Brewery: Moorhouse’s
Location: Burnley, Lancashire, England
ABV: 4.8%
Version: Cask
Source: Wetherspoons, Belfast

The 30th Anniversary Wetherspoons Real Festival kicked off on Wednesday, so I popped in to see what the Belfast branch had to offer. And as I expected it was a predictable not much. With only 4 ale pumps (even though there are nearly 30 others dedicated to the usual lagers, cider and Guinness) I didn’t expect too many of the 50 featured festival beers to be present, but 2 is just not trying. Surely for the duration of the festival they could have ditched the other two more regular ales, which are currently Ruddle’s Best and Hobgoblin.

I didn’t fancy the Greene King Boss Hogg, a 4.1% best bitter brewed specially for the festival, and one of 31 bitter beer styles featured. So instead I went for the Moorhouse’s Black Panther, another one brewed for the event. At 4.8%, this is basically their award winning Black Cat, only stronger. Pouring black, with a slightly fruity chocolatey aroma, it certainly starts off very enticing. And it follows through in the taste as well. Dark chocolate at the start, with touches of dried fruit, plums, raisins and liquorice also present, a bit toasty, and a lingering slightly dry finish. Very nice indeed. I would quite happily have had another of these, but getting back to work unfortunately had to get in the way.

Jo and I were up in Bury on Saturday lunchtime, so we nipped into the Robert Peel for a microwaved ready-meal (I know, I know, but the liver & mash wasn’t too bad…) and to give their Festival pumps the once-over. They had a reasonable showing of five Festival beers on offer, although one of them was stickered up ‘available soon’. Brains Dark was there again, alongside John Smith’s Heritage Ale, which didn’t grab my attention. But I did try the two others on offer.

Not being a big fruit beer fan at all, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from Sharp’s Red Sloe Ale but what I got was a fresh, bitter, dark-amber ale that wasn’t at all fruity in the usual sense. The sloe (a small, astringent, plum-like fruit of the blackthorn, in case you were wondering) adds tartness rather than sweetness to an already hoppy brew, so the overall effect is closer to a citrus tang than a strawberry or raspberry sugariness. In conclusion: a quite palatable easy-drinker (at 4.0% abv) and one that I was happy to have tried it after all.

The second beer was – at last – one of the overseas guest ales: Wild Blue Yonder Oregon Amber Ale. This beer was brewed especially for the Wetherspoon’s festival by Bend Brewing Company‘s Head Brewmaster Tonya Cornett. There’s an interview with Tonya in the festival booklet which, once you get past all the completely unnecessary “that’s right, she’s a woman, get used to it fellas” schtick, makes Bend Brewing – and particularly their Imperial IPAs – sound rather interesting indeed.

Wild Blue Yonder itself is extremely tasty: a light, fresh, hoppy ale with a smooth mouth-feel and a nutty, caramel finish. At 4.8% it’s a definite easy-drinking indeed and it was certainly good enough to send me back to the bar for another on (and at £1.49 for a Festival pint up in Bury, why the hell not?) Again, I’m very glad I tried this one.

All in all then, my two visits to Wetherspoon’s for this particular Festival didn’t amount to a scooper’s triumph. I only got to try half a dozen of the 50 beers that were in the booklet, although to be fair, three of them were well worth the effort: Wild Blue Yonder and the previously mentioned Wooden Hand Cornish Mutiny and Thwaite’s Double Century. But generally speaking, it sounds like I need to get out more at Festival time…

Wetherspoon’s International Real Ale Festival time again, which means another selection of 50 beers to (hopefully) sample. This time around I hoped to improve on the mis-timing that marred my last Festival experience, so following a tip from Simon J – see comment #7 on that post – Jo and I headed to The Paramount instead of The Waterhouse, where it turned out they had 8 pumps dedicated to the beer fest brews.

