Beer Reviews - Beer Blog
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Flickr
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • RSS
  • About
    • About Me
    • Friends
  • Beer Reviews
  • Breweries & Pubs
  • Beer Festivals & Events
    • Beer Festivals & Events
    • Festivals
    • Golden Pints
    • Beer Swap
    • Open It
    • Twissup
    • World Cup Beer Sweepstake
  • Meet The Brewer
    • Meet The Brewer
    • Meet The Home Brewer
    • Meet The Publican
  • Beer Stuff
    • Places to buy beer
      • AleselA
      • Lions Den Yarm
      • Ales By Mail
      • Beermerchants
      • Beer Ritz Online
      • Beer Here
      • Belgian Beer Shop
      • The Belgian Beer Company
      • B & M Bargains
      • My Brewery Tap
      • Lewis and Cooper
      • Hi-Spirits
    • Beer Stuff
    • Food and Recipes
    • Beer News
    • Beer Gifts & Gadgets
    • Home Brew Beer
    • Games
    • Drinking and dental health
  • Contact
  • Homepage

Hawkshead Summer Beer Festival 2012

Posted on July 25, 2012 by andyMogg in Festivals, Hawkshead Brewery 2 Comments
  • Home
  • Beer Festivals & Events
  • Festivals
  • Hawkshead Summer Beer Festival 2012

Last week saw lots of thirsty beer lovers descend on Staveley in Cumbria for the latest instalment in the Hawkshead Beer Festival.

We arrived early afternoon on the Thursday after a quick trip round Ambleside and setting up camp at the excellent Pound Farm Campsite just over 2 miles from the Brewery in a little village called Crook.

We quickly grabbed a festival program from the main bar along with a couple of glasses of beer, The Fyne Lismore Blonde being the perfect thirst quencher after the walk from the campsite, on heading outside we spotted a couple of friends so we joined them and the fun began.

Hawkshead Beer List

Hawkshead Beer List

The afternoon flew by with lots of excellent beers being supped and more and more people arriving by the hour, before long we were craving some grub so after a long look at the delicious sounding menu and after getting over the heart break of the scotch eggs being sold out I plumped for the Hawkshead “doner” burger and chips, deciding to save the brewers lunch platter for Friday (although this turned out to be a minor mistake as the only food available on Friday was a BBQ). The burger was absolutely gorgeous and packed full of flavour, I have no idea which beer I was drinking at the time but I do remember it being something from the keg bar and the hops working really well with the spicing of the burger.

As the dark closed in and the rain eased off we decided it was time to head back to the campsite and burn off some of the calories we had taken in during the day. As soon as we’d got into the tent the rain started again so that was it for the night.

The following day saw breakfast in Windemere, a quick walk around the shores of lake Windemere, a visit to Booths for some bottles from their brilliantly stocked beer and cider selection and then a quick visit to Bowness for a look round the shops before making our way back to the beer festival for round two.

Day two kicked off pretty much where day one had ended, with more excellent beer, meeting more people and generally having a good laugh, The BBQ sausages really hit the spot, as did the doner burger and some pork pie. The band livened things up later on the evening and the general atmosphere was a bit more lively that the Thursday.

Overall I think the festival was well orgainsed, the staff were friendly and helpful (even the ones that tried Chilli Pepper Pete’s Naga Bombay Mix) the bars were well stocked and the beer list was just about spot on with a brilliant range of beer to suit all tastes being served from cask, keg and bottle. The prices were keen too with beers being priced into bands by ABV the most expensive being £2.50 a half for the Brodies Prime Reserve, the cheapest I think was around £1.20 a half, there was no entry fee which meant you could come and go as you pleased (and it also left more money for beer).

2 Brewers and a Drunk

2 Brewers and a Drunk

The food on both days was top notch, the lamb burger was packed full of flavour and the Brodies Sausage actually tasted of beer. It would have been nice to see some options from the normal Hawkshead kitchen on the Friday as I was a bit gutted at missing out on the platter but at least I know for next year so i’ll make sure I have that on the Thursday, although I really enjoyed the chilled out vibe on the Thursday.

My favourite beers of the festival were St Austell Big Job Double IPA, Hawkshead Brodies Prime Reserve, Hawkshead NZPA (which really sung on keg) and Magic Rock Clown Juice. My least favourite were Thornbridge Kipling…It just didn’t seem to taste of much and the keg version of Hawkshead’s Damson and Vanilla Porter…I think the cold killed a lot of the flavours especially the fruit…they cask version on the other hand was delicious.

