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Saturday 9 January 2010

National Winter Ales Festival - Manchester 2010

Sick of the snow yet? Anyone suffering from cabin fever (me) and wanting something to take their mind off the horrors of leaving for work at 6.30 am in order to get to work on time (me) may wish to set their sights on the arrival of the National Winter Ales Festival in Manchester on Wednesday 20th January.

Personally, I've barely recovered from the Manchester Food & Drink Festival wine tasting shindig back in October, but Mr Liz is highly excited about the prospect of sampling a range of ales and assures me that the line-up sounds positively stellar - old ales, strong milds, barley wines, stouts and porters will all be on offer. I've no idea what most of these are, other than they sound a bit like things old men might drink. There will also be a selection of foreign beers for weaklings like my good self.

I protest too much, of course; I did quite enjoy the Didsbury Beer Festival a couple of months ago, and there are some familiar friends from that event available at the forthcoming festival including Old Tom, voted the World's Best Ale in last year's World Beer Awards and produced by Stockport brewer Robinsons.

The festival goes on for four days (common sense suggests not attending EVERY day) from Wednesday 20th January to Saturday 23rd, and takes place at the Sheridan Suite on Oldham Road. Full details are available at the official website www.alefestival.org.uk.

3 comments:

Marc said...

It's not just old men that drink them, I do too, and I am definitely not old. Not old. Just wanted to clarify that. Not old.

Liz said...

Porter? This is surely something drunk in Dickens novels by elderly men wearing cloth nightcaps?

Marc said...

Porter is so called because dark beers in that style were popular among porters - I think at Smithfield Market. I don't know if they drank it in cloth nightcaps, though it seems unlikely that they would don bed-wear for an evening at the pub (where I think most beer would have been consumed back then). Still, in York gangs of Geordie girls often sport pink cowboy hats during an evening at our local hostelries so anything is possible.