Outward travel was as follows:-
Train: Glasgow Central to Muirend (05, 35 on the hours)
Bus: Muirend to Eaglesham, 4A First Glasgow (25, 55 on the hour)
I don't think I'd ever stopped in Eaglesham before, only whizzed through on the way to East Kilbride before the town's bypass was built, so I was looking forward to having a look around, but that was before the heavens opened-up and curtailed any possible exploring. However Eaglesham seemed a nice enough place, there were 2 main thoroughfares connected by some lovely green parkland and a couple of noteworthy pubs/hotels, the Swan Inn and the Eglinton Arms (it was a bit too early to try either of these). When I arrived at the corner of the playing fields where the Eaglesham Beer Festival was being held it seemed that they had decided on a 'meet-the-brewer' approach using small stalls/gazebos rather than a line of casks/kegs in a marquee (I always like this approach, but it's a lot of work & time for the small breweries involved). Most of the guys/gals involved (Top Out, Drygate, Fyne, Sulwath, Fransciscan Well, Harviestoun, WEST) were still setting up their beer lines and other wares when I went past, so I decided against distracting them and took a bit of shelter from the weather in the lee of the Eglinton Arms.
At about 11:30am the main parade of the Eaglesham Fair came marching past - whooping fire engine, pipe band, a tractor pulling the (very young) King and Queen of the Fair, kids dressed as sheep, the Loch Ness Monster and other 'animals', the local scout troupe and lots of musicians & dancers - they looked great and there was a large turn-out, but it was such a shame to see everyone (and especially the kids) get really quite soaked in the (at that point) quite heavy, squally rain.
I headed back into the main partitioned-off area of the beer festival and decided that a coffee was a good idea, and this caffeine infusion was supplied by the It All Started Here people, who can also be found at the Partick Farmer's Market.
I took my coffee (with lid) inside the main marquee where Whole Foods from Giffnock had set-up a stall with some US & European bottled beers & associated beer munchies and where a group of musicians were already playing away.
By now it was now time for a beer and first off to try were definitely a couple of new beers from Edinburgh's Top Out Brewery. Michael and Moo had brought their new Copperheid ginger beer and also their new Altbier; both were excellent, especially the Copperheid with a huge herbal ginger aroma and masses of peppery ginger in the taste, an excellent low abv ginger beer. They also had a new amber beer with Aussie/NZ hops as backup for today (not used) and have already brewed a Loanhead Industrial Estate collaboration beer with Stewart Brewing and Black Metal Brewery for the Stewart Summer Beer & Food Festival on August 1st.
After a final stoating downpour the rain abated and things started to dry-out (except for Moo from Top Out, I don't think he'll dry out for at least a week). This meant I could leave the marquee for the Galloway Chillies stand where they were selling nachos made with a choice of different cheeses from Damn Fine Cheese (I went for the chili-cheese) and a further choice of chilli-pickle on the side (I went for the lemon). I then headed over to the Fransciscan Well stand where we (the stand's hosts and I) jointly decided that the Shandon Stout was probably the best accompaniment to the nachos. Smooth, chocolatey and with a dry bitter finish this is a more than decent stout (and a good choice) and it seems that we'll be seeing a lot more Franciscan Well outlets in the central belt of Scotland. If they keep the quality up then it's difficult to rail against the Molson Coors takeover of the relatively small Cork-based brewery, let's hope they do.
By now the winds had also died down so that the big wheel (aka the Eaglesham Eye) could be utilised and the Eaglesham Beer Festival twitter page has a couple of great photos of the site from high up on the wheel (there was no chance of getting me up there).
The beer festival was definitely starting to get a lot busier (and drier) as the afternoon wore on, great to see for the brewery people and for the organisers who'd done a fantastic job, but after a few more half-pints (the Fyne Ales Wee Milky Way was certainly back on form) I decided that I probably had to start heading back to Glasgow; I had a longish journey (certainly in terms of time, possibly not that much by miles) to negotiate by public transport.
