Reflections on Swindon Beer Festival 2017

The Steam Museum

Another year passes at Swindon Beer Festival set in the fabulous Steam venue, the railway museum in Swindon. For me, the venue is part of the attraction. Compared to its near neighbours Oxford and Bath, Swindon has a limited heritage, but the railway museum and the great workshop buildings that surround it, would once of harboured a momentous industry supplying railroad stock and engines to the railways in the South West. So at Steam, you are within touching distance of the towns industrial past.

As for the festival, well done to Swindon CAMRA for putting on yet another great event. Most CAMRA run beer festivals are well oiled machines and everyone knows what they are doing and this was no different. I was also delighted to meet many old friends from the branch who all made me feel most welcome. Swindon seems to have a solid core of enthusiastic volunteers all of whom are intent on making sure both they and their festival goers have a good time.

The beer festival itself is an event for showcasing the best beers, with some music featuring in a supporting role rather than one of the main protagonists. There are over 100 beers plus ciders on show attracting in excess of 2,000 visitors across the three-day event. What Swindon do well is to limit the glass size to the half pint (lined at a third). This promotes trial of lots of different beers rather than pint glasses which can lead to problems associated with over indulgence!

The festival has changed little over the years, bar an extended food area. Yes, it would be great if they could showcase keg/craft beers as well, but I am realistic enough to know the latter bring a technical services challenge that the volunteers wont have the necessary skills or equipment to overcome. I think for many regional beer festivals, showcasing craft keg is a step too far without the support of CAMRA head office.

I attended with my day job as St Austell Brewery and we are always popular guests. Our beers for the event included well known brands like Tribute and Proper Job, along with the perennial favourite at this event, Bucket of Blood - it is Halloween of course! We always try to feature a couple of new beers and were delighted to have a wonderful beer called Dear Boy, brewed to commemorate St Austell's BLO from Cornwall, Gerry Bazin, who sadly passed away earlier this year. Dear Boy, as Gerry would refer to people, sold very well indeed and there were many requests for St Austell to bottle this or make it a permanent part of the portfolio.

Swindon CAMRA logo

We also had Mocha Choca Lotta, a 6% milk stout. This split the room, some loved it, others less sure. Not a beer for me, the coffee flavour was a little dominant. However there is always a place for beers that challenge the conventional at beer festivals, it should be an environment where customers can taste beers that they would just not see in their local pub.

I'd say to anyone thinking of attending a beer festival, please go along and give it a try. By there very nature, a lot of small brewers benefit as there are fewer well known brands on show so you are supporting grass roots brewing and business. Swindon CAMRA and Steam set a high bench mark with their organisation so if other regional events can match that you would be in for an enjoyable visit.

More than just a new suit!

 

Classic view of Salisbury from the racecourse

We recently spent a few days in the lovely cathedral city of Salisbury, primarily to visit the races for my part and for my wife, a trip to the shops with new outfits to be perused and purchased. The days racing was as good as ever and I can thoroughly recommend a visit to Salisbury racetrack, a small regional course but with bags of character and good quality flat racing. The day at the shops promised less interest for me but this is where my next blog begins.....

After an arduous morning of my wife trying on various outfits only relieved by a short Costa stop, lunchtime was fast approaching so I felt being in the heart of Badger Ales country, it was time to search out a decent pint of Tanglefoot. This is a classic beer and those that know their regional brewers will appreciate finding a perfectly served Tanglefoot is quite a treat. I was in luck, the New Inn was just around the corner and the beer was very good. Once refreshed we ventured out and that's where we discovered Regent Tailoring and the subject of my blog.

Regent Tailoring shop window

An exquisite gentleman's and ladies tailors with its focus on classic British clothing, this was a shop for me. We met the owner, Jason Regent whose grandfather was butler to Ian Fleming, writer of the iconic James Bond novels. Jason clearly has a passion for the 1960's, and quality tailoring, but he is also wise enough to realise his business will do better by looking outside of clothing sales alone, so he is branching out and has launched the Regent Liquor Club.

The shop itself is on three floors and made up of numerous small rooms with many terrific tailoring treasures to be unearthed as well as some gems of other items you would not expect to find in a normal clothes retailer. The business targets an affluent customer with style and taste, but also a customer that is ready made for the craft gin, rum and beer market, as well as some exclusive wines. It struck me what a good idea this was because although his customers are not huge in number, they do spend time in the shop, so up-selling into areas of interest that are not just focused on clothing makes sense. He does not need to carry a huge range, just enough to make it interesting with brands that are either exclusive, local or not available in the major retailers in the city.

The cost is just a premises license, the marketing of the club and the stock, so potentially a low risk venture assuming he does not over order with stock. I'm sure it will take time to get the liquor offer up and running but in terms of thinking out of the box and trying to grow his business in other ways, it seems a good idea.

As for the beers on offer, these were limited to the one brewer at my time of the visit, Downton Brewery, a local brewer. Jason gave me a bottle of the New Forest Ale to try, which was a robust 4% bitter and easy to drink. Showcasing local beers that are not easily available is a solid starting offer, so long as the beers are good and consistent. In time, as his reputation for craft and distinctive liquor builds he might be able to grow into offering some of the more eclectic craft beers from further afield.

Good luck to him, both for the main business of clothing and the liquor venture. As for me, I did make a few purchases on the day, a classic waistcoat made from material that Jason had discovered from the 1960's and a couple of cigars to enjoy as a treat. As we tend to go racing at Salisbury each year, I will at least have one shop to look forward to visiting as well.

For anyone interested in Regent Tailoring or the racecourse the links are below:

http://www.regenttailoring.co.uk/
http://www.salisburyracecourse.co.uk/salisburyracecourse.html