Merseyside Beer Festival Roundup Autumn 2014

Tis the season to be jolly! No, Christmas hasn’t come early (or “non-denomination multi ethnic winter solstice related festivities” as I like to call it), but Autumn IS the start of beer festival season. For the next 9 weeks, there will be more beer festivals than at any other time of year, ranging in size from just over twenty beers on offer, to those with hundreds. In fact there is at least one festival every week from now up until December.

Please find a conveniant list of all festivals below. All should be reachable on a Mersey travel All-Zones Save-away ticket, however buses in Cheshire usually cost more. Sadly I am fallible so if I’ve missed one, please let me know and I will update this blog.:

Oct 9th - 11th Southport Beer Festival, St John Ambulance Hall, Wright Street
Oct 10th - 12th National Waterways Museum Beer Festival, ellesmere Port  - Twitter / Facebook

Oct 16th - 18th Ales from the Crypt Liverpool - Twitter

Oct 17th - 19th  West Kirby Oktoberfest - Twitter / Facebook

Oct 24th - 26th ROLFEST (republic of liverpool beer festival) - Blundellsands, Liverpool - Twitter

Oct 31st - Nov 2nd  A Trip to the Moon, Prenton Park, Tranmere - Twitter
Nov 6th - 8th     Rainhill Beer fesitival  -  Twitter / Facebook
Nov 7th - 9th Oldershaw Rugby Club (nr Wallasey) 
Nov 13th - 16th Port Sunlight Beer Festival  Hulme Hall, Port Sunlight - Twitter
Nov 14th - 16th Cheshire Beer Festival Chester, Roodee Race course, Chester - Twitter
Nov 20th - 23rd Waterloo Beer Festival, Old Christ Church, Waterloo
Nov 28th - 30th Birkenhead Beer Festival (St Werburgh's) - Facebook

But what should you expect from a local beer festival? 

You’ll find a range of well-known familiar labels alongside locally brewed beers as well as that from further afield microbreweries. You’ll find a broad mix of styles though usually this is slightly biased towards the more popular pale/golden beers, but you should still find a good mix.You’ll almost certainly find some local entertainment whether to your taste or volume preference. Also they’ll probably be some local food available. A good survival tip is to re-line your stomach from time to time, though maybe avoid the chilli sausage if you don’t want any hidden surprises.

If you don’t drink ale, or have never tried it, talk to the servers who are usually an eclectic range of beer enthusiasts and CAMRA types (and partners of who mistakenly let slip that they were “free”). Collectively they’ll have already tried the beers and will know which ones are tasting well. Don’t be embarrassed; just tell them what you like. The more they know, the better that they can advise and If in doubt, ask them what they are drinking, though be wary about taking advise from a beer ticker drinking alone as they’ve been known to “accidentally recommend” sour fruit beer just to see your reaction.

Expect to have to swap money for tokens. Most beer festivals prefer to use this as it’s quicker and less messy. Don’t buy too many, or if you’re looking for a tax break, consider putting this year’s bonus into beer festival tokens and donate what’s left to charity (I would strongly suggest discussing with this your accountant or spouse before doing this).

Treat your festival magazine like you would your children (providing that you actually like them that is). It’s your biggest weapon to tackle the overwhelming choice and the one thing that can help you work out what happened in the fuzzy period between leaving the festival and waking up on your couch cuddling a kebab.

Finally don’t forget your glass and treat each one you collect like a badge of honor. Ignore the fact that by your tenth beer festival they’ll be choking your cupboard there is something special about your first one and you will miss it when it’s gone.

Hopefully by now you’ll be eager to get out there and taste some fabulous ales, so get out there, try some new beers and share your experiences. For all you know this could start a love affair that will last a lifetime and at the very least you could wake up with..... well don't say I didn't warned you about those chilli sausages....

Please note that while I reasonably attempt to keep this updated, I accept that the information above may change at any time. If you find something out of date, please let me know by emailing me

Laurence of an Ale beer!

