00:00Hello and welcome to the Great British Beer Festival here at the grand surroundings of the NEC in Birmingham.
00:08Behind me you can just see, well, the first part. This is the first hall of the events of what's going on.
00:15People are already sat down. They're having their first beer or maybe even second beer of the day because the doors opened at 12 o'clock
00:21and we're about, what, half an hour in?
00:24It's my duty over the next few days to walk around, have a look, speak to people and see what is happening.
00:31The Great British Beer Festival is one of the biggest things to happen in this region for real ale, cider, gin, lager and other drinks
00:40for about 40 years since it was last held here in the region. It was 1983 it was last held in the region.
00:47It's been in London since but it's returned to the NEC so let's go see what's on.
00:51Take a step down into hall two and you can see a lot more of the beers that are on offer.
00:58Over there that's a sweet stall which is absolutely wonderful. There's plenty of indie beer promotions down here as well.
01:04If you look over there that's actually the non-Auki bar, the Glen Air Affon.
01:10I may have butchered the pronunciation on that but please bear with me.
01:12There's plenty of breweries around here as well that are open and are selling beers from all around the area.
01:20So Oakerman, Iron Pier and Osset.
01:22Down there there's the Cider Bar, the Little Gem which I intend to have a look at later.
01:27You've got bits of food, so pork scratchings.
01:29It's believed to be fiery pork scratchings so that's a challenge for me.
01:33Big seizing area and plenty more bars.
01:34That's also the discovery area over there where you can learn more about the beer, try it and all the other bits and pieces that come with the making of beer.
01:43There's the Breweriana shop which has got so much paraphernalia in there it's almost ridiculous from different bars and different breweries around the area.
01:53Now these are some of the more specialist bars who are actually here being represented.
01:57They've paid to be here and they're here showing off their wares over the spell of the festival.
02:03So you've got Harvey's, you've got Green Duck, you've got Green King, you've got Brains and there's also one down there.
02:11I can't quite see it from here but I do remember them being quite nice.
02:14All the beers are very nice and I intend to obviously have a few at the same time.
02:18And over there at Drew's Arms, just over there, the gaming area.
02:21We're going to head there next and we're going to hear the person with the microphone who is very much enjoying himself commentating.
02:27There you go sir, you're doing it. Thank you very much.
02:31Thank you. Thank you very much.
02:36Hello sir, you okay?
02:37I'm going to get half the cherry stout.
02:39Of course you can sir.
02:41Squeeze.
02:42Cherry stout.
02:47Hiya.
02:47It's 6.6.
02:50And 4.6.
02:54Oh.
02:57It's 6.5.
03:03Yeah.
03:04It's ok now.
03:05It's ok now.
03:05I can't wait to see.
03:08I can't wait to see.
03:11It's ok.
03:13It's ok.
03:20It's ok now.
03:22There we go.
03:52This is the Drew Arms.
04:09Down here you've got a number of big breweries all taking part in this weekend, so you can
04:14see Big Ben's Brew from Lancashire, Big Trip from Greater Manchester, Grey Trees from
04:18Glamorgan, Newt from Edinburgh and the Lothians, Ockles from Isle of Man, Stuart from Edinburgh
04:24and the Lothians, Stroud from Gloucestershire and Bristol, all here on the happy handpulls
04:29with volunteers working to pull them for you.
04:32Going around you can see the way it is all designed, you can come up here and you can
04:37either pay on the door, you can see the price is up there, or you've got tokens that works
04:41as well.
04:42This looks like a busy area over the weekend, it'd be debatable how long some of these beers
04:47are actually going to last for, but get yourself down here, have a drink and enjoy yourself.
04:59Sons of the Yardarm, it's gin o'clock, welcome to the Off the Arms for gin, wine and cocktails.
05:06Over there is a fine selection, you can see the Spice Shrop's Cherry, the Three Wrens Bloody
05:12Apricots, the Brixton Gin, good selection over there to be fair, it all comes with a number
05:17of spritzers, prices are, so for a double spirit and a mixer that's £9, for a double
05:22cocktail that's £10, pretty decent price to be fair.
