Beer Compurgation

I must warn you I'm going to sentimentalise a beer festival. Some will definitely smirk and see it as aggrandising but I no longer care. There was a moment at the Independent Manchester Beer Convention 2015 that gave me a feeling I’ve never had at a beer festival before. It was the Friday evening session. After an afternoon session of just rolling with whatever happened I somehow ended up volunteering to work the Magic Rock bar in the evening. Don’t ask me how this even occurred, but it was my first time on the other side of proceedings. I’m not a brewer. I’ve never volunteered. So I’ve never had that pleasure. But, in a brief lull of the mass queues after some Ginspired or Bearded Lady PX, I stood from the bar, looked around this old Victorian pool come sports hall in Room 2 at all the happy revellers and felt a little emotional. The feeling was simple: This Is Brilliant and I’m very happy. Perhaps that seems a little over-romanticised for a beer festival, b

Sometimes a disappointment can lead to something unexpectedly wonderful. The beer Rainbow Project entered it's third year in 2015. Originally conceived by Ryan Witter of Siren Brewery, this year the entire project felt much more like an event than I'd previously remembered.  This year's niche was that the seven UK breweries involved would be making collaboration beers with selected American breweries. Like many recent beer phenomenons, the excitement surrounding this event seemed to reach peak levels this year. Announcements of each beer were dropped like birth declarations. Each stage was given the fanfare treatment. But little of it excited me. Sour after sour after sour. Though some playfully called out my sour cynicism on Twitter , no matter what different styles you refer to them as, we ended up with 6 out of 7 of this year's Rainbow Project beers being sours. I was to be attending the Rainbow Project's Northern launch at the Magic Rock Ta