When it comes to beer festivals, one date above all others always gets circled in my calendar as being absolutely essential - yes, every autumn the end of November must mean that the Dudley Winter Ales Fayre is imminent. 2024 is no different so off to the Town Hall we go, eager to see which ales and ciders are being showcased this year...
- Coroners Court -
It's Friday 29th November 2024 and the annual pilgrimage is on, catching the number 1 bus across from Tettenhall Wood to the temporary Tower Street terminus, anticipation building with every mile for the treasure of tipples that lies in wait. I could probably navigate to St James's Road in my sleep, so familiar has the walk now become, and at just after 11 o'clock we join an expectant throng queuing outside the Town Hall box office. Here I can admire original lettering recalling the provision of a coroners court and Brooke Robinson Memorial Museum. The hall complex is Grade II* listed having been designed by Harvey and Wicks, first opening in 1928.
- Primed for Bread Pudding -
Once inside and replete with orange token cards, we can launch into the carefully curated range of casked temptations. Bathams XXX is a famed winter warmer which always sells out quickly so I make sure to get a third of that under my belt pronto. Nick encounters an Enville Old Porter followed by a Wilde Childe Brownie Hunter, whereas I progress via my own taste of liquid heaven in the form of Jolly Boys Chocolate Fudge Porter - you literally can have your cake and drink it! The Little Devils food concession seems equally as popular as the main bars, dispensing grey peas and bacon, faggots with mash, huge cobs or hand-raised pork pies, not to mention hefty slabs of bread pudding - ideal stodge for soaking up all the beer.
- Cuckoo Penny Cider -
There is plenty to keep our cider correspondent Jane occupied too. I'm reliably informed that the Pornstar Martini infused one has a pronounced passionfruit flavour, while the Celtic Tiger also scores highly albeit perhaps upstaged by Cuckoo Penny for its rhubarb tartness. Mulled offerings involving gingerbread and sugar plums are duly accounted for, then back on the beer front I can wholeheartedly commend Fixed Wheel's Grand Reserve, a specially ramped-up take on their Blackheath Stout as created to celebrate the brewery's tenth anniversary. It's always good to go out with a bang, hence we respectively avail ourselves of Sarah Hughes Snowflake, Broadoak Premium Perry and Davenport's Top Brew Deluxe, the latter of those being the 7.2% weakling from a powerhouse of a trio!
- Bathams XXX -
Any sadness that our tokens are all spent is offset by the pub possibilities to come elsewhere in Dudley town centre. The Lamp Tavern on Blowers Green Road is a perennial favourite, one of twelve Bathams tied houses so you know you're going to be in for a treat, especially once I realise that the XXX is on here too - a very potent 6.3%. The former Queens Cross brewhouse to the rear has been converted into a function suite which hosts a regular blues club, although we settle in the cosy lounge chatting about classic Star Trek characters. Nick is educated that Spock's correct title is Mr rather than Dr, and some furry wolf ears may have made an appearance - more of those shortly...
- Dudley? It's Bostin! -
Backtracking along the High Street, we pass the site of the old Hanson's Brewery next door to the Three Crowns (an Asda supermarket is in situ nowadays) then note the ever-reassuring presence of 'Top Church' as dedicated to St Thomas - this is the counterpart to St Edmund's a.k.a. 'Bottom Church' which stands near the junction with Castle Hill. Bostin banners give further encouragement as we nip through an increasingly dusky Market Place with Duncan Edwards's statue watching on. The stalls have most packed away for the evening but there are some Christmas lights to add a certain twinkle to proceedings.
- Ear all about it in the Courthouse -
Two Tower Street taverns will form our Dudley denouement, one either end of the road. First up is the Courthouse, a Black Country Ales establishment which usually muscles it way into our festival itinerary; Elgoods Blackberry Porter is full of fruity goodness and the £3 cobs have some serious wedges of cheddar - yum! The Malt Shovel is thirty seconds stroll away and is part of the Rojo Pub Group (along with the likes of the Tame Bridge, Red House Boutique and Sedgley's Swan). Kinver Khyber meets Sarah Hughes Dark Ruby Mild as we nab a table by the rounded hearth, modelling the aforementioned wolf ears for all that they are worth. A pit stop at the Mount Pleasant (Stump) during the ride home is much too close for cricketing comfort as far as Jane is concerned but the beer is routinely excellent there too. Cheers!
