Beer lovers will descend on Olympia in droves for the annual Great British Beer Festival starting on August 5. Phil Mellows gives a rundown of what's in store.
Somehow it's hard to imagine Madonna rolling up to Olympia in a couple of weeks time, claiming her souvenir glass and getting tucked into a few pints of Humpty Dumpty Butt Jumper.
But you never know. After her much-publicised expression of desire for Timothy Taylor's Landlord, the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) has invited her to be a Champion Beer of Britain judge at the Great British Beer Festival (GBBF) on August 5.
And if she does cry off, there are still expected to be 45,000 other beer lovers jostling elbows and dripping froth over five frantic days.
According to the latest issue of CAMRA's What's Brewing magazine, beer festivals are more popular than ever.
Local festivals are running out of beer early as organisers under-estimate demand. At a recent event in St Ives, Cornwall, 1,000 people sunk nearly 4,500 pints between them to drink the festival dry with a day to spare. A bulletin was broadcast on BBC radio warning people to stay away.
As well as the sheer numbers, beer festivals also seem to be attracting a broader range of people and are enjoying some success in getting women along, a central part of CAMRA's strategy since last year's GBBF introduced Ninkasi as the face and figure of cask ale.
This year's GBBF is to take a different approach, however. While CAMRA has yet to reveal full details of the theme, it looks as though big publicity stunts are out.
"Those kind of campaigns cost a lot of money and we think we shall be better served this year in concentrating on increasing our own power," said CAMRA spokesman Tony Jerome.
So although the festival will again open with the latest survey results on whether women and young people are getting a taste for cask ale, the main activities will be the more practical ones of building CAMRA's membership and promoting local brewers.
Rather than targeting under-represented sections of the population, the organisation's new recruitment campaign, to be launched at the festival, is going for anyone and everyone.
"We are aiming to increase our membership from 68,000 to 100,000 over the next three years," said Tony. "The point we want to make is you can support us without being active. Simply paying subs can make us more powerful."
The second prong in the GBBF's attack is "localism". This will be most immediately obvious to visitors in the way this year's festival is set up.
Alphabetically-ordered stands are out. Bars will be organised according to geography, with beers from the Midlands, for instance, all grouped together.
The change reflects CAMRA's support for the Local Communities Sustainability Bill, explained campaigns manager Mike Benner.
"What we are saying is that pubs should be able to buy beer from a local brewer rather than having it dispatched across half the country," he said, referring to the centralised distribution operated by major pub companies. "We are interested in promoting local pubs and local brewers."
Each day at the GBBF will be dedicated to promoting a particular region and visitors will be surveyed to find out whether they want to see local brews at their pub.
So once again the GBBF promises not only a tastebud-boggling variety of beers but a spice of controversy with an issue which might well gain the support of many licensees.
Beer festivals have their critics, especially at a time when their rough and ready nature might well be seen as undermining attempts to give beer a more sophisticated image. But they are popular, and the GBBF is certainly a lively stage on which to lift the profile of cask ale.
And if Madge does turn up, how are you going to explain why you weren't there?
Who will be the best of beer?
Tuesday August 5 will be a nervous day in the calendars of brewers big and small as they wait for the announcement of the Champion Beer of Britain.
For the overall winner, the impact can be dramatic in terms of sales and small independent brewers have, in the past, often struggled to meet the huge surge in demand created by their triumph.
Edinburgh's Caledonian Brewery was, however, big enough to cope when its Deuchars IPA took the title at last year's festival.
The first Scots brew to be named champion has seen its sales soar by around 60 per cent over the past 12 months and, crucially, the award has created the conditions for a breakthrough in the English market, with the brand gaining a listing with most national pubcos.
This year judging panels made up of brewers, CAMRA members and drinks writers will, as usual, be gathering for the final tasting of beers already whittled down by CAMRA branches around Britain.
They will compete in six categories - milds, bitters, best bitters, strong bitters, speciality beers and bottle-conditioned beers - with the winners of each going forward to the final to find the Champion Beer of Britain.
Festival facts
- The GBBF is run by 1,000 CAMRA volunteers from Britain and abroad who give up their free time to work at the festival, backstage and behind the bars
- There will be more than 700 cask ales and lagers, ciders and imported beers on sale
- About 200,000 pints of beer are expected to be sold - enough to fill 1,250 domestic baths says CAMRA (although it's a better idea to drink them)
- Beer will be served at the rate of approximately 1.56 pints per second
- At least 45,000 people are expected through the doors over the five days.
What's in store for visitors?
- The GBBF is not just about cask ales. More than 8,000 pints of traditional draught cider and perry will be on sale, plus foreign bottled beers and a wide range of bottle-conditioned brews which undergo a secondary fermentation in the bottle.
- Badger Brewery is sponsoring the festival's "pub" quiz with prizes including a brewery tour with dinner, a meal for four in a Hall & Woodhouse pub plus all kinds of merchandise. The quiz takes place on the Saturday at 2.45pm and it costs £5 per team to enter.
- Visitors will be able to keep themselves amused at Olympia with the help of more pub games than ever before. Dutch shuffleboard - whatever that is - will be joining traditional favourites such as Northamptonshire skittles, devil among the tailors and quoits.
- Music is always a strong feature of the festival and this year's bill features rockers The Hamsters, folkies Lindisfarne and complete head-case John Otway.
Try your beer on the beach
Visitors this year will be able to get as close as they are ever likely to get to the inside of a Southwold beach hut.
The huts change hands for the kind of price you would expect to pay for a four-bedroomed house in most parts of the country but local brewer Adnams, a GBBF sponsor, is shipping one down to Olympia to represent the Suffolk coast.
It will mark the company's biggest-ever presence at the GBBF where it is unveiling a new £1m advertising campaign for its range of beers.
After months of development, Adnams promises the ads will "break all category norms" without sacrificing the brewer's local provenance.
Using the strapline "Adnams. Beer from the coast" the campaign is centred on the Suffolk Heritage Coast with imagery designed to conjure up emotions associated with trips to the seaside - feelings of relaxation, refreshment, exuberance and quality of life.
Created by London agency Campbell Doyle Dye, posters will feature lino-cut illustrations of rugged shingle