Wirral Desert-gate from a WirrAle Perspective

In the spring 2014 Mersey Ale Wirral CAMRA published an article under the title of Wirral Wanderings which appeared to be an all-out attack on Wirral CAMRA members, Pubco’s, local licensees and the general pub and beer industry on the Wirral. Since Wirral CAMRA does not currently produce its own magazine this is the first time that the branch had published anything in a large scale since the 2011 Birkenhead Beer Festival magazine.

 It was retrospectively explained in an aggressive follow up article in the autumn 2014 Mersey Ale defending its original article, that the outspoken piece was specifically designed to generate debate. What I really cannot understand is why either publication which are laden with negativity, generalisation and hypocrisy would ever have been sanctioned by Wirral CAMRA and how they ever imagined that it could help their cause.

The Wirral Beer Desert article certainly created some reaction, but not the reaction it was intended for. All the articles have done is highlighting the self-aggrandising, antiquated thinking Wirral CAMRA has become renowned for. If alienating local breweries, licensees, residents and visiting drinkers was the intention, then Job done!

Both articles are supposedly a complaint about pubco’s and while the pubco model, beer range and quality can be an issue (and one that I recently blogged about), it is in fact a national problem one best handled by CAMRA collectively. It could also be tackled by quietly talking to targeted pubs directly where appropriate.

The problem is the article completely missed the mark as well as the largest problem for Wirral CAMRA, that they need more active members!

Quite how they imagined that a major rant about pubco’s would entice people to go to their overly formal meetings or secular socials, let alone submit beer scores is beyond me. Neither article in any way tries to reconnect with their members, something which Wirral CAMRA has been lacking and only reinforces that Wirral CAMRA members have already voted with their feet and walked away from them, reflected by the low numbers attending their events.

Inconsistent beer quality was cited as an issue in both articles yet the reality is that Wirral CAMRA has next to no idea about the quality of beer in a large number of their pubs. Good beer quality is the primary entry requirement for the Good Beer Guide yet for the 2015 guide (made up of data collected throughout 2014), Wirral CAMRA had scores from only around half of  their pubs and the majority of those from only a single person. Fewer members mean fewer beer scores.

The exclusion of all local JD Wetherspoons pubs from any of their original comments a massive contradiction. Whilst I openly admit that I have precious little love for this particular chain of gastro pubs, the fact remains that only one of their 8 Wirral outlets is in the 2014 Good Beer Guide. If this chain was exempt from their generalisations, then I would have expected far more of their pubs to have been included.

Both their articles state that “the Wirral pub trade is declining” and while I agree that certain areas have struggled with the recent economic down turn, most of those have been suffering for far longer. Areas such as Birkenhead and Tranmere which have suffered both from the decline of the ship building industry as well as a lack in footfall due to peoples changing working and socialising patterns has resulted in a necessary period of change when people have become increasingly savvier with their time and money. The majority of pub closures here have been from those either unwilling or unable to adapt to this changing market, or those pubs which were simply too large. Those that thrive have done so generally by catering for specific niches such as sport, food, value, barbers, tourism or even “live music biker bar”.

However, it would have made far more sense to positively reinforce those areas currently undergoing ale resurgence than to state such generalised negativity.

Fresh on the back of The Open 2014, the Wirral’s North Coast has a flourishing ale scene where three beer festivals have attracted thousands of Ale and Cider drinkers from across the Wirral as well as introducing those from further afield to Local Wirral Beer; New pubs have opened up in Parkgate and West Kirby; New licensees have taken over declining pubs and turned them around increasing ale sales; The Wirral’s first micro pub is scheduled to open in Liscard later this year; Or on pubs historically serving only keg beer now also serving cask for the first time.

CAMRAs pub database Whatpub also shows more pubs’ serving real ale now than last year reinforcing that the Wirral beer scene is experiencing resurgence, or maybe this is a mirage.

The Wirral really is a great place to visit. We have some spectacular coastline, friendly people as well as some amazing pubs which could only get better with some positive support. We have some amazing landlords providing a selection of Local beer, national chains as well as Further afield microbreweries.

I really am amazed just how disconnected Wirral CAMRA really has become. Its spread itself too thin by having committee members involved with campaigning at a national level while precious little is actually achieved locally. Missing opportunities to campaign localy by apparently snubbing certain beer festivals as well as providing massive contradictions as to just what they have achieved in the last 12 months along with a complete U-Turn from Wirral CAMRA chairman Dave Goodwin over the original clarification defending their article as “a wake up call for some of our licensees” with no mention of the pubco issue further displays the ineptitude of the article. But what I cannot accept is a total lack of an apology to those people hurt by these articles.

