I mentioned in my last blog that I was going to volunteer to help out at the Southampton Beer Festival. The festival was held at the Guildhall in Southampton and it being my personal local festival. I did three of the sessions. Friday Evening and both sessions on the Saturday.

Turning up on the Friday night I felt like a person reporting for their first day at a new job. Was greeting by people milling around, organising stuff and generally knowing what they were doing. I was soon directed towards Rachael, the main organiser of all the staff.

Warm greeting following be the mandatory Health and Safety stuff. This involved a reading laminated cards and signing to say you have read and understood them. All the normal wash your hands after going to the toilet etc. plus other things which I had not thought of before. For example, hold customers glasses only at the base, never by the rim. Thinking about that it makes common sense.

I’m sure those of you who work in the pubs and restaurant trade will know that already and I doubt if I would have held a glass by the rim even if I wasn’t told but did make me think of all these small details that you have to remember.

Doors opened, customers entered and there I was serving beer, recommending beer, chatting to those that had been doing these festivals for years.

In charge were the bar managers. Again experienced people, people I was learning from. Especially those that had worked in pubs who knew how to look after beer, how to work the barrels etc. This brings me to my top tip for beer festivals that I picked up at the event.

As a barrel empties the beer pours more slowly. It will get to a point when it appears to have run out. The bar manager will then tip the barrel. This is basically putting it at an angle to get more out of the barrel. I believe you can do this twice, any more and you risk getting the sediment included in your drink which would have settled at the bottom of the barrel.

So if you look along the lines of barrels at a festival and see one at a more acute angle than the others you know that its running out and if its one you want to try, then get in quick.

One beer that seemed to have plenty left though was an Oakham Brewery one. They produce a range of nice beers at their Gosport brewery with full of hoppy flavour, which I was told is a trade mark of their. Anyway it seems that Southampton folk just couldn’t bring themselves to order a pint of Pompy Royal. Mind you I guess that a beer called The Saints wouldn’t sell much at a Bournemouth festival.

Anyway I soon got into the swing of it and really enjoyed the experience. Everyone had a job to do and they did it. By this time Rachel, the staff organiser, was flitting around making sure it was all running smoothly and people were at the right place to do jobs when they said they were. It was like a mother hen figure making sure all was well in the coup.

It is the behind the scene people that make all the difference to festivals. All the staff and volunteers and whilst you see the bar staff and other front line staff, it is the back room staff that also should get a mention. The organisers, the people who set up and take down room and the racks of beer, who are the unsung heroes of beer festivals.