I'm back from a week of volunteering at CAMRA's Great British Beer Festival. And, boy, are my feet sore! Standing behind a bar from 12 to 10:30 every day can really take it's toll! To let my feet decompress and heal, I'm going to spend the entire weekend barefoot and sitting on my ass/arse as much as possible. Luckily, writing a blog entry requires sitting on one's ass, so here's a little story about my experiences during the festival. ***WARNING - Many details relating to beer, which will be very boring if you aren't as interested in beer as I am.
Monday - I got up at 5am on Monday to get ready and catch a taxi to the bus stop at Bournemouth University for the 6am Megabus to London. Yeah, that's commitment to beer! There's not too many things I'll get up at 5am for, but that's one of them! It was a smooth journey and I was even able to sleep for at least half of it, which was nice for a change. When I got to London, I had to then take the Tube to Earl's Court (where the festival is being held). I arrived at about 9:45 and checked in with the Staffing Office. They gave me a badge and a staff t-shirt and sent me down to the festival floor to help set up the CAMRA Brewery Shop (sells bric-a-brac and other merchandise related to beer). There were a few too many people helping with this task. Consequently, there was a fair amount of standing around twiddling thumbs. I took a walk around the facility a couple of times to see if there was anyone else that needed help, but things seemed to be pretty much under control. Around 6 o'clock, the "Volunteer Arms" (a makeshift "pub" offering free as-much-as-you-can-drink real ale to staff) opened and most people went up to the staff area to relax. I had a couple of pints and chatted to a few of the volunteers, then I headed off to find my accommodation near Imperial College. It was a place called Pembrige Gardens, a student accommodation for the Imperial College of London. I was expecting to be in a dorm-style room with other people, but I actually had a single, which was nice. However, the room was excruciatingly hot. I actually had to put my hand on the radiator to see if it was on or something! (It wasn't). I opened the window to try to get some airflow in there, but there didn't seem to be much. I changed clothes and went to find dinner. Ended up at a little deserted Italian restaurant nearby. Went to bed quite early because I didn't have much else to do, but I didn't get a good night's sleep because it was so hot, even with no covers and only wearing underwear. At one point I dragged the bed over to the window and I dampened a hand towel with water and draped it over my head. That seemed to help with the heat, but then I kept getting woken up by traffic, people walking by outside, and other guests arriving loudly.
Tuesday - Bought an iced Caramel Macchiato (sp?) at Starbucks before I got on the bus to Earl's Court. Had breakfast at the staff canteen (they provide free breakfast for the volunteers who are staying in the accommodations). When I checked in at the Staffing Office, they asked me where I would like to work. I asked to be put behind one of the bars, whichever one needs people. They assigned me to "Family Brewers". The GBBF is divided into about 24 different "bars", mostly by brewing regions, but there were also a couple of sections like "Bar Viscount" (offering organic, gluten free, and other beers like that), "Beers sans Frontiers" (beer from 30 countries including the US, Belgium, Germany, Czech Republic, and even Denmark and Sweden), and several of the bigger British breweries had their own bars. The "Family Brewers" bar served beer from some of the British family-owned breweries: Adnams, Arkell's, Bateman, Elgood's, Everards, Harveys, Hydes, Lees, McMullen, Palmers, Robinson's, Timothy Taylor, Thwaites, and Wadworth. There were a couple of hours before the festival would open, so I helped get things ready. This bar had a bit of a problem because a couple of days before, one of the trucks that was transporting some of the beer was stolen (along with its contents). The affected breweries scrambled to replace them, but a few of the casks were not delivered until Tuesday. Since real ale casks need time to settle before you can tap and serve them and because a few of the replacement casks were still too "young" to drink, this severely impacted the number of beers we could offer during the first couple of days of the festival. The highly sought-after Timothy Taylor's Landlord was made available until Wednesday evening. But we persevered. The festival ran from 12pm to 10:30pm each day. However, on Tuesday, the 12 to 5pm session was for trade and press only, which was a good warm up for the evening session when the general public poured briskly in through the doors. Through the course of the evening, I tasted sizable samples of all of the beers we were offering at the time (one of the perks of working behind a bar). You have to be careful with your level of inebriation because CAMRA does not use a token system for the beers. They use cash, so you have to do a lot of calculations in your head (there's no register, just a cash box). There are cheat sheets on the back of each of the beer pumps (detailing the cost of a 1/3, 1/2, and full pint, as well as 1 1/2 pints, 2 pints, 2 1/2 pints, etc.) which are helpful but when people order two or more differently priced beers, you have to keep a running total in your head. It was a bit daunting at first, but I got used to it after a while and only made a couple of mistakes the entire week. I worked the entire session through closing. The bar managers asked me if I would like to stay on staff with them through the week. I gladly accepted. Then we had a couple of pints from the volunteer bar before boarding the courtesy buses taking us to our various accommodations. Didn't get to bed until about 1:30, but luckily the room had cooled off a bit.
