a swift one - A round up of CAMRA beer festivals
Visit the a swift one site
This month I've been spending rather a lot of time with CAMRA.
Whether their beer festivals have been in Huddersfield, Wakefield or Sheffield - I have been there.
It began in Huddersfield on October 1 with the branch's Oktoberfest.
We wrote about it at the time (see lower down the blog roll) but since then the results for beer of the festival have been announced.
Briggs Rhapsody #2 won the Charlie (best in show) and the bitter awards. Other local winners included Riverhead, Small World, 'Udders Orchard who won the mild, stout/porters and cider categories, respectively.
But there wasn't an overall local winner at Wakefield, whose festival wrapped up last weekend.
Titanic's Plum Porter topped the public vote, but I understand it was a close run thing from Five Town/Beers Manchester's Art Decade and Fernandes' Black Voodoo.
The latter's Rhubarb & Custard was the first beer to run off but it did not feature in the festival top ten.
Today I went to Sheffield CAMRA's beer festival whose best in fest had already decided upon.
Crafty Devil Brewing, of Cardiff, won it with Mikey Rayer, All Dayer. North Riding/Beers Manchester came second with Red Citra and Saltaire's Triple Chocoholic was third.
I didn't get a chance to try any of them as, I'm told, they all ran off on Thursday.
But there was plenty of good beer and cider to be had. I stuck local, which seemed to be a my theme at all three festivals. My picks were Stancill's American Pale and Blue Bee's Attack of The Geek, which unbeknown to me won the strong bitter category at Huddersfield at the beginning of the month. The latter was so good it required another visit to the bar. It was described to me as a good summery drink and a fine way to bring down the curtain on British Summer Time.
Congratulations to all the festival organisers and the brewers. Same time next year?
More...
