Swindon Beer Festival

 

What a great event Swindon Beer Festival was in 2013. Set in the fabulous Steam Railway Centre, which is the most splendid venue for such an event. The main room where the festival is held can hold over 700 people comfortably in the one session, creating a superb friendly atmosphere.

The big regional beer festivals such as Swindon do a tremendous job in promoting cask ales and their importance should not be under estimated. They offer consumers huge choice and spark real interest and debate, all of which is very healthy, plus of course they are great fun events and there is never any semblance of trouble. In a way they make real ale down to earth and accessible, helping to take away some of the fear of trying new beers. It is a chance to experiment with different tastes and styles and no one minds if you don't like a certain beer.

Swindon CAMRA had done a great job in selecting a fine beer list with beers from all over the UK, including CAMRA GBBF winner Elland 1872 Porter. Three South West brewers had separate bars. St Austell Brewery, as I was there with my day job show casing our beers. I'm really very lucky to get to do that as there is no better selection of ales to represent. The other two brewers were Ramsbury and I've written previously about what great beers they brew and Box Steam, the Wiltshire brewer who also have a fine selection.

Both of the aforementioned brewers have won Champion Beer at Swindon before. Ramsbury with their excellent Silver Pigs Stout and Box Steam with Derail Ale. The latter is a big tasty IPA, full of hops and plenty of citrus, its a very popular style at the moment and Derail is one of the best examples you can get.

However, back to the festival. for me one slight disappointment was not to see local Swindon Regional Brewer Arkells with a brewers bar. They have a new young brewer now in Alex Arkell who I believe is brewing some interesting and different beers and it would have been great to try some of these. Hopefully next year they will attend again. I've known Arkell's beers for many years having grown up around the Swindon area. They would not be favourite beers but I do have a certain fondness for them so hope to enjoy them next year.

Finally, congratulations to Swindon CAMRA for organising another excellent beer festival and also to the venue for hosting such an event.