Oddfellows festival is a friendly drinks ‘society’

May 2 2008 by Alastair Gilmour, The Journal

LATIN may be a dead language, but Amo, Amas, Amat survives in loving relationships. Veni, Vidi, Vici came and went with Julius Caesar, but what of Amicitia, Amor, Veritas?

In terms of “I Love; You Love; He, She or It Loves” and “I Came, I Saw, I Conquered”, it’s a barely-memorable phrase but one that brings together the irregular, the strange, the uncommon and the unusual. It’s the motto of The Order of Oddfellows (Friendship, Love, Truth), a collective of like-minded tradesmen almost as old as Latin itself which can trace its roots back to the exile of the Israelites from Babylon in 587BC. The organisation lives on today, but most of us only know it through the pub names where groups would convene and each member’s cup had to be replenished throughout the evening, which is as good an introduction as any to Oddfellows in North Shields.

The pub on Albion Road hosts its annual beer festival this weekend with a collection of beers from all over the country which may not quite qualify as odd fellows but live up to the tag of irregular, strange and uncommon. They are set to attract the curious brother/sisterhood of “tickers”, the people who taste, note and count every beer they have experienced – with some of them scratching down more than 15,000 “ticks”.

“The festival has been posted on a ‘tickers’ website and people are coming to try beers they haven’t had before,” says Oddfellows landlord Graeme Oswald. “We’re told they’re making the trip from York, Nottingham and Mansfield. Initially we thought of having a festival of local beer only, putting something back, so to speak, but we do that throughout the year anyway. Plus people always want to try something new.”

Oddfellows is small, one-roomed and sparkling which indicates that a lot of “amat” has been ladled out with the elbow grease over the five years that Graeme and his wife Jane have owned the place.

“The festival has taken a lot of setting up,” he says. “This is its third year and it’s getting better each time, but there’s a certain point where you think ‘why am I doing this?’. It’s really hard work but it should ensure a bumper time. The pub is doing very well but like everywhere else we’re suffering a bit from the effects of the smoking ban and the general downturn in the economy.

“We’ll have 20 cask beers on, 10 on handpull at one time with two ciders and one perry on tap along with our normal three cask ales in the bar and 10 bottle-conditioned beers. We’re featuring a new beer from Jarrow Brewery and are actually the first ones to have it.” Beers that tick boxes include Acorn Chinook IPA (5.0% alcohol by volume), Offa’s Dyke Grim Reaper (5.0% ABV), Saltaire Bavarian Black Beer (4.9% ABV), Whitehaven Ennerdale (3.6% ABV) and Little Valley’s Midgley Mild (3.8% ABV).

The festival is being held in the former pub back yard which is now pressed into service variously as a smoking area and barbecue venue (free on Saturday nights with every drink, though perhaps not this weekend). Posters and framed photographs show the puffing styles of Paul Newman, Winston Churchill, Che Guevara, Groucho Marx, Sid James and, inevitably, Audrey Hepburn in that classic pose with cigarette holder. A flat-screen television whiles away the moments between drags. Inside the pub, jostling for wall space amongst framed news cuttings and boxing poster reproductions, another screen reveals North Shields’ history rather than EastEnders misery.

“We have 531 photos of old Shields slowly rolling over,” says Graeme. “The first time we put it on was a Friday night and it was so quiet because everybody was just sitting there watching then saying ‘I remember that street, I remember that pub’. It would probably take you months to view all of them and I’m sure I keep catching ones I’ve never seen before.”

Modern Oddfellows owe their allegiance to the Manchester Unity of 1810 which refocused the ancient brotherhood of mutual support and defence to originate a scheme of providing income for working people who fell sick – long before the welfare state.

Amo, amas, amat may live on but there may be a new motto to chew over. “Veni, vidi Janet’s Jungle Juice (6.0 ABV).”

:: Oddfellows’ beer festival continues over the bank holiday weekend. Details: (0191) 257-4288. alastair.gilmour@ncjmedia.co.uk

Beerbite

WE’VE had Clash of the Titans, Godzilla v Megalon and, earlier this week, Chelsea against Liverpool, but now it’s time to sit back for the Battle of the Beers.

A single-hop variety beer competition is being fought out this weekend following a commendable initiative from Martin Hammill of Newcastle-based Hadrian & Border Brewery who has invited the region’s micro-brewers to show off their talents. The idea is to select one hop variety only – many beers contain a blend for their various bittering and aroma qualities – and produce a new beer that allows the chosen hop’s particular characteristics to emerge and to play alongside the other ingredients, water, malted barley and yeast. Twelve local breweries have agreed to compete and four pubs across the North East will feature the range of "specials" over the bank holiday weekend – The Victoria in Durham; The Newcastle Arms, Newcastle; The John Bull, Alnwick, and the Boathouse at Wylam, where the final judging will take place on Saturday at 4pm by industry professionals with previous beer-judging experience at top level.