Doing my talk on beer and travel, no cabbages were thrown
Weekender, Peakender,
disturbing the fusty force that normally descends on a weekend, trains and buses and
footslogging brings me in at Thornbridge Hall, come Friday evening. Tents
beneath trees, an amiable army bivouacked, the aromatics of Thai, pizza and
Mexican food emerging from a trio of food carts, keg taps and pump handles
letting loose a torrent of beers: let’s see now, Tilquin gueuze is the perfect
late morning beer, to see what it has to say to you; Tzara is the lunchtime
beer, a sparkling, light, sunlit riff on a Kolsch, while as the day progresses
it’s good to genuflect with Del Borgo’s Genziana; in the meantime tip a nod to the hop bursting
happiness of St Erik’s IPA, clasp a glass of the wonderfully assertive Tart and
perhaps end the day with a Jaipur X (or two). There were lots more beers of
course but I wasn’t making notes. This is more than a festival with beer; it was about people, it was about families enjoying themselves (lots of kids running
about, which was great); it is about friends getting together and traversing
their lives over some great beers (some good friends of mine were there while new ones
were made); it’s also about a celebration of a brewery that I have been
visiting and kept in touch with since I organised a British Guild of Beer
Writers trip there in 2005 (my note book had the sentence ‘they’ve got an
Italian brewer’, which seemed so outrageous then; there was also a brewer from
Scotland there, wonder what happened to him?). As the format of the beer festival
changes, redefines itself, becomes more inclusive, becomes more open, Peakender
is another direction for the beer festival to go. There was music, physical
activities, suggestions of walks in the surrounding countryside, some football
training for kids, talks (one of which I gave), films and a general sense of happiness
and joy. I’ll be back next year (note to self: take an air-bed for the tent rather than a bone-bruising carrier mat).
I really enjoyed your talk, although from the photo I notice that my chair is empty so it doesn't look like it! We missed the beginning because we were queueing at the bar, we sauntered in with a couple of pints of Bear State. I'll echo what you said about the festival: it was an excellent family event and we've already agreed that we'll be back next year.
gutted i couldnt go this year, really enjoyed last year, the MTB event's in the yurt were a right laugh, there were some great beers and great times with friends old and new.
I really enjoyed your talk, although from the photo I notice that my chair is empty so it doesn't look like it! We missed the beginning because we were queueing at the bar, we sauntered in with a couple of pints of Bear State. I'll echo what you said about the festival: it was an excellent family event and we've already agreed that we'll be back next year.
ReplyDeleteHi Jake, glad you enjoyed it.
ReplyDeletegutted i couldnt go this year, really enjoyed last year, the MTB event's in the yurt were a right laugh, there were some great beers and great times with friends old and new.
ReplyDeleteHi Andy, one of the best weekends I’ve add for a while, plenty of great laughs
ReplyDelete