39th Pigs Ear Beer Festival, Round Chapel Hackney underlines the importance of cask beer
I managed a couple of visits to the 39th Pigs Beer Festival this week, organised by City and East London CAMRA.
It was the 39th 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 one of the best cask beer ranges I’ve drunk recently(the Great British Beer Festival not withstanding) in a world where cans from bottle shops and craft keg (more likely to be found in uncertain times because it has a longer life than the few days for a cask) compete for the drinkers interest. As a lifelong cask beer drinker who also enjoys beer in other formats I certainly wasn’t complaining.
The beer range (cask, keykeg, 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- two versions- one with the yeast of each brewery and first brewed in 2011 in the early days of craft beer.
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 15 years or so. Aside from the Kernel/Redemption milds I enjoyed particularly Anspach and Hobday’s Christmas Pale and Five Points Gold a new beer aimed at the new duty regime with an ABV of 3.4%. Thornbridge’s Kelham Island Gold Label Barley Wine at the other end of the strength scale was also a very enjoyable third.
The point being perhaps that when keykeg first appeared at the Pigs Ear it was quite a focus. Now craft keykeg is quite widely available while well kept and interesting cask is not always quite as easy to find as it should be. In show casing it the Pigs Ear is doing a valuable job. Hard work for the volunteers but enjoyable for the drinker
There was plenty of space and I didn’t feel uncomfortable (plenty of seating down and upstairs) Of course the attendance could always be more diverse although I have no personal issues with senior men with beards.
The 39th Pigs Ear Beer Festival is at the Round Chapel Hackney until Saturday 2nd December
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