Wednesday - Asked to be assigned to the Family Brewers bar again. The team working this bar has been working together on many festivals in the past and most of them were signed on as "permanent" staff, which means you don't have to go through the Staffing Office for your daily assignment. These guys were really nice and down to earth. I got along with them really well and one of the regulars took me under his wing and showing me the ropes. By the end of the night, I was quite ingrained with the team. At one point, a couple of the regulars asked me to go over to the American beers section with them to suggest something good to try. We tried cask-conditioned versions of Smuttynose Smoked Porter, Three Floyds Romulus, and Victory Hopdevil (a fantastic beer!). The bar was quite busy, but the day just flew by. Every night, we stop serving at 10:30. I mean literally stop serving. As soon as the call is made over the loudspeakers, each bar takes the cash boxes around back and stops serving, even if there are still people waiting. It's the law. On a busy night, every body really looks forward to that moment. Then we take 15-20 minutes to sit down around back as the customers are gradually ushered out the door. While we were doing so, someone from the Beers sans Frontiers bar came around to ask for our help in finishing of some of the American beers on their bar because they needed to put some new ones in position. Didn't have to ask me twice! We rushed over there. I had a pint of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and some Three Floyds Romulus. There were a couple others on other, but the small gathering of volunteers polished them off quickly. It was good to taste some American brews with a more in-your-face flavor, as a lot of the British ales tend to be more subtle and balanced (nothing wrong with that, it's just nice to have something more zesty once in a while). Slightly earlier to bed that night: 1am.
Thursday - Today was "Crazy Hat Day", which I didn't know about until this week so I didn't bring anything with me. Everyone else in the team had a "crazy" hat. All I had was my BeerAdvocate baseball cap. Not wanting to be the odd one out, I rigged my BA hat with some plastic cable ties to which I taped a Timothy Taylor beer-coaster so that it would dangle in the air above my head and I taped some J.W. Lees coasters on the sides. It looked a bit ridiculous but I think it was "crazy" enough. I had planned to take the evening off from about 8 o'clock, but we were a bit short-staffed that day and it was a really busy night. Reportedly, at one point the festival had over 4,000 people enter within an hour. It was really hard work because the bar was about 30-40 feet long and during the busy periods, the people are lined up all along it several customers deep. It becomes really difficult to track who should be served next and there's never really a good moment to go around back to take a break or even take a sip of your own beer. But the busier it gets, the longer you're on your increasingly aching feet, the nicer those few pints at the end of the night taste. It was great to kick back with these guys at the end of the night. The tradition with this crew is to go up to the Volunteer Arms after all the chores are done, grab one of the big tables, fill up our glasses from the free bar, and sit around shooting the breeze while drinking fine ale and munching on snacks like the excellent pork scratchings (rinds) from the festival concessions. The bar manager also kept a huge cookie tin amply stocked which we passed around during our "debriefing" sessions. Because this day had been so hectic, I made sure to get quite a few beers in me before boarding the bus. Chatted with the lady next to me about Belgian beer on the way.
Friday - My last day at the festival. I checked in and worked behind the bar until 2pm. Then I "clocked out" so I could enjoy the festival as a customer for a couple of hours before having to leave to catch the bus back to Bournemouth at 5. Unfortunately for the guys left behind the bar, it was really busy and they were still short staffed. By this point, I had gotten a bit tired of real ales (probably blasphemy for a CAMRA member), so I didn't drink too much. Tried a few real ales, a perry (fermented pear juice), and bought a couple of bottles of beer from Mikkeller (a new Danish brewery that was highly recommended) to take home. At about 4 o'clock I said my farewells and had my last 1/2 pint of beer (Dark Star Espresso Stout). Took the Tube to Victoria Station and made it to the bus with only 8 minutes to spare. I was able to sleep for about an hour this time as well. Walked in our front door at about 7:45. Good to be home!
Summary - Though I felt a little trepidation at first and was feeling a bit homesick (or something) on the first day, I quickly settled in and started having a good time. I tasted a lot of beers and got 6 free brewery t-shirts out of the deal. I'm really glad I did this and I think I was really fortunate to be assigned to this crew. They urged me to come again next year and told me they would put me on permanent staff. I told them I would definitely like to do it again. As tumultuous as K's and my life can be (in terms of where we live and what we're doing for a living), it's hard to see ahead a year from now, but I'd really like to go back next year at least. The festival runs from a Tuesday to a Saturday with set-up and take-down from previous Saturday to the following Monday. That's a long time to set aside for volunteering. I didn't stay for the closing day of the festival because I wanted to have a weekend to relax before going back to work. This means I will miss the highly-rated staff party (on Saturday after the festival closes early at 7pm and all the clean-up is done), but I'll likely schedule things differently next year so I can attend. Maybe work Thursday through Sunday. Or maybe do the entire stint. We'll see!
Beers Tasted at the GBBF 2007
(mostly 1/2 pints, favorites in bold)
Adnams Bitter
Arkell's Moonlight
Arkell's Kingsdown Ale
Bateman XB
Bateman Valiant
Elgood's Black Dog
Elgood's Cambridge Bitter
Everards Sunchaser
Everards Tiger Best Bitter
Harveys Sussex XX Mild Ale
Harveys Olympia
Hydes Summertime Blue
Lees Bitter
Lees Moonraker
McMullen Cask Ale
McMullen Midsummer Madness
Palmers Dorset Gold
Palmers Tally Ho
Robinson's Oldham Bitter
Robinson's Unicorn Best Bitter
Timothy Taylor Landlord
Timothy Taylor Golden Best
Thwaites Dark Mild
Thwaites Double Century
Wadworth Bishop's Tipple
Wadworth Horizon
St Peter's Grapefruit Beer
Traditional Scottish Ales Glencoe Wild Oats Stout
Caledonian Deuchars IPA
Caledonian Rebus20
Caledonian XPA
Gales Festival Mild
Dorset Brewing Company's Chesil
Thornbridge Jaipur IPA
Cairngorm Black Gold (not in good condition, a bit sour)
Dark Star Espresso Stout
O'Hanlon's Port Stout
Victory Hop Devil
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
Smuttynose Smoked Porter
Three Floyds Romulus
Troggi Blended Perry
And 5 or 6 others I didn't keep track of from Volunteer Arms
