Fell Brewery Beer Festival 2024

Glisky, Kendal. Saturday 16-March-2024.

After the success of last year's Fell Brewery Beer Festival it was a shoo-in to go to this year's.  Even better Fran at Fell Bar had suggest hiring a mini-bus to get us there and back. Unfortunately, despite the initial interest, not enough people coughed up the money so that fell through. Fortunately Mary's Aunt Avril , who lives in Kendal, had already said that she was up for an evening of beer and conviviality so we were able to stay with her.

Glisky is an old industrial unit repurposed as an events venue, here with beer stalls all around the walls. The deal is that your entrance fee gets you a half pint glass and one initial beer token exchangeable for a third of a pint. Extra tokens being purchasable, we bought nine for £20 and divvied them up between us.

This year there was no beer list as many entrants were last minute and there was no time to print up a list. This meant several circuits of the room were essential in order to:

1. suss out potential candidates for tasting
2. find the first pick again
3. seek out alternatives when a pick had sold out 

I asked for recommendations for the most traditional bitter style beer that would then give me something to sup while I made my circuit of the room and chose my next beers. Their suggestion was Treehouse Organic Pale Ale.

After a circuit of the room my next chaice was the delicious Squalor Dark Lager. It is a dunkel, one of my favourite styles of beer.

Early on we decided lining the stomach was a good idea so went for food by Simon Rogan, a Michelin three star chef, no less! .

Leaving the two stouts on offer for the end of the evening. Next up, I opted for a pale ale which was pleasant enough. Mary focussed on Gose and wheat beer and found several that she liked - safe from me as they are too sour for my taste.

The penultimate beer of the evening was a delicious stout.

Final beer of the evening was an Imperial stout. At 10% ABV it is positively Belgium in character. It is a good job they were only serving 1/3 pint measures. A delicious last beer to round off the evening..

At the end of the evening, it was a half hour’s walk back to Avril‘s place in the pouring rain. We were absolutely sodden by the time we got back. So very happy to get out of our wet clothes and into bed.