BrewDenell

If you've not been to the Brudenell Social Club before, it's quite a place. It acts as a sort of student hub where gigs are usually put on which always seems to draw in Leeds' geek music scene. Being a social club you'd reckon the drinks selection would be left wanting, but Brudenell has always served above par when it comes to beer, and is something which continues to get better and better. It's the kind of place where the carpet's probably older than you, giving it so much character that you only wish the walls could speak - oh the stories to be told.

It's certainly not the place I thought I'd ever find a beer festival...

Not as pretty as Indyman, but we're here for the beer right??

On entry to the beer festival we could barely move! We found some of our comrades all in good spirits and enjoying the beers, there were brewers, bloggers, students, locals and many more. We heard tell of queue length horror stories. Apparently there had been twenty minute queues and even longer at some points just to get a pint! Sure the line was still long when we arrived at half nine but it was only for about 5-10 mins or so. The problem that occurs when beer queues get long is that people think they'll never get back to the bar so they order loads more drinks making the waiting time even longer. This probably wasn't helped by the strange paying system they had in place. Things did calm down around ten though and it became much easier to get a pint.

Speaking of pints, pints is what I had! Starting out with a pint of Oakham Green Devil, I had chats with Zak and Magic Stu as to why this version had Motueka in it as well as Citra... It didn't bother me, it still tasted pretty epic! I then moved to a pint of Harbor Mocha Imperial Stout, which put simply is liquified brownies in a glass infused with super warming booze qualities! Delicious.

The prices were almost irresponsibly cheap but I wasn't complaining to management, and the beer selection itself couldn't have got much better. Breweries like Kernel, Magic Rock, Ridgeside and Kirkstall were there alongside others like Harbor, Darkstar, Camden and many more. Beer Ritz supplied a lot of bottled beer for the fest too, so that list was pretty extensive.. I opted for a can of Snake Dog IPA for my walk home.

Was it a good beer festival? You bet your sweet ass it was, but it didn't feel like a beer festival. It felt more like one giant party! The bands who played were great and dancing and drinking didn't stop. It was more about the people, the atmosphere, friends and the sense of the here and now than the beer - and yes I said that, considering just how good the beer selection was!

If I had to sum up what the BrewDenell had more of than other beer festivals it would be this: Soul.