Monday 6 July 2009

Ealing Beer Festival

This week see the 20th Ealing Beer Festival hosted by West Middlesex CAMRA at Walpole Park, a short stroll from Ealing Broadway station.

Aside from the Great British Beer Festival, I guess Ealing is the largest festival in London running from Wednesday 8th to Saturday 11th and showcasing 160 odd cask beers together with the usual ciders and perries and a well-stocked foreign beer bar which always has some rarities together with the usual favourites.

Since the festival outgrew Ealing Town Hall, it is now a tented event in the local park which brings the opportunity to spread out in the larger space and also invite a wider circle of food, games, stalls etc. If blessed with fine weather (which at the moment is in the balance), there will be no better place for the beer drinker to hang out this week.

That is unless you like jazz as the Greenwich Beer and Jazz Festival will be at the Royal Naval College this week. This is not a CAMRA organised event but CAMRA in South East London is responsible for the cask ale sold there.

You pays your money, you takes your choice.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

So is it 3 quid for all you can drink? Or do you pay to try each beer?

John Paul Adams said...

Have to say that the Ealing Beer Festival was most enjoyable this year. A good session on Wednesday night and a shorter session on Thursday night. Beer quality was top notch, all the beers I tried were in superb condition and all at the right temperature. Hats off to Catherine for keeping it all under control.

The Red Squirrel Weissbeer was outstanding and by far the best beer I tasted over the two nights.

Food was improved this year by the addition of the Crusty Pie Co, my favourite stall from the GBBF.

There were still lots of beers to come on last night so there should be plenty of beer available if you are thinking of going on Saturday.

It's now difficult to say if the Pig's Ear or the Ealing festival is the best in London, it's a hard choice!

Cheers,
John.