London Drinker Beer Festival

The End of an Era

After 34 years, 2018 sadly sees the last ever London Drinker Beer & Cider festival.
For many a year this was my local beer fest and I think I'm right in saying I haven't missed one in the past 18 years.  The venue, the Camden Centre, is closing in the summer and it's understandably nigh-on impossible to find an affordable alternative in the Camden area. 

Yep, I used to pop in here for a crafty couple of halves on a lunch-break and try to visit all three days of the festival when I lived in London.  Over the years I've drank in here with my dad, friends, Italian brewers, a less knowledgable Italian work colleague who claimed everything was being served at the wrong temperature, and a slightly unhinged Chelsea fan who was trying to compete with us to see who could drink the most stupidly strong bottled beers.

Third of a pint measures dude...a big half in the early
afternoon will have me getting on the wrong train home
.....yeah, I did.

So, visiting on Wednesday, I'm summarising the pros and cons of the London Drinker ...

⊕ Since focussing solely on local breweries in the past few years, it's a brilliant showcase of London beers.
⊕ Great variety: saison, imperial mild, milk stout, most tastes are catered for. 
⊕ 'Craft' beers aren't billed as the evil enemy & there's some cracking stuff on the keg bar.
⊕ I've always enjoyed the food here - cooked by volunteers, rather than pro-caterers, and great value, filling plates of food.

⊖ It's busy! A tight squeeze to get around.  
⊖ It's a long trek to the balcony seats and theatre seating sucks at beer festivals.
⊖ Plenty of strong beers, but no third of a pint measures?

The 12% Moncada vanilla custard imperial stout was supposed to come in a ⅓ pint serving.  Except I was given a half pint of this.  And a generous half pint at that.  This hefty portion was probably responsible for scuppering my plans to visit a few of the local Kings Cross pubs afterwards. 

Bit of a toss-up for my favourite beer here, but perhaps the more sensible strength vanilla stout, 'Gravedigger' from Gorgeous Brewery. 
Or the German style black lager, 'Druid' from  the Czech expats at Bohem Brewery.
Hell, I liked them all.
It's just a shame we won't be able to do it all again next year.

Trouble-makers.

....they're actually a posse from the Red Hat Society, which I'd not heard
of before Googling it today.  Much cooler than my mums WI who go
to coffee mornings and, to the best of my knowledge, have never set
foot in a beer festival.