Some of the other beers I tried and remembered to list were Marble Litttle Evelyn, Fyne Lismore blonde, Thornbridge Brother Rabbit, Kernel Amarillo, St Austell Big Job Double IPA, Magic rock curious, Bristol Beer Factory Acer, Hawkshead USPA, Moor Revival, Moor Raw, Hawkshead damson and vanilla porter (cask and keg) Hawkshead Brodies Prime reserve, Darkstar hylder blonde, Thornbridge Kipling, Darkstar Saison,Hawkshead NZPA cask, Hawskehad Cumbrian 5 hop, St Austell Green valley IPA, Magic Rock High wire, Conison Thurstein Pilsner,  Hawkshead NAPA keg,  Fyne Lismore Red, Red Willow Wreckless , Kernel summit, Buxton Moor Top, Pure North Valley zest cider, Fyne Rune, Magic Rock Clown Juice,  Hawkshead Triple XBP, Buxton Sunrise, Darkstar revelation, Magic Rock Rapture, Timmermans Kriek, Timmermans Fambois, Red Willow Headless, Hawkshead Windemere Pale, Magic Rock Cannonball, Fyne Jarl, Hawkshead Imperial Stout, Redemption Hopspur, Thornbridge Jaipur, Thornbridge Tsara.

I’ll definitely be going back next year and honestly can’t wait.

Oh and I didn’t take many photos so the ones i’ve used are from Hawkshead’s Facebook Page

Related Posts

  • Marble Arch 125th Birthday Beer Festival and my top 5 beersMarble Arch 125th Birthday Beer Festival and my top 5 beers
  • Gateshead Beer Festival 3-5th May 2013Gateshead Beer Festival 3-5th May 2013
  • Cumberland Arms Beer Festival Friday 13th July – Sunday 15th July 2012Cumberland Arms Beer Festival Friday 13th July – Sunday 15th July 2012
  • Underrated Breweries: No 6: HawksheadUnderrated Breweries: No 6: Hawkshead
  • Newcastle Arms May beer event – 12th – 15th May 2011Newcastle Arms May beer event – 12th – 15th May 2011
  • Hartlepool Round Table Beer Festival 2010Hartlepool Round Table Beer Festival 2010
Beer Festival, cumbrian ale, cumbrian beer, northern beer

2 comments on “Hawkshead Summer Beer Festival 2012”

  1. Steve says:
    July 26, 2012 at 22:52

    so basically you drank most of the beers on offer 😉

    Reply
  2. Phil says:
    July 29, 2012 at 09:39

    A great fest mate, can’t believe you munched all the scotch eggs before I arrived, you kept that one quiet?

    Good to see you & meet the Mrs, plus all the other friends old & new over the couple of days we were in attendance

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Search Beer Reviews

Buy me a beer

Enjoyed what you've read? Then why not buy me a beer or two.

Recent Posts

  • LemonTop’s 50th Brewery Client
  • My Golden Pints 2015
  • Golden Pints – Jonny Garrett
  • Golden Pint Awards 2015
  • Golden Pint Awards 2014
Websites for breweries

Beer Tags

Adnams american beer beer and food Beer and food pairing Beer bloggers Beer Festival beer recipe beer recipes Beer Swap Belgian Beer bitter blogger beer swap Bottle conditioned bottled ale bottled beer BrewDog cask ale cask beer craft beer Crown Brewery cumbrian beer english ale english ales Golden Pints home brew IPA keg beer kegged beer local ale locale Meet The Brewer newcastle northern beer pale ale real ale scottish ale scottish beer sheffield Stout Strong beer Thornbridge Twissup york Yorkshire Ale Yorkshire beer

Recent Comments

  • Jim on Thornbridge Jaipur (5.9%) – an ale of two halves
  • Simon Oliver on Salopian Oracle (4%)
  • Kiwigaz on Theakson Old Peculiar Ale Cake
  • Kiwigaz on Theakson Old Peculiar Ale Cake
  • Patrick on Hiver Honey Beer

Beer Reviews on Twitter

  • RT @BeerRitzByMail: CLEARANCE ALERT! £42.50 of beer on sale for £24! A dozen beers from some of our favourite brewers, which we've just ove… 08:19:41 AM November 26, 2021 from Twitter for iPhone ReplyRetweetFavorite
@beerreviewsandy
Web design Darlington

Stuff you may like

Don’t like beer?

Latest Tweets

  • RT @BeerRitzByMail: CLEARANCE ALERT! £42.50 of beer on sale for £24! A dozen beers from some of our favourite brewers, which we've just ove… 08:19:41 AM November 26, 2021 from Twitter for iPhone
  • @jimmoran @NorthernWrites @them_apples Just less orange 10:31:20 PM March 27, 2021 from Twitter for iPhone in reply to jimmoran
  • @jimmoran @NorthernWrites @them_apples Yeah I’d not fancy it in that van! 10:26:49 PM March 27, 2021 from Twitter for iPhone in reply to jimmoran

More Beery Stuff

  • Breweries and Pubs
  • Places to buy beer
  • Friends
  • Contact

Recent Posts

  • LemonTop’s 50th Brewery Client
  • My Golden Pints 2015
  • Golden Pints – Jonny Garrett

My Other Sites

  • BrewSites
  • Chilli Up North
  • Megane Owners Club
  • Mogg Blog

(c) 2014 Beer Reviews - Beer Blog - Every Beer Has A Story