A couple of months ago I made the trip into Manchester city centre and back out again to The Crescent, a pub with a justifiable reputation as one of the very best real ale venues in the Greater Manchester area. I used to drink there on a regular basis when I was a student at Salford University, but haven’t been back for about fifteen years, for various reasons, so I was keen to see if the old place was anything like I remembered it (it was pretty much the same, yes).

I was at The Crescent, on a rare mid-week outing, to see my mate Howard Sherrington play his first solo gig (acoustic guitar & voice), supporting a band called Rising 44, with whom he also plays (much louder) guitar. Howard’s set was excellent – he’s a very technically gifted guitarist and can write a mean tune as well – and Rising 44 were, frankly, deafening (damn it, I must be getting old). And of course, I sampled a couple of beers while I was there… it would have been unforgivably rude not to, especially as it was National Cask Ale Week at the time, if I remember correctly.

The Crescent had an impressive array of beers on tap – around twelve or so, I think – as well as a decent-looking selection of bottled beers in their fridges (a couple on the table next to me were supping a Kwak and I’m sure I spotted a couple of Maredsous bottles and a few Duvels as well). Perusing the beer menu on the wall I opted for a pint of Sharp’s Spring Mild to ease me into the evening. According to a mention on Ratebeer.com this one is brewed with gorse, but there’s no info on the Sharp’s website to confirm. In any case, it was an interesting, fruity dark mild with hints of both apple and pear and a slight sourness developing towards the end of the pint. Not bad, but not one I wanted to rush back to.

Instead, I opted for a pint of 3Rivers Delta Dark, from just down the road in Stockport. This was one of their 2009/10 seasonal ales, brewed specifically for CAMRA’s Mild Month, so it was only available in April and May. Which is a real shame, because this was an extremely tasty little number.

At 5% ABV, Delta Dark weighs in a fair bit stronger than a typical mild and I think it’s fair to say it had a much more interesting flavour than I’ve encountered in most of the milds I’ve tried so far. Delta Dark is a distinctly dark, ruby-tinted mild that’s packed with chocolate and malt, with just a touch of coffee to give it a sharper edge. Great mouth-feel, extremely smooth and easy-drinking, I didn’t hesitate to go back for a second pint and would have happily settled in a for a session, if I didn’t have to head off and find a bus back into town. Well, it was a school-night after all.

Anyway, I’m sorry you missed it if you have missed it, but with any luck 3Rivers will brew it again next Spring. I know I for one would be highly tempted to track it down again if they did.

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?

CAMRA have announced this year’s supreme Champion Winter Beer of Britian. It’s Oakham Ales Attila, a 7.5%abv barley wine described by the brewery thus: “Fruit notes and elderflower on aroma. Taste of ripe red berries and citrus fruit with a long bitter fruity finish.”

Sounds bloody delicious, and I’ll bet there’s none left by the time I get to the NWAF tomorrow evening (my drinking buddy Howard is available, so that means a double-session for yours truly. Nice.)

The silver and bronze awards went to Elland Brewery‘s 1872 Porter and Sarah Hughes’s Dark Ruby mild, respectively, so that’s another two for the target list for tomorrow and / or Saturday. I’m looking forward to the next couple of evenings immensely…

The Wetherspoon‘s mega-chain is currently running their 2008 Real Ale Festival and so last Friday evening, Jo and I thought we’d nip along and see what they had to offer.

The branch we went along to was the Waterhouse on Princess Street in Manchester City Centre – a former solicitors’ office (if I remember correctly) which has retained most of its internal dividing walls, making for a more intimate and secluded venue than its cross-city partner The Moon Under Water. The latter was previously a cinema and is now a cavernous, riotous open space, usually packed to the rafters on a weekend night and extremely noisy.

Of course, the smaller venue has a smaller number of pumps / taps and so the range of festival ales on offer was limited to a rather narrow selection from the 50 in the full festival range. Mind you, I don’t think it helped that last Friday was Hallowe’en, because they still had a couple of spooky-themed beers on, along with a couple more that, whilst displayed with Festival clips on the taps, weren’t actually part of the Festival… unless they’re allowed a couple of local additions to the range? Anyhow, just a case of poor timing on our part, I guess. Next weekend might have been a better bet.

