Bottoms up to the CAMRA Beer Festival

Friday 16 September 2016

Around 5,000 beer lovers are expected at this year’s 40th anniversary Jersey CAMRA Beer Festival, which means one person won’t be propping up the bar discussing world politics - the organiser.

Jersey CAMRA chairman Dwayne Palmer is the person responsible to putting on the festival, which has gone from strength to strength since it first started in 1976.

A confirmed beer lover, replete with the obligatory beard and sandals, Mr Palmer’s day job is as a fund administrator for a leading finance company, but for two weeks of the year his life is handed over to the festival. 

“This is the summer beer festival which is why we tend to sell a lot more golden, light beers, than the darker amber ones and milds.

“All the beers have to come over by ship, other than the Liberation Brewery, so it does take a heck of a lot of organising.”

Jersey CAMRA was formed in 1976 in a pub on the Esplanade with committee meetings held in the Cock and Bottle and Mr Palmer has been a member for nine years.

“We did a VIP party on Wednesday to celebrate, Liberation have brewed us a one-off bear for the festival called Ruby and in a few weeks all the CAMRA members are arranging for a beer in the Esplanade and maybe pop in for a few at the Smugglers Inn later on.”

Mr Palmer has been chairman for a year and says the festival has got about as big as it can get. 

“I don’t think it needs to get any larger because we are already big enough. Maybe we just need to stabilise ourselves and just make sure what we do well continues to go well. I owe a great debt to Jon Le Sueur, who was in charge for years and this festival is all down to him.  

“Mind you, I’ve been to the main British Beer Festival in London and we are the equivalent of one bar. They have about 14 bars at that festival, which is just ridiculous.Their footfall if phenomenal. We will hit 5,000 people stepping through the doors which is a heck of a lot. I don’t want it to get any bigger because to make it function you needs lots and lots of volunteers. If two volunteers hadn’t turned up for set-up we would have been well behind. 

“I give up two weeks of my holiday to do this and a week of my holidays for the winter festival. Now I’m married and I’ve just had a child I would happily hand over the festival to someone else while carrying on as CAMRA chairman. I need more people to step up and help out. We have almost become the victim of our own success. I think in future I’d rather do more festivals over the year, rather than make this one bigger.”

So here’s the rub. Why has the festival got a reputation for, well, running out of beer by Saturday? It’s not entirely accurate said Mr Palmer, but also true to an extent. But there is a valid reason for it. 

“The truth is I want to have no beer at the end of three days because any beer left will go down the sink. What else can we do with it? If a barrel has been opened you can’t plug it and take it away. It is ruined. 

“I have budgeted every year for throwing beer away, but what we have done to try and minimise that is by having ‘only’ 100 beers and ciders. We are cutting down on the range slightly, but doubling up on the beers we do have. 

“My focus is on Saturday because I’ve understood and listened to what people have said. This Saturday we really hope we have fixed that. We want people to come down on Saturday and for it to be just as good as Thursday. 

“I am caught a bit between the devil and the deep blue sea. There is no way on Saturday there will be 100% of beers still available, but there is every possibility there will be a decent proportion still on tap.”

So no more gripes from you beer lovers, as it is a perfectly reasonable excuse. 

Mr Palmer’s love of beer goes back years, to when his Grandad “Pop” handed him his first pint of Guinness when he turned 18. 

“I was a skinny boy when Pop bought me a Guinness and I was on that for three or four years. I went to a beer festival and tried a few and really enjoyed the taste. 

“Jon Le Sueur was short-staffed one year at the beer festival and I loved every minute serving behind the bar. 

“I’m not a controlling person, but I can’t do anything half-baked. If I am going to go for something I will do it 100%.”

Final question. Mr Palmer donned the traditional CAMRA ‘uniform’ of beard and sandals, so is it now a requirement to join. 

“In the years I’ve been doing this, the girls have got a lot prettier. 

“Beer has got cooler and that’s not just in Jersey, beer has definitely got a lot cooler. 

“Homegrown has got bigger. People are a lot more interested in natural things. They don’t want chemicals in everything. Our beer at the festival doesn’t have chemicals in it. That’s what people like and there are more of them every year.”