Where have I been since
my last blog post on the 18th of April? Those promising
warming months of Spring followed by the traditional monsoon washout
called British Summertime have really flown by. Here is a recap of
April and two very different beer-based events:
Birmingham's First
Twissup
The 21st of
April saw the get together of a pleasant collective of beer bloggers
and enthusiasts for Birmingham's first ever Twissup (That's a jovial
gathering of Twitter based ladies and gentlemen for the purpose of
fermentable nourishment, for the civilized amongst us of course).
Twitter can be cited as being responsible for many things in today's
world, from organising Arabian revolutions to mocking celebrities
trying to hide behind anonymised injunctions, however, having a bunch
of random ePeople get together for a few drinks is, as far as I can
tell, its most important function to date.
@19irishdragon,
@CarlDurose, @ckdsaddlers, @dannybrown76, @hindleyillos, @MarbleTim,
@mrdavidj, @OthertonAleman, @therealstewbert and myself. Ten imbibers
already illuminated by the benefits of quality beer gathered for
drinks at the Lamp Tavern, The Anchor and Post Office Vaults,
Birmingham. It was great to finally put faces to Twitter handles and
warming to see so many like-minded and friendly beer fans passionate
about the exciting, and growing, good beer movement in the region get
together and have a jolly good time. Anyone interested is more than
welcome to join us for the next one, there'll certainly be a lot more
to come from our regional beer pioneers I'm sure!
Stourbridge Beer
Festival 2012
Next came the annual
Stourbridge Beer Festival. A festival close to my heart having been
the Chairman for Stourbridge & Halesowen CAMRA during the last
two events. I can't begin to explain how much work goes into
organising a beer festival, it really is a colossal undertaking.
Months of planning, a week and a half of hard labour and around 90
volunteers were needed at Stourbridge this year. Although when you're
a customer walking into the hall on opening day it all looks so
easy...
I took the opportunity
this year to try and bring in some new and interesting beers that
generally don't reach the West Midlands. The hope being that it would
expose both local drinkers to a few more quality breweries and the
breweries themselves to virgin consumers and publicans alike. I think
it's important, when given the chance, to always push the boundaries
at events like these.
So for Stourbridge this
year in came: Beavertown, Brodie's, Buxton, London Fields, Magic Rock, Redemption, Sambrook's, Steel City, Twickenham Fine Ales and
Windsor & Eaton, all breweries rarely seen, if ever, around
Birmingham and the Black Country. These coupled with the best of our
local breeds: Angel Ales, Beer Geek, Kinver, Sadler's and SarahHughes, amongst others, provided suitable compliment to the occasion.
Over 2000 customers later and selling out at just the right time I'd
like to pay tribute to all the CAMRA volunteers involved and everyone
who attended, I hope to see you all again next year!
I'd started to feel
that some local CAMRA beer festivals had stagnated with their beer
choices, let's not play it safe, the brewing scene is as vibrant as
it's ever been, despite the Government's best attempts to counter it.
Lets use these fantastically popular events to showcase excellence,
both near and afar.
