The Robin Hood Beer and Cider Festival 2017 is being held again up at the Castle over this weekend. I like to pop in early in the week to try out the beer and some of the food on offer so we visited on Wednesday night and all day Thursday 🙂

There is so much food to try out; burgers, pies, cobs, curry, fish and chips and everything else that you mighty hope for 🙂

I only had enough room for a few meals,  so here are the highlights that I chomped on.

Big Melt – The Grilled Cheese Co.

First up was a Ham and Cheese toastie from Big Melt. They were located down past the bandstand near to the Black Iris Brewery tent (which was handy for beer) and were serving up a “Classic 3-cheese melt”, a “Ham and Cheese toastie” with Gammon, a “Caramelised Onion” with ‘award winning red onion chutney, and a “Red Chilli Jam” melt.

All were made with artisan sourdough bread and cost £5 each.

I really liked my Ham and Cheese one, the blend of three cheeses was just about perfect, lovely and gooey, it went really well with the crunchy sourdough toast. The picture taken well after dusk does not do the sandwich justice. The next day we went back and they were handing out little samples which went down very well with the beer as well 🙂

Old Granary – Polish Pierogi

I do love a bot of Polish food and I am a bit of a sucker for any variation of the dumpling. I was particularly drawn to the Pierogi plate served up by Old Granary. They had a sign that said “Pierogi, not pasties!!! Our delicious Polish style baked pierogi are lovingly hand-crafted cases of yeast dough, filled with various Gourmet fillings”

I had the “Boiled and pan-fried Pierogi” which was 3 pierogi served with caramelised onions, bacon and a dollop of soured cream for £6.50. I quite liked the combination of flavours on the plate. I did find that the casing was a bit chewy, but the fillings of ‘sourkraut’ and of ‘potato and cheese’ were really nice. These were the biggest pierogi that I had ever seen, so I could see how your average passer by might confuse them with a pasty!

Bar Snacks by Shipstones

I had some super little snacks in the Shipstones beer tent were they had sausage rolls and pork scratchings on offer (I took advantage of both!). The scratching were really good and the slight saltiness kept me going back up to the bar for more beer 🙂 (cunning plan)

The sausage roll in the picture was one with caramelised onion added, it was really good adding just a little sweetness but not overpowering the bite. The pastry was excellent lovely and flaky and the meat filling was solid, herby and well tasty.

I kind of forget the actual prices but I paid £5 (I think for both) so I think it was something like £3 for the roll and £2 for the scatchings (but I might be 50p out on either) – I blame the continual supply of excellent beer 🙂

Barmies Bar Snacks

In the top tent we found some more bar snacks from “Barmies”. At first I walked past thinking that is was just mini pretzels, then I saw their display and learnt a little more. Apparently (and I really should have known this) one of the by products of beer brewing is the ‘beer barm’ (the yeasty froth that forms on top of the beer during brewing) and Barmies have taken that and used it as the yeast component in baking these little bite sized snacks.

I read more online and saw that they are partnered up locally with Castle Rock, Black Iris, and the Welbeck Brewery, and also with Kelham Island in Sheffield.

Anyway they are jolly tasty and I could see these alongside the crisps, nuts, and scratching in a proper pub as a right tasty bar snack. I bought some of the peanut satay flavoured ones and I really liked them! They also have ‘Smokey Chipotle, Garlic and Lime’, and ‘Black beer, cheese and sesame’. I sampled all that they had on the counter and they were ‘dead tasty like’

Jerk Station – Mutton Curry

The last meal that I chomped down on was a dish of Mutton Curry with Rice n Peas from Jerk Station. I am quite a fan of these guys and I do try and eat their food whenever I can find it. I actually first met them at the Nottingham Beer Festival back in 2015 (read about that here)

This is kind of Jamaican comfort food, the curry is not too hot, the mutton was pretty tender and the rice n peas fills you right up. You can also pretend to be slightly healthy by throwing on a bit of salad 🙂

There are loads more food vendors to choose from, and I suppose something for all tastes. Jukebox Café are there with their pies, and breakfast cobs, Cornish Pasties, Memsaab as always serving up some Indian snacks, Homemade also with paella and more, The Cheese shop with pork pies and cheese, there are Fish and Chips, Burgers, Yuley’s Bratwurst with Big sausages (as long as your arm), Duck Fat Roasties, and Pickled Porker with a Yorkshire take on BBQ. Did I pause for breath?

So much food, and trust me you will need it to help assist with the drinking of all that beer 🙂

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The Robin Hood Beer and Cider Festival 2017

In the grounds of Nottingham Castle

It might still be possible to get tickets for the weekend, if not online you can queue on the day and I have done that in the past on the weekend and got in easily (as long as you go early enough). If you have tickets I hope you enjoy the beer and the food and would love to know what you ate as well 🙂

 

Read more stuff on The Nottingham Food Blog of past visits 🙂

Nottingham Beer Festival 2013 Food

Nottingham Beer Festival 2014 – A great day of beer and food