beer Festival!. The opportunity was taken to
meet Dean Penney, Head Brewer of
