Brewers everywhere should follow the example of the Yorkshire Great Beer and Food Show, which proves how successful festivals can be, says Peter Brown
Perhaps the road signs should have been a clue. White-on-brown signs can always be relied upon to point the way to exhibitions, theme parks and historic sites that may be of interest to the bored family on a day out. Around Harrogate, North Yorkshire, every country lane seems to have one of these signs, every one of which directs you to a country pub. This is the heart of beer-and-food country. By the time we reached the Great Yorkshire Showground on a misty Sunday lunch time, we're ready for a pint. And we're not the only ones.
"There were four hundred people waiting outside when we opened the doors on Saturday morning," says Nigel Bankes, chairman of Timothy Taylor, but here today in his capacity as director of the second Yorkshire Great Beer and Food Show. "Today we sold five hundred tickets by midday, and another five hundred by two thirty."
More couples and families
For a beer-festival veteran, the first thing you notice about this particular horde is its diversity. There are far more couples and families here than you would ever see at a real-ale festival. "We see this as an enhancement of a traditional beer festival," says Bankes, diplomatically. "The Yorkshire BBPA (British Beer and Pub Association) wanted to do something different. We've tried to make it more family friendly, more female friendly. The tasting theatre and food-matching events sell out
really quickly," he says.
One of the stars of the 250-seat theatre is TV chef Brian Turner. "This is a great event with a superb atmosphere," he enthuses. "It's wonderful to see so many breweries making an effort to introduce beer to a new audience, through cookery, food matching or just good old supping. I think the Great Beer & Food Show has managed to get the balance right between a food show and a beer festival."
Beer chef Richard Fox, hoarse from the many tastings he has conducted himself, agrees: "We're changing attitudes and views about beer here. The traditional beer festival is valuable, but it's really for people who already embrace beer culture. In the beer and food tastings here we get an incredible reaction, usually from the partners of the blokes who persuaded them to come along. They always say they never realised beer could be like this. And it's not done in a lecturing way. It's light, fun - exactly what beer should be."
The difference from a traditional beer festival is further underlined by the presence of Coors. This is not a real-ale festival - it's a beer festival. "We're passionate about building the beer category," says the brewer's Alex Gracey, as she serves third-of-a-pint samples of Carling Extra Cold to eager punters. "This is a great opportunity to meet people and tell them about our beers. It is a chance to tell people who don't currently drink beer what beer is all about. It's always an enormous buzz to get a non-beer drinker to try a beer and then you realise that you've made a convert."
The men here from SIBA obviously won't be troubling the Coors stand with their presence, but they're having a similar experience. By the time I get to their patch, all seven of the beers they brought along have long since finished. "We're definitely making some converts," says David Grant, managing director of Moorhouse's. "This event is not really about selling beer (the third of a pint samples are given away), it's about meeting consumers and educating them about it. People come along and try our seven beers. They might not like them all, but they definitely find something that changes their perception of beer."
55 beers at the show
There are 55 beers at the show in total, from all across Yorkshire and Lancashire. Timothy Taylor has built a cathedral to its brand. Both Theakston's and Black Sheep close the circle by exhibiting their beers alongside brewery produce, including cakes, chutneys and mustards, all using the beer as an ingredient. Butchers, bread makers, cheese makers and pie makers are all doing a roaring trade, many selling up and closing their stalls by early afternoon.
For those of us who are frustrated by the Campaign for Real Ale's (Camra's) refusal to change the terms of reference of the Great British Beer Festival, the YGBFS presents an intriguing alternative. Interest in beer is growing. There's room in the market for more than one kind of beer event. Let Camra continue preaching to the converted - there's clearly a market for it, as this year's record attendance at Earl's Court demonstrates. But the industry should encourage a new kind of beer festival to run alongside - not instead of - the traditional real-ale festival. Perhaps it's unfair to expect Camra to be all things to all drinkers. Perhaps those of us who regularly criticise the GBBF would be able to enjoy it much more if we knew it wasn't the only alternative. As Mike Benner wrote in these pages a few weeks ago, there needs to be more concerted effort by the industry at large to promote the image of beer, and this event points the way.
Creating consumer demand
The BBPA has four other regional associations apart from the Yorkshire one, which organised this event. But BBPA spokesman Mark Hastings was hesitant when asked if we'd be seeing other events around the country. "The original plan was that the Yorkshire event would be a template for all sorts of regional events, combining beers in that region with local food and tastes, and that remains our long-term vision," he says. "It clearly has potential, but we need to see it delivering impact in the region. If people talk about beer more, then that will create consumer demand for events - we can't do it without consumer demand."
The fact that Shepherd Neame and Fuller's trekked all the way up to Yorkshire shows that there is a widespread industry appetite for such events elsewhere. Perhaps the only frustration is the fact that Coors is the only national brewer in attendance. "We approached the others, but they just said it's not the kind of thing they do," says Nigel Bankes, shaking his head. "It's sad that people in the industry won't do something for beer overall."
Every brewer I spoke to in Yorkshire said the same thing about meeting their consumers, and changing people's minds about beer. Tellingly, executives from the breweries were manning the stalls all weekend, rather than following the GBBF practice of being there on the trade day and then letting the volunteers take over. The event was a huge success, and will be bigger and better next year. Surely the industry has an obligation to repeat this success across the country. The brewing industry has to start thinking differently about beer if it expects consumers to do the same.
l Peter Brown's latest book, Three Sheets to the Wind, is published by Pan Macmillan