Timeout said:
During this popular event, thousands of visitors get to sample over 700 real ales, foreign beers, lagers, and ciders. Hiccups, belches, and hangovers guaranteed!
Dave did:
Needless to say, I was looking forward to this one! Being a big fan of my ale's (and despite the physical appearance it forces you to accept), the prospect of a showroom full of the world's best beers is one that I cannot miss!
That said, having lived in London for nearly 2 years, clearly I did miss this annual event at least once!!
Preparation for this Thing got off to a good start as I fed myself two pints of beer at Kings Cross with some workmates prior to heading over to the Earls Court Exhibition Centre...
...2 hours later and a after picking up two rather disgruntled friends I was meant to meet an hour earlier, we marched into the exhibition!
This festival was pure heaven! As you walked into the showroom floor we were met by a large bar. But this was a bar without any beer behind it!?! Before we had a chance to rip up our tickets and storm back out, we found a sign which explained that we had to buy a beer glass from this bar and then go around the different stalls and get the glass filled up with all the different beers on offer.
Armed with our empty pint glasses, we quickly found a stall to fill them up with, and then headed over to the Tombola stand. I loved this stall the most, as in true beer-thinking style, every ticket was a winner!! GENIUS! And every prize was beer related! Absolute GENIUS I tell you!
...I'm thinking that perhaps two paragraphs into this I'm beginning to reveal a bit too much of my alcoholic side here, but hey I was only throwing myself 100% behind the Thing as I have done for the last 27!
The results of the Tombolla were as follows:
Dave - Peddler's Pride beer tab sign, pint glass, and dart pilots (if anyone would like some pilots for their darts I've got 4...otherwise absolutely useless if you dont have the actual darts to put them on!)
Joe - Frolicking Farmer's beer tab sign and Beer Guide book
Rolf - A broach (Unsurprisingly I've forgotten what else he ended up with!)
...Well anyone who read my earlier post of our visit to the Gordon's wine bar shouldn't be too shocked at Rolf's reward...I did warn you about him!
The rest of the night was a bit of a blur really! I bought some classic beer mats (10p a mat is pretty good value if you ask me!), a steel tankard that I am very proud of, and a T-Shirt! I remember having a few different drinks, but they all seemed to be from different counties in England as most of the stands were labelled English. Being a Scotsman and therefore not a proud Englishman, I can openly admit that English beer is not the greatest in the world and so I was desperately searching out the worldly beer stands! In true British fashion though, all the European beers were grouped together on one long table, and the barstaff were suitably rude and abrupt!
At the Badger stall I had a brief chat with the barman and asked how I could get one of his T-Shirt (having noticed a sign saying "Win a T-Shirt"). The guy explained how I had to fill out a form to evaluate their beer, which I duly did, and then he decided to hold a sudden raffle draw and presented me with a free T-Shirt...the beer was awful but I vaguely recall writing in big capital's "GREAT BEER!"
One of the last things I did resulted in me waking up the next morning (late for work I might add!) with this on my shoulder...
Yes that's right, I got a tattoo!....and not any old tattoo, a tatt of the CAMRA Society logo! Fortunately a quick look through my photos I worked out that it was a HENNA tattoo and so would only be with me for another 2 weeks (Thank Goodness!).
Being an ale fan I had heard of the CAMRA society before. CAMRA stands for the CAMpagne for Real Ale Society, and the festival was being run by CAMRA volunteers. So when I came across the CAMRA stand offering a free membership to the society for 3 months, I just had to sign up! I met a very cheerful chap at the desk who turned out to be the director of CAMRA, but it wasn't until later that he found out exactly what kind of nutter he had just welcomed to his ranks...
It was Joe's idea really - he thought it would be a comical idea to buy me a tattoo (always the ginea pig me!), and when searching for a beer related design, the most accessible icon to hand was the CAMRA logo that was printed on our beer glasses!
Seconds after having the tatt drawn I was over at the CAMRA tent again showing off my loyalty to the slightly bemused/slightly scared director!
Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the festival. We only managed to get there for the last 2 hours or so, but I think any longer would have seen me stumbling out of the place! But where else would you find signs like these:
...and beers the size of these....
Out of all the things I've done thus far I think I'd rate this and the Innocent Summer Fete as the two best that everyone MUST experience at least once!
28 down...972 Things to go!
No comments:
Post a Comment