A new home... so how did it go for the Derby Heritage Beer festival in the Market Hall?

The curtain has fallen on the first Derby Heritage Beer Festival to be held in the Market Hall and it will be seen as a success in some respects, less so in others. Here are my thoughts.

It was, for sure, a different experience strolling straight into the Market Hall, compared to queuing to pay to get into almost any other beer festival.

The serving area was squeezed into the centre of the Market Hall. The venue itself is magnificent.

The advertising referred to tickets on the door but there was no such thing, since the hall as a whole remained freely open to the public, with the regular traders still in place.

This was the big compromise that had to be made for the festival organisers, Derby’s Campaign for Real Ale branch, for them to have use of the venue.

Not having an entry fee will have made balancing the books a trickier prospect, for sure, but a late Camra stalwart once made the point that we don’t pay to go into pubs, so why should we pay to go into a festival?

Here, the idea was that you could stroll around to your heart’s content but if you wanted a drink, you hired a glass for a returnable deposit and were given a wristband. . Of course, you queued for that.

It’s an inevitably flawed concept. My wristband disappeared up my shirt sleeve but no-one asked to see it and a gentleman I know who walked in with his own glass was served without a wristband. There will probably have to be a re-think if the festival returns to the venue.

Anyway, the Market Hall. This is not the place for a debate on the mistakes made by the people running it before and since its relaunch or the cost of the long, long renovation project.

The building itself is undeniably magnificent and, hopefully, can be a centrepiece for the city. It struck me that the floor space is as big as that of the main hall at the Assembly Rooms but, with the traders remaining in place, the beer festival’s serving area was squeezed into the middle of the floor.

Perhaps next time they could expand that somewhat, just to give both servers and customers a bit more room when they’re getting a beer. It’s not as if there isn’t plenty of room to stand or sit, with the balcony available as well as the main floor.

I was not there when it was massively busy but I’m sure it would have been a problem getting served – and the longer people wait, the more time they’re not buying.

Predictably, two of the first three beers I fancied drinking had sold out but that wasn’t a problem solely at this festival. It’s the case at every festival that goes for a large number of different beers and not very much of any of them. It’s a point I’ve made many times, but I’d go for fewer beers and have more of the ones that they know will be very popular. For the most part, that’s very guessable.

Jennings Mild was a particular target for me and a topical one, given the threatened closure of Carlsberg-Britvic’s former Marston’s brewery in Burton. Jennings, in Cockermouth, Cumberland, was a previous victim of the Marston’s rampage of closures and is happily up and running independently again in the original brewery. We can but hope something similar happens down the A38.

You could get your fruit and veg and much else besides as the Market Hall's regular traders continued to function around the beer festival.

The best beer I had? Well, who’d have thought that the boys from Bang the Elephant in Langley Mill, the most adventurous of mavericks, the regular brewers of outlandish strong stouts, would have brewed an “ordinary” bitter for the festival?

It was called Take The Long Road and if every bitter tasted as good, the style would never have fallen from favour, never been seen as an “old man’s drink.” They don’t half know what they’re doing.

This was one of 17 bitters listed. I counted 50 listed as pale in the programme and most of the ones listed as “hazy” would have been pale in style too.

For me, it’s not a good balance. Are more and more standard hoppy pales really what punters are after? Maybe I’m wrong and they are but me, I’m all paled out, not that I don’t like a very good one.

I didn’t get around too many beers but the quality of what I had was better than is often the case at a festival – just as it was in the two years at the Museum of Making. Someone is doing a very good job in that regard.

A suggestion for next time, beer-wise – have a little look down the A38 because there is some superb beer being brewed by the independent folks in the Burton area.

The atmosphere when I was there – Friday afternoon into evening – was very good and, as I said, so were the surroundings. I hope it was a success, financially, and since promoting good beer is the object, breaking even would do on that score.  

Overall, I think the whole thing looked very good and the beers I had were in good nick.

And one good thing about the other traders being present was that there were plenty of good food options around.

The future? Well, that may hinge on how it’s all worked out financially for Derby Camra. We’ll have to wait and see but, with some tweaks, the venue is fine.

• Views on the festival welcome, here or if you see the article plugged on Facebook.

• New subscribers to the blog welcome, too. It costs nothing and all that happens is that you get an email to say when I've got around to writing something! See the home page.