Waiting game at YO1 Festival

GOOD beer as we all know is the product of the freshest finest ingredients, care in storage and service, and a twist of the brewer’s expertise in putting together a tasty recipe. Sometimes, however, there are factors outside the brewer’s control.

Like how it always tastes so much better sitting outside on a Bank Holiday weekend in the beaming sunshine.

These were the extremely fortunate circumstances under which I ended up at the YO1 Festival last weekend at York Racecourse, billed as a “festival of music, street food and ales”, which “brings you five stages of music, a vintage fair, street food and micro ale festivals on one big day out in York”.

Revellers queued around the site at the far side of the Racecourse’s car park, to see local DJs and bands, as well as other up-and-coming names. None, however, that I knew.

The bar was exceptionally well-stocked for a music festival, with about 16 different real ales from breweries including Rooster’s from Knaresborough, Brough’s Big River, Leeds Brewery and York’s Hop Studio. As a music festival, the food and drink offer was far superior to the usual fare, but I must admit I felt a little misled by claims of a beer festival.

Rather than its own tent, real ale was sold at the main bar and the event programme contained no tasting notes.

While being jostled in a crowd eight deep of people in sweaty T-shirts for 20 minutes, I had time to review the names on the barrels in sight to make my choice.

I chose Hope Studio’s XP because I love the complexity of their bottled XS, a Rooster’s Wild Mule because I’ve been enjoying quite enough of their Dry Hopped Yankee recently.

Big River’s Hindustan sparked my interest. It sounded like something suited for a warm climate, although I had no information on why. With my final choice of Leed’s Yorkshire Gold, I set about extracting myself from the crowd and balancing the plastic cups on flat tufts of grass around where my partner John had found a spot not too close to the booming dance music stage.

Rooster’s Wild Mule is an old favourite, a pale ale with a kick, crisply bitter with distinctive Nelson Sauvin hops, and I claimed this ale, as well as Big River’s Hindustan, which a subsequent Google search tells me is an IPA brewed with Slovenian hops.

Although it appeared a little cloudy, the amber beer had an unusual fruity taste, leaving a discreet aftertaste that begs another sip. It was difficult to get a nose from any of the beers in the breeze, but Google tells me it would have been peachy.

Hop Studio’s earthy and dry XP, an extra pale ale with a strong lingering aftertaste, and Leeds Yorkshire Gold, a thirst-quenching brew made with Chinook hops resulting in a deliciously big mouthful of bitterness, were polished off by John.

Having picked out some tasty Indian cuisine from the small cluster of food outlets, the bar had grown to about 12 people deep and didn’t move for 20 minutes, so we gave up on the rest of the beers, although they were well-kept and plentiful, and found a quieter beer garden up the road.

The event organisers have since apologised to revellers about the overcrowded bars in a statement on its Facebook page.

It said: “We would like to unreservedly apologise about the length of time people spent queuing at the bars and for other services. With such a dramatic increase in attendance size from last year’s event, we realise these areas of the festival were not able to meet the requirements of our guests and we are deeply saddened that it has spoilt what was a great day for many of you who attended.”