Green shoots for GBBF

View from the St Austell Brewery bar on the Saturday

Having just returned from GBBF (Great British Beer Festival) I'm delighted to say their was an air of positivity about the 2019 event. Well done to CAMRA for managing to change direction for their equivalent of the Queen Mary, its now heading in a direction more fitting with the current UK beer market and their cabins are starting to fill up with more guests.

Its true there was a very marginal decline in numbers attending this year, but for the Trade Day on the Tuesday numbers were up and as the week progressed the numbers got better and better. Saturday, for so long the tail-end Charlie afterthought had a tremendous party atmosphere and was busy all day.

In past years GBBF has had an air of a beer festival run by senior folk for senior folk with a narrow appeal of beer being mainly cask. However this year was different. Still, there were many experienced CAMRA members who do a fantastic job in running the festival, but the beer range had really traded up. Keykegs were now not only welcome, but a whole feature was made of there availability and more importantly some craft brewers at the very top of their art were in attendance - Tiny Rebel, Siren, Magic Rock, Wild Beer etc.

Keykegs in a cellar ready to serve

Featuring craft brewers is the future for GBBF and the said brewers should wake up to the opportunity here. GBBF attracts over 36,000 drinkers, that's hugely more than many of the craft beer festivals and the audience is much wider and a little older, but they are all established ale drinkers and potential customers and opinion formers. Any craft brewers who are remotely serious about building brands whether for their beers or the brewery should take a serious look at GBBF as a great opportunity to showcase their brews.

Some of the traditional family brewers you might have hoped to see were not in attendance. Fullers, now part of Asahi were not there, neither were Greene King, disgracefully booed last year by CAMRA members when their fantastic Mild won a prize - not one of GBBF's finer moments! However, both St Austell Brewery and Adnams were there exhibiting their wonderful beers. It was also good to see far more smaller cask brewers with stands, these brewers are becoming the lifeblood of cask so we should welcome and celebrate their beers. Bottled and can beers, yes canned beers were now accepted. The gin bar had trebled in size and a GBBF balloon gin glass was even available. Street food was in abundance, catering for tastes from Indian, Mexican to Cornish! My word, how the event is changing.

At this point I must add that from the organisational point no one does beer festivals better than CAMRA. I have attended a number of craft beer festivals as a trade exhibitor and no other festival comes close to CAMRA and GBBF for their knowledge, passion and organisational skills with beer festivals. Please keep up the good work.

So what for 2020? Perhaps GBBF would benefit from shrinking a little to make it more compact. Music also needs to become more of a backbone of the event - beer and music fit together perfectly in pubs so why not at GBBF? The good work from 2019 with keykegs needs to continue and expand. CAMRA's organisational skills must remain and new younger members encouraged to become more active. Above all, GBBF needs to be what the name says, The Great British Beer Festival, showcasing the very best from the UK beer industry, whether its cask, keg, bottle or can! There is much to look forward to with GBBF.