Further travel was as follows:-
Bus: Eaglesham to Clarkston Toll, 4A First Glasgow (41, 11 on the hour)
Train: Clarkston to Glasgow Central (08, 38 on the hour)
Train: Glasgow Central to Milngavie (28, 58 on the hour)
Bus: Milngavie to Killearn, B10 First Scotland (40 on the hour)
Two trains and two buses (for reasons of connections, with a pit-stop in-between at The Drum and Monkey in Glasgow) eventually deposited me at Balfron Street in Killearn. It's a fairly easy location to judge when to get off, the obelisk-like Buchanan Monument just along from the bus stop is easy to spot from miles around.
The Killearn Beer Festival was taking place in the courtyard/car park of The Old Mill. This is a really lovely country pub which used to be an old weaving mill, but the place had closed down for a bit at the end of 2014 before being bought and re-opened in the spring of this year by the people who have the excellent Inn at Kippen - hopefully The Old Mill will work out just as well.
It was £4 to get in (for a branded glass & tasting notes, and the glasses were checked!), but the beer was set at a fixed price of £3/pint or £1.50/half, so all told it works out at about the same as a standard CAMRA-type Beer Festival. The guys doing the organising have been doing this successfully for 4 years now and were happy to chat away about the state of the pub scene in & around Killearn, how they might go to cask sponsorship by local businesses next year, and that perhaps moving the Killearn 10K run closer to the start of the beer festival next year might be a good idea (especially if the weather repeats itself).
There were a number a large marquees set-up in the courtyard with the larger one holding the casks of beer on stillage. This was dispensed in the more traditional manner by the mass of friendly volunteers and it was good to see beers from local and more far-flung Scottish breweries including Cromarty, Windswept, Fallen, Drygate and Jaw. Stand-outs here were Jaw Wave (an excellent Glasgow-brewed Weißbier full of sweet bananas, cloves and a great wheat texture) and the quite outstanding Fallen Chew-Chew salted caramel milk stout, with a slightly different, more chocolatey recipe than previously (Mr Fallen was on hand to quality control).
Most interesting, however, was a cask of beer from the Fintry Brewing Company, located at the eponymous Fintry Inn, in a small village about 7 miles or so away from Killearn nestled along the north side of the Campsie Hills. I hadn't known anything about this supposedly co-operatively run microbrewery until earlier in the week, but from asking the Killearn guys they seem to have been brewing for almost a year, have produced quite a few different beers (7 or so was the estimate) and this was the first time one of their beers had been available outside the Fintry Inn. The Meikle Bin (named after a nearby hill) was dark red, malty-sweet and with a bitter-fruit finish; a more than acceptable 70/- beer. Hopefully I'll have the chance to try a few more of their beers, but with absolutely no public transport available to Fintry it's going to be a bit of a challenge.
Even when I first arrived at The Old Mill (only an hour or so after the start time) the place was busy, but then as the live music started it got seriously busy; there wasn't that much free space to shelter from the slight drizzle under the marquees.
Instead a lot of people had decamped into the quite cosy surroundings of the bar of The Old Mill (which then also got seriously busy). However it was worth braving the good-natured queues at the bar for the An Teallach beer that was available on hand-pull, Bealach Na Ba (Gaelic for Pass of the Cattle). This was decent crisp, zesty, golden ale which was certainly to my tastes, and there's no doubt the quality of the An Teallach beers in general has been improving.
So all told an excellent, if fairly hectic day out, with some great beer and some interesting, friendly people who all like beer. However I think if I plan to attend 2 Beer Festivals in one day again I might take a bit more of an interest in the long range weather forecast or find/hire myself a designated driver!
Return travel:-
Bus: Killearn to Milngavie, B10 First Scotland (51 on the hour)
Train: Milngavie to Glasgow (12, 42 on the hour after 6:00pm)
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