Birmingham Beer Festival 2007

The 2007 festival was the twelfth to be held at Aston and was very successful from a membership point of view. Nearly 50 new members were recruited during the three days, adding to CAMRA's already swelling ranks. Thanks go to Fullers of London for providing a great membership offer.

The beers were in excellent condition, thanks to a combination of moderate temperatures, air conditioning and ice sheets to cool the casks. There were 90 real ales in all, with extra cider and perry ordered in, after last year's sell-out. Many of the beers were new or brewed specially for the festival, so beer hunters were kept happy.
Foreign beers included those from the USA, Belgium and Germany, which proved popular last year, as well as some from France, Spain, the Netherlands and Austria. Birmingham CAMRA members helped to brew an 'open source' beer at Tunnel Brewery (using a recipe under constant development), 'Work In Progress', which was available in cask and bottled form.

We welcomed back Festival Foods Service, who provided their popular German Bratwürsts  and French Crêpes, a more-than-suitable accompaniment to real ale.

Entertainment was again provided on Thursday evening by Meaningful Music Management & Loop Promotions.  Acts included 'Oli Jobes', 'Coyote', 'Martin Howles' and there was a return for festival regular 'The Celturian', a solo guitarist of some note.
On Friday evening, we saw a fantastic performance by Coventry-based 'Oddsods', a mix of Irish, Scottish and some 'English' folk, interspersed with some jovial banter with the audience. We have never featured a folk band at the festival before, but it was nice to see that most of the audience knew the words and joined in with the likes of 'Dirty old Town' 'Fields of Athenry' and 'Whiskey in the Jar'. If you want to find out more about the band, visit their website www.oddsods.net or myspace entry www.myspace.com/oddsods.

This year's festival logo featured the Town Hall, soon to be reopened and a long refit, super-imposed with the 'Iron Man'. This rusting iron sculpture sits at the end of new Street and is variously loved or loathed by Birmingham's citizens, but now represents a symbol of the city. The logo featured on the festival glass and we are grateful to Church End Brewery for sponsoring the glasses this year.

Festival t-shirts were sold out early on Friday and these were sponsored by Wye Valley brewery, so a big thanks to them too. Finally, we need to thank al those brewers, licensees and others who contributed items for the tombola, which was again a great success. There were some star prizes, some which the lucky recipients wished they hadn't won and numerous t-shirts on offer on the stall.

Despite not reaching the dizzy heights of last year's event, it was still a thoroughly enjoyable three days. There was still enough beer left for the Saturday night visitors to enjoy a good session. And if anyone is wondering why there were kilt-wearing Togo supporters in the assembled crowd, its probably best not to ask !

© Richard Reynolds 2007

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Last modified: 03/11/07