WE headlined our preview of CAMRA’s Manchester Beer and Cider Festival (Thursday-Saturday, January 24-26) ‘Rolling out the barrel big time…’ All because of a retro revival of interest in wood to keep beer, which goes against the grain (sic) in a world of metal casks even for real ale.
Fascinating stuff, so we couldn’t resist popping down to the trade preview at Manchester Central to see what all the fuss about. More than 15,000 ale buffs are expected to cram the venue across the three days, but this was just brewers, barmen and landlords.
As we arrived many of them seemed to be congregating around the 60 barrels at the Beers from the Wood Bar, a co-production with Society for the Preservation of Beers from the Wood, a niche pressure group whose time has surely come.
The bar shows how brewers can marry the traditional wooden barrels with modern brewing recipes. Some like Wadworth and Theakston have retained the use of wood, while others have been persuaded by the festival to try old and new beers in oak, hickory and chestnut.
We made a beeline for guest of honour, Yorkshire-based master cooper Alastair Simms (above), who – complete with wooden staves, metal hoops and an armoury of arcane tools – was demonstrating his craft, honed at Wadworth and originally at Theakstons in his native Masham.
The latter’s legendary strong ale in the wood, Old Peculier was on tap but we went for the neighbouring ‘Midnight Slug’ (the name tickled us) from Billingham-on-Tees, just one of 700 plus beers on tap at the festival.
It was a sound, oaky tipple but it was eclipsed by another beer called ‘Midnight’ (a theme developing here) at the White Hag & Friends Irish Craft Beer Bar, much enlarged from last year’s debut, with a greater emphasis on cask ale rather than keykeg, demonstrating the blossoming (doesn’t have to be Guinness) beer culture over there. ToM peaked too early Midnight was a decadent barrel-aged 7.7 per cent porter rom Dublin’s DOT brewery, after which it was a giggly afternoon of supping randomly and trying to take phone shots of lavish beards, stalls selling pickled eggs (yummy) and Viking drinking horns (maybe next year). Ever thus.
The Festival runs until Saturday, January 26 at Manchester Central, Windmill St, Manchester M2 3GX. Tickets for entry and special tasting events are on sale at the festival’s website. For latest news follow @ManBeerFest on Twitter.
