Keighley Beer, Cider & Perry Festival 2007
All over for another year, we have finalised the 2008 festival from Thursday 25th to Saturday 27th September.
2007 Report
See the photos at the bottom of the page
Keighley Beer, Cider and Perry Festival 2007 was a success again despite a rail line closure on the Saturday. After last year's sellout of beer we decided to open Thursday all day for the first time in 19 years of festivals in Keighley and, of course, order more beer - 103 real ales were available plus a range of over 40 foreign bottled beers from Germany, Belgium and USA and 18 ciders/perries.
Thursday's all day opening was a hit, with 339 people attending, 102 up on last year. The Town Mayor officially opened the festival at 8pm and announced the festival charity as being Manorlands, a worthy cause for which a considerable amount of money was raised. On Friday attendance was slightly down from last year, possibly because of the cold and rainy weather which incidentally was great for keeping the beer good, but maybe not so good for getting people in to drink it!
The Friday evening Bradford University Jazz Band were boosted by extra members from Baildon Jazz band and Leeds College of Music and turned in a tremendous performance playing regular favourites plus a few new numbers.
On Saturday we were further hit by this time a rail line closure which not only put off people travelling from Leeds to Keighley but also prevented our Keighley Community Transport courtesy bus from parking up at the station because of the line of replacement buses for the railway. Consequently we were down by 240 on attendance on Saturday. Hall Royd Brass Band as usual played on Saturday afternoon and went down well again. The Saturday evening visitors had a good range of beer to go at, and this was reflected by them staying longer and enjoying the band, Undercover, and playing the Tombola, seemingly as much as I enjoyed working on it!
Facts and figures now - Overall, 819 gallons of beer had been downed by 1457 visitors - that's 6552 pints! Only slightly down on 2006 despite being 245 down in attendance.
CBOB (Champion beer of Britain)-style tasting panels (as used at the CAMRA Great British Beer Festival) were conducted by branch chairman Lynda Smith and Richard Candeland. The results were as follows:
Beer of the Festival - Tasting Panel
Mild
1st: Taylor Golden Best
2nd: Copper Dragon Black Gold
3rd: Brown Cow Captain Oates Dark Mild
Bitter
1st: Taylor Best Bitter
2nd: Copper Dragon Golden Pippin
3rd: Kelburn Goldihops
Best Bitter
1st: Copper Dragon Scotts 1816
2nd: Salamander Golden Salamander
3rd: Taylor Landlord
Final Panel (judged from 1st and 2nd in each category)
1st: Copper Dragon 1816
Joint 2nd: Copper Dragon Golden Pippin and Taylor Best Bitter
3rd: Taylor Golden Best
A customer poll also took place over all three days. The results were as follows.
Beer of the Festival (Public Vote) - British Real Ales
Joint 1st: Strathaven Old Mortality 80/- and Dark Star Over the MoonJoint 2nd: Cairngorm Trade Winds and Beckstones Leat
Joint 3rd: Brown Cow After Dark Coffee Porter and Tigertops Arrogant 10k IPA
Awards were presented to Copper Dragon, Strathaven and Dark Star.
Timothy Taylor's brewery did us proud by sponsoring the glasses and an extra line on pint and half glasses allowed third of a pint measures to be dispensed. This proved popular with the 'tickers' and with others who took the opportunity to try more beers within their drinking capacity. Copper Dragon brewery of Skipton were also very supportive, as they have been over the last four years, by sponsoring the programme, as well as Market Town Taverns have been for their stage sponsorship. Other sponsors were Keighley Town Council for the courtesy bus, the Brown Cow at Keighley for the beer tokens, Naylors brewery for the programme crossword competition, and the Grove Inn, Leeds for sponsoring the Jazz band.
Also thanks to the many pubs, breweries and individuals that donated tombola prizes. Thanks to Christine Jopling for designing a fantastic logo which appeared on the festival posters, T-shirts, beer mats and glasses. Thanks to all our staff who gave up their free time to come and work at the festival and of course to all our customers for coming.
Photo gallery
Click on any of the photos to enlarge and see the full gallery.
