Photos from the open days of the Ipswich Beer Festival 2008 can be found by clicking the links below.
Wednesday 24th September
Thursday 25th September
Friday 26th September
Saturday 27th September
My thoughts. It certainly was another great festival. I thoroughly enjoyed working at the German Bar, and was very pleased to be allowed to manage the bar towards the end of the festival. This involved helping Olaf to decide which beers to put on, flushing the font taps, and changing the beer kegs.
Friday night was an absolute joy. So much fun was had with the German oompah band "Alpengold Blaskapelle", who not only played German music but also English party anthems too! I will never forget dancing to the oompah band's version of "The Music Man" along with several lines of customers and making the lead musician fall apart with laughter!!! It was a fantastic evening's entertainment.
Saturday night was the ABBA themed night and I spent all of that evening working behind the German bar, as I'm not much of an ABBA fan! It was VERY busy, but sadly we didn't sell all of the beer which was a bit of a shame.
So that's it now, the festival is over for another year. Thanks to all who visited and helped out during the week.
How do we improve on this for next year, I don't know. But I know one thing for sure.....Olaf, myself, and all that great German beer will hopefully be back!!!
Cheers! Prost!
Carl.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Ipswich Beer Festival Report : Setting Up!
Hi all, and welcome to the first of the daily reports from the 2008 Ipswich Beer Festival.
This is a double report for the 2 days I visited during the "setting up" sessions.
Much of the hard work was done on Sunday 21st September.
The day started with unloading all of the equipment off the van from Stowmarket. This is always VERY HARD WORK, and this was very apparent with some already tired faces around the Corn Exchange.
Next up was building the stillage, again a tiring heavy lifting job, but made much easier thanks to the new stillage bought last year. I still say it was the best purchase our CAMRA branch ever made!
The brand new cooling equipment from CAMRA headquarters in St Albans had already been brought in on Saturday, and was wheeled into place on Sunday. For the rest of the day, Peter Gager and Chris took the somewhat complicated task of setting that up. If you like Mecano, you would have loved helping out with this! Gratefully, one of the bar managers from the GBBF London (Ron) paid us a visit to help Peter and Chris do the mammoth task. It was quite an honour for us to have him come all the way down from Yorkshire just to halp us out with that.
The aim is to get the beer to the customer at constantly the right temperature, and it should prove interesting this year whether this new equipment will succeed where the previous wet towels have sort of failed.
Lunch for the day was provided by Rae Gardiners wife, Fiona, and was excellent as usual!
Beer was provided for staff by the local Ipswich brewery, St Judes.
Photos for Sunday 21st September can be found by clicking here.
I paid a quick visit on Tuesday 23rd September at lunchtime to see what had developed so far.
Most of the beers had been racked, and were also being cooled by the new cooling equipment. The German beer was still to arrive, but should arrive the next day.
I also had the chance to try a few beers which were already tapped on the downstairs bar. Best of them was a very bitter mild. The beers were also noticably colder too.
Photos for Tuesday 23rd September can be found by clicking here.
So there you go. Tomorrow (Wed 24th) we will be doing final preparation, the trade session, and then opening to the public at 5pm.
If you decide to visit, pop by the German Bar and say hello!!!
Cheers!
Carl.
This is a double report for the 2 days I visited during the "setting up" sessions.
Much of the hard work was done on Sunday 21st September.
The day started with unloading all of the equipment off the van from Stowmarket. This is always VERY HARD WORK, and this was very apparent with some already tired faces around the Corn Exchange.
Next up was building the stillage, again a tiring heavy lifting job, but made much easier thanks to the new stillage bought last year. I still say it was the best purchase our CAMRA branch ever made!
The brand new cooling equipment from CAMRA headquarters in St Albans had already been brought in on Saturday, and was wheeled into place on Sunday. For the rest of the day, Peter Gager and Chris took the somewhat complicated task of setting that up. If you like Mecano, you would have loved helping out with this! Gratefully, one of the bar managers from the GBBF London (Ron) paid us a visit to help Peter and Chris do the mammoth task. It was quite an honour for us to have him come all the way down from Yorkshire just to halp us out with that.
The aim is to get the beer to the customer at constantly the right temperature, and it should prove interesting this year whether this new equipment will succeed where the previous wet towels have sort of failed.
Lunch for the day was provided by Rae Gardiners wife, Fiona, and was excellent as usual!
Beer was provided for staff by the local Ipswich brewery, St Judes.