I would love to witness the effect a friendly, positive and social campaigning group could on have Wirral pubs as displayed by other local CAMRA branches, but this would involve the type of radical thinking that I believe the existing committee is unwilling to embrace. As to whether I believe Wirral CAMRA is pointless, I shall leave that decision to those better placed

8 hand pumps and nothing on

 

It's rare when I leave a pub after not spending a penny and even rarer when that pub has 8 different cask beers available. Yet somehow I couldn't bring myself to spend any money to support an establishment that hasn't thought to sell anything that caters to my taste.

I want to get one thing said. I am a beer ticker and enjoy trying new beers. The chance to experience new smell and taste combinations excites me and I will almost always opt for something new if available or failing that something rarely found locally. I also know what styles of beer I enjoy drinking as well as which of the national beers I prefer.

It's fair to say that I visit far more pubs in a year than the average drinker. In that time I experience any number of different beer line ups and find that they speak volumes not only about the kind of pub you're visiting, their understanding towards ale drinkers and also on the type of customer that they are catering for.

With careful consideration a beer range can actually become part of a pubs brand. A potential customer will know exactly what they are likely to expect from a visit and when done well, is something that can cause customers to become loyal to a brand to the point where some actively seek out their establishments when in new places.

The local Mitchel & Butler "Ember Inns" pubs appear to have done this as each offer the same three core beers as well as stocking a number of guests. The guest range appears to vary greatly across the franchise, with some having no apparent thought to provide a balanced choice and seemingly basing it on picking the most well-known labels. 

While this will be attractive to the infrequent drinker where stocking the familiar is likely to result in a sale, any pub offering 8 hand pumps (as well as regular Cask Nights) must be at least attempting to target beer drinkers. That said, I'm confused as to why they would only be stocking a selection of national beers. On my last trip the 8 ales available were:

• ·         Thwaites: Wainwright
• ·         Brakspear: Bitter
• ·         Liverpool Organic: 24 Carat Cold
• ·         Sharps: Doom Bar
• ·         St Austell: Tribute
• ·         Brains: The Rev James
• ·         Timothy Taylors: Landlord
• ·         Black sheep: Bitter

Each of these beers is award winning and all are perfectly fine. I'd like to point out that this criticism is not directed towards them or their products, however due to effective promotion making them the most well-known labels, I can easily obtain them in a large number of more convenient pubs. If I wanted to drink a particular national beer then I know where to obtain it, which pubs offer best value for money and which offer the best quality. I have found through experience that the latter two are rarely the same establishment.

I also know that each of these beers (with the exception of Liverpool organic) is available by the bottle from any number of local supermarkets. CAMRA frequently cites supermarkets as being direct competition for many public houses, so why would a pub put itself into the position as competing directly.

Regarding brand loyalty what am I meant to assume from this beer line up? Am I meant to assume that all Ember Inns offer only national beer from now on? Do I risk visiting again to see if there is interesting selection of real ale? Just what should I now expect from the brand?

In an industry which relies on regular footfall, both new and repeat customers are going to come expecting the service already established from your brand. Sadly my last couple of visits were not a particularly positive and since available beer is rarely shared proactively the only way to establish just what beer is available is visit usually to visit, when an unbalanced line up is likely to lead to dissatisfied customers.

All I want a valid choice between the large national chain beers (available everywhere and in all good supermarkets) and smaller microbrewery beers. By all means offer large number ales but please make sure that your line-up is balanced, appeals to all drinkers and can be consumed within its lifespan. Speak to your customers, talk to your local beer campaigners or CAMRA group and consider regularly and proactively advertising your beers on social media.

Let me put it another way. How would you feel if you turned up at an 8 screen cinema where all the films being shown are Westerns? It’s great if you like that genre, but very disappointing if you don’t. The customers are likely to leave annoyed at wasting their time or will simply visit another cinema. Likewise most customers would have been able to find out online what films were actually on.