Aylesbury Beer Festival 2005

A Volunteer's View

By Alexander Wright

The Vale of Aylesbury Beer Festival, supporting the Friends of Florence Nightingale House, has been steadily expanding since the first festival in 1994. This, however was my first experience of the festival, and indeed only the second time I have worked a beer festival, rather than being the other side of the bar.

My first festival as a worker was the Great British Beer Festival, a festival on an altogether different scale. The GBBF is an experience I would recommend to everyone, whether they wish to work, or merely sample the huge range or beers available.

The Vale of Aylesbury Beer Festival is a somewhat more modest affair, a mere thirty barrels. My participation started by collecting a barrel from Oxfordshire Ales from their recently opened brewery in Marsh Gibbon.

Oxfordshire Ales was a little tricky to find, but we eventually found the small industrial park where it was located, a bleak industrial unit. Oxfordshire Ales started life as a drinks supplier for the local area, but has now expanded to include a moderate brew plant.

The barrel was duly delivered to the festival location, Stoke Mandeville Community Centre on Eskdale Road. There were already a good number of barrels there, as Dayla had made their delivery. My daughter helped roll the barrel into the hall, we put the barrel of IPA on the rack and settled down to wait for the delivery from Vale Brewery. And waited. And waited.

Luckily there was a play park for my daughter to enjoy while we waited. In the end, it turned out the there had been a misunderstanding, and the delivery van had arrived too early, and had left again as the place was locked up.

Friday arrived, and my wife kindly drove me to the hall so we could get set up before the first of the customers arrived. When I got there, the other CAMRA volunteers had already set up the bar tables and were busy putting up posters. I started by helping attach labels to all the barrels, and then it was time to check the beer had settled sufficiently, and was of good quality. It was, of course, important to sample extensively to ensure that we could advise people on the taste of the various beers!

That chore over, it was just about time to welcome the first customers. The Friends volunteers were manning the ticket sales, so we were left with pouring the beer and collecting tokens. Unlike the GBBF, beer was bought with sheets of tokens sold by the entrance staff. Pints were sold at 2.00, 2.20 or 2.40 depending on the strength of the beer, and the value crossed out on the sheet. This became increasingly hard to do as beer quality

Unlike some pubs I've been into, everybody was very friendly to the bar staff, tolerant of their occasional mistakes, and patient while we served. The air was also noticeably clear, even though smoking was allowed in the hall. After an initial rush, the bar was quiet for an hour or so, which enabled me to become familiar with the location of all the barrels. This became important as later, a rush of people accosted the bar, and it was constant work for a good couple of hours.

Finally the evening trailed off, and it was time to go home. After a quick sup for the road, I started the long walk home. It was a warm night and before I knew it I was home.

Looking forward to next year!

Further News:

We have heard from the 'Friends of Florence Nightingale House' that they were delighted with how the festival went and have raised in the region of 4,400. They passed on their thanks to all the CAMRA members who were involved, giving their time for nothing and for working so hard. The next festival will be at the end of October next year. Ed.

Beer of the Festival

As in previous years, the people lucky enough to attend the festival were given the opportunity to vote for their favourite beer. There were separate categories for each of the beer ranges on offer and an overall festival champion.The results were as follows:

• Milds/Light Bitters
• Grainstore Rutland Panther
• Bitters and Special Bitters
• Cairngorm Trade Winds
• Strong Beers
• Ridley's Old Bob
• Ciders/Perrys (Joint Winners)
• Westons Hertfordshire Country PerryWestons Old Rosie Scrumpy
• Overall Beer of the Festival
• Hanby Ales Nut Cracker