Headingley. Despite being full of pubs, only Arcadia and beer-shopping mecca Beer-Ritz offer any real excitement for those in search of quality Real Ale. However, fear not, intrepid Beeronauts. All is not lost. Next weekend sees Headingley’s first Independent Beer Festival take place, and I caught up with organiser Ruth Edwards to get an idea of what it takes to set up a Beer Festival.
Ruth’s background is all beer – she was the landlady of The Chemic Tavern in Woodhouse, and her sister currently runs the pub after Ruth took time out to start a family and undergo treatment for a serious illness. As many in the industry will attest, Beer stays in the blood, and Ruth was soon thinking about her next steps.
‘Once I started to recover from a pretty tough year I started thinking about what I would like to do next and how I could use my interests and experience from the pub to do something that would fit around being a mum too’, Ruth says.
The idea was a Beer Festival, showcasing beers from Yorkshire and the North. Along with her partner Kevin (who runs 309 Studios on Meanwood Road) she set to work, making best use of the people around her for help.
‘We’ve made real effort to support local businesses. The glass printing, brochure printing, all our sponsors & suppliers are from the local area. Revolutions Brewery (Castleford) have done so much to help us including collecting and delivering all the beers to the festival. The assistance from Rhian and the crew at Arcadia has been fantastic, and Kirkstall Brewery have been big supporters of the event.
Our friend Lee Gill has done most of the art work for the promotion & the festival programme and Cat Davies did all our Yorkshire cider research, selection & tasting notes.’
Not only that, but there will be charity activities over the course of the weekend including a quiz & a raffle; proceeds of which will go West Yorkshire Macmillan Cancer Care.
Having spent many, many lost hours at Beer Festivals, I asked Ruth if it’s a tough gig to set up. ‘It has taken around 3 months to put the festival together and in the last 6 weeks it really has been a full time job’, she says.
‘The trickiest thing when dealing with Real Ales is attracting just the right amount of ale fans. The barrels of ale need to sit undisturbed for 2 to 3 days prior to serving and so can’t be replaced as the festival goes along. This means we need to attract enough beer fans to make the event a success whilst having enough ales to take us nicely through till Sunday evening to avoid anyone being disappointed.’
So; if you’re a hardcore Alehead, or someone who’s into locality in food and drink and supporting Local Businesses, get along to the festival next week. If you’re after some beers to look out for, Ruth recommends Bad Kitty from Brass Castle Brewery, as well as Clash London Porter from Revolutions Brewing Company. Wensleydale’s Coverdale Poacher IPA is a favourite too. The Beer list will be out shortly; but I would expect to see such local luminaries as Kirkstall, Magic Rock and Ridgeside in full force.
You can check out the location, opening times and beer list (when it’s finalised) at their website here. Get yourself along, and taste for yourself what our region’s brewers are getting up to.
Went on Saturday night – brilliant range of beers, great atmosphere and a great band (doing Beatles and Beefheart covers). A late licence would have made it even better but 10 out of 10 anyway!
I too went on the Saturday night however I was a little disappointed to find that nearly every beer I asked for had ran out, ended up not going off the menu and just looking which labels were still on show. Only a minor gripe though as it was a really good atmosphere and all the mystery beers I tried were tasty, looking forward to next year.