Those of you who have received September's issue of What's Brewing, may have been drawn to the advert on page four for the next Wetherspoons International Real Ale Festival. The festival is set to run from October 30th to November 16th and will feature up to 50 ales.The last festival was a great success and saw punters trek to Spoons pubs in their droves to sample, amongst others, beers brewed on these shores by the brewers from Stone of California, and Yo-Ho of Nagano.
This festival promises beers brewed by guest brewers from Japan, America, Australia and Denmark. I have it on good authority that the Japanese brewer is again Toshi from Yo-Ho, who, I am sure will do us proud again. However in a change of tack the American brewer is said to be Matt from Firestone Walker, and the Danish brewer is Mikkel from Mikkeller. These are two great brewers with very exciting products, which I hope they can replicate in a similar vein to the Stone California Double IPA brewed at Shepherd Neame.
I've yet to ascertain which brewer is coming from Australia, but as soon as I find out, I will of course share it. No doubt all true beer lovers in the land will want to join me in praising Wetherspoons for this continued support for excellent World brewers, whilst at the same time, bringing us a good range of home brewed stuff.
8 comments:
OMGWTFBBQ!!!
I agree maeib, Wetherspoons take a lot of flack and to be fair, they are not the most atmospheric of pubs. But they are excellent at what they do and I have always found they serve a great selection of beers at their Cross Keys bar in the heart of the City in London. I am a big fan of their Beer Festivals and its a great way to encourage non real ale drinkers to try something different.
Couldn't agree more with the Beer Blether's comments. Do we know whether the beers will be brewed in the UK again at established breweries, or shipped over this time?
Dubbel - those I mentioned will be brewed over here. I learnt today that Mikkel is brewing at Jennings.
Obviously that is part of the Marstons family. Toshi brewed at Marstons last time, so the company must have enjoyed the experience.
Now that I have ready access to three JDW pubs (which I didn't in April) I look forward to taking full advantage.
cheers for this - good news is that prices are staying low as well
Be interesting to see if Firestone Walker end up at Marstons , a chance to play with some full scale unions rather than the little ones back home.
Kieran, you are spot on. More details later today.
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