CAMRA - Stafford Beer Festival 2011

basil

basil

don't mention the blinds
started on the ruby mild then did another mild errm black country i think, swapped over to the other servery and downed a couple of heart of stone, i was gassing with brad at this point so it would of been rude otherwise, anyway then she says lets try the 10% stuff! and from then on it was all a haze. i do recall talking to at least 3 of our local council members although about what you'll have to ask them. I've been told this afternoon that i was hooked on the wreckage for the last hour. On a downside the glasses were rubbish i have no room in my cupboard for Birmingham Beer Festival 2010 memorabilia!!!.....
 
John Marwood

John Marwood

I ♥ cryptic crosswords
basil said:
started on the ruby mild then did another mild errm black country i think, swapped over to the other servery and downed a couple of heart of stone, i was gassing with brad at this point so it would of been rude otherwise, anyway then she says lets try the 10% stuff! and from then on it was all a haze. i do recall talking to at least 3 of our local council members although about what you'll have to ask them. I've been told this afternoon that i was hooked on the wreckage for the last hour. On a downside the glasses were rubbish i have no room in my cupboard for Birmingham Beer Festival 2010 memorabilia!!!.....
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Very classy
 
K

Kelp

A few posts under my belt
basil said:
On a downside the glasses were rubbish i have no room in my cupboard for Birmingham Beer Festival 2010 memorabilia!!!.....
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You should have asked on the door, they would have done you a swapsie for this year's festival glass....
 
K

Kelp

A few posts under my belt
Saturday Afternoon/Evening Highlights:

NationAle
Whim - Hartington Bitter
Lymestone - Heart of Stone (although officially this should have perhaps been on t'other side, but space and that dictated where it ended up).
Dent - T'Owd Tup

LocAle
Slater's - A'Zatec Gold
Backyard Brewhouse - BPA

Ciders/Perrys
Had pretty much all gone save for two late additions of Weston's Vintage and Trad. Scrumpy both of which were not bad.

Also if anyone saw the smurf that showed up late on Saturday afternoon, that could well have been the highlight of the year.
 
Kingy

Kingy

Well-Known Forumite
Enjoyed the beer. Although I did spend most of my time drinking copious amounts of the Broadoak Perry which was superb. The only slight negative was the not so fast fast food service. The couple running it were lovely but not very organised and managed to mix up so many orders that they stopped taking them at all at one point. This was a shame as the standard of the food was above your normal burger van fare. Opening the canteen area last year worked much better. More tables and chairs and fast food. The upside of the catering chaos was that we opted to go to Karma 2 instead where we had a great meal.
 
United57

United57

Well-Known Forumite
Hopefully the catering will be looked at. Something quick and simple. Hot pork baps. Slice it off, stick it in a bun with crackling, stuffing apple sauce and gravy. You've got it cooked all you are doing is serving.

Friday night there was 500 potential beer laden food monsters.
 
K

Kelp

A few posts under my belt
The catering situation has been very much noted and will be looked into for next year.....
 
mickyboy

mickyboy

Well-Known Forumite
Kingy said:
Enjoyed the beer. Although I did spend most of my time drinking copious amounts of the Broadoak Perry which was superb. The only slight negative was the not so fast fast food service. The couple running it were lovely but not very organised and managed to mix up so many orders that they stopped taking them at all at one point. This was a shame as the standard of the food was above your normal burger van fare. Opening the canteen area last year worked much better. More tables and chairs and fast food. The upside of the catering chaos was that we opted to go to Karma 2 instead where we had a great meal.
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I agree on the catering. On Friday afternoon i ordered a burger at about 2:15, was told it would be abour 15 mins which was not a problem.

Come 3pm and several orders taken after mine which were done in 10 mins or so i had no option but to complain , cancel and get my money back. And it was not that busy at that time.

Bit of a learning curve for both the festival and the caterer. It was a shame as most people i spoke to said when they did finally get there food it was very good.

ps. gutted i couldnt get saturday and missed out on the heart of stone, the only lymestone beer ive not had....bah humbug!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
speak65

speak65

Well-Known Forumite
Had a great time yesterday but a bit disappointed that we had missed some of the beers which had sold out. Had to call into the sun on the way home to finish the day

:)
 
toooldtorock

toooldtorock

Well-Known Forumite
Slaters Maraville was spot on. Enjoyed the 'gig', although initial rudeness from one individual over the volume was very annoying. Learn some bloody manners!
 
StaffordBeerFestival

StaffordBeerFestival

Active Member
Sorry for the delay in replying, I’m still trying to recover from the weekend. But what a weekend it was!

Most important thing, the beer. My top ones in no particular order;

Allgate Citra - I said in no order, but was my favourite could just drink all night
Beartown Peach Melbear - Following on with the fruity theme
Slaters Maraville - Available for the first time at the festival and sure to be a hit when it goes on general release. Like the subtly of the raspberries
Blythe Johnsons - I don't like dark beers, but couldn't stop drinking this one. Just a glass full of flavour
Lymestone Einsteine - Just a nice easy drink.

As for the ciders, the Moonshine was far away the best, for me.

I'm really pleased to hear the positive feedback about the festival; it was a huge success with visitor numbers up on last year. Very lucky to have the good weather.

On the subject of food, for anyone that experienced the unacceptable waits for food I can only apologise, I got it wrong. It is the first time that we have had any involvement with the food, for the first 2 years the Gatehouse provided the food and last year the School kitchen arranged the food. We had to arrange our own food provision this year, I’m pleased to hear that people were happy with the quality but obviously we will need to look again at what we do about the food offering. I would welcome any comments on this, what would you like to be available at the festival. Burger bar, cold food, hog roast? Different food for different sessions? Please let me know.

As you are probably aware the festival is organised and run entirely by volunteers, we start planning just after Christmas and are on site for 8 days setting up, running and taking down the festival. Would anyone be interested in getting involved at any stage of the festival?

If anyone has any more comments etc please get in touch, this was only the 4th festival and we are still learning. If there is anything we can do better we want to hear about it!

P.S Lymestone Heart of Stone was a bit of a hybrid one off for the festival. Went down really well though, will have to try and persuade Brad @ Lymestone to make a full batch of it.
 
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