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22nd London Drinker Festival a ‘Buss-ting’ success
The 28th to 30th March saw the 23rd London Drinker Festival celebrate the
famous, now defunct, Routemaster bus. Over the three days, thousands of
visitors drank a great range of real ales, ciders, perries and imported
beer totalling well over a hundred different varieties, guaranteeing that
everyone could find something to their taste. Mike Rose, the organiser
said “We once again had a very successful festival selling out of our
commemorative tee shirts and mugs. We welcomed people not just from
London and the Home Counties but from Italy and even as far away as Canada
and Japan.
Festival Staffing Officer Ian McLaren is pictured (right) with one of the
Festival’s Japanese patrons.
But as always we are grateful to our staff, all unpaid volunteers, who give
up their holidays to help us put on the event. Without them, it simply would
not happen. We always welcome new faces, whether volunteers or drinkers and
if anyone missed this year’s event then put the 2008 one in the diary now:
12-14th March”.
Between pints, drinkers voted for the Beer of the Festival. This year’s
winner was from a small brewery, Spire, that only opened last spring. Based
near Chesterfield in Derbyshire, the winning Sergeant Pepper’s Stout was
described as ‘full flavoured laced with black pepper’. The winner from the
cider and perry bar was Hecks Perry. Hecks hails from Somerset but Helen
Evans, the cider bar manager (below, right), said that the fastest seller
was Clive’s dry perry from Hereford and Worcester. Clive uses fruit from
their own orchards. She also added “Our Brittany cider from Guillet was also
very popular. It had strong fruit on the nose with a pleasant refreshing
acidity on the palate and aftertaste”.
On the imported beer bar, the fastest seller turned out to be a strawberry
beer from Hanssens in Belgium. Called Oudbeitje, this 6% ABV beer is produced
using real strawberries, giving a dry and delicate flavour.
Despite beer being known as liquid bread, visitors do need sustenance. And as
usual, the Festival boasted a range of food, all home cooked by CAMRA volunteers,
the only London Festival to do so. The best selling dish was Honey Pork with
Mash but the Festival got through 1600 sausages, all supplied by O’Hagans real
sausages. Peter Beasley, the amazing volunteer manager said “We couldn’t do
this without all our volunteer help. We are particularly grateful to all human
washer uppers as we don’t have room for a mechanical dish washer!”
So if you missed this year’s Festival and can’t wait until next March for the
next one, don’t despair. The summer and autumn has a great range of CAMRA beer
festivals happening.
by Christine Cryne
 
Reproduced from the Full Pint, Issue 40.
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