A victory for people power

It was William Blake that said: "A good local pub has much in common with a church, except that a pub is warmer, and there's more conversation."

You might think that the status of both venues as a hub of the community has fallen since Blake's days. Churchgoing is certainly not what it was, and the statistic from the Campaign from Real Ale that 18 pubs are closing every week is one of the more depressing figures I have heard.

The Ivy House, Nunhead

Plenty to taste at the Great British Beer Festival

Where can you find a Golden Salamander, British Jewels, White Out and a Trembling Rabbit in London this week? At the Great British Beer Festival, of course. The event’s been displaced from Earl’s Court to Olympia to make way for some kind of sporting event. This means that there isn’t quite as much space, but I must say I prefer the architecture of Olympia to Earl’s Court, which resembles nothing so much as a giant warehouse.

I don't know how packed it will be at the weekend, but midweek the Olympia venue seemed big enough to me – there was plenty of space for milling about, and more beers than you could even think about trying. There were 800-plus brews in all, including foreign and bottled beers, ciders and perries.

I tried some of the more unusual brews, including a Cherry Blonde from Enville brewery in Staffordshire, which had a fantastic balance of fruit and hops. I tried a bottled alcoholic ginger beer from Fentimans, who are better known for their soft drinks. This beer was the genuine article – not an alcopop made with industrial alcohol but brewed with sugar, yeast, ginger root and water. It tasted like an old-fashioned ginger beer, and would be lovely on a summer picnic.

Pig's ear of a beer festival

From wine and cheese to beer...well, it is December! Funnily enough, cheese also featured at the Pig's Ear beer festival in Hackney, which has been running this week.

The name comes from Cockney rhyming slang for beer, and is in its 24th year. It has a fantastic venue in a former chapel, the Round Chapel in Lower Clapton Road. The beers are arranged around the edge ground floor, and upstairs there is pew-like seating arranged round the gallery for those wishing to give their feet a rest and survey what is going on below.

The beer supplies were becoming depleted by the end of Saturday, which was understandable on the last day of the beer festival. But there was an excellent range for most of the night. The Real Ale Drinker's favourite was Worth brewery's Seam Cutter, a porter which he described as roasted-tasting and rich. I enjoyed the Ginger Beer from Pitfield brewery in Essex. There were quite a few handle-with-care strong winter ales, while one that can be drunk more liberally is Felstar's Two Per Cent, an unusually low gravity mild with quite a sweet, fruity flavour. The Real Ale Drinker compared it to cola, though I feel that might have been unfair.

As for the cheese, Wobbly Bottom farm from Hertfordshire had a stall there, much to my delight. I haven't seen this cheese maker since a farm shop in Cambridge some time ago, though apparently they are regulars at Islington farmers' market. It was good to see that they were selling cheese platters and cheese panini made with a selection of their own interesting cheeses - a welcome change from the cheese rolls made with bog-standard mild cheddar that you more often find at beer festivals. Their extra-strong Lancashire has a pungent aroma and is strong enough to knock your socks off. We took home some of their blue cow's milk cheese, which is simply called Blue Cow, but they do several goats' and sheep's cheeses too, including a goat Camembert.

Cheese and wine may be the classic combination, but if you ask me, a lovely pint of real ale with a tasty Cheddar or Lancashire is an all-English pairing that can't be beat.

The Great British Beer Festival

Where else can you find a Cherry Blonde and a Chocolate Marble in the same room as a Knight of the Garter and Black Beck Belle?

It is, of course, the Great British Beer Festival, the country’s biggest beer festival. It runs until Saturday at Earl’s Court.

The festival opened yesterday and last night was my first ever visit. I’m told it gets packed later in the week, but on a Tuesday night it was busy yet there was plenty of space to get around and no queues to get served (with the possible exception of if you wanted to try the new Champion Beer of Britain, which is Oscar Wilde from the Mighty Oak brewery in Maldon, Essex).

My personal favourite was Cherry Blonde from Enville Brewery in Stourbridge, Staffordshire, but then I like my beers light and fruity. There is a strong selection of cider and perry, too.

As a former Norfolk girl I was pleased to see around 10 Norfolk beers including Flintknappers Mild from the Chalk Hill Brewery, based at the Coach and Horses on Thorpe Road in Norwich, Woodforde’s Wherry from Woodbastwick, Burston’s Cuckoo from Elmtree in Snetterton, Raspberry Wheat from Iceni in Mundford, and Old Stoatwobbler from Spectrum in Tharston, near Long Stratton.

The closest comparison I can make is with the Norwich beer festival held each October. The Great British Beer Festival is bigger but also more expensive (and for CAMRA members, you get a discount but in Norwich you don’t pay anything). Norwich wins hands-down for having a prettier building. Both are well-run by enthusiastic volunteers, and both have more beers than you could possibly try even if you went every day all week.

Food
Naturally I took a close interest in the food stalls. The prices are not as bad as I had feared and a number of the stalls are offering quite tasty options. Highlights include:

- Merry Berry Truffles from Burton Upon Trent. Not just truffles but also chocolate flavoured with spices and other things (lime and ginger works well, I also enjoyed the chocolate with black pepper, and for foolhardy types there is a burning hot chilli chocolate too). The chocolate pieces are £2.50 a bag, £4 for 2 bags. There are lots of samples too.

- Posh pies from the Crusty Pie Co. Pork pies, smoked ham and mustard pies, vegetarian pies and too many others to list. Small pies are £2 each, or 3 for £5. Large pies are £6. They also do traditional pork scratchings.

- Pipers crisps. What goes better with a beer than crisps? They do flavours including Norfolk Bloody Mary, sweet chilli and my favourite, sea salt and cider vinegar. 80p a small bag, or £1 for the parsnip crisps. Plenty of samples.

Four Great British beer festival tips:
1) Check out the new breweries bar – in association with Wetherspoon’s – if you want a guarantee of finding something you have never had before (though unless you are a seasoned pro, most bars will have several beers you have never had).

2) If you have never been to Earl’s Court before, don’t get confused by the one-way system in the toilets after a few beers.

3) Drink halves or thirds (yes thirds), not pints, so you can try as many beers or ciders as possible.

4) Keep hold of your glass – and give it back at the end if you want a refund of your £3 deposit.

The festival is open noon to 10.30pm until Friday August 5, and 11am to 7pm Saturday August 6.
More information at http://gbbf.camra.org.uk/