All of which meant that I didn’t get the chance to try (or reacquaint myself with) a number of beers from the Festival brochure that I really would have liked to have a go at, such as: Triple FFF Alton’s Pride (CAMRA Champion Beer of Britain 2008, no less), Hilden Molly’s Stout, Caledonian Smokey Pete, Exmoor Wild Cat, Banks’s Winter Ale, St Austell Proper Job, Harviestoun Thistle Do, Woodforde’s Norfolk Nog, Baron’s Black Wattle Original Ale, Meantime Coffee Porter (enjoyed the bottled version, would have loved to been able to sample the draught), Robinson’s Old Tom Chocolate Ale, Titanic Iron Curtain Russian Stout and York Centurion’s Ghost (any excuse to drink one of my all-time favourites…)

In the end, Jo and I managed to sample six beers – Festival or otherwise and all in half pint sampler-sizes – between the two of us us and then, having pretty much exhausted the possibilities, we went next door to the City Arms for a couple more, so I suppose I shouldn’t grumble. And those beers were:

Yo-Ho Yona Yona – A new beer brewed especially for the Festival by Japanese brewer Toshi Ishii at Banks’s brewery in Wolverhampton, Yona Yona Real Ale is a 5% American-style pale ale that poured a dark amber colour with a light head. It was quite hoppy, with a distinct grapefruit flavour that became more and more pronounced as the glass went on. In fact, I’d say it was probably a bit too pronounced for my taste, with the sourness and acidity over-powering the sweeter, maltier notes to the point where I wasn’t actually enjoying it all that much by the end. Which was a shame, because it seems as though the rest of the Yo-Ho range is meant to be somewhat legendary, by all accounts…

Moorhouses Black Witch – Part of the Moorhouses seasonal range, Jo decided to try a half and ended up having a couple more. It’s a 4.2%, dark, chestnut-brown ale with a nutty, coffee-toned flavour and a chocolately after-taste. Quite sweet, very easy-drinking. Not one of the Festival ales but probably the most enjoyable beer we sampled on the evening. So there you go.

George Wright Skeleton – I think this has to be one of the most aptly-named beers I’ve encountered to-date, because this 4.1% light ale had almost no body and very little meat on its bones at all. Almost devoid of any sort of flavour or even a notable leaning towards either dryness or sweetness, it was bland and watery throughout. Caveat emptor.

Outlaw Wrangler – I think this is brewed by Knaresborough-based Roosters under their Outlaw Brewing Co label, but it wasn’t an official Festival beer and I couldn’t get close enough to the cask-clip to double-check (it was a Friday night and two or three deep at that part of the bar…) Anyhow, Wrangler is a very pale ale with a frothy, bubbly head, which I assume has been brewed American-style, seeing as it was very dry with lots of hops. Quite pleasant and refreshing, just not the sort of style I usually make a point of seeking out.

Hydes Mumbo Jumbo – This locally-brewed, 4.9% Hydes seasonal ale is an interesting little number. Pouring a deep, stout-black with just a hint of chestnut, the impression I got on first tasting was a tannin-rich, wine-like character, backed up with coffee and chicory and then raisins, with lots of malt throughout. It was pleasant enough, but let down slightly by its mouth-feel, which just wasn’t as rich and thick as the rest of its characteristics would seem to suggest it ought to be.

Stateside IPA – Again, I failed in my research and couldn’t get close enough to make out the name of the brewery, but I’m going to assume this was Mikkeller‘s Stateside IPA that I was drinking [Edit 08.11.08 - maieb tells me it was actually from the Thwaite’s Nutty Black – By this point Jo and I had de-camped to the City Arms, where we actually found one of Wetherspoon’s Festival beers that Wetherspoon’s didn’t have. Nutty Black (formerly “dark mild”) has been named CAMRA Champion Beer of Britain more than once, and made for a very pleasant counter-point to the previous uber-hopped monster IPA. Mild, slightly sweet, weighing in at a slight 3.3% and, yes, quite nutty, this is the sort of session easy-drinker you could easily keep going on all-night long, which probably would have been a good idea, seeing as I was back on full pints by this point…

Everards Original – …but instead, I decided to stray and for my last pint of the night I went for the strongest beer on the blackboard (one of those 10.45 p.m. decisions that you pay for with a fuzzy head all the next day). Everard’s Original poured a lovely mid-brown colour with a creamy head. I found it quite sweet, with a hint of cinder toffee and a definite almond tang (as Jo suggested: strong hints of bakewell tart) and I think if I’d been drinking it earlier in the night I would have enjoyed it more than I ended up doing… in the end it was just a bit much on top of everything else I’d sampled.

But still, a good night out – Jo and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and if we weren’t booked up next Friday and Saturday then we’d probably be back down to the ‘Spoons again for another stab at the Festival selection. But I guess those missed beers will just have to be added to the ever-growing wish-list, for now…