Worth Valley Beer and Music Festival

Sat 27 Oct 2007

Yet another delay on the much fêted German sausage story!

Yesterday, a hardy group of three set off on the surprisingly arduous journey from Leeds to Oxenhope. According to google maps this is a journey of just under 25 miles and, had we been driving, it would have taken 42 minutes. Since we were heading to a beer festival driving would have been plain irresponsible so we took the train - a journey which should have taken a little longer, but involved the added bonus of a stop at Keighley and then a ride on a steam train. To cut a long story short, it tooks us almost 2 and a half hours. Had it not been for the bar at Keighley station (serving Old Spot beers from Cullingworth) and the bar on the train we might have arrived at Oxenhope in a distinctly bad mood.

The beer and music festival (which finishes today - so you can always head over if you read this early enough!) is hosted by the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway - a private railway which operates steam and heritage diesel engines between Keighley and Oxenhope. They have a number of events throughout the year, and the train ride takes in Brontë country and one of the stops includes Haworth.

Anyway, not being much of a train buff, I was a bit underwhelmed by the train ride (particularly when we stopped randomly for about half an hour), and a tad bemused by the number of people taking photos and video footage. As entertainment along the route we also had the Craven Flag Crackers. And then we finally arrived at Oxenhope where the exhibition shed was stuffed full of lovely beers, ciders and perries (and some trains).

There were a few familiar beers - Timothy Taylor was well represented as you'd expect, and I investigated a few stouts before heading on to some lighter session beers. There was a good selection of beers from all around the country, as well as bottled beers from Europe (non ale drinkers catered for!) and it was no surprise that, as the exhibition hall was so busy, by the end of the afternoon, many of the beers had run out. When we left around 7 a good 75% of the beers looked to be off, so we were glad we hadn't decided to make an evening of it.

When we arrived at Keighley on the way back the railway bar was still doing a strong business, and there was even some live boogie-woogie platform entertainment!

This is a good beer festival, with an excellent selection of beers. While not directly affiliated with CAMRA it's definitely a festival worth putting in the diary. Of course, the slightly out of the way location might make it a little tricky to get to!

Finally - cheers to Matt who waited (heroically, beer in hand) an hour and a half for us to turn up!

tagged with: beer, oxenhope, keighley

Stumble It!