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Tuesday 4 June 2013

Review of Stockport Beer and Cider Festival 2013 by Andy Savage.

The 27th Stockport Beer and Cider festival started on Thursday 30th May and ran through to Saturday 1st June 2013.
The charity for this festival was Walthew House, a local charity providing help for people with sight and hearing problems.

This is the first time I've been to Stockport Beer and Cider festival and I can honesty say CAMRA have done a really good job with this one. I'm a Cider drinker rather than beer drinker, of all the beer festivals I've been to this one had the biggest and best selection of Ciders and Perries I've seen (well apart from The Great British Beer Festival of course). There were over 200 Beers !

The venue for this Beer festival was Edgeley Park, Stockport's Football Ground.


This was a superb venue for a beer festival as there were thousands of seats for people.
People sitting enjoying a drink at the festival.

Seating is normally a problem at most beer festivals but because this one was at a football ground and you were allowed to sit anywhere in the 5044 seats of the Cheadle Stand (behind the goal at the West end of the ground)


Panorama of Stockport football ground, location for the Beer and Cider Festival 2013.

Additionally to these seats there were hundreds more in the TNT Post Suite, this is where the food was being served and another room where the entertainment took place.
As well as the food being served in the TNT Suite there was a Fish and Chip van located near the entrance onto the terraces.

Getting to the Beer Festival was quite easy, the ground it located just out of the town centre on Hardcastle Road, the number 11 BUS service ran nearby. You were greeted by volunteers where you could buy your Program for £1, they checked your CAMRA membership card
and up the steps into the ground.

You then hire your half or pint glass for £2. The half pint festival glasses were very good quality etched ones. Very nice!
Oaky Dokey Cider by Burnard's, the pitch in the background.
The Cider and Perry bars were on the left and the Beers on the right as you walked down. Then CAMRA membership stalls and other stalls and Bottled beers.
Along this route were entrances up onto the Terrace and Toilets.
At the far end you could walk down the steps to get to the TNT Suite, where there was live entertainment lunch and evening for all three days provided by The Casino Allstars, Walthew House Steel Band, Atlanta Soul, The Brasswurt Bavarian Beer Band and the Dana Dixon Band.

The weather for the three days of the festival was very nice which helped. It was great being able to sit down outside with your drink and watch the
endless stream of planes coming in to land.
On the Saturday the groundskeeper was mowing the pitch with a manual mower which I used my time-lapse camera to capture, see that video soon.

There were so many Cider and Perries at this festival that there was a separate 4 page booklet for them.
There were 63 Ciders and Perries to try from all over the country.

A few of the Ciders and Perries on offer at this beer festival.
My personal favourites were Oaky Dokey Cider by Burnard's Banham, Norfolk 4.5%ABV
Sweet and Medium Perry by Sheppy Taunton, Somerset 6%ABV
Country Perry by Westons Much Marcle, Herefordshire. 4.5%ABV
Port Wine of Glastonbury by Hecks Street, Somerset 6.5%ABV


Did you go to this years beer festival? What did you think to it?

Keep a look out on my YouTube channel for some videos that I took at Stockport Beer and Cider festival, I will be posting these very soon.


Thanks
Andy

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