GBBF preview: Who's there?
With interest in real ale rising, CAMRA is pulling out all the stops to make sure that the GBBF message is reaching as many people as possible, writes Ben McFarland.
It may be the last year that the Great British Beer Festival is held at Olympia, but it's promising to go out with a bang, not a whimper. Prior to the event, CAMRA is cranking up the advertising on the London Underground and has teamed up with a number of big regional brewers and pub companies as part of a beermat campaign to whet the consumer appetite.
Louise Ashworth of CAMRA is confident that last year's attendance, estimated to be about 45,000 visitors, will be bettered as interest in real ale grows all the time.
"Real ale is being swept up by the so-called slow food and local produce movement and it's generating a genuine buzz," explains Louise. "People like the real element of real ale and there's no better opportunity for people to come and sample the best that Britain has to offer."
The number of ales being showcased is likely to top 450 from more than 200 brewers, with 18 breweries hosting their own dedicated bars in the National Hall. Usual suspects such as Adnams, Fuller's, Greene King and the new look Hook Norton will be joined by Oakham, Woodfordes and Sharps who, this year, will be going it alone for the first time.
The vast majority of beers, however, will be poured at the numerous regional bars that make up the GBBF.
CAMRA has retained its popular regional set-up which allows visitors to take their taste-buds on a whistle-stop tour of the nation's finest beers without having to walk further than a couple of hundred metres.
CAMRA is also offering visitors extensive tasting notes and a list of beers to try.
"For many, it can be intimidating to be faced with hundreds of beers," says Louise. "So we've tried to make it easier for people to know where to start."
Other stands to look out for include:
- "Bieres Sans Frontieres" - International Beer
It may a British beer festival, but that hasn't stopped organisers once again embracing brewing excellence from foreign lands.
The Bieres Sans Frontieres stand, manned by beer enthusiasts and CAMRA members from overseas, features more than 200 beers from Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Russia, the US, Australia and Austria.
A veritable foreign legion of some of Europe and America's most sought-after beers even including, whisper it, lager!
Real cider and perry bar
If you thought that cider and perry are merely the tipples of choice for straw-chewing village idiots, then think again and pay a visit to the real cider and perry bar.
Cask cider is enjoying a real resurgence in interest and an increase in sales, driven by cider makers busy creating new and interesting styles - both single and multi-variety.
Cider and perry are available from nearly every county in England and Wales, not just the West Country and Wales, and you'll be sure to find a cider or perry to suit your pub - regardless of geography and, significantly, superior to the usual mainstream keg brands.
Real ale in a bottle
It's not all fonts and firkins at the GBBF this year. There will be more than a hundred bottle conditioned beers, all maturing and fermenting in the bottle and all free from pasteurisation and sterilisation, on sale at the festival.
These beers are currently undergoing a huge revival in the UK with quality and quantity rising all the time.
Brewers from all four corners of the country are busy adding some bottle to their business - supplementing their cask ale trade with sales to independent off-licences, restaurants, craft shops, farmers' markets and even some forward-thinking pubs.
Drinkers will rarely be given a better chance to sample the fruits of their packaged labours than at the GBBF this year. What's more, you can even take them home.