05:25Wine is a fiver, Prosecco is £7, your mocktails are £2.
05:30I'm interested to find out what your mocktails are, so let's work our way down the list.
05:35Cocktail Rum Recipes, oh, that's actually even better, you can sort of tell what's in there
05:41and then how it's mixed, so come down here and see what is available, there is a really
05:45good selection on at the Off the Arms.
05:49Welcome to Brewer-ania, this is the shop where you can buy virtually any sort of paraphernalia
05:54from here at the festival.
05:55Let's have a walk around and see what is available.
05:58You can see over there, some different bottles and little bits and pieces, badges and bears.
06:04Over here are the pump clips, so you have different beers in the past, seeing there are Rams, and
06:11there's a thoroughbred from Nick Stafford's Hamilton Ale, it's a good selection here, Purple
06:15Moose, some fury I remember along the way, there's a really good selection of stuff over here as
06:21well.
06:22Looking at some of the bigger clips, so you see a Fuller's, it's the best biter, Nero from
06:27Milton Brewery, Palmer's traditional best biter, some of these are clearly going back
06:32a very long way, Timothy Taylor, which is always a good pint, Masters Pedigree, never had a
06:38disagreement with that in my life, Thwaites Theakston Batesman's Equinox, it's a great
06:43name for a beer, that, Brewery Tide, so if you've ever wanted to walk around with a Whipbread
06:49Stocial on, or Stones, or whichever brewery this one is down here, walk over here and you
06:57can see the different pin badges that are available for the different breweries, so
07:01I'm trying to find a Banks' one if there is one somewhere, because obviously that's more
07:05local to myself, but you can see here, Tetley Beer, Hardy Country, Theakston's, a big pile
07:15of badges over here, and then, oh, now we are getting to the Nostalgia area, we've got big
07:21flagons for cider, which you can fill up, and then some great beers here as well, beer
07:26bottles, I don't know how drinkable some of these beers are, but you can see some really
07:31great ones here, Celebration Lager, Royal Wedding, which may or may not have been, oh,
07:37there we go, July 1981, so it was Charles and Diana, so that's really a good thing from
07:41that time, plates and knives and forks, and there's T-shirts over here, it's a big amount
07:48of sale, man with a fantastic hat and a really fantastic looking kilt as well, looking after
07:55the bags and the tea towels, you're looking good, sir, very, that is an excellent kilt,
08:02right, tea towels over here, there's a number of beer mats and various things, another more
08:09beer mats, I've seen someone wear trousers made entirely of beer mats, a lot of sewing that
08:14goes for that, but it's a great look if you can pull it off, to be honest, John Smith's,
08:19Hatter's Mild, Coats Somerset, Carlsberg, if that's your bag, a world, fantastic world
08:26here, of beer mats to take a look at, there's jugs, mugs and tankards over here, versions
08:32of the good beer guide from the multiple number of years that have gone on, and glasses, so
08:38if you want to take over a foreign beer glass, basically you could walk out of here with about
08:42100 quid's worth of stuff that would be sacred to you, would look good at home, and if you're
08:48really that way inclined, you could try drinking from it as well, so you've got Pedigree, Rebellion
08:54Beer, Rimney Brewery, Caledonian Brewery, the Great British Beer Festival, so these are
08:58obviously more dedicated to the past, yeah, decade, even longer of the different festivals,
09:04£5 to £12, depending how old you are, so there's plenty to see here, get yourself down
09:10here, have a look at Brewer Iana.
