I wasn't going to miss out on that. Incorporating, as it did, two of my favourite things: good Lager and gravity dispense. There were some cracking beers: Heckel Vollbier, Hartleb Landbier, Gradl Dunkel and Zehender Maibock. Too many beers for me to get around to all of them. Especially when I had two of the Zehender Maibock.
The beers would have confused the hell out of a style Nazi. Most seemed to be named fairly randomnly. Heckel Vollbier was stronger than Scharpf Märzen. Several were called Landbier. One of the vaguest terms in German brewing. Even more so than Kellerbier, which popped up several times, too. Trying to categorise Franconian beers is a short path tto madness.
It wasn't as crowded as the Czech festival a couple of months back. Which suited me. Not much queueing for a beer or a slash.
The kids seemed to enjoy themselves. And why not? They were getting free beer. And very nice beer, too.
I don't go to many beer festivals nowadays. In recent years, it's just been the ones at Butcher's Tears and the Berliner Bier Meile. And what do those have in common? Good-quality Lager and full measures. Oh, and plenty of seats.
I used to go to many more. The main Belgian one, whatever that's called now. The Borefts Festival. Others in Stockholm and Copenhagen. But that's all a few years back. Now, I just can't be bothered with most festivals.
Why is that? Well, I've already told you, really. Lack of seating, long queues for beer. But the biggest reason of all is small measures. If you're lucky, you might get a 15 cl serving. But it might well be just 10 cl or even a piddling 5 cl. I've got two glasses sometimes to take the edge off my frustration. Or taken along my own Imperial pint glass.
A combination of small measures and long queues wring all the pleasure out of a festival for me. Getting in line for your next beer as soon as you've been served your last makes for a queueing festival rather than a beer festival.
Then there's the beer. Most festivals don't serve anything any different from the beers I can usually buy. Either Belgian styles or the murky muck, junk-laden sours and over-pastried Stouts that seem to be brewed everywhere nowadays. Nothing that's going to drag me out of my bed. While a proper Lager is something that's undeservedly rare. Outside of the festivals I do still attend.
Thimble fests. I doubt I'll be going to another one soon.
The trendier, commercially run festivals aimed primarily at younger, middle-class craft drinkers, where you pay a hefty amount up front for an entrance ticket and then all your beer is "free", rely on small glasses, minimal staffing levels and long queues to turn a profit.
ReplyDeleteI live in Bamberg and I bumped in to Jan after his trip to Heckel and other breweries on the Friday. I don't meet many people's whose knowledge and passion of Franconian brewing rivals my own, but he's one.
ReplyDeleteGlad they were enjoyed by those who know.
What is Hartlieb style wise??? Does it matter? Nope. It is delicious.
ReplyDeleteZehender Maibock lives in my dreams... I have only ever had the bottle and it was amazing!
And I land in Amsterdam this Saturday and I can't believe I missed this by one week! This is a festival I would go to unlike pretty all others with the exceptions being Berlin Bier Miele , Cask Days in Toronto and Bieres et Saveurs outside Montreal.
It’s funny that you mention the problems categorising Franconian beers. I was thinking much the same thing this week. The weird thing is that there are distinct styles in Upper Franconia – it’s just that they often don’t correspond to the names they’re given. For example, one brewery might have an Ungespundet, another a Lager and a third a Kellerbier, but they might well all be in broadly the same style.
ReplyDelete"The trendier, commercially run festivals aimed primarily at younger, middle-class craft drinkers, where you pay a hefty amount up front for an entrance ticket and then all your beer is "free", rely on small glasses, minimal staffing levels and long queues to turn a profit."
ReplyDeleteI agree that money is a factor, although I think it's not exactly profit that's the motive. I think for most brewers these events are PR, and the goal is to keep costs down as low as possible while still showing up to get their brand out there.
I realize that's a somewhat technical distinction, but I think from a brewer's perspective if this was about profit they'd much rather just sell IPAs by the cup at usual prices. These are more like radio commercials where they pay for air time and then they try to save on production costs by buying cheap theme music.