37th Pigs Beer Festival, Round Chapel Hackney. A welcome return
After a difficult two years of the pandemic, clearly not over yet, it was welcome to see the return of the Pigs Beer Festival, organised by City and East London CAMRA, this week.
It was the first beer festival I’d been at since mid-February 2020 and of course the first Pigs Ear for two years.
It was the 37th Pigs Ear and I’ve been at nearly all of them, from the Bethnal Green days to Stratford and now Hackney. The grade 2 listed Round Chapel does make a great venue, although one might note some accessibility issues. There are lots of steps.
It was I think almost certainly the most cask beer Ive drunk since early 2020. Its been cans and craft keg (more likely to be found in uncertain times because it has a longer life than the few days for a cask) which was interesting in itself a lifelong cask beer drinker.
The beer range (cask, keykeg, keg, cans/bottles) was excellent as ever. In recent times there are of course lots of not just London brewers but east London brewers. In that sense the two stand out beers for me were the Redemption/Kernel Victorian mild, first brewed in 2011 and then again in 2017 and Fuller’s London Porter the cask version of which has just made its annual appearance.
The range of styles from ordinary bitters to stouts, porters, IPAs, sours and much else reflected how much the beer world has changed in the last 10 years or so.
There was plenty of space and I didn’t feel uncomfortable (plenty of seating upstairs) with no queues at the bars and COVID safety to the fore. Perhaps the attendance was not quite as diverse as in recent festivals with hardcore CAMRA members (like ahem myself) more to the fore but in times like these just getting the festival on deserves applause.
Leave a Reply