09:40So let's take a look around the gaming area and see what there is, this is Ring the Hand
10:03Pump, it's pretty simple, throw the rings, get around the hand pump, if you get two rings,
10:08you're going to win yourself a bar towel, glass and a book, prizes incrementally go up
10:13the more rings you do, if you get only one ring over, you do get a free one, £1.30 a
10:20go for five rings, £2.50 for two goes, any six games around, you're just £6, so it's
10:25actually pretty good value, but five rings gets you a fleece, a hoodie and a rugby shirt,
10:29so I actually wouldn't complain about that to be fair. Shut the box over here, that is to
10:34win a t-shirt or a hat, throw the dice at a score, you must use the whole score to close
10:39one or more box. No set number of throws, if you can't use the whole score, you lose.
10:46That one might take a little bit more explaining, but get up there, have a play, see what happens.
10:50Table skittles, very, very, very simple to explain, you've got the ball on a pendulum there, with the skittles,
11:00table skittles, devil amongst the tailors, get yourself as high a score as possible, as you can see there,
11:05plus 19, fleece hoodie and a rugby shirt. The ball must be swung around the outside only once for each swing,
11:13so that's a pretty good thing to say there. Let's work our way around, a bit of English shuffleboard,
11:19and again, no surprises than that, these seem to be the most popular ones so far, getting your slots into your holes.
11:25Particularly frantic game going on here, so the gentleman here playing and getting their shots into the holes.
11:32Of course, nowhere else would be popular without a game of a table of football. Make sure you don't put your drinks on it,
11:39because you'll mess up the screen otherwise. The shuffleboard is all down to the score that you get.
11:4542 plus will get you fleece, hoodie and that rugby shirt. There's plenty of all of this going on, let's just quickly look and see what else there is.
11:53People of course think that it's nice and easy to be able to do that.
11:57Spent work around here to the end, a toad in the hole.
12:02Score prize? Pretty simple as that. Score three for a toad going in the hole.
12:07And then Jeux de la Gragneau.
12:11Let's try and explain this one. I'm interested to know, what is a Jeux de la Gragneau?
12:18Tell me a bit about what you actually do with that.
12:22You probably seem to get the score points.
12:25Let's skip with that.
12:55Okay, so this is Jeux de la Gragneau, so it's basically throwing from behind the blue line here, trying to get it into the frog's mouth.
13:23This can only go well, to be fair.
13:28So, nothing scored there.
13:33It is actually harder than it looks. It's 20 points for getting it into the frog's mouth.
13:41Well, I got two points there. Lovely.
13:45And, oh, so very near. So, two points in the end.
13:50Yep, don't give that one a close, I'm close.
13:53And, oh, OK.
13:56I'm just going to take that one.
13:58I win.
13:59Let's get this one.
14:00Your wife has been in the middle of the call.
14:02I did.
14:03But, a little bit more than the group as well.
14:05He's got another one.
14:07I love the Lord.
14:08I love the Lord.
14:09I love the Lord.
14:10One, I love the Lord.
14:11I love the Lord.
14:13My God.
14:14for those of you wanting something a bit different for your festival come to the
14:43little gem the uh from b11 the little gem which is from ailsford in kent as he says they're
14:50neglected by the pub company owners the great holistic pub was closed in 2010 it was eventually
14:55bought reopened and has been opened since 2021 after extensive restoration works and the seven
15:02types of ciders there from the very sweet to the very dry i have to try and work that one out for
15:07myself but seeing some of the ciders here we've got this sort of nice mix of a 7.4 i can see a 6.5 of
15:14five percent uh 5.5 so there's quite a strong selection here working with the idea of colzeen
15:21castle egremont russet uh bulhays medium bridge um perry there's not just you know your normal
15:28source of conventional ciders it's a mixture of stuff that could leave hair in your teeth but
15:33could also have you have a very nice time and have a very good aftertaste there's maybe one or two
15:39who've now reached the end due to being so popular along the way let's work away down let's have a
15:44look so you can see some of the sixes there's a three there which is a lot sweeter the lambenthean
15:51orchards which is a 6.3 percent six pound a pint but probably worth it along the way that's a bit of
15:59cider so you have to answer the little gem
16:06you
16:08you
16:10you
16:12you
16:13you
16:14you
16:16you
16:17you
16:18you
16:20you
16:22you
16:45you
