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Cambridge Winter Ale Festival was held in the canteen of APU on 4th-6th January. Those of us who aren’t Fen folk by birth might be somewhat bemused by the dedication of Cambridge folk to their real ales. I know I found the obsession a little puzzling at first. As far as I was concerned CAMRA was something you took holiday snaps with. But I have seen the light. I have tasted and believed. I am a convert to real ales. It’s not all flat caps, beards and clay pipes, you know. Quite a lot of the women are young and clean-shaven. But I digress….
Real ales are as varied in taste and appearance as wines. They tend to be less fizzy than lager and many of them are low in alcohol. This is a real advantage as far as I’m concerned. I like to drink lots of beer. Drinking keeps my mouth and hands occupied during a night out and that way I lose fewer friends. The nice thing about ales of 3.0 or 3.2% by volume is that you can drink two or three pints and still be able to walk to the bar for a fourth.
Another joy is that they can be sweet, mild, hoppy, bitter, dry or spicy in flavour. No, really, they can! All that stuff about getting apples and pears and a huge applause of vanilla ice-cream (a la Gilly Goulden) applies to ales as well.
So now that you’re persuaded let me mention a few names. My accomplice and I felt it our duty to sample a wide range of beverages on your behalf. The setting for the Winter Festival was both innovative and cheeky, retro and post-cleanliness at the same time. We immediately felt at home. We were welcomed by a red-faced man with a disturbing moustache who sold us 2 glasses. He presented the ale list with a flourish and discreetly withdrew. Savouring the sticky floor ambience of the student canteen we made our way to the bar. I chose Elgood's Thin Ice which is brewed in Wisbech. At 4.6% this is mid range in strength and although I was hard pressed to detect the “hint of spice” promised in the blurb, it was a very tasty beer. My companion chose Hop Hop Hooray made by Felstar Brewery in Essex. It weighed in at 4% and was very drinkable but a bit too hoppy for my taste. Next I tried Reedy Pops made by Garden Barber of Hertfordshire. This is a queen among ales. It was light and sweet and tastes rather like Flowers but with more fruit. My companion had Hoppin Hen, also made by Felstar. She said it was too sweet but I liked it and drank hers as well. We then had some Grunting Granta brewed by City of Cambridge breweries and some Welsh beer called The Full Malty (yes, I know, but I felt the need to repair the damage done to Welsh-English relations after Anne Robinson’s little comments and the subsequent collective humour failure of the Welsh nation). To finish I had a Cool Amber, a pilsner lager brewed in Thurles, Co. Tipperary and my companion opted for a Georgie Porgie, brewed in Bristol and rather reassuringly only containing 3.7% alcohol. Both delicious!
If you’re wondering where you can enjoy this cornucopia of taste all year round, both the Cambridge Blue in Gwydir St and the Kingston Arms, in Kingston Street have a wide and frequently varied range of real ale. There are other real ale pubs in and around Cambridge but my bicycle knows the road home from these two so I rarely get beyond them. I wouldn’t say the discovery of the pleasures of real ale has changed my life but it has made me a more fulfilled and rounded person. There is a worrying little nubbin growing on the outside of my feet but that couldn’t be a sixth toe… could it?