Magic Mild Festival

As I wrote on 17 April, CAMRA Southport & West Lancs' contribution to 'May is Mild Month' is to run the Southport Mild Trail throughout May in conjunction with eight great local real ale pubs.

One of those pubs, the Grasshopper in Sandon Road, Hillside, will be taking the concept further and will be holding its own 'Magic Mild Festival' over the May bank holiday weekend, 3rd to 6th May. They will be offering eight different cask milds from various breweries including:

• Dunham Massey.
• Timothy Taylor.
• Salopian.
• Local breweries – Southport, Rock the Boat and George Wright.
• Moorhouses Black Cat.

The full range of blonde, golden and bitter beers will still be available as usual. There will also be music, a barbeque and Morris dancing.

3rd Hillside Cider Festival

I've received this message from Andrew of Grasshopper fame about this forthcoming local festival in Southport:

"The 3rd Hillside Cider Festival is at The Grasshopper on Sandon Road, Hillside, Southport from 24th to 26th August and will feature 30 of the best Real Ciders and Perries from around the UK.

"We are pleased to have the CAMRA Champion Cider of Britain 2018 - Harry's Scrummage and also the CAMRA Champion Perry of Britain - Nempnett's Piglet Perry. We also have a range of fruit ciders including Rhubarb, Strawberry, Lemon, Ginger and Pineapple and many more. There will be a barbecue with a range of specialist sausages and entertainment in the evenings.

"The festival starts at 7pm on Friday 24th and runs until 10:30pm on Sunday 26th or until the cider runs out. The Grasshopper is a short walk from Hillside train station and is on the 47 bus route."

Hillside Cider and Sausage Festival

The Grasshopper

The Grasshopper micropub in Hillside, which opened earlier this year, is holding its first festival, the Hillside Cider and Sausage Festival 5 - 7 August. At the time of writing, they had lined up 15 of the best ciders from around the country including Hogans, Lilleys, Abrahalls, Pulp Craft Cider, WM Watkins and Lancashire's own Dove Sykes. Local cafes Sixty6 and Langberry's have agreed to join the party and provide the food.

They want to keep the prices down, aiming to charge around £3 for a pint of cider; if you prefer to try a wider range, half and third pint measures will be available. There's a discount for CAMRA members (membership has its perks), and they hope to have some live music during the weekend.

The Grasshopper is at 70 Sandon Road, Hillside, Southport. The 47 bus passes nearby, and it's a short walk to Hillside Station.

Adapted from an article I wrote for the local paper.

International Blacksmiths Day

Here is a day with a difference - and with real ale. 

Click on the poster to enlarge it.

Folk festival in Southport

The Bothy Folk Club, including your truly, will be playing free sessions in the bar on both days at the following times: today - 6.45pm – 7.45pm; tomorrow - 1.35pm to 2.20pm and 5.30pm to 6.30pm.

Click here for more details of the festival acts; it's called Love Folk because this is the Valentine's Day weekend.

Big Blues Festival, Southport

The Stumble are playing on Saturday

This weekend (9 - 10 October) there will be a blues festival in The Atkinson on Lord Street, Southport.

The Atkinson says that: "The weekend is all about the food, and drink, music and a bunch of people who all love the same thing … great music! Featuring Martin Harley, Jaywalkers, Gilmore & Roberts, Amelia Curran, The Coal Porters and Danny & The Champions Of The World ... The line-up is big and bold and presents music that is desperate to be heard! Come along and hear Chicago style rhythm & blues, gospel, rock and roots to the experimental across the 2 day event."

Real ale will be provided by Southport Brewery, Sandgrounder and Golden Sands, and there's a food menu as well. Festival tickets here.

Freshfield Cider Festival

I know this has already begun, but it continues until 3 August 

at The Freshfield, 1 Massams Lane, Formby, L37 7 BD. 

There's also a beer festival due, but I don't know the details yet. 

The Freshfield always has a good range of real ales.

Back home from Whitby

I got home from Whitby Folk Week yesterday afternoon. I've written about the pubs in Whitby several times before (particularly in 2009, 2010 and 2013) and not a lot has changed since last year.

