Craft and (crap) beer at Glastonbury

[Greenelk]

I'd echo what others have said about price of Chubbles above @Alvoram.  I had a quick look around eebriatrade and some of the other names mentioned by people above do come in a fair bit cheaper than Cloudwater.  Azvex is another great realtively new brewery for example.

If you want to have a chat with people more in the know than us (apologies to anyone here that is more than an enthusiastic imbiber), Shakespeares in Sheffield carry some amazing craft, and seem to be very busy (it's on my list of pubs I have to visit - https://en-gb.facebook.com/ShakespearesShf/) - I'm told that the owners are great, so would be open to share their experience I'm sure.

They also have a beer festival, where looking at the names, some of the breweries specialise in only 10%+ Impy Stouts (hello Emperors my old friend).  Deya are Cheltenham based and do stunning IPAs and Verdant down in Cornwall are pretty special (We're in Putty season, a DIPA from them that sells out everywhere really quickly each year)

Edited January 27, 2023 by Greenelk

[moogster]

Oooh Verdant is good!

I have to say I buy once in a while a cloudwater can as a treat but never in a bar... The price is just too high. Diminishing returns...

So I'm guessing overall we don't think there's going to be an improvement this year in beer offers at GLastonbury? I am coaching this year so will have to go for my own flavoured rum, water and a random cider. I agree with the above comments that Avalon always sounds like a good idea until you take that first sip...

 

[Isaact]

I think it is clear that the money they get from Carlsberg is worth more to them than supporting the independent brewing scene, yeah.

We might get lucky and get Brooklyn. 

[Greenelk]

Do we know why the Thatchers Craft cider stalls were started, and also why it failed?

Edited January 27, 2023 by Greenelk

[The Nal]

2 hours ago, Isaact said:

 

This is properly stupid. Like saying all bottles of wine should be £6 supermarket wine, and why would you ever pay anything more.

Comparing beer and wine is stupid

[Alvoram]

4 hours ago, fightoffyour said:

Would also pay £10 in a pub for Chubbles or £12 for TIPA easily. Any idea when the pre order is for? Might be able to get an early can today if I’m lucky.

I’ll try and remember to have a look later and report back, I think I’m going to order a case of each, so hopefully it’ll tell me then. 🙂 

[Harry49]

Interesting thread. Probably my biggest disappointment about the festival but logistical and finance reasons make sense for lack of a scent beer. Shame though.

[carlosj]

Yeah, it would be nice to have good beers on site, but who's big enough (and experienced at this serving scale) to supply the entire site, and make a profit on £6 pints/cans? Northern Monk? Verdant? Will there be appetite for more expensive cans for those who don't normally drink independent beers? I've had Laguna at Bluedot, Whitelock's (pub) served at Beacons Festival, but those are/were smaller sites.

In the meantime, I can recommend Wishbone Brewery's Black Imp Imperial Stout for a small can night cap.

[The Nal]

6 minutes ago, carlosj said:

Yeah, it would be nice to have good beers on site, but who's big enough (and experienced at this serving scale) to supply the entire site, and make a profit on £6 pints/cans?

They could stick a couple of Laguinitas taps in a bar somewhere.

Or Beavertown. Heineken own them now so supply shouldn't be an issue.

[balti-pie]

Craft beer/a decent pint is appearing in football grounds a lot more reliably, music venues are still a bit hit/miss but I think it’s well worth it. If you’re in for £7 for a pint of dreadful shite like Tuborg, £8 for a Beavertown or or £9 for an actual lovely pint from Burning sky/verdant etc etc becomes a lot more appealing. If you’re gonna ream me, ream me for something really good 

[GoonerRob]

I'd be happy with Heineken as the main larger supplier as they have a 50% stake in Beavertown.

I could happily drink Neck Oil all weekend, and they could probably provide the scale.

 

 

[kingbadger]

Heineken isn't ideal but still a major step up from Carlsberg. Heineken for £6 and Neck Oil for £6.50 would realistically be great pint prices for 2023 given the current market.

[balti-pie]

9 minutes ago, GoonerRob said:

I'd be happy with Heineken as the main larger supplier as they have a 50% stake in Beavertown.

I could happily drink Neck Oil all weekend, and they could probably provide the scale.

 

 

Beavertown is completely owned by heineken now, they took over the whole shebang a couple of months ago. Dunno what this does to the whole idea of beaverworld, they were going to build a big destination brewery tap room up in Enfield at the top of Lea Valley but it wont get the same interest from beer nerds now they're 100% Heineytown 

[gigpusher]

@AlvoramMight be worth speaking to @plot2potHe runs Thirst Class Ale and brews his own beer and stocks some other breweries. If nothing else I'm sure he'd be able to guide you to some top quality beers that aren't quite Cloudwater prices. 

He stocks Brew York for example which are some of my husband's favourite beers. 

[Jose Pose]

Heineken also own Morreti, Tiger and Amstel, so they could definitely offer some ‘better’ lagers.

Carlsberg also own Poretti which isn’t a bad lager and I definitely saw it one year in a bar in around the T&C field, but never again since. They clearly favour pushing only San Miguel as the alternative lager.

Or there is Abinbev if we want Camden Hells, but we might end up with Stella and Budweiser 😳

Edited January 27, 2023 by Jose Pose

[The Nal]

Another year of ordering an Otters ale then. And realising half way through the pint that its complete muck.

