Real Ale, Real Music

A new location has just been announced for the Great British Beer Festival for 2025 which takes it away from London for the first time for many year, and whilst we are now in the midst of the festival season here's a look back at the history of large scale beer events.... So the Great British Beer Festival is to leave its longstanding home at Olympia in London, and is moving to the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, making it the first change in its location since 2012, when it moved back after a five year period when it was based at the older and more characterful Earl's Court, having first taken place there in 1992. The planned 2024 festival was advertised to take place in August at Olympia once again, but was cancelled a few months earlier as due to the venue being refurbished they couldn't accommodate CAMRA on the requested dates. Whether this was what prompted the organisation to seek pastures new, I don't know, but it marks a welcome return to the regions f

The 2025 CAMRA Good Beer Guide was published a few days ago, bringing with it joy to those had been included, particularly for the first time. The day after publication I visited one such place and then called in a former Guide regular only a couple of miles away that had failed to make the cut once again this time.... Pecket Well is a small village situated on the edge of the Pennine moors a couple of miles out of Hebden Bridge. To get there I turned off the main A646 Calder Valley road as I arrived in the town and then took the A6033 up the hill towards Oxenhope. Houses, some of them over-and-under-dwellings, a feature of this part of the world where flat land is at a premium, were perched on corners at crazy angles and clung to the side of the road for dear life as I began to leave the town behind. Following a twisty and vertiginous climb through dense woodland the road eventually emerged into the open at the fringes of the tree line as the slope began to lessen. Here I came to a we

York CAMRA were holding their 50th Anniversary Beer Festival last week, so I decided to head over to the city and check it out. Here's my reflections on what was a splendid afternoon there in a rather historic setting.... The first York Beer Festival took place at the De Grey Rooms in the city centre way back in March 1974. Times were very different back then; it was was the year that Richard Nixon resigned as US President in the wake of the Watergate scandal, there were two General Elections in this country, Leeds United won the First Division title ( no Premier League in those days! ), local team York City finished 3rd in the old Division 3 ( Halifax Town were 9th ) to gain promotion to the second tier for the first time in their history, the Volkswagen Golf made its debut, and a Swedish group called Abba won the Eurovision Song Contest with their song Waterloo . The real ale scene back then was also very different to how it is now. CAMRA had only been formed a year or two before

I've recently been on a great trip to the North East which combined catching up with the family, visiting a new football ground, and enjoying some excellent beer in a cornucopia of different pubs and bars.... So here I was heading up to Newcastle first to meet the local branch of the family, then the next day I was off to see FC Halifax Town at a new ground in a town I had been to before but never really lingered. The town in question was Hartlepool, situated on the coast to the north of the Tees estuary. I arrived at my Travelodge around 2.30, just before the official check-in time, but was able to get in to the room, with bags dropped off, and a pint front of me at the Broad Chare  by 3pm, the official time. This wonderful place, which hosts a Michelin-rated restaurant, is nonetheless very welcoming to non-diners and has a decent range of cask and craft beers. I went for a pint of the house beer, Writer's Block an easy drinking 4.1% pale ale, which is now brewed by Anarchy, a

This famous city by the River Mersey has much of interest and is always worth a visit, as I was reminded once again when I was there recently with some friends and colleagues.... The other Monday I and a group of colleagues from the Grayston Unity and Meandering Bear bars in Halifax went on a team day out to Liverpool, following in the grand tradition of previous visits to York and Manchester. The trip was a thank you from owners Michael and Jess for the efforts following the end of another busy gig season at the neighbouring Piece Hall, which brings in significant extra trade for the pubs, bars, and other businesses in the town. It was also an opportunity to bid farewell to some of the younger members of the team who are about to start or return to university, or are moving on to pastures new. Most of us were on the 1017 train from Halifax, although a few more joined us when we changed trains at Manchester, with one of the group even travelling through from Newcastle. We all arrived t