We Took Rum To A Beer Party (And it went better than expected)

Saturday 25th July. Left Handed Giant's taproom in Bristol. A car park full of IPA enjoyers, three of the UK's best breweries hosting, and us stood in the middle of it with a table of rum, fresh lime and a cache of ice that was so hard to get hold of, you would have thought the world was ending.

The Little Summer Beer Bash - DEYA, Left Handed Giant and Verdant team up every year to co-host it, and this year we were lucky enough to provide the certain je ne sais quoi that is the cocktails on a day about beer.

The beer on offer was spectacular with ranging from crisp American style lagers to fruited triple IPA’s. Green Cheek Beer Co. and Finback Brewery came all the way over from the US of A. Garage Beer Co. made the trip up from Barcelona (The one in Spain) and Stigbergets came down from Sweden. Beyond these international travellers, UK heavy hitters included; The Kernel, Beak, Floc, Newbarns, Mills and many more. Two sessions, great street food, 2 funky DJ sets, and a Brass band dressed in pink.

So, where do we fit in?: Well, you know when you have drank a few thick hazy double IPA’s and you need a little refresh, a palate cleanser perhaps? That’s exactly where we fitted in. The most common sentence we heard was “I need a break from beer.” and we were happy to oblige. We weren’t sure what to expect with it being a beer festival however it panned out to be a full afternoon of daiquiris, pina coladas and old fashioned’s going out two (or 4) at a time. And we had a few people coming back again and again professing (in a whisper) that they don’t even like beer… 

What we loved most is that a beer festival crowd isn't who you'd expect to go big on cocktails, but people were excited about it straight from the off. Maybe it's the heat, or maybe you can just never say no to a daiquiri.

As the second session wound down and the DJ slowly turned the volume down until the music was entirely off. We had one last job to do. Now if you know brewers, you will know that they actually love cocktails, so we agreed to make a batch of cocktails at the end of the event for everyone who had spent 14 hours on their feet pouring beer all day. You could say this is where the real work started. 50 cocktails required immediately. It became something of a military operation “10 daiquiris, 8 old fashioneds, 4 pina coladas… hang on how many have you done” anyway, I think we made more than 50 but the brewers were all delighted. One even came up to us to say “This is the best Daiquiri I’ve ever had”

Next stop, Bristol Beer Trail, and next time we will be making espresso martinis.