Cogges farm is a museum farm in the centre of the Oxfordshire town of Witney. As well as being a fun activity during the day (including a canteen with plentiful portions and VERY local pork), it is building a reputation for being an excellent venue in the evenings staging events like open air theatre.
Far more pertinently (for this blog at least), they staged their second annual beer and cider festival the other week. Naturally I went along... strictly for research purposes you understand!
The tickets were a good start. They were only £8 to book in advance or £10 on the door. For this, you got two half pints, a branded half pint tankard to keep and an informative guide to the festival with details of all the drinks on offer and the events. Further beer tokens could be purchased for £1 per half pint although they were only available in batches of five... such a hardship.
Once inside, there was an excellent selection of things to do. The local radio station (or some bloke with a laptop and a massive i tunes account) was there and providing the tunes at the start of the night. Later there were some cover bands performing (and often making a better job of the songs than the original artists). Along side this was an Aunt Sally arena for locals to play the peculiar Oxfordshire game of, as far as I can tell, indeterminate rules. As well as this, there was a rather fun pub quiz although the section on Witney radio did prove to be a wee bit tricky.
The event was hosted across two adjacent barns, the biggest containing the beer and music with the smaller holding some chairs and tables. There was also a barbecue going strong and providing some much-needed stomach lining. Although the event was here, we were still able to roam free in the farm and mix with the animals. This resulted in lots of people making friends with the Shetland Pony on their way to the loo.
Now the beer. An extensive variety of local ales were on offer. Local here can be defined as within 50 miles of the farm. This is fairly close by anyone's standard but did lead to some interesting geographic scope. Beers were coming down south from the Cotswolds and travelling north from around Reading.
As you can imagine, the big local breweries were represented with a good range of fantastic been on offer from Wytchwood and Hook Norton breweries. Mainly, however, the beers were from much smaller outfits. The whole thing almost had the air of a home-brewing convention although this did not stop the beers being lovingly kept.
The main styles of beer present were lighter ones like golds, blondes and I.P.As which suited the summer theme perfectly. There were plenty of hoppy aromas floating around and mixing with the smells of a summer evening. This was helped by the fact that smoking was banned across the site so we were spared the usual nicotinic gauntlet that hangs on the fringe of doorways. Another huge plus point was the fact that the whole event was dog friendly; a point which came acutely into focus when I befriended a young spaniel puppy.
In fact I have only two very minor complains. First was the fact that there was no facility for cleaning the glasses meaning that they got a bit sticky and clagged up with the flavours of the previous beers. Second was that there were no obvious soft drinks. This wasn't a huge problem for me but it was a bit unfair on the designated drivers. The fact that there was no vegetarian option on the barbecue should probably come in for some criticism but there have been greater offences committed at events.
In short, I had a wonderful time in a fantastic atmosphere where I got to try lots of lovely new beers. If they decide to run a similar event next year I will not hesitate to book it up and will try and convince as many people as possible to go along with me.
Cheers!
TFB
Far more pertinently (for this blog at least), they staged their second annual beer and cider festival the other week. Naturally I went along... strictly for research purposes you understand!
The tickets were a good start. They were only £8 to book in advance or £10 on the door. For this, you got two half pints, a branded half pint tankard to keep and an informative guide to the festival with details of all the drinks on offer and the events. Further beer tokens could be purchased for £1 per half pint although they were only available in batches of five... such a hardship.
Once inside, there was an excellent selection of things to do. The local radio station (or some bloke with a laptop and a massive i tunes account) was there and providing the tunes at the start of the night. Later there were some cover bands performing (and often making a better job of the songs than the original artists). Along side this was an Aunt Sally arena for locals to play the peculiar Oxfordshire game of, as far as I can tell, indeterminate rules. As well as this, there was a rather fun pub quiz although the section on Witney radio did prove to be a wee bit tricky.
The event was hosted across two adjacent barns, the biggest containing the beer and music with the smaller holding some chairs and tables. There was also a barbecue going strong and providing some much-needed stomach lining. Although the event was here, we were still able to roam free in the farm and mix with the animals. This resulted in lots of people making friends with the Shetland Pony on their way to the loo.
Now the beer. An extensive variety of local ales were on offer. Local here can be defined as within 50 miles of the farm. This is fairly close by anyone's standard but did lead to some interesting geographic scope. Beers were coming down south from the Cotswolds and travelling north from around Reading.
As you can imagine, the big local breweries were represented with a good range of fantastic been on offer from Wytchwood and Hook Norton breweries. Mainly, however, the beers were from much smaller outfits. The whole thing almost had the air of a home-brewing convention although this did not stop the beers being lovingly kept.
The main styles of beer present were lighter ones like golds, blondes and I.P.As which suited the summer theme perfectly. There were plenty of hoppy aromas floating around and mixing with the smells of a summer evening. This was helped by the fact that smoking was banned across the site so we were spared the usual nicotinic gauntlet that hangs on the fringe of doorways. Another huge plus point was the fact that the whole event was dog friendly; a point which came acutely into focus when I befriended a young spaniel puppy.
In fact I have only two very minor complains. First was the fact that there was no facility for cleaning the glasses meaning that they got a bit sticky and clagged up with the flavours of the previous beers. Second was that there were no obvious soft drinks. This wasn't a huge problem for me but it was a bit unfair on the designated drivers. The fact that there was no vegetarian option on the barbecue should probably come in for some criticism but there have been greater offences committed at events.
In short, I had a wonderful time in a fantastic atmosphere where I got to try lots of lovely new beers. If they decide to run a similar event next year I will not hesitate to book it up and will try and convince as many people as possible to go along with me.
Cheers!
TFB
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