Added: 12/23/2005 |
The Chappel Beer Festival ? It?s All About the Suds!The Chappel Beer Festival is a joint event of East Anglian Museum and Essex CAMRA, an independent consumer organization, which aims at promoting the traditional British pub and real ale. Each year nearly 300 types of real ale are represented at the Festival; the majority of them are not available in East Anglia. Live entertainment during the Chappel Beer Festival is provided by such bands as "Deep Joy", "The Onion Band" and "16 String Jack". Food is available in any amount and at all times. In addition to this, the visitors are offered free car parking, as well as special late trains to Colchester, Ipswich, Sudbury and Bures.
During the festival trains stop at Chappel and Wakes Colne railway station all day long, providing spectators with the opportunity to step off the train and taste different ales, without worrying about driving home afterwards. Beer at the festival is served in four areas, the main two of which are the Restoration Shed and the Goods Shed. The Shunters Arms can be found inside one of the wagons, parked on the platform. One more area - the Express Bar is open at peak times only, featuring two of the most popular beers. As of 2005 they were Woodforde's Wherry and Oakham JHB.
The festival is prominent for its beer list, which included as many as 325 beers in 2005. However, the long beer list causes some problems, faced usually by all big beer festivals: there isn't enough space to display all the beers at once. For this reason you may discover that the beer you've chosen from the extensive list is not available at the bar. A hasty decision is required on something displayed in front of you. Some beers are sold out during the first day of the festival, so you may fail to get your favorite ale on the latter days.
The days at the Chappel Beer Festival are spent moving from the Goods Shed to the Restoration Shed and the Shunters Arms, visiting T-Shirt stall, drinking beer in the carriages, and enjoying the game Spot the faces from other festivals. Those staying to the evening can enjoy the music and free camping in the field.
At the Chappel Beer Festival, tested beer cooling methods are employed. Damp bar towels are usually employed, which are kept damp due to a network of irrigation pipes. Damp bar towels are extremely popular, since they help save much time and effort.
The Chappel Beer Festival 2005 featured beer from as many as 97 breweries, ranging from across England and a smaller number from Wales and Scotland. Ten Yorkshire breweries were represented at the festival alongside with 14 local brewers from Herts, Suffolk and Essex. They range in size from the enormous breweries like Adnams, Young's, Woodforde's and Tim Taylor to microbreweries like Green Tye and Sawbridgeworth.
The festival is also related to Budweiser events. Budweiser, often referred to as Bud is the primary brand of beer, produced by Anheuser Busch and regarded as the #1 beer in the USA. The 19th Chappel Beer Festival, held in September 2005 featured a variety of new rare beers, Cider, cold and hot food. In addition to this the spectators had the possibility to visit a new Belgian Beer Bar. Admission fee to the festival is $2 from Wednesday to Saturday before 5 p.m., and $3 on Thursday and Friday evenings. Admission is free for members of CAMRA or EARM. All the railway exhibits are included into the price.
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