But having set my mind to covering this FYNE festival it seemed silly of me not to put the effort in.
This Years Trip started way
back in 2012 when I had to cancel our planned trip to Fyne fest, I'm my
ever present Beer/Family balance.
But having to Sacrifice 2012 Fynefest and hearing the great reports, I resolved to fit it into my 2013 Beer calendar.
On arrival at the field we were
left to set-up our pitch in a nice big flat open field only a short hop
from the Stage, bar and food stalls. Then checking in we swapped out
tickets for our wrist bands and were handed a couple of bottle of
water(given that
we had forgotten to bring water this was superb and a nice touch) and
wandered off to find the bar. The Bar was set up in a HUGE marquee with
the Bar at one end and the Stage at the other. Which worked very well on
the whole but at time the music was too loud
and this made conversation tricky. Now this wouldn’t have been a problem
if it had been sunny but giving the Typical Scottish weather we had
there wasn’t really anywhere to retreat to.
Just outside the marque was
six or seven food stalls offering a decent variety,
with Venison burgers, all sorts of smelly fish(im not a fish fan), haggis, stew, veggie curry and even a few nice and sticky pudding (that
pleased my kids no end). Behind the food were more than enough toilets,
and well maintained they were as well(which if
you’ve seen bad festival toilets full above the rim!!! you really
appreciate well maintained toilet facilities)
But back to the reason I was
there. The Beer. It appeared that there was some cooled cellar for the
Cask beer, but however it was managed it was some of the Best quality
festival ale I've had, there were a few beers that I didn’t enjoy but not
a single
beer was served in poor condition. The beer I drank most of should come
as no surprise to anyone was the De Molen Rasputin (well it ticks all my
boxes), the Beer that most surprised me was Marble Earl Grey IPA, I
hadn't really thought much of this when I tried
it from the Bottle, but on Cask it was stunning and it may have been my
most drunk beer if any had lasted to the Saturday. The Beer that no one
but me seemed to like was again De Molen this time De
Molen Raad & Daad which
was a strange balsamic vinegar toned Barrel aged sour that had a fair
bite in back of throat. Now I couldn’t drink much of it but I did really
enjoy what I had. The Fynest beer of the weekend was the Bell Rock in
Hop which just failed to make my top10 IPA list sitting 11th equal. But
the Best Beer of the weekend VERY SADLY wasn’t on tap, it was a bottle
of Home Brew. But not just any home Brew, I
just happened to visit the Brewery at the right time when Jake Griffin from
Fyne had opened a Bottle of home brew Zombier, that he had coco-nutted to
the Max, im a little hazy though he did kindly tell me what he had done
and I remember whole coconuts at one stage, coconut milk some other point and I think even some creamed coconut at
yet another. This was Superb, But given what he had to do, I cant see
him ever being allowed or even able to do it on the Real kit. Which is a
shame.
Music wise there was nobody I
didn’t like but only one really stood out for me, and I've no idea of
their name but they were on First on the Friday night, and I really
wouldn’t mind a CD for a better listen.
Theres really only 1 change I
would like to see to the festival and that’s the option to be able to
park beside your tent. There was a field between the car park and the
main Arena that seemed perfect for this, and being used to doing this at
the Cropredy
festival, we really missed the convenience of having everything to hand. Travelling with a family always seems to involve too much stuff and
Having to drag the MASSIVELY heave tent back to the car in a hung over
state is not one im Keen to Repeat.
But all told the only thing that wasn’t Fyne about the festival was the weather.
PS. Lookout for a MEGA collaboration brew coming out in the next few month, There were at least
Seven Top UK brewers involved in this beer. So my simple maths this beer
should be seven times as good as most beers and Three and a half times
better than normal collaboration brews. I for one cant wait.
