"July 4 saw the 12th Charlbury festival – the second event to have taken place at the lovely location of Charlbury Cricket Club. Once again the hordes of people turned up to shift a phenomenal amount of beer in a single afternoon – seeing off 48 ales from 48 different breweries.

Weatherwise, the timing of the festival was perfect, being just at the end of the heatwave of late June/early July, with the high temperatures relenting for ale fans and their families to spend the day al fresco without the need to slap on too much sun-block.

Trade was brisk all afternoon in the drinks tent and the food stall (both run entirely by festival volunteers) and it was great to see such a good variety of food available, rather than standard festival fare. There was a varied programme of live music, morris dancing, etc., while the kids were well catered for with their own entertainment tent, along with outside games and plenty of space to run about – making it a true family event.

Originally conceived by a group of Charlbury school parents, many organisers have been on board since the first event in 1998, resulting in consistent, professionally-run festivals.

Golden and light ales were in big demand from the start, including early favourites Great Newsome’s Sleck Dust (3.8% abv) and Salopian’s 3.8% Lemon Dream, but first to go was Skinner’s 4% Heligan Honey.

It was a good job the cider and perry list was expanded for 2009 as it was just the day for this increasingly-appreciated drink genre. It was great to see classics from Hecks and Wilkins – however, last to go was the quite unique 7% Ermie & Gertie’s Dual Variety Dry cider from Pitney, Somerset, which confounded many people but which I found to be something of a revelation. Aged in old whisky barrels from the Isle of Arran it exuded a strong peaty island malt flavour – almost as though a healthy dose of Lagavulin or Bowmore had been added to give it a characteristic ‘TCP’ taste.

The festival has a web site at www.charlburybeerfestival.org so keep an eye on how much was raised this year – along with advance notification of the next one. The location of the festival, right opposite Charlbury railway station, makes it very easy to get there by public transport and the town is served well with buses from Oxford, Woodstock and Chipping Norton."

Keith Rigley

Editor, CAMRA North Oxfordshire Branch

(CAMRA North Oxon newsletter, Beer on Tap, Autumn 2009 edition)

Registered charity No 1110285

10th July 2010

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Registered Charity Number: 1110285