April 2012 Recap: Birmingham Twissup & Stourbridge Beer Festival

Where have I been since my last blog post on the 18^th 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 21^st 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.