Photos for Sunday 21st September can be found by clicking here.
I paid a quick visit on Tuesday 23rd September at lunchtime to see what had developed so far.
Most of the beers had been racked, and were also being cooled by the new cooling equipment. The German beer was still to arrive, but should arrive the next day.
I also had the chance to try a few beers which were already tapped on the downstairs bar. Best of them was a very bitter mild. The beers were also noticably colder too.
Photos for Tuesday 23rd September can be found by clicking here.
So there you go. Tomorrow (Wed 24th) we will be doing final preparation, the trade session, and then opening to the public at 5pm.
If you decide to visit, pop by the German Bar and say hello!!!
Cheers!
Carl.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Ipswich Beer Festival begins in 1 week!
It's now 1 week today before we open the doors to this year's Ipswich Beer Festival.
Setting up begins in earnest this Sunday, which is always hard work but in the end it's worth all our efforts and I'm always glad to be a part of it.
I hope to be doing a daily report of the festival when all the work starts, so watch this space!
Cheers!
Carl.
Setting up begins in earnest this Sunday, which is always hard work but in the end it's worth all our efforts and I'm always glad to be a part of it.
I hope to be doing a daily report of the festival when all the work starts, so watch this space!
Cheers!
Carl.
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
"Oktoberfest London" Tour 2008
TOUR ANNOUNCEMENT
"The London Oktoberfest"
Saturday 11th October 2008
**** UPDATED ****
A tour of several bars in London which serve or specialise in German beer
The venues planned to visit are......
1. BierMania! Oktoberfest Beer Festival @ Zeitgeist (The Jolly Gardeners)
A specialist German bar located close to Vauxhall tube station. Serves a large range of draught and bottled beer, plus authentic German food. We will be here during the Saturday of the 2nd annual German Beer Festival hosted by the great people at BierMania! tours. They are planning to have almost every style of German beer available at some point to try. The provisional beer list can be found using the link below.
3. The White Horse
A London institution. The famous "sloany pony" serves a large range of Belgian beer, plus German bottled beer including Schlenkerla Rauchbier, and also various foreign beers on draught. The real ale range is also pretty good.
http://www.whitehorsesw6.com/
4. The Fest
Another specialist German bar, themed like a German beer hall. Bench seating, litre steins, Bavarian food, waitresses in traditional costume, and.......an oompah band!
This bar occasionally has live entertainment in the evening provided by an oompah band, and this will be happening all through October. A lively finale to the trip!
http://www.octoberfestpub.com/
The plan at the moment is to meet at Ipswich station at 10:00am, take a train to London, visit all the above places, and then catch the last train back to Ipswich (or earlier if necessary).
Exact timings to be announced later.
Everyone will be responsible for their own trip costs ie. train fare, drinks, food. (Advance Discounted Group Train Tickets may be available, more info soon!)
If you would like to attend, please email me at distinct.riders@googlemail.com
Stay tuned for more information and announcements.
Cheers!
Carl Dickson.
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
New Logo Added
Now added my new logo to the website. Simple but effective I think!
This also gives back a lot of the space once used by that large photo before.
Cheers.
Carl Dickson.
This also gives back a lot of the space once used by that large photo before.
Cheers.
Carl Dickson.
Monday, September 01, 2008
New Book "All Belgian Beers"
I've been meaning to this update for a while now, and I think it's about time I did. (especially before this book gets a few notes written in it!)While over in Belgium last month, I managed to purchase a copy of this very useful (and quite hefty!) publication called "All Belgian Beers". It claims to be the MUST HAVE book for any Belgian beer enthusiast, and I have to agree.
With 1568 pages, and reviews with glorious photos of more than 750 beers, this is a fantastic book indeed. The above photo I think shows just how bulky the book is. Unfortunately it's not something that can go in your pocket!
Each 2 page review has details of each beer's fermentation type, style, brewery, ingredients, alcohol percentage, tasting notes, and even a description of how to serve and the correct temperature to serve at. The full colour photos are truly wonderful and shows each beer in the bottle with it's correct glass.
Also included in the book are beer style descriptions, and also brewery addresses so you can plan your visit to your favourite brewery!
This is a immensely useful book for any person interested in the delights of Belgian Beer.
It's available from the Brugs Beertje bar in Brugge, any good specialist beer shop in Belgium, and even Amazon.co.uk on the internet. Current cost is around 35 Euros (29 Pounds).
My advice.......get your copy now!
Cheers.
Carl Dickson.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
