Birkenhead Beer Festival, now in its 17th year, returns this month to Pacific Road Arts Centre in Birkenhead.
Organised by the Wirral branch of the Campaign For Real Ale (CAMRA), the event celebrates the quality and diversity of flavours in Britain’s national drink.
The festival largely features beers from small local breweries, who craft their ale in small batches, using good ingredients, much care and of course a little sampling, just to make sure.
On show this year will be an array of colour and flavour from new sponsors, Liverpool Organic Brewery.
Mark Hensby, Managing Director, said: “We are keen to support the festival as it helps promote the diversity and quality of beer we have to offer in the UK.
“It also gives us a rare chance to showcase in one venue, a wider range of our beers than we would normally be able to.”
Liverpool Organic will also be supplying a few additional barrels via ‘beer swaps’ with quality breweries up and down the country - so there should be something new to try for all visitors.
Other local brewers on show include both of Wirral’s microbreweries, Peerless Brewing of Birkenhead, and previous festival champions, Brimstage Brewery.
Real ale is seen as the epitome of British brewing - it’s a natural product that requires time, skill and care from seed-supplier to farmer, maltster, brewer, and on to the pub & cellar staff.
Unlike other beers delivered to the pub ready to serve, real ale undergoes a secondary fermentation in its cask, in the pub cellar.
The cellar staff look after the beer to ensure that it pours clear, with good flavour and gentle carbonation.
A similar process gives Champagne its prized natural bubbles.
Because it’s unprocessed and served fresh, ‘cask beer’ has short shelf-life, but to its fans, the benefits are clear in the diverse, fresh flavours and gentle fizz.
The recent ‘Cask Report’ from the Society of Independent Brewers examined the part that cask beer can play in the pub trade.
Author Pete Brown wrote: “Cask ale can help pubs to not only survive, but to thrive. It’s attracting new drinkers who spend more in the pub than non-cask drinkers, making them valuable customers.”
Allan Machin, Wirral CAMRA Chairman, said: “These are very difficult times in the pub world, but for those that serve fresh and well-kept beer in friendly surroundings, their customers return the favour by coming back more regularly.”
If you want to compare a porter with a stout, or even a real ginger beer with a natural lager, then get along to the festival. It runs from Thursday 20th to Saturday 22nd October (including a Saturday lunch session) at Pacific Road Arts Centre, near Hamilton Square, Birkenhead. Tickets £5-£6, outlet details available from the Wirral CAMRA website www.wirralcamra.co.uk (click “Beer Festival”) or phone 07989 694611.
Cologne Girls Choir to join girl choristers from both Liverpool Cathedrals for unique concert
(Tue 22/05)
Liverpool Music Awards 2012 Launches
(Tue 22/05)
1.jpg)
Post a comment