Another month, another beer festival. There’s nothing quite like hammering down twenty or thirty different beers, some rare and highly sought after, all in the same day and in some cases over just a few hours. And whilst I enjoy my fair share of Lupulin fuelled nights I often find myself asking “is there such a thing as too much hops?”. The answer I concluded was yes, and that’s where Dark City fits in.

Taking place at the Old Flax Store, a gorgeous red-brick building with a wealth of history, Dark City is a showcase of (you guessed it) dark beer. This year, twenty-seven breweries took part, many from the UK but a number of others from the US, one from Spain and a handful of Scandinavian breweries (because who else would throw sprinkles, fries or burger buns into their beer…I’m looking at you, Omnipollo). I was excited at the prospect of trying beers from a couple of breweries I hadn’t yet encountered. I arrived at the festival armed with my list of ‘must drink’ beers or more accurately ‘must check-in’ because I’m one of those people, and I was ready to feast on all the chocolate malt my body could handle.

As per the previous year, we arrived half an hour early to secure our place near the front of the queue and quite rightly so as within ten minutes it had wrapped its way around the corner and out of sight, much like the annual launch of Bourbon County although maybe not quite as extreme (nothing really is). Bang on 5:30pm we were in – straight to the top floor, Chapter Hall, we journeyed and despite the almost deafening rumble of music we found our bearings and were lucky enough to grab ourselves a seat.

This year the festival changed from a token-based system to an all-in set-up, making it £45 a ticket for as much beer as you could physically swallow down.

Between the pair of us, my girlfriend and I managed to taste 30 beers over the course of the 5 hour festival. If you were to compare this year’s ticket cost to last year where the basic ticket price was £15, with the further price of £2.50 a token, then we would have paid £105 for 30 beers. That’s £15 less than what we paid this year, so moving to an ‘all-in’ set-up made more sense for ourselves.

As well as this, the move to an ‘all-in’ ticket price means we could have had a lot more for the same price and it takes the hassle out of the transactional aspect of using tokens, which results in a quicker wait time to get your hands on your tasty beer and removes the potential to run out of tokens half way through and then having to buy more.

Although there are some people who denounce the ‘all-in’ system as not being inclusive of those who don’t want to drink and attend solely for the social aspect (which I personally find slightly absurd, but that’s a conversation for another time), I would argue it’s the right way to go at a festival with such an expansive beer list.

Another difference, as a result of this change was the serving size. Whereas as last time round all the beers were served in 1/3 measurements, this time they were 120ml pours – a change I’m entirely on board with. It may only be a 90ml difference but over 30 beers it certainly adds up. Reducing it to 120ml meant that, god forbid, if there was a beer you weren’t completely keen on you didn’t have as much to drink and if there was a beer that you drank too fast or wanted more of all you needed to do was grab another pour!

In terms of the actual beers – first up was Nothern Monk’s Eton Mess version of their Strannik Imperial Stout. It does exactly what it claims with raspberry and meringue at the forefront with a little rich chocolate and raisin. There’s even a little tartness on the finish (which I usually find with raspberry additions) that adds a little more depth to an already pretty awesome beer.

Another couple of notable mentions were Whiplash’s Slow Life, a straight-up Irish Stout served on Nitro and Omnipollo’s Rubus Idaeus, which despite being a fruit beer, topped with ‘soft serve’ – a slushie they make using the beer, and not in the slightest bit dark, threatened to be one of my beers of the festival *gasp*!

Despite Omnipollo’s attempts to coerce me over to the light side, inevitably, the dark side won. It was a three-way tie for my beer of the festival: Imperial Macchiato from Wylam, a big old slap across the face with sticky espresso and lingering bitter chocolate; Das Rauchbier from Anspach & Hobday, a perfect example of a German Rauchbier with all the bacon and sweet beechwood smoke you could ever wish for and Coconuts from Lervig, 12.5% of toasted coconut, vanilla shavings and chewy fudge.

To soak up a month’s worth of beguiling barrel-aged behemoths there were a number of food vendors to choose from. We collectively decided on Parm Star, a street-food van dedicated to succulent chicken sandwiches, and I devoured a ‘New Yorker’ – a crispy fried chicken fillet with marinara sauce and cheese. I didn’t have a moment to capture a photo of this beauty because I shovelled it down in seconds…I’m only human. Another highlight in the beer-survival sustenance arena was Temple Donuts, who hypnotised attendees with gorgeous sweet creations, topped with mini-pretzels, pecans and maple syrup. Again, we enjoyed our fair share but life being life, I wasn’t quick enough to capture this moment either.

Slightly bemused at the fact I wasn’t feeling very intoxicated despite drinking over 30 different beers, I reflected and realised that my only disappointment was that many of the beers I’d hoped for weren’t available at my session, but that’s just something that has to be accepted and not dwelled upon, because it’s only beer after all. Maybe I’ll just have to get a ticket to every session next time? Sounds like a good plan – although my liver is already crying out in protest!

Until next time,

ABVerage Joe