What will you try? Wetherspoon’s brilliant beer festival – with pints at £1.99 – mingles with Burns Week

Two special events are taking place in Reading town centre Wetherspoon pubs The Back of Beyond and The Hope Tap: a beer festival and Burns week.

Both pubs – on Kings Road and Friar Street respectively – are taking part in the two events and everything is available while stocks last. And they feature beers from Finchampstead-based Siren Craft Brew.

Burns Week runs until Tuesday, January 28, and the beer festival until Sunday, February 2.

What is happening at the Wetherspoon Beer Festival?

Wetherspoon holds regular beer festivals, offering people the opportunity to try beers from small and craft breweries from across the country and for a low price.

This is no exception … the ales on tap are just £1.99 a pint, while cans are £3.45.

There are 14 breweries selected, all centring around London and the Home Counties. Wetherspoon says they feature beers with ingredients such as tea, coffee and fruit, and have a range of malts and hops used as well.

The festival’s cask line-up also includes ‘champion beer of Britain’ (silver) Anspach & Hobday The IPA, in both cask and can. This is featured alongside By The Horns Foundry, Mad Squirrel Aussie Aussie Aussie and Windsor & Eton Eureka.

Siren Craft Brew is represented with its Siren Yu Lu (3.8%).

A hazy, straw-coloured beer brewed using Earl Grey tea and lemon zest, with peach and apricot notes.

Another Berkshire brewery featured is Windsor and Eton Brewery. Their offering is Eureka! A 4.9% beer with a pine aroma, citrus and stone fruit flavours and an earthy, herbal and grassy finish.

The beer festival runs until Sunday, February 2, and beers are available while stocks last: they may not be available at the same time.

Burns Week? Surely it is just a night?

Burns Night is a highlight in Scotland and takes place on or around the birthdate of its national bard, Robert Burns.

Traditionally, it includes a meal of haggis, neeps and tatties. Those gathered hear a range of speeches, Burns poetry, and have an opportunity to enjoy some Scottish country dancing.

Wetherspoon has adapted this to offer two special dishes: one of which is, of course, a plate of haggis, neeps and tatties. The other is a Caledonian burger.

These are served until Tuesday, January 28, or while stocks last, whichever is sooner.

And people can try haggis on its own if they wish.

We previewed the Burns Week here.

What are the two haggis meals like?

We visited The Back of Beyond on Wednesday, January 22, to try out the meals on their first day. But to be honest, we visit most years just to get a plate of haggis.

Haggis is an unusual Scottish delicacy and, to be brutally honest, it is better to imagine it’s a wee creature with lop-sided legs than the offal it’s made of. But it is incredibly tasty and can come in a variety of tastes.

Meals come with a choice of a soft drink or an alcoholic one, with prices varying accordingly. We list the soft drink price first.

The haggis, neeps and tatties meal comes in two sizes: small (£5.49/£7.02) and regular (£7.49/£9.02), and is served in a bowl as if you were getting a stew. There isn’t a lot you can do to make the plate look like a cordon bleu meal, and to be honest it really doesn’t matter.

The Wetherspoon haggis – made by Grants of Speyside – is moist and has a pleasant bite to it. Not too much to be overbearing on the palate, and not too light to make you wonder why they bothered. The portion is generous but left me wanting more.

The mash was light and fluffy, while the neeps were a little on the lukewarm side than one would wish for. Staff when collecting our plates reminded us that they would have sorted this if it had been raised while eating. We didn’t partly because the food was fine and edible and partly because the pub was busy.

It is possible to add Whisky sauce as a side for £1.82. At Burns suppers, some Scots will dress their haggis with some whisky, and this is a nice compromise. You can really taste the whisky in the creamy sauce, and it made a great dip for the chips that come with the Caledonian burger.

This burger is impressive and at £9.40 or £10.93 respectively, it is terrific value for money as it towers on the plate. It comprises two 3oz beef patties with haggis, lettuce and tomato. Alongside it is a generous helping of fluffy chips and onion rings and a side helping of that whisky sauce.

With the burger stack held together with a cocktail stick, it should be no surprise that it’s a bit too big to fit into the mouth without dislocating your jaw … it’s impressive.

Wetherspoon is advertising a Burns Week special beer in the form of the Inveralmond Ossian, but this wasn’t available on our visit, and we were told this was due to the beer festival. So if you visit, it may be available.

Both Scottish dishes are tasty and offer good value for money. We enjoyed the plates presented to us very much. Haggis might not be to everyone’s taste but for those that do, it’s a treat.

It’s just a shame they didn’t also offer Scotland’s national drink, Irn Bru, as one of the drinks options. Maybe next year?