For those who haven’t had the excitement of reading about day one at Beer Con, do that first. I started off with visiting Lucy and the CAMRA stand upstairs at the event, filling in a survey about beer festivals which gave me the chance to spin the wheel to get a prize. I won a glass. As Roy and I, being the glasses & tokens ‘management’ team from Norwich Beer Festival, were both there we didn’t think that was very exciting so Lucy kindly let me have a cellarmanship book which Ivan had written.
I was volunteering on the first and third day of Beer Con, but they gave me multiple free tickets and lots of beer for the second day where I attended as a visitor in the evening. There was always a positive and inviting atmosphere at the event, being busy but never overly crowded.
Back downstairs, Julian was at the priority seating. This was not so much the decadent private seating for VIPs that Richard would book, but for those who needed a little sit down. Whilst I’m commenting on this photo, I have to note that’s one of the best beers of the festival, the BA Brownie Empress Tonkoko from Brew York, a sweet, punchy, chocolately and decadent little number.
Whilst I’m here I should mention the very delicious Tropical Sundae from Yonder which had a decent mouthfeel, was creamy and fruity. Oh, and the Sticky Toffee Puddin’ which was sweet with a nice toffee flavour, verging on decadent.
And, the best beer of the festival for me was the BA Interceptor Fiji Rum from Emperor’s Brewery. This was smooth, chocolatey, maple flavoured and not too boozy for its 14.3% ABV. The brewery is from Leicestershire and the only other beer I’ve had from them in the past is Too Much Moon Pie, a smooth and decadent stout, which I had the Artichoke last year. But, I will look out for them in the future.
I gave Gordon one of my tickets as I’m friendly like that. Ivan was floating about for a while as well, but he had a Friday Five event to go and manage, something which I will actually go on at some point in the near future;
Julian looking excited to see my selection of Beyond the Firmament from Electric Bear Brewing, which was hazy, hoppy, slightly dank and rather decent. And that’s the exceptional Roy as well. Jen went off dancing, which we all thought was far too vibrant and animated for us so we ignored it and pretended that we didn’t know about it.
And also a delight to see Ben and Chris from Pastore and they had two delicious sours, the Roulade – Blueberry Lemon and the Doom II. The former was my favourite, gently tart and lots of lemon, but the Doom II was also very agreeable, tart, fruity and certainly wild…
After a very enjoyable evening at Beer Con I thought it might be sensible to go home at a sensible time, but then I got muddled up again and went to the White Lion. After a quick bit of interfering with their team’s bar billiards arrangements, it felt only polite to meander to the Artichoke as well.