Watercolor

Pleasant and lingering earthy aftertaste, which blends with the fruit at the front of the next sip.” Kirkstall can now be dubbed one of the foremost English brewers. Dave’s term at Elland Breweries had many great beers, but now Kirkstall is coming into its own. The Festival organisers say they take beers off sale during each session to ensure that the next session starts with a full complement but we had no problem – everything we went for was on tap throughout the afternoon. Special mention for the excellent pork pies from Lunds of Keighley, essential ballast to keep our feet firmly on the ground. It must be hard to get all the beers you want in one place for one weekend, and I for one would have like to have seen some representation from Derbyshire’s Thornbridge and Huddersfield’s Summer Wine, and a few more continental beers on the specialist bar, but life is short, beer is long, and with the selection available it would be churlish to complain seriously. The Camra volunteers were always happy to discuss the ales on tap and suggest their own favourites, even when they were obviously hoping to save a particular barrel for a staff session afterwards. Afterwards, sated, we went home to gradually rehydrate and look forward to next year’s event. Cheers.

A review of the 2012 Bradford Beer Festival

From the outside the impressive honey-coloured mass of Victoria Hall sits like a giant sponge cake in the middle of Saltaire. Inside, for one week in February, a highly-organised team of Camra volunteers set up and serve up scores of wonderful beers to crowds of avid drinkers, in three rooms on two floors. It’s the Bradford Beer Festival, and other annual ale events pale in comparison. The venue is an attraction in its own right and just the right size, the location is easily accessible by bus and train, and the selection is wide but not overwhelming. The Festival goes from strength to strength, and needs little publicity. An advance ticket system ensures Victoria Hall is never swamped, and there’s a choice of five sessions from Thursday to Saturday. I’d pretty much given up on beer festivals, after one overheated, purple-carpeted grim function room too many, but Bradford has revived my faith – it can be done well, and we’re very lucky to have the event in our district. Some Camra members give up their holidays to work the Festival, with one volunteer coming over from Germany every year just to be part of the event. We usually go for the Saturday afternoon session There’s something about the light streaming in through the floor-to-ceiling windows, with the views of Saltaire and Baildon Moor, as the brass band pump out Yorkshire anthems. Our beers of the Festival were two – Braustelle Caulfield, from Cologne and labelled ‘First German Imperial Stout’. At 10%, it was thankfully available in third of a pint measures, as were the other beers available. Hard to describe, fruity, a taste of brown sugar, but not too sweet, simultaneously rich and balanced, a moment when all the taste buds shout hallelujah in unison. The second was Kirkstall Tun, the perfectly- judged 7% 100th brew from this new-ish brewery. Kirkstall’s Dave Sanders recently produced the excellent Aquitaine 8%, of which a correspondent said: “Soothes and invigorates in equal measure. A nice jigsaw of flavours in which there is a hint of fortified grape and a nuance of ice cream vanilla.

Rob Walsh