Hi All,
As per Hilden's wishes we hope to have the NHC stand up and running before the 2pm kick-off on Saturday 24th. I'll be leaving various bits of equipment, along with the NHC stand & materials down at Hilden some time next week & will be down to set up some time between 12 and 1 on the day. I reckon I'll be fine getting the stand set up on my own but if anyone out there (I'm not referring solely to the Nordies here) wants to lend a had I certainly won't knock back the offer.
As for the manning of the stands, given that Hilden want us set up for 2, we might as well start manning it from 2 onwards. End time is still TBD; can't see a need for us to go on till 11pm. If I'm still there at 11 it'll be more of an NHC stagger than a stand (hahahaha).
So I'm looking for volunteers to do shifts at the stand. Might be better if we worked in pairs; Wise to a Morecambe, Cannon to a Ball, Little to a Large, etc
Probably don't need to know exact times you can help; a list of names would do for now.
I'll start the ball rolling:
1.Barry (Bazza)
Cheers,
-Barry
1. Barry (Bazza)
2. Il Tubo (Shane) (Dunno what I can commit to but I will be there to help)
3. Chris (Sub82) (Count me in for setting up and manning the stand earlier in the day)
Quote from: sub82 on August 15, 2013, 04:25:35 PM
1. Barry (Bazza)
2. Il Tubo (Shane) (Dunno what I can commit to but I will be there to help)
3. Chris (Sub82) (Count me in for setting up and manning the stand earlier in the day)
4. Matthew
Quote1. Barry (Bazza)
2. Il Tubo (Shane) (Dunno what I can commit to but I will be there to help)
3. Chris (Sub82) (Count me in for setting up and manning the stand earlier in the day)
4. Matthew
5. Bill (License reinstated!! It seems months that have 5 weekends result in my head disappearing up my arse)
What sort of time are folk jumping on the train?
Quote from: Bill_00 on August 19, 2013, 08:41:47 AM
Quote1. Barry (Bazza)
2. Il Tubo (Shane) (Dunno what I can commit to but I will be there to help)
3. Chris (Sub82) (Count me in for setting up and manning the stand earlier in the day)
4. Matthew
5. Bill (License reinstated!! It seems months that have 5 weekends result in my head disappearing up my arse)
6. Iain
Hi lads,
yes I will be onhand to help out, however a good friend of mine is moving to England to work and his leaving do is the festival. So although I will be preoccupied, I will be able to spend an hour or so manning the stall, doing bar runs etc...
We hope to be there to have some equipment to show folk how to brew from kits, should anyone want any orders brought up to save on delivery, just drop me an email info@geterbrewed.com
When you've all sobered up - how did it go at the Hilden festival? Much interest in the NHC? Any new brews we should be aware of?
Hey Andy,
Never really got drunk TBH, so able to give a quick update:
Hilden was pretty good. Decent selection of English ales (Black Sheep, Sharps, St. Austell, Exmoor, etc) as well as the Hilden's own selection.
Logistically the NHC stand was a little to one side from the proceedings i.e. inside instead of outside. We got a few interested punters in at various points asking questions. Whether we'd have gotten more interest had we been positioned outside in the thick of things is open to debate.
Think I missed your intro posts. You're in the Ravenhill area, then? There's a fast-growing Rosetta/Galwally/Ormeau contingent to this group, by the look of things :)
-Barry
+1 on the festival being good! Some interesting beers on display, although I would've liked 1 or 2 higher ABV hoppy beers to sample. They all seemed to be in the session beer category.
Definitely think we and Geterbrewed would've benefitted from being amongst the festival crowd rather than inside the building.
I overdid it on Friday night...sorry lads :(
Glad it went well though!
Everyone seems to be being very kind to Hilden, however I have to say this year's festival seriously paled in comparison to previous years.
Firstly, the free-before-four policy was dropped, and entrance was 12 quid all day. Then it was 2.50 for the glass - minus the double sided beer menu of previous years - and another 3.80 for a pint.
So it was essentially twenty quid before the first sip of beer touched your lips.
Selection-wise, there wasn't really much there to test the palate.
Sub and I were at the Fyne Ale festival in Scotland this summer, and it was a plethora of different styles, from the cucumber and mint beer, to dark, thick stouts, to hoppy IPAs and a vinegary Brett.
The Hilden festival this year was essentially CAMRA territory - nothing really beyond mildly hoppy blondes and low-strength, brown ales.
That, combined with the increase in entrance prices, made for a pretty disappointing day, I thought.
And RE the stall - yeah it was good - Bazza and I manned it for a bit until I had to go and meet friends and Shane arrived. But I think it was particularly frustrating for Get Er Brewed, who were there to promote their business.
