Importance of Beer Festivals!

One thing I've enjoyed reading over the weekend are the tweets emanating from people attending Reading Beer Festival. This along with conversations I've had this week with the organisers of Plymouth Beer Festival, has reminded me of the vital role these festivals play in showcasing and promoting sales of cask ale.

However, there are problems...beer quality at these events can at best be described as variable. Most regional CAMRA groups - the most common of beer festival organisers don't have the finance or equipment to provide cooling on their beers. Thus although different methods are used to try and keep the beer cool, much is often served at room temperature, particularly as the festival progresses in time.

The more popular the event, the more people and the hotter the room gets and the more beer in each barrel  that is drunk, increasing the serving beer temperature a lot quicker. Not great when most brewers and many pubs are stringent in ensuring their beers are served at perfect cellar temperature. So more often than not, the beer festival that is designed to promote the sales of cask ale, ends up serving beer that is too warm, indifferent quality, not that palatable and certainly not what consumers are used to experiencing in pubs.

Financially beer festivals are a risk - beer is expensive and a lot of money has to be invested up front to buy stock. It's easy to get wrong. Have too much and you can lose a lot of money. Have too little and you end up with a lot of unhappy paying customers.

Barrels at Bristol Beer Festival

So why do this and why are beer festivals still so popular? For one it's down to passion. The people that organise these events are passionate about beer. They are real ambassadors for the category and live and breath cask ales, working tirelessly to ensure beer festivals are a success.

Another reason is that many consumers see cask ales as British. They want to be patriotic and see a home grown product succeed over and above the larger mass produced lagers, kegs and a certain Irish stout. Many consumers are willing to overlook a slightly warm and unpalatable pint, in-fact it's almost expected and part of the experience - unpleasant as some warm beers can be.

Beer Festivals are also great social occasions where friends can meet, enjoy a drink and swap stories. Beer is a great ice breaker for strangers to converse, the one thing they have in common is a taste for beer so instantly there is something to talk about. Music has also become a key part of some festivals so the event is more of a party.

From the brewers perspective festivals provide a vehicle to show case their brands, launch new beers and reward beers and brewers for excellence. Every brewer wants to win an award at these events, no matter how small the festival or beer category. They are important from this respect giving the smaller brewers in particular a level playing field to compete against the larger more establish regional brewers.

I have spent many a long day at beer festival's, both socialising but mostly working and believe their importance is huge. Every person that goes to a beer festival is a potential ambassador for beer. Brewers should be trying hard to reach these people and interact with festival organisers, who themselves are important opinion formers. Some brewers spend a great of money on marketing and overlook this grass roots form of reaching customers. Perhaps that's to the benefit of the smaller brewers whose only marketing option is to look at events like this - interesting then that the surge and interest in cask and craft beers has come with the growth of smaller brewers!

Good luck to all Beer Festival organisers. I for one am looking forward to my next event at Plymouth.