Apologies for those who turned up on the Saturday night, despite emergency reorders of beer coming in that morning, we still sold out and finally closed at 2030hrs, although we shut to admissions a few hours earlier. This is the first time the Festival has ever run out of beer and last year a lot of beer was poured away on the Sunday morning so it is a difficult balence to get right. All the organisers can say is that next year we will make the Festival better with a bigger range on.
This year over 6000 thirsty customers drank their way through over 20,000 pints of real ale and over 5000 pints of cider and perry.
Highlights of the Festival for me were beer wise:
- The fantastic Oxymoron from Otley Brewery - a dark IPA - a contradiction in terms and on the tongue but one that actually works very well.
- Brains Strong Ale, although I found it a little too sweet for my tastes. I was very impressed by their British Summer beer though, dry hopped with Styrian Goldings imparted a good citrusy flavour to it.
- Tomos Watkin bar - we don't get to see the full range of their beers usually so it was a good chance to try them, my favourite was Chware Teg - another light-coloured ale.
- Red Kite Brewery, only tried one of their beers but it was the excellent Cwrw Haf - hope to see more of their ales around in future.
- Fullers, one of my all time favourite breweries and we had both their Chiswick and ESB here. The Chiswick was a perfect session beer on Friday night after stepping out of my busy office backstage.
- Neath Ales Green Bullet - yes I know I rave about this beer but it is a great beer and I enjoyed it on the Saturday afternoon.
Press Roundup:
Media Wales and their photo gallery from Your Cardiff:
There was also a pre-festival interview with Matt Otley of Otley Brewery.
.....and a little interview with me in the Echo
BBC Wales
We were also on BBC Radio Wales on Thursday
ITV Wales - our man in the white jacket fell victim to the colour balance at the Arena!
We also made it onto the ITV Wales blog
Real Ale Guide
Simon filmed this before tasting some beers with Nick Otley:
Travels with Beer
Visit Cardiff
Visit Wales Blog
Southern Wales Tourism
During the Festival regular updates were posted on Twitter and Facebook, with the hashtag #gwbcf proving very popular. We also have the Flickr page - well done to Jonas for taking all the photos this year!
A big thank you to our 150 staff who turned up during the Festival and also to our customers and finally to all our supporters, including the breweries and cidermakers who helped make this the biggest and best festival yet!
Thanks to you and your colleagues/helpers for a great festival!
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