Of course, these things are always going to be a bit hit and miss: you turn up and take your chances, hoping that the more interesting beers in the festival booklet will be the ones they have on tap when you’re there. Alas, it was not to be on this occasion, either. None of the six headline International beers were on and only one of the European imports. Ah, well. C’est la vie. Determined not to be too disappointed, I perused the selection on offer and got stuck in to a few half-pints:

Brains Dark – First up: a dark mild from Wales. Jo had a couple of halves of this one whilst I was sampling my way along the pumps, but she very kindly let me have a sip or two. Dark, nutty and very mild indeed (although almost to the point of having no real distinguishing flavours at all) this is one of the more palatable milds I’ve tried recently – the other two (Holt’s and one other I can’t remember the name of) being sour as under-ripe cherries and not in a good way – and at 3.5% ABV you could happily drink this one all night. You might wonder why you didn’t try something more interesting instead, though…

Wooden Hand Cornish Mutiny – Tim often extols the virtues of good Cornish ale, so I made a point of trying this one right off the bat. It turned out to be a very fresh, very refreshing malty ale with a zesty citrus tang. At 4.8% it would make for a good session beer as well, I reckon. Good stuff, highly drinkable.

Thwaites Double Century – This one ought to be familiar to anyone who’s browsed the shelves of Tesco’s bottled ale section. It’s impressive in bottles and I’m happy to say even more so on draught: A 4.8% ABV golden ale with a lovely, fresh, bitter-sweet tang of grapefruit and fruity hops (Jo suggested it was like a bitter orange sorbet) with an extremely smooth finish and a bitter after-taste that’s just about right. One of the Blackburn brewery’s very best, and no doubt about it.

Rhymney Export – A golden brown bitter ale from Welsh brewer Rhymney, Export was another fresh-tasting beer; a good, smooth mouth-feel and just a hint of fresh strawberry made this one another easy-drinker, although at 5% it might just creep up and mug you by the end of the night. Worth the risk, though, I reckon.

St Georgen Brau Keller Bier – This Bavarian import poured a slightly cloudy golden amber colour, had zero aroma (even Jo, whose nose is much better than mine, was hard-pressed to detect anything) and despite a distinct, green-apple-sour tang, with a very bitter hoppy after-taste, wasn’t huge on flavour either. It wasn’t unpleasant, but I certainly wouldn’t have gone back to the bar for another.

Speaking of going back to the bar, at that point I wandered over and perused my way up and down the pumps, but just couldn’t see anything else that grabbed my attention. If memory serves they had the JW Lees Hopping Mad, Caldonian Raspberry Fool (fruit beer, hmmm…), Bateman’s Dragon’s Den and Mauldons Silver Adder, but none of those really stood out (although on reflection the Hopping Mad might have been worth a try…)

So Jo and I decided to wander up to The Waterhouse (the other Wetherspoon’s pub in that part of Manchester city centre) on the off-chance that they had a more interesting selection on offer. But instead we found an almost identical range: at least four cross-overs, with Okell’s Red and Sharp’s Red Sloe (fruit beer, hmmm…) the only differences that I could spot. Well, apart from one other: they did have Palm Steenbrugge Blond on as well, but after over-hearing two gents discussing it (“bit bland this, isn’t it?” “aye, you’d expect more from a 6% beer”) I decided to pass. So we decamped to the City Arms next door (where, let’s face it, every day is beer festival day) and had one more in there before calling it a night.

Which brings me to something that’s been bothering me about the whole International Real Ale Festival experience. For the record: I think it’s great that a huge pub chain like Wetherspoon’s is supporting real ale with this sort of national promotion. And surely giving regular drinkers the opportunity to try the good stuff for £1.69 a pint (or the regional price equivalent) is one of the best possible ways to convert them from swilling fizzy cooking lager to sampling (and hopefully enjoying) something with more flavour and genuine character. But setting that noble goal aside for a moment… would it hurt to put a little more variety into the festival selection for those of us who already sing in the choir?

