You find me, reader, in the process of recovering from my visit to the 2023 Great British Beer Festival yesterday (Friday 4 August).
I am sporting a purchase that I made there - a Dali-influenced “Campaign for Surreal Ale” t-shirt, which plays well into my state of mind. I enjoyed some weird and wonderful concoctions. I wasn’t classically drunk when I got home, but during the night it felt on occasions as if I had dosed up on something psychedelic.
So first the facts. Here is what I drank
Plus a bit of a tasting of Ascension ciders, made out of apples that would otherwise go to waste. So actually if you tot that up in terms of the ABV and in terms of the different styles, perhaps I got off lightly.
The cider may sound a bit rogue, but that was just a tribute to my Herefordshire ancestry.
My plan was to go for the “Surreal Ale” as opposed to the classic British cask stuff that is central to GBBF’s branding. With this embarrassment of international riches on display, I didn’t want to come away having had six pints of something vaguely pleasant.
I was particularly interested as always in the Belgian offerings. Alvinne do hardcore strong fruity sours, and I had been unable to find any since I first tasted their Bosbes last year. Tilquin sounded intriguing and I am really glad I tried it. I have written previously about Gueuze (see https://www.londonbiermeister.co.uk/blog/thank-heaven-for-a-little-gueuze-the-joys-of-spontaneous-fermentation ) but the concept of a Gueuze blender was new. And Pierre Tilquin has a great story. A bio-engineer with a PhD in statistical genetics who studied brewing at Leuven and then trained at some of the top breweries (including Cantillon), he is now the only Walloon on the High Council for Artisanal Lambic Beers. The Quetsche is brewed with fermented plums. If you like sours as I do, it is phenomenal. I will see if it is possible to get it in the UK, and if not will resurrect my plan for a trip to Belgium in the near future.
I was also very keen to re-visit the USA. The full downloadable beer list looked unbelievable. Only a disappointing small number of the US beers on the list were actually pouring, but I enjoyed what was there. There was only one possible place to start, which was a return to Vermont (https://www.londonbiermeister.co.uk/blog/green-mountain-state-of-mind) for a classic NEIPA. I then ended up in Maryland because I have a slight prejudice for East Coast over West - I don’t know why but it worked out in terms of the two Maryland beers that I drank.
I did not neglect the UK, but I went for the smaller craft bars and zeroed in on the breweries that I knew would not let me down - so Thornbridge and Siren Craft, plus Vocation because I wanted an Imperial Stout for pudding.
Kudos to the organisers for putting water machines by the bars. You could wash out your glass by inverting it and pressing down on a pump thing, and then fill it up with drinking water (some wag had put a sticker on the water tap saying “Free Doombar”)
GBBF gives you excellent beer, but also a way into the latest fun beer politics, which are toxic in a way that only something that doesn’t actually matter can be.
This year, the controversy centres on the “Champion Beer of Britain” competition. People were not talking about the winner - the 1872 Porter from Elland Brewery in Yorkshire - but were getting very het up about the fact that Greene King Abbot Ale had won silver. There were considered voices: https://www.petebrown.net/ gave a balanced account to the effect that this particular batch of Abbot was indeed very good - maybe not what he would have called the best but on its day a credible choice for the judges. Others piled in with denunciations of Abbot as bland and dull, and worse than that much of the time in most Greene King pubs. Which led into denunciations of the corporate monster that Greene King is apparently perceived as, with the insinuation that CAMRA had taken the corporate shilling. There have been apologies for the original Mr Greene’s role in slavery - he opposed abolition and received compensation for his freed slaves - and for a recent incident when a pub manager threw out a group of Travellers for being Travellers. Now they are private equity owned. They were also being blamed for having worked with the Prime Minister when he visited GBBF earlier in the week to promote his duty changes (he received a “mixed” reception).
I quite like Abbot. I agree with the point about inconsistency of quality. (And one of the worst pints I have had over the past year was a Greene King IPA). But I do like Greene King’s new Level Head Craft IPA having consumed several pints of it at the Oval last weekend -it would I think have been banned from GBBF for being English but not “real”...
The other point of fierce debate is the tie up between CAMRA and Wetherspoons. Spoons are a major sponsor of GBBF, and they continue to offer 50p off vouchers to CAMRA members. Like many stuck-up middle class people, I am inclined to sneer at Spoons. At the same time it is undeniable that they offer some excellent beer at very reasonable prices (as well as some bad beer even cheaper). Many of their pubs have fine exteriors (shame about the interiors). I have a very particular beef with Tim Martin stemming from my former life as a trade negotiation nerd - during 2019, he put up posters in various Spoons arguing that we need not fear a No Deal Brexit because GATT Article XXIV guaranteed us a tariff stand-still arrangement. Seductively detailed as an argument, but wrong, wrong, wrong. (I can explain why if you are interested? No, I thought not). My stance may be a bit niche, but Mr Martin has taken rather more stick from the CAMRA membership for his treatment of his workforce during COVID.
Writing this blog has been part of my ongoing recovery process, so thank you for bearing with me. When I next drink beer, I have a few things planned. Courtesy of my wonderful local Clapton Craft shop, I will continue to explore the likes of Verdant, DEYA and Pressure Drop. I also have a weird and wonderful Brewdog tequila matured imperial stout, given to me as a shareholder benefit as an alternative to any expected return on my investment (see blogs passim).