Saturday 18 April 2009

Beer themed Events

So far the spring has went well with some nice but often changeable weather. The Newcastle 33rd annual beer festival was as entertaining as usual featuring a few new releases including Allendale’s characterful Adder Lager and Entrepreneur ale (one I have yet to try). Of current times I am developing my own summer ale for future months and a lovely dark mild for May.

But another idea of mine I had whilst reading beer writer Jeff Evans’s latest book ‘A beer a day’ was to have my own themed beer evenings. For example national themes could work well, meaning that evening only beers for a specified country can be consumed by myself an other participants. St Georges day is coming up soon so an English beer night might be on hand. So far other ideas include American beer night (July 4th) Belgian beer night (July 18th) and German beer night (October 3rd). However Australian, and Scottish beer night (on Australia day and Burns night) I shall have to wait until next year for as both dates have passed. Another idea is to do beer style themed nights, where by participants consume numerous beers of the same style.

But the main problem for such events is the lack of availability of certain beers in this country. For example I really wanted to do a Canadian beer night, however only a few Canadian beers can be found even in specialty beer shops. Other ideas such as Munich Helles or Saison nights could also prove to be tricky.

Regardless of this the idea is simple, and such events could provide as a temporary substitute to my big dreams of doing a beer hunting world tour. Coincidentally my next beer themed night is English beer night on the 25th of April, the same date as the Skipton Beer festival which I will be attending. But I may consider having it on a different evening, in a more peaceful setting that allows for lengthy reviewing to be done, and perhaps an additional cheese board featuring classic English Cheeses. Exiting stuff.

2 comments:

Ed said...

Hiya Rob, Good luck with your beer nights, the only ones I've managed in recent years were the IPA challenge.

What are the Belgian and German dates?

Rob said...

July 18th for the Belgian one and October 3rd for the German one. Both are national dates and depending on what happens may have to be changed if need be. English beer night I am planning for tomorrow night however the original plan of the beer festival has fallen through and shall have to suffice for my local. Dont want to give too much away for the next post tho.