I ran a quick tally of the types of beer listed in the Festival booklet and – discounting the ‘speciality’ categorisation, which they seem to be using to cover a range of miscellaneous styles – here’s what I reckon was on offer: 2 milds, 1 stout, 2 porters, 1 Belgian blonde, 1 wheat beer, 1 rauchbier, 3 fruit beers, 2 flavoured (1 coriander, 1 rum), 10 ‘golden’ (pale) ales and then no fewer than 26 varieties of bitter (I’m lumping the booklet’s ‘bitter’, ‘best bitter’ and ‘strong bitter’ labels into one category here). Oh, and there was 1 lager, wasn’t there? I mean, the aforementioned St Georgen Brau Keller Bier was listed as a ‘speciality’ beer in the booklet, but according to the website, it’s bottom-fermented and is left to “mature unbunged in deep vaults”… so that makes it a lager, right? Not that I’m getting prissy about a lager being included in a real ale festival or anything. But if it’s a lager, then call it a lager, that’s all I’m saying…

And yes, I realise it’s a Spring beer festival and so naturally a lot of breweries will be keen to showcase their Spring seasonal beers. But given that the vast majority of those bitters and pale ales on offer didn’t seem to have any particularly Spring-specific seasonal ingredients – assuming of course that dried hops and malted barley aren’t particularly seasonal – would it really have been difficult to reduce the number of bitter / pale ales and make a bit more effort elsewhere? A couple more stouts, perhaps? One or two more Milds or Porters? And how about a few genuinely strong (6%+) ales, which IMHO is where the really impressive flavours tend to be found? Surely they don’t stop brewing the stuff just because the average temperature has finally risen above freezing?

Okay, I’m probably grumbling and grousing for no good reason. Apologies to the Festival organisers, who I’m sure must have put in terrifically long hours to source and sample the selection of beers on offer, particularly the International Guests. And hey, all I have to do is wait until October and Wetherspoon’s will trot out the autumn / winter beers for their next festival and I’ll be happy again, right? Of course I will. In the meantime, I’m attempting to drum up a drinking buddy or two for another Festival session on Friday night, hoping for a new selection to launch into. And if all else fails, I still have a cupboard full of choice stouts and strong ales to keep me entertained all summer long. I’ll shut up and get me coat, shall I?

There are always plenty of real ale festivals going on up and down the UK if you know where to look for them and the imminent Bank Holiday break is particularly festival-rich with the couple of weeks afterwards not looking too shabby, either.

For a start, National Cask Ale Week kicks off on Monday April 6th and runs through to the 13th. With some heavyweight support from the likes of CAMRA, Cask Marque and the IFBB, this one will hopefully grab a few headlines and help raise the general profile of our tipple of choice. Hundreds of pubs are taking part in a code number text-in prize sweepstake (for those who can remember how to send a text message after a few pints of the good stuff).

There will also be a Beer Festival during the Chester Food and Drink Festival over the weekend of April 9th – 11th. Over 40 lagers and beers (no list on the website as yet) will be on offer at Boughton Hall Cricket Club.

No sooner does NCAW end than the UK’s near-ubiquitous pub chain, Wetherspoon’s, kicks off its own International Real Ale Festival which runs from April 15th through to May 4th.

Say what you like about JDW’s impact on the pub trade and their recent 99p pint shenanigans, it’s still good to see a choice of (potentially) 50 beers on offer, especially at their generally very reasonable prices. After the vague disappointment of back in October I plan to follow the sage advice offered at the time (see comment #7) and make sure I head for a better Manchester outlet this time around. I’ll be scouring the beer list and picking out a few choice targets nearer the time.

Although if you’d prefer something a little quieter and rather more eclectic, then a little further down the line you could try the Welsh Highland Railway’s Rail Ale Festival instead. (My Dad would love this one – a chance to sup real ale whilst riding on a steam train and snapping photos of the Welsh mountains? Heaven!) Not sure how many different beers will be offer, but they’re promising even more than last year, so that’s got to be good.

More info on all the above via the embedded links.