Why, when MAC's cider stall was given a prominent outside location, we didn't get to put our stall outside, is anyone's guess.
But there you go!
Yeah I agree Shane.
I'm pretty sure that, had you been at least year's, or even the year before, you might have got a better impression of the Festival.
It seems to be to be indicative of my experience of craft ale and beer in Ireland. You really have to turn to Scotland or England for inventive, risky, challenging beers. In Ireland we seem too happy with malty, 3.5% brown ales or hopless red beers.
There is definitely a niche in the NI market at least!
Yeah, Ditto to Shane. The most enjoyable part of the day for me was meeting up with folk, both familiar and new. (Shane - you HAD to go and mention Tyrone :( )
Regarding the positioning of the stands, poor as it was, I guess Hilden were under no obligation to us. I hope that it wasn't a complete waste of time for GetErBrewed; they deserve support for their undertaking.
As for the festival itself, I have to admit it's a real struggle for me to get any of my mates interested in craft beer, and can't see that changing any time soon, given that our only access to a reasonable selection up here is at over-priced festivals and JD's Wild West Saloon. The one or two lads who might have come along on Saturday were immediately put off by the £12 price tag. I couldn't blame them. It's a lot of money to spend before you even buy a pint, or a glass to drink it out of.
It's a sad reflection on Belfast that I was the proverbial pig in shit with what was on offer selection-wise. It was admittedly modest, but in this country we've really honed the talent of 'making do'. I take Shane's point about the complete lack of Stout. Whitewater didn't even offer any of theirs.
Would I go again next year? Mmnnnggg.... maybe, after some convincing. My overall feeling of last Saturday was one of flatness, though that may just have been down to the effects of unexpected sobriety.
-Barry
As far as I know only O'Hara's, Porterhouse and Dungarvan have the legal stuff done to be able to sell in the North. Although, that's plenty of beers to choose from. With a bit of effort Hilden could have sourced a few other breweries as well. I know Metalman got into the Belfast beer festival by "selling" their beer to Dungarvan who then sold it on in Belfast.
There may have been an issue with price as well though. A cask of session ale from the UK will come in at a lot cheaper for Hilden than a cask from the south.
I read an article online a while ago about a UK brewery closing because of the wholesale price of casks. The brewer was saying that some pubs are buying casks for just under £60 and he couldn't compete. You'd get a lot of recognisable English ales for £60-80 (Hobgolin, Hooky, Greene King, Adnams).
By comparison, Irish casks come in at €140+.
Dunno about PH Plain but the B&C were definitely paying €140-ish for the likes of O'Hara's and Metalman casks.
Hilden could probably get a bulk discount from a cask distributor as well.
Yep, kegs are more around €150.
Quote from: Il Tubo on August 28, 2013, 11:37:57 AM
Quote from: iain_todd on August 28, 2013, 11:01:41 AM
It seems to be to be indicative of my experience of craft ale and beer in Ireland. You really have to turn to Scotland or England for inventive, risky, challenging beers. In Ireland we seem too happy with malty, 3.5% brown ales or hopless red beers.
This is where the two sides of the border are divergent, IMHO. Hilden had NI and GB beers, but nothing from ROI. That was disappointing as there are some great beers brewed in the South. Including hoppy ones. Porterhouse's Hop Head (at one time my favourite beer in the whole world), to name but one, if you're looking for hops. Plenty of great stouts tool, which are perfect served on cask, but again an opportunity missed.
yes, I completely agree, ROI has some great beers and I'm assuming the RDS festival will be miles ahead of anything we've ever had in Belfast.
I seem to remember one CAMRA festival a few years ago in the Ulster Hall being great, and Hilden is usually alot better, so maybe I'm being unfair.
It just seemed that that Fyne Fest sub and I went to over the summer was on another level in comparison to anything I've been to in Ireland.
Bars like the Bull & Castle and the Porterhouse are a great example of what a good Belfast pub would be like, but perhaps we've too small a population for there to be enough craft beer drinkers to sustain it.
Quote from: Il Tubo on August 28, 2013, 02:54:21 PM
Surely Belfast has some pubs that tick those boxes?
We do - Wetherspoons.
-Barry
Haha!
Not really. While beers other than Harp, Smithwick's and Guinness are breaking through, it's again always just the usual, uninspiring CAMRA style ales that get sold.
Most pubs in Belfast are essentially Diageo watering holes. The Hudson is perhaps the most inventive and eclectic in terms of beer, but its also the most expensive and still pales in comparison to bars I've visited in Dublin, Glasgow and Edinburgh.
good food bazza- r u f-ing kidding me?
