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?