[balti-pie]

An oft-repeated point, but i always curate a box of specially selected beers to bring to glastonbury with me. They tend to be stouts and porters, cos dark beers dont need to be cold (a warm DIPA would not be a great experience) and i tend to go for things north of 10% so i have less of a need to wee, and i only need one or two to get a nice mid-set buzz going on. If i fancy a fresh pint i can head off and have one (the Grimbergen in the t+c bar used to be a right bloody winner at 6.5%) but generally i'll have 3 or 4 proper decent cans in my bag and that'll cover the vast majority of my beer consumption for the day 

[plot2pot]

43 minutes ago, gigpusher said:

@AlvoramMight be worth speaking to @plot2potHe runs Thirst Class Ale and brews his own beer and stocks some other breweries. If nothing else I'm sure he'd be able to guide you to some top quality beers that aren't quite Cloudwater prices. 

He stocks Brew York for example which are some of my husband's favourite beers. 

Thanks for the mention - we only supply our own beer to trade but it is very good 😉

Happy to have a chat!

[gigpusher]

4 minutes ago, plot2pot said:

Thanks for the mention - we only supply our own beer to trade but it is very good 😉

Happy to have a chat!

Husband would recommend Haze Craze from the most recent ones! 

[stephos83]

55 minutes ago, Jose Pose said:

Heineken also own Morreti, Tiger and Amstel, so they could definitely offer some ‘better’ lagers.

Carlsberg also own Poretti which isn’t a bad lager and I definitely saw it one year in a bar in around the T&C field, but never again since. They clearly favour pushing only San Miguel as the alternative lager.

Or there is Abinbev if we want Camden Hells, but we might end up with Stella and Budweiser 😳

Heineken also have a stake in Brixton Brewery. They (Heineken) did the beer/cider (other than the real ale tent) at Bluedot last year - Amstel was the mainline lager, with Brixton as the pale ale/IPA (can't remember which). Was a nice surprise to have something decent (the Brixton, not the Amstel!) from every bar to drink all weekend!

[waltere]

6 hours ago, Greenelk said:

Do we know why the Thatchers Craft cider was started, and also why it failed?

Assuming you're talking about the little bar tents that popped up a few years back, in which case I ended up working on the one in Williams Green in both 2015 and 2016 - asides from being heaving on Thursday, when that's the biggest stage on, trade was, at absolute best, steady, and at worst downright non-existent.

I suspect this may have something to do with your latter question tbh

[kingbadger]

1 hour ago, balti-pie said:

An oft-repeated point, but i always curate a box of specially selected beers to bring to glastonbury with me. They tend to be stouts and porters, cos dark beers dont need to be cold (a warm DIPA would not be a great experience) and i tend to go for things north of 10% so i have less of a need to wee, and i only need one or two to get a nice mid-set buzz going on. If i fancy a fresh pint i can head off and have one (the Grimbergen in the t+c bar used to be a right bloody winner at 6.5%) but generally i'll have 3 or 4 proper decent cans in my bag and that'll cover the vast majority of my beer consumption for the day 

How do you go about keeping your stouts at a drinkable temp? I did the same for Bearded Theory but my mates had a gas powered fridge in their tent and it was only a 5 minute nip back to camp to restock. Would love to have 2 or 3 imperial dessert stouts to keep me going during the day, as well as spirits.

[moogster]

4 minutes ago, kingbadger said:

How do you go about keeping your stouts at a drinkable temp? I did the same for Bearded Theory but my mates had a gas powered fridge in their tent and it was only a 5 minute nip back to camp to restock. Would love to have 2 or 3 imperial dessert stouts to keep me going during the day, as well as spirits.

Personally I use a thermos / isolated mug. Coldish in the morning, in the thermos, stays quite decent and keeps enough carbonation (for a stout of course, wouldn't do that with another type of beer). Works for one beer of course but with an imp stout that's quite enough for me 😛

[carlosj]

17 minutes ago, kingbadger said:

How do you go about keeping your stouts at a drinkable temp? I did the same for Bearded Theory but my mates had a gas powered fridge in their tent and it was only a 5 minute nip back to camp to restock. Would love to have 2 or 3 imperial dessert stouts to keep me going during the day, as well as spirits.

I bought a better insulated bottle for daytime storage which copes with carbonation, although I'd imagine wrapping a can in a wet tea towel in a bag would help through the day (although I'd book the bag into the lockups). However, I found the temperature wasn't bad on the cans I had each day anyway.

[p.pete]

19 minutes ago, carlosj said:

I bought a better insulated bottle for daytime storage which copes with carbonation, although I'd imagine wrapping a can in a wet tea towel in a bag would help through the day (although I'd book the bag into the lockups). However, I found the temperature wasn't bad on the cans I had each day anyway.

This thread prompted me to have a dig for what beers are best when they're warm - and I found this: https://pedalchile.com/blog/best-warm-beer  

One of the responses in there suggests putting the can in a wet sock (or tea towel) but then leaving it in the sun as the process of evaporating the water lowers the temperature of the can inside.  That might be why people suggest leaving cans under the tent rather than in it?

General suggestions around choice of beer were to avoid hops, go darker, especially if it has punchy flavours.  I might be taking some of @balti-pie's suggestions above this year.  I usually try to give cheap vodka some sort of ridiculous flavour, but some warm stouts might go down better.