NERAX 2017

Friday night usually sell out, then it turns into one in, one out, but otherwise it should be ok.

 

No advance lists of the beers available? They did that when I went a few years ago. Coming up again from DC for it!

 

They haven't published advance lists for a few years now. I guess there's a couple reasons why.
Anyone who went last night, any updates on what they had on? Anything interesting in the book that wasn't on?

 

From what I know, the sparkler debate is split between the north and south. The south doesn't use them. I don't remember ever getting a beer served that way in the pubs I've been to around London.

A lot of these beers have delicate hop flavors that I'd imagine would be lost after being processed through oxygen like that. Seems like it's used purely for aesthetics, to get that creamy head.

Did you notice if anything from Redchurch at the fest?

 

Excellent summary -- thanks for sharing. On the topic of cask head -- pulling a cask ale through the beer engine's pump cylinder provides quite a bit of agitation to the beer when compared to gravity tap -- even without the sparkler attachment at the end of the dispense tube. Sparklers are a regional thing in the U.K. -- I don't believe you'd see them in London for example. Also -- beers being served from a gravity tap can be pretty "foamy" if they are at the early stage of dispense after venting -- and all of the residual built up CO2 is still working its way out of the beer. In short -- there's more to cask beer head than just sparkler or no sparkler.

 

I went for about an hour last night, and was looking mostly at the Americans. The Hill Farmstead (Edward, I believe) was not on, guess it's not quite ready. My fav was the Notch, which was a light bodied, low abv ipa w just mosaic. The hop really came though, but it was clean and light. The Sam Adams Black Harbor was great too; some big dark 10% something. Didn't try too many, but there were a few American beers that were in the book but not flowing yet, mostly some smaller local stuff that I'd never tried before; Springdale, Lamplighter, & Moby Dick off the top of my head.

No sessions sold out on advanced tickets.

 

Checked out the policies here, but still a little unclear on some stuff: http://nerax.org/wp_nerax/home/policies/

Backpacks: Leaving straight from work with a small-ish backpack for my laptop. Can I get in with / check this?

Food: was mention of food for festival volunteers, but anything for festival-goers? Should I eat something beforehand?

Thanks in advance, really looking forward to tonight!

 

No isssue w backpacks. Redbones caters -- pulled pork sandwiches etc.

 

Do they not have the floor above this year? Past 2 years they've been at that hall, the bar is on the 3rd floor, and upstairs from that is where Redbones set up with tables to sit at.

 

That's weird. I imagine they still had tables set up there, but don't feel bad. If they didn't have the food up there in prior years, no one would know to head upstairs.

That being said, there was food served at NERAX North in Salem this year, and I don't recall if there were tables there either. Just chairs lined up around the outskirts of the room, and as you said, mostly used as makeshift coat hangers.

 

As always, NERAX was a pleasure this year. Kudos to the whole crew of volunteers for running everything smoothly. 70+ cask ales and ciders flowing!

I tasted some excellent UK beers but the highlights for me last night were from the US: BoneUp's "Shut Up Kelly" porter (sampled alongside the brewers Jared and Liz) and Far from the Tree's Dry Cider. Both really shone on cask. Here's the boards from the Thursday night session.

 

I just realized last night that Worden Hall is only a 3 minute walk from NERAX. Definitely checking that out for the first time afterwards.

 

I asked about this during set up, and I guess they didn't sell enough tickets to warrant renting the extra room upstairs.

 

Hmm, I wonder if other sessions may have seating up there if they sold more tickets.

 

That is the one thing about the Lithuanian Club - not as easy to get to. Wonder if this is the reason behind not as many. Also, I know a few others who usually buy ahead of time but for various reasons are going to walk up if they can make it - I'll be paying at the door tonight myself.
I know the past couple years at the Lith club have seemed less crowded than before. It's close though, with the extra space to spread out in, that may be an illusion.

 

A quick walk from the Red line and close proximity to downtown isn't exactly no man's land. Couldn't have anything to do with cask beer just being unpopular.