Birmingham Beer Bash - July 26th and 27th

[Shippo]

Hi All,

A member for the past few years, I've not been able to spend as much time on the forum over the past 12 months or so, and the reason why is the subject of this post.

I just wanted to draw your attention to the Birmingham Beer Bash, a fantastic beer festival taking place close to the centre of Birmingham on July 26th and 27th 2013. I'm one of the team of ten volunteers who are running this event which promises to be great, and there are a few features that may be of particular interest to forum members. If we're lucky enough to make a profit then we'll be supporting Birmingham Children's Hospital which I hope you'll agree is a worthy cause.

First, this isn't just another real ale festival like those run up and down the country pretty much every week. Not that there's anything wrong with them, but we are doing something different. For a start the cask bar only represents a part (less than 25%) of the beers on offer. We've also got a large UK keg bar, an International keg bar, and ciders too for those who prefer that. In all there will be over 100 beers available, not all at once though but certainly more than half of them should be on at any one time.

The list of breweries providing beer is immense. Thornbridge, Freedom, Hardknott, Magic Rock, Sadlers, Redwillow, Buxton, Offbeat, Waen, Liverpool Craft, Blackjack, Marble, Durham, Anarchy, Weird Beard, Northern Monk, Arbor, Wild Beer, Harbour, Art Brew, Partizan, Beavertown, Salopian, Purity, Brewdog, Compass and no doubt a few more I've forgotton, plus there's De Molen, Ska, Evil Twin, Rodenbach, Boon, St Louis, Mikkeller on the international bar with a few last to finalise there.

If that isn't enough we're also running some seminars and tastings, and this is where I thought it might really appeal to forum members. On Friday we have a hop seminar with Paul Corbett of MD of Farams and all-round hop guru, while on Saturday the seminars on malt are given by Dominic Driscoll, Brewing Manager at Thornbridge. Throughout the two days you also get the opportunity to talk to many of the people behind the beers you're drinking, as many of the brewers will be behind the bars to serve beers and talk to you about what them.

This will be complemented by a number of tutored tastings where you can sample a range of carefully selected beers in a small group with experts on hand to tell you a bit more about what you're tasting.

Finally there is a good range of food to satisfy all appetities, or for a more gourmet experience there are two beer and food matching dinners served up by two of the region's top chefs - one of them Michelin-starred.

Full details can be found via the website at birminghambeerbash.co.uk, and by following us on Twitter (@BirminghamCubed) or via our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/BirminghamBeerBash). Tickets are available online and very reasonably priced at £6/£8 per session including a glass, £2 tokens and all booking fees - sessions are 1100-1630 and 1730-2300 on both Friday and Saturday. On the day beers will start from £1 / third. Ticket and token combos are available too.

Perhaps I'll see some of you there?