2024 Socials
Hucknall Beer Festival
There’s always something comforting about the timing of Hucknall Beer Festival. Maybe it feels like a reward for surviving the never-ending month of January. Maybe it’s because it breaks up the otherwise bleak month of February. Whatever it is, it feels just right. Over the course of the weekend, committee and branch members travelled down to the John Godber Centre to sample the hundred or so beers and ciders that were on offer. Many local breweries were featured as well as some further afield that you might not see so often, such as Crossbay Brewing Co of Morecombe and Wantsum Brewery, Kent. Thursday evening and Friday saw voting for the ‘Spyke Golding Trophy’ take place. This year, eleven breweries entered a new beer - never sold before on trade - with only tasting notes and the ABV available to view. The winner, judged by public vote and announced on Saturday lunchtime, was Lenton Lane with their Escape Pale Ale - described as ‘smooth and packed with fruity undertones and tropical flavours’. All of the competition beers that were tried proved to be very popular and we all agreed the winner was excellent - congratulations to Lenton Lane! Both Friday and Saturday sessions were incredibly busy, which was great to see and proves the demand for real ale and cider is as strong as ever. Thanks to everyone involved in putting on the festival and making it free to all - I hope it encouraged inquisitive drinkers to come along and give real ale and cider a try. I’m sure I speak for everyone when I say we look forward to returning next year. The event also raises money for charity, so that’s certainly something to drink to!
Kirsten Yates
Pavilion Beer Festival
Our August social was held at the Pavilion Beer Festival on Racecourse Park in Mansfield.
The pub has made it into the 2025 Good Beer Guide launched in September, so congratulations to all involved. I didn’t make the previous beer festivals - held in May and August last year and another this May - so when the social was announced, it gave me an extra reason to go this time around.
The usual four hand-pulls on the bar were supplemented by an extra twelve ales on stillage in the side room. Cider and Perry lovers were also well catered for, with no fewer than 13 to choose from. Longstanding CAMRA member, past holder of multiple committee roles, Pavilion quiz host and cider-lover, Mick Bull had brought some of his own Dizzy Dog along and was manning the cider end of the bar. Beer choices ranged from light, hoppy pale ales to a cherry stout, from breweries all over England and Wales. One of note was Session IPA #001 from Two Rivers Brewery, Aberystwyth which you might recall from the last issue of Pints of View David helped brew on his former plant in its new home in Wales.
A good number of branch members came along and we were joined by a few who had travelled down from North Notts branch.
I managed to try half of most beers and found the selection to be very good. The standout beer for me was ‘All Hail Nectaron’ from the local Two Matt’s Brewery in Sutton-in-Ashfield, with a huge fruity hop taste; perfect for sitting outside in the late August sunshine. What’s not to love!
Kirsten
Kelham Hall Beer Festival
A Grand Day Out!
Our most recent branch social was a trip to the Kelham Hall Beer Festival on Saturday October 26th, with eleven intrepid souls (including two from Amber Valley CAMRA) joining our minibus from Kirkby, Sutton and Mansfield. There were a few spare seats due to late cancellations, unfortunately, but we didn’t let that spoil our enjoyment of the day.
The event ran from Wednesday to Saturday, with a trade session and judging for Champion Beer of Britain (CBoB) 2024 taking place on the Wednesday afternoon and public sessions thereafter. Great value at a single admission price of £10 for the whole event (discounted to £7 for CAMRA members) so you could have gone along every day at no extra cost – but most of us didn’t get to take advantage of that, although a couple of us were also at the event earlier in the week, as volunteers.
An amazing venue with terrific architectural features inside and out, the festival bars (CBoB, main A-Z bar by brewery, Cider bar, USA beers and individual brewery bars from Beermats and Blue Monkey) were all in a marquee in a central courtyard, with seating and a stage area for the entertainment in the great hall next door. The venue’s own bar served other drinks, and the ‘food court’ outside offered a variety of reasonably-priced options including pizzas, burgers, hot dogs, curries, pulled pork, hog roast, chips, ploughman’s platter and pork pies. The event even had entertainment for children, with face painting and a balloon artist – a first for me at any beer festival I’ve ever attended!
When we arrived on Saturday lunchtime, only one festival beer had run out on the preceding afternoon – and not surprisingly it was the 2024 CBoB Supreme Champion winner, Amarillo from Crouch Vale brewery in Essex – so all of the other CBoB finalists were still available on the CBoB bar with a host of beers on the other bars too, so there was a fantastic selection available.
I’d already sampled some of beers from the CBoB bar earlier in the week, so all of my favourite beers on the day came from the main bar. I really enjoyed the Metalhead Brewery 4.8% ‘Motorhead Porter’ and a collaboration between Northern Alchemy and Flying Gang called ‘Broken Face’ - a 10.5% Gingerbread Imperial Stout that wasn’t even advertised in the programme (as it seemingly replaced a beer called John Barleycorn by Northern Alchemy Brewery described on Untappd as a 4.8% 1920’s mild) – but the Ashover Brewery 7% ‘Victorian Ruby Mild’ was my absolute favourite at the event.
We didn’t leave until 7pm – when the minibus really proved its worth as the limited public transport options back to our area from the venue would have taken an age – even with free shuttle coaches between the venue and the two Newark stations as we would have had to go via Nottingham – and everyone commented they had really enjoyed the day and that the time had absolutely flown by.
We shared a post with pictures to our Social Chat group on Facebook – and it wasn’t until a couple of days later that we spotted they’d been shared on CAMRA’s national Facebook page. Fame at last!
Karl Ransford
