Weymouth Octoberfest



CAMRA organisers Dave, Russell & Rich.

A recent visit to Weymouth Pavilions for the CAMRA organised Beer Festival (or Octoberfest as its called) turned out to be a excellent couple of days. The pavilion is no longer council run and was due to be demolished, but a community group has now taken over the venue and although the building is run down, its good to see this great facility looks likely to be saved.

The Beer Festival on the other hand has gone from strength to strength. A very well run event by West Dorset CAMRA, it attracts people who are both local and those from further afield. This year the beer list focused on brews from the South West and what a great selection of beers it was too.  Across the UK many smaller craft brewers are brewing some good and interesting beers and its great to see the South West has a fine selection.

However, it was not just great beer that made the festival. Friday evening featured a quiet session, but it was actually a really sociable night with lots of people wanting to talk about the beer selection available. This is the opportunity for people who are genuinely interested in beer to meet and discuss all things beer. I was doing my day job show-casing St Austell ales and there is no better selection of beers to represent and be proud of. Needless to say the St Austell beers were very popular, so much so that Big Job was runner up in the champion beer competition.

Festival goers enjoy the music

The Saturday evening featured two great bands, selected by a local licensee who new their music and they turned out to be great choices. Beer and music go together so well. This year the bands played at the right volume so chatting was still possible. I was able to enjoy the music as the St Austell bar had been drunk dry by 9pm on the Saturday leaving time to sample some delicious beers from competitors!

All told this was a great event and over 4750 pints were consumed. I'd certainly recommend a weekend in Weymouth in early October if you want to enjoy some great beers at a well run festival in a town that's really very welcoming. Congratulations to West Dorset CAMRA and we look forward to 2014.