Quote from: iain_todd on August 28, 2013, 05:06:23 PM
The Hudson is perhaps the most inventive and eclectic in terms of beer, but its also the most expensive and still pales in comparison to bars I've visited in Dublin, Glasgow and Edinburgh.
for now...muhahahahaha
Quote from: matthewdick23 on August 28, 2013, 05:09:19 PM
good food bazza- r u f-ing kidding me?
Yes.
Tongue & cheek, which are incidentally the main ingredients of a Wetherspoons beef pie.
Seriously, though, apart from the handful that offer more than 1 craft ale on tap (e.g. Hudson, John Hewitt sometimes, The Crown for some reason, W*****spoons) and the handful of others that offer a Belfast Ale here and a Hilden there, we've very little choice. I'd even settle for the uninspiring CAMRA style ales if I thought I could get them in more than 2 places city-wide.
-Barry
You should come to Derry. 1 bar that sells all 4 Hilden bottles, 1 bar that sometimes has Hilden bottles but you never know which and then Wetherspoons. To be fair to them, the cask is well kept, cheap and they normally have a good selection.
Hi all,
I hope you don't mind me jumping in here. I work at Hilden and we were delighted to see you at this years event and would certainly be more than happy to collaborate in the future.
On reading your posts I think that it is fair to point out that your participation in the event was not well thought out on our side and we should have arranged a stand outside for yourselves and if you are interested we will certainly consider that for again, although I certainly think that the Sunday would be a better day for you, maybe a better demographic, and the entrance fee is lower on a Sunday and Friday than Saturday.
A few points of clarification also about the festival which may help people to understand things from our side.
We fund the entire festival - ie the stages, sound, lighting, all the bands, all the staff - apart from the very odd volunteer ( thank you Matthew :)) We bring in all the beers and provide all the dispense equipment ourselves. The only reason we didn't have beers from the south this year was due to dispense equipment and the lack of casks in the south - we have had beers from the south for years but we have gradually been getting our beers into more pubs and therefore we just don't have the same amount of pump, tappings heads etc as we used to.
Regarding our admission fees we have not changed this for three years in a row - we did do free admission last year before 4pm but unfortunately it did not work for us and actually caused a great deal of aggro on the gate from 4 - 4.30pm!!
We introduced the glass deposit last year for everyone and not just those that chose to drink from glass because of the waste that was being created. For three years previously we had been trying to encourage everyone to reuse plastic but this just didn't work. The glass deposit does work - we have reduced waste by 150% and glass theft and breakage as reduced greatly also. I think though that we will try to do a better job of explaining this to customers leading up to the festival and during so there is a greater understanding.
I do agree that there should have been some stouts on the bar -we have just brought out a new stout and had hoped it would be ready for the festival unfortunately it wasn't - it is now though!
I do promise however that we will take on board all feedback and will try harder next year.
Thanks for reading
Frances
If I can try to give a little bit of construcutive criticism. My wife and I arrived at about 3pm on the Saturday. We stayed until 5pm, then went to Hillsborough, and came back at 7pm. At this stage the queue for the cider bar was around 20 people; maybe a longer bar with more staff would have worked better. And the main bar was four deep with customers - I went off to the bar in the acoustic tent (only Hilden beers which I had all tasted before) where it still took a good five minutes to get served. I just feel more bar staff (or perhaps better trained) would have made the experience better. We enjoyed the music, but couldn't face the wait for another drink, so left at 8pm to go to the pub.
Quote from: Dunkel on August 30, 2013, 10:53:15 AM
If I can try to give a little bit of construcutive criticism. My wife and I arrived at about 3pm on the Saturday. We stayed until 5pm, then went to Hillsborough, and came back at 7pm. At this stage the queue for the cider bar was around 20 people; maybe a longer bar with more staff would have worked better. And the main bar was four deep with customers - I went off to the bar in the acoustic tent (only Hilden beers which I had all tasted before) where it still took a good five minutes to get served. I just feel more bar staff (or perhaps better trained) would have made the experience better. We enjoyed the music, but couldn't face the wait for another drink, so left at 8pm to go to the pub.
Thanks for your reply - we are looking to do a cask bar on stillage next year to help relieve the queues on Saturday. The bars on Friday and Sunday rarely had queues - it really is a supply and demand situation - everyone wants to go on the Saturday!!
The reason I was disappointed was due to the brilliant days I have had at the Hilden Festival in the past. When I go to a Wetherspoon's 'beer festival', if it's pretty poor I generally am not fussed anyway.
But the Hilden festival is a beacon of beer drinkers' heaven in a Northern Ireland dominated by Guinness. This is the reason for my disappointment, but also the reason I will be returning next year!
RE the free entry - I can completely see how people would argue at the ticket desk and put them in a difficult situation, and understand why you chose to do away with that...
But sure, on to the next one!