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More Terrific than Terrifying!

One of the standout and “must try” beers at this year’s Robin Hood Beer & Cider Festival was a limited edition special from local brewer Liquid Light. Established in 2017, Liquid Light was born out of a passion for beer and music. The brewery name is inspired by the artform of Liquid Light projection which started in the 1960s. Following a period of cuckoo brewing at Magpie, in 2021 the brewery moved to its current location in Sneinton, where they have a 22HL brewhouse and Tap Room.

Having built up a loyal following for their innovative beers in both cask and craft, when this beer was announced ahead of the festival, social media went into overdrive. However, behind the hype, there had been some serious discussions about the ingredients, brewing process, quantity and of course agreeing on the name. Sales & Brewery Manager, Craig Nightingale provided an insight into this, saying ”We really wanted to produce the strongest beer of the festival, but there is more to beer than strength, it had to be tasty, enjoyable and importantly drinkable, we think we achieved our goals with Terror. When picking a beer name, music plays a huge part in what we do at Liquid Light so finding the right song to name the beer after was the fun part. It took a few days, but we got there eventually. The final thing to do was to design the pump clip, we typically go for a lot of colour but that didn’t quite fit ‘Imperial Doom’ so we did the exact opposite!”

With everything finalised, the decision was taken to launch a small batch 36-pint pin at 3pm every day of the festival. Despite the maximum limit of 1/3rd a pint being agreed, a sensible decision given the 26% strength of the beer, the interest quickly outstripped supply, with a queue forming every day ahead of the 3pm opening.

With the opening day starting with a large number of trade customers, the interest was clear across our local pub staff and their guests, who all helped in finishing that initial pin in around 40 minutes. One of the famous beer faces in the initial queue was Dale of “Great British Pub Crawl” fame, who provided an excellent review of the launch event on social media.

Whilst it may be considered a more traditional festival clientele on the Thursday, the word had clearly spread in the ale world and demand was high, with last orders being called after less than 22 minutes.
So, with the two busiest days of the festival ahead, Craig and his team made sure they were well prepared for the 3pm launch.

Craig commented that on Friday, “the crowd around our stand was already significant by 2.45pm and we knew they weren’t queuing to get in the CAMRA shop!”.

In a 19-minute blur, the 36 pints disappeared amongst the crowd, with lots of small groups taking the sensible option to share the third, to ensure they all got to try it and could still enjoy the rest of the festival. So, with the final pin going on sale on Saturday, the expectation amongst the growing crowd grew and in a feat of fast service and frenzied demand, the beer left the festival in 11 minutes and probably left a lot of visitors wanting more! There is an excellent video showing the full 11 minutes of its farewell:

Terror from the Sky

Craig, pictured, working hard to serve the beer in record time!

Whilst a 26% beer will obviously not be everybody’s choice of festival beer and having been part of the “Meet & Greet” Membership team guiding visitors on arrival, I definitely got mixed emotions when promoting it. However, it is clear that this beer certainly lived up to expectations, with all 4 pins sold in under 2 hours, and I personally enjoyed sampling its rich, chocolatey and smooth finish!

Probably the best way to highlight its success is by providing a sample of social media comments:

“Insanely good beer”        “all reports say it was delicious”       “best beer at the festival hands down”    “stunning”    “was so tasty and dangerously easy to drink”  “great beer, well done to all involved”

For more details on Liquid Light, please visit their website, link below:

Liquid Light Brew Co