BBC busy in Beijing as beer mania sweeps Earl's Court

Olympic fever has gripped the nation. Or so you would assume from the endless coverage on the telly this past couple of weeks as we await Friday’s opening spectacular. Reportedly the BBC has some 400 plus staff in Beijing, costing goodness knows what of licence fee cash. And this at a time when the Beeb says it is a bit strapped.

Well, nothing wrong with the Olympics. A lot of it is exciting stuff. Some of it less so. First sport off was women's football- before Friday's official opening- which enjoyed plenty of airtime. But, minority sports have to be covered yah? Nothing wrong with that.

However, as a licence fee payer myself I searched the Beeb yesterday for news of a pretty major event happening a little closer to home - the Great British Beer Festival, or GBBF, in London. Of course I should have been present myself. But some spiteful summer flu bug struck me down on the eve of this showpiece event in the beer calendar which reveals the Supreme Champion Beer of Britain.

Consequently as I coughed, spluttered and dribbled into my Kleenex I sought news from the airwaves of the brewing industry equivalent to the FA Cup. Now I believe the BBC still has one or two reporters left in the capital. But my search was fruitless. Perhaps the UK’s biggest annual beer event caught our national broadcasters on the back foot eh? This despite Camra (Campaign for Real Ale camra.org.uk ) launching a major ‘fair deal on beer tax’ campaign at the festival complete with protesters wearing Alistair Darling face masks. If this protest had been ignored in Beijing there would have been a right to-do over censorship.

Just in case I’d missed something, I checked the BBC website – nowt, except GBBF stories going back years. I tried the opposition. But put a GBBF search into the ITV website and you get something about kettle crisps. Still, ITV is also very short of cash, we hear.

It would appear that the biggest TV organisation in the world can get a small army of staff to China, but not the odd reporter and film crew the ten minute trip from ‘the Bush’ to Earl’s Court. I would have paid the cab fare myself.

C’est la vie, as we beer writers often, politely, say. The beggars will just not turn out. Despite the fact that this festival pays tribute to the very best in the British ale brewing tradition – a tradition for which we are much lauded internationally - it is again ignored by the yah-yah London media. It seems these people would prefer to give us an endless diet of ‘binge drinking horrors’ and dire health warnings than report on a thriving and brilliantly entrepreneurial sector of British industry.

So it remains for your blogger to bring you news of this amazing annual event. Ok, it is not the Olympics, but this year some 65,000 people were expected to turn up over five days to taste more than 450 beers from 270 brewers - yes 270!

And the Supreme Champion Beer of Britain 2008 is… - chosen from 60 finalists across seven categories....Alton’s Pride, a cheeky 3.8% abv brew from Triple fff Brewery in Hampshire.

I’ve never tasted it. But the beer notes say: ‘Clean tasting, golden beer, full bodied for its strength with an aroma of floral hops. An initial malty flavour fades as citrus and hoppiness take over, leading to a hoppy, bitter finish.’ Umm, scrummy. Let’s hope Harker’s Dave was on the case and has already got a firkin or two on order.

Runners up were: Black Dog Freddy, from Beckstones, a mild from Cumbria of which I know nothing – yet - and Wickwar Station Porter, the National Winter Beer of Britain champ and a classic porter.

Of Alton’s Pride, leading beer writer and editor of the Good Beer Guide, Roger Protz has this to say:

“A magnificent victory for a craft brewery that opened in 1997 with a five barrel plant and has just opened a new brewhouse with a 50 barrel brew length kit. It has grown due to consumer demand for its rich and complex beer and proves that the future for real ale in Britain is assured.”

Perhaps Roger should have added ‘despite the Beeb’.

Ends