onionbagblog

And so that was the @ColCAMRA Winter Beer Festival. This blog post has the possibility of being the shortest ever published, given the unforgiving ability of the booze to play around with your brain cells. A quiet Saturday afternoon drink soon became Sunday morning.

Whoops.

#chinchin.

But first, something about the wonderful @ColchesterArts Centre, which staged the four-day drinkathon. Holding a beer festival inside the once sacred surroundings of a church has to be something of a coup.

The building is brilliant as an intimate live music venue. Transport over 100 different varieties of beer around the vestry, and the surrounds soon became the perfect place to worship booze. The original occupants always did like their red wine during evening sermon.

But it wasn’t all about the booze. It just felt that way…

If there was ever any justification in arranging a dreaded tweet up, then a beer festival has to fit the bill. Online dialogue had been building up since the start of the week, with a call for any #Colchester based boozers to seal our online friendship with five pints of the roughest, darkest ale that was on offer.

How wonderful then to meet up with @benlocker, @zemblamatic, @LeePugh10, @nickjbarlow, @bonniehoward and of course @CoolColchester - the one man promotion team who is largely responsible for all that is good in Sunny Colch right now.

Oh yeah - @AnnaJCowen tagged along at the back.

Between us we managed to boast a yellow shaded Colchester Borough Council cabinet member (blimey,) and then the acceptable face of political opinions at the two opposite extremes.

It may have been something to do with the beer, but the conversation all afternoon was one of positive thoughts for the town, and how best to promote Colchester. There’s a definite lesson to be learnt there. Perhaps all politics should be conduced when politicians are completely p***ed.

I always try (and fail) at beer festivals to keep a set list of what I’m necking. Saturday afternoon was no exception. I do remember trying to keep it local, and sampling the fine beers from our Essex and Suffolk breweries.

My broad rule of thumb for these events is to stick with the dark stuff. If you can see across the room through your pint glass then you are probably drinking a Babysham.

Black Adder bitter from Mauldons brewery was the high (low?) point of the afternoon. It even managed to get something of a wild yarn being told involving the Honourable Bernard Jenkin MP, which I couldn’t possibly commit to print.

I became rather tired and emotional mid-afternoon, and had something of a lost half hour. I ended up backstage briefly, and then face to face with a Brian Clough look-alike. Now then, young man - it was that kind of afternoon.

And so sometime before (um, really can’t remember…) I was bundled back on the train by the good @LeePugh10, and all bound back for Wivenhoe. On reflection, a top up at The Station was a mistake. Apologies to @Wozzy138 for the iPhone confusion from the deluded @AnnaJCowen.

Like all good nights out, we ended up at Papa’s Chip Shop.

Blimey.

I’m sure there was some in depth conversation with Mr Papa. Once again apologies ‘n all that, and if in doubt, blame it on the Black Adder booze. Or even Bernard Jenkin.

Chin chin.