JDW's Angel Hotel (from JDW's website)

The Angel Hotel (not to be confused with the Little Angel on Flowergate) by the harbourside was taken over by Wetherspoons early last year, raising hopes that it would impact on the prices of beer locally which, apart from the reliably cheap Sam Smiths pub the Jolly Sailors, seem high to me with my North West perspective. In fact, we found that Wetherspoons' prices weren't much less than the average for the area, starting at £2.95 a pint. It has also been refurbished in a more modern style than the usual Spoons decor. In one way it is a typical JDW house: if you're stuck behind people ordering meals or various coffees, you can wait a while to be served, which is frustrating when all you want it a pint, although to be fair, this wasn't the fault of the staff who were working hard.

Whitby Abbey Blonde
(from the brewery's website)

It was good to see the products of the new Whitby Brewery, which was set up last year. I tried two of their beers, Abbey Blonde and Platform 3, which is specially brewed for the Station Inn. I found them a bit too malty for my taste - even the Blonde - but other people were clearly enjoying them.

As for the music, I stuck to the fringe this year and spent a lot of time time in informal pub music and song sessions, particularly in the Station, the Elsinore and the Golden Lion. Our Lunchtime Legends rock & roll gig had the Elsinore packed out again on Wednesday lunchtime; it was great to have several young children aged between 4 and 9 bopping along, waving their hands in the air to anthems like Daydream Believer, and generally taking the opportunity to be silly like all the adults around them. Young Jessica was given the mike to sing a word-perfect chorus of Poison Ivy.

My week ended in the Station at a lively song and music session, although the non-folkie elements present loudly demanded old pop and rock & roll songs from me: it sounded like the whole pub was singing along to Those Were The Days. So much for my intentions to be more 'folkie' in my material on the last night.

Some good beers along the way: Saltaire Blonde, Wold Top's Golden Summer and Headland Red, and Ossett Silver King were highlights for me during the week. An honourable mention goes to a golden beer called Carnival Ale from the Truefitt Brewery of Middlesbrough, which I had in the Golden Lion.

It always seem a bit flat the day after you get back from holiday, but I've already booked my accommodation for next year, which will be the 50th Folk Week.

Cider and perry festivals

All CAMRA beer festivals have a cider and perry bar where you can taste proper ciders that don't resemble Woodpecker or Strongbow in the slightest, and you can try a perry or two, a very rare drink that is hardly ever seen in pubs at all. A perry, for those who don't know, is a drink made in the same way as cider, but using pears. I find it is often less harsh tasting than cider, but I don't claim to be an expert. I do know that these drinks should not be drunk like beer, especially as they can be almost as strong as Riesling.

Some of the big cider makers produce a filtered and pasteurised bottled product that they call pear cider. I've heard CAMRA people say that there's no such thing - the correct term is 'perry', but they're wrong: pear cider is cider flavoured with pears, rather than a drink made from pears. Needless to say, the term 'real' doesn't apply to pear cider, and you'll never see it a CAMRA festival.

Two festivals should be a draw for lovers of fermented apples and pears at opposite ends of the East Lancs Road:

Liverpool: the Ship and Mitre is holding another of its regular and varied festivals. This time it's their Cider Festival, which runs from 17 to 23 June. The pub is close to Moorfields, Central and Lime Street stations, and also the bus station. It's at 133 Dale Street, Liverpool, L3 2JH.

Manchester: the 3rd Greater Manchester Cider and Perry Festival runs from 21 to 22 June. It's a CAMRA event at the Palace Hotel, on the corner of Oxford Street & Whitworth Street, Manchester, M60 7HA. There will be more than 60 traditional ciders and perries, and the festival includes the Celtic and North England Cider Competition. There will also be soft drinks - suitable for nominated drivers - and food available all day.

More facts about cider and perry here.

There's Hope For Cider Yet

Real cider and perry isn't seen often on Merseyside, so this is a rare opportunity for lovers of fermented pears and apples.  For more details, go to the cider festival webpage on the Liverpool CAMRA website.  And beer drinkers beware: it might seem inoffensive when you drink it, but this stuff can blow your brains out if you're not careful.  Take it easy and you'll enjoy it a lot more. I speak from experience.