I have very occasionally enjoyed the delights of cask ale since my first encounter with it in Birmingham about a quarter of a century ago. So when Brendan Belfast Boon encouraged me to visit his wonderful city for the CAMRA festival his timing was perfect, I was overdue. For those of you who don’t know: CAMRA is the Campaign for Real Ale which was founded by some English men in Co. Kerry in the early seventies. They’ve spent the last fifty odd years fighting to keep up the traditional style of brewing and serving beer. And fair play to them. In Great Britain they’ve largely succeeded. On the island of Ireland there’s considerably less of it though!
On entry I was given a pint glass marked at a third and a half and a booklet detailing all of the beers pouring. I thought it was a lovely touch that they mentioned absent friends including Sinéad Cashman who I would have worked with, she was a huge supporter of the local beer scene and an absolute legend.
I made an unconscious decision to stick with halves dark beers for the duration of the event. So I kicked off with a half of Sambrooks Powerhouse Porter, it being relatively sessionable at 4.9%. And then I went to find a few familiar faces, at one point I observed that it was a bit like being in Underdog.
Manchester’s Marble Coffee Rye Mild was delicious. Localish Lacada’s Hoisted Petard Black IPA was excellent, great name too! I thought it would be rude to skip Monaghan’s Brehon Shanco Dubh when it was right there tasting smashing. And I rounded off my session with Redwillow’s Shadowless, a dark lager all the way from Cheshire.
It was great to see Ballymahon’s Wide Street being well received on their Belfast debut. And props to Roy Quare Swally for his Trojan work in promoting great independent beer in the north.
There was a mixed crowd in attendance, it wasn’t all large hairy men despite the evidence you can see above. I have to say it was a very enjoyable event and I’ll definitely be back next year, kudos to the organisers and volunteers for putting it together. Sláinte!
