Cornwall’s Celtic link
The Celtic Beer Festival is odd in that it is held in winter. But as Adrian Tierney Jones reports, it’s a great place to taste something different
December in Cornwall and the tourists have gone. The beaches are empty apart from the most dedicated surfers, while the pubs returned back to the quiet embrace of the locals.
Not the best time of the year to have a beer festival you might think, but this is exactly an ideal period for the Celtic Beer Festival, an annual event at St Austell Brewery.
“Running beer festivals requires a large time commitment on the part of management and staff,” says St Austell’s head brewer Roger Ryman, who has been a guiding light behind the festival since its inception in 1999, “but our seasonal trade in Cornwall allows us to do such things in the winter.”
The thought of a Celtic Beer Festival conjures up visions of hardy warriors in plaits and trews, quaffing (always quaffing, not drinking) pints of methegelin. Glastonbury meets the Great British Beer Festival. However, Celts are noticeable by their absence when I roll up.
After one thorough search, all I can uncover are a couple of chaps in Cornish kilts who shuddered at the thought of methegelin and went back to their bitter.
Pop anthropology aside, the Celtic Beer Festival is a splendid celebration of John Barleycorn. For a start, you are drinking beer at St Austell’s Victorian brewery, the birthplace of many of the ales in your glass.
There is also the choice. With more than 100 real ales, many from Wales, Cornwall and Scotland, plus ones from St Austell’s fellow family brewers such as Adnams, Arkells and Hook Norton, this is an al.....
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Section : Spotlight
Page number : 54
